A lot of anime that gets classified as horror strictly speaking isn’t. While shows like Princess Resurrection and Soul Eater do possess some basic horror trappings, they’re more akin to horror’s more butch and adrenaline-fueled half-brother urban fantasy. Actual straight-up horror has a mixed record in the medium. Consider last year’s four-episode adaptation of Junji Ito’s celebrated manga Uzumaki. While the first episode was greeted with considerable praise, the other three provoked much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

A better way to get proper horror in anime is to have it meet halfway with urban fantasy. One such title is Dark Gathering. Adapted from the manga by Kenichi Kondo (who had previously worked as an assistant on D.Gray-Man, to which Dark Gathering shares a few themes), it features an odd mix of Japanese-style spiritualism and urban legends, along with several nods to horror movies from both sides of the Pacific. But on the action side, the property it most readily brings to mind is Pokémon. Only their equivalent of Pikachu looks like this:

But before we dive into the narrative proper, let’s introduce ourselves to the main characters.

Yayoi Hozuki

Yayoi can be seen as a cross between Mathilda Wormwood (a precocious tyke with freaky psychic powers) and Robert Neville (being regarded as a terrifying monster by those we would normally perceive as terrifying monsters). Up until about a year prior to the beginning of the series, she had been an ordinary kid whose only oddities were possessing double-pupiled eyes and being able to see shadowy figures invisible to everyone else.

Then came the auto accident which claimed the lives of Yayoi’s parents, with her getting off with some moderate head trauma. Inexplicably, her IQ had skyrocketed following the accident. What’s more, she could now more clearly perceive the spirits that she had only vaguely detected prior to this point. This concerns her, as it could mean the vision she saw of her mother being snatched away by a freakish thing (which she later ends up referring to a Spectre of Death) was real rather than a hallucination (something of which she becomes further convinced when only her father’s ghost is present at the funeral).

During her hospital stay, Yayoi met a fellow psychic sensitive who educated her on the basics of spirits and how they work. She then went on to weaponize this knowledge by capturing spirits and binding them to plushies for the purpose of creating an army to take down the entity responsible for snatching her mother. However, Yayoi has started to develop a reputation of sorts and, with spirits actively avoiding her, she is finding it difficult to obtain additional spooks. At the start of the series, she resides with the family of her paternal uncle.

As the bold leader and the knowledgeable one, she is both the team’s Fred and Velma.

Keitaro Gentoga

Like Yayoi, Keitaro is a psychic sensitive, though he can only sense the presence of spirits. Unlike with Yayoi, spirits are instinctively drawn to Keitaro like iron to a magnet (or like moths to a bug zapper once he teams up with Yayoi). This came to a head during his last year of junior high when he went out on a test of courage with his friend Eiko and they encountered a malicious spirit which placed a curse that caused nerves to grow out of Keitaro’s right hand. The psychological trauma was such that he ended up becoming a hikikomori for two years. However, thanks to a gradual intervention by his family and Eiko, Keitaro was eased out of his despondency and got caught up on his schooling to the point where he was able to enroll in college the same year as Eiko.

Never having been a social butterfly in the first place, Keitaro’s prior isolation has left his people skills badly atrophied. To help him on this front, Eiko recommends that he apply to work for a tutoring center. Yayoi is his first assignment, and initially it’s like a match made in Hell as she constantly badgers him to go ghost hunting with her. But eventually they come to an understanding.

As a skinny coward, he is the team’s Shaggy.

Eiko Hozuki

Eiko is Yayoi’s cousin as well as the childhood friend who had accompanied Keitaro on the test of courage, with her winding up with the same curse (though on her left hand and with the effects apparently less severe). Ever since she was a kid, Eiko has had a great love for all things spooky. However, she takes a more scientific approach that leads to her developing unconventional techniques for dealing with spooks.

