Title: Ghost Hound
Published by: Siren Visual (Australia / New Zealand)
Based on: Original Anime Series
Genre: Supernatural, Science Fiction and Psychological thriller
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Runtime: 600 minutes
Cost: $79.95
Classification: This title has been classified M for Medium Level Violence
Blurb: Taking a step in a different direction, Ghost Hound is far different from your normal anime series, where the storyline is serious, the three main characters are not necessarily friends yet share a common goal at unraveling the mysteries of Suiten. The storyline is very interesting, making way for the presentation of theories in psychology and physics to be presented and the supernatural elements are also a creative addition to the mix. There is a vast variety of characters each who receive varied levels of development. The design quality is an acquired taste but by the end you will enjoy it as much as the music track.
Special Thanks: Siren Visual PR Team for providing me with a review sample of this title.
Tired of another anime series that uses the same or female characters with breasts so large that they are provide a perfect form of buoyancy whenever they are in the water? How about instead watching a 22 episode series that not only provides a serious storyline with some supernatural elements, but dives into academia? Ghost Hound offers a unique watching experience that very few animes manage to deliver and if so, might not necessarily pull it off without having the viewers fall asleep. This title was once available in two volume releases but now available in one big collection – so if you have been holding back, now might be the chance to check this series out. Curious about it? Read on to find out in my review of Ghost Hound.
In the small town of Suiten, three boys discover they can transwer their souls to a parallel world. Each had traumatic child hood experiences: Taro Komori who is haunted by the death of his sister eleven years ago, Makoto Ogami who is traumatized by his fathers suicide and Masayuki Nakajima who is tormented by the suicide of a classmate he once bullied.
Together they attempt to unravel the mysteries of their outer-body experiences and gain new perspectives on their unusual lives as they grow towards adulthood and attempt to reconcile with the darkness of their collective past. When ‘ghosts’ from their unseen world manifest in their apparent ‘reality’, their lives reveal further mystery.
As I mentioned in the pre-review blurb, this is a serious series that focuses on both the supernatural and the natural, in an attempt to deliver a viewing experience that you may not get in any other series. The story originally starts with Taro Komori, a middle-schooler who to this day, remains traumatized with dreams relating to the death of his older sister when they were both kidnapped eleven years prior. Due to this, he is receiving counselling with a psychologist and desires to see his sister again, or at least remember what she said to him prior to passing away.
This is where the storyline spreads off on its unique paths. The three main boys in this story each have their own roles in the storyline, which intermingle with each other which each having the unique ability to “soul travel”, a form of out of body experience which allows them to interact with the hidden realm after deciding to travel to the hospital where both Taro and his sister were kidnapped, which is at the bottom of a dam and subject to the belief that the building is cursed. If you add in the sixth grade daughter of the local priest who whilst not soul travelling, has her own premonitions, you have a mixed bag of characters each with their own storylines to follow.
The storylines for each character are different, so they are quite often left on their own or with other secondary characters to deal with their problems. Not only is there the incident with the kidnapping that need to be resolved, but also plots surrounding the dam project, a fathers suicide immediately after the events of the kidnapping, the Bio-tech corporation and their research and a religious sect are just some of the more toned down elements of this story that feature predominantly.
With the exception of the three main male characters, there is a creative group of different characters each with their own role in the series. These range from the towns priest Takahito who is worried about his daughter’s change in personalities alongside the his daughter Miyako who has the ability to sense spirits to Taro’s psychologist Hirata and the neurologist Reika who whilst attempting to put all this down to a neurological cause, get drawn into the supernatural elements as the storyline progresses. The only issue with all the characters, is that many of their storylines are left open without a proper ending, which may leave you disappointed if you prefer a full conclusion to a series that most probably won’t be receiving another series.
