Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
rooster_
A lurid, Gothic drama told with decadent flair and style over three episodes. The story is actually quite straightforward, though there is a supporting cast that feels largely disconnected from it, and seems to be off on their own sub-plot which more closely resembles a supernatural battle anime, and is far less interesting. The OVA's conclusion, though visually incredible, is a tonally off with the rest of the show, given its triumphant mood. However I was really taken by Cossette aesthetically; I just wish the premise had been carried to a more natural conclusion, instead of something that slightly smells of shounen. This anime is sometimes billed as horror; don't expect any "scary" horror here, only the aesthetic trappings of Gothic fiction (and Lolita fashion).
Read at the sourceAniNexus_Reviews
This is not a conventional review, but a strong, spoiler-free recommendation, stamped with conviction. My reason for doing treating the "review" process this way, in the case of Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (or "Cossette no Shouzou,") is because of how this anime was referred to me for viewership... Through the internet, via a small community of dedicated fans, whose voices eventually reached me over the sounds of an overwhelmingly mediocre public reception. You may have also heard these whispers on the wind.
"Cossette is a masterpiece."
"Cossette is the only anime to have ever changed my life."
Such musings may have been what led you to consider this anime, and by proxy this recommendation. Whether that may be the case or not, such earnest, impassioned proclamations of greatness are ve…
Read at the sourceSgtSalamander
Le Portrait de Petite Cossette is an ambitious attempt at high-minded horror which falls flat on its face. It is a bland, overwrought mess, and even at 3 episodes is a genuine waste of time. Beginning with the story, there is little to say in its favor, as it's broadly bad. Though, at the very least the concept upon which it is built is interesting. There's nothing wrong with the idea of haunted antiques attached to an 18th century murder, but the real problems come with how the show chooses to execute that idea. The 'twists', if you can call them that, can be seen from a mile away, and the main story upon which the plot relies is so barren and anemic that all the various fever dream sequences that this show subjects you to serve no other purpose than to pad for time. This lazy approach to…
Read at the sourceFotsuan
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS
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Usually, I tend to watch anime for their plot and characters. Cossette no Shouzou is the perfect example of a show that does not need them to succeed. It may follow a main story, but what's most important is its artistic ingeniousness. And I do not mean its art or animation; I mean everything about this fictional work. The music, the animation techniques, the simple story with its thrilling portrayal, and last but not least; the fact that it revolves around art itself. Truly, Cossette no Shouzou is not an easy watch for everyone. It's a niche piece of art, full of risks and pretentiousness. But it knows very well what it is, and that's what makes it…
Read at the sourceKrunchyman
The elegant flow of luxurious hair contours gracefully along the pristine crown down the petite collar of the unsurpassed delicate flower. Golden locks glisten under the flicker of a saffron flame. The soft, supple facial features radiate pure ineffable beauty, displaying no discernment of imperfection. She is the stimulus that evokes profound imagination, via the means of simply existing. Her fortuitous, biological circumstances have destined her to inject inspiration into the psyche of the perceptive virtuoso, to invigorate him to produce marvelous portraits of exquisite splendor. She is the beacon that guides his creative spirit towards its fullest potential, realizing the end goal of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
She is Essential. She is Beautiful. She is Perfection. She is a Muse.
If…
Read at the sourceRyanSpring
It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that some people are giving this anime a 9 or a 10. I couldn't disagree more. I didn't like this anime at all, and that's not at all because I don't like the genre. Quite the opposite, actually- creepy dead girls, dark, bloody and loads of symbolism is 100% my jam- but this anime was just bad.
This anime was very, very weird. It wasn't actually creepy or scary at any point- just weird.
The story was strange and has basically zero twists. If you read the back of the box the DVD comes in you know the whole story.
This anime is quite graphically dated and it shows. It hasn't aged well and looks like crap compared to any remotely modern anime.
The English voice acting is mediocre and the well below average writing doesn't do it any favors.
But the w…
Read at the sourcenightwave91
Overwhelmingly Beautiful in its Dark Poetry.