Unlike Yayoi and Keitaro, Eiko has very bubbly and outgoing personality, having little trouble connecting with people and befriending them. However, this conceals a darker aspect of her psyche. At least since junior high, she’s been madly in love with Keitaro. Emphasis on mad, as it borders on unhealthy fixation. On the scale of love-obsessed psycho chicks, Eiko is somewhere between Mary Hatch and Anne Wilkes (a narrower stretch than most It’s a Wonderful Life fans would care to admit). But she manages to keep this under wraps. Most of the time.

Though Eiko may not have any psychic sensitivity, she does possess two things neither of the other team members can provide: A driver’s license and a Honda Nbox (or possibly a Mitsubishi ek Space, the specific model is uncertain). Because spooky locales are never convenient to mass transit.

As an independently wealthy redhead bombshell, she is the team’s Daphne.

Ai Kamiyo

Though not an official member of the team and only present in a handful of episodes, Ai is a prominent part of the narrative. She is the second pupil assigned to Keitaro and is a gyaru. Unlike Yayoi, Ai’s tutoring is remedial rather than supplemental. As it turns out, she has her own spiritual issues. Thanks to a contract held by her family’s patriarch, Ai has been promised as a bride to the Taoism deity Taisai Seikun when she turns twenty. And all indications are that this won’t be a fluffy Happily Ever After faerie tale marriage. Unless that faerie tale is Bluebeard.

An unpleasant side effect of the pact is that Ai is frequently harassed by any spirits in the area, mostly incidental stuff like tripping her up. However, Taisai Seikun does protect her whenever the shenanigans get too dangerous, though always at the cost of someone else nearby taking the hit instead, with her older brother having been one such victim.

As is often the case with shows like this, it starts off with a Monster of the Week format. For the first seven episodes, each spectral encounter is successfully resolved by the time the end credits roll. The very first episode has proven to be very alienating among some anime viewers. There have been many who find the way Yayoi and Eiko drag Keitaro along in their ghost hunt despite his protestations to be needlessly cruel, and I can understand their reservations. Particularly in how Yayoi can appear to be indifferent Keitaro’s welfare by using him as bait to draw out spirits that would otherwise refuse to manifest in her presence. Though in a way, it could be argued that it’s for his own good (more on that in a bit).

Of the episodes in this particular block, I find the fifth one to be the strongest. In it, Keitaro is confronted with how his desire to have no truck with the supernatural is ultimately delusional and it’s better for him to challenge the spooks he attracts head-on rather than continue his futile efforts to evade them. The sixth episode is the weakest of the lot. It relies too much on gotcha moments where some dire peril gets resolved by revealing that they had made preparations for that potential situation even though there were no prior hints offered. As for the fourth episode, it feels like a filler episode even though it technically isn’t. Unlike the others, it doesn’t present any additional worldbuilding or character development. It’s just an isolated story where the only distinguishing aspect is that it features a haunted videotape as a nod to Ringu. The remainder are competent standalones that provide needed worldbuilding and character development which mostly don’t come across as exposition dumps.

It’s the introduction of Ai where the status quo gets upended. At first, it plays out as part of the usual Monster of the Week formula. But matters take a turn for the worse when Taisai Seikun manifests and, in a show of power, decimates Yayoi’s collection of spooks. Yayoi et al are allowed by him to live because he considers them too pathetic to be worth the effort of killing. And he’s the sort who is convinced that this will never bite him in the hinder down the line.

Following this confrontation, Yayoi has come to the realization that her original plan of Zerg Rushing the Spectre of Death with whatever random spirits she has gathered is no longer viable. Quite simply, with certain power disparities superior numbers don’t mean jack. Instead, she decides that a smaller number of high-powered spooks will be a more effective option. Fortunately, she already has two spirits of that caliber (termed Graduates as they have “graduated” from the training she subjects to the spirits she had captured) that she has been keeping in isolated locations. What’s more, Yayoi has a third that she’s been keeping on her person which is showing some promise. Finally, the remaining weakened spooks in her room have engaged in a spiritual grand melee, with them being absorbed into a single Graduate-tier entity.

