Ao Oni: The Animation – The Blue Monster

Review by: John Fragglepuss Evans

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Short-Form, Monster, Haunted House

First Aired: Fall 2016, 13 episodes

Summary: Rumor has it that monsters lurk in an empty mansion on the outskirts of town. Hiroshi and his classmates, Takurou, Takeshi, and Mika, enter the mansion and are attacked by the bizarre monster known as Aooni. Can they solve a series of puzzles and escape the mansion?

Ao Oni is a quick and easy watch from start to finish. The 3-minute episodes fly by and you can finish the series in less than an hour. It’s full of silly violence, but nothing too crazy is shown, if that makes sense. For example, the Ao Oni monster will bite off someone’s head, but the cartoonish style of animation coupled with all the characters being chibis makes it more humorous than anything. If that’s not enough, any excessive violence is censored by way of pixelation. The clever puzzles set up by Ao Oni kept me interested, especially the one in episode 11.

You might enjoy this if: You like dark comedy with bits of horror sprinkled in. There is monster murder in every episode, but it’s the kind of death that makes you chuckle.

You might not like it if: You’re looking for a story line or any type of continuity between the episodes.

Similar Series: Another, Aggressive Retsuko, The Lost Village, The Master of Killing Time,

Note to the Viewer: Ao Oni is based on the freeware role-playing horror game released in 2008, which has more puzzles and horror to it than the anime series.

Ao Oni: The Blue Monster Trailer

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