When it comes to anime, you usually get these big eyed and big breasted characters that probably (No, more like most likely) go to school, fight monsters or some villain in some way for ten trillion episodes, and deal with the occasional beach of hot spring episode. And it’s all in the typical 2D art style, and that’s how anime fans want it. Trust me, if I learned anything from the 2016 Berserk anime, it’s that going from 2D to 3D is a terrible decision. However, there is one 3D anime that everyone loves…. Well, everyone who’s seen it that is. And that anime (And yes, it is an anime) Is Gregory Horror Show.
Gregory Horror Show is a simple show that is told in the first person. Rarely are shows told in first person, but this show just does it anyway. It’s bizarre, but that’s what I love about it. The first season follows a man, and the second a woman. I never saw the third season though, so now you know this review is professional. All of these characters are lost and don’t know how they came to where they are. However, what they do know is that this house is not what it seems. They walk in to see a rat creature named Gregory. He greets you welcomes the protagonist to Gregory House. Gregory is a strange rat who always loves to mess with his guests and appear out of nowhere, and doesn’t want them to leave, and is mostly seen as the antagonist of the series. And while he’s disturbing enough on his own, there are many other characters just as disturbing.
The many other colorful characters inside Gregory House is the stitched up zombified cat, Neko Zombie, who’s ears, eyes, and mouth were stitched together as revenge by Gregory, and is the only character who seems to want to help the protagonist. Then we have Catherine, a pink lizard like creature in a nurses outfit with a giant syringe that almost drains people of their blood, and loves blood. Like a lot. Like, fetish levels. Then we have Hell’s Chef, the chef of the house, with a candle on his head that keeps him moving. He forces residents to eat his food and enjoy it, or he would kill them and make them into his food. Then there’s Mummy Dog and Mummy Papa, two dogs like creatures with their heads cut open who try to help people, usually resulting in the person being taken by Catherine. There’s the Lost Doll, a young girl looking for her doll, who actually IS the doll… and the doll tries to kill people. There’s Cactus Gunman, probably the least scariest one. He seems more comedic, and tries to act tough, but has terrible aim with his weapons. His sister, Cactus Girl, is more aggressive and steals clothes from people. There’s Roulette Boy, a little Roulette with a face that forces people to play a boardgame filled with traps. Then there’s the Clock Master and his son, named My Son, who can control time and usually send people through time when they are angry. Then there’s Dead Body, a skeleton that drinks constantly until he can find a new body. Then we have Angel Dog, who has two different personalities. Her good natured one that makes her look like an angel, and her evil one that makes her look like a demon. And then we get some of my favorite characters in this series.
There’s Death himself, who is actually one of the only people who can help the protagonist, so let that sink in. Also, he’s Swedish for some reason. Then there’s the scariest one of them all, TV Fish. It may look silly, since it’s a floating fish with a TV for a head, but I assure you, what it does is scary. If you run into TV Fish, he will begin to project images onto the TV. These images are memories from this persons past, and there all the worst kinds of memories, ones that people don’t want to remember, and TV Fish shows them all right too you. But then there’s the best character, and if you watched Gregory Horror Show, you know who it is. The fan favorite Judgement Boy. All Judgement Boy is a scale with a face that travels through Gregory House, singing to himself about himself, with the lyrics always being, “Do you know who I am. They call me Judgement Boy.” When he does run into someone, he will always ask them a question that makes the person think hard about what their answer was. Something like choosing between money and a loved one. And if you lie, he will know, and he always knows. That is probably the scariest thing about Judgement Boy is how he knows everything about people. And he isn’t even trying that hard to be scary, yet how he messes with people mentally is what makes him disturbing and I love him. Also, there are several Judgement Boys, and even a Golden Judgement Boy. There’s more characters than that, but that’s all I could talk about without spending most of the review talking about them, so let’s move on.
Throughout the entirety of the show, the protagonist will always have to deal with a new member of Gregory House, and each episode is about meeting these characters. It’s like a monster-of-the-week show, except in a way more disturbing fashion. All of them harm the person in some way or another, whether it is on accident or (Usually) intentional. There are some exceptions like Neko Zombie, who does try to help the protagonist escape Gregory House, when everyone else is trying their hardest to stop him. And the entirety of this place is insane. This one mansion is able to have bedrooms, prison cells, deserts, indoor roller coasters, an entire room that is just a giant board game, and an underground steel location like something out of the Resident Evil mansion. All of these random locations with unique monsters reminds me so much of Spooky’s House of Jumpscares in a way. Hell, they’re both pretty similar. They have large mansions that lure a nameless protagonist in with a false sense of security and throw several psychologically disturbing monsters into your face. In a sense, they’re both pretty similar in that way, when you think about it hard enough.
