Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Shinreigari: Ghost Hound Japanese: 神霊狩/GHOST HOUND
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 22
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 18, 2007 to Apr 3, 2008
Duration:
25 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.771 (scored by 11988 users)
Ranked: #7172
Popularity: #379
Members: 29,886
Favorites: 270 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
horror mystery sci-fi supernatural |
SynopsisIn an isolated region of Kyushu lies the town of Suiten. Though seeming small and modest, Suiten is not a picturesque place for a vacation, unless it is from the “Unseen World”. Taro, Makoto and Masayuki, three boys with traumatic pasts, learn to let their souls cross between the two parallel worlds. However, the Unseen World is no mere copy of the real Apparent World. The Unseen World is the home of ghosts, but changes are now allowing the souls of the dead to pass over into the Apparent World, with unpredictable effects. Follow the journey of Taro, Makoto and Masayuki, as they cross between the two worlds, trying to unravel a great mystery.
(Source: Sentai Filmworks) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Ghost Hound: Another Side
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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Cyh
162 of 206 people found this review helpful
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11 of 22 episodes seen
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Many anime strive for a horror element and settle for the gore. Others try for the psychological approach and get lost in the relationships. This, however, is a shining star among them all.
Ghost Hound foregoes all the gore and heads straight for the downright creepy. The animation style, though soft and fairly unassuming, only enhances this creepy-factor once the ball starts rolling. Each episode title is taken straight from psychology texts, and exploits the given theme with finesse and underhanded tact.
Nothing is overdone. Everything is like a current flowing underground, or a train rumbling by only a mile away. You can't see it, but you can feel the presence. The atmosphere is set with an amazing score which seems to taunt all those soft and unassuming characters with the terror to come.
Only it isn't obvious.
Many anime try to shove "the horror of it all" down your throat, leading to some nausea and perhaps a little surprise. This, however, slips beteen the cracks and tugs at your primal half, makes you start to wonder whether or not you really are safe in your own head. The imagery shifts like flashbacks from a memory only half-recalled (they address that topic, actually) and the atmospheric music only sucks you in deeper.
The characters, too, are well-rounded and fascinating, from Makoto and is utterly horrifying grandma, to Masayuki and his social eccentricities, to Tarou and that FREAKY "lucid dream" he keeps having. ("Lucid Dream" is episode 1)
Overall:
If you love shows and movies that just crawl inside and start to make you think really hard about things you once thought were absolutes, then this is the show to see.
Perhaps one downside is the lack of dialogue, but in a horror, images and sounds carry so much more meaning, and these images and sounds are guaranteed to make tingles rund down your backbone. The other downside--a trifle, really--is that the first episode takes a few minutes to really take off, but once it does, the anime never slows down.
It is an anime for the true psychological horror fan, and Production I.G. was brilliant for making this their 20th anniversary release.
Plus, those little astrally projected bodies? Man, even if the show's creepy-factor doesn't appeal to you, those little things are just too cool for words. read more
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skankfish
10 of 15 people found this review helpful
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22 of 22 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Story 8/10
Only on the penultimate episode did I discover that the original suppose for this series was penned by Masamune Shirow. It doesn't really show, although as that was in 1987 it isn't so surprising. Why it took 20 years to make such a great anime is anyone's guess.
Anyway, the story is very good. A dark and moody tale at heart, this anime mulls through the lives of its protagonists and a semi-real world of astral projection and spirits. It does so in a way immediately attributable to Nakamura Ryuutarou's (Serial Experiments Lain) direction. I enjoyed SEL's rasping static sensory deprivation, and I love it here too. The bassy atmosphere death rattles the viewer through several inter-connected disturbing backstories, and drapes the lead characters in harsh, heavy shadows.
The dark story involves the "unseen world" of disconnected spirits, and is played out as part mystery, part science. The exposition and investigation is mainly from the perspective of juniour high school students, connected by those dark backstories; and this is perhaps one of the small blemishes on the series. While the "difficult past and large responsibilty on young shoulders" plot element is powerful despite its regular use in anime, I think the children retained a little too much of their childish appearance during the progression of this series. Indeed it was not Shirow's intention to have such young protagonists.
Animation 8.5/10
Simulteneously beautiful and slightly wrong.
The quality is very high, as you would expect from Production I.G. But perhaps the tones and designs of the children, again, bring the show down slightly. The atmosphere created by the backdrops, creatures and settings throughout was exceptional, but the flat-coloured characters distracted slightly from that and just felt a little out of place. A few bad choices were also made during astral projection. The initial "baby" characters look a little too silly, as do some of the later apparitions.
Overall, though, the designs and smoothness need some applause for their left-of-mainstream quality. Very well put together; sometimes even creepy.
