Years ago, all of the ghosts in a haunted schoolhouse were banished by a certain student. Now, they're back—and they want revenge...
Satsuki and Keiichirou Miyanoshita are two siblings recovering from the tragic loss of their mother. After moving to their mother's hometown, they learn that the local school they have transferred to is an old building—one said to be haunted. Despite initially brushing it off as a silly rumor, the two soon discover that ghosts are indeed real and that they're after them! Gakkou no Kaidan is the creepy tale of the lives of these siblings and their newfound friends as they try to survive the school's ghosts—with a little help from their pet cat along the way.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Cebix
The thing about this anime is that it is actually REALLY really bad. It bombed in Japan and it is easy to see why, the time this was released, there were so many good anime out that blew it out of the water and this anime doesn't do anything special. It tries to be Scooby Doo and also the cliche's and bland characters really hurts this show. However...... Aniplex was handed the English dub of the show, knowing it was a failure in Japan and probably would be a failure here, it SEEMS they didn't take the dub too seriously. So what do we get? The bestdub that has ever been done ever.
Let me try to explain; the show has so many logical fallacies and strange lip flaps, the voice actors decided to add really adult and funny jokes, often breaking the forth wall and mocking the show itself. It's like a fandub with comedians or an Abridged series, but full episodes.
The animation is poor, the story is thin and a more like villain of the week episodic series and the environments and sound designs are really really bland, what saves this show is the English Dub ONLY via Aniplex.
My advice to you is to watch the Dub, if we were basing this show on its sub in this review I would tell you to send this show to the closest pit of fire and exorcise the demons out of your house, but the English Aniplex Dub is a MUST see. Bare in mind the adult humor may be offputting to younger audiences.
KaworutheProphet
What I've edited on the wikipedia article on a few occasions was the reason ADV didn't do a dub that directly translated the original version, I've sited sources and still it was taken down for some reason. It was the fact that they did this that made so many people try to bury the series before it was released. Hate for ADV came left and right if you mentioned "Ghost Stories" or "Gakko no Kaiden" (School Ghost Stories), This was the dub that no hardcore anime fan wanted to see succeed. While some threw hateful comments, others were just plain confused.Why would ADV, after so many years of being a group of anime purists (when the company was first founded there was no intention of doing any dubs) and a company that helped give the dubs crowd in the classic "Dubs vs Subs" war validity, suddenly just do a dub that was just plain silly? The reason is simple; in it's Japanese form, this series sucks. That's the reason, it's simple as that.
When this show was released in Japan, reception was bad and I can see why. Before I talk about this show itself, I want to point out that I'm actually surprised this show is bad. You've got Noriyuki Abe in the director's chair, the man behind hit shows like "Bleach" and "Tokyo Mew Mew" (these are hit shows for crying out loud!). And speaking of people attached to "Tokyo Mew Mew" and bleach, the a few members of the Japanese voice cast, such as Takako Honda and Tomoko Kawakami, were in those shows. Studio Peirrot put a lot of money into this series, and usually when a studio puts so much money into a product then that means their real serious about this. And to top it all off, this show is based on a series of best selling novels, I haven't read these books, but I'm gonna assume that they are awesome. Looking at all that I've listed above, you've got to ask yourself, how did this show fail?
Show doesn't start off too bad, actually. We get the basic story, young Sastuki Manoshita has moved with her family to the town where her deceased mother used to live (and creepily, the same house she grew up in). On her first day of school, she, her brother along and their new friends chase their cat into an old school building, and find that the school buildings haunted. Not only that, the ghosts haunting it are suppose to be sealed off. Turns out the ghosts were sealed in areas where construction was taking place, and damage to anything ghost was sealed in meant that said ghost was now set free.
Not a bad too bad of a story, if things turned out differently, this could've turned into a decent kids' series. Instead, we are faced with three main story problems, and because of this the series suffers greatly:
Problem #1: The series is more episodic than chapter based. For long running shows like "Case Closed/Detective Conan" and Naruto, this can be a good thing. If you missed an episode, no worries, you'll catch up eventually and easily when plot points come up. "Ghost Stories", however, is only 20 episodes long. This may not be a huge problem for some people, but to me, this series feels like it needs a consistent story line. Weather it would be better or not because of that, I don't know, but as result of being episodic the show feels a lot like a Japanese version of "Scooby Doo" (as others have described it).