Another thing that I find interesting about this show is the art style. Now, yes, as hard as it is to believe, it is in fact an anime. I know it’s hard to believe, but trust me, it is certainly an anime. Anyway, the art style is a simple CGI animation with these paper-like puppets that move around in these environments. It’s pretty fascinating if you ask me. Yes, I do know that it isn’t really paper puppets and is just some CGI and nothing too spectacular, but seeing these characters move in a limited fashion because of the shapes and designs of their bodies is honestly pretty charming to see. It’s simple, sure, but I like it really. It’s got a real old fashion cartoon sense to it. But I assure you, the kid friendly designs aren’t enough to make this show any less disturbing. In fact, the show is still very very disturbing, and I love it so much.
Although the anime was simple and not heard of much, it was still loved enough to get a video game made by Capcom, who we all know for making Street Fighter, Mega Man, and my favorite, Resident Evil. The game still follows the same concept of the show. The protagonist enters Gregory House and must now escape. In this game, you must collect bottled souls, important items in this game, and return them to Death so that he can help you escape. You have to avoid contact with all enemies in this game, and running into them will force you to watch a Horror Show, which is a small movie involving lots of violence that will do much damage to your Mental Health… Or right, that thing. Mental Health in this game is your health bar. It keeps you sane and the only way to replenish it is to sleep, read books, or find some herbs (Wow, this is just like Resident Evil). If all your mental health is gone, you’ll go completely insane and become a permanent member of Gregory House. Also, if you do specific things at specific times, you can hear some characters doing things, like what their hobbies are and how they came to the Gregory House. So, with that in mind, this is like the horror version of Metal Gear Solid. And all for the affordable price of just ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!? Oh right… as it turns out, Gregory Horror Show was a game that got released in Japan and Europe, but never North America, so you have to pay a lot of money to get them. As well as buying a PAL console just to play it. But, it’s probably not worth it, even for what could be a great horror game.
Well, what more can I say about the Gregory Horror Show franchise. It had a mini-series with three seasons, a game, and that one manga adaption (Which I didn’t even think existed). If you want to watch the series, don’t worry, you can. Each episode is about two minutes long and can easily get through the entire series in a day, really. I do wish they could do a full series on this with longer episodes, but the show may not have been as impactful if it was. I’m just glad that it was as good as it was and was able to get enough popularity to do more than just be another spooky anime. It was able to be one of the best psychological horror stories out there, and recommended if you’re a fan of that. Take care.
Gregory Horror Show is a simple show that is told in the first person. Rarely are shows told in first person, but this show just does it anyway. It’s bizarre, but that’s what I love about it. The first season follows a man, and the second a woman. I never saw the third season though, so now you know this review is professional. All of these characters are lost and don’t know how they came to where they are. However, what they do know is that this house is not what it seems. They walk in to see a rat creature named Gregory. He greets you welcomes the protagonist to Gregory House. Gregory is a strange rat who always loves to mess with his guests and appear out of nowhere, and doesn’t want them to leave, and is mostly seen as the antagonist of the series. And while he’s disturbing enough on his own, there are many other characters just as disturbing.
The many other colorful characters inside Gregory House is the stitched up zombified cat, Neko Zombie, who’s ears, eyes, and mouth were stitched together as revenge by Gregory, and is the only character who seems to want to help the protagonist. Then we have Catherine, a pink lizard like creature in a nurses outfit with a giant syringe that almost drains people of their blood, and loves blood. Like a lot. Like, fetish levels. Then we have Hell’s Chef, the chef of the house, with a candle on his head that keeps him moving. He forces residents to eat his food and enjoy it, or he would kill them and make them into his food. Then there’s Mummy Dog and Mummy Papa, two dogs like creatures with their heads cut open who try to help people, usually resulting in the person being taken by Catherine. There’s the Lost Doll, a young girl looking for her doll, who actually IS the doll… and the doll tries to kill people. There’s Cactus Gunman, probably the least scariest one. He seems more comedic, and tries to act tough, but has terrible aim with his weapons. His sister, Cactus Girl, is more aggressive and steals clothes from people. There’s Roulette Boy, a little Roulette with a face that forces people to play a boardgame filled with traps. Then there’s the Clock Master and his son, named My Son, who can control time and usually send people through time when they are angry. Then there’s Dead Body, a skeleton that drinks constantly until he can find a new body. Then we have Angel Dog, who has two different personalities. Her good natured one that makes her look like an angel, and her evil one that makes her look like a demon. And then we get some of my favorite characters in this series.
