Gakkou no Kaidan

I had originally come across this anime as a source of comedy because I had heard great things (or even seen previews) for this anime. With that being said I watched the dubbed version in which the story basically had very little to no meaning to it and was basically a dub strongly leaning towards comedy. Was good but no where near enough and here is a bit why.

The story's plot was ripped right out leaving only the broad plot of having to reseal ghosts that were freed and replaced with HILARIOUS but not consistent humour.

Watching this dubbed anime was pretty much the ... exact same as watching a movie that from the previews you know is 100% satire/comedy and nothing else. In all cases they are basically hit or miss and the end result of this anime was a definite miss. While some jokes were a bit vulgar and hilarious and others were just brilliant, most of them lacked originality and were either reused over and over again to the point of being an eyesore just to continue to watch or the jokes were just bad plain and simple. With that being said a 100% comedy without great comedy is basically a flop.

Even as I were to watch this while sitting in class bored out of my mind I still found no drive to finish the series which adds emphasis on why I had dropped the series and leave it that way. End result is that id rather spend my time watching something else to keep me laughing.

“Scooby-Dooby-Doo”

“Where are you?”

“We got some work to do now”

“Scooby-Dooby-Doo”

“Where are you?”

... “We need some help from you now!”

FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Ho-ly ZEUS, man! As I was shimmering through my anime collection on what to review next and this is what I picked at random.

At first, I did wonder and ask myself why did I put this anime at the far dark corner shelf of my collection. When I pulled the DVD out, the room I was in gotten cold. -er.

You must think I am joking. Well no, I am dead serious. The room went very cold when I picked this up. Could be the changing season but who knows.

Anyway, I watched or re-watched the whole thing, now I remembered why I put this anime on the far dark side corner of my shelves.

Here’s my take on ‘Ghost Stories’.

(ugh, should have done this on October/Halloween)

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**STORY**

You got your elementary school meddling kids, two others who just moved in and a pet cat named Scooby-Do. (Not really, duh.) These kids go around town, solving mysteries and putting away Ghosts or Demons back to the Underworld with the help of the late Principal’s diary.

There’s nothing much about the story on this anime.

The story is a generic, cliché, monster-of-the-week type anime. Pretty much like Scooby-Doo or Archie’s Weird Mysteries.

Not very much original about it. There’s no, ahem, ‘TWEEST’ or any kind of tensions like “A Demon King or Queen Succubus, monster, thing, is going to take over the world and these kids are our only hope to stop him …or her …or ….it!” anything particular. Pretty bland and boring.

Every time when a supernatural accurse, the only thing they have to do is whip out the old principal’s diary on how to stop it and there you have it.

Hmm, kind of reminds me of one particular show (Gravity Falls?).

This anime tries to add some panty shot jokes in there but never really worked. I wonder, What was this anime for?

1/10

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**ART/ANIMATION**

This anime is old. Like, Early 2000 year old and pretty dated. I have seen better animations around that year. Like, Digimon, Fruit Basket, Maybe that one anime where the main character cooks different type of dishes where they come alive and fight. (I forgot what that anime title is. If someone knows what I am talking about, hit me message on my profile.) and many others.

The one positive thing I have to say is how this anime used 3D here. Of course, it’s not much for recent animes of today but it’s well integrated where no other anime shows has never done at that time.

2/10

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**SOUND**

The chosen music/songs for the Opening and Ending credits are…….. Crap.

Utterly crap.


I am not saying the Opening and Ending songs are really bad but very poorly chosen for anime that’s filled with ghosts and haunting.

The Opening song, IMO, I can dig listening while I am in the car but for an anime such as this? It’s going to make people think “oh this is nice upbeat song and this anime must be a happy, feel good, slice-of-life type I can show to my kids.” However, it’s not, for an anime that is dark as this.

