Ghost Hound
 

http://content.imagesocket.com/thumbs/ghostxg2c26.png

Production Company: Production I.G.

Genre: Spiritual + SciFi !? There is first time for everything.

Expected Release Date: Fall 2007

Website: http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/ghosthound/

Any Shirow Masamune-fan in the house? He is bloody writing the story. Sorry! :D So what else is new? Well, the director for the show is going to be.. drumroll please.. (once again, sorry :heh: ).. Nakamura Ryutaro. I'll have you know that his name was merely involved with shows like Serial Experiment Lain, Kino no Tabi, REC, Colorful (has anyone actually seen it other than me that is?). I'm unbelievably excited about this piece of news that I've actually sat up to type this post. :heh: This year is getting better and better and better for the anime-fans. As of now there is no synopsis available on the story. Will keep updating as more information becomes available. So, where are the other Shirow Masamune-fans? :)

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edit: [March 25, 2007] Updated genre info. Thanks/blames go to Duckroll.

ME! I am a big fan of his! I adore Ghost in the Shell.

This anime looks interesting, even if its only a picture being shown. XD

Wow, Masamune Shirow.

Just wow.

HOLY CRAP ALL THE TEXT IS REALLY HUGE ON THIS PAGE. I'M PRETTY SURe...okay that's enough... I'm pretty sure that I've run across his art in something and its not Ghost In The Shell since I've never seen any of it. His style certainly is unique and more detailed than your usual big eyes small mouth style. I like the artists that actually seem to put effort into their work, compared with say Hisashi Hirai. Everything points to this being a solid production at the bare minimum whatever it is, but lets not throw our hats at the ice before the trick is up.

I'm not so sure on that. Unless someone at TAF who's seen the trailer can clarify, there's nothing to fully insinuate that Ghost Hound will be sci-fi. The upcoming manga release of Ghost Hound (( not drawn by Masamune, sadly )) this end of March reveals that's it's about a bunch of youngsters with special powers.

Not to mention Shirow's position in this is still strangely obscure. There's no doubt he's the one who's writing the story, but there isn't any full clarification on how it's going around in the anime, since Chiaki Konoka of Lain is apparently the scriptwriter for Ghost Hound as well. It's possible that Shirow's contributing the original concept and idea with Konoka writing the script, or even both of them working together with Shirow being the lead writer but there's too little information at the moment. Right now, all we know is pretty much that Ghost Hound is being touted a 20th Anniversary Production I.G work, and they'll be collaberating with Shirow Masamune in this work. At least we can expect some dough being grinded into this, that's fo sure.

Ghost Hound is not scifi. It's a "Spiritual Animation" with themes of occult and spiritualism. Shirow is NOT writing the story, he simply co-conceived the idea with Production IG. The writer and director duo for Lain is handling the anime series with character designs from the Hell Girl character designer.

The trailer at TAF mainly showed the girl in the picture lying in a dead-like position while having flashbacks or visions of herself running up some stairs before a shadow being covers the sky and reaches for her. There are other characters that look like high school students, and there's a school setting but overall the area seems to be the more rural part of Japan similar to Spirited Away or Totoro with tons of greenary and old looking places.

The series starts airing on WOWOW in the Fall.

By writer you mean Yoshitoshi ABe?!

No, ABe was in charge of visual design and original story, the script itself was by Chiaki Konaka, who's doing Ghost Hound.

Thank you both for keeping my level of enthusiasm in check. :heh::D I'll change the genre as soon as it is confirmed what we can expect from this series. I'm still going to remain giddy as long as Shirow-san is invovled with this show in any manner imaginable though I would like to think (just like Nightengle) that the concept came from Shirow-san's head. Btw, would very much appreciate if a link could be provided for us eager ones who want to see the trailer so badly. :)

But the genre on the sell sheet at TAF says specifically "Spiritual Animation". :P

A friend of mine told me that the characteristic premise of the manga is that the characters don't speak at all. Would someone who's read the manga care to say something about it? My friend wasn't very explicit (he told me so by mail).

Ah, so Shirow has finally decided to stop producing softcore pornography (yes, I am looking at you, Intron Depot) and do something worthwhile?

Huh...?

And yet you still have that GITS avatar...

I hope theres good cast. I hope it doesnt end up failing like Blood+.

Does that change the fact that Shirow draws shiny naked girls for poster books? 8)

It's not that I disapprove so much, yet that's the only thing he's been doing since Man-Machine Interface. Rather sad story...

Yeah, and both GITS manga had explicit sex scenes in it (the one in MMI was removed from the American publishing), but that's not the only thing he's done. GITS didn't revolve at all around those scenes, either, and its removal don't affect the development of the manga at all. I mean, if he wants to slack around for a while and draw some fanservicey stuff (not that he's been lacking those kinds of stuff in the past), let him, he's done excellent works before.

We now have confirmation! Genre has been changed to..... Spiritual + SciFi. Still couldn't discount the possibility of some sort of scifi twist even at the face of mounting evidence. :heh:

P.S. Researching on Intron Depot as I'm writing this post. Thanks Mr. P! ^^

The point is that it's not just "fanservicey stuff", his last works/artbooks contain a lot of vulgar artworks and drawings, that are almost borderline hentai. Fanservice, the typical one, doesn't feel vulgar at all, but his latest work heavily do look and feel that way.

