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.

First things first, Ghost Stories is completely unwatchable in its Japanese version. Its like a bad rip off of Scooby-Doo. It came as no surprise that ADV decided to dub the show as a parody and not a straight dub, since I doubt they would’ve had any sales if they decided to do a serious dub. They knew the show was crap and just went with it.

The results seem to be hit or miss. The VA’s for the most part are up to the task and have decent comedic timing. I would say that Chris Patton and Greg Ayers do the best job at bringing ... the laughs. That said, the script is either hilarious or awkwardly unfunny. If you stick to the end of the show, the jokes start picking up and the laughs are more common. Probably midway thru the series is when I felt they had really hit their stride in the writing department.

One thing I didn’t understand is why they chose to censor foul language in the beginning of the series, and then stopped about half way thru. The censoring annoyed me; if you’re going to do a parody, and an adult one at that, why would you censor it? It seems pointless. Luckily the “bleeps” go away after a while.

Overall I would recommend this to anime fans that have a good awareness of modern – and not so modern – pop culture, because the cultural references abound in this dub.

I have to start by first saying if you are somehow not watching this anime dubbed you need to stop and start the dubbed right away.

Ghost Stories is one of those series that on paper even sounds horrible. A few friends getting into ghost trouble every episode, kinda sounds repetitive right?
Well this anime is one of the most over the top, weirdly intriguing and down right bizarre anime shows I have every watched. The dubbed comedy and characters just blend together so perfectly. I don't know how they did it but the dub fits all the scenes perfectly and I cant imagine any of the ... characters acting any other way. Comedy gold with a sprinkle of ghostly goings on.

Now the story in Ghost Stories isn't anything to write home about. Its fine. Its basic and it isn't developed much. I gave it a 6.(Fair)

The art actually holds up decently well. Its really okay. Its not great but I quite liked the simplicity it has. You also get some spooky ghost designs which are quite unique in their own right. This also got a 6. (Fair)

Sound. The opening and ending were ... good in a bad way. I don't dislike them, they are fine, but the ending just ... sexy sexy. The sound as a whole was good. (7)

The characters, well I loved each and every character in the show, from Keiichiro and his incessant crying. To my personal favourite Hajime just being hilarious throughout the whole show. I'm sure there is a character in this show that everyone can love. (Don't expect the characters to go on an emotional journey just enjoy them for who they are) 10 Outstanding (Dubbed)

Enjoyment (Outstanding 10)
How could I not give this a 10 .... it had me crying with laughter. It kept me smiling throughout the series. I thoroughly enjoyed Ghost Stories.

Overall: Ghost Stories is GREAT. Its unique, its over the top. Its a must watch, every episode keeps you looking forward to the next slice of comedy gold. You never know what is around the next corner for both the ghosts and the main characters. After finishing this show I have one word ... Wow ...

“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

______________________

**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

______________________

**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

____________________

**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

________________

**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


________________

**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!

"Now I know it will never work between us. And it's not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black."
Ghost Stories will go down as the greatest anime dub of all time. The dub is great, and not because the voices are speculator or anything, but due to the dub turning a supposedly garbage anime into a great one. For those who don't know, Ghost Stories is a horror mystery anime that bombed in Japan due to how bad it was. For some reason, ADV got the rights to it and gave absolutely no shits when dubbing it. Supposedly the only things they weren't allowed ... to change were the character's names and how the ghost were defeated in every episode. All of the names are the same, but there are a few episodes where they break the second rule which is completely fine by me. In one of the last episodes they defeat a ghost by telling it not to eat the yellow snow which is perfect.

Story: 3
By far the worst part of Ghost Stories would be its story. Every episode is episodic and sticks to the same generic formula. The cast is dicking around, they find out a ghost is causing trouble, and they stop it. It gets really old really quick. None of it is scary and it just gets boring most of the time. We all know no one is going to die, nothing is going to change, it just sucks. Not even the dub could save the shitty story.

