Ghost Hunt

Information of Anime

Mai Taniyama was a regular high school student until 17 year old Kazuya Shibuya from Shibuya Psychic Research Center came to her school to investigate a case where their old school building is haunted by ghosts.  After being saved by Kazuya's assistant Koujo Lin which got him injured, Kazuya demanded that Mai becomes his assistant for his current case.  After solving the case, he hires Mai to permanently work for him.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  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.

The show is broken down into a lot of arcs that don't seem to have any strong connections to each other.  With the exception of the first arc where we meet other psychics and exorcists, they don't link to one another.  As the show progresses, we learn that Mai has a sixth sense which makes her role become a bit bigger in the show.  Each arcs are considered as file numbers where the files are short stories involving psychic or supernatural problems.  The show does show some of the different fields in the supernatural & ghost world with a lot of references from the European & Asian culture.

As a side bit, Mai has a thing for Kazuya as he's a hunk to many girls.  So, Mai isn't alone in loving Kazuya with jealously.

The show ends with the revealing of Kazuya's ability which lands him into a hospital.  Mai thinks to herself about how Kazuya should keep his strict character with the people that support him closely.

My Personal Review

Ghost Hunt is an average show with nothing interesting really.  Although it has supernatural & psychic cases, it's not something that will grab your attention.  However, that's when you are watching the first few episodes.

Animation

The character designs are so-so.  It has that typical anime design.  Characters with big or small eyes with wide chubby or long narrow faces.  All the characters pretty much look the with minor facial details.  They are quite plain overall even though some of them are given some style.  They are times where some of  the characters get into cute deformed mode when the situation calls for it.  Although cutely drawn, it doesn't do match for the show.

The backgrounds are on the dull side.  It's not very detailed and seems like rough work.

The colours are mainly dull.  The outlines of the characters are pretty thick & heavy on the faces, especially the noses.  The colours makes the show look like it came from an 90s OVA.

The animation movements are pretty realistic & fluid.  There are times where it gets a bit choppy & look weird like how they walk.  When the show calls for it, they are those funny sudden actions for those comedy moments.

Sound

The sound effect are a mixture of real & silliness.  The sounds look like it's off cue a bit at times.  The volume & projection is clear.

The seiyuus aren't too great or bad.  It's average.  They don't give much to their characters & makes a show a sleeper at times.  It's like the characters have no life at all & makes them very dull & unlikeable at times.

The music is mainly strings played in an orchestral style.  It's very dry & boring as it doesn't lift the mood of the show.  You probably be better off not listen to it at all.

Story

There isn't any main storyline.  At first, it looked like building of Mai's love relationship with Kazuya.  But it isn't.  It's mainly cases that Kazuya's company takes.  The cases are not related to each & the character development is hardly there with the exception of Mai building her sixth sense.

At the start of the show with the first arc, it seemed that the title Ghost Hunt was misleading as the first case had nothing to do with ghost.  It was until in the later episodes that we manage to see some supernatural spirits appearing in the show.  However, it felt very dry at the start & a bit ripped off with the title.  Even with the ghost appearing in the later arcs, the show doesn't seem to offer anything that grasps me attention.  Although it has some funny stuff in it, it doesn't really save the show.  When it reaches the 18 or 19 episodes, the show picks up a bit with some interesting suspense drama.  A good part of the show is how it is intelligently done when time goes by.  It got much more interesting to watch after bearing with the first couple of arcs.  However, I felt Mai was a very poor developing character.

After Mai discovers her sixth sense & is proven to be effective, she doesn't use it properly to solve cases.  Instead, she either doesn't believe it or keeps it to herself.  This leads to more worse results as she foresees them.  Even though she is in a state of shock, it's pretty much unbelievable on her part to keep everything to herself until a critical decision is made.  Despite the number of cases where she predicted right, she still doesn't believe them.  Although they make the arcs drag into four episodes which is good, it can be frustrating to see how she holds information in like that.

Overall Conclusion

Ghost Hunt is an average show.  But to me, it's a very boring & below average show.  It felt like a chore to watch it.  Although it got a bit interesting after going past the first arc, the show doesn't improve very much until the last two arcs.  However, it does offer some educational bits of exorcism from different parts of the world.  If you manage to hold out for the first half, the second half can be rewarding.

Ghost Hunt gets a seven out of ten.  The show isn't very good as it lacks some character development & poor storylines.  Also, the characters aren't really likeable even with the jokes they pull out.  Even though it gets much better later on, it feels relaxing just to get this show out of the way when you watch the final episode.