Gakkou no Kaidan

If you watch it in sub then chances are you won't enjoy it. The animation isn't the best and the overall plot is predictable and cliche. BUT if you watch it in the dub then it's hilarious. It should be worth noting that some of the stuff they said back then wouldn't slide in today's times but as long as you can acknowledge it's satire and don't take everything to seriously then I would totally recommend it. It just ignores the main premise completely and it's just pure crack. And I loved every minute of it.

The characters in the dub are just funny and ... it's hard to take them seriously. It breaks the fourth wall multiple times and each time I enjoy it. Even the voice actors can admit that the original show is awful and the plot is thin. But due to them adding in sarcastic comments and pointing out how basic the show is it makes you love it even more.

This anime is pretty popular and for good reasons. Like I said before you can watch the sub but chances are you likely won't enjoy it. However the dub is awesome if you like dark humor. I would rate the sub a 6/10 (And that's being generous) and the dub would be a 10/10 for me at least.

Watch the dub. The sub. it's average. Just your run of the mill story about kids fighting the supernatural. But the dub saves this show. It really feels like a case where the voice actors just trying to make each other laugh and saying the first thing that comes to their mind and the first couple episodes are a bit slow but everyone finds their speed around episode 4 and at the point it's hilarious. The humor has some older references and is dirty but for me, it was a lotta fun.

I personally think it's a 10 outta 10 anime as it's one I ... can always go back to and rewatch and still enjoy, but I can get how people might not like the humor so for recommendation purposes, it's more of a 7.

I loved this show! I wanted to flat out give it a 10/10.. but I can't. The dub for this show is everything it is cracked up to be. The dark humor is great and the characters are even better! ADV took these characters and made them out to be more than they were ever intended to be.

However, I can only give this show a 7. The show has a rinse and repeat formula. It gave me flashbacks to watching anime on the FoxBox on Saturday mornings- just if Adult Swim ran that Saturday morning block instead. Evil is introduced, evil is defeated by ... the end of the episode. It really feels sluggish toward the end.

The show's humor, much like the show's plot, gets incredibly stale at times toward the end. The VAs continue to harp on things that were funny in the earlier episodes but since were beat to death by this point. For example, Christian Slater. That's all I'll say.

Regardless of it's faults, I loved this show! It's not a masterpiece but it is definately one I'll rewatch- even if it's only certain episodes. Ghost Stories is not one to binge but to watch over periods of time. The humor and plot's staleness really hits the longer you watch continously.

I recommend this one, 100%! Just take it in strides. For me, I compare this show to sweets. Good in moderation but too much at once is overwhelming.

Overall: 7/10.

Ghost Stories Dub will always be one of the most unique animes of all time. This is a stark contrast to Gakkou No Kaidan, the original Japanese version. The latter is an incredibly boring and uninspired show that targeted young children. Despite this the show did not resonate with audiences and it is evident that regardless of age, Gakkou No Kaidan isn't worth watching.

But had the show not failed we would never have had this incredible dub. I believe that Ghost Stories is unquestionably superior to the original. It is incredible offensive that attacks virtually everyone. It mocks Christians and (then President) George Bush, yet ... in the same episode they will make homophobic and anti Semitic jokes. Some jokes are subtle, niche or blunt. I laughed out loud multiple times throughout this series and enjoyed every minute. This is easily one of the best dubs of all, and clearly illustrates the talent and creativity that English VA's possess. I honestly recommend this anime, but only if you watch the Dub.

Who the hell puts a song title like 'Sexy Sexy' on a children's show? Damn right, Ghost Stories.

This review is for the ENGLISH dub of the show, which was universally acclaimed to be the proper way to go. Before a time where inappropriate dubbing on Youtube became a pasttime, legendary voice actors made it so that their shitpost will rise to the world.

Ghost Stories, has a plot somewhere but really...do not approach the show for the plot. Watch it for the hilarity of the dub. In this version, we follow a group of friends in their daily life on a school and whatever supernatural decides ... to ruin their days. It is episodic, makes no lick of sense, and constantly entertaining.

Art sucks. Typically devoid of sakuga whatsoever and none of the characters stand out. That is until...

