Ghost Hunt
 

http://content.imagesocket.com/thumbs/Ghost_Huntd1f.jpg

Genre: Drama

Expected Release Date: October 4, 2006

Website: http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/ghosthunt/

The series is based on a novel by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada. Later it was adapted into manga which serialized in a Shoujo manga magazine called Amie. After that magazine was discontinued for whatever reasons, the manga was serialized in another magazine emphasizing shoujo manga called Nakayoshi. J.C.Stuff is the production comapny listed for this show. The synopsis is from the manga counterpart which is taken from ANN

Seventeen-year-old Kazuya Shibuya is the president of the Shibuya Psychic Research Center, a think tank that studies psychic phenomenon. The firm investigates various strange occurrences at the behest of its clients, while Shibuya`s assistant, Mai Taniyama, deals with her love/hate relationship towards her boss.

I've seen this manga in Del Rey's catalogue for a while - I'm hoping someone subs the anime so I can use that to determine if I want to start getting the manga. On the surface, the premise sounds like something I'll enjoy, so I'm looking forward to this as sort of a sleeper hit for me. :)

The color animation and character design sound decent and ideal for my preferences, particularly the parapsychological themes about investigating supernatural occurences.

I'm more than fond to start watching this title due that J.C. has produced it.

episode 1 raw
 

That was good. I just adore the sound of Nazuka Kaori's voice, since she was Yun in Simoun. Tai Yuuki and the rest of the cast were good, too. Since one of them (Masako) is Kugimiya Rie, that's hardly a surprise.

The backgrounds were especially pleasing, and the direction of the scenes was clear and interesting, with good camera movement and framing. I was maybe not quite so impressed with the animation of the figures, but I was getting a lag between sound and picture, so perhaps that threw me off.

The story moved ahead smoothly, too, with the right amount of supernatural feeling for an early episode. Tai Yuuki's mellifluous, urgent monotone seemed to me to help the show move. And I enjoyed the rather unusual OP and ED animations.

Is there a reason why the character design reminds me of Kamichu? Maybe not. This is the first chara-des job for Iwataki Sayoshi, who did key animation on Eureka7, Blood+, Aquarion and Tideline Blue. He's also the animation supervisor. And this is also the first directing job for Mano Rei, who directed episodes of CCS and Saber Marionette J. From the name Rei 玲, she appears to be a woman.

I see that Yoshida Reiko is involved in the script, so the adaptation of the novel (edit: manga) should be quite professional. I liked the sound and the voice-acting, and the sound director, Ebina Yasunori, might have had something to do with that. He has been sound director of Naruto (TV and movies), PrincessPrincess, Kagihime and the current Lovely Idol.

EDIT: Romance, you say? Well, she hates him, yet seems to fling herself at him at any sign of danger, so that's a good start, lol.

Don't know why...but I have a feeling that this could be romance as well... :)

I thought the exact same thing when I first saw it, but on second glance it isn't really there.

I like this kind of genre, but judgement withheld until I've actually seen something.

It's good to hear that the anime has gotten at least one good review. I was a little disheartened to see that it was based on the manga (though I should have been tipped off by the title/nearly indentical character designs, I suppose) instead of the novels. I haven't been able to get my hands on the novel series yet (in any form) but Ono Fuyumi's horror stuff is generally REALLY creepy, and I just don't think the manga manages to quite get that across.

On the other hand, I really like the cast and the premise, so even if it's not particularly scary, I'm sure I'll find it very enjoyable.

I originally found the manga to be not so good, but the anime had relatively better pacing. I like the anime art a lot more than the manga art too, especially in Mai's design. I'll watch until the end of the first case to make a decision though. Covering half the 1st volume in one episode was good though. The manga was far too slow.

And for some reason, I liked the OP. It definitely had a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits feel to it.

That's good to hear because I feel the same way about the manga. :)

The art looks tons better than the manga version. I chalk it up to J.C. Staff's awesomeness. I wasn't too thrilled with the boring OP and ED sequence, the the ED theme is pretty catchy. Hopefully they'll play up the whole romantic part, since that's what I'd be more interested in watching.

Anyway, full impressions over here at the blog.

BTW, you can find a preview of the english manga at del rey's site.

Gotta admit I'm normally not into horror titles, but the lead female Mai is just too cute, especially

Did she bite her tongue, or what? :D

The first episode seems interesting, but I was put off by the rush of character introductions.
I liked the irony of them though, a playboyish monk, a slutty Miko, a bishi australian exorcist...

Well that last one really got on my nerves, attempting to do a gainjin accent on top of a Kansai accent... the result was supposed to be grating I suppose...

I will definitely watch episode two though, just incase things start to get interesting.

Hehe, I noticed that as well, so I'm hoping for some romance to make its way into the plot.

Is it just in anime, or do Japanese (from Tokyo at least) just loooove to make fun of Kansai-ben and foreigners? Put them together and I guess it's supposed to be double the fun. Oh well, I can dig it. It didn't seem that well voiced to me, but I can't really judge. Great point about the ironies.

It's too early for me to decide if I like it or not. The first ep. basically just introduce the characters. So far, it seems pretty fun. But there are moments that are quite out of place.

For example:

I kinda like this anime but its only been one epi. The guy is kinda hot, sad that Im basing alot of anime I watch on the hottness factor but this anime kinda has a Holic feel to it. Hopefully it will be good, I hope the sub comes out soon.

I find it kind of ironic that:

Well the characters sound pretty cool anyways. I don't think I would mind watching it. Sounds fun!

Mostly due to that I understood less than half of what they said, it did get boring for me, I'm sure with a sub my impression would have been different, but gotta hope and wait for that hahah, anywhom, I really liked the OP music, I agree I got that Twilight Zone/X-Files feel, but also, the music reminded me of the OP sequence music to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory :heh:

I really enjoyed the first ep, and I think it wasn't just Nazuka Kaori's lovely voice. ^^; Character interactions are great, with the ghost story amping up the tension so that everyone who appears is potentially evil. Loved the comic moments too; they really worked for me. It's good that the brilliant bishounen character has that very funny trait, and better that another character's neurosis gets explored. Horror is at its best when it delves into hidden aspects of the human psyche. But I have a feeling this series might go under the radar this season -- hope the other episodes build up something worthwhile.