Art: 6
From what I've heard, Studio Pierrot put a lot of money into this show and its not that good looking of a show. It doesn't look like shit, it looks fine. There are some good looking scenes but most of the time it just looks fine. Character designs aren't really good, especially Leo, no idea why his lips aren't like that, and I'm also more surprised that the dub never made a joke about it.

Sound: 8
Kind of hard to score the sound. The soundtrack itself is whatever. It's always over-exaggerated a lot but sometimes it could be so bad that its funny. The OP Grow Up I actually enjoy and I love the ED Sexy Sexy even if it has no reason to be in a kids show.
The voices however, are perfect. Voice acting is good, but of course the dialogue is fantastic.

Characters: 9
The characters in Ghost Stories are great. Satsuki is a bitch and hates her brother. My personal favorite, Hajime, is a perverted piece of shit, Momoko is a full on Christian, Keiichirou is retarded, and Reo is Jewish. It's a great cast of characters and the series shines the brightest when all of them are together talking about the dumbest shit imaginable.
On a short serious note, I realized that the dub may have actually added a bit of character development to the character Momoko. In the dub the only thing she cares about is being a Christian and spreading the word of God. However, midway through the series, its revealed that she used to be a stripper, and was addicted to drugs. She changed her ways in rehab and transformed into a Christian. I know its really stupid and the writers or Monica probably had no intention of doing this but its still notable.

Enjoyment: 8
Ghost Stories used to be in my top 15 anime of all time, however while rewatching it I enjoyed it considerably less. Sure it can be hilarious during a handful of episodes but during most of it I'd say it's above average in terms of comedy. The jokes aren't even clever most of the time. It's just funny hearing a bunch of little kids talking about fucking midgets, spreading the word of God, etc. My problem during a second viewing would have to be consistency. The first 2 episodes aren't great, they have their moments, but they're nothing amazing. Episodes 3-11 are great, 12-16 aren't good, but the last 4 episodes get great again. A lot of the jokes in episodes 12-16 were either just repeated jokes that were used before that just got old, or they weren't nearly as many jokes in the episodes at all. Don't know if the cast didn't get enough beer that day or what but it's definitely noticeable.

Overall: 8
Despite enjoying it a lot less a second time around, I still really really like Ghost Stories. It may be inconsistent with its episodes, the jokes may get stale, the story sucks, but fuck it.
If you haven't already, Ghost Stories is an absolute must watch for everyone.
Also, Drop the Crispy Cremes Serpico.

I wouldn't normally review a dubbed version of an anime, but in this case the score would change depending on the version, and surprisingly, dubbed version by ADV is the one that I'd give an 8, while the original version would probably get a 6 at most. Let me explain.

THE ORIGINAL VERSION

Despite being based off of a popular book series, Gakkō no Kaidan didn't do very well, and it's hard not to see why. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't very good either. The series attempts to be a set of horror stories for children, but fails at being memorable because of its repetitive nature ... and cardboard cutout characters.

The series was actually quite good at building a somewhat creepy atmosphere in certain episodes, and often had pretty good setups. Heck, the previews for the next episode that always play at the end are probably the creepiest part of the series, being very vague and having terrifying sound effects. Unfortunately, these setups would mostly lead a rather tame climax or ghosts that were downright silly (with a special going to the ghosts from the other side of the mirror who possess people in our world and force them to wear glasses because they don't have eyes, and somehow get defeated by standing between two mirrors).

There isn't a lot of tension either as almost all of the ghosts get defeated the exact same way. There's only a couple exceptions, notably the Death Nurse, who couldn't be defeated the same way and had different intentions from what you'd expect. Consequently this made for probably the best episode. But aside from that, even the last episode, which was clearly trying to be a big finale, didn't really try to do anything different.

Add to that two-dimensional characters, sub-par animation and an opening song that doesn't fit the tone of the show at all, and you get a horror show that isn't particularly effectful. Its one saving grace is a very good cast of actors, though, but being a good actor doesn't always if your character isn't interesting or entertaining.

