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.

Many anime strive for a horror element and settle for the gore. Others try for the psychological approach and get lost in the relationships. This, however, is a shining star among them all.

Ghost Hound foregoes all the gore and heads straight for the downright creepy. The animation style, though soft and fairly unassuming, only enhances this creepy-factor once the ball starts rolling. Each episode title is taken straight from psychology texts, and exploits the given theme with finesse and underhanded tact.

Nothing is overdone. Everything is like a current flowing underground, or a train rumbling by only a mile away. ... You can't see it, but you can feel the presence. The atmosphere is set with an amazing score which seems to taunt all those soft and unassuming characters with the terror to come.

Only it isn't obvious.

Many anime try to shove "the horror of it all" down your throat, leading to some nausea and perhaps a little surprise. This, however, slips beteen the cracks and tugs at your primal half, makes you start to wonder whether or not you really are safe in your own head. The imagery shifts like flashbacks from a memory only half-recalled (they address that topic, actually) and the atmospheric music only sucks you in deeper.

The characters, too, are well-rounded and fascinating, from Makoto and is utterly horrifying grandma, to Masayuki and his social eccentricities, to Tarou and that FREAKY "lucid dream" he keeps having. ("Lucid Dream" is episode 1)

Overall:

If you love shows and movies that just crawl inside and start to make you think really hard about things you once thought were absolutes, then this is the show to see.

Perhaps one downside is the lack of dialogue, but in a horror, images and sounds carry so much more meaning, and these images and sounds are guaranteed to make tingles rund down your backbone. The other downside--a trifle, really--is that the first episode takes a few minutes to really take off, but once it does, the anime never slows down.

It is an anime for the true psychological horror fan, and Production I.G. was brilliant for making this their 20th anniversary release.

Plus, those little astrally projected bodies? Man, even if the show's creepy-factor doesn't appeal to you, those little things are just too cool for words.

I decided to watch the series, because the scriptwriter of Ghost Hound also wrote Serial Experiments: Lain, Texhnolyze and Hellsing, all of which I am quite drawn to (especially SEL). I must say, that this anime is a great job, perfect for a 20th anniversary release.

~ s t o r y ~ 8 / 10 ~
If some of you think: 'Those cute characters and a psychological plot? No way!' I am glad to tell you, that you are wrong. At first, when I saw, that GH is of 22 episodes, I was sure, that it will be verbose and / or tedious (i'm used to ... 13-episode psychological animes), but I'm glad I tried watching it despite that thoughts. Of course, the plot needs a half of the first episode to take off, but once it does, it doesn't stop (actually, it's going faster and faster to the climax). The anime is a specific type of an illustrated encyclopedia: trauma, mental disorders, possession, out-of-body experiences, mind, brain, afterlife and more - every one of these is shown in a few different points of view, either scientific or spiritual. I gave it an 8, because I just expected something more. The plot is not confusing at all, I mean, there is the puzzle-mode on, but once explained, it becomes perfectly clear. At least some of the aspects...

~ a r t ~ 9 / 10 ~
I love the idea of different angles and showing the action from the characters point of wiew. The landscapes and character projects are quite nice. Some of the ghosts, retrospections or halucinations are drawn really CREEPY. And by creepy I mean, that at night when going to the bathroom you wish not to find anything like that in your room when you come back. They're so random, they give goosebumps. The thing I dislike, is what they did to OBE - but, oh well, it's just an anime, not a science book.

~ s o u n d ~ 9 / 10 ~
Not much of music, but when it's finally playing in the background, it has a feel of GITS's soundtrack. Old japanese music, just without the vocals.
IMO the opening was the worst: it really didn't suit the anime.

~ c h a r a c t e r ~ 1 0 / 1 0 ~
Characters are the metier of Ghost Hound. Nicely designed, with vivid personalities. Everyone will find a bit of himself in some of them.

~ O V E R A L L ~ 9 / 10 ~
Great series with an enjoyable plot, nice art and sound and wonderful, mysterious characters. However, I recommend this anime only for people who like psychological series - others may think of Ghost Hound as a waste of time.

Have fun ^^.