The Ending song, however, gives a bad taste in my mouth. “sexy sexy”? REALLY!? Showing Elementary schoolgirl’s panty shots is SEXY?! I am not a person whose into lolicon/shotacon but if anyone gets off from that, good for you! That’s your playground, not mine.

The soundtrack is also crap. So far in this anime has been using that overly used, cliché one-string note from ‘PSYCHO’ just for the “scary moments” on this anime.

Not good anime, not good.

2/10

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**CHARACTERS**

Generic, boring, and bland. There is no or very little character development between these characters. As much as I like Japanese original dub content, however I have to say it’s also….. Crap.

However, the saving grace though, is the English Dub. The English dub is pretty darn good and far out better than the Japanese.

What the English has done here pretty darn normal all the way to point of “I don’t care as long as we much the character’s mouth flapping”.

It’s like making a parody, or abridged series (except they’re not abridging anything). I believe this is where Team Four Stars get there idea.

Y’know, I pretty darn like it. Gave me good lols.

3/10

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**ENJOYMENT**

If I have to think this anime’s goal of ‘enjoyment’ is having me to slamming my brain to a wall or facedesk multiple times in almost each episode then it has succeeded. My head bleeds. With Blisters. Y’know how I get these scars?

The only thing I find redeemable from this anime is the English Dub. That’s the only enjoyment I get from this crap.

2/10


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**VERDICT**

What can I say? It’s bad. Pretty darn bad. Actually, this anime hits that list of “It’s SO BAD that it’s ACTUALLY GOOD!” type of bad. My recommendation is RENT because this anime is not worth your time or need a place for your collection. However, You can buy it, and call in some friends to have a good time to watch how bad this anime is if you like, but that’s on you.

Well, that’s my time and thanks for reading my review.

CASE CLOSED!

RECCOMENDATION: RENT

VERDICT: 3/10 - Should have called in GHOSTBUSTERS!

Okay, so I'll get to the dub, but frankly it feels like a different show, so I'll treat it separately.

This series is essentially Goosebumps in Japan and has a similar level of originality, narrative sophistication, and character development as what you might find there. These characters are loosely sketched and bring little memorable to the table (frankly I can't remember most of their names apart from protagonist Satsuki). The animation is not exactly stellar and most of the ghost/demon designs are rather derivative with only a few stand-outs. The stories are not genuinely scary, but it's aimed at a young audience, so I can ... forgive that (and it's a little more intense than the aforementioned Western equivalent, Goosebumps, so I s'pose there's that). What is more odd is the ED 'sexy sexy' in a show about and aimed at elementary school kids and the repeated panty shots of the show's protagonist. But oh well... anime I guess.

So yeah. That's 'Gakkou no Kaidan' and my ratings above reflect THAT show.

Then there's the ADV dub, which is likely to be quite unlike anything else you've ever seen. Well, at least seen in the world of official dubs - what it does resemble is an abridged series. However this isn't a fan made project and it actually predates by about a year the first abridged series, having been released in 2005 compared to 'Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series' 2006 upload (thanks Wikipedia).

The humour is irreverent, and aims to shock, playing off the juxtaposition of the crude, very adult things being said and the childish nature of the show's characters. A hallmark of the jokes here is a dedication you'd likely not get away with these days to being politically incorrect. There's the little brother who is made severely autistic in the dub, the right-wing sanctimonious Christian Evangelical fond of reminding other characters that they will go to hell, the tight-fisted Jew, the repeated jokes about the endowment of black men delivered in casual, deadpan style, and much, much more. If you find yourself easily offended, some of this material ain't gonna be for you. There's no way this would be made as an officially licensed dub these days, but I can honestly say, I'm glad it did. Because it is damn funny.

The humour, in addition to being crude and very un-PC, is also spectacularly self-aware and freely pokes fun at the original show. Characters lampshade the repeated harvesting of tropes from everything from 'The Grudge' to the works of Stephen King. Fourth wall breaks are routine.