SOUND
Oh yes. The bread and butter to a table of fasting monks. Without the dub, the show is nothing. Everyone makes fun of everything in the show and so much of hilarity comes from the innuendos, adlibs, and offensive remarks made from a time where people can still make jokes. More often than not, mundane dialogues are interwoven with pop culture references(some are dated tho) and downright indecorous remarks with such raw hammy delivery. Basically, like others has said, Ghost Stories was the abridged before the abridges, the pioneer of shitposts and why it was genius

Character wise, we have an apparently intellectually deficient kid, a bitchy redhead, a little smart aleck, a smoothtalking cat, a Born Again girl, and a glass nerd for its main cast. I dont know what they were supposed to be but in the dub, that who they were and i will not have it otherwise.

Now, do i recommend the series? Probably not when you're looking for a show with deep plot. But if you desire to bask on something that is seemingly like a Japanese southpark, go watch it in a weekend. Ghost Stories DUB is an absolute comedy masterwork that rose up like a phoenix from the remains of its real plot. It might not happen again ever and this was as ridiculous as it gets.

Watch it as sporadically than binging. Watch an episode if you feel depressed. Especially the rabbit episode.

Much like Golden Boy, this is an anime that I won't grade on a normal scale. And that's because an honest rating of the original writer's intents would require me to criticize the show's artstyle and the panty shots of elementary school kids as well as the choice of the show's ending theme with "Sexy Sexy" being used in the chorus and somehow even worse than the borderline implied sexualization of children the cliches that the show follows with its narratives.

But with all of that being said, the dub team for Ghost Stories did an incredible job scrapping what they knew to be a ... bad job and making Ghost Stories into something worthy of being remembered. This is a show that makes fun of itself and never takes itself seriously because the dub team went off script and decided to make the story as funny as they possibly could. But they did it in a brilliant way by still having the majority of the dialogue resemble what the script wanted them to say so that the ad-libbed dialogue would match what is going on the screen and so that the viewers actually become invested in the story as well as the hilarious jokes. It helps me to see what the original script wanted the show to be, and to find charm in the original intent despite it being a failure. When I watched the first episode, I thought I was only going to watch the first few episodes and not care whether or not I'd finish it. But in actuality, the more episodes I watch, the more invested in the show I became and I got more and more excited to finish watching it. There are 20 episodes in this series and basically every single one of them had me in hysterics at a certain point.

Ghost Stories is a must-watch comedy with a story that actually has some charm once you see what they were going for. 9/10 will recommend to everyone. Honestly, one of the best comedies that I've ever watched and I will definitely be rewatching it in its entirety at least one more time as well as frequently revisiting YouTube clips.

while the original in Japan bombed hard, the English Dub is a masterpiece never laughed my ass off at each episode of a series ever before. The dub keeps the characters, ghost's lore and how they are vanquished true to the Japanese folk lore and everything else is improvised to comedic perfection.
By far, the English Dubbed is a must watch for anyone and everyone.

Everything above is my thoughts on the subject; I'm just writing this because according to the website this review needed to be longer. I get that they want a minimum to have people refrain from just putting "it's good", etc,etc; but ... why can't someone write a short, concise review of the show if it conveys all the thoughts the person has about it.

If you are a native speaker of English as well as being interested in 2000s American culture and politics, you have your luck. Just watch the dubbed version that is more valuable than the original Japanese voices. I must admit. I didn't like the original Japanese version due to how it is ver difficult to grasp the cultural context.

It was a genius move to make the English dub into a dark comedy that offends everybody for the sake of comedy. I can't count how many times I laughed at this. But the replay value is extremely small. Just ignore the Japanese voice and you are ... set to receive all kinds of emotions.

(I know that this series is popular in Southeast Asia. That's about it.)

Gakkou No Kaidan is one of the few anime I still remember watching in the TV. It used to air in a national channel. I know everyone makes fun of the dub because of how funny it is but Gakkou no Kaidan actually holds a special place in my heart just for the nostalgia it gives me now. I remember waiting everyday just to watch the new episode of it. As a kid, it used to scare the shit outta me(well it was also because most of the ghost stories I used to hear and see at that time weren't scary at all). I genuinely ... used to love the series and that's why I gave it a 10.

