When people think of anime, horror isn’t normally the kind people look for besides Danganronpa, Tokyo Ghoul, or even Death Note. Buried under other big animes, one stuck out while on my search for some new horror anime to watch: Dark Gathering.
With the first episode airing on July 10th and ending on December 24th in 2023, Dark Gathering follows the story from the manga by Kenichi Kondo. It also received a dubbed version on December 10, 2023, by Sentai Filmworks.
What Makes Dark Gathering Stand Out?
The story of Dark Gathering revolves around spirits from Japan. Instead of wanting to seek them out, the protagonist wants to avoid them. The protagonist, Keitaro Gentoga, isn’t just haunted, but causes any spirits to be filled with rage, making themselves known when he’s close by.
What if he were forced to deal with the spirits? He’d surely die, but with the help of Yayoi Hozuki, a young girl hunting spirits to bring her mother back, he stands a chance. With them both is Eiko Hozuki, an older cousin of Yayoi Hozuki, who is obsessed with fear, being in love with the feeling.
These three work together to bring back Yayoi’s mother, using Keitaro to bait the spirits out for Yayoi to capture and Eiko to assist in any way she can. Each of them has strengths and weaknesses that allow them to connect, yet they are still somewhat vulnerable due to being human.
While some spirits are easy to tell, a lot don’t have exact identification, so they use ranks from B to SSS to tell their strength. B ranks are the weakest, simply needing multiple people to go there safely, with SSS being so dangerous that even being close may cause death.
While the season we got goes to twenty-five episodes, we do not get to see an SSS spirit rank, only up to an SS rank. That doesn’t mean we don’t get to see some action, as we see two SS rank spirits, but I won’t spoil what happens in those fights.
What is Buried Dark Gathering Under Others?
While there’s a lot to praise about it, there are also some issues that some may dislike and make it less popular than other horror anime. There’s a lot to unpack, some not even due to the creator’s fault, as it was out of their control.
A reason some have noticed is that some parts feel like filler, which to some may kill the speed of things. Another being how limited it is, with no news on a second season coming out, meaning that some need to switch to manga to finish it.
What may have put the nail in the coffin is the timing, as JJk, a popular anime, started its second season four days before Dark Gathering on July 6th, 2023. After that followed Spy x Family, another popular anime, released a second season as well on October 7th, 2023.
With such a fate, Dark Gathering was drowned in the anime scene, with not many seeing it before its ending on December 24th, 2023. Now that the anime has slowed down, I’ve noticed a slight buildup in fanbases, so will the Dark Gathering anime finally make a breakthrough, or will it stay down in the grave?
For more such updates on your favorite Anime, stay tuned with Dominade!