ADV SWOOPS IN

So, with the series not being very successful, the owners were rather desperate when they sold ADV the rights to distribute it in America and told them to whatever they deemed necessary to make it sell. ADV then decided to do whatever the hell they wanted with it.

From what I've heard. the American voice actors were not even given any script. They were only told essential plot elements and otherwise had to improvise the dialogue. The result truly has to be seen to be believed.

THE AMERICAN DUB

The American dub of Gakkō no Kaidan (called "Ghost Stories" in English) plays out like an "abridged" parody series like Dragonball Z Abridged, only official and not abridged at all. The voice actors are constantly joking, whether it be jokes about celebrities, adult references or ridiculing plot holes or the animation, or just being randwom, and... I'm not going to lie, this version is a lot more interesting. Not only because of some of the jokes being so out of left field you can't help but laugh despite how stupid or intentionally offensive they are, but also because the characters have so much more personality.

Easily the best of the series is Monica Rial as Momoko. In the original version, she was a constantly smiling unintentional medium with the personality of a rock, but Rial made her into an obsessive and narrow-minded christian. To be honest, I often find that Rial isn't very convincing when she tries to play a sweet and innocent character, but with Momoko she definitely plays that to her advantage, making the character constantly saying cynical things with a big smile on her face. Her comments about God and Jesus often come in such inappropriate or random moments that it's hard not to laugh.

I also appreciate how much they exaggerated Keiichirou, who was just a whiny and overly dependant kid in the original version (the only episodes that tried to give him any character development at all were the bloody sports festival episode and the previously mentioned death nurse episode, and even they were pretty muh forgotten because of the reset button at the end of every episode). In the dub they took that and exaggerated it to a comedic level often having him scream and speak gibberish in a way that's surprisingly entertaining (save for him screaming maybe a little too often in the first episode).

Obviously Greg Ayres, who plays Leo, takes every chance he gets to be funny as well. Maybe Hilary Haag, who plays Satsuki, doesn't add quite as much personality as the other actors (she makes her character more cruel and cynical, but the other actors do that too,) but she still has some very funny lines and an overall entertaining performance.

Honestly, one of the best parts is just how good and professional the cast is despite how crazy their dialogue is and how much they clearly don't take the show seriously. Heck, Rob Mungle, who plays the demon Amanojaku, would probably have been perfect for the role even if they did a faithful adaption. The supporting cast also does a wonderful job adding jokes of their own, with maybe the best one being Brittney Karbowski who plays the one-off character Mio, a loner whose only friend is a rabbit. Karbowski added some social awkwardness, a touch of insanity and a hint of possibly psycopathic tendencies. She made her episode quite possibly one of the best of the series.

Honestly, it's hard to even describe this dub without some direct quotes, so... here are some direct quotes:

"This will be the first R-rated bloodbath to ever be performed at an elementary school. Sweet!"
- Amanojaku

"I'm a sexually frustrated sixth-grader!"
- Hajime

"When this bitch kicks, I'm moving to Vegas."
- Grandpa

"Dabahaykoutu! Ahaha!"
- Keiichirou

"Nice ass!"
"Do not lust in-- JESUS, YOU'RE RIGHT!"
- Satsuki and Momoko

"Oh-my-god-what's-happening-these-are-the-fastest-lip-flaps-I've-ever-had-to-sync!"
- Leo

If you're fine with obscure horror stories that aren't that well made, but do kind of live in their own little world, then the original version of this series does have its enjoyable moments. But if a series that's practically a parody of itself and has plenty of crazy jokes that are clearly not appropriate for the series they're in sounds attractive to you, or if you like abridged series, definitely check out the dub, because this an abridged series that's actually official.

