One of the new anime airing this season is Ookami Kakushi, a horror mystery which seems to involve wolves in some way and supernatural powers. Being a fan of the horror-mystery genre, I couldn’t pass up checking out this anime, but after watching it for a while, it begins to feel strangely familiar. That’s when I started noticing quite a few similarities between Ookami Kakushi and what’s probably the most successful horror-mystery anime in recent years: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
Higurashi started off with a young boy (Keiichi) moving to a new town before the start of a local festival which sees someone get murdered or go missing every year. Likewise, Ookami Kakushi also starts off with a young boy (Hiroshi) moving to a new town just before the start of a local festival, but the difference here is that there doesn’t seem to be any widespread knowledge of any suspicious events around the festival, but we do see a character get killed at night.
There’s also the harem factor in both Higurashi and Ookami Kakushi, but then again, there are tons of anime with harems so it’s not exactly something new. What I found similar though were the sister and brother: Isuzu and Issei. These two characters reminded me of Satoko and Satoshi from Higurashi. Both pairs of siblings seem to have a very close relationship with each other, and they’re both blond. Isuzu’s personality is also very much like Rena’s (always looking happy but troubled inside), with the exception that instead of obsessing over cute things, she obsesses over Hiroshi instead.
Isuzu and Issei are on the left, Satoko and Satoshi on the right.
Besides the scenario and the characters, what really caught my attention was the sound of cicadas in the background. It’s something you don’t really notice when watching anime, but background sounds really do help set the mood/atmosphere. In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni you could hear cicadas in almost every episode when things were calm (higurashi = cicada, after all), and it looks like Ookami Kakushi might be doing the same thing.
The similarities between these two anime shouldn’t be too surprising though considering that they were both written by Ryukishi07, but whether or not Ookami Kakushi will be successful is still up in the air. There’s not many people who would argue against how good Higurashi no Naku Koro ni was, but in my opinion, Ryukishi07′s later work Umineko no Naku Koro ni was a disappointment. Hopefully by going back to his most successful story with Ookami Kakushi, Ryukishi07 will be able to make another masterpiece. After all, when you’ve got a good formula, why mess with it?
I agree with you almost 100%…. just I (in my opinion) think that Umineko was good, but not as good as Higurashi….. and I also very quickly noticed many similarities… like also in the very beginning in Higurashi you saw Keiichi murdering Rena and Mion. As in Ookami you see someone about to be murdered. And by the way….. the reason why you mess around with a good formula is to see if you can make it even better.
I am not going to watch Ookami. I am prep. to watch Higurashi bcz it looks better than Ookami.
Right now, I am finishing Ranma 1/2 (i know i m way late) and then Black Lagoon.
I agree with your sound effects points, that’s why i decided to watch Higurashi over Ookami. The opening song of Higurashi brings down chills when you set up the environment around you, i.e. darkness. Let’s hope i don’t get a heart attack, lol!
Cheers, my friend.
Ookami was originaly a video game… and Ryukishi07 was the game directer. lol