Things take a while to fully ramp up, but as the episodes go on, the dub cast and writer seemed to find their rhythm and abandon any pretense of making a faithful translation. Instead they throw everything at the wall and see what sticks, with evidence abounding of the ad libbed, free-styling joke writing at work here.

The whole thing isn't supremely clever and witty, but it's got enough of that to keep you going. It's fun to dip in and out of and an enjoyable way to spend a half hour or so. If I were reviewing the dub, I think I'd have landed on a 7 for it.

Now at the time of its release, the ADV dub was loathed by many puritanical Western fans as some grave insult to the Japanese craft of anime. That's nonsense. This isn't a very good show and if it had never seen Western markets to begin with, no one would have missed out. This dub takes something that could have been relegated to the trash heap and makes quality entertainment out of it. It doesn't salvage the original work, because like I've said, this dub isn't really even the same show as the original. What it does do is give us something enjoyable where there wasn't anything. Just as bad shows like SAO have given us wonderful abridged series, so has something bad here been used as the basis of something pretty great.

And for that, I'm thankful.

Ghost Stories, oddly enough, is MUCH better in the English dub version than the original Japanese version, and it still isn't that great. The English dub tries to take an anime that takes itself way too seriously and make it funny, but even then, doesn't produce much more than a smirk from the audience. However, the Japanese version is unbearably serious and is practically impossible to watch.

The series is made up of short stories ((one per episode)) about ghosts, goblins and related demons. The main characters always get themselves involved and attempt to figure out these poorly written "mysteries" in the usual, cliche fashion.

The animation ... is average, with so-so character designs you've seen before and environments that bring nothing new to the table. The ending is also unspectacular and not memorable in any way.

Watching one episode of the English dub is all I could recommend for anyone to watch because that is more than enough to know what the whole series is like. To watch more episodes is to just watch more of the same.

Looking for Mystery, Horror and Supernatural? Good luck with that and have fun with a different anime. No, really, at best this is a cliche boring parody that’s not even remotely scary. And I’m not necessarily talking about the dub which adds ‘ridiculous’ to the adjectives and pushes everything up to the eleven.

It starts with Satsuki Miyanoshita and her family moving to the hometown of her late mother. However the real thing starts when all of the main characters walk into an old school building (for different reasons) which is still on the premise of the new school and it’s closed. Don’t ask why, apparently ... that makes sense in Japan. After being chased by a ghost, meeting another schoolmate and conveniently finding Satsuki’s late mother’s diary about exorcising demons, they accidentally make their cat possessed. Which isn’t half as funny as it could have been. Then relevant plot happens at the very end. In between we have a lot of episodes that follow exactly the same pattern. A random ghost appears, the gang freaks out and doesn’t know what to do and then they magically rediscover mom’s diary that has the answers to everything. They usually rediscover it in Satsuki’s bag or her room. No, they never learn they always act as if they’ve seen the diary for the first time.

It wouldn’t be so bad even if you can tell what’s about to happen all the time if they hadn’t used already overused ghost cliches. Creepy doll? Check. Ghost in a mirror? Check. Headless rider? Check. I could go on and on and I’m certain that with everything I mention you’ll go “Ah, I’ve seen that in ...“. It doesn’t help that when you saw one episode you’ve seen them all.

Characters aren’t that great either and if you’re one of the unfortunate souls that are watching the dub, like me, they’re far worse than bad. In dub, everyone breaks the fourth wall. That wouldn’t be bad if it didn’t happen in every scene done by every character. Although dub does the good thing of making fun of the stupid characteristics and dumb mistakes they make. Like calling Satsuki’s brother retarded or making fun of characters’ illogical behavior etc.. Although the dub overdid it with the constant religion jokes and by ridiculing every single line there was literally no atmosphere. It wasn’t scary because everyone was constantly cracking stupid jokes and it wasn’t funny because they were always about to die… and the jokes were really bad.