Ok so first of all, DO NOT WATCH the Subbed version of this anime series. Now its very rare that a DUBBED anime is better than the Subbed but in this case watch the Dub. The company that obtained the rights to 'Dub' this series essentially allowed the cast to say/ write whatever they wanted. If you enjoyed abridged series such as Team Four Star ect. then you will love the dub for this series as it essence it becomes a comedy dub. Apart from the actual dub aspect I personally wouldn't even bother watching the show. I mean the anime is older from the ... early 2000 and the story isn't gripping, i mean the audio is good and the characters i mean are at least some what explored.

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE DUB!!! If you watch the original Japanese version of this anime and enjoy it you are simply wrong and have terrible taste.

Ghost Stories (Gakkou no Kaidan) is a pathetic excuse for a piece of entertainment with paper characters and the most generic story lines in existence, making this "Scary" anime a complete bore. In a nutshell this anime is: buncha kids find out school is haunted so do spells from a book to make them go away.
The thing to note however is due to how bad this anime did in japan the people in charge of the English ... dub for this anime, ADV Films kept to the basic storyline but changed most of the dialogue causing this anime to be possibly the only Official abridged series (note that Aniplex themselves approved of the changes) to ever be released and this is what turns this heap of trash into the cult classic that is Ghost Stories and why i feel it should be a 10.


Story 4/10
So the synopsis written on MAL isn't exactly true, yes it holds true to the original Japanese version but the dub changes a few things up to make it more of a bearable experience, if you haven't read the story summary written by MAL i suggest you go read it now then come back to this and ill provide you with a suitable description for the dubbed series.

Keep in mind this was a last ditch hope to make this anime even watchable and boooy did it do its job well.

Years ago, all of the ghosts in a haunted schoolhouse were banished by a certain student. Now, they're back—and they want revenge...

Satsuki and her retarded brother Keiichirou are two siblings recovering from the not so tragic loss of their ugly mother. After moving to their mother's hometown, they learn that not only their mother was a lesbian but the local school they have transferred to is an old building—one said to be haunted. Despite initially brushing it off as a silly rumor, the two soon discover that ghosts are indeed real and that they're after them! Gakkou no Kaidan is the hilarious tale of the lives of these siblings and their newfound friends: Hajime the Perv, Momoko the hardcore Christian & Reo the Tight pocketed Jew (yes that's legit a thing in this anime i am not just saying this to be offensive) as they try to survive the school's ghosts—with a little help from their pet cat along the way.

As you see from my edit from the original summery of this anime, they changed a few details to draw away from the original story, on top of this the only rules they really had were no name changes and keep the rituals the same, other than this everything was fair game so it makes so many great quotes like "Wait, this is Japanese... ching chong ching", "Oh im sorry, when do you need another dramatic plot point to whip out that ghost book" and many random adverts for car insurance.

One last note on the story is the way they implement this comedy, the anime itself starts off relatively normal only having a few line that make you do a double take gradually building up to this full on comedy show that i've learnt to love.


Art 5/10
The art is nothing special even for the time but their implementation of 3D art is notable, also the bug is synced nearly perfectly so you can't fault it

Sound 6/10
The soundtrack is fine, has some cliché horror sounds to it which actually help improve the comedy i feel.
On the other hand the intro and outro.... what the hell they don't fit in at all and these are not just added to the dub the original opening and outro are just weird mismatches but not terrible songs themselves.

Characters 6/10
Ill just fill this section with Momoko quotes...
"Lord save me for i am your favorite amongst these heavens"
"HaveYouAcceptedJesusAsYourLordAndSaviour"
"I pray that all my friends will become born again Christians"
"If you want something to happen you just need to pray... and not be a Muslim, or Jewish"

Enjoyment 10/10
I honestly loved this anime and i will forever tell the world of its greatness... Look just watch the anime, anime watcher...

