Anime: Kikoushi Enma

From Ecchi/comedy to remarkably good horror.

Kikoushi Enma starts off with a first episode which is basically not more than an ecchi comedy in a gothic atmosphere, which gives a fairly comical feeling to the series while introducing characters. While the second episode focuses more on the unnatural beings of the netherworld with already a lot less comedy, the third and last episode go all out in a style which would make even Wes Craven a happy man.

Animation: Manages to capture the atmosphere.

The animation is pretty decent, but it is overly dark. At times I couldn't really see much, but that might be due to my settings; I did have some light in the room, so perhaps a suggestion is to shut down all the light. Nevertheless, the show feels like it is supposed to be watched in a pitch-black room, such an atmosphere it emits.
While that didn't differ all that much in the first episode - the darkness felt like it was annoying mostly - the darkness in the animation was more than justified in the later episodes of this show.
There was also a fair set of CG included, but they didn't distract me from the show, so I guess I should say that that was done well too.

Sound: Well-placed SFX, not that much music.

The way they used their sound was well done, but there isn't all that much music throughout the show afaik. I can't recall much more than the ED-song, which is a fairly well done song, but I suppose they had some good BGM to support the creepiness factor - I just can't remember it standing out.
The voice actors did a good job too, at least I didn't hear any unfitting voices, or people with a bad day.

Story: Starts off silly, but gains creepiness.

As said before, the first episode is not much more than an introduction of the main cast and side-characters. The story is not all that remarkable either, but that's not expected from an intro-episode. This episode did make me think the show wasn't really worth watching, so it took me some time to continue the show.

The second story integrates a good aspect of horror into the show, which establishes itself by using a good storytelling. One may consider this episode the pace-setter for the last arc, a 2-episodes (out of only 4) spanning arc. How do they say that? Ah - yeah: "The quiet before the storm".

The reason why they took half the episodes for this last arc does show, since they pull out a lot of tricks and a horror-plotline which -despite not being overly original- does gets things done. If I had to give a reason for it working, I'd almost say that it is a combination of the absence of the protagonist and a well executed horror plot. These last 2 episodes make this show a worthy horror show and make up for its pretty average first episode.

Don't forget to watch the part after the credits.
The show doesn't bother explaining everything to you, which somehow felt to me like a good thing. Some things aren't supposed to be explained, but make sure that you watch the epilogue after the last episode.

Character: When the protagonist is absent, the show becomes a lot better.

"How is that possible?", I hear you think, but it's exactly as it is. Enma is a fairly decent character, but his perverted nature and fooling around only breaks the flow of the show. That's probably why he doesn't show up all that often with the exception of the first episode and the times he does show up in the rest of the show, the flow immediately changes for the worse.

If you've never seen a show where the protagonist doesn't show up all that often, one may try Shinigami no Ballad for instance, or Jigoku Shoujo where the protagonist mostly awaits his/her proper time to interfere with the protagonist-of-the-episode.

Nevertheless, the characters in this show are fairly simple. Enma, Kappa and Yuki-hime aren't exactly round characters and most of the time you simply don't want to see them. Yuki-hime gets mostly used as a ecchi comic relief character which you see mostly in harem-shows - but that's only in the first two episodes. Kappa stays as a comic relief character until the end and Enma is simply a bad-ass pervert.

The side-characters feel like they have a lot more substance, but even they don't get much depth. It does help in focusing the attention on the story though, which is supposed to be the strenght of this show.

Is this show worth watching?

Yes, this show is worth watching if you can appreciate a good horror show. While you have to get past the first episode, the rest makes up a lot for it.
If you're not someone who likes horror-shows, perhaps you should stop after the first episode, because the intensity only duplicates.