An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: October 2025

Livestream Call of Cthulhu – Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show Spoiler Review

When last season began, I had a decision between Kamitsubaki City Under Construction and this show, in terms of what I wanted to do my seasonal write-ups for. In the end, I decided to go with Kamitsubaki City and leave Necronomico for exactly this moment. So in a sense you could say that it informed my decision to do a Lovecraft month this October at all.

I’ve saved it for last, in part because working ahead meant starting October reviews before Necronomico even finished airing and in part because I feel like digging into this show – that not a lot of people seem to have watched despite it being newer and that tanked itself on debuts thanks to initially airing to Westerners with cruddy AI subs – was going to be a little bigger or perhaps more meaningful than my other entries.

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Apartment Cthulhu – Housing Complex C Spoiler Review

Housing Complex C (sometimes “Apartment Complex C”, or by the Japanese title, C Danchi) is a four-episode ONA. Airing in 2022, it presents as a Lovecraftian horror story, perhaps with a creep kids angle

When it comes to a month dedicated to Lovecraft in Anime, any show that can have its first line stand as “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu” – a fragment of Lovecraft’s most famous alien-speak chant – at least deserves to be here.

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Dive into Darkness – Kissdum R Engage Planet Spoiler Review

From April to September 2007, there ran an anime-original action show aiming more or less for the shonen demographic, focused on plucky fighters on a ruined Earth. The punchline is that this time I’m talking about Kissdum R Engage Planet (Sometimes styled Kiss Dum Engage Planet), not Gurren Lagann.

And right out the gate, I am not expecting this to be on par with Gurren Lagann. Few shows are. I could always be pleasantly surprised, but it’s not to be anticipated nor required for passing or even good marks. It’s interesting that they ran during the same seasons, but only as a little bit of trivia. And speaking of trivia, I have it on good authority that there are some Lovecraftian references and styles in this one, so let’s take a look.

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Seasonal Selection – Dusk Beyond the End of the World Episodes 0 & 1

Hey, remember back in Summer ’24 when the seasonal was Atri, a romance between a boy and a robot girl in a post-apocalyptic future that one of the two had reached by stasis pod? Well, Dusk Beyond the End of the World has a very similar pitch: Boy meets robot girl in the post-apocalypse. Where it differs is that this time the boy got to the ruined future by way of stasis pod… and this show is way less pastoral and harmless, if the body count of the opening is anything to go by. What’s more, this one is an anime original, which is always a good way to get me to sit up and take notice.

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Creepy Clay – H.P. Lovecraft no Dunwich Horror Sonota no Monogatari Spoiler Review

Well, let’s kick off a month of celebrating Lovecraftian themes in anime with an oddity: so far as I could find, the only “anime” direct adaptation of any of Lovecraft’s own stories.

I put “anime” in scare quotes, as while this is a Toei production and thus certainly part of the output of the anime industry, it’s not exactly your traditional fare, being done primarily through claymation. It’s also a fairly short OVA, covering three Lovecraft stories in about 45 minutes.

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Lovecraft 101: An Introduction to Yog-Sothothery

Every year, when October rolls around, I try to highlight at least a few spooky shows. This year, I wanted to give particular attention to those few anime outings that have, whether directly or through their vibes, touched upon the Cosmic Horror genre or that adapt or seem inspired by the works of the author H.P. Lovecraft.

Because of what I’ll likely be getting into, I decided – as a little bonus – to provide something of a primer on Lovecraft and “Lovecraftian” fiction

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