If your head hurts whenever someone starts talking about physics or psychology, this will not be the series for you, as you will find yourself being lectured on the anatomy of the brain, psychological treatments, theories in various fields and so forth not just casually, but five to ten minutes worth at a time. I don’t really study fields such as psychology much, but from what I do know, their research was rather accurate – something I would expect from a series directed by Ryutaro Nakamura (Serial Experiments Lain) and created by Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell). Overall however, it is an engaging storyline that sets itself apart from other anime series – and does well in doing so!
First of all I have just noticed that there was a Blu-ray release of this title released by Sentai Filmworks in North America, as I think this series is one that would benefit from having one, let me pout for a minute…. … … DONE! To first mention the environment designs, I love them. The series utilizes both dark and light environments to great effect, often using them to set the mood of the scene the characters are in. From a distance, the mountains look like they have been done intricately with a fine paint brush whilst the closer to character environments are often very well designed with plenty of wildlife or other little pieces of detail which show they have not been lazy with designing them. Sure there isn’t that much they can do with a rural town to be unique, but it is nice none the less.
The character designs are nothing special but they do the job well with the odd change in clothing designs. The spirits however are a great use of CGI artwork. The three boys originally start out as small purple creatures which are differentiated by their eyes and voices and are actually clever in showing the frail state of their original attempts at soul travelling, whilst allowing them to do more things as their skills are enhanced. The other spirits are a mixture of realistic creature or organism designs to creepier lots of “slime” or distorted monsters which are creative in their own way. Another interesting piece of design was the use of brain scans and CGI brain designs to get a certain neurological concept across, and from my limited knowledge in the area, was quite anatomically correct.
Opening Sequence
Poltergeist by Mayumi Kojima
The first time I watched this song I skipped over it as I thought it would be the complete opposite to my music tastes. However, I persevered and watched the opening sequence all the way through… and for the following 20 episodes. The song both has both a serious tone and upbeat tone, generally increasing as the song progresses and has suitable lyrics for the show. The animation is a mixture of in-episode footage and unique footage to this opening and they worked together well.
Ending Sequence
Call My Name ~Kazenari no Oka~ by Yucca
This is not a bad song by any means, and is most probably more suited to this series then Poltergeist was, however the actual animation included was rather bland.
If there was one element of the series that is better then the storyline it would be the music and sound. The music diversity isn’t that great but the music is well suited to the theme and mood of the series – but this isn’t the winning element to it. It is all the little bits and pieces of music and sound effects that they use to make it special. For example, in every episode preview the characters talk in distorted and muffled voices – if a voice at all. The frequent effects of a radio tuning to sounds of a guitar or bass really do work well overall with the series. The voice cast might not have been anything stellar but I found them to be more then suitable for their roles. Clint Bickham who I do not believe I have heard in a series before does a brilliant job at Taro whilst Brittney Karbowski and Josh Grelle do equally suitable jobs as Miyako and Makoto, but the true winner was Corey Hartzog, another voice actor I am not familiar with but does a great job at the many personalities of Masayuki.
The actual complete series collection comes in one of their big slipcases – keeping with their tradition of most anime series regardless of size coming in a slipcase. The quality of the slipcase is the same as most of their others, if not a bit more flexible to fit two DVD covers in. Out of all the artwork they had I would have perhaps not chosen that one as a cover art but hey, it works. Inside are two DVD covers that are the same design in both cover and contents as the individual volume releases. The cover art is nice and features all the four main characters whilst the disc art differs for each disc and generally well designed. Their packaging is really good but their included extras are lacking – however they still kindly include some trailers on each disc and a clean opening and ending sequence which is better then nothing.
I am always on the hunt for anime series that provide a more unique storyline then usual, and Ghost Hound did not disappoint me one bit. This is a series for those who might want a more word intensive storyline and not for those who want a relaxing storyline where they might not have to think as hard or learn much. But if you ignore the one or two slight areas that could have used improving – you have a storyline that will provide you with 600 minutes of interesting storyline and might come out of it learning something new in a field you might have never thought about researching.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: A
Design: B+
OP/ED Sequences: A-
Music/Voice Acting: A
Packaging/Extras: B
Personal Opinion: A
Overall Score: A
