DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA PsychologicalGhost Hound: Another Side

REVIEWS

• 

  lamialuv

  81/100
  Facing our Psychological Trauma: An Anime that combines the Supernatural with Mental Disorders

  Opening Statement to anyone interested in watching this anime:

  Ghost Hound is an intensely interesting anime. Something that attacks you from every angle. The director that brought you Serial Experiments Lain has something else, very different for you. The simplest way to explain this anime is that it is very similar to Stranger Things if you have watched that. Although it portrays more than just a group of kids solving a supernatural mystery. Warning though, the first 5 episodes or so are really slow and drawn out, give it until at least episode 9 to determine if you should drop it or not.

  The cast is a cast of characters that have faced extreme psychological trauma and are looking for ways to alleviate themselves, they end up getting to know each other and decide to help each other somehow. But what they end up discovering is something much larger than they could ever imagine. This anime also portrays in extremely obscure imagery, hence the "Cosmic Horror" tag. By uncovering the world of the supernatural, the cast ends up going much deeper than they thought they would.

  By combining obscure imagery with the supernatural and psychological trauma, it makes a pretty damn solid anime. In all honesty I had a hard time looking at the dark for a couple of days while watching this. I think this can also attribute to the insanely ambient horrific noises that crawl from one end of the soundscape to another.

  So should you watch this? If you're into horror, sci-fi, psychological experimentation, and mystery I definitely say give it a try. If you're expecting the Denpa in this anime to be mind blowing well you're not going to find much except for a couple of very psychologically churning scenes. I actually dropped this anime in the first 5 episodes on first watch and picked it up again later and found myself pretty impressed by the ideas rolling.

  (Spoilers from here on out)

  My likes and dislikes of Ghost Hound:

  Likes: So I found the plot use of Out of Body Experiences immensely interesting. As someone that does experience a lot of reality dysphoria I found a lot of the events extremely relatable. I also loved the big colourless beings that walked around making illiterate noises, I find that to be a very good use of simplicity in obscurity. Honestly I found a lot of the scary scenes to be pretty damn scary, it tries to find a way to mess with your reality by not being like "hey these are big fuckin scary ghosts that are going to kill you" but instead is more like a collection of odd encounters with beings that psychologically damage others indirectly. The sound quality was beyond amazing, and the animation is a lot like Jigoku Shoujo with it's very watercolour-ish art style.

  Dislikes: Honestly I am not a big fan of the cast they got on my nerves every once and a while. But in general I had a lot of issues with certain plots points like the pretty rushed ending. The fact that Miyako got off so easily made the ending setup feel kind of half assed. I found myself disengaging with the plot once and I felt like it wasn't going anywhere. I really do think there's a lot of wasted potential with this anime. Like I was intensely interested in getting scared more and hoping there would be more scenes that made me go "what the fuck". Sadly, the last 5 or so episodes were pretty tame other than the weird ass turkey "biopoid" things. There was a lot of stuff I didn't really like in the ending that made me go "ehh" and that's probably why I won't consider this anime a favourite of mine.

  Conclusion: I think this is a fantastic work that just didn't hold up in the end, I hate being that person saying "oh the ending means it's automatically bad" but I'm being as positive as possible. I had a genuinely great experience for the first 17 episodes though, and I think all of that was really good and definitely a wonderful experience. I gained a lot of knowledge through this anime. Despite an ending that didn't succeed or triumph anything before it, I think this anime is one of many that could have benefited if it had a few more episodes.

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• 

  R2R

  75/100
  Stranger Things - Anime edition.

  https://anilist.co/anime/2596/Ghost-Hound/

  ---

  "Ghost Hound" or "Shinreigari" follows three middle schoolers Tarou Komori, Makoto Ogami, and Masayuki Nakajima who are experiencing OBE (Out of Body Experience), or as they like to call it "Soul Travelling" which allows them to explore the 'Unseen World'. Each member utilizes this strange phenomenon to get over their anxieties and terrible pasts while also learning all the hidden secrets of the village of Suiten.

  ##### Meet the Ghost Hounds (from left to right) ##### "Tarou, Masayuki, Michio (late entry), and Makoto"

  "Shinreigari" tackles a variety of topics, including mythology, occult practices, quantum theory, psychology, and even life after death. Considering that the series was created by Masamune Shirow, the same person who created the "Ghost in the Shell" franchise and Ryuutarou Nakamura, director of SEL, this shouldn't come as a surprise, that it really needs patience to watch. "Shinreigari" is part mystery/thriller, revealing the dark secrets of the town & its mysterious characters, part horror, the dread of something unknowable lurking around outside or sometimes even inside our characters, and part sci-fi/psychological, exploring the mental state of its many characters with a lot of (faux) science.

  ##### You'll get used to these images.

  The anime uses a variety of contrasts to illustrate its ideas, such as the above-mentioned nuanced distinction between souls and people. See how the formless bodies of the soul (above pic) contrast with the distorted depiction of man's senses by "Penfield" (below pic). There are more of these that I'm sure I occasionally missed, but one of these contrasts that I loved was the opening song with the remaining OST. The soundtrack is odd and plodding, gradually evoking a sense of mystery and suspense in opposition to the jazzy intro song. The tone has changed, yet the mystery is still present.

  ##### I like this shot.

  The Art style and Sound direction in "Shinreigari" are two obvious standouts. The character designs, particularly the ghosts, are distinctive enough to set the art style apart while still seeming conventional enough to be called your typical anime from the 2000s. Their designs are more unsettling, from the black distorted giants, the insect-like beings in the unseen world, to the "snark," For the Snark was a Boojum, You See. 
  And the sound is strange, as I have mentioned. It is frequently detailed and includes recognizable sounds like pendulums, breathing noises, and heartbeats. The sound starts off slowly and quietly (nearly undetectable), but it gets louder enough to even interrupt the conversations occasionally. Every episode starts off with significantly distorted dialogue from earlier episodes, mostly for ambiance.

  

  Shinreigari is a thematically rich show with a lot of scientific and occultic babble backed by a foggy atmosphere but it is narratively flawed. The show doesn't weave some of it's themes into a tight-knitted story. The characters will converse about things like "how a ghost possessed my daughter" and other things you wouldn't expect to hear two men discussing in broad daylight. Even more perplexing to me is how readily they accept one another's word while talking about matters that could put them, and people around them, in danger, like one character describes that "those people might be watching us", and the same character reveals confidential info in broad daylight. Additionally, the last episodes don't make sense with everything that came before. The "Overcoming traumas" narrative never had a satisfying conclusion. The conflicts in earlier episodes of "What occurred in the past?" were heavily built up, yet they were never resolved. The character's abrupt personality change offers a hazy resolution, or the episode simply leaves it hanging. It is a little sudden when the show finishes on a coming-of-age note because there were no signs that the theme of the initial episodes was "Letting go of the past and/or Accepting the present and yourself."

  I've been watching 2 or 3 episodes a day of Shinreigari at midnight for the past week, which helped me to go to sleep while not regretting it. In Japan, these kinds of anime are called Aniraji (a combination of 'Anime' and 'Rajio'(Radio)) shows that are used to air from 10 PM to 4 AM. Normally, these kinds of anime are very heavy in their plot or presentation (shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Berserk, Serial Experiments Lain) and are usually targeted toward adult audiences and often help the viewer to surpass their restless state to fall asleep.

  ---

  Conclusion

  If you are a fan of dialogue-heavy Anime like "Ghost in the Shell" or "Serial Experiments Lain", I would recommend it. If not, skip it. This can cause you to fall asleep if you are disinterested or forced yourself to watch it.

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