Problem #2: If there was a movie made about a Japanese ghost legend, it's in this series. What makes movies like "Epic Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" so bad? Answer; referencing every movie in the past year, those movies concentrate more on making references than making jokes. Now, while "Ghost Stories" is nowhere near as bad as those movies, they make the same mistake. According to the ghost profiles on the DVD extras all monsters and ghosts are based on Japanese Uban and Ancient legend. With this in mind, it seems like the producers told the writers to make sure every monster and ghost made it into the series. Much like the movies above are reference happy, this movie is very ghost happy.
Problem #3: This series falls apart completely at the end. It got to the point where near the end of the series where they basically just, "Screw this," and just stopped trying. As I said, the series doesn't start off too bad, the series even has a few good episodes worth watching. But alas, the series becomes progressively bad, there become some plot twists that make no sense, there's a few continuity errors in a few episodes and as I said before, material is recycled, thus the show becomes stale. Very stale.
If I wasn't watching the english dub, I would've given up on this show. The dub stays true to the original storyline and keeps the original Japanese names, but changes everything else. The english voice cast had a translated script in the studio with them, and were told to ad-lib when it was appropriate. George Bush haters will love the Republican, the Democrats aren't even safe from the wrath of the Texas voice actors, Scientologist prepare to sue ADV films, and celebrities are ripped a new one. And aside from poking fun at famous figures, there's also quite a few clever one-liners and running gags. The spells that are chanted to seal the ghosts are often changed or twisted in meaning, the kids begin to chant it normal, "Jaku, Jaku, kick the bucket!" which suddently becomes, "Jaku, Jaku, you can suck it!" But where this dub is the funniest, is the personality changes in the characters. Satsuki becomes a fairly unlikable b!#*@, Leo is now Jewish, Hajime is a lot more perverted in the english version, and Satsuki's brother Kechiro it apparently retarded. My favorite performance comes from Monica Rial, who portrays Momoko as an overly fanatical Christian (being a Christian myself, this offends me, yet I can't help but laugh). But if there's an award for most revetting performance, it should go to comedian Rob Mungle, who portrays Amanojaku, the ghost that possesses Satsuki's cat. Rob plays this role seriously, and waits to make a joke, as opposed to making one every 3 seconds, thus making his punch lines all the more rewarding.
People tried to hate on this dub, but in the end of 2006 Anime Insider magazine named it "Best dub of the Year". All attempts to bury it have failed, and even most of the critics caved to liking it. The dub makes the series all the more watchable. If you plan on watching show in Japanese (the Japanese track is still on the DVD with translated subtitles), then go right ahead, just a word of warning, you may like it more when you're not sober.
literaturenerd
Overview: Ghost Stories is the amazing tale of a failed anime that became a cult classic through the absurd dubbing of the now defunct ADV films. The original is quite forgettable and not worth your time, but the infamous dub is DEFINITELY worth watching. Background: So who the hell was ADV? Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Texas dub studio ADV was the main rival of Funimation. Due to a series of terrible business decisions and an industry bubble burst, they went bankrupt and their best talent was poached by their surviving rival. They are basically the WCW to Funimation's WWE or the Sega to Funimation'sNintendo. ADV was best known for licensing, distributing, and dubbing Evangelion, Full Metal Panic, Elfen Lied, Robotech, and Welcome to the NHK. Unfortunately they also dubbed a LOT of shit titles and chose some real stinkers for their cable Anime Network and Comcast On-Demand selection.
ADV believed that they should only show the first couple episodes of good shows and show all episodes of their worst shows. That way fans would have to buy the DVDs for the good series and might watch episodes of the shows they would never buy on DVD. This strategy has a HUGE flaw. If your network is mostly filled with horrendous titles like Ikki Tousen, Moonphase, Magical Shopping District, and fucking Jungle de Ikou, then viewers are going to turn the TV off and never come back. When a Japanese studio forces Funimation to dub some series that flopped in Japan in order to recoup their domestic losses, Funi will quickly banish those series to cheap DVD without ceremony and pray that nobody finds them. ADV on the other hand would hold up those abortions for all the world to see! ADV basically said, "you bastards want to watch some free anime? We'll make sure you regret every second of it!" Consider that ADV wasn't even forced by the Japanese to license their worst show Jungle de Ikou. ADV voluntarily bought the rights from Media Blasters because their flagship network simply NEEDED a show that can melt eyeballs with its wretchedness!