Ghost Hound is a Supernatural, Psychological, Horror, Mystery, Drama series, produced by the critically acclaimed “Production I.G.” studio. Unlike most horror series that feature plenty of shocking, gory moments and psychological dramas that show the absurd, extremes of the human psyche; Ghost Hounds goes for a more technical approach. Sadly this leads to a great series with an incredibly complex story.

It is about four different kids who have suffered from different traumatic events; in their past and now have the ability to traverse this “unseen world”. That’s just the initial plot of the series and as the story begins, you will see a ... bunch of stuff and have no idea what on earth is going on. Slowly but surely, little bits of this mysterious and uncanny story are revealed and during this process you’ll be force fed a lot of psychological terminology. Yet it still takes some time for the story to become somewhat interesting. Then you’ll be able to enjoy the series, as it develops into a sensational experience, whilst learning a fair bit of neurology, psychology and Japanese folklore. At the same time it is easy to consider dropping the series, for those who are unable to get into it.

The animation quality of this anime was superb, having an extraordinary amount of detail put into the little-less things and with interesting, surreal surroundings when expressing the unseen world. The characters were well designed and moved fluidly but the pale colour tones did make some look unappealing. At least the rich environments and scenery made up for the short comings.

It was pretty tricky to judge this anime on the quality of the sound, because there wasn’t much there. During the weird apparitions and flashbacks there was a great deal of weird SFX used, to which is perfect for setting the creepy mood. However with barely any music at all, in the end, it just sounded pretty bland.

Overall this is a mildly interesting anime showing the parallels of the psychological and the supernatural however other than the technical aspects of this anime (e.g. animation), this series can be a pretty dull and lifeless experience. With so much terminology to take in, anyone can feel like dropping this at any moment and going for a much easier show to understand. But the series does become fairly interesting to watch later on, when things become clearer and the story finally start to move forward. So before watching this series you’ll have to think to yourself, “Is this the type of series I would enjoy?”

^_^

REVIEW CONTAIN CONCLUSIVE SPOILER

For the first half of the show, Ghost Hound have got everything right, from the creepy soundtrack that formed its designated atmosphere to the countryside setting that we're so fond of in horror anime. The series gave off the same kind of atmosphere that Higurashi and Shiki gave me, which shows how great it was directed. The unique camera angle amplifying the creepy tone of the series to a level where "horror" would be one of the appropriate genre for the series while the colorful and unique representation of the "hidden world" surely did its job to allow the viewers to see ... the story in a more frightening way, making them more prone to the dark assumptions that viewers can't help but to make in a series like this.

The pacing was perfect in almost every way, just enough room to maintain a balanced space, captivating the viewers with various thrilling experiences and allowing them to make assumption about what will happen next, whether its the horrifying secrets that the three main characters would find out about their past or the problems that forms around their morbid town. The show does maintain a large cast near the end of the series but all of them were thoroughly developed, what also support this is the three main characters as they were interesting to a certain point where seeing their interaction as they help each other uncover the secret to their past is one of the main focus, for both the series and its viewers.

While the series does maintain a great sense of atmosphere and characters development, its ending fall short to what most viewer would have assumed for it to played out. Near the end of the series, the original plot (Solve Taro's past trauma, who did what and the various morbid discoveries that each character would discover as they delve deeper into the past and the "hidden world"), was left behind to be replaced with two new ones, which unfortunately ruin the ending for me, as these two new plot line have almost nothing to be relevant with the original purpose of the story, sure there were some connection here and there but it was far too fragile to be in truthful relation with the original story, it just felt like the show tried to expand its storytelling limit and failed pretty bad, resulting in the undesirable answer to the whole affair about Taro's kidnapping incident as the viewers only received a happy and simple resolution to the the scary kidnapping that was so well presented that it should have made most viewers expecting something a little bit more shudder worthy.

Overall Ghost Hound was a very well played out series from beginning... to the middle, for the way that the ending was told results in a total lost of the original plot. But don't get me wrong, if you're really into thrillers and the like, this series must be on your "plan to watch" or "completed" list because, ending aside, the series did a great job of presenting itself as a psychological thriller in many ways.

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.

