Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories Review

When you first hear about animes that have scripts changed so drastically by its dubbing company, you can't help but cringe a little and worry what butchery has come to this anime you've invested so much money in. I heard a lot about Ghost Stories, for its script change but mostly for its "supposed" hilarious humor. So how funny can a horror-changed-humor anime about ghouls and goblins be? Pretty damn funny actually.


The Story:

Satsuki Manshita along with her younger brother, Keiichirou are moving to a new town. On her first day at school, Satsuki, her brother, along with new friends Leo, Momoko and Hajime discover a haunted school house right next to their school. Turns out Satsuki's deceased mother was an exorcist and put all the ghosts inside the school to sleep, now Satsuki and her friends must pick up her mother's legacy and recapture all of the ghosts set loose with the aid of her mother's ghost diary.


The Good:

The first thing to note about this anime and most already know of this, but the anime's original script was supposedly so boring, bad, and uninteresting, ADV dubbed over the script with a completely brand new one made from scratch. While most fans would hate this, turns out, this change was not only well needed but well used. Ghost Stories is an outrageously hilarious anime with dialog that will not only crack your funny bone, but also rip it out, smash it with a sledge hammer then make it into a jigsaw puzzle and put back in backwards.



The show plays like a South Park version of the Scooby Doo gang, complete with their own wise cracking, talking animal: Keiichirou's pet cat Kaya who becomes possessed by a bitter demon trapped by a magic spell gone wrong. What makes Ghost Stories so funny is the outrageously over the top dialog that uses pop culture references, and self mocking tongue in cheek jokes that come so fast, you may have to rewind and listen to it again to make sure you heard every witty remark. Even the most mundane and average situations are turned into comedy gold with (at times crass) but side splitting humor. Certain characters are even given new exaggerated personalities that make them more fun and amusing.

A good example would be a once quiet psychic girl (Momoko) was turned into a preachy, over bearing religious nut, or Satsuki's cry baby brother turned into a on running mental case joke. The brilliant dub actors know exactly how to deliver every punch line, and the vibrant variety of dirty to stupid to brilliant jokes keep the show amusing and easy to laugh at. The ghosts themselves come straight from real Japanese legends and come in a variety of tricks, designs and powers, with excellent animated features to boot.


The Bad:

Despite this glowing, glorified review that I feel this kooky spooky anime rightfully deserves, the humor in the show is its best feature as well as its own worst enemy. The problem is all of the jokes revolve around adult subjects and more mature audiences. Those looking for more "Intelligent humor" or jokes that don't deal with racist insults to Jews, Blacks, or Christian Slater should stay far away. I personally enjoy even the most crudest forms of humor, but some can easily see this as stupid humor.

My own personal flaw that I see beneath the cracks is the ending, which I felt was a bit less then to be desired for. The ending itself is not bad but its nothing great either and was hoping for something a bit more climactic to make it feel like a true finalized ending and not rush it off the screen before anyone realizes its over.





The Overall:

Few animes can scrap their original scripts and walk away without being verbally crucified by anime internet fans. Fortunately, Ghost Stories deserves every bit of praise and applause for doing so because it has created truly one of the most insanely funniest animes I have ever seen, truly even dare I say, on par with the likes of Excel Saga. Much of the humor will feel right out of Family Guy or South Park, and for those of you who enjoy such shows or humor styles, pick up this anime series NOW! Highly recommended.


Voice Acting: 10/10
Visuals & Animation: 7/10
Story: 8/10
Music & Sound: 7/10
Overall: 9/10


Tags: ghost stories, review  (add tags)

Comments