The final thing you need to know about ADV is their...unique approach to dubbing. ADV really didn't believe in following the original Japanese text and was often quite liberal with their translations. This could help with comedy series where the original Japanese joke might not translate well, but it often screwed up their dramas. Every Eva fanboy can tell you that ADV's Evangelion translation omitted vital plot points, explained some things poorly compared to the Japanese text, and fundamentally misunderstood other points. Their translation of Elfen Lied also suffers from these problems. One of the key culprits of this attitude towards translation was Steven Foster. Attitudes online tend to be quite negative towards Mr. Foster, but he was very talented at spoofing terrible series with joke dubs whenever ADV gave him the freedom to do so.
Plot:
Ghost Stories is a highly formulaic series about grade schoolers that fight a new ghost in each episode that is based off a Japanese urban legend or myth. The series was intended to be frightening fun for small children that introduces them to classic scary stories. The problem is that it isn't remotely scary or creepy, is WAY too repetitive, and none of the characters are likeable or memorable. The characters spend the first 1/3 of every episode denying that something clearly supernatural is supernatural. When they finally decide they are facing a ghost, the main character Satsuki gets out her dead mother's ghost journal and looks up how to defeat the ghost. They defeat the ghost and everything ends happily. That is the summary of EVERY SINGLE EPISODE! The original series is also notable for completely unnecessary and unwanted fanservice. These are supposed to be kids in elementary school and yet the anime has panty flashes every 5 seconds and a closing theme song called "Sexy Sexy". That's just fucked up!
Steven Foster of ADV decided to change the characters and actually give them traits that differentiate them. One is a Jewish nerd, one is a self righteous evangelical, one is absurdly perverted, etc. The Foster dub is filled with ridiculous pop culture references and constant insults directed at the show Lost, the band Creed, Toby Keith, and Christian Slater's acting.
Be warned that the Foster dub is also wildly offensive and irreverent with frequent gay jokes and casual racist jokes. This was 2005 and this series serves as a kind of bizarre time capsule of that period and what was acceptable then. America was a lot less angry and bitterly divided. As a result, people weren't as sensitive and there wasn't the same pressure to be "PC". We all casually hated the douche in the White House in 2005, but he was an establishment dick not so different from our previous 4 asshole presidents. The hate against Obama after 2008 was completely unique and so strong that the backlash transformed the far right from a shadow of a joke into a serious political power. Now Hollywood is cracking down hard on hurtful jokes and trying to avoid association with the new Right. Pulling a Foster and constantly using the words "retard", "faggot", and "nigga" with reckless abandon was highly frowned upon then too, but today that shit simply wouldn't fly. NO ONE would greenlight such a show with a PG rating when even South Park usually bleeps or avoids those words in 2016. It isn't the most clever dub, but it is so outlandish and shockingly tasteless that you kind of have to laugh.
Art:
The art is by Studio Dean and as you would expect it is at least passable. It isn't the prettiest series ever and doesn't have breathtaking visuals, but this thing clearly had a decent budget behind it. I'm sure the net loss in Japan was significant after this shit bombed!
Sound:
The soundtrack is Kaoru Wada pretty much rehashing his work from the Inuyasha soundtrack. While I really love his work in that setting, it feels completely out of place in this spooky children's series. The same soundtrack can be good for 1 anime and a complete miss if given to another. This feels as out of place as pairing Pokemon with the band Disturbed. I already mentioned the wildly inappropriate use of "Sexy Sexy" and the opening theme while less pedophilic is still completely out of place.
Overall:
This is not a good anime. This isn't the most clever writing for a dub. This absolutely IS something that you should see though. This shit is absolutely hilarious and provides a window into the state of dubbing during the anime boom years in the US. This was when studios could buy terrible anime and treat the dub like a complete joke because they were so flush with money. They were simply that confident in people buying anime in huge amounts. I miss those days sometimes. I really do.
Ziote
Going into this series, anyone should know that the dub and the sub of this show are drastically different. The sub is probably more serious, and the dub is complete crack. So of course, I watched the dub version. Ive done my fair share of watching serious animes. But once in a while its nice to sit back and relax with something light. Trust me, if you just want to laugh for half an hour, then Ghost Stories is what you want. Story Story? what story? This show has the plot of an abrigged series you'd find on youtube. To me there was a certain formula to watchingthis show. Its definitely not a series someone should marathon. Nope, it should be enjoyed an episode or two at a time. Anymore and you'll find yourself sick of the studpidity.
