Dark Gathering is an anime about:
- Horror.
- Ghosts.
- Spirits.
- Evil.
- Gods.
And the humans who are caught up in the middle of the madness.
You can think of it as a more sinister version of Meiruko Chan.
Yayoi Chan, the youngest character, loses her family to a powerful spirit that takes her away, so she makes it her life’s mission to gather lesser spirits, and make them strong, so one day she can defeat the beast that traumatized her, essentially.
All this while living with her cousin Eiko, and being tutored by Keitaro (Eiko’s partner).
Here are the best life lessons from Dark Gathering worth knowing.
1. Everyone deals with fear differently
In the anime, Yayoi Hozuki has had her fair share of trauma and tragedy losing her parents. She’s still only a kid.
She has a seemingly cold demeanour of someone who’s fearless because their motivation is so strong, that fear gets washed out.
She deals with it by staying laser-focused.
Eiko, on the other hand, might get nervous but she also thrives off fear and situations that are life threatening. It’s like a rush.
Keitaro, the most normal of the group, deals with his fear by looking at the bigger picture despite being scared at the moment (which is clear from his expressions he can’t hide).
All characters experience fear, like people, but they deal with it so differently which shapes their actions and how they’re perceived.
2. Everyone has a backstory
This doesn’t just apply to Yayoi, who lost her parents tragically. It also applies to Eiko and Keitaro, who’ve known each other for years and both experienced a traumatic event that had both their hands cursed.
This extends to the ghosts of the anime. Some of these spirits are of good people, others evil, and many despite their evil had sad, depressing, downright painful pasts that you can end up feeling empathy for.
No matter how someone turns out, everyone has a backstory that drives their current actions, better or worse.
3. What you can’t see is more powerful than what you can see
In the anime there are humans walking around who look like humans, meaning some one of these humans are possessed by spirits but they play the part so well it’s noticeable to the average person.
They’re bodysnatchers.
Not knowing this is what causes people in this anime to have their bodies snatched in the first place, even if they’re strong enough to defend against some of these spirits.
In real life, what you can’t see on the surface is always more powerful than what you can see already. Everything that you can see came from what was invisible, and that’s true for some of the worst things that come to fruition.
Looking beyond the surface is important for this reason.
4. Some people respond to pain differently than others
Focusing on Eiko, she’s able to support Yayoi for the sole reason of how she deals with pain. Even in some of the sickest and most terrifying experiences of the anime, Eiko seems to overcome it for ONE reason: the thrill.
It’s not that she doesn’t deal with pain or worry, it’s that her thrill and excitement for situations that are unnerving is greater than the pain or fear could ever be.
She’s not a prisoner of fear, uncomfortable situations, or pain. And that’s true of many people.
Others can’t say the same and pain paralyzes them from doing anything they desire to do.
5. Life can be unfair
There is an episode where a kid is seen eating meatballs at some point, or what appears to be meatballs. His story as you discover later is as tragic as F despite his seemingly cruel and wicked actions.
It’s one of the most memorable parts of the anime with some killer storytelling.
One other scene that shows life is unfair, or a character I should say, is Ai. She’s like a young idol inspired by Ai Hoshino if you ask me.
Her life is tragic and everyone around her suffers just being near her. That’s because of the spirits she attracts and more importantly, the God that resides within her that controls her life.
Sometimes you don’t get to pick your circumstances or the unfairness that comes with it. Especially when you’re only a teenager at best.
Sometimes life turns out horribly before you get the chance to even live. That’s just how it is and it’s a sad fact at times.
6. Some people deserve so much better but end up with worse
There are many tragic backstories in the Dark Gathering series. Some of them start with the main characters themselves.
Yayoi is a kid who had her parents taken away from her. Now all she has is Eiko (her family).
Ai has been suffering for as long as she knows, and she has no control over it.
The spirits stuck in the house that Eiko and Yayoi went to buy from a seller had their own share of madness. And the girl in the forest before becoming a ghost was a good, innocent person who was cursed and bound to that forest.
7. Trust is a hard thing to find when there are so many posers
In the last few episodes of Dark Gathering, Yayoi meets a strange girl in school. This girl was usually shy and introverted, but now she’s more open,e extroverted, talkative, and outgoing somewhat.
Yayoi finds this strange, and rightfully so. This girl is a fragment of the real person as she’s had her soul robbed from a spirit who’s walking in her shoes, literally.
It’s like in real life how some people put on a face in public but there is something sinister behind it that’s building up, and they’re up to things you have no idea about until it happens.
Making “trust” a hard thing to find since:
- People can betray your trust.
- People can do things that make them not worthy of trust.
- And sometimes, others can be out to get you or make life harder for you.
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In the end, Dark Gathering is an anime that goes beyond horror and explores life itself as far as trust, evils, cruelty, sadness, hardships, and a lot more that can be learned from.
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