Forum - View topicREVIEW: Ghost Hound Blu-Ray
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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It's a show that works best when you're in the right mood. When I watched it I was, well, not itching for something slow and meaty but I was certainly in a pretty receptive mood for that sort of thing. Even so, I could only watch an episode or two at a time, because I needed a day to think about what I had just watched. That's not a bad thing, don't get me wrong. I liked taking it slow and being a deliberate viewer, even if the show was forcing me to by being so darn weird.
Sometimes it seems as if the show throws out crackpot psychological theories just for the fun of it, and there was always that undercurrent of spoiler["we're trying to rationalise the supernatural using Science but as you can plainly see these boys really can astral project". The scientific aspect was an interesting part of the show and it did give me food for thought, but it was clear the supernatural aspect was the true depiction of events.] And no, that's not a spoiler, since it is so obvious, but I've put it under tags just in case. |
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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Wow Carl.... This has to be the most well written review you've done since........
.....Anyone know??? I guess it was a coming-of-age story in the end come to think of it... I was a "bit" busy trying to vent my embering frustration over that, well said, conventionality. Yes. It's good it served a point(a relatable AND familar one), and enhanced it, but... is it wrong to think it's one of the biggest wastes of talent in recent memory? Heck, Konaka's very own Big O accomplished more with it's combination of style, execution, and intent. To simply let the unexplained, unexplained and use it as a means to resolve their own... problems, felt like someone gave Nakamura a little piece of paper that said "Don't do what you want to do".
and...
No argument there.
And perhaps that's why this will be something akin to Gundam SEED. It's a "to each his own", "everyone will take it differently" title. Many people will admit it's strengths, others will pick it apart and claim that, separately, it's genius, or... they'll call it a flat-out failure. The adults were asking a LOT of questions, the kids had powers that were NEVER deduced, and... Miyako wasn't PROPERLY utilized to the max(I feel sorry for Akiko Yajima... I loved her performance as Dorothy in Big O and Miyako had SOOO much potential!!!). If there's one thing I've learned from anime is to not judge an anime strictly on it's ultimate outcome(Martian Successor Nadesico everyone!). But... Ghost Hound suffers from it's sudden decision to avoid doing a Gainax ending, or a Big O/Lain ending. It was sudden! If the mystery divulged more conventional answers beforehand then maybe this would've become one of I.G.'s greatest. It's all over and done with now. |
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Penguin_Factory
 Posts: 732 Location: Ireland |
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What I really love about Ghost Hound are the characters. I don't think I'm the only person to notice that anime characters have a tendency to resemble a parade of cardboard-thin stereotypes, so it's refreshing to see protagonists who don't easily fit into pigeon-holes.
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Keyl
 Posts: 144 |
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I'm still wondering why they never talked about this one on ANNcast. It's not really scary but it's not a bad horror anime.
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unready
 Posts: 399 Location: Illinois, USA |
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Did they say that specifically in the series? They said the kids were left tied up for something like 5 days, I think. It's kind of nit-picky, but I always thought she died of dehydration, not starvation.
I got a different impression. Although it's only stated once and not dwelled upon, a possessed Miyako says spoiler[things are happening because there are "too many gods" in the immediate vicinity. I took those to mean the artificial lifeforms grown at high density at the research facility.] So, within the logic of the show, that is explained.
Understatement. spoiler[ 1. A nationwide cult with heavy political influence and with apparent ties to the yakuza, although it's never called that, crumbles because its shrine is covered by a landslide. It wasn't so robust an organization, after all. 2. Taro's mom and Masayuki's mom are instantly cured of their deep clinical depression when the Ougami shrine is wiped out. Taro's mom was getting therapy, but all Masayuki's mom did was play Tetris all day, then join the cult. Joining a cult is as effective as therapy? Maybe only when it's buried in a landslide the next day. 3. Two yakuza (again, never really called that in the series) and apparently every other yakuza throughout Japan are scared off forever when one of them sees Makoto as a spirit wolf. I sure do hope Makoto had enough sense to get the knife back from the one yakuza who didn't see him as a spirit wolf. 4. Outori, who was thoroughly manipulating Masayuki's dad through his foot fetish to get strategic corporate secrets from him, says that she really respects him now. That's just, well, no.] There's probably other stuff I've forgotten. Some stuff isn't explained at all, but I'm okay with that. Not everything has to be explained. I also think that it's okay, in fact, even more credible, that spoiler[everything is not one massive web of deceit, but just a couple smaller ones.] 21 really great episodes. 1 really not. What I wondered after seeing a show that mixed pseudo-babble psychology with Japanese mythological archetypes was what someone who really knows the mythology would think of it. I'm reasonably certain the show wasn't constructed with a Western audience in mind, but it seems kind of like it might require the sort of uncritical interest that only a Western audience would have. |
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GeekyBlackGirl
 Posts: 52 |
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I've actually just started watching this and it has been moving slowly, yet, there is something in it that makes me want to continue to watch and see where its going. I usually prefer faster paced anime but I also like anime with psychological components so I will finish this series, it just may take me longer than normal.