Characters
The characters were the best part! Although, I cant remember any of the characters actual names (I gave them nicknames throughout the entire show) But besides that, the characters were unforgettable and the relationship between them was just as great. (aka. their relationship was filled with insults. Some of the best one liners were because of their insults!)
Sound/Art
Terrible. The art was.... well, lets stick with terrible. That seems to fit pretty well.
The sound was also pretty bad. Except for the ending song. Its extremely catchy.
For this review I've said mostly bad things towards this show, yet I give it a 7 out of 10. Ghost stories is so bad its good. The show gets most of its fame from being so awful and the dub so hilarious. Honestly, I really wanted to give this show a 9/10 because I loved watching this train wreck so much.
Mob_Psykos
listen. I'm throwing out my usual review style for something much more casual for this show. THE SUB SUCKS DON'T WATCH IT. But that dub. It has been touched by God. It became a comedy series. Quite possibly the greatest comedy series to have ever been invented. every bit of the show, any moment of emotion, became comedy. Every second of this show is comedic gold. The characters are beautifully voice acted comedians. Every character reacted unrealistically in the most hilarious way possible, without being childish. Screw the story it don't matter. The art style, throw it in the trash. Comedy fans rejoice. watch it. loveit. then give this show a 10/10.
Sahil_K_Chandio
Watch this anime in DUB and its will become one of the funniest things you will EVER come across. This has a very predictable story and the mystery is nothing special you can probably guess the ending of it by watching the first episode but in the official dub it is freaking hilarious just for comedy alone I'm giving it a full score but as a whole show its great mainly because of the hilarious comedy. Every single episode manages to make me burst in laughter the dub voice actors would have had a blast making this I am assure of! The characters in the show arealso fairly generic and nothing that you would love or cherish forever but still in the dub version you start to like em, maybe even love them, because they make you laugh like a damn psycho.
syaoran555
This is, without a doubt, the funniest anime dub I have ever watched. If you have anything remotely resembling a sense of humor, I highly recommend that you watch it. The reason the ADV dub is so funny is because ADV took the original script and essentially tore it up, giving the VAs carte blanche to say whatever they wanted as long as it matched the lip flaps. As a result, Ghost Stories went from an almost unwatchable show to one of the funniest dubs in existence.
Lord_Trideth
(WATCH THIS ANIME DUBBED)This anime is a must-watch definitely a cult classic anime, with the best dialogue in anime. With this anime is recommended to watch dub some episodes were very good and the anime is well-paced. Do not binge this anime and it is best enjoyed with friends. This anime is too complicated and is straight forward which makes it watchable. I can probably rewatch this anime by far favorite character is that cat. This is an anime you at least have to see once and is really well written. If you do not laugh at least once then you have NO SOUL
HoodKublaiKhan
Important note: This should come as no surprise, but I watched and will be reviewing the famous English dub of this anime. 'Cuz who gives a damn about the sub? Certainly not the Japanese licensors, which is why they allowed what happened to happen in the first place. Lol. So what I could gather was the actual plot of Ghost Stories is that it's basically about a girl, along with her brother and friends, finding out their ex-homosexual mother was the ex-principal at their school's old building, and that she did a lot of work with ghosts before she died. In her work, she learneda lot about what the ghosts were, and how to put them away so that they would stop being problems for the humans who attend the school. And then after the old building gets abandoned, ghosts haunt it, and the main characters have to put them away, often using the information that their mom gathered. And no, I am not breaking the MAL rule of summarizing the story because I am giving the perspective of someone who watched a different script from the one used in the synopsis.
