‘Housing Complex C’ Review – Sometimes Cosmic Horror Smells Like Fish
In honor of the upcoming holiday, Adult Swim and Toonami recently aired the latest – and thus far most spooky – of its ongoing collaborations with various anime studios.
And now that it’s reached it’s conclusion with episode four, we’re happy to provide the series’ dub version a full review in order to let you know if it’s worth the watch.
Produced in partnership with studio Akatasuki (SSSS. Dynazenon, Attack on Titan), Housing Complex C brought horror in the vein of Paranoia Agent, The Promised Neverland, and Made in Abyss back to the Toonami block.
The series takes place, believe it or not, in the ‘C’ housing complex, one of many located in the sleepy beach town of Kurosaki.
The star and bright ray of sunshine of the complex is Kimi (VA: Xanthe Huynh – Haru Okumura, Persona 5), a young girl who is considered to be the collective ‘daughter’ of everyone living in the complex – which is a good thing, especially as we never seem to see her mom around.
Everyone at the complex lives a seemingly calm and peaceful life until a group of foreign fishermen, along with their supervisor Seichi Koshide and his family, arrive to live at the complex.
Though tensions begin to rise within the complex as the two cultures constantly clash amidst their attempts to co-exist, Seichi’s daughter Yuri (VA: Kayli Mills – Emilia, Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World) finds herself reaching across the gap and becoming fast friends and ‘sisters’ with Kimi.
But new neighbors are not the only odd occurrence happening at the complex, as alongside their arrival, the complex’s residents begin reporting sightings of strange creatures, randomly scattered animal carcasses, and even piles of mysterious moss growing in places they wouldn’t normally expect them to be.
Needless to say, something strange is happening at Housing Complex C, and so Kimi and Yuri – the former of whom just wants everyone to get along and place nice, the latter who wants nothing more than to protect her new “little sister” – take it upon themselves to unravel the mystery of what exactly is going on.
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Since the anime is only four episodes long, I’ll refrain from saying anymore. In the event that you want to check it out for yourself, I wouldn’t want to have spoiled any of the further horror and mystery you’ll come to uncover over its brief run.
However, what I will say that the series takes noted inspiration from the stories and works of H.P. Lovecraft – it even features a sneaky little cameo from a certain cosmic being known from his work.
The series is a slow burn to be sure, and at times you will wonder why it was limited to just four episodes – Budget reasons? A desire to fit it into Toonami’s October schedule? Running out of steam? – but regardless, our short time at the complex means we are never able to absorb too much of the atmosphere before things really start getting good.
You’ll probably end up forgetting some characters even exist, as the short series order leaves little time to get to really know them.
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Conversely, the positive of Housing Complex C being this short means it’s a quick watch that gets you right to the good stuff – and after having just watched the finale a few minutes prior to this review’s writing, I can say it’s all worth the wait, especially if you are a fan of the more cosmic side of horror.
It doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but if you’re a fan of anime and Lovecraft looking for something quick to watch this Halloween season, I highly recommend giving this series a watch.
The whole show is currently availble for streaming right now on HBO Max, but Toonami will also be replaying the series in full – along with the first four episodes of The Promised Neverland – on October 29th as part of the block’s Halloween Marathon.
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