Before I begin. This is rating is only for the dubbed version.

Should you watch it?: Give it a watch. It's one of those animes you'll either like or not really care about.

Story: Each episode is a case by case basis, and I find some of the situations interesting. Though as for the story itself it isn't really great. As far as jokes go. Some of the jokes are funny though at times I've grown bored of it. I feel like this shouldn't be a bench watched type show. Maybe like an episode a week type of show because benching it made the jokes get ... old quickly. But if I watch it like a episode a week I'd pay more attention an laugh more. Though at times it does put a smile on my face or make me even laugh.

Art: I'ma judge it like I lived in the 2000. I'd say it was basic animation for it's time. It was watchable.

Sound: Opening and Ending doesn't fit the dubbed of course lol

Character: They're all funny and have unique personalities. Characters uniqueness and the jokes they make are the only thing that's really going for this show lol.

Enjoyment: I laughed at times but other times I was just like bored, but then small grin some moments.

Overall: It's alright. I probably wouldn't watch it again to be honest. But it was good for what it is.

I am just reviewing and grading the dubbed version...I only watch subbed anime but this gem of an anime is A MUST to be watched dubbed!! The original one was utterly boring and the American dub actors worked magic into making this one of the funniest anime ever!! The art style and animation is very old tbt but that depends to the eye of the beholder, it doesn't really annoy me. The original characters were probably boring in the Japanese version but damn the dubbed ones are so fuuny. It's hard for me to laugh with anime but I was wheezing with this one. The ... storyline isn't really important or that interesting, the comedy aspect of this anime makes it amazing though! 10/10 would suggest to everyone, you are missing out a great comedy!

This is up there with the Kaguya Dub, if not better.

Ian Sinclair did an amazing job with that dub, here the entire team took it and ran with it.


I loved it.

I do not give a flying hoot about the story, who the characters are god knows, and what dimension we are in.

The ghosts are, well, lesbians and the brother is competing in the Special Olympics because he is dyslexic. That is why I like the show.
...

This show gets a 10/10 for the Dub, I'll give it an 8/10 because it did not change my life and is gag based humour, though asobi asobase had a story.


I love this show.

Watch the English Dub.

8/10
Thanks!
-CyanCheetah

I have not seen the original version of Ghost Stories and I have no plans to. That's because I honestly couldn't take the story or events seriously now thanks to the English dub.

Granted the story is an episodic 'Ghost of the week' type of show so there isn't much story to began with. Ghost appears, Ghost kills at least one person, Ghost is seen or interacts with one the kids, kids try find ghost, Satsuki reads about the ghost, Satsuki traps ghost, REPEAT. I just more or less explained the plot for EVERY episode. Why still watch aside from the comedic dub, for a change ... of pace I guess. When your in a plot heavy show their is little to no freedom to skip episodes or start in middle and dart back and fourth while purposely avoiding the first episode to guess the plot/context.

In addition the dub does make the characters more interesting. Making a parent a Lesbian, an adolescent pervert guy friend , a hardcore christian female upperclassmen, and a retarded little brother are just some of the characters that never get developed in the dub because the show is episodic. The exception being the mother of course who is dead (not a spoiler since its stated in first episode.)

The visuals of the show look okay for the time but nothing I would force on to other people to watch just for the visuals. Which the dub does make fun such as the classic 'hands behind head with elbows pointing upward' pose or the 'eyes look like black arches' face. The most interesting animation comes courtesy of the ghosts but as previously none come to mind that were that memorable.

The music might give you the spooks but only if you've never seen anything horrorish, think violins whenever someone's sneaking around mood music. As mentioned above, multiple times, the dub is hilarious and the VA's play around with the fact that their a localisation and not the actual characters, though this third/fourth wall break is constant and therefore not stail.

Its very obvious that I enjoyed this for the dub and the dub alone else I would have given it a 6 or 5 because even though shows like Cowboy Bebop were episodic, they had a noticeable over-arching plot and character development that wasn't left to the end.