FULL DISCLAIMER: I am not saying that any of the character traits mentioned below have any sort of causation or correlation between each other. I promise you that I am just giving an overview of the characters. Anyway, the main character is Satsuki, who is the daughter of the aforementioned ex-lesbian principal. She is probably the closest one of the main cast to normal. And then there are the four deuteragonists: Keichirou, Hajime, Momoko, Leo, and Amanojaku. Keichirou is Satsuki's retarded, dyslexic brother that is also incapable of modern human speech. He has a signature scream, and he can occasionally manage to bust out a sentence or two. Hajime is, is... yeah ok I kinda lied because he's also kinda normal but I guess he enjoys bullying Keichirou and he sometimes gets horny. Momoko is a homophobic born-again Christian who used to be a junkie slut. She also knows Satsuki's and Keichirou's mother, from working in the conversion camp where the principal was turned straight. Oh, and of course, she hates Muslims and thinks all Jews are going to hell. Which leads me straight into her perfect foil, Leo, who is a horny Jewish loser. Throughout the show, Momoko keeps trying to get Leo to convert to Christianity. The two of them honestly make a perfect foil. I really couldn't name a better duo if I tried. Then there's Amanojaku, who is a tsundere cat possessed by a demon who does nothing until all of the characters are in big, bad, trouble. I got no clue why he's the most favorited character in this anime because he's definitely generic af and the least funniest, but whatever I guess. Just another day on MAL.
The comedic aspects that Ghost Stories are known for is actually mostly character-based, instead of just offensive statements at random. Yeah, go figure. That's probably why it took me four episodes before I could really start to get into this show, and appreciate/laugh at the jokes. But even then the jokes don't always land. In fact, they don't land nearly as much as I expected from watching funny clips compilations on YouTube. This was actually surprising to me, because I cracked the hell up when I watched the out-of-context clips on YouTube. You also have to have an understanding of American culture in 2005, the year the anime was dubbed in English, to understand a lot of the jokes too. Like there's a running joke throughout the show where characters reference Christian Slater's dead career. Who the fuck is Christian Slater? I was a little baby zoomer back in 2005. Ok but it's kinda ironic that the joke is about his career being dead and I don't know who he is. 😆 At least Imma smort American zoomer who knows about stuff like Condoleezza Rice, Michael Savage, and Rush Limbaugh I guess. To get back on track, if the jokes don't hit, then there's not really much enjoyment to be had with this show because the story definitely won't hit. Monster of the week type beat with no consequences at the end of any episode. Hell, even the Japanese licensors knew the story was pretty shit lmao no one was paying to watch Ghost Stories. At least the majority of the jokes are based on the stuff in the paragraph above, the offensively humorous character traits.
Art and sound are pretty standard I guess. Nothing special. Funnily enough however, the script is self-aware of its animation errors during some scenes. OP and ED are pretty banger too. Moreover, I was impressed with Greg Aryes's performance as Leo, because normally I cannot stand his voice. But I have a newfound respect for him after hearing him nail so many Leo lines, and even more after knowing that the voice actors' scripts were actually their own improv.
Ok people of MAL: listen up because based daddy Bengofo boutta bust out some truth. Aight. You ready? Here goes: The most important aspect of anime is enjoyment and there's this mystical thing called subjectivity. In the end, this magical element of enjoyment composes 100% of what influences my score on an anime or manga. And you know what? I had quite a moderately good enjoyment of Ghost Stories. So I give it a 7/10. But don't take that the wrong way; usually a 7/10 from me would still be recommendable, but I don't recommend that you watch this anime in full by itself, to be honest. Since the story is boring and many jokes don't land, I genuinely think you're better off just watching the funny moments compilations on YouTube because then, if you don't find a joke funny, it'll fly right by you as the video goes onto the next clip.
Now what even happened for Ghost Stories to get the dub that it did? Well in my amateur zoomer research, what I discovered was that no one in Japan gave a crap about this anime so sales were very low. As a result, when it was handed over to ADV for them to dub it in English, they were told to basically do whatever the fuck they wanted with the script as long as they kept the characters' names the same. And so, the voice actors decided to do offensive improv and got paid for it.
Tl;dr: Some funny character based comedy that doesn't always land. Have an understanding of American culture in 2005 if you want to watch this, which you shouldn't do in the first place. Just watch funny clip compilations on YouTube. Many of the jokes are still incredibly funny even without the context of the situation.
Hazegurl
LOL! I gave this anime a perfect 10 all the way through because I know it would would just tick off the anime purist. Mind you, I am giving it a perfect 10 because of the ENGLISH DUB! What can I say about this anime that hasn't been said better here except to add to the opinion that if you have a sense of humor you WILL enjoy this anime, this dub is by the far the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. Let's just be honest, the show in Japanese sucks, plain and simple, there is just no getting around that. Sowhat does this Dub company do? They saw the potential for something hiliarious and had the courage to make it a go. Thus we have this epically funny anime that will keep you busting a gut the whole way through. These kids are awesome!Everything about it is awesome. If you're having a crappy day just pop it in and watch and relax and laugh. I just wish more crappy animes get the same makeover.
