English Dub Review: Dark Gathering “The Freshmen Welcome Event”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Keitaro was looking to make new friends. But he should avoid certain friendships; there’s a reason people warn children to never talk to strangers.

Our Take:  

It’s one thing that Keitaro is dealing with his curse and a bunch of supernatural creatures, but having to do it while in college? That’s ludicrous! Lucky for him, he’s got Yayoi and Eiko by his side, for better or worse, depending on the circumstances. With Keitaro and Eiko on college grounds, Keitaro is attempting to make new, “normal” friends outside of his ghostly adventures. Unfortunately for Keitaro, anything he’s doing at this point is far from normal, especially since he’s now a freshman, and this episode is no different.

It turns out that the new “friends” Keitaro makes, including class president Nagayaga, are not as friendly as he expected. They’re part of a secret suicide club that’s been swarming around the university for years. Even worse, the members are possessed by spirits, including the class president, whose real name is Machia, and Keitaro unexpectedly winds up in their disturbing welcoming ceremony. In short, it’s another episode where Keitaro becomes a damsel in distress, with Yayoi and Eiko being his knights in shining armor. By that, I mean stalkers in shining armor who spy on Keitaro through Eiko’s laptop. There’s another reason to be concerned about Eiko’s mental health. It would be nice if Keitaro ends up rescuing one of the girls as he did in the third episode, but based on its ending, he might get that chance again soon.

What’s funny about experiencing this episode is that this is the second time this weekend that I watched one involving mental health and suicide. The first time this happened to be was Ragna Crimson. I didn’t realize it was “anime mental health weekend”. While I thought Ragna Crimson handled these unsettling topics a bit better, this episode in Dark Gathering delivered enough disturbance in its suicide club storyline to make me fear it even more. The element involving Keitaro being the victim of the supernatural does get a bit close to being repetitive. However, it’s still engaging regardless, with Eiko and Yayoi spying on Keitaro as commentators being the best part of the episode.