Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Housing Complex C Scary?
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1625 |
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It really disappointed me that this ended up being bad. At first I thought it was just a garbage horror series that could succeed in having an ok mystery, but then episode 4 happened and the 10 minutes straight of exposition (not even an exaggeration!) in the journal fried my brain. I feel like the series could have been better if it simplified the mystery, put a hook to the slasher part at the end of episode 3, and then focused more on that because Yuri's family murdering people was the most exciting the show was in a while.
It feels like the series spent too much setting up stuff for the payoff just to be "Yuri's family worships Cthulhu and kill people". What was with Kuzululu (?) then? What's with the rainbows? Why did Kimi need to be a god judging people for 20000 years to not be racist? Maybe some of that is answered in the exposition but I barely picked up anything from it. I dunno, I guess I was hoping it could have been good because the concept was interesting but it kept falling on it's face and then completely fell apart in the last episode. |
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2303 Location: In front of my computer |
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Honestly, I think the show would've been better off having two more episodes, namely because of how the finale started with Taka's long-winded explanation of everything we had seen and not seen. It was really hard to follow with how fast he was talking because he had to squeeze so much into about 7 minutes to leave the rest of the episode to show off the twist. It's the final sign that the show really tried to do too much within a 4-episode limit and it could've used two extra episodes to help with the pacing and fleshing out the mystery and characters more.
But despite that, I actually really found myself enjoying the show. Horror/thrillers and Lovecraftian narratives aren't my usual tastes, and I didn't expect to actually like Housing Complex C because it's so drastically different than what I actually do enjoy. However, I found myself really drawn to the show. The animation, voice cast, and music was rather well done in my opinion, but admittedly I likely missed a lot of the flubs with the off-model animations, so my opinion might be skewed. I missed a lot of things that were clearly obvious to folks that are used to shows like this (Yuri's cellphone actually went way over my head, which in hindsight, it should've been very obvious when you combine it with the calendar saying 2000), and the twist was definitely unexpected to me although it was likely already made clear to a lot of other eagle-eyed viewers before we reached it. I'm glad that the show is replaying in full on Saturday, so I can hopefully watch and see the things I initially missed and can go "OH YEAH, this did get explained". I'd be happy if Toonami went to air this every Halloween from here on out, but if they don't, a physical release would be rather nice so we can do it ourselves. It's not a perfect show by any means, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Was it scary? For folks that aren't horror buffs like me, I'd say yes for sure, but I think even for folks that love the genre, like my husband, it scratches that itch just fine. I know my husband was a bit taken aback by the twist, despite himself being a huge Lovecraftian fan, and really enjoyed the show. He's the one, out of the two of us, that really wants a physical release, so I want to hope it'll happen someday. I doubt it, but it'd be nice. =P |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4635 |
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I wasn't paying much attention during the first episode, so I didn't think anything of the smart phone until the second episode and saw the calendar was year 2000. Though in the first episode I did wonder how people that talked about being around for WW2 were getting around so well in 2022.
It definitely could have used another episode or two. I don't mind a slow burn, and it works well for a visual novel since there isn't a lot of constraint on time. Unfortunately, being varying degrees of subtle until episode 4 meant it ran out of time and went full info dump. Even that might have worked with another episode that followed the reveal with how the characters dealt with that knowledge, such as the new family trying to get the drop on her in sneaky ways or the old folks tiptoeing around her to not give away that they knew what she was out of fear that she would hit the reset button on them. Instead, it only had enough time to go into the conclusion with Kimi being a god who was under no real threat. |
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Ishida_Akira(fake)
Posts: 113 |
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The only scary thing about this is the abysmal English dub. I'm still waiting for the Japanese one. This isn't a sub VS dub thing, the sound mixing in the English dub is atrocious and the voices are terrible.
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MrSatyre
Posts: 86 |
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Was hoping this would be good, but literally stopped watching after 10 minutes. Very disappointing cliches, and long worn-out screaming little girl characters.