The criticism I'm hearing most about "Cossette no Shouzou" is that it's random. That it means nothing. That they - the unhappy viewer - needs more from their anime than random events strewn together without logic. As if the road to nowhere is not interesting in and of itself to them. It makes me wonder, why don't we expect our concept of narrative to be challenged more in the anime we consume? Why don't we put forth as much effort in confronting art, as the artist has put forth in confronting us?
the story is about a young man uncovers a delicate Venetian glass that holds a startling secret within: a haunted beauty, named Cossette, has been waiting 250 years for someone to set her spirit free. The man soon becomes obsessed and determined to h…
Read at the sourceParaturtle
Story:
It's utterly and completely a satire. It's making fun of people who look at pretentious pieces of work by creating a character, Eire, who is absolutely infatuated with Cossette who has no depth, value, or substance. The only thing she has to offer is death, and for some ungodly reason, he still pursues her.
For instance, those who look at this work and see it as a work of art beyond itself are merely playing into the folly of its beauty. This statement is incredibly ironic due to the fact that Cossette no Shouzou in itself is filled with depth and meaning but not in the sense that most people may pick up on right away.
This is exactly what we do as an audience when we fall in love with something that is not worthy of its praise. We kill it, replace it with our own image, and then…
Read at the sourceLuquillo
While working for his uncle at an antique shop. An art student named Eiri comes across a beautiful small goblet. He begins to see an image of a young girl in the reflection of the glass. Eiri soon learns that the girl inside of the glass named Cossette was brutally murdered 250 years ago. After Eiri makes a blood pact with Cossette. The spirits whom witnessed her murder seek vengeance on the murderer's soul, and their intentions are to use Eiri as their instrument. Eiri soon vows to help Cossette even though it may end his life.-
At first glance, when coming into this short OVA the viewer will find themselves in awe with the production values. Le Portrait de Petit Cossette aka Petite Cossette is a beautiful assault on all of the senses. The moving soundtrack was done by Noir composer Yuki…
Read at the sourcelunagothejc
Even if you don't like/watch anime, I assure you Le Portrait De Petite Cossette would blow your mind. Very mature and serious, something that is hard to find on anime, but still has that wild fantasy atmosphere with demons and art that could only be found in anime (and of course that Lolita character which, again, could only be found in anime) so both anime lover and non-lover could enjoy this OVA very much (yeah it's not anime, but OVA, only 3 episodes).
Other than beautiful and and wild art, Yuki Kajiura as the composer of this anime's soundtrack had done an amazing job by composing a Gothic, solemn, dark, and classic European sounded like music, but manage to add Japanese characteristic to it. I downloaded the OST. too and fell in love with it, Miss Kajiura is a genius, Houseki of cour…
Read at the sourcektulu007
Welcome, My Friends, to horror anime month. For the next five weeks we'll be looking at things that go bump in the night. Experience suggests that most of them will not actually be scary in the slightest in spite of the genre label. In fact, I think the only truly frightening anime I've ever reviewed in October was Perfect Blue and everything else just used horror to mean “there are monsters.” In any case, let's start the month off with Le Portrait de Petit Cosette which is a bit unique for an anime in that it's not based on anything. The three episode OVA was produced by Daume, the studio responsible for Onegai Teacher and Shiki. There is a manga, but it's based on the OVA instead of the other way around. Let's turn out all the lights and take a look.
Our story begins with our protagoni…
Read at the sourcemahoganycow
There are a lot of ways to frighten people and make them feel vulnerable in a primal way, and therefore there are a lot of ways to execute horror—outright screaming and slashing, psychological mind games, the appearance of the supernatural. And somewhere, buried under all of those, is a subset of horror which I internally refer to as “weird and atmospheric.” Not very professional, I know, but it's the sort of bin into which I throw things like Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, a three episode OVA that is just plain strange more so than anything else. Of course, you could also call it a romance, or a drama, or a mystery; Cossette is a very creative and ambitious work that plays leapfrog across genre boundaries, but unfortunately, so do its numerous flaws.
Cossette's story is relatively simple…
Read at the sourceangelsreview
Well, this is another fine show done by the perverted old man Shinbo. He is pretty much known for his little girls and for anything that had to deal with mind games. Some of the shows he has done like this include Dance in the Vampire Bund, Negima, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, and Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase. This is a mindgame with a young girl.
