Shinreigari

I just finished watching this anime and it wasn't good. It leaves the audience feeling incomplete as there are a lot of questions left unanswered, and also with a heavy sense of disappointment. When the last episode ended the first thing that came to my mind was, "...ok...so...is that it?". I'd only recommend this anime to people who don't really want to be drawn and hooked to an anime, but those who are just wanting something to pass the time with and have absolutely nothing better to do. (I hate being this harsh, but it really wasn't good)

Story: 4
Let me just start off by saying ... that the concept of the story was promising and deeply intriguing. However, despite this there was bad linkage, poor pace, and a very poorly thought out conclusion. Let me explain. The anime is about 3 boys who become friends and start to experience soul traveling through a series of events. The beginning is quite promising as the main protagonists all have interesting dark backgrounds, and the authors also utilize very dark themes such as suicide, and the occult. However, despite all these amazing ingredients they didn't seem to do a lot with it. Yes, they create very good and fascinating concepts, but they failed to develop it any further or add any more depth to it. All it turned out to be was a good idea and nothing else. Every time something interesting would happen, they would just drop it and leap onto another concept. Additionally, the pace of the anime was very dragged out. And each episode just created a feeling a heaviness and not excitement. If you're looking for a fast paced engaging psychological horror/thriller this is not it. In all, the story, just didn't hit the mark, but simply fell flat on it's face.

Art: 7
The art work was very good in my opinion.(but I'm not a very "artsy" person so don't quote me on this) The drawing of the characters, and the background/scenery were all quite beautifully done.

Sound: 8
I really liked the sound which was utilized in the anime. I thought it was superb. The eerie like sounds they would use, and also the kind of disconnected far off sounds which were heard when the characters would be soul traveling was very interesting and set the mood. However, unfortunately, since the story within the anime was slow paced and un-engaging, the sound effects did little to increase the enjoyability of it...well it did do a little, but not all that much.

Character: 5
As I said before, the main characters all had dark backgrounds which made them interesting at first but then as the anime continued, the development was very poorly done. The only character which was very interesting, and whose pieces fell all together at the end was Makoto. He was the character who really pushed me into watching the anime through to the end, as he was the only one which sort of made it interesting/engaging for me.

Enjoyment: 3 and Overalll Score: 3
In all, I didn't enjoy this anime. It was dragged out, there were a lot of unanswered questions and the conclusion was just rushed. The plot failed to really go anywhere interesting, and most of the characters were not very intriguing nor had good character development.
Watch it if you have nothing better to do, but honestly, I wouldn't recommend it.

Before watching any anime I start to look at its score on this page, when I saw a 7.41 I thought it would be an anime that was going to be good enough to recommend it. In the end I was disappointed, the most unfortunate thing is having to watch 22 episodes to realize that the most important plot has no outcome. Don't waste your time watching this unless you have nothing to see.
I liked the animation, setting, intro and outro but the script failed. I ended up disappointed, I thought I had found a gem but it was the opposite.

When an anime has to include cliff hangers every episode in order to make the viewer keep watching, then it's not worth watching. I can't even begin to describe how many things the anime does wrong, since there are 22 episodes worth of things. The goofy ghosts and exceptionally weak main character aren't helping.

Please, for the love of god, don't get trapped like I did. I saw a 7.63 but a few 10 and 9 reviews and thought, hey maybe it's not that bad (I had just seen the awesome Shinsekai Yori and Ghost Hound was recommended as like that).

The only reason I watched this ... was because of the cliff hangers. My brain compelled me to keep watching it despite how bad it was due to the constant cliffhangers which would make me think "oh next episode there will be a great illuminating explanation for this".

The ending is horrible. Please do not watch this until you've watched every other thing, and done everything you want to do in life, and are on your deathbed, and even then, don't watch this.

When I first encountered this Anime, I was really excited because it was advertised as a dark, edgy show that was well produced; qualities that are very difficult to find in most shows. The setting is in a small town that gives off such unsettling vibes that it sometimes gives the feeling that it could have been picked up by the silent hill franchise. The characters are introduced well, and begin to get fleshed out with a plot that deviates completely from the classic Anime stereotypes. In short, this Anime looks and sounds beautiful.

... But all of this sounds good, why the low score? Unfortunately the Anime lacks the central drive of a plot to keep the show moving for the entire 26 episodes. Sometime around the 17th episode mark, the plot does a COMPLETE 180, and the entire ambiance of the Anime is lost along the way. The show goes from unsettling and dark to Shounen and 'we can do it' in 60 seconds; I can still feel the whiplash in my neck from trying to keep up with the abrupt change.

