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
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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.
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Jun 14, 2021
Shinreigari
(Anime)
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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 ... Previous - |