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1578 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Except that's not what happened, in the one respect. What Kan actually did was perform a chant that Kimi instructed him to recite via a note she gave him with the "Cool Rock" earlier in the episode in case "something bad" were to happen. In this case, her ending the world based on the sins of the Koshide family. (As for that last bit, I agree wholeheartedly.) I'd go into yet another variation of my overall thoughts on Housing Complex C, the others being scattered around various websites and word documents, but this thread isn't exactly the place for it (especially considering my positives are all subjective and dismissable), so I'll take the time to highlight my biggest strike against this personal 6.5/10 (7 on a good day). To me, the biggest flaw there is to HCC isn't the subpar animation, the lopsided pacing, the half-hearted scares, or even the cliched "kill 'em all" ending. Instead, it's the fact that the Koshide family were the true villains of the piece. Rather, how suddenly that was revealed to be the case. Outside of a couple dubious bits of animation in the OP and the sick-ass Cthulhu knife in the background of one episode, there was next to nothing that was sus about the Koshides, especially considering the dad was straight-up absent for one of the episodes. If there was any actual foreshadowing building up to it beyond [adult swim]'s genius decision to spoil Seiichi and Keiko being cultist psychos in the next episode promo and Twitter preview clip respectively, I'd be more accepting of the "big twist". But as it ultimately is, it's just a cheap, lazy, unearned, undeserved, tryhard and shlocky attempt at throwing the viewer's belief systems into question, like amphibian handed off the scripting duties to a ghostwriter and told them to go nuts. Still, Seiichi and Keiko's heel reveals come off as downright forgivable compared to the equally brilliant decision to make Yuri just as evil as her parents. Compared to the six adjectives I pulled out for the Mr. and Mrs., I have just two words to a single adjective to describe their daughter's own psychopathy: insultingly edgy. Seriously. There was absolutely no reason to drag Yuri so deep into the Cthulhu cult that she's performing human sacrifices just as they are, outside of shock value and maybe to highlight the harsh reality of children being indoctrinated into dangerous religions that make Scientology look like the joke South Park portrayed it as being over a decade ago. During the scene where she's chasing after Kimi, ranting about torturing and dismembering her while suggesting that she did the same thing to other girls her age multiple times, I could actually feel the edginess of the scene pressing against me and threatening to cut me open. A metaphorical feeling that I've only heard of before from those who watched other anime I readily prepared myself to handle, but have only experienced now. There's just no making this look good in the slightest, especially with the gruesome end she rightfully received. The sad thing is, it's all too easy to imagine a better interpretation of Yuri as a character in the final act than what amphibian (or his ghostwriter) shat out for us this past weekend. Completely oblivious to her parents' cultist affiliations and legitimately wanting to end them just as much as Kimi was keeping herself from doing until her hand was forced. (And boy, were Seiichi and Keiko's own deaths anticlimactic.) Or better yet, her being part of the cult and killing as the show went with, but very reluctantly so, only going along with it otherwise she'll be met with a mix of physical beatings and threats of being the next human sacrifice herself from her fargone parents. Her decision to kill Kimi, in front of Kimi, being conveyed shakily and doubtfully, the edgy things she said being desperate attempts to keep up the facade, and once aware of Kimi's true identity as Iyoyoloki Soyohosu, reverting to begging in the most legitimate of sorrows for forgiveness for the sins of her parents, and more importantly herself. After which, Kimi, touched by Yuri's outpouring emotions, not the act they would've been in the real ending, decides to spare humanity, but because she has still seen enough in her 20,000 years of observation, transfers her powers to Yuri before disappearing from the planet, making her the new Iyoyoloki Soyohosu, to watch over a devastated but recovery-capable Kuro/Shirosaki as the ultimate act of penance. Sappy, I know, but an ending like this would've easily added an extra point or two to my final score, were it someone else's idea for an alternate ending and not my own. So yeah. It goes without saying that C: The Housing Complex of Soul and Possibility Control is flawed out the ass. But everyone's preferred flaw to talk about is different, and the essay you read above is what comprises my feelings on mine. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 4635 |
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Yes. Right before praying to Kimi with the rock, Kan asks his god for forgiveness for doing what he needed to to live. As in, he knows his religion considers praying to another deity a sin, but since that same deity had handed him the method of surviving her decision to purge the residents, he hopes that it won't be held against him. |
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ZakuConvoy
Posts: 12 |
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Did we know this was a 4 episode miniseries going in? I'll admit, I either didn't know that or I just forgot. And I don't think the commercials on Toonami brought it up; So, imagine my surprise when episode 4 rolled around. "Is that it?"
