Though, it goes without saying, the supernatural elements are so poorly thought out that this never escapes pure conjecture assumed as fact. Kirie’s pair of red (sometimes flashing) auricle piercings and her cold demeanour put her squarely into the ‘cool’ trope of the troop, and this leads to her being the one delivering almost all of the supernatural exposition. The slate’s harem is rounded out firstly by Okonogi, an excitable ditz who can’t see Yuuko and who has literally no other trait other than a pre-determined attraction to the main character, and, secondly, by Kirie, who deserves the rest of the paragraph… for better or worse. To be blunt, while this is a harem, it forgoes any tension as it asks ‘but who will they pick?’, and the plotting to funnel that preconceived decision is arbitrary humdrum. It’s clear that from her audacity, compared to the other girl’s more reserved archetypes, that she is the only member of Teichi’s opportunistically and convolutedly formed harem that could lead the mannequin of a main character into a genuinely romantic situation.
Tasogare otome series#
Even when the series begins to get serious, she talks about her ‘purity’, as a gentle reminder that her sex drive was only ever meant to imbue Teichi with some moments to be masturbated over. Believe it or not, but I’m very up for seeing a believably written female character with a sex drive, but Yuuko is not that – her sex drive is plastered over with enough narratively-dishonest innocence and uncomfortable convenience that it never comes across as her true sexuality. She’s exceptionally assertive, forcing Teichi to do her bidding with a mixture of gimmicks, such as sad puppy eyes or literally kicking him into an old elevator and putting his hands on her chest. I’ve already described Yuuko in quite excruciating detail, but I haven’t quite sold her various gimmicks. Teichi’s pursuing of a romance with Yuuko comes as the only narrative option for his character, because there’s no other instilled plot-thread or character beat that he could potentially follow except for Yuuko’s persistence. Hell, Yuuko only likes him because he’s the first person that can see her, youknow, being a ghost and all, but we’ll get to the supernatural drivel later. Perpetually going along with everything in that ‘nice, but not really meaningful’ way, Teichi builds a harem from the most desperate girls in the supernatural investigation club, simply because he’s the only guy in the series. The only time he possesses anything close to thought is when he ‘agrees’ to something. Teichi doesn’t have a strand of agency throughout the whole show, and the entire show crumbles in his absence. That’s a two-pronged problem, but let’s reel down to the ultimate problem: Teichi. It was never a question that the horny ghost girl, Yuuko, was who the wet-towel protagonist, Teichi, was going to pick – because she’s only one pushy enough to ask. While Tasogare Otome x Amnesia picks a clear ‘horse’ in its harem race, the ongoing dilemma for 3/4 of its run is ‘which girl do you pick?’, undeniably venturing into harem territory. With only the ability to give its target demographic cute (and perverted) fuzzies, it serves everybody else a cringe over the sickeningly sweet and overlong sequences of unearned, unfeeling PDA.
As it stands, the multiple personality disorder of Tasogare Otome x Amnesia, attempting to blend supernatural drama, romance and club anime shenanigans, falls flat on its face. However, if I was, I think I’d be able to gain something from this entirely transparent fantasy. I am not, nor have ever been, a girlfriend-desperate teenage boy. Genre: Harem, supernatural, slice-of-life, romance Length: 12 x 24 minute episodes + 1 x 24 minute OVA episode Title: Tasogare Otome x Amnesia / Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
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