Inuyashiki is perfect for Halloween this year…if you’re a fan of morbid things and want to be scarred for life. It really depends on the type of anime you like and prefer to watch.
Since it’s October, I wanted to do a review for an anime that encompassed so many dark and creepy things for Halloween. A good spook (bonus points if you know where that’s from).
“Are my father and little brother dead too?”
“What does that matter? We were talking about One Piece.”
from Inuyashiki: Last Hero
Yup, that’s a direct quote from the anime. We already know that anime is…strange. It can cover a variety of niches and everyone can find a genre that they prefer. Inuyashiki is one of those specific types of anime shows that you watch if you prefer gore, horror, psychological torture, and the like. I made myself watch this anime in the name of wanting to do a review of a creepy anime in time for Halloween. Though I love creepy things like the paranormal and serial killers, this anime was hard to watch.
Trigger warning will be announced as there is a child harmed in this anime.
- Episodes: 11
- Studios: MAPPA
- Aired: Oct 13, 2017 to Dec 22, 2017
- Genres: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Psychological
Inuyashiki Ichirou is our main character and protagonist. Aside from looking much older than he actually is, his entire family resents him, for seemingly no reason. He has no affection for his wife, as they sleep in different rooms of the house, and his children also give him no time of day at all. To make matters worse, Inuyashiki receives unfortunate news that he has got terminal cancer, and, feeling that he can’t tell anybody about this, keeps it to himself, suffering in silence all the more than before. After a trip to the park to cry alone, suddenly, ALIENS!
For no reason, and without any explanation at all, aliens accidentally kill both Inuyashiki and a man standing next to him, our main antagonist for this tale, Hiro (who just so happens to be standing next to him for some reason, but whatever).
Realizing their mistake, the aliens then rebuild both men, turning them into cyborgs in the process. Because, obviously, that’s just what you do. Also, if you think that the show will delve more into the aliens and why this all happened, prepare to be disappointed. It just happens and no explanation is given. Because well… anime.
Two Very Different Main Characters
Our main characters are vastly different and show themselves to clearly be the protagonist and antagonist. Ichiro is portrayed as a timid old man who has a hard time making friends. However, it’s shown that he has a heart of gold and works to help others. On the other hand, there’s Hiro. To put it simply, this guy is a sociopath that kills people. He appears to be kind and respectful but, throughout the show, it’s easy to see that he has a God-like complex of himself. He uses his powers to kill others simply for the thrill and because he can. He rivals Richard Ramirez and other notorious serial killers in my opinion, though in anime form.
Honestly, I think Hiro represents the worst of humanity. Through his killings, Hiro confesses that he “never felt so alive” while he does so. In other words, Hiro kills with little reason besides to feel. I really hate his character and the fact that they spend SEVEN episodes of him killing people.
TRIGGER WARNING
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The killing of children comes across as rather tasteless and a pathetic attempt to seem edgier than it actually is; it’s essentially a shock factor, which reminded me a lot of Elfen Lied, albeit nowhere near as extreme as that show or Parasyte that showed a head being cut off. A lot of blood and gore, all for the sake of shock value.
People Just Idolize Hiro Because He’s “Hot” and it makes me barf
Okay, let’s first discuss a side character named Shion, who, after the news is revealed that Hiro is a murderer, and is thus on the run from the police, allows Hiro to stay with her and her Grandmother in her house as a means of protecting and hiding him since she doesn’t believe “he would do such a thing”. But, this makes no sense as there is no reason for Shion to believe that he isn’t a murderer as she knows nothing about him! To her, he is just a fellow classmate, and the only interaction that she has ever had with him was one case where she asked for Hiro to go out with her, confessing her feelings in the process, where he said, “Thanks” and walked away. So?
There is nothing to suggest otherwise that he is not the killer!
It always annoyed me how naïve she was in letting, essentially what is a stranger, inside her home. This isn’t the 60s/70s where serial killers were at an all-time high because people just let absolute strangers into their homes.
Oh, one final thing I want to rant about really quick is how each woman in the show, most particularly teenage girls, refer to Hiro as being “hot” or “cool” so much so that there have been several fan groups made about him, and when one girl, during the massacre of 100 people sees Hiro appear on her phone, she blushes and acts like a dumbass instead of being fearful for her life! Why is Hiro being idolized?
This is the guy who murdered babies for crying out loud! While the show does too seem to question this, as evident by a couple of police officers who are discussing this same fact, this part always bugged me, and I groaned to myself whenever a girl would comment about how “hot” Hiro was.
That final battle lasts 10 minutes.
10 episodes in and we finally have a battle between Hiro (who is NOT a Hero) and Ichirou, with 2 Episodes introducing each character and 7 episodes of the Antagonist killing people. This was too much for me but after each episode, I would watch Disney or a fluffy cartoon to help.
Maybe I am asking too much from an 11 episode series, but I was expecting more of a final battle. I figured there would be more and then out of nowhere the climactic battle between the two is over in a couple of minutes. The battle was lacking as well. They both get knocked out, go into Robo combat mode, and Inuyashiki just wins. We’ve been building up the assumption that Hiro is far more in control of his robotic body but then Inuyashiki doesn’t have any trouble whatsoever defeating him.
While both Hiro and Ichiro uses violence, they use it for completely different reasons. While Hiro feels alive through killing, Ichiro feels alive through saving others.
Psychopaths exist and so do heroes. You probably hear about them on the news every day. However, Hiro makes the news for the wrong reasons and it becomes clear that he wants to experiment with his powers and show off his God complex. While this all seems like nonsensational drama, it does actually does work as the show is able to use its violence to full effect.
From the police massacre to the destruction of aircrafts, it gives his insight on what Hiro is truly capable of and how far he goes to prove his point. My experience from this show made me realize that Hiro and Ichiro really show what humans are capable of when they are given powers beyond the natural law of order.
All in all, this anime was hard to watch. If you want something creepy and gory to watch for Halloween that’s anime-related and not just Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this anime will be for you. But be warned though, it can be triggering for people who don’t like seeing children be harmed or gallons of blood.
Have you seen this anime already? What did you think? What are YOU watching for Halloween? Let us know in the comments below.
As always,
Keep Smiling!
featured photo fanart by lidatan
