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Somali and the Forest Spirit (Saturday Spin-off) – Hunted to the Ends!

Somali and the Forest Spirit Saturday Spin-off Hunted to the End Title

Humanity found that they were not alone. Even worse, they weren’t the strongest species as they had long believed. Things didn’t go well for them after picking a fight with the other races.

What’s going on?

I’m looking at another of the Winter 2020 series and seeing what inspiration I can take from it to come up with an idea for a spin-off series. This time, I’m looking at Somali and the Forest Spirit and taking this slice of life fantasy series in another direction. That direction is, of course, horror. When I read the synopsis for this one, I was sure there would be more horror in it, but then I don’t watch too much slice of life stuff, so that mistake was on me. This could be my chance to make up for that.

Somali and the Forest Spirit Episode 6 Haitora seeing his Family die after eating Harpy

What’s the pitch?

After millennia of believing that they were the supreme species on the planet, humans had become overconfident and complacent. They believed that any problem could be solved with might and this was often used to stamp out any differences. However, when a group of travellers returned from a voyage into the uncharted regions of the world, the told the tale of the grotesques. A number of weird races that inhabited that region. They were odd to look at and that made the people fear them. To bring their own brand of order to the world, they sought to irradicate this new blight on the world, unaware of just what they were getting into.

It’s been a hundred years since the war began and ninety-nine years since it ended. Tiny pockets of humanity have survived since the fateful moment when they lost the world that they believed they had been given. The grotesque easily destroyed the advancing war machine and then took the fight back to the cities of man. In a matter of months, the human world had ceased to exist. They were no longer safe and because of their arrogance, the grotesques took great pleasure in hunting down every last one. This is the story of the last community and its final days.

Somali and the Forest Spirit Episode 5 Uzoi preparing to kill Somali

Where did the inspiration come from?

Some of this comes from the experiences that Haitora told the Golem about and also the story from Isolde Nebsolv told Somali. I feel like there were several moments within the series that hinted at the dark and terrifying reality of this world. We saw a glimpse of it with the way the Human Hunters spoke about butchering Somali. There was a really interesting mix of terror in the first episode with the cat, but that never really took off. I think this world with its beauty and wonder would make for an excellent juxtaposition for the horror that it holds. Admittedly, this is the story I would have liked to have seen, but alas we got a cute story about a girl and her adopted father. It was a nice story, but nothing more than that really.

Somali and the Forest Spirit Episode 10 Somali and Golem Waterfalls

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2 Comments

  1. I’d watch this.

    I really liked Somali, but (aunt Rosa not dying aside) the series disappointed me. I was expecting a very emotional ending to a story of parting. But we got a story instead of parting deferred.

    That’s not what I wanted. Honestly, I don’t think it’s what the series promised. The landmarks were there. The foreshadowing was there. But the payoff wasn’t.

    Hunted to the End could provide a form of closure where the original series did not.

    • Thanks. That’s pretty much what I thought I was getting into too, but then with the Haitori arc I felt like it was foreshadowing the Golem’s journey and it pretty much did exactly.

      This series could have been much darker, more like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and still had the emotional impact.

What did you think?

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