Enjoy ghouling ghost stories? I know I do, and I loved the series Ghost Hunt. It starts with a simple school girl named Taniyama Mai and her fellow classmates telling chilling ghost stories in their class after school. They are interrupted by another classmate, Kuroda, who claims she can see spirits and that they haunt the school. Little did they know, telling their stories lead to serious consequences at an abandoned school right beside theirs. The stories brought spirits back from the after life to the abandoned school, where they haunted it. A team from Shibuya Psychic Research Center (SPR for short) came to investigate and Mai is thrown into a world full of crazy phenomenons and ghosts.
Ghost Hunt
4 & 1/2 Stars
Mai and her friends peeked in a dusty window at the abandoned school to find video cameras placed everywhere. Mai walks inside, and is instantly attacked by a ghost who tries to drop a shelf on her. She is saved by one of the SPR workers, Koujo Lin. He gets injured and Kazuya Shibuya, the teenage director of SPR, forces her to take his stead.
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They work as a duo for awhile, observing the school for any ghosts with sophisticated cameras and scanners. They later teamed up with other psychics that are called in to help with the exorcism. Houshou Takigawa, or Buo-san as everyone calls him, is a Buddhist monk from Mt. Koya. His main job however is a bass guitarist for a big band in Japan. Another exorcist that joins the group is Ayako Matsuzaki, a head strong self proclaimed priestess that seems to fail at every turn and appears to be a sham. Also the famous spirit medium that has a show about speaking to ghosts, Masako Hara, joins the SPR force. Then finally, the team is completed with a nineteen year old Catholic exorcist from Australia named John Brown.
The SPR group is followed by Kuroda as she insists that there are spirits that haunt the school. Despite that the medium, Masako, claims that there are no evil spirits, and the tests conducted by Naru (aka Kazuya Shibuya the SPR director). They conduct numerous of exorcisms and tests, but they could not find the answer to the problem. Naru then used his clever means of implanting a thought to the the team and see if they acted on it. He discovered that Kuroda, had some spiritual powers and rigged the entire school for attention
With that case solved, Mia is allowed to work part time with the SPR. They solve very dramatic cases and put their lives on the line many times to seek the answers as to why these spirits will not leave. Mai is taught to do minor exorcisms as well and tries to aid as best as she can. Although her knowledge is some what lacking in the phenomenal arts, she tries her best to please Naru to be a worthy asset to the team.
Starting out, I was a little nervous that this series was going to disappoint me. Seeming like some school girl drama show toward the begin was a big let down. Once the show got rolling however, I found it more chilling then some of the big Hollywood Horror hits! The writer was really thorough in his use of Ancient Japanese and even Ancient Chinese rituals and beliefs.
Another interesting character in this series is Mai. She is a orphan school girl that is very head strong and voices her thoughts and opinions a lot. She doesn’t have any special skills like the other psychics at first, but then she discovers that her sleep is a form of telepathy that shows her what spirits feel and even their memories. She becomes a big asset for the group, because her telepathic dreams lead to the solutions of the hauntings.
Overall, this is a great series filled with tons of scary stories ranging from devestating heartbreaks to vengeful spirits seeking retribution. A must see for ghost enthusiasts and anime fans a like.