June 12, 2012
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SERIES REVIEW: Ghost Hound (2007-2008)
22 Episodes
GENRE: Japanese Supernatural Suspense Anime
SUMMARY: Three young high school students survive three separate traumatic events in their youths. As they explore their pasts to put together what may have happened they realize that they have strange spiritual powers to explore the hidden spiritual realm. They use this power to investigate the recent strange happenings of their small Japanese village.
REVIEW: The art was good and the characters alright but the real star of this show was the storytelling. The closest show I can easily compare it to is Mushi-Shi. Much like Mushi-Shi, Ghost Hound explores a Shinto-based spiritual realm of forest gods, but has a much more creepy feel to it as ghosts are involved as well. Furthermore, the plot carries from episode to episode instead of being more episodic. I wouldn't call it a scary or horror-driven show, but it is eerily haunting and creepy. The director does a superb job of portraying the thematic world of Ghost Hound and I for one thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending was satisfactory but not as good as the rest of the show.
ART: 8/10
PLOT & STORYTELLING: 9/10
CHARACTERS: 6/10
OVERALL: 8/10