DVD Review- Ghost Hunt, Season 1 Part 1
Rating: 
Out of my current crop of review titles, the biggest and most pleasant surprise has been Funimation’s release of the first half of Ghost Hunt. As you can infer from the title, the series is about the adventures of a Japanese ghost-hunting team. Half the team’s members are, predictably, teenagers, but Shibuya Psychic Research is no after-school club. It’s a fully equipped paranormal research organization, and presents a pretty accurate portrayal of modern ghost hunting techniques.
Mai Taniyama is a regular high school girl. She likes staying after school to swap ghost stories with her friends, especially ones about the old abandoned schoolhouse down the street. One afternoon, on her way home, she stops to peer into the building’s windows and is surprised to see a video camera in the empty foyer. She goes in to investigate, unwittingly causing an accident that injures a man hiding in the shadows. His name is Lin, and he’s the assistant to the head of Shibuya Psychic Research-SPR for short. His boss is Kazuya Shibuya, the 17 year old owner and CEO of SPR. Since Lin is out of commission for a while and the camera is destroyed, Shibuya informs Mai that she’ll be taking Lin’s place until he can work again. Mai agrees, partly because she feels guilty and partly because she thinks Shibuya is hot. After only a few days of working for him, though, Mai comes to learn he’s almost unbearably cold and arrogant. She nicknames him ‘Naru’-an abbreviation of narcissist. The name catches on, and soon even loyal Lin is calling him Naru.
Their first client is the principal of Mai’s school, who wants them to investigate reports of a deadly curse on the abandoned schoolhouse. They find he’s hired four other people to get rid of any evil spirits haunting the building. Ayako, a self-styled Shinto shrine maiden; Masako, a famous medium; a former Buddhist monk, simply called Monk; and an Australian priest named John Brown. The group reluctantly agrees to work together to exorcise the school, but even as they perform their various rites Naru insists that the poltergeist-like incidents have a natural cause, and Masako agrees with him. Mai doesn’t know what to think, until a mysterious dream offers her insight to the case. The resolution is unusual, even for a ghost story.
SPR’s next assignment is a haunted house whose resident ghost seems to have it in for children-a fact of concern to the residents, who have an 8 year old daughter. Much of the supernatural phenomena centers around the girl’s creepy china doll. This case proves to be far more dangerous than the first, and Mai nearly ends up dead.
The series’ third story arc takes place in another school, this time an occupied high school. It seems Monk is in a band, and one of his teenage groupies has tipped him off to a variety of weird events going on in her school, none of them easily connected. This story delves deeper into a uniquely Japanese type of magic.
What follows that is a short, humorous story about a jilted female ghost taking revenge on strolling lovers in a city park. Masako and Mai are caught up in a rivalry for Naru’s attention, but in the end everything works out.
The last story arc is the most emotionally wrenching. This time John asks SPR for help on Christmas Eve. The children living in a church-run orphanage are being possessed, one after another, by the spirit of a little boy who disappeared from there forty years before. As the SPR members try to figure out what the boy’s spirit wants, he takes hold of one of them.
The most obvious influence on Ghost Hunt is the American series The X-Files. The X-Files was mostly episodic and featured two FBI agents who investigated a wide variety of paranormal occurrences. But Ghost Hunt has no overarching conspiracy story arcs, and the cases take more than one episode to solve (story arcs usually last 2-4 episodes). Unlike The X-Files, Ghost Hunt’s cases are always neatly wrapped up, with no loose ends.
The characters of Ghost Hunt are a collection of clichés from other anime, but are imbued with enough individualism that they don’t become flat or tiresome. Mai is the sweet, funny main character with a will of steel and a great deal of spunk, but when a ghost actually shows up she’ll squeal and tremble faster than those TAPS guys. Refreshingly, she doesn’t try to deny her attraction to Naru.
Lin is the tall, silent type. Ayako is the brash, abrasive chick with a heart of gold. Masako is serious and demure, but does little to hide her pursuit of Naru. Monk is the good-natured, easygoing frat boy who bickers constantly with Ayako but treats the others like younger siblings. John Brown is undoubtedly going to end up on the bottom of any yaoi fanfics written about the show: he’s short, blonde, nineteen, and eager to please and help others.
Then there’s Naru. Mai may be right about his arrogance, but surely he’d hiding some painful secret that has forced him to hide his feelings. He must be a good guy at heat, right?
Well, readers, if he is I haven’t seen any sign of it yet. Naru is a dick. He’s rude, arrogant, and belittles Mai constantly (he begins every explanation of paranormal phenomena with, “I’ll say this simply so Mai can understand…”. He’s insanely self-absorbed ass well; in one scene Mai faints, and Naru, who’s standing right next to her, makes no move to catch her (Don’t worry; Monk runs over to keep her from getting a concussion). You have to wonder why a sensible kid like Mai is so stuck on such a jerk.
Ghost Hunt is presented in a widescreen format. The style it’s shot in has a rather retro feel; much use is made of a split-screen technique (remember in the Gundam series when the screen is split ten different ways to show the reactions of everyone in a group? That’s used a lot in Ghost Hunt). Simultaneous action is sometimes shown in smaller boxes on the screen-think Ang Lee’s Hulk. The technique is novel, but can be distracting. Luckily, it doesn’t show up often. Funimation’s done a solid job with both the dubbed and subtitled versions. While I noticed a few typos in the subs (one of my pet peeves when it comes to subbed anime), they weren’t any more common than they are in any other subbed anime. English dubs have become increasingly believable in recent years, and Ghost Hunt is no exception.
The show’s animation is clean and bright. The character designs are typical of shoujo art; Naru might be a refugee from Fruits Basket, and Monk looks like he wandered over from the set of WeiB Kreuz.
The series’ opening and ending themes are both instrumental. The opening has a mischievous feeling about it, like an excerpt from the soundtrack of a Harry Potter movie. The ending theme is slower and more contemplative, with a sad, subdued violin solo.
When it comes to new anime, Ghost Hunt is one of the best. I absolutely recommend it for anyone with an interest in the paranormal, and with the second half of season coming out November 18th; you won’t have to wait long for the rest of it.
Details
Publisher: Funimation
Director: Rei Mano
Stars: 5
Running Time: 325 minutes
MPAA Rating: N/R
MSRP: $49.98
Release Date: 10/07/2008
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