Parts of this article (those related to Japanese television series) need to be updated.(October 2023) |
This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2021) |
Gregory Horror Show | |
Genre | Horror-comedy |
---|---|
Anime television series | |
Directed by | Kazumi Minagawa |
Produced by | Yukio Kusumoto |
Written by | Naomi Iwata |
Studio | Milky Cartoon |
Licensed by | |
Original network | TV Asahi [note 1] |
Original run | October 1999 – June 2001 |
Episodes | 88 (+ 3 specials) |
Gregory Horror Show (stylized as GREGORY HORROR SHOW) is a Japanese CGI anime television series created by Naomi Iwata and broadcast on select TV Asahi stations. [1] The series revolves around the mysterious hotel named Gregory House,where lost souls often end up,run by an old mouse named Gregory. The series is noted for its unusual papercraft-themed art style and surreal tone. [2]
The first series,"The Nightmare Begins",is a set of 25 stories about a businessman arriving at the hotel after taking a train home from work. He encounters the mysterious owner of the hotel,an old mouse known as Gregory,who suggests that he stay awhile in Room 205. With the help of various guests residing in the hotel,Gregory gradually erodes away his individuality,denouncing the first guest as nothing more than a small part of himself and confronting him on his workaholism. The man soon becomes drawn into a bizarre series of events taking place within Gregory House as he tries desperately to escape from this purgatory. Though he escapes back to his wife and son,he finds reality too boring,and returns voluntarily. It is heavily implied that he becomes an empty shell,Haniwa Salaryman.
The second series,"The Second Guest",is similarly set with 25 stories,except this time the main victim is a woman who has just taken a taxi home from her best friend's wedding ceremony. She has had to endure many failed relationships and careers. It is also implied that her old flame was once the first guest,but their relationship went disastrously wrong. Due to her insanity from the degrading events,she starts a fire,burning down the house - however,the Gregory family survive,and welcome her into their family.
The third series,"The Last Train",is set with 26 stories during a bizarre train ride that Gregory embarks upon. It differs from the previous two series in that there is no guest,nor is the hotel the central setting. Instead,Gregory himself is the protagonist,and the series takes place on the previously mentioned train as Gregory tries to escape from his own home and role as the innkeeper. However,unlike the previous two protagonists,he fails,and the train only takes him back to Gregory House.
The fourth series,"The Bloody Karte",is a set of 12 stories about Catherine working in a mysterious hospital.
A manga adaptation called Gregory Horror Show:Another World by Suzuki Sanami started in the November 1,2007 issue of Weekly Morning magazine;it was then published as a graphic novel and released in Japan,on September 22,2008.
It follows Tooru Takenozuka,a 22-year-old freeter who comes to the city to follow his dreams. Thanks to his status he is unable to find an apartment to live in until a seedy real estate agent introduces him to Gregory House. He ends up in Room 404 and endures the nightmarish surroundings and residents. Over the course of chapters,it is revealed that Takenozuka's very form and spirit,is in a state of constant flux. He is,in reality,Tooru is a 94-year-old man in the year 2078,though part of him could never accept the fact that he grew beyond his twenties without accomplishing anything extraordinary or wonderful with his life. All of his dreams and ambitions went unfulfilled.
As Gregory is a collector of the rare and unusual,he takes an instant liking to Takenozuka. The man battles between choosing his dreams and the reality that he has responsibilities as a father. Though he manages to escape Gregory,like all the protagonists,he eventually wanders back,becoming a permanent guest who refuses to abandon his dreams.
The anime was adapted into a PlayStation 2 game by Capcom Production Studio 3 and published by Capcom on August 7, 2003 in Japan and December 15, 2003 in Europe. The general premise of the game involves the player (who can choose to be male or female) trying to escape from Gregory House, a deranged hotel run by the old mouse Gregory. The game involves having to steal bottled souls from twelve guests, and returning them to Death before going to sleep in Room 101.
In the game, Neko Zombie helps explain the gameplay and introduces the player to mental health. Mental health acts like a health gauge of the player's mental fortitude. The player must maintain a good level of mental health by sleeping, reading books, or using special "herb" items reminiscent of the Resident Evil game series. If the player's mental health completely runs out, then the character goes insane, and becomes a permanent guest at Gregory House.
While the bizarre cube-esque graphics (which were a staple of the 'anime') give the game an unusual look for a survival horror game, there is still an element of tension and unease because the player must creep around the hotel, avoiding detection by the various guests. If the player gets caught by one of them, then the guest will attack them by forcing them to watch some 'Horror Shows', a bizarre vision of violence set in a traditional Japanese theatre in which the guest will inflict severe harm upon you.
