Written by: Gabriel Castillo | Published on: February 2, 2021
From sipping beer to crippling fear; Sorao and Toriko find themselves stuck in other world at the worst possible time. The night is relentless in the Otherside.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Summary
Sorao and Toriko’s night of celebration turns sour as the streets of Ikebukuro become unusually silent. Suddenly, they find themselves on the Otherside at night. Exceptionally bizarre creatures appear and chase the leading ladies. While fleeing, they run into something unexpected.
Blurred Lines between the Human World and the Otherside
Crossing over to the Otherside typically requires a certain sequence of actions in a specific place (e.g., using the elevator in the earlier episodes) but now the ladies ended up crossing unintentionally. In fact, an encounter with some strange beings from the Otherside prompted their untimely crossing in the previous episode. Perhaps they unknowingly had another encounter with a similar being this time around.
Is the Otherside coming after Sorao and Toriko? Or did they unwittingly do something (involving the white hat from Hasshaku-sama) that caused them to cross? Whatever the case may be, things are definitely getting stranger.
Night Time is Fright Time
The dynamic duo never crossed over at night up until now. Toriko recounts Satsuki’s warning about evening escapades: do not do it. After sunset the Otherside becomes immensely more dangerous. Hellish creatures lurk and their disgusting appearances can drive people mad. The light horror aspect of this series shows up big time in this episode. Creepy? Yes. More exciting? Absolutely.
Station February (Kisaragi)
Suddenly, there’s a short burst of relatively decent English dialogue! By some stroke of luck, Sorao and Toriko encounter American soldiers originally stationed at Okinawa. But didn’t the duo come from Ikebukuro? That’s more than 2000 kilometers away. Seems like origin points do not matter much in the Otherside. The soldiers had no idea how they crossed over and, to make things worse, creatures are hunting them. More interestingly, the Americans are camped out near Kisaragi —February in English — Station which is the subject of another internet horror story.
Music of the Night
Great horror series/films are usually accompanied by a spectacular soundtrack. In this episode, the production team turned up their background music all the way to eleven in order to create a frightening atmosphere. The music and sound effects get especially tense during the transition between the regular world and the Otherside. The suspicious sounds accompanied by an echoey bass build-up the tension well. After that, a full orchestra goes absolutely nuts. The choir and strings are especially effective in bringing the atmosphere to life!
VERDICT
Author's Rating: 8.1/10
This episode was fantastic! The pace felt appropriate (relative to the rushed previous episodes) and the supernatural light horror atmosphere was evident. From a celebratory dinner to a surprise evening trip, the changeup was quick and exciting. The elements worked well: the empty Ikebukuro was very disturbing, the freaky nocturnal fiends were designed well, and the sounds were absolutely on point. Mad props to the soundtrack!
Fans were happy that the Kisaragi Station arc was not skipped (although rearranged a bit) because the story gets even more intriguing. Thankfully, the entire arc was NOT jammed into one episode! Viewers have more time to get lost in the Otherside this way.
Now that the ladies are stuck in the Otherside at night, what other disgusting creatures await? What will the soldiers do with them? Can the soldiers be trusted? How will they return? Find out next week!
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