All in all, you could watch the sub or the dub since the localisation kept the story the same and has its own comedy. Watch if you need a comedic (or serious) episodic show to take a break from all your plot heavy anime that's taking itself too seriously (or maybe too comedically)

This will be a review for the English dubbed version of the anime. (there may be spoilers!)

Before I get into the actual review, I'd like to just let it be known that the English dub and Japanese sub versions are different from one another. Because the original Japanese Gakkou no Kaiden did poorly, they gave it to an American studio to just "do whatever they wanted", and so they ended up making it much better, staying truer to the actual story, and even a little creepy. The English version was a funnier and less serious version of the original, and while though it has its ... serious moments they definitely aren't plentiful.

The story was fairly enjoyable, I had a good time looking at all the different spirits and characters and how they had an impact on the story. Akane, as an example, was an interesting spirit. Her voice and her design both ended up complimenting each other, and her little "flaw" was played on really well.

I loved the characters! This was, perhaps, the best part about this show. The characters were true to themselves (did not change personality randomly, or didn't feel like a different character at any point in the show). The characters were also hilariously funny, like Momoko's constant Christianity blurts, or Leo's being Jewish and constant knocks on that. The characters really made the show what it is, and made me wanting more.

Overall, because of the story and the character development, I really enjoyed this show, and that's why I gave it a nine. There were some cringe-worthy parts, and other parts did not make sense, otherwise, this would be a straight ten!

Absolutely hilarious.
I accidentally came across the show hearing it's like an abridged series in full episodes, so I tried it out. Currently I'm on the fourth episode, and I don't plan on stopping soon.
This stupid, hilariously bad show turned even stupider, worse, and hella lot funny with the English dub's help.
The voice actors offend everyone and everything they can, the jokes are crude and hilarious, the characters are DRASTICALLY changed and actually have a personality and uniqueness of sort while staying true to the original Japanese dub which sucked ass.
The story is shit, the art is shit, the sound is shit, the characters are shit ... (in the original), but I. Fucking. Love. It. I enjoy the English dub.
It's like watching DBZAbriged. They stay true to the original while spicing everything up.

10/10 Highly recommended to watch.

I must be the only one here who has not seen the American dubbed version (which seems to be very funny), but the Brazilian dubbed version. The Brazilian version is probably more faithful to the original Japanese material, based on this version I can say that there is a certain exaggeration regarding the negative criticisms about the anime. Some episodes are very interesting and others, even though they are not the ultimate storyline, are still fun and introduce the horror genre well to a young audience.

t is that typical anime that can be watched at random, as each episode has its own particular story and ... there are no epilogues.

OP and ED songs are also cool.

I watched it in my childhood and I still watch it eventually. I need to look for American dubbing anytime, it seems to have the same essence as Brazilian dubbing for Aqua Teen.

Note: Sorry for the possible slippage in English, it is obviously not my native language.

Alright, my first review...

Let's do this thing. (Make sure to keep in mind that this is a review of the English dub ONLY. I cannot speak on behalf of the sub, as I have not seen it. I don't plan on it, either.)


STORY: 5 (Mediocre)

The story in and of itself isn't that great, to be honest. Pretty bad, if I'm being perfectly blunt. It centers around five children that live in a town (and world, for that matter) that is, for some inexplicable reason, just FILLED TO THE BRINK with ghosts. Because of this, a young girl by ... the name of Satsuki must follow her dead mother's diary on how to put these ghosts to "spiritual sleep."

ART/ ANIMATION: 3.78 (Poor-decent)

I'm sorry, but the art in this show just bothered me. Even for its time, it just really bothers me... Even the way the hands were drawn occasionally bothered me. This does, however, tend to be extremely subjective, so take what I say about it with a grain of salt. The only good thing about animation for me was the smooth integration of 3-D elements. Pretty decently done for its time, especially taking into account its budget.

SOUND: 4 (Decent)

The only song I even sort of like from the soundtrack is the song at the very beginning of episode eleven, and I couldn't even find it on the OST. Again, very biased here. What? I am a music box connoisseur, what can I say? However, the orchestral tracks that made up a good 90% of the OST complimented the scenarios fine. The opening, however, felt incredibly out of place in a show such as this one. It would have fit much better in a more laid-back, slice-of-life style show in my humble opinion.