If we want to talk about characters, the only ones that mean anything are Eiri Kurahashi and Cossette. There really isn’t much in the story that shows just who these people are actually and so the characters seem bland. We do get story line from Cossette but nothing that actually shows her personality. She is just a little girl but she is nothing innocent at all. It’s like she’s a demon the way she acts around Eiri and by the second episode, I stopped feel…
Read at the sourcestarshinesMonet
"Who loves me so much that he would forsake his own dear life... could it be you?"
Tagline! This magical girl series is sure to win the heart of any GothLoli who's ever longed for a sado-masochistic relationship! Never since Hell Girl have we seen so warped a transformation sequence as this!
So, just an fyi folksies - this whole review is SPOILER FRIENDLY. And the spoilers start right now...
SPOILER BELOW:
Here's how to solve the riddle: once you've finished the seires, go back and watch the first 15 seconds. Mostly everything you need to know takes place there, but I'll break it down anyway.
"Who loves me so much that he would forsake his own dear life... could it be you? If someone were to drown in the sea for me, I would be released from the stone, back to life. I would return to l…
Read at the sourceMimerio
Le Portrait de Petite Cosette explains that a picture really is worth a thousand words, this 3 part OVA, which I watched in the form of a movie was very detailled and artistically haunting to the touch.
We follow a young man named Eiri (Eerie? Pun intended much?)
There are a lot of gory scenes of the story, most very central yet some wer random at best.
Yet the scenes of which portrayed the most misery and pain for Eiri weren't actually the scary ones.
A must recommend for those interested in mystery horror type stories.
Read at the sourcedancer2713
The art in this anime is outstanding! But that's about all it has going for it. It's an anime that you just have to hate it or like it. The story line is confusing but as it goes on its a little bit more understandable. I definetly wouldn't recommend watching the dubbed version. I also dont get the fact that a French woman understands and speaks Japanese. Some of the characters are nerve racking and also not needed in the story line. Overall this isnt a terrible anime but no where near the best.
Read at the sourcetacyttik17
I loved the attention to detail of the drawing and filming style of this anime, especially in the first episode. Each scene is framed up very artistically, to match the main character's personality. Often having the camera set behind, looking through and in reflections of the objects in the antique shop in which he worked, often giving the feeling that we are one of the trinkets looking in at the scene.
The visual style is what kept me interested in the show, but the plot line got confusing as the main character (Eiri) is transfixed by the painting of Cossette, but then a Venetian glass. He falls in love with the haunted girl of the painting and gets sucked into her world. It then takes on a Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl), The Grudge king of ghost haunting story.
It's a short 3 volume anime,…
Read at the sourceNakiatheSilent1
This had a very interesting and deep plot, along with awesome music and artwork. The characters were certainly a collective bunch, I'll give it that. And I think everyone knew that Mataki had feelings for Eiri, which is more than likely the reason why the Cossette used her in the third episode. I really want to read the manga next, because I am told it explains things in greater detail. All in all, I loved it and would watch it again in a heartbeat.
Read at the sourceMaximumRider
Le Portrait de Petite Cossette. Where to start.... Well, the storyline is pretty good, but there are several flaws that come with it. The main flaw, is that there are several times where you have to "fill-in-the-blanks" yourself, or in other words, perhaps go back and watch it several times to undertsnad it. Anohter flaw is a lot similar to this is where you might wonder how the main character ends up in a particular place, just out of the blue. The story is actually for the most part quite well made but just with several flaws. The art is, in my opinion, very breath-taking. It is much more detailed than other Anime I've watched other than " The Count of Monte Cristo". The sound is probably the best part in my opinion, and I highly reccomend downloading or buying the Soundtrack. (I would g…
Read at the sourcesantetjan
Le Portrait de Petit Cossette is, first of all, a work that tries to be visual art, about visual art. It tries to tell what is in essence a very simple story in the first place by means of short scenes using specific visual style, and only in the second place by actual conversation and plot development that is spelled out. Thus, if, after watching the first episode you decide you really don't like the visual style used, don't bother watching the other two episodes: this series is not for you.
With regard to the plot, it would be no exaggeration to state that the same story could have been told within five minutes, nor would it be too much to say that any review of the plot would also most likely divulge what little twist there is. In essence, the story revolves around two artists and a pi…
Read at the source