The game features a goldmine of Easter eggs and many backstory which either reference or expand upon certain events of the series. For example, in the 'Bloody Karte' arc, Catherine develops an attraction for Hell's Chef; in the game, the player can find a signed trading card of him in the psychotic nurse's treatment room. Also, if a player takes the time to follow the guests around the building at various points in the game, they will often divulge interesting tidbits about the hotel and each other. For example, if the player follows Gregory around early in the game, a huge amount of how Neko Zombie came to be the way he is can be learned.
Milky Cartoon and Unframe, Inc. launched a mobile game based on the show in October 2018 for Android and iOS, titled Gregory Horror Show: Lost Qualia. So far, the game is only available in the Japanese app store. An English version has yet to appear in the United States and Europe.
Gregory Horror Show: Lost Qualia is a Gacha-based RPG mobile game that combines the elements of dungeon crawling with a Gacha card system. Lost Qualia uses the original 3D cube-esque graphics and style that the series is known for.
The main storyline tells of the player showing up at Gregory House, where Gregory the manager himself meets the player and tells him about a previous guest known only as "that man". Gregory further explains that the guests delusional beliefs has gotten far too powerful, and that he is able to take over the hotel, turn it into a dungeon, and distort the surreal world around it. Gregory wants the player to help him and the other guests on a quest to take back Gregory House and defeat the man, who is mad with delusional power. The main quest also takes the player and company outside the hotel to the cactus sibling's homeland, (seen in volume 3) which is called Cactus Land. The quest also takes the player & co. to Roulette boy's casino.
Like the PS2 video game, The player has a hotel room that serves as the central hub when they finish the tutorial or start up the game. They are able to customize their room with items they get either in a quest or in the Gacha cards from the fortune teller, level up their characters, and manage their Gacha cards and deck to us in a quest. Occasionally and randomly, Gregory, Neko Zombie, Catherine, Hell's Chef, and other playable characters will drop by to visit the player in their room talking to them and offer their support in a quest where the player is able to optionally choose them and play as them in any level. If the player has a playable character unlocked from either in a quest or found in Gacha card pack they can engage in conversation with the other visiting characters in the player's room, usually giving their commentary on the player, the current situation, and chat among themselves based on relationships they have with the other characters, or different topics.
The game has the player, Gregory, or other playable characters going through a labyrinth, where they battle through hostile mages and souls that lurk in the dungeons and can appear from anywhere. Using melee attacks, throwable or ranged items, or using Gacha cards to regain health, buff their attacks or speed, special abilities, and using "horror show" Gacha cards to even the odds with one or many hostile souls surrounding them. The objective is for the player to survive and reach the goal to complete the level, sometimes having to climb stairs to the next floor to get there. Optionally, the player can set the game in autoplay (similar to an idle RPG) where the AI takes over for the player on certain parts of the game or just tapping the move button on-screen has the playable character temporarily moving through a corridor and resuming control back to the Player when they are in an area with more room. While reaching the goal is important, it also vital for the player to look for Kinko safes around the dungeon for items such as skull gems, soul energy, or gacha cards for the possibility of getting new customize hotel room items or unlocking a character to keep permanently and play as in a quest.
In addition to the main story quest, there are two types of quest offered in the game: event quests that can sometimes be holiday-based events, and special events that are added in the game during updates and have their own storylines. for example, the "Gregory Quest" events tell about the player, Gregory, Neko Zombie, and the other guests getting sucked up by TV fish and entering into a world based on fantasy RPG video games and became RPG characters based on character classes, each with their own quest in each Gregory Quest event. Depending on certain quest events and levels, both will automatically have the player play as specific characters as they have specific quests in the event storyline, or Ranked quests which are competitive survival quests where the player have to fight through hostile souls to reach the highest position of the leaderboard. Depending on the first, second, and third position when a ranking quest ends, the winning player earns a trophy to display in their hotel room.
In 2016, Naomi Iwata's website announced that a new Gregory series was to be produced under the title of Gregory Horror Show: Mystery Holiday. Little is known about it other than a plot synopsis and some redesigns. The series would follow a young boy named Hiroshi, who wanders into Gregory House on a whim hoping it will grant his wishes but has to stop Gregory's evil plan to destroy the world. No release date was announced. [5]
Serial Experiments Lain is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by Triangle Staff and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe, the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl in suburban Japan, and her relation to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the internet.
.hack//Sign is a Japanese anime television series directed by Kōichi Mashimo, and produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual, that makes up one of the four original storylines for the .hack franchise. Twenty-six original episodes aired in 2002 on television and three additional bonus ones were released on DVD as original video animation. The series features each characters designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and written by Kazunori Itō. The score was composed by Yuki Kajiura, marking her second collaboration with Mashimo.
Ragnarok: The Animation is a Japanese-Korean anime television series based on the MMORPG Ragnarok Online. The story happens in the same world of Rune-Midgard. An evil entity called the Dark Lord wants to create chaos in the world with the help of seven crystals that represent the seven ambitions who sealed him away years ago.
Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, known in Japan as Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, is a Japanese anime horror anthology television series produced by Toei Animation.