Trust me, if you're a person who loves to laugh you will not regret giving this anime (English dub only) a chance.
Lost_Hearts
It will take thousands of years for an anime to be like this one. What makes this anime enjoyable is that it does not care what you think of it. They'll say whatever they want even if the script is controversial. I'll give you some examples "Sorry all you little yellow people look alike to me, and African Americans" "You can do the broadcasting so I can get my brains banged out by Mr. Sakata..." "Mr. Sakata's banging the living fuck out of Ms. Matsushima!" "Sorry, but this number is not in service, hey! Maybe if they paid their fucking phone bill you could call again!" "Get yo crackhead ass intosome rehab, I don't got time for this bullshit!"
"Watch out! Stupid Jew!"
This is every single episode
Bakaoid2112
Gakkou no Kaidan is a very hilarious anime. I had the pleasure of watching it dubbed and the comedy is in it is excellent, for me it is the best part, and what made this anime such a pleasure to watch. It is full of pop culture references and one liners, making nods to every thing from politics to celebrities. As far as story goes, it doesn't change past, the kids encounter a ghost, and fight it off, but even with its static story, it remains entertaining and never becomes dull. The character development also remains static, none of the characters really venture past the stereotypes thatwere created for them, however they are still compelling nonetheless.
I recommend it to anyone who enjoys black comedy mixed with supernatural and mild horror.
seekster
First off let me say that I am a fan of Ghost Hunt which is in many ways very similar to Ghost Stories. However after having seen both series I have to say that Ghost Hunt is clearly the better of the two. Having said that Ghost Stories is a slightly underrated series that probably does deserve a bit more recognition. Story: Unlike Ghost Hunt, Ghost Stories is completely episodic and all but the first and last episodes can be watched in any order and still work. There is not anything really wrong with the story but it is predictable and prone to cliche use. There arehardly any twists and near the end it almost seemed like the writers were running out of ideas. However the stories are fairly enjoyable and some of them are genuinely creepy (I personally liked the Piano ghost episode). All in all, the story doesn't do anything more than it needs to. It doesn't leave any large plot holes and explains most things at some point or another. It does have one thing over Ghost Hunt in that Ghost Stories actually has a relatively satisfying ending.
Art:
This anime was made around the turn of the century so the art is a little old but its still fun to look at and most of the character designs are well done (particularly the female ones). The ghosts are also animated pretty well and some of them get really creative (like the broadcast ghost that is actually covered in tv static). The backgrounds were kind of bland and empty for the most part but I wont fault the series much for that since it does a good job of focusing the audience's attention where it needs to be.
Sound:
The opening and closing themes were forgettable, some of the sound effects seemed delayed or out of place (I swear at one point they use a star wars laser blast sound effect when a ghost is coming out of a TV). Mind you neither the music or the sound effects are actually bad, they just aren't good either. Voice acting is a mixed bag though all of the voice actors and actresses do at least a decent job. Of particular note is Nakao Ryusei who voices the demon/cat who is a reoccurring character, his voice is instantly recognizable to anyone who watches the japanese version of Bleach as he uses the Kurotsuchi Mayuri voice for this character as well. Nakao is easily the best voice actor in this show but the main character also does a fine job and really helps make Satsuki believable.
Character:
I have to give Ghost Stories credit, most of the main characters are reasonably believable. Its important to point out that they are all Elementary School kids (most in the 5th or 6th year). The characters are designed well and the main character, Satsuki is probably one of the most believable anime characters I have seen in a long time. She is moody but likable and doesn't act overly brave but isn't a coward either. She is a normal kid and the writing for her character does a good job presenting her that way. Unfortunately most of the characters are extremely shallow. We do get some decent backstory for Satsuki that works its way into the plot at various points, but we hardly learn anything about any of the other characters. I know the other characters are not really vital but without a backstory they come off kind shallow and at some times their behavior is inconsistent (the comic relief character switches from brave to cowardly in different episodes). The character of Momoko (while wonderful eyecandy) is also kind of bland.
Enjoyment:
When I started watching this show I thought it was for kids but now having finished it I am not sure. The blood and violence are a bit toned down but there is still a fair amount of blood and death (then again Japanese children are more advanced apparently). There is also a running gag where Hajime keeps seeing Satsuki's underwear but this is done more as a kid trying to tease a girl rather than with a sense of perversion (the gag also kind of disappears later on). I have to say that overall I did enjoy watching Ghost Stories. The series did manage to hold my interest all the way through which is more than can be said for other animes.
