Are you a fan of untying the knot of mysteries or hidden secrets, or do you like your fair share of horror, then Mysterious Disappearances is just the show for you.
Although not like any other mystery or horror anime, Mysterious Disappearances has its charm and is no less capable of captivating viewers.
With the right amount of humor And supernatural for Its characters to opt in, this series delivers a complete package to satisfy its viewers.
Although I never had the chance to read the manga by Nujima, however this anime by Studio Zero-G was enough to make an impression on me.
Now, as for the factors that made this series somewhat more enjoyable than other contemporary horror or mystery anime, we will discuss them further.
Table of Contents
Two Main Characters Of Mysterious Disappearances
Before we discuss the series it is paramount to know about the two most important main characters of Mysterious Disappearances, Ogawa Sumireko, and Adashino Ren.
Ogawa Sumireko
Since this anime is mainly focused on occult and occultic phenomena, it would be incomplete to have no one interested in such a topic.
Ogawa Sumireko is just the person, suitable for that role.
A voluptuous bookstore clerk could be her only persona if the qualities below weren’t part of her.
Elite in her childhood, but now washed-up author Sumireko is immensely interested in occult or occultic phenomena.
Sumireko currently works at a bookstore known as Midori Bookstore.
She has a goal to become a novelist and write a page-turner.
She has another goal, which is to find some books that she read in her childhood but couldn’t remember the titles of those books.
At first in the story, she showed much excitement in the occult but soon came to understand the underlying danger.
Adashino Ren
Adshino Ren is another clerk working alongside Ogawa Sumireko in the Midori Bookstore.
Short in height, around the same height as a middle schooler, and his unusual eyes make him somewhat mysterious.
However, Sumireko couldn’t catch on to that because he presented himself as a very generic person who occasionally flirts with her and teases her.
But She didn’t know that Ren behaved that way only with her.
Despite his normal behavior, he has some abnormal and supernatural abilities and some secrets surrounding him.
Now the question is, what is his secret?
The Beginning Of Mysterious Disappearances Focused More On The Main Characters
In the beginning, the series Mysterious Disappearances doesn’t delve right into some serious mystery plot but takes its time introducing its main characters.
The protagonist is bookstore clerk Ogawa Sumireko, who dreams of writing her novel one day.
She is a woman in her late twenties with a voluptuous body, but that isn’t her only redeeming factor.
Being once a famous child author, she burned out her candle of creativity very quickly as she aged, but what remained the same was her curiosity in occult and occultic phenomenons.
Adashino Ren is the deuteragonist of this series and is a character enveloped in mystery himself.
Finally, there is the tritagonist Adashino Oto, the younger sister of Adashino Ren.
Autor Nujima did a great job of depicting the protagonist in her weakest and most vulnerable moment while exposing all of the insecurities she held within.
This gave the generic character of Ogawa Sumireko a necessary flavor.
Especially the first episode of the series felt like a separate section of the entire series, as it was all about its two main characters Sumireko and Ren, and the chemistry between them.
Sumireko’s obsession and Ren’s secrets are shown in such a seamless way, that there is no way to distinguish those separately from the story.
This episode has an overall lighter tone and is heavy on character development.
The first episode does its job nicely, though the story becomes lighter than expected at some point, however, there are enough exciting moments in that episode to compensate for that shortcoming.
Mysterious Disappearances, An Anthology Of Mystery And Horror
Urban Legends, some major occultic phenomenons, that every country enjoys or fears, whatever it may be, is the main point of focus in this series.
The series Mysterious Disappearances starts its adventure, along with its main characters after the first episode.
The character dynamic of Ogawa Sumireko And Adashino Ren slowly but steadily changes bit by bit as the story progresses.
Each episode after the first episode comes with the story of “Kaii” or Curiosity(as the subtitle has shown in Crunchyroll), cursed objects, and the mysteries surrounding those.
The story focuses more on the tritagonist Adashino Oto from there on out, and her daily life with a fair share of mysteries and horrors.
The next few episodes mainly focus on Adashino Oto’s school and the mysteries, surrounding it.
Whereas, some episodes focus on the mysterious and supernatural events happening in the city.
Even though the dose of horror in this series is somewhat limited, being placed accordingly makes the series more complete as a mystery series, where collections of mysteries and horror are served on the same platter.
Each mystery introduces a different character with a diverse characteristic trait and from various walks of life, which, in turn, adds variation to each story as they are presented from different points of view.
Not only mysteries and supernatural elements, but horrors that blend into the story do the trick.
Not by jump scares, but the horror seeps into your bones very slowly, while only showing its effect to affirm those mysteries that create the flow of the story.
The biggest mystery among all those is the mystery of the Adashino siblings, which unravels slowly as the story progresses.
Another mystery that remains unsolved is the mysterious station master in the form of a hanging rope, to whom Adashino Ren delivers all of the cursed objects.
All of the curses and cursed objects shown in this series are more generic than other series of similar themes, and without any grand scheme, maybe that is why the story of this series feels closer to the ground.
Be it the mysterious BGM or the overall color theme of the animation, everything builds up an atmosphere suitable to the genre of this series.
If you are interested in Seinen anime, you can check my blog post on, 7 Great Seinen Anime To Watch In 2024.
