Shinreigari

I must say that Ghost Hound is the most complex and technical anime ever made. It's the kind of anime which make you go on the wiki and search for the terminology. As is expected from the staff of Serial Experiment Lain, you have to pay attention to detail or re-watch it to understand what the story is about and the relationship and explanation of it. Ghost Hound, whose idea has gone through 8 years of planning, is indeed a masterpiece. A must see for any hardcore sci-fi fan.

The show starts out with a really creepy opening of something flying around and only getting glimpses of what’s happening from his eyes. We find out that it was all a damn dream from our main character. Taro Komori seems like a rather normal boring guy who lives with a family of brewers. And yet they bring up strange things about his past that seem to be bothering him. I can’t lie, even with knowing the description of the anime; this all was a bit confusing in the beginning. They jump around a lot and the only thing I really got was that Taro was ... able to astro project and has dreams of the past. As the show goes on, it does get slightly better and there are times that they kept me on the edge of my seat but it is extremely logical and have a mountain of dialogue before something gets done.

Masayuki seems much more like the person we should be following. He is the outsider who is gathering information on what goes on around the other two. He seems to have more of an understanding that things are happening then Taro and Makoto. It’s that or Taro and Masayuki’s stories should switch a bit. Miyako is pretty silent but is also one that I wished we could get more info on right up front. She seems to have even more understanding as to what is going on about the spiritual world.

I like how they show the outer body experience like being in water to where you can’t really hear anything around you. What I don’t like is that they seem to have only one goal throughout the whole show and that’s to find out what went on a long time ago. It just makes the characters sound like broken records at times. Now I’m not saying it’s no good. I did like it but I wish that they had more episodic ghost show with the overall plot mixed in with it.

A lot of this show talks about the mind and how philology plays a big part in what happens when you have trauma at a young age. Unfortunately, it seems that they try to base it all on ghosts and astro projections. Sometimes it feels like they are just trying to make up excuses to what’s going on with the kids. At some point, they even talk about the destruction of nature though I really don’t see what it has to do with all of the supernatural ideas or the children turning into strange beings.

The animation lacks just a little, making it look a little like Sayonara Zetsubo-Sensei with a little bit of CG mixed into it. Sometimes it looks a bit on the plain side, not really standing out from any other anime or even lacking from others. Still, I have to give it props for trying to be different then the others. The close ups give a very creepy look to the show. Unfortunately, some of the characters look like they have large heads even when not in a spiritual form.

The music is really hunting and creepy in the opening, but set the mood well. What doesn’t set the mood is the basic clips from the show. It just seems like a lack of love was given to the opening in this aspect. The scripting is a bit odd; sometimes the characters seem to talk to someone even if they haven’t said anything at all. There are also some strange passes in the way sentences are said and sometimes the volume isn’t right. Even with the strange script, I still like how the voices are. They have voices I would imagine them to have.

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.