All in all, the show is beautifully glossy and has a very original concept, but the director missed a great opportunity to make something great and instead succumbed into making something distinctly on the wrong side of mediocre.

When I started watching ghost hound I was drawn in by something. I immediately thought to turn it off because I found it boring and somewhat pointless, but what drew me to watch more was the scare factor. The sounds on the show were horrifying and they knew just the right way to get the audience attention. The plot was so scattered that its quite hard to explain what the story was about. The story that I got out of it was a boy who went through a horrible accident where his sister ended up dieing. In the story they bring a few characters into ... play somehow relating them the the boys incident. All of the boys start going through something called soul traveling and weird things begin to happen. I was very disappointed in this story because I feel if they would have stuck to a simple plot or was rearranged better this could have been a good story. It felt very mediocre and I felt it needed directed better. I really wouldn't suggest this anime to anyone, unless there real bored and wanted something odd to watch, or to waste time.

Here we have Studio Production I.G. working on this new psychological supernatural anime called Ghost Hound. A studio with some good experience handling psychological shows like this such as Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, but then some questionable supernatural shows like Blood+. Then this was created by Masamune Shirow, the creator behind Ghost in the Shell. Plus, this was directed by Ryuutarou Nakamura, the director behind Serial Experiments Lain. At the very least, Ghost Hound should have zero issue delivering upon the psychological part of the anime, but what about the supernatural?

The show takes place in a small town called Suiten focusing around ... three boys who somehow gain the power of astral projection and connect with the “unseen world” or otherwise a parallel world inhabited by ghosts. Due to traumatic experiences the characters have, this allows such an ability. The story follow their cross between the two worlds, and end up involved and unravel a strange mystery connected to a small girl whom has the ability to channel spirits.

Story and plot are uniquely mixed together quite well between the psychology and mystery of the show. This comes as no surprise based on the show’s creator. It really blends together with a writing of the show, but fails at being exciting from the overall execution. This is mostly due to the insane amount of detail and pace of the show by it telling literally everything and each and every detail it can think of. One example of this is an entire episode dedicated to explaining how complicated the human brain is. It does have a point to the show, and the information may be interesting to some. However, this is just one example of an instance for a show with constant information dumps filled with puzzles and the plot’s loss of focus because of it.

Ghost Hound does have superb atmosphere and filled with dark and dreary colours. This keeps a somewhat gritty edge and an intriguing mystery also blends well into this fact. The plot vastly benefits from the creepy atmosphere as well as the story only revealing small bits and pieces of the mystery at a time leading to the viewer using their imagination to fill holes. This is a gripping experience. The ultimate downfall is not the main characters themselves or even the ultra-strange ghost-baby-blob forms their astral projections take on, but it is the movement of what is important to the plot. As mentioned before, the plots loss of focus.

Information exposition dump aside, and whether this is interesting or not vastly depends on the viewer’s taste in that regard to hurt or benefit the show. It does take away from good pacing, plot focus, and causes the loose ends to be concluded haphazardly. At the beginning there is a kidnapping which is solved but brushed aside, which is a major plot point to the entire first half of the show. This is followed by some biology experiments, which almost seemingly questions the previous plot point, and then leads to yet another strange plot. The concepts involved such as “playing God” and psychotic behaviors are done fairly well. However, Ghost Hound tries way too hard to expand the story and the plot devices addressed fail, such as with the ending. Does the average viewer even want to make it that far, feel irritated by the experience, or is it satisfactory is a tough question to answer for this show?

Ghost Hound is flawed in many ways, but does contain the mystery, contents, and concepts for a possibly intriguing watch. By far, this show would have vastly benefited more for the masses at half the length and cutting out the insane science and psychologically detailed dialogue. It really just falls way short on the supernatural element and what the show could have been in the end.

I’m a big fan of the writer Chiaki J Konaka, who is most well-known for his work on Serial Experiments Lain and his socially undesirable political views. Personally, I appreciate his work on Texhnolyze the most, a “Nietzschean” post-apocalyptic series about an underground city where several factions compete for power.

So I figured I would try watching Ghost Hound, which was written by Konaka and produced by the guys who did Ghost in the Shell -- a dream lineup, frankly. The concept sounded fine as well: a few teenagers who have issues with their past explore the line between the phyiscal and spirit world.

The ... problem? It sucked.

First, there is not enough antagonism: there are occasionally threats or fights, but there is never a consistent source of tension or conflict. The protagonist is also fairly boring: both in visuals and personality. Combined with the fact that things happen too slowly in general, this leads to an overall dull and boring watching experience, despite the fact that the mysteries in the series are fairly compelling in their own right.

