The Ultimate Gore Fest (Corpse Party: Tortured Souls Review)

Genre: Horror, supernatural, mystery

Rating: R-17

Studio: Asread

Episodes: 4

Available on: HIDIVE

Overview:

A group of nine students gather together after finishing up at their school festival. They gather around in one of their classrooms to bid a friend farewell as it will be her last day before she moves away. They decide to perform a ritual in which will bind them together as friends forever using a paper doll. After the ritual is performed the students are dragged into the hellish place of Heavenly Host Elementary school where a number of gristly murders took place. Many ghosts haunt the school and the nine students must find a way to escape the haunted halls of Heavenly Host.

Review:

I’ve known about the Corpse Party franchise for many years now. My first encounter with the series was back in my mid teens when I began exploring the gaming YouTube world and came across the one and only Pewdiepie. I watched him play Corpse Party and then part of what he played of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows.

There seems to be a certain stigma with the Corpse Party anime being a bad series. I was always so curious to watch it after already having knowledge of the plot through the games and even the manga. But because of the already existing knowledge I had of certain scenes within the story, that often kept me away out of fear of seeing something truly graphic. I finally plucked up my courage and gave it a shot.

The biggest problem with the Corpse Party anime is the fact that it is a four part OVA series. There is a lot of story without very little time to develop it all. I remembered quite a bit of the overall story from the game but so much of it was cut out because there simply wasn’t enough time. The story was far too rushed and with all the content from the original story it could have been easily adapted into a twelve or thirteen episode anime. If I weren’t already familiar with the franchise and this was my first time watching Corpse Party then I feel I would have probably been confused as to everything going on. A few times throughout the OVA I had moments of confusion. One example includes when a couple of the students were sat around watching a TV. I remember that from the game but there was no inkling as to how they found the TV or anything like that. They had just magically found it off screen which wasn’t helpful for me, the viewer.

The characters had no time to develop either. Some of the more psychotic characters who start off seemingly kind hearted don’t have any time to slowly develop. Instead their insane nature is revealed instantly and they are then killed off just as quickly. Slow development makes things more creepy and immersive and so this really killed off that vibe. Loveable characters such as Seiko had not nearly enough time to get attached to them before they inevitably met their end.

Overall, Corpse Party was rather disappointing. The story itself is great and is the kind of horror that really gets under my skin which is what I want from horror anime. The time frame in which they had to work with is what it ultimately let the series down. As horrifying as the use of gore can be it can only work to its real potential if the right amount of story development is implemented alongside it. Maybe one day it’ll get a proper remake and give it the justice that the series deserves.

Overall rating: 6/10

Until next time thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a great day!

Keep up to date with me on:

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Tumblr

MyAnimeList