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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Can't wait to get this. This is the Sentai release I've been looking the most forward to.
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Ghost Hound is perhaps one of my most pleasant surprises of the past year or so. I was expecting to enjoy the series, but I wasn't expecting to become as immersed as I was. I thoroughly enjoyed it beginning to end.
The DVDs were pretty good looking, especially for having 6 episodes per disc. However, the bluray improves on this pretty dramatically. Even more impressive is the sound. Ghost Hound is one of the best sounding blurays I've ever heard. The music and noise is almost worth the purchase alone. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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Starting to regret not getting this at rightstuf's last Sentai/Secion 23 sail...
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1528 Location: Sunny California |
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I really agree with unready's post about the series' sloppy ending. I had heard that it was weak and couldn't help but think WTF? when I saw it. That said, I still think it's a damn good show for all the reasons mentioned in the review. |
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Nephtis
 Posts: 138 Location: Australia |
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Agreed. No offence intended of course. I just finished my 2nd year of cinema studies including a screen criticism subject. This review sir is particularly well written. I don't comment much, especially on reviews but for what it's worth this is an excellent piece of writing. I wrote on Ghost Hound too to focus on sound, so it was most interesting to see what someone else thought of that (someone who writes criticism for a living no less). Hopefully Siren release the Blu-ray set out here in Australia too. |
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SUPER_METR0lD
 Posts: 76 |
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I just found it really boring in general. It's actually the first show that I have ever dropped halfway through and haven't bothered to return to it yet (if ever).
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amannin
 Posts: 9 |
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A Masterpiece for anyone compelled to watch it......through its entirety. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but as the show progressed I found myself utterly immersed -- completely fascinated with Taro's traumatized psychology. And though, perhaps on a more emotional that objective level, I gave it a Masterpiece rating.
Here's my view of the "happy" ending that others have mentioned, and why I find it appreciatively appropriate: spoiler[I wouldn't say that everyone was cured by the end of the last episode, rather the very thing affecting the whole town (not just the main characters) finally disappeared, which apparently affected people psychologically more than they were able to comprehend. As the show hinted at in previous episodes, it really drives home how dramatically, albeit subtly, our minds are affected by our environments. And though a bit extreme, showing how everyone seemed cured by the end, showed how all these weird traumas, phobias, fetishes, etc... were directly affected by their environments (which was affected by the cult, and additionally later, by the LAB). And once the town's environment was finally corrected, everything and everyone seemed at peace -- no longer consumed by the irregularities negatively affecting their lives. And it's not as if the show was suddenly filled with rainbows and bright colors, its just that the cloud of despair was finally lifted, and all the characters reveled in it.] This is truly a great series, one that really begs the viewer to think and comprehend one's own psychology as well as that of the characters -- and of course how our environment ultimately affects our development. If you haven't watched this series yet, or are hesitant about watching it, do yourself the favor and watch the series. Allow yourself to be immersed and dwell on the thoughts it provokes. (Don't take it too seriously though, don't forget its ultimately a fictional series written to entertain and much as it is to provoke). Stop reading and start watching 
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REDOG
Posts: 37 |
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Kudos, i agree on what others said before me, it was the most accurate review i had read on ann to date.
I have a couple of questions. I am a little bit versed in conspiracy literature. And since the show deal with the supernatural i can't help but to think the grandma's cult suspicously reminds in it's relationships in the show a small scale cult imitation of the japanese "green dragon society" in the nazi conspiracy theories. However i think the show support the idea that there is some connections between all the spiritual masters and secret societies of the world, i mean just look at the scene in the end where all spiritualists gather at the mountain, and like in this conspiracy theory, they are waiting for something (which could mean they had a relationship like the white brotherhood (spiritualists, mysterious know it all shaman in the woods) and black brotherhood (grandma's cult) again, like... or even like tweenpeaks white lodge black lodge)). And speaking occultistically it seems to support everything starts and ends internall or at least in the astral dimension. Could be this is why the show shift focus towards dealing with the inner confilicts of the heroes and solving them after it had interduced it's supernatural theme? Can someone explain the scene in ep 13 where taro delves to some garden with an old man sitting on a bench? 
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unready
Posts: 399 Location: Illinois, USA |
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I think you're talking about the scene where he goes back to the hospital where he was held captive, except he sees it like it was before it was wrecked. He also sees the spirits of people who died there, like the old man. spoiler[I don't recall it being significant in the overall story, but my memory may have faded on that point.] |
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