With this revised plan, the team goes from visiting random haunted sites to seeking out the worst of the worst to provide Yayoi with a truly nightmarish roster of spooks to take on Taisai Seikun and deliver on her promise to make him her slitch. While in practice this isn’t too different from the prior Monster of the Week format, the spooks they encounter are tougher, the stakes are higher, and the confrontations last over multiple episodes while going all in on the Pokémon-style rumbles. Plus there are more instances of freakish abominations popping up from behind.

The first such haunt they visit is H Castle (inspired by Hachiōji Castle), famed for a battle that occurred during the Sengoku period. As the story goes, the garrison was badly undermanned and about to fall to the sieging forces. However, the womenfolk residing at the castle, rather than allow themselves to be subjected to the not so tender mercies of the invaders, chose to commit mass suicide by slitting their throats and hurling themselves from the top of a local waterfall. Up until recently, the hauntings there had been fairly benign, consisting of reenactments of these past events. But as the investigation conducted by Yayoi and Keitaro reveals, the local spook (something of a gestalt of the aforementioned womenfolk) has become unhinged and is killing anyone who doesn’t show proper respect to the local history.

As a brief aside, one of the weaker points in Dark Gathering is how uneven the attempts at humor are. In particular, most tries at being wacky have a tendency to fail miserably (curiously enough, D.Gray-Man had a similar problem). By and large humor in this series fares better when it aims to be morbid. Such as what happens when you try calling a haunted phone booth.

Nowhere is this more apparent than during the battle between the gestalt spirit of H Castle and Yayoi’s newest Graduate. The Graduate in question is the ghost of a corrupt Buddhist priest whose primary attack involves reciting a sutra that causes anyone who hears it for too long to be dragged to Hell. The gestalt isn’t having this and chops off his head. But the head is still able to recite the sutra, so she slices off the jaw and tongue. The priest counters this by manipulating the vocal organs of the various woodland critters that have already been killed to continue the sutra. So she mutilates all the corpses to stop them, only to find herself being forced to recite the sutra. This sort of escalation just tickles my funny bone.

Once the H Castle ghost has been sufficiently weakened and captured, Yayoi notices an astral cord connected to the spirit that leads to the waterfall. At the other end is a cursed artifact in the form of a mummified arm. Yayoi severs the connection and the ghost regains her reason, allowing them to come to a more amicable understanding. Since nothing good can come from leaving the artifact behind for some clueless tourist to stumble across, Yayoi elects to take it with her.

The next ghost hunt occurs at the Old F Tunnel (inspired by the Fukiage Tunnel in Ōme City), which is inhabited by what could be best described as the ghost of Japanese Leatherface. But thanks to the dimension-warping properties of the Old F Tunnel, Eiko finds herself separated from the others to face an even greater terror: A YouTuber.

Certainly there’s nothing odd about encountering another ghost hunter intent on capturing some spooky footage to post online in hopes of it going viral. But Eiko is put off by the way Anna insists on recounting all the gory details of a story about the psycho killer ghost that haunts the tunnel. Especially when the narration switches from third to first person.

Fortunately, Yayoi and Keitaro are able to locate and free Eiko before anything permanent is inflicted on her. In addition, they goad the Old F Tunnel ghost into exiting his domain so that they can deploy the Graduate they brought along without having to worry about being caught in a cave-in. The ghost in question is a WWII soldier whose main form of attack inflicts the deprivations he suffered on the battlefield on to everyone within the area of effect. And he won’t be putting up with any Leatherface shenanigans.

While the conflict itself proves to be a bit one-sided, the real tension comes from the friendly fire potential of the Graduate’s attack. Especially in how the area of effect expands as it increases in power. Unfortunately, Keitaro doesn’t quite get clear and ends up badly emaciated, requiring him to sit out the next expedition.

