Ghost Hunt: Season 1, Part 1
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DVD details
Brand: FunimationDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 325 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-10-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Funimation Prod
DVD Reviews of Ghost Hunt: Season 1, Part 1
DVD Review: Even Subbed I Still Love Ghost Hunt
Summary: 5 Stars
So, this is the DVD made from the manga which was made from the original novel . . . confusing enough?
Actually, it's awesome. The character design is good, the Japanese voice acting is excellent, and the super-suspenseful music will make you want to run screaming from the room. At least if you're as big a chicken as I am.
The show itself reminds me of the X-Files with a bit of Scooby-Doo thrown in, as *utterly* bizarre as that sounds. Scooby-Doo because there's *some* humor between the characters (about half of which are still teenagers) and, well, they have a van and drive around to different locations solving mysteries. (Well, okay -- only Lin drives the van full of equipment, but the girls *are* prone to falling down wells and/or standing around flipping their hair.)
Ghost Hunt's overall vibe *mostly* reminds me of the X-Files because each case really is a mystery -- something's obviously going on, but what? Is it really supernatural? Is it an evil spirit? A curse? Or just an elaborate hoax? And this is largely Naru's job -- to walk around looking serious, collecting evidence, building theories and trying to come up with solutions. Everyone else is largely along to assist him, provide comic relief, and to run-screaming-in-terror/come-running-to-the-rescue when creepy things jump out and try to kill you. And since Naru-tachi manages to pick up a "self-proclaimed Miko", a celebrity medium, a Catholic priest/exorcist and a hot, bass playing, part-time Buddhist Monk, you'll be up to your eyeballs in Japanese rituals and holy water. And that's not even counting the surprises that continually pop out. Spoon bending, anyone?
So, if you liked the scarier and more suspenseful X-Files episodes and find the mystery of what's-really-going-on to be appealing, you should definitely give these a try. If you're a hard core horror fan, these will probably do nothing for you, as they're more suspense and mystery than outright horror.
As for age -- I wouldn't recommend Ghost Hunt for kids young enough to be prone to nightmares, though some arcs are definitely scarier than others. I showed the Doll House arc (which is on this disc) to a group of tween girls, and while the oldest one *loved* it, the younger two were a little leary of going out to their moms' cars without someone else coming along. (I would *not* show the Urado arc on Part 2 to anyone under 13, but since it comes with the other disc set for the show, that's not really a problem.)
As for the English dub . . . well, it's an English dub. If you like dubbed anime, you'll probably like it just fine. Personally, I strongly prefer the subs and truthfully, prefer the fansubs to what I've seen on this disc. Part of it's just personal preference, but partially it's because they had to change up bits of the story to make it work in English. In the original, they laugh at John (who's from Australia) because he learned Japanese in the Kansai area and thinks that speaking in a heavy Kansai dialect is more polite. In English, they just have him speak in a terrible Australian accent and use terrible Australian tropes ("G'day!") as an excuse for the laughing. Not totally horrible, just weird.
There's also a running theme involving intimacy and honorifics in the original that gets completely lost in English, but that's not unusual either.
Now, does this matter? If you don't know anything about Japanese honorifics and the intimacy (or rudeness) involved in not using -san or -kun or -chan or whatever, then it really doesn't matter. Me -- I like to know these things and the English, by necessity, has to gloss over it. They also have to gloss over little language related hints about Naru's past, like him complaining about how bad Mai's English is and his inability to read kanji. But since they don't make it far enough into the series to *do* anything with the hints, I don't know how much that matters, either. I haven't sat down and re-watched all the episodes, but they seem to have tried to leave most of the honorifics/language based plot intact for the subs -- John still speaks with a ridiculous Kansai accent and the world is good again.
On the whole, I really love this anime. It's just scary enough for me to watch on a cold, windy night and still be able to sleep. (Well, except for the Urado arc, but all bets are off for that one.) This two disc set includes the "Evil Spirits Everywhere?!" opening arc, where everyone meets and gets to know each other, the creepy "Doll House" arc, the enthralling "After School Hexer", the hilarious stand alone "Ghost Story in the Park" and the melancholy "Silent Christmas". Thankfully they including the full arcs, so there's no partials among the thirteen episodes.
The Part 2 disc set should include the other half of the extant series. Hopefully if enough people buy the discs, they might make another season. Which would be fabulous since there were some pretty incredible reveals in the last arc, some of which had been hinted at since the very beginning. Other clues to Naru's secret backstory are left completely unresolved by the sudden series ending, so while there are plenty of good mysteries, don't expect any kind of metaplot wrap up at the end.
Description of Ghost Hunt: Season 1, Part 1
Studio: Funimation Prod Inc Release Date: 10/07/2008Bestsellers in DVD
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