Natures of the characters are as bland as their actions. All of them are very old archetypes that don’t even try or pretend to be anything more than that. We have a stereotype female lead, stereotype male lead that, of course, have constant romantic moments but say they hate each other. Then we have a cry baby that doesn’t serve any purpose a latent medium that gets randomly possessed with the spirit of Satsuki’s mother and a spirit obsessed nerd. Anything you imagine belonging to those stereotypes, it’s here.

Animation and sound aren’t the strong points either. They’re both already dated and the sound was very repetitive. Character designs are quite dull too. Although I don’t think the animation was particularly bad it was really underwhelming. Everyone froze while talking and in movement in vehicles there was an obvious repetition to scenery. The ghosts were trying too hard to be scary and turned out to be a mash of “seen this” and “what the hell?” and not in a good way.

I have to say that this is one of the few shows I really wanted to enjoy but couldn’t. partly because the dub is seriously horrid and partly because the story writing isn’t any better. At least the dub made me laugh here and there unlike the plot. The plot almost did too a few times. But I was too distracted by the infinite plot devices and plot conveniences that I couldn’t laugh. Too bad nothing got really explained. You just get hurled into a slow and boring roller coaster that makes repetitive up and downs then quickly kicked out at the end and the roller coaster closes. For good. With no refund.

If you are new to stories about ghost, this is a must see. It’s a perfect introduction where you don’t have to worry about being distracted by characters or plot and you have time to digest all clichés and overused ghosts that go with the genre. You might even laugh. But if you are actually looking for something scary and you are a busy person that’s very picky about their anime. Don’t bother. It’s not worth your time.

This anime has to have been one of the worst I have ever seen, and yet one of the best.

I watched the dub because it was bloody hilarious- My friends and I quote it all the time, and have fun doing it.

I also know that the actual Ghost Stories is a whole lot different, but I will say that if you want to watch a terrible anime for the laughs, watch Ghost Stories dubbed, because it's practically an abridged series.

For context this is coming from someone who watched the english dub, not the japanese sub
I personally gave up on this anime halfway in. Humor is all the english dub is. That may be enjoyable to some people but it wasn't to me. the best way to describe it would be like a japanese version of something like family guy or south park. The reason those shows succeed is because they add variety. This show however is pratically the same thing each episode. Although the art is average for the time period and it is certainly very funny, those alone are not enough to keep ... me hooked on an anime.

This is the most serious, disciplining anime I have ever watched. But for some reason it is soo serious I don’t like it. In the dub no one has emotions. I mean come on, these are students the least they can do is crack a joke. I was very emotionally attached when the rabbit was black.

0/10 story- too serious

0/10 Art- feels too much like Teletubbies except more serious. Something I can’t fathom.

2/10 Sound- The music is great. Like Beethoven once said, “Music is the name of Ghost Stories”. But their voice is also a part of sound. And their voice acting is too serious.

0/10 Character- ... They remind me of Goofy from Mickey Mouse. That’s how terrifyingly serious they are.

0/10 enjoyment- Daga Kotowaru to comment on this.

1/10 Overall- Too serious for my taste. Do yourself a favor and watch something more light hearted like OMG real deepweb deleted Teletubbies Episode

Some might argue that doing a review of a show that I've yet to finish is premature or pointless. One could make an fair argument in favor of that opinion. Yet here I am, as I simply felt like throwing my own hat in this particular ring, as I find the topic interesting. 12 episodes in, I figured I had sorta calculated the trajectory in which this show would go and between the 21 episodes, have seen over half of it.

With that, Ghost Stories, one of the most note-worthy oddities of the anime world. What is on the surface and in it's core just a ... dry and inept show about a group of middle-school students busting ghosts, the only reason you'll ever hear of this show these days is thanks to it's peculiar dub. It's the source of many a laughs on the internet for it's outlandishly raunchy comedy, 4th wall breaking, pop-cultural referencing and overall lack of giving a shit, none of which was ever intended in the original script or was ever present in the Japanese audio version. This alone makes it a must-watch for fans of ironic viewing and even fans of "abridged-series" styled parody re-dubs. However, brushing the novelty off, how badly does the show stand on it's own legs and how much can the dub-team work with what they have? These are the questions that drove me to write this review.


