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skysenshi (09.15.2001)
Deadly beauty...
This is by far one of the creepiest horror h-anime I have seen.
The hentai scenes are quite detailed and can be downright disgusting
(name it they have it — S&M, lesbian, necrophilia etc.).
The drawback: Just when you think things are getting steamy, corpses
suddenly appear! It can be totally distracting, especially in
the Black Chapter, where evil gets invoked more often.
The artwork is just splendid, as you can see from the screenshots
I took. I especially had a hard time deciding which angles I should
take of Asuka and Satoshi, my favorite characters. They are the
cutest pair I have ever seen in any h-anime, which is ironic because
"kawaii" is mostly used in comedies and mushy
love stories, not in horror genres.
Finding flaws in the storyline isn't easy either. Abogado Powers
certainly weaved a very intricate tale of deception, mystery,
and suspense. He even incorporated Wiccan aspects to create a
subtle form of complexity. At first I couldn't understand why
the evil holder of the Necronomicon — a book of black magic
that's been causing all those corpses to pop out of nowhere —
would want to perform a soul-eating ceremony on the eve of Beltane.
Beltane, the "feast of fertility" celebrated by Wiccans
on the 30th of April, is commemorative of the "bright fire
of life". I asked myself why would a ceremony of death be
performed on the day of life? It then became clear to me: I had
almost forgotten what the Necronomicon is all about. It is the
symbol of resurrection and eternal life, albeit in a dark fashion.
One thing that I got confused with, however, is the use of the
aquamarine gemstone. Aquamarine is my birthstone and I understand,
according to the Wiccan tradition, that it is supposed to be the
stone of healing. In this anime it is used as a stone of protection.
I'm not yet quite sure if it can be both. Still, Mystery of
the Necronomicon is convincing enough to make me believe the
reality it wants to portray.
Another aspect one could delve into is the psychological angle.
Mystery of the Necronomicon is able to effectively use
the usually subtle connection between eroticism, S&M, and
death — almost along the lines of necrophilia. As gay novelist
John Rechy would put it: "Black is the dominant color...in
effect, a costume of death — an effect corroborated by an
article on necrophilia in an S&M magazine: As if the ultimate
celebration of S&M were death."
On a side note: If you're going to watch this, make sure that
you finish the ending credits of the The Black Chapter
because there is a little segment there that serves as a reminder
of the tragedy that happened in the Book of the Dead.
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