In any case I am glad he's involved in something different, for a change. I'm mostly looking forward to this because of the animation studio and the director, rather than Shirow's not-so-clear role in it. And the first recent anime that came to my mind when I read "spiritual + sci-fi" and "rural settings" was Mushishi, for some reason. :heh:

And the girl in the promo picture resembles Enma a lot.

I don't care if Shirow did hentai, if he was also making something interesting in the mean time. A lot of mangaka draw dojinshi or erotic content, that's not the big deal.

The sad part is that he didn't do anything "interesting the mean time".

We'll see what this Ghost Hound is about. Although, the title itself brings back memories of Forest Whitaker's and Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog - Way of the Samurai". That's funny, in it's own little way. 8)

Anyone see the trailer?

"Spiritual animation"? What the hell's that? And the girl... a hologram Sadako from Ring?

From what we know it definetly is not your average series but if it has a Ghost In The Shell feel to it, i'll probably watch it when it comes out.

No, I'm against Ghost in the Shell feel... ^^
It should be Mystery, Horror. We have lots of series other than that.

im a big GitS whore so i cant wait for this series, even if we know nothing about it :p

Yeah, but Ghost In The shell has a bit of a mystery feel to it also, but I know what you mean. :)

I'm a Shirow fan!! Me, me, me!!! Or should I say "fangirl". Been one since the mid 80's. :D

So he's writing something other than his 'GITS' now? I would have never thought that he had other stuff up his sleeve other than his "utopian" worlds are based on. Sci-fi x Spiritual. This could hurt folks. This a really cerebral thing. I'll take a spin.

Hopefully, the director will be able to handle what's scripted. Some people are still talking about that 'GITS' movie. But the 'Appleseed' movie did well. I liked it despite it's differences. But hell, 'Shirow' did play a part in it's production. So I wonder if he'll have a little involvement with this show. Hell, last time he directed anything was back in the late 80's and that was 'Black Magic M-66'.

Oh and yes, I have seen 'Colorful'. Now that's a interesting piece of work.

I take offense at that! (not really... :p)

No, but seriously, I haven't seen a single cyberpunk series in the longest time. What's wrong with asking for more? :p I believe that, taking GITS apart, there are very few truly cyberpunk series...

Lain psycho-vibes detected :

http://www.ghosthound.tv/

+ trailer.

I don't know about you but now I am REALLY expecting it.

No wonder that page's picture looked so familiar! It says the character designer also worked on Jigoku Shoujo's designs. :D

Any idea who's doing the music? The BGM in the trailer sounds really spiffy.

New sections for the official site is up:
http://www.ghosthound.tv

There are some character biographies. Just from looking at the trailer several weeks ago, I thought the main character was a girl. Apparently not. :twitch: As for the music, the staff list is up but I do not see a music category.

Awaiting awesomeness...

I just hope the theme songs aren't instrumentals.

I might try this one. I like Lain and GITS but I have never heard of the names of the director or the story writer. But again, I don't pay attention to stuff like that. Just don't fall short. I was really dissapointed at G-Grey man, skull man, and a bounch of other shows I sampled.

And, yeah, "Colorful?" What's that? :D

does anyone have a copy of the trailer in avi or mkv? i'm trying to capture some frames for a sig, but the wmv is giving me some problems. there was a torrent with the trailer in xvid 2 months ago, but that torrent is dead. maybe someone might could direct me to the avi version on the site or on megaupload or something...


also, i think that slightly breaks the rules, what i just asked, but i would point out that i'm only asking about the trailer, which is an advertisement, and i would bet money that IG would like that trailer to circulate....... ahem....

guest: The director's the same as Lain.

I think Lain's best parts were its directing rather than its script, so I am a little ambivalous about Konaka's involvement as scriptwriter, but I eagerly await to see what Nakamura can do with I.G.'s power... although the trailer does not excite me in the least bit.

It seems like it's "Spiritual Animation" with lots of emphasis on ghosts and spirits but with all sorts of Difficult Concepts and Technology and that sort of thing. Just look at the page, Existential Ghosts and Syntax Error and Out-Of-Body experience blah blah blah... but if it's going to be a show all about words and throwing around names without an interesting story or at least good direction then I'm probably not watching it.


Ah, if only Takahiro Kishida did the designs, I vastly prefer his style but oh well.
Is anyone going to translate the character descriptions or osmething? I think it'll give a better feel of the story and stuff.

I'm not a fan of the character designs actually. And well, with all things considered, I'm not sure if the "spiritual sci-fi" premise is enough to get me interested enough. That promotional video wasn't helping much either.

Premier: 18th October 2007

It has been confirmed at the official site ----> http://www.ghosthound.tv/

I think you guys know....but I didn't see it being mentioned in the thread...so here. LOL:D

Loved Ghost Hunt and it's by Masamune Shirow, creator of Ghost in the Shell, so this is definitely going on my fall watch list.

What's wrong with instrumental music? XD

The Bacanno OP is very good.

*On subject*
I'm very interested in this series as well, for the simple fact I haven't found a hit anime besides coil(for me) this year. With this anime having connections to the Lain staff, I'm feeling very stoked about it.

As far as the genre, signs strongly point to a sci-fi, mystery.

It's just the fact that 1) I hate instrumental songs. 2)Vocals feel so much more human than just music.