BRING BACK GOOD HORROR ANIME...Just wanted to say that before jumping into this review. Let's get into it.
Housing Complex C is about a girl named Kimi who lives in a low cost complex in the town Kurosaki. The complex gets a new family and some workers for a project in the town. Not only does Kimi end up becoming friends with her new neighbors and the daughter, Yuri from the new family, but she finds herself running into new trouble and dealing with a town mystery. Housing Complex C is a 4 episode horror, thriller, and mystery anime that can be viewed on HBO MAX.
Let’s start with the positives. For starters, I enjoyed how short the series is. I was a little thrown off with the episode count, but I kind of wish there were more series that were this short. 4 episodes was surprisingly a good amount for me even though I’m used to watching 12 episodes or more. It kept my attention and it was easy to speed through. It works really well for the very small amount of characters we have and the story not needing any real world building. However, I do like the way the anime makes you feel like you are part of their community. Kimi is a very adventurous person and we see a lot of the story through her perspective. That being said, the complex is always making an effort to include and take care of Kimi. It makes Kimi feel like she is a very important part of the community and makes her very involved in everything even though she's so young. For that reason, you as the viewer find yourself celebrating their wins and feeling their warmth making it easier for you to feel more involved with the mystery because we so much of the story through Kimi's eyes.
I also liked the horror and mystery element of Housing Complex C. I don’t think there is a lot of great horror anime out there. It’s definitely the genre that is the least consistent out of all the anime genres. I think because it’s so hard to execute the art of horror story telling in a digestible, unpredictable, and immersive way. Although I think Housing Complex C struggled a little with that, I still think it did a decent job applying the mystery and horror storytelling elements. There were times where I did feel a little creeped out and the last act definitely provided that all out climactic horror feeling. Plus Housing Complex C does feel like one big mystery that you get to unravel and not have it just entirely spelled out for you from the very beginning. You find yourself thinking about certain clues and piecing things together. The last act of this series was pretty entertaining. Everything gets a little wild and quickly shifts from feeling like a slow burn to lots happening. It gets graphic, reveals happen, and it really picks it up.
Now for the critiques...
The first thing is the pacing. I’m for slower paced shows if done correctly. Unfortunately, the first three acts of this series felt super slow and boring. There are some moments that become interesting during those acts, but it takes awhile to get there and not executed in the best way. At first I was fine with it, but then when I realized how short this series was, I found myself backtracking and wanting more from the anime overall. One, I think making add more tense scenes for act two and three could've helped with the pacing. I think creating more uncomfortable tension would’ve been a lot more beneficial for our first major reveal. I also think the writers could've changed the perspectives a bit more for the story. We only stick with a few points of perspective, but that means we miss a lot of moments that had potential to change the viewing experience. We typically see the story told from the same few people even though there seems to be a lot that is happening in this complex. I think these two elements would’ve added a lot to the slow pace we got and made the overall experience better.
Weirdly, I felt like the horror element for this series was lacking a little bit. It’s definitely there, but I think it was missing the immersive feeling good horror shows and movies give you. I never found myself terrified or super uncomfortable. I would say it was the shot selections and the way the series builds. It’s all things you’ve pretty much seen before in a horror anime. For a series being so short and focused around a small community, I think some major creative choices would’ve set this anime off. For example, the last act reveals a lot of information and sets up a "twist", but we are shown so little throughout the series. It would've been interesting to see silhouettes of our big reveal throughout episodes prepping in the background. This would give us, the viewers, something to constantly look for and have us more immersed in the show and provide more of a shocking reveal.
Honest truth, Housing Complex C is a decent watch, but it definitely missed out on what it could’ve been. When you think about how short this anime is, it’s basically a two hour movie. For that two hours, only the last act is the most interesting. The first three acts are just really slow build up with clues and information. If it provided more creativity and better execution, I think this could’ve been a top tier horror anime. I will say, if you are looking into get a soft start in the horror anime genre, I think this would be a great first watch. Have you watched Housing Complex C? What did you think of it! Comment and let me know! Thanks for stopping by, peace!
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