CHARACTERS: 9 (Great)

Now here's where the real fun begins. The characters are quite entertaining. I especially enjoyed Satsuki's mother, Hajime, and Amanojaku. But first, I must start with the main character herself: Satsuki. And let me tell you... She takes shit from NOBODY. She is full of sass yet somehow seems to lose all that snark when it comes to taking care of ghosts. She always seems to need some sort of plot convenience to "whip out that damn ghost book." Anyone that's watched the dub will get that reference.) In fact, the dub actually pokes fun at things like that. It even breaks the fourth wall a number of times, which I found found to be particularly amusing. Hajime, on the other hand, and is mostly composed of being a perverted smartass, which I fucking LOVED. He was entertaining. Then, of course, there are the two religious kids: one a nerdy Jewish kid and one a "Jesus freak." I do believe Arkada summed the latter up the best way possible. Then there's the Keiichirou, Satsuki's retarded little brother. And, of course, there's Amanojaku. I don't even want to spoil his character for you; he's just amazing. I really grew attached to the characters despite their overwhelming lack of development.

ENJOYMENT: 10 (Outstanding)

I thoroughly enjoyed this series and all it had to offer. However, if you're looking for a scary show I suggest you look elsewhere. The only episode the was even sort of scary (to me, at least) was the piano one. That one was actually sort of creepy, to be honest.

OVERALL: 10 (Outstanding)

Taking in all of the negative I had to say about this show, I suppose I should have given it a much lower score. Any other show would've gotten a lower score, but my enjoyment really just trumped it all. I highly recommend this show to anyone looking for a good black comedy to pass the time. Just don't watch it all in one day. That was what I did, and I sorely regret it.

Gakkou no Kaidan or Ghost stories as many people know it is kinda a hilarious story. The original subbed version is nothing to write home about, with over-used cliches and decent animation. It's clear that the anime wasn't going to do anything special.

Despite all that the dub is one of the funniest anime's I've ever had the pleasure of watching. The voice actors do not follow the script and instead improve hilarious jokes. Sucking out any 'fear' there was supposed to be in the first place. But even then it makes good jabs at the horror this anime was trying to convey.

I'd say if ... you need a good laugh skip all those anime's that are labeled as comedy but only make you force a chuckle and watch this instead. It'll have you laughing so hard, that you'll want to show it to all your friends.

Some of the jokes but be considered a bit offensive in the dub but just don't even bother caring. It's a hilarious dub.

I usually avoid dubs but this is one of those dubs I can't ignore.

This review is merely for the dub, the show by itself with subs is rather meh. It didn't do well in Japan and once it was slated to be dubbed the script was severely edited. The dub is almost like an abridged series, a lot of references for around the time the dub was made to some younger guys might not get all the references to certain celebrities and what not.

The show itself like I said is meh. Characters are pretty bland, but the dub makes them have different personalities. It's amazing ... what a funny script can do for a show that was originally pretty lukewarm. You should watch the dub merely for the hilarity factor.

people said that the dub version is better because it is more comedic, sorry to say I think that's pretty lame, as a horror movie/anime fan I have this mindset that horror movie should be a serious one, why would they create something like ghost,spirit,or something else just for laugh? I believe those people who hate the original version hate it because it is very "Japan", some people don't really like Japanese culture, or maybe find that Japanese ghosts are not scary at all that they prefer such ghosts to be humiliated hilariously. Well that's not the point, in my opinion, all ghosts in horror ... movies/animes ARE NOT scary at all if they are already exposed completely. The backsound (BGM), the story built by the characters (regarding the ghosts), the camera angle are the factors that make horror movies scary. I think this anime has all the factors I mentioned above, and also this anime is supposed to have some dramas like what happened to Satsuki's family with her mother, or with some ghosts, that is how a horror movie should be, I strongly believe the show is really meant that way, not for jokes (even though there are some jokes in it that some people don't find them funny at all due to cultural difference), so of course for me SUB >>>>>>> DUB all day~