1st Impression:
oh god, ghost or supernatural cr*p again? Nothing is better than Ghost H*nt.

Selling point(s):
Top notch sound effect, interesting facts on researches, dark and mysterious atmosphere

Reason(s) of liking the anime:

Well to start with, I am one of those horror fans. 1st episodes already caught my attention with their top notch story pace and astonishing sound effects, which really stirs up the eery atmosphere. In my honest opinion, this anime is like a marriage of Serial experimental Lain and Ghost Hunt( if you haven watch them, go watch em!). I am also interested of their homework done on the facts and researches regarding unexplained / ... truth of supernatural events. With all this combination of greatness, even though i am at only 10th episodes, it certainly my must-watch , till the end of the series.

Advice(s):
1) For all ages, definitely a must watch for those who likes horror , supernatural genre, not for the weak hearted.

Story 8/10

Only on the penultimate episode did I discover that the original suppose for this series was penned by Masamune Shirow. It doesn't really show, although as that was in 1987 it isn't so surprising. Why it took 20 years to make such a great anime is anyone's guess.

Anyway, the story is very good. A dark and moody tale at heart, this anime mulls through the lives of its protagonists and a semi-real world of astral projection and spirits. It does so in a way immediately attributable to Nakamura Ryuutarou's (Serial Experiments Lain) direction. I enjoyed SEL's rasping static sensory deprivation, and I love it ... here too. The bassy atmosphere death rattles the viewer through several inter-connected disturbing backstories, and drapes the lead characters in harsh, heavy shadows.

The dark story involves the "unseen world" of disconnected spirits, and is played out as part mystery, part science. The exposition and investigation is mainly from the perspective of juniour high school students, connected by those dark backstories; and this is perhaps one of the small blemishes on the series. While the "difficult past and large responsibilty on young shoulders" plot element is powerful despite its regular use in anime, I think the children retained a little too much of their childish appearance during the progression of this series. Indeed it was not Shirow's intention to have such young protagonists.


Animation 8.5/10

Simulteneously beautiful and slightly wrong.

The quality is very high, as you would expect from Production I.G. But perhaps the tones and designs of the children, again, bring the show down slightly. The atmosphere created by the backdrops, creatures and settings throughout was exceptional, but the flat-coloured characters distracted slightly from that and just felt a little out of place. A few bad choices were also made during astral projection. The initial "baby" characters look a little too silly, as do some of the later apparitions.

Overall, though, the designs and smoothness need some applause for their left-of-mainstream quality. Very well put together; sometimes even creepy.


Sound 8/10

Like SEL, one of the things that brings the atmosphere and animation and script together is the sound used to bind them. The fuzz, the buzz, the scrapes, the dinks - all work fantastically with the mood and direction. Although you could argue that the general impression is almost too similar to SEL, it works very well regardless. OP is also well suited. Japanese VAs are good, and mild-mannered enough to pull off the roles very professionally and convincingly.


Characters 8.5/10

The very believable story behind what is something of a fantastical show is exposed beautifully through the main cast. Common personality types crop up but remain under-done to perfection, easily escaping the horrible tendency in asian media to ham-up emotions. The leads are well defined and maturely designed. There could be a little more conflict in there, and some things perhaps shouldn't go quite as smoothly as they tend to do for those characters, but I was very satisfied with the way things turned out. All but one or two characters are important in their own way, and most hold themselves together well and deserve their screen time.


Overall 8.9/10

With such good all round scores it's tempting to go even higher with the overall mark, but all I'll do is recommend this to anyone who enjoys a mature anime. Though the series runs for 22 episodes there were no points when I felt cheated because of that. There's no filler in here. The fascinating story unfolds generously, without recourse to distraction. Although I felt a couple of things could have been explained a little more, the ending was a satisfactory finish for what is literally a one-in-a-thousand anime.

Now to hunt out the next classic hidden within swathes of soggy cardboard and freaky pillows.

Let me preface this "8" by saying I thought the storyline for this anime was really terrific! A definite 10/10. It is complex without being too over-the-top (for the genre it is under, that is) and unfolds gradually, but not too slowly either. Each character, minor or protagonist, has an ever expanding role and someone you may think you will only see once or in the background often has a greater story to tell.

