Shinreigari

Ghost Hound is a Supernatural, Psychological, Horror, Mystery, Drama series, produced by the critically acclaimed “Production I.G.” studio. Unlike most horror series that feature plenty of shocking, gory moments and psychological dramas that show the absurd, extremes of the human psyche; Ghost Hounds goes for a more technical approach. Sadly this leads to a great series with an incredibly complex story. It is about four different kids who have suffered from different traumatic events; in their past and now have the ability to traverse this “unseen world”. That’s just the initial plot of the series and as the story begins, you will see abunch of stuff and have no idea what on earth is going on. Slowly but surely, little bits of this mysterious and uncanny story are revealed and during this process you’ll be force fed a lot of psychological terminology. Yet it still takes some time for the story to become somewhat interesting. Then you’ll be able to enjoy the series, as it develops into a sensational experience, whilst learning a fair bit of neurology, psychology and Japanese folklore. At the same time it is easy to consider dropping the series, for those who are unable to get into it. The animation quality of this anime was superb, having an extraordinary amount of detail put into the little-less things and with interesting, surreal surroundings when expressing the unseen world. The characters were well designed and moved fluidly but the pale colour tones did make some look unappealing. At least the rich environments and scenery made up for the short comings. It was pretty tricky to judge this anime on the quality of the sound, because there wasn’t much there. During the weird apparitions and flashbacks there was a great deal of weird SFX used, to which is perfect for setting the creepy mood. However with barely any music at all, in the end, it just sounded pretty bland. Overall this is a mildly interesting anime showing the parallels of the psychological and the supernatural however other than the technical aspects of this anime (e.g. animation), this series can be a pretty dull and lifeless experience. With so much terminology to take in, anyone can feel like dropping this at any moment and going for a much easier show to understand. But the series does become fairly interesting to watch later on, when things become clearer and the story finally start to move forward. So before watching this series you’ll have to think to yourself, “Is this the type of series I would enjoy?” ^_^

REVIEW CONTAIN CONCLUSIVE SPOILER For the first half of the show, Ghost Hound have got everything right, from the creepy soundtrack that formed its designated atmosphere to the countryside setting that we're so fond of in horror anime. The series gave off the same kind of atmosphere that Higurashi and Shiki gave me, which shows how great it was directed. The unique camera angle amplifying the creepy tone of the series to a level where "horror" would be one of the appropriate genre for the series while the colorful and unique representation of the "hidden world" surely did its job to allow the viewers to seethe story in a more frightening way, making them more prone to the dark assumptions that viewers can't help but to make in a series like this. The pacing was perfect in almost every way, just enough room to maintain a balanced space, captivating the viewers with various thrilling experiences and allowing them to make assumption about what will happen next, whether its the horrifying secrets that the three main characters would find out about their past or the problems that forms around their morbid town. The show does maintain a large cast near the end of the series but all of them were thoroughly developed, what also support this is the three main characters as they were interesting to a certain point where seeing their interaction as they help each other uncover the secret to their past is one of the main focus, for both the series and its viewers. While the series does maintain a great sense of atmosphere and characters development, its ending fall short to what most viewer would have assumed for it to played out. Near the end of the series, the original plot (Solve Taro's past trauma, who did what and the various morbid discoveries that each character would discover as they delve deeper into the past and the "hidden world"), was left behind to be replaced with two new ones, which unfortunately ruin the ending for me, as these two new plot line have almost nothing to be relevant with the original purpose of the story, sure there were some connection here and there but it was far too fragile to be in truthful relation with the original story, it just felt like the show tried to expand its storytelling limit and failed pretty bad, resulting in the undesirable answer to the whole affair about Taro's kidnapping incident as the viewers only received a happy and simple resolution to the the scary kidnapping that was so well presented that it should have made most viewers expecting something a little bit more shudder worthy. Overall Ghost Hound was a very well played out series from beginning... to the middle, for the way that the ending was told results in a total lost of the original plot. But don't get me wrong, if you're really into thrillers and the like, this series must be on your "plan to watch" or "completed" list because, ending aside, the series did a great job of presenting itself as a psychological thriller in many ways.

I just finished watching this anime and it wasn't good. It leaves the audience feeling incomplete as there are a lot of questions left unanswered, and also with a heavy sense of disappointment. When the last episode ended the first thing that came to my mind was, "...ok...so...is that it?". I'd only recommend this anime to people who don't really want to be drawn and hooked to an anime, but those who are just wanting something to pass the time with and have absolutely nothing better to do. (I hate being this harsh, but it really wasn't good) Story: 4 Let me just start off by sayingthat the concept of the story was promising and deeply intriguing. However, despite this there was bad linkage, poor pace, and a very poorly thought out conclusion. Let me explain. The anime is about 3 boys who become friends and start to experience soul traveling through a series of events. The beginning is quite promising as the main protagonists all have interesting dark backgrounds, and the authors also utilize very dark themes such as suicide, and the occult. However, despite all these amazing ingredients they didn't seem to do a lot with it. Yes, they create very good and fascinating concepts, but they failed to develop it any further or add any more depth to it. All it turned out to be was a good idea and nothing else. Every time something interesting would happen, they would just drop it and leap onto another concept. Additionally, the pace of the anime was very dragged out. And each episode just created a feeling a heaviness and not excitement. If you're looking for a fast paced engaging psychological horror/thriller this is not it. In all, the story, just didn't hit the mark, but simply fell flat on it's face. Art: 7 The art work was very good in my opinion.(but I'm not a very "artsy" person so don't quote me on this) The drawing of the characters, and the background/scenery were all quite beautifully done. Sound: 8 I really liked the sound which was utilized in the anime. I thought it was superb. The eerie like sounds they would use, and also the kind of disconnected far off sounds which were heard when the characters would be soul traveling was very interesting and set the mood. However, unfortunately, since the story within the anime was slow paced and un-engaging, the sound effects did little to increase the enjoyability of it...well it did do a little, but not all that much. Character: 5 As I said before, the main characters all had dark backgrounds which made them interesting at first but then as the anime continued, the development was very poorly done. The only character which was very interesting, and whose pieces fell all together at the end was Makoto. He was the character who really pushed me into watching the anime through to the end, as he was the only one which sort of made it interesting/engaging for me. Enjoyment: 3 and Overalll Score: 3 In all, I didn't enjoy this anime. It was dragged out, there were a lot of unanswered questions and the conclusion was just rushed. The plot failed to really go anywhere interesting, and most of the characters were not very intriguing nor had good character development. Watch it if you have nothing better to do, but honestly, I wouldn't recommend it.

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