Overall:
If you like Ghost Hunt then I would recommend seeing this, its not nearly as good as Ghost Hunt but its not bad either. If you havn't seen Ghost Hunt then you need to watch it or I am calling Jigoku Shojo. Seriously though, Ghost Stories is a slightly underrated anime that at least deserves a look.
6 out of 10
RoneSpeak
I don't know how this fell into my pilots watchlist, but I'm so happy it did. I can't believe there haven't been more animes dubbed quite like this one. This is one of those shows you need to watch the English dub of, I'll explain in a sec why. Gakkou no Kaidan (Ghost Stories) is a pretty tame, predictable show about kids in school that accidentally release a bunch of ghosts and have to put them all back to sleep. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound that memorable, but it's actually one of the best comedies I've seen in years and by far the most memorable. Ichecked out the first episode, on the English dub because I'm lazy, and the voice acting completely threw me. The voice actors that worked on the dub had nearly complete creative freedom for their lines, to the point where the actual plot dialogue is stripped to the absolute bones to make room for improvised comedy. It's hard to describe, but it feels like the voice actors saw their scenes once, pretended to be snotty little kids, then insulted each other and made dick jokes on mike. There are brick jokes, observational jokes, 4th wall breaking commentary... See? Hard to describe. It feels sort of like an abridged series, except played straight for an entire length episode.
Getting down to details, the animation itself is a little bit weak because of it's budget, it looks like it was made early in 2000s because it was. The zoom in detail shots hold up nicely, and the dynamic movements are still pretty enjoyable to watch. There is a bit of abstract horror which surprisingly stands up very well on character design even now.
The music is largely underscoring, so it isn't overly memorable but it fits the feeling well, no overall theme here. I did quite like the intro music though.
I'm not sure why the show is split into 19 episodes and 1 special, it's pretty much just a 20 episode long sketch show with Japanese cartoon actors.
The characters Should be fairly routine, nothing special to any of them, but thanks to the comedy lines each one of them is completely memorable and distinguishable. From the first episode, their personalities are made clear through the jokes and insults they sling at each other. By the end, there are so many in jokes that you've been included in that it feels like your own friends making fun of each other in front of you. Some of the best characters are the side ones that you'll only see once, but you'll still be smirking at the thought of them a good few episodes later.
I want to give away some of the jokes, but I can't. I started this not even knowing it was a comedy, and the pilot episode damn nearly made me cough up a lung laughing. There wasn't a single episode that didn't have me in pain from excessive laughter. I loved this so much I bought it. You can show this to people who hate anime and even they'll have a great time. I can't recommend this enough, as an intro show or to those of us who've wasted an excessive amount of time on cartoons. This is a goddamn treasure.
Brendyrose
Story: 8 Art: 6 Sound: 7 Characters: 7 Enjoyment: 8 Overall: 8 This is a review of a sub. The hate that the Sub gets is not justified in the slightest. I've seen some dreadful bad animes and the people pretending that this is one of them are lying to themselves and others. This show specifically the first few episodes in particular have a very slow and mediocre start i'll admit that but a lot of animes do especially those around this era.The show is about a group of friends who go around getting caught up in a lot of serious paranormal situations usually involving ghosts or demons (mostly ghosts) and how to put the ghost or demon to sleep. I don't plan on making this a super in depth review because I feel like that would bring out some spoilers but please don't disregard the sub because people have said its bad. They're really not being fair.
The Dub I hear is compared a lot to "Abdridged" series of animes on youtube. DBZ Abridged and the like. Personally I don't find those to be funny at all they're not my type of humor and the voice acting I always find to be really annoying and untalented (No offense) but if that's what the dub is being compared to i'm not interested in some comedic take of this anime especially when this show is serious its at its best.
kitphiroth
This is simply an amazing anime, ahaha. I cannot help but laugh at every joke, every poke on this anime as I watch it. You can tell it didn't even try to go after it's original script, but that was the beauty of it, they made something boring into a comedy. If you have a sense of humor, just watch it, you won't be disappointed. Just, the whole anime just makes you laugh as a whole and if you are watching it to be a serious dub? Then don't bother, it's not something most people would even watch. If youare going to watch the sub, I guess you'd have a boring show? Other than that, watch it knowing that no one took it seriously.
