Seelie Reviews: Ghost Hound

In the middle of nowhere Japan lives our main woobie, a boy named Taro Komori. Despite the fact that his family owns a big sake brewery, life isn't so fun for Taro. He is still dealing with disturbing nightmares and has to go to therapy regularly, because 11 years ago, he and his sister, Mizuka, were kidnapped. The sister, unfortunately, did not survive the event.

The beginning of this plot focuses on his trauma and also that of two other students, Masayuki, the cocky and well-informed Tokyo transfer student, and Makoto, the sullen rebel whose deceased father was widely believed to have been involved in the incident.

While these three are doing some not entirely advisable screwing around in an abandoned (and, might I add, creepy as hell) hospital, they accidently become separated from their bodies and discover the wonderful world of soul traveling (and some small doses of mind-screw). They become keyed into the Hidden Realm and learn that there is more to their town than meets the eye.

Also thrown in the mix are a couple of crime organizations, a cult, and an ultra secretive Bio lab.

One of the interesting things about this anime is that ghosts are not the only thing going on. Yes there's the the cult etc. but much of the early series really cares more about real psychology than it does about parapsychology. It explores actual Out of Body Experiences and lesser known disorders like Capgrass syndrome. This is actually a moderately useful psychology study aid. (Sure, you may know all about the Amygdala already, but having a scene in a show to stick it with is really helpful).

The characters were very sympathetic and well executed for the most part, but occasionally I was a little suspicious of their development. Masayuki's trauma in particular just got lost after a while, and all the things we learned about his past only sort of mattered in the long run. This was a crying shame, because he had the potential to be the most interesting of the three guys. Everyone else though is very well done.

Masayuki is such a good friend... When he's not convincing you to do anything life-threatening 

The art for this series is extraordinary. The eyes have this strange glassy sheen which I actually quite like. Heck, I even sort of like the baby shaped sprit forms our boys take, because it does seem to want to tell us something. The only problem with it is that it gets instantly harder to tell our main guys apart. The backgrounds are lush and beautiful. Water is particularly well represented. We don't have that blue twinkling mass which is normally quite sufficient to convey this illusion. We got that rippling, not-any-color-in-particular mass that we actually see in the Hudson.

I heard recently that some of the talent behind Serial Experiments Lain was involved in this effort, and while this is not a mind screw per-se, it shows. I never finished Lain, but there is one scene that I know I've seen there before. Though I do have to give Ghost Hound credit for using the Hunting of the Snark for its Lewis Carol reference instead of the more obvious choice.

Either the dub or the sub will work reasonably well. The dub can come in handy when people are getting technical on us, but the sub is helpful if you actually want to know how to spell all that stuff. The other nice thing about this dub is that it hasn't got any of the Funimation people in it, so if you're getting tired of the same old thing but still want a decent dub, this will work nicely.

This nightmare will return in your nightmares

The music in this series is very pretty, and the opening and ender are extremely good. However, this wonderful music is not always used to advantage. Remember how in my glance of [C] I was explaining that good music can dictate exactly what emotional response the viewer is supposed to get? There are times when they do this fairly well, but towards the end this use begins to flag. The last few episodes of this series can't build tension worth a darn. Maybe this was the point, but it was strange.

Which brings me to my major sticking point with the series. Tension did show up occasionally, but almost never in in the last few episodes. Sure they brought in a lot of elements that should have been extremely nerve-racking, but they almost never worked. The characters never seemed as worried as they should have been, finding room for cross-dressing humor of all things even at what should have been the climactic moments of the plot. Throw this is with an over-all philosophy that says "Well I guess all of this wasn't a coincidence, but not even the author knows why!" and you end up with something that is honestly completely satisfying and engrossing... until the last few episodes.

But honestly, it's only those last episodes that are bad. Everything else is extremely good and original (even the "last time on" and preview segments were done in ways that I have never seen before).

Another problem I had with this series personally, but which isn't nearly as catastrophic, is one particular inaccuracy. You might be thinking "Have a heart, Seelie. It's really hard to keep your facts straight and make it a fantasy." I would completely agree with you. The problem is that this inaccuracy is not an avoidance of the laws of physics (it isn't an action title after all). Nor is it some piece of neuro-scientific trivia: as far as I can tell, they got that all right. The thing they forgot was doctor-patient confidentiality. The thing that makes this particularly bad is that the psychologist actual explains to Taro that his office is a safe environment and then proceeds to tell anyone who will listen about his cases. It is never treated as a breach of protocol and he is *never* called on it. It just bothered me.

Plot: B (those last few episodes took it down considerably)
Characters: A-
Visuals: A + (Both well executed and, at times, daring)
Music: B+


Overall: low A-

An original piece of work that has all the makings of something utterly fantastic but which falls flat on the last few episodes and doesn't develop its characters particularly realistically or interestingly. It has little trouble drawing in the intelligent viewer, but when it disappoints, it really disappoints.