Ghost Hound

Information of Anime

In the town of Suiten, Taro Komori has dreams about his childhood past.  However, he doesn't seem to remember them clearly.  Every time he dreams, he would be seeing the town from a bird eye's view.  Later on, he would see things which isn't suppose to exist from his dream come to reality.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Taro initially feared about the O.B.E. but later liked it.  It draws him closer to his sister & slowly regain his lost memories.  However, the Unseen World would create some sort of crack & would enter the Apparent World.  This would cause an unbalance between the two worlds.  Things from the Unseen World are entering the Apparent World which causes some regular people to see them.  As soon as the trio learn how to control their O.B.E. powers, another political problem comes up during the town election where a dead body is found near the abandoned hospital close to the dam.  From here, the trio learn about the past history of the hospital's curse & Makoto's parents in relations to it.

Aside with the O.B.E.s & the mysteries about the hospital, the shine priest's daughter Miyako Komagusu continues to have a strange presence in her body.  She knows about the trio's O.B.E. as she can see them from the Unseen World.  However, the strange presence that enters her body time to time may be the Lord of One Word; a god that makes things real regardless if it's good or evil.  Although her father Takahito Komagusu doesn't think it's possible as the Lord of One Word doesn't exist, Makoto's grandmother dies when he makes a comment about how she should die already.  Plus, she is being targeted to be the next miko in line.

As the show progresses, a lot of things start to connect from the trio's backgrounds.  Makoto's religious family background is hiding something big & Masayuki's father's company Dai Nippon Bio is developing something that is creating a lot of industrial companies in Japan to find out what it is.  It turns out that Makoto's father isn't involved in kidnapping Taku & his sister & Masayuki's father's company is producing some artificial organs from corpses for medical science as spirits are lurking in the the company building.

The truth gets exposed later on when viewers learn that Makoto was suppose to be the victim to be kidnapped but Taku was his replacement.  From this, we also learn that Makoto's mother ran away because of this.  On the other side, Miyako learns more about herself as well. 

As the show goes , the Ogami family took Miyako in when Takahito goes in a coma state after being involved in an accident.  Makoto's mother awakes up after trying to commit suicide & loses some of her memories.  She thinks that Makoto is her husband due to their appearances.  Dai Nippon Bio loses in the biooid race as other companies manage to release it at the same time.  Inside the company,  Furusawa sabotages the company's biooid by throwing them over the Kameiwa Dam.  To add more into the pact, it's been discovered the town of Sutien is causing something to affect the brains of all living things.

When Takahito finally wakes up, Taro & his group unite to find out what's going on in the town & how the Ogami Worship Circle's religion is getting stronger as most of the townspeople are accepting this religion.  However, only young girls are allowed to enter the shrine as men & older women are prohibited.  During this time, Miyako predicts that a Dragon God will be coming to town.  With the biooids affecting the town due to their "alive" existence, Taro & others try to save Miyako from the Ogami family using Taro disguised as a young girl to get in.

Aside from Taro disguising as a girl, the others work on other plans to save Miyako.  Using the spirits, biooids, & media, they managed to create a distraction outside.  Meanwhile, Taro manages to say Miyako's name which wakes her up.  The two manage to escape with Makoto's help on locating a secret exit in the Ogami's home.

The show ends with Miyako saved & everyone's personal conflicts being resolved.  The spirits are now in peace & crushes the Ogami home.  Taro believes his sister is alive inside of him as he feels a part of her inside.  It ends with Taro & friends taking a group photo symbolizing that they will be friends forever.

My Personal Review

Ghost Hound made a lot of commotion when it was announced.  Didn't study much about it, I decided to jump into the bandwagon to see what it's all about.  Since the series is created by Masamune Shirow, I expected to have some deep thinking involved.

Animation

The character designs are kind of flat looking.  Pretty much like paper almost.  The eyes on the young characters are pretty round & large.  The limbs are pretty out of proportion too when the show makes the views from afar.  The feet are small & the legs look like they are randomly drawn without care.

The colours are pretty bold & bright, but yet dull.  Nice done to give off that dark & mysterious feeling of the show.  The characters blend in well with the backgrounds as the character tend to be a bit bright.

The backgrounds are okay.  Pretty detailed in comparison with characters.  You can get a good feel of the town actually when you look at them.

In terms of the animation movement, it's mainly on the real side.  However, it seems to feel slow.  The walking & running doesn't look too smooth or natural.  It looks jaggy as if the character are pushing themselves & shifting.

Sound

The sound effects are pretty nice as they are on the realistic side.  They are pretty clear & crisp.  Played on cue too.

The seiyuus here are average.  The cast lineup is pretty descent & I know some of them from other roles.  However, the performance seem weak.  I can't seem to get a good feel of the characters.  It's not lifeless.  It's more like it's lacking something like impact.

The music is pretty much sound effects.  They try to give off an eerie feeling of the atmosphere of the scenes & they seem to do a good job at it.  The actual music is from the opening theme which is rock & the ending theme which has a jazz feel to it.

Story

Basically out of world experiences for the three boys.  They see things that shouldn't be there & feel the world is going out of balance.  Each of them have their own dark past with two of them trying to gain something out of it in terms of knowing about it.

The show is kind of dry & confusing at the start.  It's like it's lacking direction & not getting to the point.  It's kind of hard to understand what's going on without taking the time to think about it.  I actually had some problems at the start understanding the spirits that come to the real world.  But as the show got deeper, there were personal problem showing up for the three boys.  I was impressed on how all the problems manage to link well to the main story.

One problem with the show is the amount of biological terms of the brain.  Although the show gives excellent explanations of some of the brain parts & psychological theories, it can be overwhelming information to some viewers.  Because most of the parts are Latin, some people can either don't know what the show is talking about or forget what they saw later on.  For me, I'm close to that latter part.  However, it still offers some great information tidbits.

The ending felt somewhat rushed.  Although it tied up everything, I felt the matter of Miyako in the last arc wasn't done too well.  It felt like the problem was solved too easily & lazily.

Overall Conclusion

Ghost Hound isn't for everyone.  It's very deep & can be dry to watch.  It's recommended for people that likes something deep in mystery & wants something out of this world.  If you are looking for something simple, stay away from this show.

Ghost Hound gets a seven out of ten.  It's pretty hard to follow & feels dry at the start.  It takes time to adapt to it & actually enjoy it.  The background & problems of the three boys ties with the main storyline very well.  Plus the ending wrapped up things nicely with some problems spots here & there.  Personally, I felt the show should have two more episodes to explain some things a bit more; particular on the ending by expanding it a bit more.

Last updated on September 1, 2008