In the seaside town of Kurosaki, there stands a rundown old apartment block known as Housing Complex C. Young Kimi and many of the residents are excited for the new people from abroad that move in while they observe technical research in the area.
However, soon after these new residents move in, a number of horrific incidents begin to occur.
I didn’t understand the middling reviews until about episode 4 when it pushed the pacing up to eleven and I realized that was the last episode. While it definitely would have benefited from a few more episodes, Housing Complex C was still pretty good for what it was trying to do. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Housing Complex C, head on down below.
Anime Like Housing Complex C
For Fans of Isolated Small Town Horror
Shiki
The fifteen-year-old Megumi Shimizu dreamed of leaving her small country town behind for the big city, but those dreams died when she did.
It was her murder that kicked off a summer of blood and terror in this small town where a city boy and a country doctor try to stop the epidemic of death happening around them.
While Housing Complex C limits things to one apartment complex, Shiki is more wider spread in a rural town. Yet, it uses many of the same tools to build horror. It takes place in a secluded town where everyone knows everyone and is slightly suspicious of newer residents.
When deaths start to occur, they are explained away until the pile of bodies grows so large that you cannot ignore the mysterious things happening anymore. This all builds up into a large outburst of discrimination, but even then there is a bit of a twist to that in both series.
Higurashi – When They Cry
Keiichi Maebara just moved from Tokyo with his family to the small town of Hinamizawa in the summer 1983.
As the town is so small, school children of all ages are lumped into one class. There he becomes fast friends with four girls where he spends his days after school idly playing games.
However, as the town’s annual festival approaches, he learns about a series of murders, disappearances, and other mysteries that surround it.
When he confronts his friends, he finds them mysteriously tight-lipped.
Both of these anime series follow new people to a small town where something distinctly odd is going on that all ends in one violent outburst with time loops. In fact, before I learned that Housing Complex C ended after four episodes, I fully expected it to pull a Higurashi reset.
As Higurashi is a distinctly longer series, it is better paced and more fleshed out. However, because of its style of storytelling, it takes some time before it becomes clear what is actually going on, but that’s not a bad thing.
Summertime Render
After his parents died, Shinpei went to live with the Kofune family on Hitogashima Island. After leaving for school in Tokyo he has not been back since, but after receiving word that one of the two Kofune daughters, Ushio, drown tragically, he returns for the funeral.
However, with bruises on her neck, there is some doubt if Ushio’s accident was truly an accident.
As he considers her death, strange things begin to take place on this island that forces Mio, Ushio’s sister, to recall an old tale about how seeing a person that looks just like yourself foretells your own death.
If I had to pick one series most like Housing Complex C, it would be a very tough call between Higurashi and Summertime Render, and even then Summertime Render just narrowly edges out. Both series start with people heading to a secluded small town, though he is a returning resident in Summertime Render.
Once there, deadly and mysterious events start happening which trace back to ancient legends on the island. While Housing Complex C waits until the end to nod at time looping, Summertime Render makes full use of it throughout the series.
Okamikakushi
Hiroshi Kuzumi recently moved to the small village of Jogamachi, nestled in the mountain away from big cities. This village has kept alive its old traditions, but he thinks little of it.
As he enters school, he finds that several of his classmates have affection for him, save for the aloof class president that warns him to stay away from the old part of town.
Both series follow new people to a small town where mysterious occurrences and disappearances start happening soon after. They also focus distinctly on the local legends of deities and worshipers in that town.
Unfortunately, the mystery and horror aren’t the only things they share. Like Housing Complex C and its pacing problem, Okamikakushi also has has some storytelling problems. However, in this series it is that they tried to fit all the routes of its visual novel source material into one anime series and it can make the story hard to grasp at times.
For Fans of Red Herrings
Another
Ever since 1972, class 3-3 in Yomiyama North Middle School has had a strange tradition of pretending that one of their students did not exist.
When Kouichi Sakakubara transfers into the class, he finds himself drawn to a girl that no one seems to notice.
Not paying heed to the warnings of his classmates, all hell is about to break loose.
What Housing Complex C did well was build up an ominous atmosphere in the setting as well as tried its very best to establish a red herring for all the strange occurrences. Another does that too, but it plays its red herring hand out a bit earlier than it should have.
Regardless, both series set up good atmosphere and have a love affair with fluid slaughter. As Another is longer, it has a lot more opportunities for blood and because the dead don’t get mossed, it is more graphic.
Both series also have a sort of surprise at the end that was hinted at, but ultimately came out of nowhere.
The Lost Village
A bus full of eccentric individuals that met on the internet all decide to leave society behind in search of a mysterious village that cannot be found by any map.
Excited for their new life, these people soon find that this village is full of more mysteries than they can comprehend.
Both series take place in small, almost abandoned rundown spaces. It isn’t long before deaths start to happen. However, they make those deaths look like one thing is responsible, but it is ultimately caused by something completely different.
Unfortunately, both Housing Complex C and The Lost Village have pacing issues that ultimately fumble what could have been very solid horror stories. The Lost Village also has other storytelling issues, however. With tempered expectations, it can still be an interesting watch.
For Fans of Twist Endings
Blood-C
During the day, Saya Kisaragi is a cheerful school girl, but at night she is given a ceremonial sword by her father and assigned the sacred task to destroy monsters that threaten her village.
However, when these monsters start to speak of a broken covenant and a talking dog appears to ask her curious questions, Saya begins to search for the truth in her village where nothing is as it seems.
Unlike Housing Complex C that builds horror through ominous occurrences and deaths interspersed with slice of life activities, Blood-C builds its horror through almost nightly battles, each one alluding that there is something strange going on in the secluded village.
As such, Blood C has more action, but it also keeps that building ominous sense that Housing Complex C was good at. This all builds up to one unexpected twist at the end which had little breadcrumbs left throughout the series leading up to it.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Nozomu Itoshiki is a high school teacher that is so pessimistic that even small misfortunes can send him spiraling into a pit of despair.
Surrounded by increasingly insane students, Nozomu’s unique brand of despair has its own way of affecting them, often in a positive manner.
While Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is often more of a black comedy with social commentary to it, throughout the series there are elements of horror. You get a sense that things just aren’t quite right in the world like in Housing Complex C.
It is little things and they grow to occasionally be ominous up until right at the end when everything makes sense. However, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a vastly longer series so it takes quite a long time to get to that point.
Angels of Death
Rachel awakens to find herself trapped in the basement of an abandoned building.
After wandering around – lost, dizzy, and without her memories – she happens across a man in full bandages named Zack. While at first he tries to kill her, eventually they come to an agreement.
Together, they try to find a way to escape from their bizarre circumstance. In return for his help, Rachel offers up her own life to him.
While Housing Complex C isn’t bloodless, it is distinctly more ominous than outright gore-filled. Angels of Death is a bit the opposite. As they are climbing a building filled with killers, they are all murder-happy and often on the nose with their terror.
However, what Angels of Death has in common with Housing Complex C is that it does something almost wholly unexpected by the end, but left a little breadcrumb trail leading up to it throughout. It is really the unexpected nature of the both series that make them good because you don’t really see it coming.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Housing Complex C? Let fans know in the comments section below.