The premace of the show is about as plain as butter on toast. The show follows Satsuki Miyanoshita and her brother Keiichirou, whom find themselves caught in the midst of one paranormal haunting after another after returning to their mother's (Their DEAD mother's) hometown. Their only defense against such odds is a conveniently comprehensive encyclopedia on such hauntings written by their mother and the occasional begrudging help of Amanojaku, a spirit with a vendetta against their family, currently caught in the body of their cat as they perform rituals to put these uneasy spirits to rest, all the while learning to cope with the loss of their mother. Oh, and there are a couple of other friends they make that assist them on this, but trust me, they make no effort to hide how little they matter outside of just being there.

The show is mostly set up as an episodic romp with a "Ghost of the week" formula, each episode an isolated incident regarding whatever restless spirit needs taking care of. With that, one would imagine it falls upon overarching plots and character development to tie the show together and I won't pretend like there wasn't an attempt at this. The main thrust of the overarching story is about Satsuki and Keiichirou's coming of age, as they learn to cope with their mother's loss and Satsuki in particular developing into a responsible caretaker to Keiichirou, with a sub-plot regarding Amanojaku beginning to harbor feelings towards the 2 of them.

The problems begin to arise, when you realize the whole of the show revolves entirely around just 2 of the 5-man main cast. Everyone else exist as paper-thin cut-outs. You have Hajime, the token snarky boy, Reo, the token geek and Momoko, the token calm-girl. Hajime and Reo get only the barest characterization in the most predictable kind of gags these kinds of characters write for themselves. The only one of them who matters is Momoko, yet she is only there as a plot-device, with the flimsiest of connections to Satsuki's mother (her DEAD mother) to exist as her spirit's conduit whenever the gang needs help, further reinforcing the idea that anything in this show that doesn't concern the Miyanoshita means less than nothing.

The only thing more tragic than the show's overarching story is that it means it's episode-by-episode plotlines are what it has left to lean on. The show effectively juggles a variety of classic horror-tropes from haunted dolls to body-snatchers to more conventional slasher-styled murderous ghosts. So far so lame, yet a clever spin or just good presentation of these ideas are all you really need to give the show the energy it needs to be engaging. As a fan of horror, I'd have been satisfied with just a loving homage to the genre, with an episodic ghost-story a day. However, it completely fails in this regard thanks to lacking scripts that just give you the bare minimum to qualify as a story. Hell, most of them can't even be bothered to be tied together by any underlining theme or message, structured as nothing more than a sequence of things happening, until they run out of things to happen.


But the nail that really seals the coffin on the episodic plots is the show's quite frankly abysmal presentation. With a show that looks this shit, is directed this poorly and has sound design this unremarkable, any attempts at mood or atmosphere fly right out the door. The visuals and sound simply does not work to convey any of the otherworldly ideas the show tries to offer, because the effort just isn't there. Even as window-dressing, it's too shallow to make it work. This quite frankly kills the show, making the experience unimaginably boring to sit through. Sometimes you'll get a cool moment or a neat visual, yet they are but individual moments, trapped in a sea of mediocrity, mere bleeps of the heart-monitor until the flatline.


And so we come to the last saving grace. How much does the dub help make this show stomachable? Shortly put, disappointingly little. Don't get me wrong, the dub is hilarious. If not just by itself, then just by sheer virtue that it exists, is official and was broadcast. The issue is that, unlike a Youtube abridged series, the Ghost Stories English dub is still completely beholdent to the source material. It's not like they re-edited the show to compliment their jokes and the stories that come of them. They still need to present the story of each episode in a manner that is comprehensive. With this in mind, even the dub will struggle to make it work. Even past just needing to represent the source material, the dubbers will have jokes that don't land and dated references to make you cringe.