In my notes, I wrote down that the art and sound were both great, but both failed to leave an impression on me 2 months after writing them.

For starters, this anime aligns far more with the psychological thriller that is present in anime such as Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, or Haibane Renmei than it does horror. Do not come into the anime expecting much of actual horror and more of an analysis on the several main characters and their traumas. Speaking of which, this anime has a very interesting mix of first-person and third-person perspectives for the characters. While it is very interesting at some points, there were many occasions when I was wondering why Taro, the centerpoint of the mystery in the show, is treated with much more of a first-person ... focus. He is treated with way more care than the other three protagonists, but it actually works against the narrative, breaking many of the tensions that will be present across episodes.

One of the biggest charms of this show is the tension and atmosphere that builds from not knowing what characters are thinking. However, the progression in some characters' thoughts sometimes seems forced when put against the other more down-to-earth characters such as Makoto and Masayuki. The relationship that builds between the three boys is great, and you can see a realistic friendship form through their shared traumas, especially after a big event brings them together, forcing them to question what is right in front of them rather than any preconceptions about each other. The connection between the three boys is probably the best part of this anime once you've watched through and the initial wonder and mystery is gone. The sounds and ambiance assist really well in building tension in this show, particularly minding the fact that little to no music is present. The atmosphere is done extremely well at times but is broken after almost every episode for seemingly no reason. I saw another reviewer talk about the cliffhangers in this anime, and they could not be more right with how forced they seem and then not actually following through to the next episode.

Ghost Hound fails to follow through on the atmosphere and mystery it provides because completely random plot points become the primary focus. You might watch this show and towards the end think you have come to some sort of conclusion, yet the last couple episodes will make all those mysteries fall flat, forcing a final conflict between a character that has had seemingly no relevance and no backstory whatsoever. This anime couldn't pick a focus between science and spirituality, and when it finally tries, it gives a lackluster ending that provides no fulfillment to the viewer due to this completely sudden conflict. Ghost Hound tries so hard to subvert expectations, but the final "twist" at the end is randomly thrown and tries to make you feel for one of the main characters
without using any of the previously built-up curiosity and tension in the viewer. The anime thinks you will care and be invested just because there is this idea of a threat when in reality it feels more goofy and just off-putting.

This anime has some charms, particularly in the connections between some of the characters, but it is inconsistent at best and provides us with more of a style-over-substance media. The whole piece feels like it was carried by cinematography and interesting sounds and visuals. Overall this anime has a fairly good style. interesting character relations, very nice ambience, a lackluster and unfulfilling ending, and many cases in which the focus is lost in regard to actual tensions or psychological horror. If you like anime like those mentioned at the beginning, there are likely many things you will appreciate in this anime, but they end up unfulfilled and tossed to the side after an episode or two, only providing menial answers and leaving us with a final ending with little to no substance.

This review is a warning to everybody who plans to watch Shinreigari. If you don't like how the first episode went, you won't like the rest either. It's rare that I write a review. I gave this show 1/10 simply because I didn't like anything about it. It wasn't out of spite, and I don't hate it either. The characters don't look interesting, they come off as "annoying as hell" "pathetic" and "boring" respectively. Each has their own trauma to deal with, but in return the viewer has to deal with them. None of them has any motivation or goal to work towards.
The episodes have ... about 2 minutes of plot, no eerie atmosphere will save it. However, each one ends with a cliffhanger, desperately trying to make you watch the next. each episode is structured as follows:
"last episode on Shinreigari" reminding you that you just wasted 20 minutes instead of watching a 2 minute summary.
some artsy jazz inspired opening that I can't recall, not exactly good at selling the show.
Nothing happening for about 15 minutes, except for characters staring with all sort of noises getting louder, signifying that "this guy is not okay" and "btw this is a spooky show!"
A bunch of psychological and pseudo-scientific terms getting thrown around without any explanation at all. The author expects you to either ignore them, and think he's so clever or make you pause the anime if you're so interested. I believe all that time staring at nothing would have been better spent on explaining these terms, since the show already failed to set the mood anyway.
Each episode ends with "something" happening, want to know just exactly what? Find out next episode!
It's a very tiring show to watch. All that mystery, creepiness, and potential is lost because of the awful execution. If they cut the episode count in half, it might have been more fun. I don't recommend it to anyone. Before watching the second episode, ask yourself "Is it really okay to waste time watching 22 episodes of what ep1 was hinting?" Absolutely not, in my opinion. I dropped it after 5 episodes, save yourself the time and watch something else.