Gregory Horror Show, known in Japan as Gregory Horror Show: Soul Collector, is a survival horror game based on the computer-generated imagery (CGI) anime series of the same name. The game was published by Capcom in Japan and Europe, but was not released in North America.
Gachapin (ガチャピン) is a TV character who appeared in the children's program Hirake! Ponkikki and its succeeding series, Ponkickies on Fuji TV. He is a green, bucktoothed dinosaur and is usually accompanied by his friend Mukku, a red Yeti.
Love, Election and Chocolate, abbreviated as Koichoco (恋チョコ), is a Japanese eroge visual novel developed by Sprite, which was released in Japan on October 29, 2010 for Windows PCs and later ported to the PlayStation Portable on September 27, 2012. The gameplay in Love, Election and Chocolate follows a branching plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the player character. There have been two manga adaptations serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine and Dengeki Daioh. A 12-episode anime television series adaptation produced by AIC Build and directed by Tōru Kitahata aired between July and September 2012, with an additional episode released on the series' final Blu-ray Disc and DVD volume in March 2013.
Onalea Gilbertson (ONALEA) is a Canadian voice actress and musician from Calgary, Alberta. Gilbertson is most known for her own creations; Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame and Requiem for a Lost Girl.
Brynhildr in the Darkness is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from January 2012 to March 2016. An anime television series adaptation by Arms aired between April and June 2014.
Death Parade is a Japanese anime series created, written, and directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa and produced by Madhouse. The series spawned from a short film, Death Billiards, which was originally produced by Madhouse for the Young Animator Training Project's Anime Mirai 2013 and released in March 2013. The series aired between January and March 2015. It is licensed in North America by Funimation and in the United Kingdom by Anime Limited. The series was obtained by Madman Entertainment for digital distribution in Australia and New Zealand.
Rage of Bahamut is a Japanese anime television series produced by MAPPA that is based on the Rage of Bahamut game. The series was directed by Keiichi Sato and written by Keiichi Hasegawa, featuring character designs by Naoyuki Onda and music by Yoshihiro Ike.
Show by Rock!! was a Japanese mobile rhythm video game developed and published by Geechs, in conjunction with Sanrio. It was Sanrio's first-ever franchise project aimed for the older demographic and the company's first music-based franchise. The game was released on July 30, 2013, for iOS and on June 27, 2014, for Android devices. In January 2018, development transferred from Geechs to Edia with its service discontinued on December 26, 2019. A successor to the original game was later developed by Now Production and published by Square Enix on March 12, 2020, on all mobile platforms with its service discontinued on November 30, 2022.
Aokana - Four Rhythms Across the Blue, known in Japan as Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm, officially abbreviated as Aokana (あおかな) and translated as Four Rhythms Across the Blue, is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Sprite and released for Windows on November 28, 2014. The game was ported to the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The plot follows high school student Masaya Hinata as he coaches fellow students Asuka Kurashina, Misaki Tobisawa, Mashiro Arisaka, and Shion Aoyagi in the sport of "flying circus", wherein competitors travel through the sky via shoes with anti-gravity properties. Depending on the route taken, Masaya can enter a romantic relationship with either Asuka, Misaki, Mashiro, or Rika Ichinose, a student from a rival school and his neighbor.
Nekopara, taglined Cats Paradise, is a series of adult visual novels developed by NEKO WORKs and published by Sekai Project. The first game in the series, Nekopara Vol. 1, was released in December 2014, taking place in a world where humans live alongside catgirls. The series follows Kashou Minaduki and Shigure Minaduki, siblings who have a family of catgirls named Chocola, Vanilla, Azuki, Maple, Coconut, and Cinnamon. It is centered around work life at Kashou's pâtisserie and home life at Shigure's family house.
Angels of Death is a Japanese horror adventure game by Hoshikuzu KRNKRN for Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch. It was created using RPG Maker and was originally released as freeware via the Den Fami Nico Game Magazine website on August 14, 2015. It launched on Steam in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English on December 19, 2016. A prequel titled Angels of Death Episode.Eddie was released as part of bonuses included in limited edition Blu-ray and DVD Box Set of the anime's first volume.
The Ones Within is a Japanese manga series by Osora, serialized online via pixiv Comic website since 2014. It has been collected in ten tankōbon volumes by Media Factory. An anime television series adaptation produced by Silver Link aired from July 7 to September 22, 2019.
Zombie Land Saga is an anime television series produced by MAPPA, Avex Pictures and Cygames. The series aired in Japan between October and December 2018. A second season titled Zombie Land Saga Revenge aired between April and June 2021. An anime film project has been announced. A manga adaptation that loosely follows the events of the anime, ran on Cygames' Cycomi website from October 2018 to June 2021; a spinoff series which focused on Tae's exploits during her previous life, titled Zombie Land Saga Sidestory: The First Zombie, ran in Ultra Jump magazine from May 2021 to November 2022.