GR Anime Review: Ghost Stories

I have a small list written down on a piece of scrap paper somewhere of shows that I would like to get around to review but just haven't yet for whatever reason. Well, Ghost Stories recently got a re-release so let's just go and checkmark that one off shall we? Cause you know how every once in a while you come across this show that you think is so good that you just have to tell everyone you know about it? And usually what I mean by so good is that there's only just one part of it that is good. Just this one thing that you feel is so noteworthy you have to tell everyone about it. You feel as if you almost have to force it on them because they just have to witness this. Even if that one thing just happens to be how monumentally horrible the show is. Today we're going to be talking about a series that is, well, absolutely horrible. Well, no. Horrible doesn't fully explain the crap that is this show, at least from a story perspective. But the show is still noteworthy, not for how bad the show is, and it is bad, but for how good the dub is. Now you might be asking me right now, Arcada, how good could a dub for a bad show actually be? Like wouldn't it just be translating that badness? You are correct in that normally a dub cannot make a crap story better, but this here would be a very special case. Ladies, gentlemen, and others, my name is Arcada and welcome to Glass Reflection. Today, oh boy, ghost stories. Let's jam. Actually, no, because of the uniqueness of this particular show, we're actually going to skip forward to the end, the part where I normally talk about the dub, then backtrack. Okay? That's what we're going to do. And away we go. So I can't say that I know the exact details of how this particular dub came into being, all I can tell you is that it is amazing. Like I know I've already said that a few times, I've insinuated it a few times, but it really is true. Which way did he go? Now we'll never find out who the ghost is. I hope to god you're adopted. From what I've been able to gather from rumours in that one Q&A video between Greg Aries and Vic Mignogna, when ADV ended up licensing the show, they were told by the Japanese owners that it wasn't very well received in Japan and that they would have to work with the material in order to make it sell. Not surprising considering that the show is, to put it lightly, a sack of dog shit that's been sitting out far too long in the summer heat on black pavement that bores a hole all the way down to hell using its stench alone. And yeah, that is me putting it lightly. So after being told that they needed to work with it a bit, they were given a very small set of rules. No name changing, this includes both the main characters and the ghosts that they banish, and also they cannot change the method in which the ghosts are banished. Other than that everything else is fair game, and let me tell you, those two rules are not very limiting. Enter Stephen Foster and the voice actors. Now normally I am one to criticize Stephen Foster, because historically I'm not a fan of the dubs that he works on, they're just not my cup of tea. But basically what they had was a writing team and a bunch of voice actors who at first seemed to be translating everything normally. Satsuki, get back in here, you'll get your head cut off. Oh dad, you worry too much. At the beginning everything makes sort of sense, but there's those one or two lines that make you do a double take. When this bitch kicks, I'm moving to Vegas. Then some characters get introduced and you question their backstory. And then about 8 or 9 episodes in, they really don't seem to care anymore. It gets to the point where they might have just thought, you know, hey, as long as I'm able to match the lip flap, who cares? Hey, put the donuts down! Drop the Krispy Kreme Serpico, we need your help here! You made my house look like my father and my brother after 9 episodes of this crap! Yeah, diggity diggity diggity diggity diggity diggity diggity diggity! The best way to describe this show, or rather this dub, to someone that hasn't seen it is basically to just say, hey, have you ever watched an Abridged series? You know, those videos on the internet that guys put together to quote unquote shorten shows, but really they just make it very humorous by adding jokes that weren't in the original translation or anything like that? Yeah, this is kind of an official Abridged series, except it's not actually abridging anything, it's the full show with more like a fan dub. Think of a big black man chasing you! Well, he's not racist. Okay, so we're going to go back to the beginning of the review now. Just keep in mind that some of the things I may say about the show's story and characters might actually be taken from this rather absurd dub and not the original article. But considering that the original Japanese isn't really worth watching and you can quote me on that, I don't think many of you are going to mind. Anyway, away we go! So there is not too much to this, but I'll go over it anyway. The show starts with a group of young elementary school children, two of which are new in town, whose mother used to be a student and principal at their new school. Now because they own a dumb cat that likes to run off into creepy buildings, they end up trapped in the old quote unquote haunted schoolhouse after some less than tasteful panty jokes. Inside said schoolhouse, they awaken and piss off the resident evil spirit Amanojaku, who begins rampaging and trying to kill them. Thankfully the lead character Satsuki finds an old journal of her mother's that conveniently happens to have all the instructions on how to banish ghosts. They set up a trap, say some voodoo, and bing bang boom, ghost defeated. Now take that episode plot, rinse out all the gunk, and repeat. Each new episode is like a Japanese version of Scooby Doo, or some such, as there is this new ghost that is terrorizing everything, or at least just causing general mischief, and it's up to our young