Another wonderful aspect of this anime is that rarely is someone as they appear to be and where certain situations could have played out in a typical fashion ... took a very different role instead. My favourite example of this was Taro's therapist/counselor, Dr. Hirata, but there are a number of others that follow.

And while some of the plotlines intersect, the one's that do not, still believeably flow within the plot and are usually very interesting. It isn't often I have come across subplots that while separate,continue to be relevant and intriguing.

The OP song is fun and different, not completely makign sense to the anime itself right away, but then it grows on you and feels as though it actually fits rather well. I still couldn't get into the ending theme song or the scratchy static noises the anime sometimes used as suspenseful "Oh no! What will happen in the next episode!!" sound bites or for re-capping an episode, however that is my own preference and I suspect others would disagree.

The art style was also interesting to me, not just for the art itself but the direction it took. One of the best examples of this is the landscape, which is as much a character itself as it is a background. It is at times, such an important element of the plot, you forget the it is setting and not an actor, because it isn't just land as a setting, but it has its own history and plotline which is explored.

Another example of the art talent lies in this anime's direction. There are some very interesting perspectives and angles the directors and artists chose to take for it, some of which pertain to the aforementioned land uses, while others are due to a particular characters perspective or to create a creepy atmosphere or tell the story better.

While I wouldn't swear by it or recommend it to everyone I know, I would recommend it generally, because overall, I found this show to be slower, creepy and intense, but also original, subtle and engaging. The best description I have read for this anime came from the review by Cyh when 's/he' states: "Nothing is overdone. Everything is like a current flowing underground, or a train rumbling by only a mile away." Which sounds rather abstract on paper (or in this case, the screen), but after having seen the full breadth of the show makes a great deal of sense to me. Like a river it seems to meander, but unlike many anime by the end has come to a place where it has expanded fully and reached an entertaining crescendo.

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.

Discover the new different reality of world and boundaries of spirit world.. at first i think it will only become the straight storyline and basic concept of anime..

progressively it become mysterious and become a gripping story that you can't past over

very touching and brain-minded. it's a film that make you feel what is the different perception of reality...

Good Art from I.G Studios combined with remarkable storyline makes this film get two thumbs..


Awesome Work

Where do I begin?... The premise is nice. The execution was fair.

Taro (our whiney main-main character), Makoto (rebel extraordinaire) and Masayuki (professional milf hunter) are our three almost immediate MC's for this evening. They all have dramatic pasts that lead them to spend the rest of their days with regret not far from their minds. Masayuki is the bridge that connects Tarou and Makoto with his intrusive personality. Miyako is later introduced as main character 4? yeah... I guess we just hand out MC like it's no big deal around here. Don't question it. Read the synopsis if you want more, but it's really ... hard not to spoil anything, so I have to be vague.

Flaws: I would like to mention the flaws before I mention what makes this anime stand out. This show... tries to touch on the subject spirituality as well as science of the brain. Cool, right? Meh, sorta. The problem is that they later try to mix in religion as well as try to have some sort of crush between two MC's. It's here where the animu starts to derail a bit. It tried to add a fourth boy, Michio to the mix who can instantly do this thing that the other boys learned to do (while keeping a human form) called soul traveling. A sort of out of body experience. The problem here is that the other boys had a reason to soul travel. To solve traumas. He just does it without having any. No explanation is given either. The crush thing goes no where, so there was really no reason to have it. They also only touch on religion briefly before just going for a cult approach. Oh yeah... Character development? Nope, everyone that needed it just 180's near the end of the anime. What little dialogue we get starts to get choppy near the end.

What it does well: This animu brings up a lot about different diseases and conditions with the brain. It also effectively brings up the spiritual side of the coin in a kind of speculative point of view. Miyako is probably the show's best character in terms of character development she goes from not understanding her place in the world (it's implied so you have to pay attention) to finally accepting her dad as an understanding individual. The show also has that small but big feeling in the sense that you actually feel like there is a world beyond what you are seeing by referencing newspaper articles and places in the world. I like that.