If you've ever seen any one Youtube compilation of Ghost Stories dub moments, then congratulations. You've seen all that there is worth seeing of this show. It picks out the best nuggets the dub got and you save yourself the extra brainpower used to digesting what is otherwise an embarrassingly fumbled attempt at a psuedo horror anthology. For those that are curious enough to dig for trash to find those utterly quotable gems in the dub that never made it into any video compilation or for those like me that simply love picking media to pieces to see how it ticks, there can be some value to look into it. Personally, I will be going back to finish the rest of the episodes just to satiate my curiosity and see if it's story might wring at least a sliver of payoff. However, for any casual viewers, don't friggin' bother. For actual entertainment, this is trash and I feel safe in saying that despite not having finished it yet, because it doesn't take a genius to figure out that issues this fundamental don't just magically fix overnight, because the people that made the first half of the show are more likely than not the same people that made the rest of it.

The English dub of Ghost Stories is what you get when you boil the concept of comedy down to the lowest possible denominator. Remember that celebrity? Remember that thing that was popular in the early 2000s? Remember this? Remember that? If you have seen the individual clips on YouTube already, you have seen the best Ghost Stories has to offer. Otherwise, you will suffer with 20+ minutes of a very basic, juvenile story (which, to be fair, is equal in crappiness to the original Japanese version), and painful attempts at "comedy" such as the 4Kids reject voice actors reminding you that celebrities exist or that ... they have broken the fourth wall, to get to the very very rare moments that are somewhat funny.

A lot of people think this kind of ""humor"" is absolutely hilarious. Those are the same kind of people that were likely AIS for every single Adam Sandler movie, and probably think Family Guy is the pinnacle of comedy. The politically incorrect humor is nothing special and are comprised of jokes that everyone on Earth has probably already heard, even at the time this was originally released. So the main appeal of watching this ends up falling flat, and you are left with what is essentially a show for preschoolers, which is fitting because the writers themselves have the mentality of preschoolers.

Pop culture references are not jokes.

Ghost Stories is a weird one, this review isn’t about the show itself but rather its English dub which should be a red-flag straight away.
Y’see, when Ghost Stories was being localized, the localisers basically had full creative control over it, since it was a very Japanese-centric show with heavy themes of Shintoism and whatnot, the chances of it appealing to a western audience were slim (also Steven Foster moment) so they made a gag dub which is praised as being supposedly “hilarious” and a go to example for Redditors defending localisation changes and English dubs.

Thing is …it’s not that funny, don’t get me wrong, it ... definitely has its moments (the lip-flap joke in particular is great) but I feel like most of Ghost Stories’ fanbase came from people who watched compilations on YouTube and not y’know, the actual show…
The actual show only has like 2 or 3 good jokes per episode and that novelty-factor quickly dies when you realize that in-between you just have dated pop-culture references from 2005, a bunch of boring shit, generic sex jokes and laughably out of date internet memes which almost loops back around to being ironically funny…almost…

But even then I’m just not a fan of localisation changes from a fundamental level, I’m someone who believes in preserving artistic vision and integrity no matter how lacklustre or subpar it may be.
Not to mention how the localisers basically had to lie about the show being a flop in Japan in order to paint the dub in a good light, it also gave the English-speaking anime community the idea that the original Japanese version is some kind of infamously terrible anime, now I can't say either way since I haven't seen the original Japanese version but I feel that it's un-fair that the original show has such a terrible reputation arbitrarily.

Now there’s an argument that could be made saying that the show is better off being remembered for being terrible than being forgotten and fading into obscurity but personally I think it would’ve been better off having been forgotten rather than having lies spread about it and a mostly unfunny dub that shits all over the artistic vision made by people who probably have Ukrainian flags in their Twitter bios.