Ghost Stories (anime)

Ghost Stories

Cover art for the first volume of the anime series, published by Aniplex, featuring the main characters
学校の怪談
(Gakkō no Kaidan)
Genre Black comedy (dub version only), Horror, Supernatural
Anime television series
Directed by Noriyuki Abe
Produced by Yuriko Nakamura
Music by Kaoru Wada
Studio Pierrot
Licensed by
ADV Films (former)
Discotek Media
Network Fuji Television
English network
Original run October 22, 2000 – March 25, 2001
Episodes 20

Ghost Stories (学校の怪談 Gakkō no Kaidan, lit. "School Ghost Stories"), also known as Ghosts at School, is a 20-episode anime series created in 2000 by animation studio Pierrot and Aniplex for Fuji Television, based on a book series by Tōru Tsunemitsu.

The series was licensed for the North American market by ADV Films whose English dub replaced the original script with a comedic one. It was also aired in Latin America by Cartoon Network, which had broadcast the entire series unedited on October 1, 2005. The series was also picked up by the anime television network, Animax, who broadcast the series with a different English dub unedited and uncensored under the title Ghosts at School within its respective networks across the world in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other regions.

Storyline

Ghost Stories tells the tale of Satsuki Miyanoshita, who moves with her family to the hometown of her deceased mother. On her first day of school, Satsuki; her brother Keiichirou, a first-grader; their neighbor Hajime Aoyama; Momoko Koigakubo, an older schoolmate; and Leo Kakinoki, a classmate and friend of Hajime's with a penchant for the paranormal visit the abandoned school building adjacent the current school complex and discover that the building is haunted.

It is soon after revealed that Satsuki's mother was responsible for sealing several ghosts who haunted not only the school but also the town, and now they are released due to the urbanization taking place in the surrounding area. Satsuki's mother left behind a book detailing how to exorcise the ghosts once and for all. In her first confront, Satsuki faces a demon called Amanojaku, but in the process Amanojaku is sealed within Satsuki's pet cat, Kaya. Although Amanojaku does not want to help Satsuki at first, the danger soon threatens to envelop the town and it is left up to Satsuki, her friends and Amanojaku to stop the ghosts.

Characters

Satsuki Miyanoshita (宮ノ下 さつき Miyanoshita Satsuki)
Satsuki is the main character of the show. She moves with her father and her little brother Keiichirou to the hometown of her deceased mother, where she finds that her mother confronted several evil entities that haunted the town, which included Amanojaku, and wrote all her supernatural experiences in a diary, which is entitled "The Ghost Journal". Satsuki is very strong, brave and determined within, but sometimes a bit moody, mostly because of Hajime's reckless behavior. Her nickname in the Animax dub is Suki (from Satsuki). Her name means "May".
Momoko Koigakubo (恋ヶ窪 桃子 Koigakubo Momoko)
Momoko is a 6th grader and Satsuki's best friend. She seems to fear nothing, even in very dangerous situations, and is very brave when it comes to help Satsuki and the gang confront the ghosts. She also has a psychic connection with Satsuki's mother. In the ADV's English dub, she's a devout Christian, and almost every sentence she utters contains some not-so-subtly hidden reference to Christianity. Her name means "peach".
Hajime Aoyama (青山 ハジメ Aoyama Hajime)
Hajime is Satsuki's neighbor. He is always strong and courageous to help defeat the ghosts, but though he says that he is very brave, he is at times actually a coward. Despite this, he is one of the most reliable of Satsuki's friends and has saved her on more than one occasion. Hajime also has a naughty habit of flipping girls' skirts, and his constant victim is none other than Satsuki. This results in frequent comic moments. As the anime progresses, it seems that Hajime and Satsuki develop mutual crushes on each other (not that they'd admit it). His name means "beginning".
Reo Kakinoki (柿木 レオ Kakinoki Reo)
Reo is Hajime's friend and has a big obsession with paranormal themes, and proclaims himself as a respected paranormal researcher. However, whenever Reo finds a clue pertaining to the existence of supernatural entities, it seems that the clue turns against him. Like Hajime, he tries to be brave but most of the times he is actually just a coward. In the English dub by ADV, his name was romanized as "Leo", and he is Jewish. His name means "lion".
Keiichirou Miyanoshita (宮ノ下 敬一郎 Miyanoshita Keiichirō)
  • Voiced by: Kurumi Mamiya (Japanese), Christine M. Auten (English)
Keiichirou is Satsuki's younger brother. He is easily frightened by many things and is seen crying sometimes, but he shows courage where it counts to help in defeating the ghosts. In the dub, when he is frightened, or stressed enough, his speech becomes so slurred only his sister is able to understand it. He creates a special friendship with the ghost Amanojaku. He is often referred to as half-retarded. His name means "many".
Amanojaku (天の邪鬼)
  • Voiced by: Ryusei Nakao (Japanese), Rob Mungle (English)
Amanojaku is a powerful entity that, long ago, was sealed by Satsuki's mother in a tree in the mountains, but was finally released from his magic prison due to urbanization. However, he did not have his freedom long, as Satsuki sealed him (by accident) in the body of her pet cat, Kaya. At first, Amanojaku is hostile toward the kids and takes great pleasure in seeing them in trouble, but throughout the series he develops somewhat of a care for them, especially for Satsuki and Keiichirou.
Sakata (坂田)
Sakata is the teacher of the class where Satsuki, Hajime and Reo attend. Despite the fact that he doesn't believe in ghosts, he suffers as a victim from many supernatural incidents. For example, he was possessed, cursed and kidnapped by ghosts a couple of times.
Reiichirou Miyanoshita (宮ノ下 礼一郎 Miyanoshita Reiichirō)
Reiichirou is Satsuki's father. He has no clue about his daughter's supernatural duties and also doesn't believe in ghosts. His nickname is Ray in the Animax dub.
Kayako Miyanoshita (宮ノ下 佳耶子 Miyanoshita Kayako)
Kayako is Satsuki's and Keiichirou's deceased mother. Through her diary it is revealed that she was an avid exorcist during her childhood. She possesses Momoko two times throughout the series to aid Satsuki against the Piano Ghost and Kutabe and once helped Satsuki and the others to escape from a powerful haunting called Anamnaneki. Her maiden name was Kamiyama. She's made a lesbian/bisexual in the ADV dub, and her name in the Animax Dub was "Karen".

Theme song

Media

ADV dub

On the weekend of August 19, 2005, at the 2005 Otakon anime convention, ADV Films announced an October 2005 release of Ghost Stories on DVD for North American distribution. ADV's dubbed version retains the basic plot structure and storyline, but alters much of the dialogue into comedy written by ADV screenwriter Steven Foster and ad-libbed by the voice actors.[1] The original Japanese audio and literal subtitle translation are also included on the DVD. The dub received favorable reviews and the original Japanese licensor, Aniplex, approved the changes. Volume one of Ghost Stories went on sale on October 22, 2005.

On August 28, 2013 Discotek Media announced that they licensed the series and would release it in 2014 with the ADV dub and the Japanese audio with English subtitles.[2] The entire series was released on a 3 Disc set on March 25, 2014.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Vic Mignogna and Greg Ayres Q&A at Ai-kon 2007". HikaruRyuu. 2007. Retrieved 2015-03-22.
  2. ↑ "Discotek Licenses Ghost Stories TV Anime". Anime News Network. August 28, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Ghost Stories: Complete Collection". Discotek Media. Retrieved September 13, 2014.

External links