Sound 8/10
Like SEL, one of the things that brings the atmosphere and animation and script together is the sound used to bind them. The fuzz, the buzz, the scrapes, the dinks - all work fantastically with the mood and direction. Although you could argue that the general impression is almost too similar to SEL, it works very well regardless. OP is also well suited. Japanese VAs are good, and mild-mannered enough to pull off the roles very professionally and convincingly.
Characters 8.5/10
The very believable story behind what is something of a fantastical show is exposed beautifully through the main cast. Common personality types crop up but remain under-done to perfection, easily escaping the horrible tendency in asian media to ham-up emotions. The leads are well defined and maturely designed. There could be a little more conflict in there, and some things perhaps shouldn't go quite as smoothly as they tend to do for those characters, but I was very satisfied with the way things turned out. All but one or two characters are important in their own way, and most hold themselves together well and deserve their screen time.
Overall 8.9/10
With such good all round scores it's tempting to go even higher with the overall mark, but all I'll do is recommend this to anyone who enjoys a mature anime. Though the series runs for 22 episodes there were no points when I felt cheated because of that. There's no filler in here. The fascinating story unfolds generously, without recourse to distraction. Although I felt a couple of things could have been explained a little more, the ending was a satisfactory finish for what is literally a one-in-a-thousand anime.
Now to hunt out the next classic hidden within swathes of soggy cardboard and freaky pillows. read more
Recommendations
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Ghost Hound and Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni is similar in terms of the psychological things it might give the viewer while watching it. Although Ghost Hound has a more complicated and professional way of showing and stating things, it is still similar with HNNKN in terms of boggling your mind.
Both anime are playing in little village . Both anime have psychodelic story
There are unexplained phenomenons, transfer students, shrine maidens and things that may not be all what they claim to be. In both anime story is about group of friends, who live in mysterious small town, which have a dark past.
“Everything seems so peaceful on the surface, while beneath something eerie is hiding.” [Masayuki]
Group made of kids (each of them with several issues and a trauma in their past) lives in a quiet, small, remote Japanese village surrounded by nature which actually hides some scary secrets.
Both are psychological, creepy, dark, mysterious, supernatural, and addicting to the max, and both screw with your brain (and you love it).
Also, in both we have: a dam, a school, at least 1 transfer student, a young, cute, purple-eyed miko, and a scary, ugly, hateful grandmother.
Main differences: Ghost Hound doesn’t have neither gore and comedy, and is way slower than Higurashi, and the latter has only 1 male protagonist & many girls, while in Ghost Hound it’s the opposite.
A seemingly normal town with deep-rooted dark secrets that are related somehow to a dam, girls in shrine maiden outfits, students with crazy mental-illnesses, and sometimes disturbing imagery.
All of these are things these shows have in common.
both is some kinda creepy and scary...
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Lain and Ghost Hound are both from the same director and scriptwriter. Besides, both have the same dark atmosphere and play with the psychological during the story. If you like Lain, you'd probably like Ghost Hound as well.
The music, the animation style and the same kind of atmosphere. If your into Ghost Hound then you could be a fan of Lain as well! Lain is a lot older than Ghost hound but don't excuse that from being a great anime.
Both excel at ambient sound/music, blending the surreal and real and being quite the head trip.
The similarities are countless.
Both series are slow-paced, psychological, complex, dark, surreal, weird, and mysterious.
Both deal with the supernatural, the human mind, things such as technology (in Lain) and science/medicine (in GH), and various personality disorders and issues.
Also, in both anime, there’s the concept of alternate reality, extra-corporeal experiences, and what's real and what's not: even if not anyone can see it, there’s another world apart from the one we live in (in Lain, the real world & the Wired, in GH, the Apparent World & the Unseen World).
In both Lain & GH there’s some kind of game (used respectively by Lain & Masayuki) which allows to enter another world.
More similarities: in both series the protagonists are kids who have family problems; Miyako & Lain are both extremely quiet, cute, and basically emotionless; in both anime there are several scenes where the characters seem to stare directly at you with their big, deep eyes; both anime, despite their lack of blood and gore, have disturbing imagery and can be very creepy at times; the type of sounds and music and the way it’s used is almost the same; both anime have amazing OP themes.
These anime also have the same director (Ryutaro Nakamura), scriptwriter (Chiaki Konaka), a lovely character design, and have overall the same atmosphere and mood.
Both are one hell of a mind trip.
These series both have the same director, but there are also some other similar aspects. They both deal with psychological problems and have very interesting plots that make you think while watching each episode. SEL deals more with technology than GH does, though.
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Opening Theme"Poltergeist (ポルターガイスト)" by Mayumi Kojima
Ending Theme"Call My Name ~Kazenari no Oka~ (～風鳴りの丘～)" by Yucca
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