English Dub Review: Dark Gathering “Blasphemy”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Terrifying enough to be victims in life; utterly horrific they remain so in death.

Our Take:
Things are not looking bright for Keitaro and his new student. With Ai being marked as the god’s bride, her impending doom seems inevitable, with her due date set on her 20th birthday. But that’s not the only thing we should be worried about. The god’s energy leaking out of Ai’s star-shaped pupils attracts wandering ghosts like moths to a flame. This brings us to this episode, which continues the arc that started with our first introduction to Keitaro’s energetic yet annoying student.
At the end of last week’s episode, Keitaro encountered one of the spirits that made an unwelcoming house call, yet we didn’t know what it wanted until now. “Blasphemy” made me wish I had stayed in the dark about this deadly ghost. However, that makes this episode more terrifyingly enticing than the previous episodes and even the recent low-quality horror movies we have. The spirit haunting the group collects brains from its victims and torments them into luring more people to their gory demises, proving further the justification of the show’s mature rating. Even the squishy sounds of gushing blood are enough to warrant a high rating. Fortunately, Yayoi and Keitaro managed to beat that brain-collecting ghost at his own game by having the victims torment their ringleader’s brain.
That sequence alone showcases that Keitaro is coming out of his shell regarding him assisting Yayoi in collecting spirits. Narrative-wise, it’s enough to remove the series’ repetitiveness of Keitaro being a ghost’s victim. However, the other reason I liked this episode is how the show improves Ai’s personality, as it showcased Ai’s guilt of her misfortunes getting those around her hurt. Sure, she can occasionally be loud, but her personality is balanced well with her humanity, which is enough for me to consider her a suitable addition to the show’s roster. But, of course, that spirit is the least of their worries, as the malevolent god escaped from its plushie prison to confront the team. The best way I can describe the conclusion to this superb episode is that shit just got real!