SeanInTheFlesh
This is a pretty legendary anime. I actually knew one of the voice actors, Chris Patton growing up, who is awesome, and my hero. He is genuinely a great dude by the way, would give me advice about life and was like a friend. So please cherish him forever. Anyways, I gave this anime a watch, I heard such great things about it, and I’m all for anti PC, especially these days of our post 2020 world. And my god. Does this anime deliver! I’m 29, so I get a lot of the references but even then I was kind of struggling with some of them. Iwould think it’s probably suited more for people in their 30s, probably 30s and 40s. still I got a lot of it and I thought it was fucking hilarious. It’s Lewd, it’s ludacris, it’s a ton of fun. It’s a very addicting anime to finish and watch but at the same time they were kind of trying to make it an anime worth watching. I think if they didn’t go the route that they did and they were faithful to this anime’s sub, which I don’t know , how the sub is but I can say if this was like a genuinely serious anime I would never watch it. It’s for fucking kids, like, children; but, they somehow made it into an adult / teenager anime that is timeless and that in itself is fucking genius.
I was struggling at times because the anime itself is very hard to get through. The characters are fucking dumbasses and their actions just don’t make sense or lineup to how they would react to all of the shit they’ve been through in the past, but the funny thing is that the voice actors noticed this and quip on that and call it out so you will laugh with the voice actors, and I think that’s great. I definitely recommend this anime. But there’s a reason I rate it 8 out of 10.
Now the character designs and the characters themselves are awesome. I love Satsuki . She’s my favorite. She’s super hot. And they deliver on that with fan service too. I just think that the story and the plot is so fucking hard to get through sometimes cause it’s like a fucking Scooby-Doo plot, but it’s like genuine horror, and it’s not a big turn on for me , if the funny factor wasn’t there I would never watch this.
Also the ending is hilariously bad on purpose.
8 out of 10
kozad
This is a terrible anime. It's fkn bad. But, hear me out, watch the English dub! The US studio got permission to do whatever they'd like with it as long as they kept a few things from the Japanese version intact. The cast took a terrible anime and made it into a campy comedy firmly belonging to the 2000s. Sure, in 2024, it's not nearly as funny as it was 15 years prior. Society's norms have changed and several of the punchlines are literally dead people now (making it harder for younger folks to get the jokes), but this perfectly encapsulates the 2000s weeb cultureand the era's Adult Swim demographic too in a very satirical way. It's a rare example of the dub being far superior to the sub. 😂 Honestly, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" and the Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5 "Princess Robot Bubblegum" satire anime are the closest parallels I can think of for the uninitiated. You'll start the anime and be like, "This is stupid af" but then you'll find yourself growing invested with a story that makes no sense.
Given some of the nasty language used, it's probably not something everyone will like today - there are r-words, f-slurs, n-words, k-words... It's spicy, and I'd be amazed if any of the voice actors still get work today. But that terrible crap is *not* what makes it funny, it's the absurdity of the entire experience. If you can bring yourself to look past the worst elements of the dub, you'll probably enjoy it.
Khashishi
This review is based on the English dub, which is infamous for adding a lot of child-inappropriate humor to the kid's series. It does increase the enjoyment, but it doesn't transform this into a masterpiece. The story is fully episodic, with a new ghost each episode. Each episode mostly follows the same pattern of: random background characters encounter ghost and scream; scene cuts away and presumably something bad happened to them; the main characters either seek out the ghost, or the ghost endangers one of the characters, and the rest come to their aid; the heroes look up how to deal with the ghost in mom'sdiary, which conveniently has solutions for most of the ghosts. Occasionally, cat steps in to help. Ghost is sealed away just as soon as one or more characters are about to be doomed. The nature of each ghost is different and adds some variety to the story.
The main criticism I have is that the solutions for most episodes mostly comes down to the same thing, reciting some words from the book. The anime Mononoke had a way more interesting solution.
The five kids all share the protagonist role, with characters switching off the role of damsel in distress in each episode.
The anime does include some fan-service, despite the story being written for children. I guess this is just Japan being Japan.
The art and sound are not bad considering the age, but they are definitely very dated and not as smooth as anything modern. There is a lot of running sequences where it cycles through 2 or 3 frames, but that's kind of par for a TV program. The OT and ET are catchy despite not sounding that good.