However, there are other things that need doing besides collecting new high-powered spooks. They also require a convenient location to keep their Graduates at that won’t disturb the neighbors. So while Keitaro is recovering from his ordeal, Yayoi and Eiko go house hunting and find themselves the perfect place. It’s isolated so the spiritual emanations won’t bother anyone. It’s located directly on a dragon vein (a rough Western counterpart would be a ley line), so the spooks won’t dissipate over time. And at 100 yen, it’s selling for literal pocket change. For such a unique fixer upper, it’s almost too perfect. Surely there has to be a catch.

There is, and it’s a doozy. Turns out the last occupants had been a father-daughter serial killer duo who racked up quite the body count before eventually doing themselves in. That alone would hurt the real estate value, but it gets worse. During the investigation that followed, a female police officer on site spontaneously became pregnant. Ten days later, a malformed thing emerged from her chestburster-style. So the current owner is understandably reluctant to sell it to a couple of nice girls.

Then again, Yayoi isn’t a very nice girl. So she dives in headfirst to purge any unwanted malign influences. Through her investigation, she uncovers a tale of personal tragedy manipulated by a crooked spiritualist that devolved into incest, ritual sacrifices, infanticide, and the creation of a spectral abomination desiring to be birthed into the material world, resulting in some of the most unsettling pregnancy-themed body horror this side of Alien.

If there’s any work of fiction this one could be regarded as comparable to, I would say it’s like the backstory portion of The Dunwich Horror but with the Lavinia analogue being given a bit more agency (even though she didn’t truly understand what she was getting herself into). Though we also go back to D.Gray-Man with the spiritualist who helped instigate the whole mess. His actions bring to mind the primary antagonist of that series the Millennium Earl, who preys on people with recently deceased loved ones with an offer to bring them back, but always in a Monkey’s Paw way.

Then it’s back to hunting for another Graduate-tier spook, this time at the I Watergate (inspired by the Iwabuchi Watergate in Tokyo’s Kita Ward), where they find another spiritualist investigating the site. The dominant spirit in the area is rather inconspicuous at first, appearing as a boy drawing in a sketchbook. But he turns out to be what can be best described as a sort of proto-wendigo.

By drawing someone in his sketchbook and then scribbling it out, the target’s body mass is destroyed and converted into meatballs, which he then consumes to empower himself. This attack is graphically demonstrated on the spiritualist. While Yayoi et al possess proxy dolls that can take damage for them, these are a finite resource.

In his current state, the I Watergate Spirit cannot be directly confronted. So the first step is to deprive him of his sketchbook. Once this is accomplished, a Graduate can be deployed against him. The question is which one? Of those who have previously seen action, the priest’s sutra is too slow while the soldier dislikes attacking children. So Yayoi must resort to using the ghost of an oiran, which carries its own risks. This particular Graduate bears a grudge towards Yayoi over being forced to serve her and would gladly turn on her at first opportunity. That’s why Yayoi makes sure that one of the I Watergate spirit’s attack hits the oiran’s plushie, so that her animosity will be directed at him instead.

At first blush, the two spirits are remarkably similar in their methods of attack, which involve consuming the opposition to empower themselves. The I Watergate spirit literally eats his targets while the oiran saps her targets of their vitality. Ultimately the oiran has the upper hand, as her attacks are more versatile and are directed with cunning, while the I Watergate spirit acts solely on indiscriminate, childish rage.

With the I Watergate spirit having been dealt with, the oiran now directs her wrath towards Yayoi et al. However, Yayoi foresaw the possibility of this sudden yet inevitable betrayal. So she uses the H Castle gestalt to hobble the oiran for long enough to trap her back into her assigned plushie.

Of the Graduate spirit battles, this one was the least satisfactory (though it did have its moments). In the prior bouts, Yayoi et al had some degree of active involvement. But once the Graduate was released, for the most part they remained on the sidelines serving as passive spectators. The fact that this one was stretched over three episodes (with the prior Graduate arcs taking just two each) also made it feel padded. And that’s a shame, because the backstories presented for both spooks were quite solid.