Basically, scooby doo, but more predictable and japanese. Well, that's the original anime for you, the "sub version" of this anime is like a strong 4 at best. The dub on the other hand? A masterpiece

Imagine an abridged series going legit. Well, this anime is exactly that.
(This is second hand information) Ghost stories was poorly received in japan, so when it was handed over for redub for the west, they basically had 2 requirements. Don't change names and keep the ways the ghosts are defeated.
AND THEY WENT HAM ON IT. Event though i have no idea if that is actually true, i wouldn't be surprised ... if it was.

This might just by one of the 3 perfect comedy anime, along with cromartie highschool and nichijou.

The story? There is a book with info on how to get rid of ghosts, kids fuck things up, as they do, and release some. The rest is monster of the week type of show.

The characters? There is a big "main" cast but i would consider Hajime and Satsuki the main characters. They get a funny line every now and then in the eng dub. Where the comedy happens is the other characters and their interactions. You got a girl obsessed with christianity, a jew, a talking sarcastic cat and an actually retarded (potentially adopted) little kid. Let the madness ensue.

Visuals? It looks exactly like any other middle of the road 2000s show. But hey at least it's not CG!

The comedy? It all comes from the voice acting and rewritten lines....such as.
"Bobby please forgive me for bringing you back to life, I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we want it to. Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black"

Enjoyement, the only score that actually matters? ALL OF IT.
Now, when you start up the show it won't be all that funny. At first it's like they care about the show and try to keep it normal, fast forward 7 episodes and you have a them making dumb noises just to match the lips.

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.

[this is about the dub because who actually gives a fuck about the sub in this situation]

This anime is probably a once in a lifetime show. You could not get the possibilty of having a show with the most polarizing writing now in any capacity without it being on YouTube as an abridged series. Because that's basically what this is, an official abridged dub.

Story: 6/10
It's just fuckin Scooby-Doo but anime and Scooby-Doo is good on its own. Really can't say anything else about it other than there basically is no story in the dub.

Art: 3/10
The animation for the most part is passable but you get ... a lot of errors, weird animation and also terrible drawings. If you took a shot for each time you noticed some bad animation throughout the whole series you'd probably be dead by episode 5. The backgrounds are also fine but you really can't really fuck up backgrounds more than animation, if you can then what a feat.

Sound: 5/10
The soundtrack might as well be non-existant with there only being like 3 or 4 tracks they use throughout the show, the sound mixing and design were pretty passable even if they got quite a few stock sound effects snuck in. Nothing to write home about though overall.

Characters: 10/10
Now here's the fun stuff. You could legit consider the characters are basically the VAs just dicking about and telling jokes when you realise the fact that a lot of the script was just improvised jokes from the cast and crew. And that fact only reinforces the chemistry on display from the actors and their conversations in the show. It's all just so raw and unfiltered that it feels so real even if they had to at the very least guide the plot in the right direction to appease the studio's demands.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall an incredible, literal lightning in a bottle experience that you will not find in any other official anime dub anytime soon. I will never understand how the studio that licensed the show to ADV just gave them that much creative freedom with it, even with the jokes mocking the poor animation and plot. You could tell me this was an abridged dub by a group of friends that was published to YouTube and I would believe you but the fact that the story of how this dub came to fruition was real makes it so much better. For the love of god, please watch this dub before you die, because even if it's not for everyone, it is a landmark of when studios just don't care.

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.

This anime is an absolute shitshow in every way. The original is complete, unwatchable rubbish with a plot that makes high school dxd look like death note, and the dub is full of blatant racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, sexism, and every kind of offensive language you can imagine, with the only exception being that they didn't use the n-word. Congrats. You would honestly struggle to find a show more offensive in the USA in the 50s. They even have levels to it where they have made an entire character whose only personality trait is that they are a Christian supremacist that would make puritans proud, ... in fact, all the characters are some of the shittiest and most annoying little craps I've ever seen.

10/10 funniest shit I ever watched

This review is based on the English dub, which is infamous for adding a lot of child-inappropriate humor to the kid's series. It does increase the enjoyment, but it doesn't transform this into a masterpiece.

