Aion
Time-Traveller
Ghost Hunt: 8-8.5/10
An anime without any major, enjoyment ruining flaws, but also without anything outstanding. There is not a part of the series you could show a friend and go, "Just look at it! This is one of the best series ever! Go buy it now!" but the opposite is also true. Ghost Hunt is a series you need to get into before you can appreciate it, and that's exactly why the first three episode arc focused establishing the characters and didn't even include a ghost.
For those not too quick on the uptake, Ghost Hunt is about ghost hunting. A small group, including a school girl, ghost hunter, monk, priestess, priest and spiritual medium team up to solve cases that are risky or too much for only one to handle. There are seven 2-4 episode stories included, with the remaining episode being an unusually light-hearted one thrown in to prevent the series from being overly serious.
My main issue with the series is that it lacks character development. Very little ever gets revealed about the past of the characters, and what is shown are clips that last for a few seconds. With series like Death Note, where an overarching plot prevents the viewer from missing character development, it works...but it doesn't work so well in a series like Ghost Hunt where non-related shorter stories make up the 25 episode length. The characters are not found lacking in terms of likability but do lack depth. Would it have been so hard to link the pasts of the characters together with some of the ghost hunting?
With the series being split up into 2-4 episode arcs, another issue I have is with the quality jumping around. I liked the first few stories but grew tired towards the end. Just after one high school ghost hunting mission, another high school arc followed it, which left me feeling a little underwhelmed. Also, the final four episode arc was weaker than the previous, far more disturbing four episode arc... The ending struck me as being anti-climatic when it neither ended on a high or closed off the story.
...Oh, yes, my other negative comment: the ending. Nothing was resolved and the story is still on-going at the end. The end just screams sequel. Since there is not a sequel series out there as of yet, right now I'm rating an unfinished article, with no ending in sight, and that means I'm left feeling disappointed. Really, it feels like I'm grading the first half of a 50 episode series; a series where everything important is going to happen in the second half.
The strange thing about Ghost Hunt is that, despite it not being amazing, I was able to rewatch the first 11 episodes in one sitting and finish the rest of the series in one sitting the next day. What the series did well was keeping every episode suspenseful, leaving me craving more and making me want to see how the stories ended. Providing the stories grip you, it doesn't matter a great deal about the lack of character development. If you are like me, you would find yourself too involved in the stories to care.
To sum it up, Ghost Hunt is a solid and highly entertaining series. The art is appealing, the colour usage is good, the animation isn't awful, the music is fitting, it has one of the best dubs I've heard (Mai and Naru's voices are top draw) and nearly all of the stories are gripping. If you can overlook the fairly minor flaws I have mentioned, it is a good series to blow £20-30 on.
An anime without any major, enjoyment ruining flaws, but also without anything outstanding. There is not a part of the series you could show a friend and go, "Just look at it! This is one of the best series ever! Go buy it now!" but the opposite is also true. Ghost Hunt is a series you need to get into before you can appreciate it, and that's exactly why the first three episode arc focused establishing the characters and didn't even include a ghost.
For those not too quick on the uptake, Ghost Hunt is about ghost hunting. A small group, including a school girl, ghost hunter, monk, priestess, priest and spiritual medium team up to solve cases that are risky or too much for only one to handle. There are seven 2-4 episode stories included, with the remaining episode being an unusually light-hearted one thrown in to prevent the series from being overly serious.
My main issue with the series is that it lacks character development. Very little ever gets revealed about the past of the characters, and what is shown are clips that last for a few seconds. With series like Death Note, where an overarching plot prevents the viewer from missing character development, it works...but it doesn't work so well in a series like Ghost Hunt where non-related shorter stories make up the 25 episode length. The characters are not found lacking in terms of likability but do lack depth. Would it have been so hard to link the pasts of the characters together with some of the ghost hunting?
With the series being split up into 2-4 episode arcs, another issue I have is with the quality jumping around. I liked the first few stories but grew tired towards the end. Just after one high school ghost hunting mission, another high school arc followed it, which left me feeling a little underwhelmed. Also, the final four episode arc was weaker than the previous, far more disturbing four episode arc... The ending struck me as being anti-climatic when it neither ended on a high or closed off the story.
...Oh, yes, my other negative comment: the ending. Nothing was resolved and the story is still on-going at the end. The end just screams sequel. Since there is not a sequel series out there as of yet, right now I'm rating an unfinished article, with no ending in sight, and that means I'm left feeling disappointed. Really, it feels like I'm grading the first half of a 50 episode series; a series where everything important is going to happen in the second half.
The strange thing about Ghost Hunt is that, despite it not being amazing, I was able to rewatch the first 11 episodes in one sitting and finish the rest of the series in one sitting the next day. What the series did well was keeping every episode suspenseful, leaving me craving more and making me want to see how the stories ended. Providing the stories grip you, it doesn't matter a great deal about the lack of character development. If you are like me, you would find yourself too involved in the stories to care.
To sum it up, Ghost Hunt is a solid and highly entertaining series. The art is appealing, the colour usage is good, the animation isn't awful, the music is fitting, it has one of the best dubs I've heard (Mai and Naru's voices are top draw) and nearly all of the stories are gripping. If you can overlook the fairly minor flaws I have mentioned, it is a good series to blow £20-30 on.
