ghost hunting… otaku style

The manga and anime Ghost Hunt stemmed from a novel series by Ono Fuyumi, the acclaimed writer of Twelve Kingdoms. The 25-episode anime aired late 2006 until early 2007. I had finished watching the anime upon onee-chan’s suggestion.

Ghost Hunt tells of the adventures (sometimes, misadventures) of a paranormal investigation team known as Shibuya Psychic Research. The president of SPR is a seventeen-year old researcher named Shibuya Kazuya, nicknamed “Naru” because of his narcissistic attitude and the consequent cold treatment of other people. A first year high school student, Taniyama Mai was forced to take a job in the SPR due to debt from a camera she damaged accidentally. Her talents of clairvoyance and precognition were later discovered after several psychic investigations and an ESP test by Naru. She then learns to work with a complex but very talented combination of characters in the SPR team. Among them is Naru’s Chinese assistant, the reticent Rin Koujo who was revealed to be an onmyoji or a spirit master. Despite a seeming lack of affection from Naru, there are others who acted as Mai’s older siblings: Takigawa Houshou, called Bou-san, a Buddhist monk who is actually a rockstar by profession (specifically a bass musician); and Shinto miko priestess Matsuzaki Ayako who shares Bou-san’s expertise with exorcism incantations but often falls short of expectation. Also part of the team is a very young Catholic priest from Australia, John Brown, who surprises everyone of his ability to exorcise spirits at nineteen years old; and a popular spirit medium from TV, Hara Masako; who can be easily recognized with her kimono outfit. Another character, Osamu Yasuhara, was added to the team after a particular case that he was involved in. The anime featured eight files that the SPR team had investigated while the members struggled with their personal issues such as Rin’s taciturn nature, Ayako’s hidden abilities, Mai’s feelings for Naru and Masako’s resulting jealousy, among others.

Who would have thought a two-dimensional animated show could scare the bejeezus out of a person? I’m not referring to myself but my onee-chan, who was haunted with a couple of sleepless nights if not nightmares. At first, Ghost Hunt appealed to me as a bunch of short stories about the paranormal much like the long-running live drama series Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari. After several minutes I came to realize that the plot of this anime was creative in its own right, perhaps even better than all those popular Asian horror flicks. There still were the commonly used concepts like poltergeists, disturbed spirits, occult phenomenon, haunted buildings and objects; but the various expertise of the SPR team members make their escapades a little more interesting. I’m particularly fond of John because even though he’s very kind and soft-spoken, I think he’s the most kickass personality in their team of psychics. One moment he’s just the cutest boy but once he dons the cassock and begins his exorcism prayers, you know it’s definitely showtime. It was also entertaining to watch Naru’s arrogance and intelligence and how it strangely draws Mai closer to the leader (although it is debatable whether she was falling for the actual Naru or the Naru in her dreams). Favorites aside, the anime honestly got me glued to the screen for hours because of all these characters that add more color to the already captivating storyline. The CG for all the bloody and gory scenes had such an attractive aspect to it. It’s also worth noting that for several episodes, I didn’t skip on the intro and closing credits as I usually would when watching on DVD. The graphics and music were so cool that it didn’t hurt to watch it again and again. The only disappointment I had was that the anime left me hanging. Bitin, is a perfect way to describe it. It also pains me that the anime adaptation was only a small part of such a grand plot in the novel, which must be a great read if only I could get my hands on it.