I have to wonder if the whole Warner-Discovery cuts have anything to do with this. Like, they told them they're only getting money for one more episode and then they're cutting them off. Kimi just stepping on her "mother" and being done with the whole thing kind of feels like meta-commentary, to me. Like the writers just washing their hands of the whole mess. But, maybe not. I'll admit, I was kind of hoping there wasn't going to be a supernatural element in the show. I think it would have been a better twist if all of this was just...people. But, that's clearly not the way they went. So, yeah. The last episode was very rushed. And this follows in the tradition of most of the other Toonami co-produced shows as being..."not the best" I think is putting it lightly. I understand the logic of wanting your own, unique shows that aren't spoiled months before in subs. But, I wish Toonami would just save it's money to get more and better anime, instead. I doubt they could have out-bid Disney for Bleach, but maybe they could have gotten Chainsaw Man or Mob Psycho or something else that could be popular on the block, instead. |
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Aura Ichadora
Posts: 2303 Location: In front of my computer |
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Bleach may still have a chance to air on Toonami, since Viz is the one that owns the rights overall while Hulu/Disney+ only have the streaming rights. But I'd also wager it likely won't be until sometime next year before we'll see it; Viz's shows usually air on the block well after the series already finishes its stream in both dub and sub, and since the dub hasn't started airing, I'm guessing we wouldn't potentially see it on the block until closer to spring. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4456 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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don't be so sure, i highly doubt viz will give bleach the yashahime treatment. they didn't do that with hunter x hunter which had its English dub shown first on AS and its not as bad as boruto which clearly didn't jell with the toonami faithful so it's more like a 50/50 the final arc's Eng dub could show on AS! the only way for your theory to come to pass is for everyone's fear to be realized and the Disney streams are indeed censored to hell and back ala what they did to naurto shippuden and out of disgust, NO ONE watches the streams at all which in turn forces viz to go back to toonami with their tails between their legs ONCE AGAIN! |
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ZakuConvoy
Posts: 12 |
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Uzumaki's going to be 4 episodes, too? That just doesn't seem like enough episodes to adapt the story. I know the manga's only 3 volumes, but that's still almost a volume per episode. The pacing it's going to have to maintain to do that seems like it'd work against itself. Shame about the rights stuff. I just hope things improve, I guess. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4800 |
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Honestly I had a lot of fun with this; it was more entertaining than it had any right to be. Its biggest crime was probably slow-playing things too much in the first half given its limited runtime, which necessitated that huge infodump at the start of the final episode. I'll disagree with the columnists a bit in that I thought it did do a good job of setting a tone throughout, with those little hints of something being fundamentally off with this place building to unknowable cosmic horrors in the classic Lovecraftian tradition. I don't know a massive amount about the mythos, but it was fun seeing what I did know played fairly straight, and as shoehorned in as it was, that big infodump was a fun bombshell. It's always the cute lolis, isn't it? Lesson learned: do NOT **** with Cthulhu's daddy. Kan is good people, and I'm glad he made it out okay.
This is one I wouldn't mind watching again...unfortunately, given how things are going, it'll probably be thrown into a vault forever because of Zaslav's bullshit. |
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