Dark Gathering

Episode 13

Dark Gathering's second half kicks off right at the beginning of this appropriately spooky month of October. The start of this new stretch necessitates some setup, as has come to be expected from this show. Yayoi and Keitaro are planning to head to that old scary standby, an abandoned tunnel, to pick up another S-Rank spirit, and they're sure to bring Eiko along this time, too. But arriving at the tunnel will have to wait until next week since this episode sees the team making a pit stop to grab another Graduate which Yayoi had prepared off-screen. It's also setting up some of the finer details that will be explored by this stretch of the story. Intriguingly, it seems like much of that will concern Eiko.

Eiko somewhat necessarily being absent for the last little arc was already acknowledged. So with Keitaro and Yayoi's deepening bond, it makes sense that Keitaro's extremely normal girlfriend would get to play characterization catch-up. There are a few effective initiations in this, specifically Eiko recognizing Keitaro's seeming growing appreciation for the thrills of ghost-hunting. She stirs in him the possibility that he's now partially partaking in these pursuits for his own satisfaction, enriching the already complex relationship between Keitaro's desire to selflessly help Yayoi and safeguard others from spiritual harm. It's a great angle, because it ties back to Eiko's overall approach, reveling in the "I can make him worse" school of dating Keitaro. Having come around to these wonderfully weird aspects of Eiko, I fully support her in this pursuit; I genuinely want to see this couple's relationship get even more messed up.

With that in mind, this episode sees Eiko trying to take a more active role once the actual ghost-wrangling gets underway. She's not on the level of abilities that Keitaro and Yayoi have yet, but she's familiar enough with both of them that she can at least contribute on a teamwork and coordination level. However her main factor seems to be one of motivation: For as much as her stalker disposition informs her relationship with Keitaro when things get desperate in this episode, she comes off genuinely worried for her beau, scrambling to do what she can to help. She does care about this guy (and Yayoi as well) in her way. On the other hand, Eiko's reflections after the confrontation see her coming to terms with what getting more involved in this action will entail— And how she's going to love it. Yes, lining up with her earlier prodding of Keitaro, Dark Gathering makes clear that Eiko absolutely knows she's into all these thrills and chills for their particular kind of freaky fun.

With the implication that this story is going to keep focusing on Eiko, it's a good path to get going on, but it's not the only angle Dark Gathering that is working here. The series also doesn't wait to follow up on the last episode's allusion to another party meddling with the spirits. Granted, viewers don't learn much about the creepy priest and his elderly companion introduced here, save for the fact that they were apparently behind both the castle incident last week and the overall plot with the Spectre of Death. This is purely here to hype things up for a longer-term storyline. Though alongside Yayoi dumping even more technical details about the Graduate that they're going to pick up and the mechanics along the way, it has the side effect of making this episode come off a little over-talky for its own good at times.

That means they also don't leave a ton of time to dig into the vibes of the ghost the main trio deals with this week as well. Granted, this is practically stated in-story to be only a detour, handing the heroes a new powerful plot device ghost, and initiating Eiko's aforementioned progress. Truth be told, I don't know how much I would want a show like Dark Gathering to dig into a subject as dense as World War II, especially in just one episode. The skimmed-over story of the soldier seen here at least aligns with what was given in the previous arc. There's a focus on the historical stories behind these souls, and how that informs them as not as necessarily malevolent as some of the other ones seen previously. They're still plenty spooky, mind, this one deploying an army of shadowplay enemy soldiers projected off the light of old television static. And that's after getting a glimpse at the setup's initial state of a mannequin with bite marks all over it; That's just unsettling.

Dark Gathering delivers some good bits in all this. If it can't reach for heavier historical analysis, there's still something appreciably raw about depicting the ignoble desperation of a WW2 battle where combatants lost their lives to their hunger and thirst as much as the enemy's abilities. And if her increased involvement is still to come, it's at least satisfying to see Eiko manage to sink a plushie into Keitaro's net from behind the three-point line. The show still clearly has plenty of tricks and thus will continue to be a treat.

Rating:

Dark Gathering is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Chris is happy to welcome this spooky season and its cooler weather. You can scare him up on the shambling corpse of Twitter, or check out when he occasionally rises from his grave to post something on his blog.