The story is fully episodic, with a new ghost each episode. Each episode mostly follows the same pattern of: random background characters encounter ghost and scream; scene cuts away and presumably something bad happened to them; the main characters either seek out the ghost, or the ghost endangers one of the characters, and the rest come to their aid; the heroes look up how to deal with the ghost in mom's ... diary, which conveniently has solutions for most of the ghosts. Occasionally, cat steps in to help. Ghost is sealed away just as soon as one or more characters are about to be doomed. The nature of each ghost is different and adds some variety to the story.

The main criticism I have is that the solutions for most episodes mostly comes down to the same thing, reciting some words from the book. The anime Mononoke had a way more interesting solution.

The five kids all share the protagonist role, with characters switching off the role of damsel in distress in each episode.

The anime does include some fan-service, despite the story being written for children. I guess this is just Japan being Japan.

The art and sound are not bad considering the age, but they are definitely very dated and not as smooth as anything modern. There is a lot of running sequences where it cycles through 2 or 3 frames, but that's kind of par for a TV program. The OT and ET are catchy despite not sounding that good.

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.

To be honest. the whole story makes no god-damned sense. Especially towards the end when it becomes a clusterfuck of different stories and confusing tropes. Everything about this anime screams mediocre. It was all hand-drawn (or very poorly CG drawn), while this is not bad in itself, it leads to some scenes of very poor animation. The music is pitiful, almost all the music that is played is stuff that is in the public domain (at least i think so), almost none of it is original. The Characters are actually not bad. Although they are all generic in some way. Why did I enjoy this ... so much then? It's very funny. I should touch on the fact that the rights to this were bought before it flopped in japan, so the license holders told the voice actors to pretty much say whatever they want. It leads to some very funny scenes. "Ghosts only get evil people like republicans and we're not old enough to vote". "Principals always look like lesbians". "it's just like living next to charlie sheen". The best part, is this was dubbed in 2005 and all of the humor is still relevant today. I wasn't very old in 2005 (only 11), so I don't remember much news and jokes about that time, yet every single line said in this is relevant. I highly recommend you watch this, of course, as long as it is the dub.

I started watching this series because I saw a youtube video showing the outrageous shit these kids were saying. Ended up watching all 20 episodes. It keeps getting more and more ridiculous. I laughed enough to continue watching. If this show didn't have the dub that it did then I wouldn't have even watched the first episode.

I've seen around that a lot of people are not entertained with this show but I would say it's their lacking sense of humor or are anime elitists. With this in mind this show may not be for you if you want to watch something that is more ... serious. If so I would suggest the anime Ghost Hunt.

If you would like a good laugh, funny characters, and nothing serious then watch some episodes of this anime.

The show's English dub makes its lackluster plot and repetitive storylines bearable. Let's be honest, the story is absolute nonsense, every episode has the same basic plotline, and the show relies a lot on the character's making ridiculously poor choices to move along. All in all, without the English dub it's just a crappy show that isn't scary or heartwarming at all.

The reason I give this show an 8 is because the voice actors did an outstanding job delivering the jokes and the writing team did an outstanding job writing them. The show can be enjoyed to the fullest only if you ... have knowledge of American pop culture, as there are plenty of references and jokes that only make sense if you know who people like Christian Slater and other celebrities are. A lot of the jokes are reference based, mercilessly poking fun at popular celebrities, movies, and sometimes TV shows. If you don't watch anything other than anime or have no interest in pop culture, a LOT of these references will go straight over your head and a lot of the lines that are meant to be funny will just sound stupid.

But references are only the beginning of the humor. The next thing that the writers did was turn otherwise uninteresting characters into wacky, hilarious crazies each with their own unique trait that drives a lot of the jokes. One character even has 90% of his lines turned into incoherent mumbling and is dubbed mentally retarded by the rest of the cast, and it is hilarious. Be warned, the cast has no soft spot for sensitive topics. Another character becomes an (extremely) devout Christian, which makes for some of the best lines in the show. So even if you're not into reference based humor, the characters are hilarious, too.

