#texhnolyze is a standout example

[annelidist]

obviously there are plenty of good looking anime before and after that period but i'm not crazy about the general sensibility of modern post-digipaint stuff. if i like the look of a more contemporary anime it's purely on its own merits rather than being able to generalise that to e.g. "late 2010s anime looks good"

[hawk-in-a-jazzy-hat]

Anime Review: Ghost Hound

There is another world besides ours; an Unseen World where spirits and long-dead beings roam. Normally invisible to the human eye, it can nonetheless be sensed in exceptional circumstances. Trauma. Guilt. Fear. A mysterious catalyst that causes these phantoms to appear in the apparent world. When the lives of three boys, Taro, Masayuki and Makoto, get intertwined and they find themselves able to pass into the Unseen World at will, they soon discover that their own troubled pasts and the strange goings on in the town may be more connected than they thought.

It’s that time once again; another dip into the weird, warped world of Chiaki J. Konaka. Honestly, out of all the anime writers I’m a fan of he must have the most fun with what he writes, and Ghost Hound was apparently the show he enjoyed working on the most.

Although there was more riding on this show, given that it served as the 20th anniversary piece for Production I.G., also one of my favourite anime studios, and while the story is textbook Konaka, Shirow Masamune of Ghost in the Shell fame was also heavily involved in its creation. This is one of those really big shows with a heck of a lot of production and effort going into which you probably haven’t heard of.

But production can mean anything. Does the show actually hold up?

I’m going to reverse things slightly and start off with the story here, because I think that that is the show’s biggest weakness. Not to say it’s a bad story; it’s perfectly serviceable and actually makes more sense than Lain’s does. The characters go through certain arcs and a lot of them work well; Makoto probably has the most interesting arc out of the three main kids, and an awful lot of time is spent with the adults around them, something Konaka has proved he can do very well in Digimon. Scientists, doctors and priests all gather and discuss the strange goings on and their own personal beliefs, and far from being boring they’re possibly the best parts of the entire show; seeing a character or two who are so entrenched in their worldviews suddenly find themselves broken by something completely out of left field.

So there’s a decent story and good characters, which should be enough in most cases for a highly enjoyable ride. But as I keep banging in, Konaka created this. And Konaka has a certain...way of doing things. The discussions on philosophy and science are almost certainly down to him, as are the many times where the show literally just delves into somebody going ‘look what the mind can do! Isn’t it cool/scary/etc?’ Ghost Hound is jam-packed with genuine scientific phenomena to do with the mind; lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, amnesia, multiple personality disorder, hypnosis and all sorts of really awesome and fascinating stuff, but trying to tie all that into a linear narrative takes a hell of a lot of doing. Which, honestly, is probably why most of Konaka’s stuff doesn’t bother with the linear narrative, and keeps everything symbolic.

Here, though, the last few episodes pretty much ditch all the mystery and intrigue and introduce a conflict and resolution pretty much out of nowhere. I’ll admit, most of Konaka’s works have weak final antagonists, but most of the time they’re usually thematically consistent at the very least. Here it’s not the case; the ending feels so forced and out of left-field that it really does sour the rest of the series. I think if they were going to do the linear storytelling they needed an extra two to four episodes, or the plot should have been introduced earlier. To be frank, the show should have either gone more Konaka or less Konaka, because the halfway house doesn’t really work.

Which is a shame, because though the whole is a bit of a mess there are a lot of standout moments. The characters, discussions and all the scientific stuff are genuinely engaging if you’re interested in that kind of area, and even if you aren’t, there’s a genuine tension and chilling atmosphere throughout the majority of the series, with a few genuinely scary moments. It’s a shame it never really gets resolved, but I’ve got to give them props for doing it.

And all this is rounded off nicely by the production, which is easily the show’s strongest point. The character designs are rather basic but they allow for a nice amount of expression, and Production I.G. puts their all into this; simple, yet grounded and realistic country life mixed with some really weird shit. The opening’s also fantastic; a bouncy jazzy number that perfectly matches up with the Dali-esque things going on all around.

But the absolute high-point of the series is the sound design. In terms of music, there honestly isn’t a lot, and what is there is very minimalistic; Japanese percussion, an erhu here and there, but not that much more than that. But the actual sound design itself is by far the greatest I’ve heard in any anime. Every tense moment is accentuated by exaggerating the smallest noises; footsteps, a ticking clock, a heartbeat, making it a visceral experience. It creates a wonderful example of the uncanny valley, particularly in points where you don’t expect it. You might not notice the footsteps at first, but you will. The clock ticking just out of time with what’s going on. Garbled speech giving away to static, and the constant, electronic hum as somebody plots something insidious in the background.

If you’re going to watch this show, get yourself some headphones and the most immersive screen setup you can, and just lie back and get lost in it. In terms of production, this is among the most immersive anime I’ve ever seen, and if you’re going to watch it, it’s imperative that you give it your full attention. And even then, you’re certainly not going to pick up everything.

I can see Ghost Hound being one of those shows which will get better on rewatches, as you pick up little background details that you missed before. Due to the ending I would say it’s the weakest Konaka show I’ve seen so far, and I would highly recommend you check out Lain and especially Texhnolyze before this one. But due to the fantastic sound direction and the great moments scattered throughout, I will bump this up to a recommendation to anyone who is just looking for something a bit different. It’s weird, it’s spooky, but sometimes that’s a nice thing to try out.

My score: 7/10