Anime Review: Let’s Go Kaikigumi
Our protagonist never has a name, but we do learn that he is a high school student somewhere in suburban Japan who is unusually afraid of ghosts. His family lives in a cheap rental, and his father collects model-building magazines. (We never actually see the protagonist’s parents.) One evening while walking home from school, the young fellow meets a rather odd young lady who seems interested in the supernatural.
Mechako (pronounced “may-cha-ko”) is the presumptive heir to the Kaikigumi (“Mysterious Organization”) which works to strengthen the ghost community by spreading spooky stories, keeping humans aware of scary stuff. After the death of her father, many members of the Kaikigumi deserted, not trusting Mechako to do a good job.
She notes our protagonist’s heightened reactions to the supernatural, and decides to use him as a test subject/catspaw for restoring the Kaikigumi to prominence. The boy isn’t too thrilled about this for obvious reasons, but she’s not taking no for an answer.
The first returning recruit is a haunted doll. There’s an altercation with a shady but very effective medium (for once the police are not useless), and then Mechako’s cousin Shurako shows up. Shurako thinks that she can do a better job of running the Kaikigumi than her “klutz’ cousin, but to do that, she needs to defeat her.
There’s some random weirdness as well, and somehow the protagonist and Mechako become friends. Sort of. But then Mechako goes missing, and there’s a mysterious girl who looks a lot like her walking around. Is this the end for humanity and ghosts alike?
This horror/comedy series is based on an online manga by “Byuu”. It has an older, say 1970s, feel to the art style, with the boys all being rather blocky. This extends to the older style of school uniforms as well. It starts out feeling pretty random, but eventually the threads do start coming together and there’s an actual plot by the end as the main characters start to care about each other.
Good: Some interesting variation on stories of the supernatural, mostly played for laughs. Our hero actually thinking to involve the police when that would be helpful.
Less good: Well, “less good” for me. The sense of humor is a bit juvenile for me, with body function humor fairly frequent. There’s not much character development, and most of the supporting characters are pretty flat.
Content note: Mild peril to children, slapstick violence (Shurako has an ax; it never really does damage.), body function humor. One of the female characters wears a bikini at all times. Spanking. Middle schoolers up should be okay but may miss some of the implications.
This rather silly series is not particularly compelling, but has a decent throughline. If you like horror-comedy that’s quite mild, this is something to watch as a palate cleanser between more hardcore horror viewings.