Overall I thought this anime did what it needed to and an itty bit more. It's an anime to get you thinking and really nothing beyond that. Sure there are feels here and there but without knowing what the other characters think other than Taro it just falls flat. I enjoyed it, almost couldn't stop watching, it's good for it's time. If only they polished up the last few episodes a bit.

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 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.

This is not a synopsis.

Ghost Hound is an anime that I stumbled across a year and a half ago while looking for more fuel for a horror genre anime craze that I managed to suffer. Upon watching the first episode and nearly quitting halfway through, I dropped the series... until three weeks ago. I started watching it again, I decided I was going to drill my mind right through it. So I did. I found that the, boring, static plot was unfolding very slowly. There were no lovable or badass characters as far as I'm concerned, nothing interesting, nothing ... thought provocative at all for the first few episodes - probably just a background setup. But suddenly, though I dare not unveil what happens, my mind is blown. I managed to spend the rest of the series waiting for the episode where it is revealed that all the characters were on shrooms, but it never happened.

Story: Mind blowing. There are few known variables. The story is where the variables emerge from. I would definitely say there is no filler, that's a plus. Some characters are digging for events of the past (lost memory, truth), some are striving for the present (trying to rid themselves of fear, or family related problems). All in all, the story is OK, I'd give it a 8 if it weren't for the pacing issues at the beginning.

Art: Art is good. Doesn't really stand out, but it conveys its intended purpose just fine. There are plenty of psychedelic scenes that are done well enough. 8/10.

Sound: This is where this series shines. It manages to converge audio and video in one big mind trip. The sounds are very unique. I don't even recall anything besides the OP and ending that could be called "music" by the general term, but it is indeed fantastic. 10 points.

Characters: Characters are good. One that is constantly angry, withdrawn, and rather burdened by his family's past. In my opinion, he is the best character in the series. The next best is the main heroine - also withdrawn, unwilling to associate with the males of the story at first, she eventually warms up partially. The primary character of the series is one which is concerned at first with his own fear, but he eventually shifts his concerns to everyone else. The last character that is listed as a main character is just trying to erase the results of bad deeds of a time that predates the story. Characters are overall so-so. 7/10.

Enjoyment: I won't say I didn't like this series - I certainly did. It just lacked the hooking factor of some other anime I have seen. The characters and story did not support the enjoyment factor as much as the sound and audio mix. 7/10.

Overall: Average of everything! 8/10.

Wow. I marathoned Ghost Hound in a single Saturday because I couldn't stop. I'm totally blown away. It manages to be fun and profound at the same time.

It touched on so many things of the I base my own spiritual philosophy on: The Apparent World, the Unseen World(s), that we are spiritual beings first and physical beings second, that everything is part of SPIRIT and has a level of consciousness, our "mind" is more than our brain, that the emotions we attach to events/things mold our lives and frequently need clearing, that intense negative emotions attract even more ... negative energy from this world and from beyond, the quantum concept of the matrix that is SPIRIT, and more. They even talked about energy clearing techniques like eye movement and tapping, energy meridians, and such.

And on top of all that, it was a well crafted story with simple, yet effective character designs and lush landscapes. Its rural setting was also a welcome change from the usual urban crush.

The sound track is amazing. If at all possible, watch this one with a good sound system. Other than the awesome opening theme, I am not talking about a lot of music, but rather sound effects, tension building asian flutes and drums, static, breathing, heart beats, and low level frequencies you don't hear but feel. Ghost Hound is the first Masterpiece I've seen in a long, long time.

Ok so this is gonna be my first actual review I write here on this page but I just kinda feel like I HAVE to after I just finished this show yesterday, and maybe there are soon a few to follow. So here are my detailed thoughts about Shinreigari, or Ghost Hound, without spoilers of course so if you are still contemplating if you should watch this or not, you can safely look at this review:


STORY: Psychological meets Spiritual, in the best way possible. The story is great in itself but the pace just adds to the awesomness that is this anime, it is perfectly ... paced. Slow paced, but perfectly slow paced so that it does not end up being boring. The story pulls its characters along and the characters in turn pull the story along, it's the perfect balance. The storytelling is reminiscent of that of shows like Shinsekai Yori, Monster, Death Parade, etc. So when you like those you are likely guaranteed to like this too. It's also quite educational too about human psychology and neurology and the themes of characters overcoming their traumas is a great message too. Anything I'd say negatively would probably just be a nitpick like "this scene was a bit confusing at first" which is not exactly a good argument in a mystery anime ^^ If this isn't a 10/10 I don't know what is, if I knew it'd be this good I wouldn't have waited to watch after I heard about it like a year ago. One small thing I do recommend is to make sure that whenever there is on-screen-text that you read all of it as those are most of the times important to the story, even if you have to pause the episode to do so.

CHARACTERS: like I said the story pulls the characters along and the characters pull the story along. Their decisions are always what I deem the best course of action for the story to take even if the decisions aren't always the smartest. The main characters and their relationship among each other develope naturally over the course of the story and there is not a single bad or uninteresting character even among the side characters (well there's one that's pretty unlikeable but that one is still interesting). The characters also used a very interestingly unique accent that I first thought was Kansai dialect, but a little research has shown me that it's actually Fukoaka-dialect, but alas, it is still a treat to hear sth different from the usual anime talk. Also 10/10

ART/ANIMATION: The art and animation isn't anything particularly special. Art and character design is good, animation flows mostly smoothly with few errors but the visual direction/directing(I don't know which is the right word xD) and scene composition is outstanding, really reminds me of Lain(which is from the same director so yeah), so I'll go with a 9/10 here.

SOUND: So this is the part that is for me almost mindblowing. The soundtrack itself (including OP and ED) isn't anything too noticably amazing, it just always fits the scene it's in and there are a lot of scenes that also have none where it fits. BUT I have never seen a better sound design than in this anime. Muffled voices, radio static, always using the sound effects to intensify the already tense scene. In some of the earlier episode when one of the characters got a panic attack I almost thought it's like I'm there and also about to experience one. In that regard it's like Shinsekai Yori cranked up to 11. If you haven't seen that one you should too, storytelling is really impressive in there. The only ones that might come close to this sound design I've heard would be sth like Liz and the Blue Bird, or A silent Voice, and the sound director for those I believe is the same as for Ghost Hound. And like I said before, it's always a treat to hear a different kind of accent in anime, and this is one sexy accent, man. 100/10

ENDING/CONCLUSION: This is one thing that can turn a viewer away from a show but I personally think that this show has overall a pretty satisfying conclusion drawing a few parallels between the main characters and some others that appeared along the story. Could it have been better? Yes maybe a little. could it have been worse? Oh it absolutely could have, one just needs to look at like 50% of the animes I've watched in my list, or maybe more, and just anime in general nowadays. It does leave a few questions but those are also things that don't neccessarily need to be answered, think of it as sth akin to a certain open ended question in Monster. 9/10

ENJOYMENT / EMOTIONAL IMPACT: Well, I think I made it pretty clear in this that I absolutely loved every second of this show. It's actually been a good while since I've watched sth THIS GOOD where I was completely into it from the start to the end with no real downward spiral or up and down in my opinion. Hell I'm already considering just checking out the dub and rewatching it that way just because I love it so much. It didn't exactly give me as much of an emotional high as some big battle-shounen moments but it was just a constant steady high the entire time. Just a 10/10 too.

And so after Steins Gate, the Monogatari series, Gintama, Mawaru Penguindrum, Monster and Pandora Hearts, this is the 7th anime/manga related thing that I officially grant the title of "a true Masterpiece". You can look into my profile to figure out what that means but I guess the name should imply enough.

Well keep in mind when you watch that this is an extremely biased personal opinion, what with having it finished basically just now, and try to watch it through your own rating system and not let my thoughts influence yours.

Also I think I neglected to mention that the dialect used in this anime is REALLY AMAZING.

Shinreigari: Ghost Hound is a 22 episodes long Psychological/Mystery anime by Production IG that came out in 2007. After i finished it just recently, my first thought was: "Man, i can´t believe it took me so long until i finally watched this!"

However...this show centers around three high school boys with traumatic experiences in the past, who try to solve a mysterious puzzle in the small mountain village of Suiten.