Even so, the jokes aren't reserved to just references and character quirks, some of the lines are genuinely funny and will have you laughing out loud. Scenes are twisted to look like something they're not, lines and sometimes conversations are completely omitted in favor of funny banter, and there is generally never a serious moment in the show. Don't come in expecting a plot, or anything serious at all, because anything that could get serious are starts becoming serious is thrown out the window in favor of a ridiculous script that sometimes isn't even relevant to what's going on in the scene except for the fact that the facial expressions and actions match the dialogue.

All in all, the show is great. It gets an 8 because there's no point in judging the show for its story or its art or its music, because it's really just like stand up comedy. It's joke after joke after joke and every episode brings something new. The only reason this is getting an 8 is because sometimes it felt like jokes were coming in just for the sake of messing up the original script or saying something stupid in lieu of saying something serious. There's a lot of hit or miss humor, and to say that all of it was a hit for me would be a lie. I laughed, a lot, but sometimes it felt like jokes were just being shoe-horned into the script. They could have handled it a lot more tastefully and built up to the jokes, but due to the way its set up you can tell when they're going to come, just wait for one or two lines that sound like they're actually from the original script and you can almost guarantee the next line will be a joke.

So, from my standpoint, while the show was genuinely hilarious, and that's really all that matters here (if you're looking for anything besides nonstop humor find something else), it could have been done a little better, and for that reason it gets an 8. I still highly recommend it to anybody who just wants to laugh.

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.

Imagine that you study in a haunted school that have so many supernatural beings that want you dead or something like that. And the only thing that could save you is... a very hilarious impromptu dubbed anime. Gakkou no Kaidan or more known as Ghost Stories is an anime praised not by the story, the art style, or even the soundtracks but for its impromptu hilarious dub. This anime is a very proof that being a creative person is above everything.

The story of Ghost Stories is mediocre at its best with repeating the same formula over and over again until 19 episodes. First, the episode ... opened with a brief introduction of what the ghost of the day and what it did to its victim. Then we continue with everyday life of the gang that leads to meeting the ghost. After that, they read the mother's journal or book or whatever is that just to find it is so hard to read. Being chased or something like that and ended with some purification ritual that depends on what ghost is it. Somehow reminded me of Scooby-Doo but with real ghosts. It seemed the Japanese knew that this is a very crappy anime and said "This is a crappy anime. Just do whatever to sell this. I don't care anymore." to the Americans and somehow the Americans knew well how to make this anime very interesting : making the dub as stupid as ever.

Yes, Ghost Stories is infamous for their hilarious dub and may have the stupidest yet funnest dub in the very history of dub. The constant fourth breaking, funny dialogues, and somehow altering all of the casts background except their name. The dub does really went overboard with changing all of the casts background. There's the pervert guy, the Jewish guy, the girl who claimed being born again as a Evangelical Christian, the girl with some mood issues, and her half-retarded brother. The dub loves to referencing pop cultures and it would be great for you guys who loves this references jokes. But because the jokes that being thrown are downright very (I mean very) vulgar and borderline harsh, I know that this dub is not for anyone who easily get triggered and don't say I haven't warned you, salty bastards.

What we have to wonder is why an anime that tells a story about ghosts and their curses have an opening that is very cheerful and makes me think that this anime is a very normal slice of life anime. And don't get me start on the ending song. Why does an anime about primary school students getting chased by ghosts have an ending song that literally called "Sexy, Sexy"? Are the creators of this anime is already predicted the dub version before they even started to record the dub? Whatever the reason, it just makes the dub more hilarious than ever.

Overall, this anime's dub is a very proof that creativity could change a bad thing into a very memorable thing that still being talked until now. This anime is a pure joy of hilariousness while joking around ghosts that supposed to be scary.