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Ghost Hound
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Animation - 8.3 |
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Sound - 8.8 |
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Story - 6.5 |
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Character - 8.0 |
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Value - 7.5 |
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Enjoyment - 8.0 |
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Average - 7.8 |
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fnord |
(2009-03-23 20:26:38) 2009-03-23 20:25:33 |
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| Average |
7.3 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| I was drawn to this show by the horror tag it had received on numerous databases, although it turns out that it really isn't much of a horror show. At best, it might count as a thriller, but even that hold is somewhat tenuous.
Animation:
Great animation. Fluid and nice movement, and the CG used during some of the sequences usually blends in well. The backgrounds appear washed out sometimes, as if lacking in detail. Character designs were done by the same artist who drew the characters for Jigoku Shoujo, with unmistakeable similarities. Very pleasant character designs. I have serious gripes with the ghost design, which while not destroying the atmosphere, looked plain ridiculous.
Sound:
Unprominent music, but very impressive and creative sound effects. In no show before have I encountered sound effects that were this intricate and creative. Great OP and nice ED. Voice acting is well-done and suits the characters.
Story:
For about half of the show, it remains completely unknown just where the story is headed. Not in a sense of mystery, where you have no clue what's going on, but rather in a lack of mystery. There is really not much happening in the first half except for introductions, and even during the second half the pacing is only so-so. From a narrative point of view, this show only has content for 11 episodes, even though it does have enough characters for 22. Ghost Hounds plot is best described as a groundwork of actual psychology with an elaborate fantastical construction on top of it. As such, it does sport good psychological depth, and the borderline between the factual and the fictional does not feel jumpy, which is often a problem for science-fantasy. This is the category where the problems of Ghost Hound are most readily apparent: a great concept being ruined by lots of small problems in the scriptwriting. While I do have a problem with slow shows usually, this isn't the reason why I have rated this category so badly; it's simply because for the most of the shows run, you have no idea what Ghost Hound might be trying to tell you. There doesn't appear to be any real story a lot of the time. Not until the final episodes does anything meaningful actually start happening.
Characters:
The main cast is pretty nicely done. Makoto's personality is slightly unrealistic, but overall the four of them received first rate depth, which is probably the only thing that keeps you going during the first half of the run. However, the secondary cast (all the adults), while receiving quite a lot of screentime, are quite boring and shallow. In neither group is there any real development, but I'm not big on character development anyway.
Value:
Good subs, good video quality. Nice for archiving, but I probably won't watch it again even though the sound direction is absolutely unique.
Enjoyment:
It's a good and unusual show, but not without its flaws. On the positive side it has high-quality animation and nice artwork, impressive sound effects and some great characters. On the negative side we have stupid ghost designs, a slow and badly paced plot and plenty of boring characters that somehow still lacked the time to be fleshed out. It's not a waste of time to watch it, but I wouldn't include it among my all-time recommendations either.
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| I hope that more ppl have seen this than just two (and me makes 3 :D) cuz it's a really great show!! Unfortunately only the overly complex ending gears to hold it down, but it's really worth your time! Highly recomended!
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| In the beginning, this anime seems like it could be fascinating--there's a mysterious kidnapping, a corporation with questionable ethics, a possibly corrupt politician, a religious cult, and crazy paranormal stuff as well. Had it all been tied together, it probably would have been very interesting. But if it was actually all tied together, I obviously missed it completely.
That being said, there were some horror-esque animation sequences that were very effective, and the sound effects were quite creepy. That made the anime interesting, at least moment-to-moment.
They got enough of the psychology right that one could call this a 'psychological' horror, but they got enough wrong to make it seem like the writers just asked a real psychologist to name some syndromes rather than actually understanding it themselves. For instance, they show the somatosensory 'homunculus' to imply that there's a 'homunculus'--meaning, a little man inside the brain--that governs our behavior (the two concepts are entirely distinct). Worse, they persist in the incredibly annoying delusion that the discovery channel gave everyone--that there's a great deal of space in between the neurons in the brain. Neurons in the brain are packed tightly together--the tiny amount of space that can't be filled with axons gets filled with glial cells. Anyway, you may learn a few things about psychology, but if you've actually studied the brain, don't expect the psychological realism to astound you, or even to play a significant role in the plot.
The characters were believable, although I couldn't ever figure out what their motivations were, which makes them hard to evaluate. The same with 'value'--I didn't really get anything out of it, mostly because I didn't understand what was going on or why the characters acted as they did.
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Ghost Hound is a series that caters to a specific audience. Those who are interested in the combination of paranormal with psychology will be delighted with this show as it throws out, what seems like endless amount of ideas and how they are potentially connected together. But how does it do this without possibly boring the audience with endless list of fact?
That is where the main characters come into the picture with their own individual stories and situations.
However due to this there have been complaints about a lack of cohrency within the show. This is purely a matter of perspective, as how can a show about paranormal activities be explained when it is unclear in reality itself.
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