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small image Anime Review – Ghost Hunt

April 17, 2012 1:53 am by small image

First and foremost, hiatus lift! I apologize for being away for such a long time. It’s been a hell semester for me which practically brought my social life down to level zero. As such, I couldn’t even squeeze in some time to watch me some anime. Boohoo~ Anyhow, I’m now back online with a little horror/suspense treat from the past: Ghost Hunt.

The horror/suspense genre has been one of the most enduring genres when it comes to anime. The results simply vary with the effectiveness of execution. Ghost Hunt, I think, is one of those that effectively gave the genre justice and passed with flying colors. The story starts off with Mai, your average high school girl — “average” not only in terms of looks but also in…well, in everything. Her clumsiness causes Lin’s injury. All would’ve been fine, however, Lin happens to be Naru’s assistant. Who’s Naru, you ask. Well, he’s a narcissistic, arrogant ghost hunter who also happens to be the male protagonist of the series.

What makes Ghost Hunt effective is its interesting cases. Since it runs more on arc-based fuel, there really isn’t an over-arching, complicated plot that ties everything together. This being the case, one only has the various cases Naru’s team solves to keep them glued to the show. Well, there is also the development of Mai’s apparently latent ESP, but apart from that, that’s mostly it. Despite the seeming lack of character development whatsoever, Ghost Hunt somehow managed to keep me interested until the very end. First, because of the cases. Second, because of the diverse characters. Even if they were pretty…plain, they were fun characters and they represented different branches of…er, divination. Moving on, the last factor that made it for me was the wealth of information. PK-MT! PK-LT! PK-ST! Porutahgaisuto! These kinds of stuff are always interesting. ^^

Compared to shows of the same genre nowadays, Ghost Hunt’s formula made it effective. Although it had a minimal set of characters, the cases they handled were all attention-grabbing that you’ll definitely look forward to the next case. A definite classic, Ghost Hunt is one of the shows that should be added to anyone’s horror/suspense anime list.

Update: Heya, guys! Feel free to check out my No. 6 review here~ Thank you. :3

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13 Comments »

  • Cholisose

    I absolutely love Ghost Hunt. It’s a wonderful blend of horror, mystery, and shoujo, and manages to give a rather unique feel to every story arc of the series. I was very impressed by just how different each story was, and how the wonderful cast of characters were the glue that held the series together.
    I particularly liked how each character represented a different take on the world of ghost-hunting. Naru and Lin employed very scientific and technological methods in their efforts, while the others simultaneously relied on religious/spiritual methods (eg there was a spirit medium, a Shinto priestess, a Buddhist monk, and a Catholic priest). There was no way better than any other–in fact, most cases required the assistance of everyone in some form.
    One nice thing about the animation: the team behind Ghost Hunt kept track of everything the characters wear. Most of the characters have different outfits they wear from day to day, and I believe there are even instances of some pairing past articles of clothing with new ones.

    The manga goes on past the plot of the anime, and I hope to read it some day. (The anime unfortunately ends just as we’re starting to find out new things about Naru and Mai.) Overall though I never had any complaints about Ghost Hunt. I kind of want to rewatch it some time soon now…

    • fanaddict22

      Exactly. What makes Ghost Hunt really stand out from other shows, and what makes it different from anime of the same genre nowadays, is its diversity — not only in its characters but also in its cases. As I’ve said, they’re really engaging. ^^

      And yes, it is frustrating that it had to end when things were only being revealed about those two. (• ε •)

  • Tsubasa

    AHHHHHH I have this one downloaded, but haven’t been able to watch it yet!!! I’m looking forward to it though- it seems so unusual :)

    • fanaddict22

      -keke- Go, go and watch it~! The interesting cases will definitely get you! +_+

  • http://leap250.wordpress.com/ Leap250

    I should’ve watched this when I had the chance >.< (downloaded the entire series back when I wasn't all that into dubs, then I found out I had the English dubbed version)

    Still, a rag-tag team of varying styles of ghost busting sounds like my kind of thing ^^

    • fanaddict22

      lol. I would’ve been discouraged too if I got the dubbed version. I’m not really that enthusiastic when it comes to dubbed versions. ^^”

      Yes, it is! So go forth and download it again! XDD

  • Ultima

    Ever since Another aired, I’ve been really interested in horror anime. I haven’t heard of Ghost Hunt until now, and it looks like it aired a couple of years ago (so maybe that’s why it’s not well-known to me).

    On a slightly unrelated note, I started playing the Visual Novel for Higurashi no naku koro ni in hopes to get my horror fix :D

    Did you watch this from a stream? Or did you download the series?

    • fanaddict22

      Er, well, yes, Senpai. It’s kinda old. -keke- I watched from the DVD I bought that was sitting miserably on my pile. XDD Plus, my sister kept on bugging me to watch it so I did. :3

      Oooh~ Is it good? My sister watched the series and she’s all “What the hell happened” at the ending. XDD

      • Ultima

        Damn, I was going to ask where could I watch this since I believe Shinsen-subs for some reason took down the files. Most likely because it’s licensed.

        I haven’t seen Higurashi yet, currently trying to finish the Visual novel first. I did hear it was a really good series though.

        • Cholisose

          The DVD set for Ghost Hunt is actually quite affordable at only about 20 dollars. But yeah, I would suggest watching a subbed version at least–I didn’t really like the English dub for this show much.

          I really enjoyed playing through the demo of the Higurashi visual novel. Sadly, the translation was quite poorly done (with grammar and spelling errors everywhere), so I didn’t feel inclined to buy the full product. The manga is amazing though (released in English by Yen Press)–every story arc is very well-written and thoroughly gripping. I intend to watch the anime some day as well, to see how that fares…

        • fanaddict22

          @Ultima: Er, well, in the Philippines, there’s such a thing as pirated DVDs. -keke- You can ask Leap about it. XDD YES, YES, I know it’s bad but…T^T It’s where I get me anime fix. :3

          I guess it is quite good since my sister wanted to watch it again. ^^

          @Cho: Please refer to previous comment regarding the DVD issue. -keke- I’ve always preferred the subbed versions over the dubbed ones. They just sound so…wrong to me. XDD

          Oh. I’ve never tried visual novels before. T^T

  • Cholisose

    @Fanaddict – The Funimation DVDs come with both options–Japanese with English subtitles, and English dub. Like I said, I prefer the subtitles for this show as well.

    • fanaddict22

      Oooh. I see. I don’t think they sell Funimation DVDs here in the Philippines, though. :3