Before leaving, Yayoi checks the bag the spiritualist had been carrying and is troubled when she finds that it contains a mummified arm matching the one they found at H Castle. It is said that once is happenstance and twice is coincidence. Yet with something this weird, there is no such thing as coincidence. And there’s a good reason for that. For a cabal of malevolent spirits who are possessing psychic sensitives have been operating in the background all this time. And they are not pleased that someone is pilfering their artifacts.

Yayoi et al have been making great strides so far. Yet an alarming development crops up. The train to Tokyo Ai was on after attending her brother’s memorial service in Kyoto got derailed when the Spectre of Death decided to attack Taisai Seikun. What bothers Yayoi as she watches the news footage is how Taisai Seikun handily bested the Spectre yet then chose to heal its injuries. In her mind, this makes her planned confrontation with him a top priority.

With her current set of Graduates, Yayoi’s odds of coming out on top in such an encounter is at least possible. However, one of the disadvantages of being an eight-year-old ghostbusting prodigy is that you’re still expected to attend school. A trip to Kyoto to perform the needed prep work and the resulting epic showdown with Taisai Seikun is not something that can be accomplished over a weekend. And it’s still a couple of months before summer break arrives.

As Yayoi stews over this inconvenience, the Spooky Pod People Cabal is starting to catch on to how she’s been sabotaging their projects, however unwittingly. As it happens, one of their members is currently possessing another student at Yayoi’s school and is tasked with making contact with her. And as we can see here, she’s not particularly discrete.

Going back to another comparison to D.Gray-Man, Dorothy can be seen as analogous to Road, but a little more childish and a lot more spiteful. Like Road, Dorothy can feign at being all sweet and adorable. But in her less guarded moments, her vicious side becomes all too apparent.

Anyway, Dorothy proposes a challenge to Yayoi. As an experiment, she had placed a series of glyphs around the school designed to lead wandering spirits to a locked classroom. In said classroom is the ghost of a teacher who had been the victim of spiteful harassment by some of his students which led to him committing suicide. Dorothy’s hypothesis is that the teacher ghost will feed on those spirits, which in turn will intensify his rage at the injustice of his fate. Query: What would happen if a group of unsuspecting students were to unlock the room containing this augmented spook?

As it happens, everyone at the school winds up being astrally projected to individual shadow reflections of the school, where they find the teacher spirit has gone full-on Freddy Krueger. They are challenged to a game of hide-and-seek, where the consequences of being found are sure to be dire.

Yayoi has an advantage in that she has her own spectral Pikachu to take down the teacher spirit. But like any good slasher villain, he just won’t stay down. She gets a clearer picture of what’s going on thanks to Yoko (one of the students who had unwittingly freed the spook), who had thrown a wrench in the scheme when she tried leaving the campus of her shadow school, which resulted in her appearing in a different shadow school. With the information Yoko provides, Yayoi determines that they’ll simply have to make it to the home base, with the most likely candidate being the formerly locked classroom. This proves to be the case, with them returning to their physical bodies. Once back, Yayoi goes to the teacher ghost and convinces him to pass on, which results in everyone else regaining consciousness (though not without some lingering mental trauma).

An interesting touch to this scene is how Yoko reacts with confusion as Yayoi converses with the teacher spirit. It’s an effective way to remind the audience that, now that they’ve returned to the material realm, Yoko can no longer perceive any spectral manifestations.

A silver lining to all this tomfoolery is that the school is being closed for an investigation by the authorities to determine what caused everyone there to simultaneously pass out. So now Yayoi can devote her full attention to coming up with and enacting a plan to bring Taisai Seikun to heel and free Ai from her fate.

And it’s here where the season ends. Fortunately, it won’t strictly be necessary to read the manga to find out what happens next. Earlier this year, it was announced that a second season of Dark Gathering is in the works. As of yet, there is no release date. Though with luck it’ll be next summer, the traditional season for telling ghost stories in Japan.