Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Reviews

If you've read a lot of my other reviews then you know how much I tend to dislike short animes that are only ten or twelve or thirteen episodes long with only a few exceptions. This is four episodes and yet it was brilliant. It's a must watch if you like gore and horror. 

Although I have never played the game, I read a lot of comments on episodes from people complaining that it doesn't match the game. That doesn't bother me. I don't play games and I only read manga if an anime was never finished. and only sometimes then, so it never bothers me that they don't always match up. However, if that bothers you then you may not like this since apparently it's quite different.

The fact this is in the horror genre is what makes it possible to be good and short (I explain down below). It's only 4 episodes but the pacing is steady, the characters are simple in a good way, the setting is a nice choice, and the plot twist and story work well with animation. The animators really did a good job about not skimping on the gore and grotesque scenes. Some of it was a bit comedic, but then again, I'm the kind of person who often finds horror comedic and somtimes finds comedy horrific. Seriously! Some comedies are just downright scarry! Anyway....back on track. If you liked animes such as Another, Higurashi, Shiki, or Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (although that's barely horror, it has some similar parts) then I highly suggest you watch this. If you end up not liking it, it's not like it took up much of your time anyway.

There really isn't much I can say about it without spoilers. It's really good. There were things I didn't like momentarily but eventually understood why it happened that way and didn't mind anymore. I think the quality could have been a bit better with sharper imagaes but I was watching it online so it may have just been that video. As far as sound goes, I really liked the opening, enough that I didn't skip it which is uncommon for me. The ending was a bit unexpected and I think I might have liked to know more about what happened after it was over but I wasn't dissatisfied with it and I didn't feel like it was lacking. Just don't expect any happy endings. Don't expect happy anything. The only somewhat lighthearted moments are at the very beginning. Although, the guy falling to his death then disappearing and falling again was kind of hillarious but that may just be my awful sense of humor kicking it. 

I think horror is one of the best genres for short animes (btw, when I talk about horror, I mean the serious horror, not the comedic horror or things labeled horror simply because they have one tiny element of the genre). The stories almost develop themselves and usually pretty quickly. If you think about it, it doesn't take long to tell a ghost story around a campfire and scare people. Granted, encouraging the listeners imagination to run wild is an advantage an anime might not have since it shows you everything. The point is, you can have an effective story that develops quickly and doesn't take a lot of time to tell. Another advantage is it doesn't rely as heavily on character development. The focus is on the horror not the characters. You can have very simple characters that never really change which means you don't need to take time developing them. Also, it's horror. Some of them will be dead shortly anyway so developing them is a waste of time. That leads to another strength the horror genre has. In most other genres, the death of a character who was never well developed and that the audience knows little about isn't very powerful. The audience has to have time to conect to the character and see the character as a person in order for the death to have any real meaning. It can also work if the character is connected to a main character. In horror though, it's less about who is dying and more about how. It's aim isn't to make you cry or gain insight or anything fancy, it's to show some gore and freak you out. It can be a totally random character and still be useful. You can use a lot of sterotypical settings and characters and even deaths and still turn out something interesting. If you use stereotypical things then there is less to develop because the audience already understands it. If you don't have to waste time on character development and setting development and the story moves quickly then it's easy to be short. Personally, I prefer the ones dealing with "curses" and ghosts. Actually, I think horror anime, unless it's got a lot of another genre in it, is better short. If it's too long it will lose it's momentum and surprise and the story would get old. How often do you listen to a scary story around a campfire that takes five hours to tell? Probably never. Usually, if I do like a short anime, it's horror. One of my favorites is Another. I also thought the first four episodes of Higurashi could have been it's own seperate anime and been really good. 

i found this anime quite interesting to watch but rather confused at the end when they are both holding the guys arms. is it because he had two pieces? it's my question to know why he didn't make it. oh well. i enjoyed this gory anime. the story was good but its not original as ive watched animes that is similar.

[SPOILERS]

Okay, first review ever on this site so sorry if it’s not great.

I’ve never played the game, disclaimer.

Overall I would give it a 6/10, there are some really interesting things about it but it’s definitely not one of the best anime I’ve ever watched.

Story (6/10): The story is kinda meh, it has its moments but since it’s only four episodes there’s not really much time for development. Basically the story heavily relied on “quick, let’s kill as many characters off as possible!” It went by really fast, not much happened other than a BUNCH of gore (which, if you’re like me and love gore then that’s great, but that’s pretty much all there is), and there really wasn’t anything too special in it (at least for me).

It wasn’t boring, which is good, but I feel like too many things happened so quickly that it felt rushed. (Episode 1: “We’re just students doing a ritual and nothing bad is going to happen— oh f***” Episodes 2-4: “We gotta get out of here.. I wonder who else is alive [trapped in parallel universes of the same building??]? Oh and I’m dead.” God, I hate those kids. Stop murdering everyone you see.)

The main reason I put the story so low was because of the absolute TERRIBLE ending. I was so hyped to see what would happen and...wow. (BIG SPOILER) His arms...came off??? Jesus. I was hoping Satoshi would make it out alive, he was one of the few characters that I hoped would live but god that ending *shudder* It was a twist, but ending it on that just ticked me off. Like really??

To me the best part of the entire anime was when Sakutaro was alone looking through his phone (Episode 2). It was the only scene that really affected me, because god seeing the look on his face when he realized that the corpse he was looking at was Mayu’s broke my heart. Poor baby D:

Animation (9.5/10): The animation is really good, VERY gory though. So if you don’t like gore or horror, this anime definitely isn’t for you. The only thing is that a lot of the scenes were dark (but I mean, duh) so I had to keep adjusting the brightness on my phone in order to see what was going on. 

Sound (10/10): The music is beautiful, specifically the opening theme (I suggest listening to the full version, it’s 5 minutes long but spectacular!) The character’s voices were pretty good too, they matched the characters very well. I hate Yuka’s voice though, fits her but OHMYGOD she is ANNOYING. The sound effects were probably the best part. Ah, yes, I love the sound of squelching body parts.

Characters (5/10): Uh...well, most of the characters are bland due to there only being 4 episodes and not much time for development.

Only character I really liked was Sakutaro, pretty much just due to the fact that I love insane characters. I was also a fan of Seiko, Yoshiki, and Sachiko. But...that’s pretty much it. 

Most of the characters were static and were killed off so soon that I didn’t have a chance to figure out if I liked them or not. They also looked so similar that at times I didn’t know who was who the first time watching it. So, most of them to me were just meh.

Overall, I would recommend this but only to people who like horror anime. It’s definitely not for the lighthearted, as there’s plenty of gore and violence. I’m sure the game is probably way better to be honest.

Hope this review is okay enough :) 

This anime is good if you like violent anime because my god, it's quite violent. There's a good flow of the story, but the characters' actions can get extremely irrational. [Slight spoiler!] There was a character who became insane by looking at his crush's (?) dead body and I never really knew how he got insane since he seemed normal in the beginning unless his brain was messed up before. [End of the slight spoiler!] There is a small plot hole, but I doubt most people would think of it at first. The sound is good and clear, but it could get triggering since there would be endless (exaggeration!) screams and splatters of blood. The characters could honestly be better, but the animation was really good at showing how graphic the setting was and how each situation played out. 

Okay so on some real shit,, I wanna watch this so bad and I don't know where to go. Where did you guys watch this and where can I watch it without getting a prescription for something? Please and thank you.