Apparently, "rustling your jimmies" does not count.

Another week, another episode following the adventures of Yuuko-san and her merry band of ghostbusters. Did I say ghostbusters? Yea I said ghostbusters.

PLOT (with tits)

I did say "Ghostbusters".

This week we get a flashback episode that takes us back to when Yuuko and Niiya first meet (or meat). In other words, we’re back on the rails of the manga plot. I suppose my fears last week of Silver Link reusing the invisible/visible Yuuko gimmick were unfounded. Well, they did use it several times but it was more for comedic effect than as a plot device.

L: Adaptation by JC Staff R: Adaptation by Production I.G.

This episode was basically what I expected episode one to be. First time viewers find out that Yuuko is indeed the school’s fabled ghost of yore. We also find out why Okonogi decides to hang out with Niiya, and why she has a minor crush on him (hint: he did some ghostbustin’). Oh, and we also find out that the school’s a windy place, as evidenced by the following screenshot.

The beginnings of a beautiful (bootyful?) friendship. With benefits.

I’m assuming that next week we’ll find out the circumstances under which Kirie and Niiya meet. But moving on…

THOUGHTS AND FEELS (lots of feels)

Silly Niiya, that's too many feels.

First things first, what the heck is a “Choir Jail”? I think this show wins the “Nonsensical Engrish OP of the season) award. Aside from the OP, the rest of the background music and sound effects for the episode really fit the scenes well, building up suspense in the dramatic scenes and making the funny scenes funnier.

Like I mentioned last week, the voice cast for this show is top notch, and the excellence continues this week. Okonogi’s VA is perfect in her role as “naive clumsy blonde girl in a somewhat serious setting”, but Yuuko’s VA is the one that stands out most. Her voice switches from teasing to mysterious to faux-serious to sultry as the situation changes. It’s actually surprising that the girl who voices her is relatively unknown.

Oh be0-chan, you praise me too much~

Regarding the SHAFTian influences, episode two is beginning to rival Sankarea. The scene with Okonogi’s slideshow countdown for hide-and-seek in particular comes to mind. Maybe Silver Link is using this as some sort of cost-saving measure? They did skimp on the dress crease animation (-500 dress creases confirmed when compared to manga), and seems to have blown most of their art budget on Yuuko’s eyes.

Eight hours spent drawing this frame alone.

A lot of time seems to be spent on dialogue. Which is fine, it gives us a chance to see the interactions between Yuuko and Niiya; and like I said last week, one of the main draws of the manga was the interactions between the two. However, during most of these talking scenes the camera stayed far away from the characters, or were extreme closeups. I WANT MY DRESS CREASES WHILE THEY’RE TALKING, DAMMIT.

Dem folds and ripples.

And like Sankarea, the anime adaptation for Tasogare Otome seems to be wading into the more serious stuff much faster than its manga counterpart. The manga spent a lot more time on tits and dress creases, and when the serious horror stuff showed up it came as a surprise to a lot of readers (you know which image I’m talking about). The first half of this episode, especially the part where Niiya first meets Yuuko as well as the entire scene with the mirror, really hammers home the feeling that this show won’t all be sunshine and rainbows.

Another eight hours on this eye, perhaps.

While it’s still to early to say whether or not I truly like this show, as my experience with the manga has left me extra critical of the anime’s art (and dire lack of dress creases), the show’s still good enough that I’ll be writing about it next week. So in closing…

...some gratuitous tits.

p.s. oh gawd I cannot wait for our purple-eyed goddess later this week