Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

Title: 黄昏乙女xアムネジア (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia)

Animation production: SILVER LINK

Episodes: 12

Genre: Mystery, Supernatural, Comedy, Horror, Romance

Release: April 8, 2012 (Sundays)

OP Theme: "CHOIR JAIL (クワイア ジェイル)" by Konomi Suzuki

End Theme: "Calendrier (カランドリエ)" by Aki Okui
Insert songs: 1. "Calendrier -Yuuko- (カランドリエ ―夕子―)" by Yumi Hara (ep 11)
2. “Requiem” by Hiiragi Nao (ep 12)
Original story: manga series by Maybe
Official site

Story: The story takes place in Seikyou Private School. A facility that consists of multiple buildings that connect together to accommodate both junior and senior high school students. Sixty years of ongoing renovations and expansions have meant most of the old inner structures have been sealed and abandoned. Classrooms turned into storage rooms, staircases no longer in use, hallways like dark alleys. With the existence of such a maze-like building, it is only natural that rumours of the paranormal would appear.

One day first-year middle school student Teiichi Niiya gets lost in this maze and by chance arrives at an old storage room. This is where he meets Yuuko Kanoe, a mysterious girl with raven black, long silky hair and a tall and slender figure, who introduces herself as the ghost of the old school building. For some unexplainable reason Niiya is the only one able to see this spirit and she herself does not have any recollection of the reasons or time of her death, nor any lingering feelings about life itself. Curious about the circumstances of her death the two create a paranormal investigation club and seek to find out the truth about it and the many other mysteries surrounding the school.
(source: Wikipedia, MAL)

Quick thoughts: The first episode almost turned me off from this series. I mean, where was the scary mystery? Because, all I saw were some harem shenanigans. But by the 3rd episode where they talked about  Yuuko's curse,  and a mysterious shadow lurking on the school grounds, I was intrigued and wanted to know more.

The visuals were very gorgeous. The way they do the shadow effects, camera angles and the dark atmosphere built around it were very well done. Despite having such a great production design behind this anime, the pacing of the story was a mess. I thought that the show doesn't know what direction it whats to go. It keeps jumping around between the light-hearted comedy to some of the darker moments. But I preferred the dark moments over the comedy because the jokes weren't funny and the comedic episodic fillers added nothing to the story. But about midway through the series (ep 7-12), it gets back on track with Yuuko's story and from there, it gets interesting. I had mixed feelings about the ending, but at least it had a good closure to the story.

Despite the rough start and its messy build up, it had an intriguing premise, and great looking animated visuals. I admit that some of the scenes depicting Yuuko and Teichi's friendship/relationship had a few touching moments. Overall, it was enjoyable.