I was mentally prepared for a brainf*** since Ghost Hound was created by the same guy who did Ghost in the Shell and a few important staff members also worked on Serial Experiments Lain. Nevertheless, despite ... being heavily influenced by psychoanalysis in the first half and a mix of mainly spirituality and a bit of theoretical physics in the second half, the story is actually not too hard to follow if you pay full attention.

It is a really fascinating story that completely drew me in right from the start with it´s somewhat dark and spooky appearance. The at first seemingly multiple plotlines come together to form one gigantic puzzle in a smart and sometimes unexpected way. Shinreigari also uses multiple "unpleasant" sound effects to add to the atmosphere and to get the viewer out of his cmfort zone even more.

The biggest strenght of Ghost Hound in my opinion are the many important supporting characters. Each of them are portrayed in such a way that they could possibly turn into a pro- or antagonist at any given point as it is unclear what their own interests and intentions are. The character development is simply brillant, especially that of our main girl Miyako.

The show also offers a few unusual but great "extras" as it calls the episodes not episodes but "focuses" and titles every focus after a scientific term. The preview of the next focus after the ending credits is always accompanied by a brief summary of an important moment in the history of science and/or psychoanalysis. What´s more, once you start this series you have a hard time to stop your session as Ghost Hound offers hands down some of the best cliffhangers i have ever come across.

The quality of animation is crystal clear for 2007 standards and shouldn´t really upset anyone who stumbles across the show eight years later like myself. The ending song is beautiful, the jazz-like opening is very different from most anime OPs but in my opinion does not fit the show at all.

Overall i, enjoyed Shinregari GHOST HOUND at lot. I marathoned it in just three sessions and i would definetly recommend marathoning this rather then watching it at a slow pace. So if you are in the mood for something darker, make sure you don´t miss this!

I give it a 9 out of 10.

I'm not rating this anime because I'm not doing a usual 'full' review, I've dropped the show and I just wanted to get a few thoughts out

I picked up this show because ages ago I wanted some zombie shows, found Ga Rai Zero as a supernatural show, and a couple of weeks ago wanted more supernatural shows. Now, admittedly, this show has supernatural elements (about episode 4) and it is labelled as a psychological thriller. But that's the point I don't like. I want to warn people now, if you want to go in to this show spoiler-free, STOP READING NOW.
It uses PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress ... Disorder, for people who don't know) as it's psychological hook. And that's the point. Even shows like Paprika and Paranoia Agent use other 'supernatural' elements other than elements of mental illnesses while Ghost Hound tries to spook or at least make the viewer uncomfortable by showing dreams that are similar to visions or dreams of PTSD sufferers. I'm sorry but if I wanted to know about PTSD, I'd ask my friend who went through a tough point in her life, or I'd research it, I WOULDN'T watch a show. I'm making it sound like more of a big deal than it is, but it's just jarring expecting a thriller from supernatural elements yet the main hook is a real mental illness that many can imagine and that's probably the problem. Supernatural thrillers, um, thrill because they seem unimaginable. PTSD IS imaginable.

I kind of have mixed feelings towards Ghost Hound. Being into MindF$#k type animes like Lain and Higurashi the plot immediately intrigued me. The eerie opening with the song Poltergeist was one of the few selective openings I didn't skip over after a few episodes(it set the mood). Now on the topic of the story, I really enjoyed the complex plot. The art is dark and well-done which definitely adds to the creepy element(which hardly lets off until the latter episodes). The sound in this anime is definitely it's strong point. It could be called brilliant in terms of building up ... suspense(I constantly had shivers sent down my spine throughout). In addition to that, the ending is pretty well done. The character development is also good especially with the three main characters. Each episode kept me wanting more which is surprising due to the slower pacing of the story. I remember finding myself at episode six wondering how are they going to fill 22 episodes. That might be just because I lack imagination. But anyways, the only obvious letdown of the story to me would be the ending. Which I felt was abrupt and left me with a few unanswered questions. In that sense, Ghost Hound left me a little empty(But hey, it could of been worse). All in all, nothing short of an enjoyable series(enough to write a review on it).