group of main characters to go about banishing said ghost, and then everyone is happy. I'd say in concept that the show is interesting, but most of the stories of these ghosts are just cliche takes on traditional haunting stories that you may have heard if you ever did a camp out as a child and someone decided they would tell you said stories by the campfire. Really though from the base show I have explained more or less all of it. There are no major character or story arcs, no end of the world scenarios. Just a standard monster of the week series with a group of fairly average elementary school students and one high school student who is a born again Christian and before that she was really fucked up, but that's from the dub. In reality the characters are boring, generic, and in some cases I wonder what they are even doing there for the most part as they are all seemingly thrown together through happenstance. Half the time the characters don't even fathom to think that the supernatural happenings are ghost related because if they did Satsuki would just pop out the journal in act one and everything would be solved right there, instead things get drawn out until we have a climax where they suddenly remember that the MacGuffin of a journal actually exists. What'll we do? Okay, I'm sorry, when are you going to need another dramatic plot point until you decide to whip out that damn ghost book? I guess from a historical standpoint it is somewhat interesting, as every ghost is based off of an actual spirit or legend from Japan and sometimes from China, but if that's what you're into there just has to be a better place to get information from. There just has to be. So the series originally aired at the end of the year 2000, finishing early 2001. That being said, comparing it to other anime of the time, it really isn't all that remarkable. Let me just throw out some shows that were around at about that time. Digimon Adventure, Excel Saga, Angelic Lair, Fruits Basket, and that's not even counting all the extremely well produced shows from the 90s. The only animation portion that I thought was actually pretty good was the use of 3D animation. Now by today's standards it isn't that remarkable, but I don't recall anything from this era being as well integrated. So there's a nice positive point about the original. There is nothing noteworthy from the soundtrack at all from this show unfortunately, and sound wise they even go so far as to use that overly cliched string sound effect for scary moments. The opening and ending songs however deserve note for how much sense they do not make. Even ignoring the differences from the dub, the opening seems like it's for a more happy slice of life series with it's upbeat tone rather than one about ghost hunting. And man the ending song, it's called Sexy Sexy in a show about elementary school children and ghosts. What's supposed to be sexy about that? When I first heard it I honestly thought it was added in with the dub, but no the original creators of the original show thought it was prudent to have a song called Sexy Sexy in a show starring 4th graders. Smooth. If you haven't guessed what my verdict here is going to be then you haven't been paying attention. Ghost Stories is this horrible horrible mess that's only saving grace is this out of this world dub that saves it from being not even worth mentioning. Like it feels like an abridged series, and ignoring the fact that it doesn't actually abridge anything it might as well be one considering the kind of humor that it contains. And at this point I can't really say anything else to try and convince you that this series or rather this dub is worth your time. Because if you did watch this show you're watching it for the dub and nothing else and if you can pick up this show you definitely should. And if after watching this video you try it and you don't enjoy it, I'll be seriously surprised. It gets really good at episode 9 if you can stick it out that long. Unless of course you're one of those purists who think this sort of thing is an abomination because it changes the original Japanese material. And if you are that kind of person… well… get out. No, don't actually get out. Come back. Don't get out. But still, that's just like… your opinion man. With all that in mind I present Ghost Stories with the recommendation to buy it rather than stream because well you can't stream it even if you wanted to. No certified frosty this time however, as good of a dub as it is the show itself is still crap and I have some semblance of standards. Some. Anyways. At the time of this video Ghost Stories has been licensed by Discotech Media North America and is available on DVD from them. Unfortunately that is the only way to watch it as it is like I mentioned not available for legal streaming anyway. Sorry about that. As for alternate anime recommendations, well there is really only one series I can think of off the top of my head that is as funny as this one is dub wise. That show of course being Full Metal Panic Fumofu. Fun fact about that one is that the dub casts between Fumofu and Ghost Stories are more or less identical, Fumofu just has a lot more Lucy Christian in it. Also if you are looking for an actual show about a variety of traditional Japanese ghost stories then look no further than Ghost Hunt which is basically that. Just do yourself a favor and skip the opening song for it, it'll bore you to tears. But hopefully between those two shows you should hopefully find something to your liking. And that's it from me. Please subscribe if you enjoyed the video, follow me on twitter if you feel so inclined and hey if you like what I do here and feel like helping out please consider going and checking out my patreon page and if you feel it within your heart also consider donating. Very special thanks to Jocelyn Atkins, Daniel Nye, Joshua Garcia, Grace Anderson, Nikolai Gray, Lulika Adachi, and Just a Human for donating already. And until next time, ladies, gentlemen, and others, stay frosty.