There’s Death himself, who is actually one of the only people who can help the protagonist, so let that sink in. Also, he’s Swedish for some reason. Then there’s the scariest one of them all, TV Fish. It may look silly, since it’s a floating fish with a TV for a head, but I assure you, what it does is scary. If you run into TV Fish, he will begin to project images onto the TV. These images are memories from this persons past, and there all the worst kinds of memories, ones that people don’t want to remember, and TV Fish shows them all right too you. But then there’s the best character, and if you watched Gregory Horror Show, you know who it is. The fan favorite Judgement Boy. All Judgement Boy is a scale with a face that travels through Gregory House, singing to himself about himself, with the lyrics always being, “Do you know who I am. They call me Judgement Boy.” When he does run into someone, he will always ask them a question that makes the person think hard about what their answer was. Something like choosing between money and a loved one. And if you lie, he will know, and he always knows. That is probably the scariest thing about Judgement Boy is how he knows everything about people. And he isn’t even trying that hard to be scary, yet how he messes with people mentally is what makes him disturbing and I love him. Also, there are several Judgement Boys, and even a Golden Judgement Boy. There’s more characters than that, but that’s all I could talk about without spending most of the review talking about them, so let’s move on.
Throughout the entirety of the show, the protagonist will always have to deal with a new member of Gregory House, and each episode is about meeting these characters. It’s like a monster-of-the-week show, except in a way more disturbing fashion. All of them harm the person in some way or another, whether it is on accident or (Usually) intentional. There are some exceptions like Neko Zombie, who does try to help the protagonist escape Gregory House, when everyone else is trying their hardest to stop him. And the entirety of this place is insane. This one mansion is able to have bedrooms, prison cells, deserts, indoor roller coasters, an entire room that is just a giant board game, and an underground steel location like something out of the Resident Evil mansion. All of these random locations with unique monsters reminds me so much of Spooky’s House of Jumpscares in a way. Hell, they’re both pretty similar. They have large mansions that lure a nameless protagonist in with a false sense of security and throw several psychologically disturbing monsters into your face. In a sense, they’re both pretty similar in that way, when you think about it hard enough.
Another thing that I find interesting about this show is the art style. Now, yes, as hard as it is to believe, it is in fact an anime. I know it’s hard to believe, but trust me, it is certainly an anime. Anyway, the art style is a simple CGI animation with these paper-like puppets that move around in these environments. It’s pretty fascinating if you ask me. Yes, I do know that it isn’t really paper puppets and is just some CGI and nothing too spectacular, but seeing these characters move in a limited fashion because of the shapes and designs of their bodies is honestly pretty charming to see. It’s simple, sure, but I like it really. It’s got a real old fashion cartoon sense to it. But I assure you, the kid friendly designs aren’t enough to make this show any less disturbing. In fact, the show is still very very disturbing, and I love it so much.
Although the anime was simple and not heard of much, it was still loved enough to get a video game made by Capcom, who we all know for making Street Fighter, Mega Man, and my favorite, Resident Evil. The game still follows the same concept of the show. The protagonist enters Gregory House and must now escape. In this game, you must collect bottled souls, important items in this game, and return them to Death so that he can help you escape. You have to avoid contact with all enemies in this game, and running into them will force you to watch a Horror Show, which is a small movie involving lots of violence that will do much damage to your Mental Health… Or right, that thing. Mental Health in this game is your health bar. It keeps you sane and the only way to replenish it is to sleep, read books, or find some herbs (Wow, this is just like Resident Evil). If all your mental health is gone, you’ll go completely insane and become a permanent member of Gregory House. Also, if you do specific things at specific times, you can hear some characters doing things, like what their hobbies are and how they came to the Gregory House. So, with that in mind, this is like the horror version of Metal Gear Solid. And all for the affordable price of just ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!? Oh right… as it turns out, Gregory Horror Show was a game that got released in Japan and Europe, but never North America, so you have to pay a lot of money to get them. As well as buying a PAL console just to play it. But, it’s probably not worth it, even for what could be a great horror game.
Well, what more can I say about the Gregory Horror Show franchise. It had a mini-series with three seasons, a game, and that one manga adaption (Which I didn’t even think existed). If you want to watch the series, don’t worry, you can. Each episode is about two minutes long and can easily get through the entire series in a day, really. I do wish they could do a full series on this with longer episodes, but the show may not have been as impactful if it was. I’m just glad that it was as good as it was and was able to get enough popularity to do more than just be another spooky anime. It was able to be one of the best psychological horror stories out there, and recommended if you’re a fan of that. Take care.