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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
Seventeen year old Mai Taniyama spends her time swapping ghost stories with her friends. This harmless pastime takes on a new meaning when she is introduced to Naru Shibuya, who has been asked by the school's principle to check out a haunted school building. Through the investigation Mai meets some of the other operatives, including a spirit medium, a shrine maiden, a young exorcist and a monk. Following her first adventure she is formally asked to join the Shibuya Psychic Research team... Ghost Hunt: Series One - Part Two (2006) continues the supernatural anime based on a series of light novels by Fuyumi Ono and the subsequent manga written by Shiho Inada. The anime was directed by Rei Mano. The episodes are presented as a two disc DVD set, with both disc presented with options for either an English or Japanese 2.0 audio track, with optional subtitles. Like the previous set, the stories are spread out through a number of episodes, so whilst you get a lot of episodes you only get three stories as each one takes up four episodes. This gives the show time to stage the unworldly event and the Shibuya (SPR) time to properly investigate, so you don’t get it all neatly wrapped up in thirty minutes. Watched back to back the experience is more like watching an anime film than a series. The show boasts some well drawn vibrant animation, which adds an air of quality to the whole thing. So, with good animation and good stories, what’s not to like about this show? The length of the stories also allows for a satisfying level of character interaction and development. Its more thoughtful approach reminded me very much of Death Note and if you like that show then it is likely that you will find Ghost Hunt just as engrossing to watch. Only the second disc hold any extras in the form of Pages from the Manga, nice but you need a pretty big telly or superb eyesight to actually read the pages. There are eleven short character case files for you to examine and Ghost Sightings (1 min, 01 sec) which has some shots from the show. The extras come to a close with three trailers. Disc one, Story one. Episodes fourteen to seventeen: Forbidden Pastime. The Ryokuryou High School comes to the attention of the SPR, when the student start to report strange happenings, including being bitten but a ghostly dog. Although the schools principle does not welcome their intrusion the SPR soon discover that the haunting began following the suicide of Sakauchi, a first year student who had convinced other students to engage in summoning spirits. Following a series of events - well I don’t want to spoil it for you - the SPR discover that the spirits are ingesting each other; soon this will leave a single all powerful spirit to take over the school. The SPR can rid the place of all the spirits if they reflect the energy back on the caster, but that would kill most of the student population... So, this represents another great story full of creepy music, atmosphere and the odd jump-out-of-your-sofa moment. Disc one and two, Story two. Episodes eighteen to twenty-one: The Blood Stained Labyrinth. The SPR are asked to investigate a haunted house, but they are not the only ones who have been asked to investigate. The house is owned by the former Prime Minister. During the investigation members of the other teams start to disappear... Oh things are not what they seem in this episode and it nearly costs the SPR their lives. This episode involves some harrowing moments for Mai. I like the fact that the show is willing to place its characters in real peril. Yes I know that in an ongoing series that they are unlikely to kill off any of the major characters, but they get pretty close. And at last we come to the last ever anime story in disc two, story three. Episodes twenty-two to twenty-five: The Cursed House. The SPR takes on its most dangerous case to date, previous psychics have tried to solve the mystery and all have died in the attempt. This time Mai’s psychic abilities are once again pivotal in solving the case. A family appear to be haunted with many of them having perished all ready. During the investigation another suicide occurs... A real kick-arse way of ending the series, with an excellent creepy story to close what has been one of the better anime’s out there. 9 Charles Packer Buy this item online
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