5/5 naru
  by sookie vincent (australia)
unreal fun and humour with scary stories, naru deserves every mean comment but he's still such a sweetie, =p i'm only dissapointed that there is not more

4/5 What's that sound?
  by E. A Solinas (MD USA)
For the record, "Ghost Hunt" is an anime series based on a manga series based on a novel series. Surprising, it doesn't suffer in translation.

And "Ghost Hunt: The Complete Series" does an excellent job bringing home elaborate and genuinely eerie scares, based on curses, possessions, psychic powers and the occasional roaming ghost. It can be rather slow-moving at times and some questions are left unanswered (just who is "dream Naru"?), but it has a winning mixture of comedy, horror and suspense.

A handsome young man, Kazuya Shibuya, wanders in while Mai and her friends are telling ghost stories -- and later Mai encounters him in the seemingly haunted part of her school. But since Mai accidentally injured his assistant Lin and demolished a camera, he allows her to work for him as compensation -- he's a "ghost hunter" hired by the school. And Kazuya (soon nicknamed "Naru") starts rubbing Mai the wrong way with his cold attitude.

They're soon joined by some professional exorcists: slinky Shinto priestess Ayako, renegade Buddhist monk Hosho, psychic Masako, and Catholic priest John Brown . And more and more odd things happen -- windows shatter, chairs move and doors jam. Is there a rational explanation for the strange events, or is this part of the school really haunted?

The little group soon find themselves dealing with many strange cases: a house oppressed by an evil doll and the ghosts of tormented children; a high school whose students and teachers are being tormented by strange apparitions and accidents, pointing to a lethal curse; a Christmastime visit to a Catholic church haunted by the spirit of a child, and a ghost who likes to drench parkgoing lovers with water.

Then things take a darker turn when the gang is called in to deal with a school haunted by horrifying specters and fires, which are connected to a student's suicide; a vast labyrinthine house with a bloodthirsty secret that is still claiming victims; and finally a seaside hotel whose inhabitants have been possessed by vengeful spirits of the dead, who are determined to stop any spiritualists who come around. Even worse, Naru has become possessed as well.

The supernatural stuff in "Ghost Hunt" is pretty intense stuff -- howling ghosts, haunted wells (Sadako, is that you?!), voodooesque curses, onmyodo, exorcisms (complete with sizzling holy water), fox spirits, zombies, ouija, and a creepy possessed doll. Those who like a lot of action and melodrama will undoubtedly find all this to be rather slow, since every episode is a sort of supernatural detective story.

The overall series has a nice haunted house atmosphere without many showy "boo!" moments, although the last couple arcs get flashier in their horror (bloodbaths! Zombies!). Instead we get a general atmosphere of overhanging dread, psychic/supernatural trivia (such as those wooden effigy dolls) and eerie Japanese spectors (including a buggy-eyed ghost that pulls a scythe out of its mouth). But fortunately the writers keep it from getting too grim with regular doses of humor, such as the rock'n'roll monk being swamped by fangirls, or a romantic rivalry popping up between Mai and Masako.

The big problem is that the otherwise satisfying open ending leaves some questions unanswered, such as Mai and Naru's budding relationship and the mystery of "dream Naru." Just what is going on there?

Mai is a likable heroine -- she's hardworking, honest and resilient, and seems to have some amazing psychic powers she never knew about. Not to mention that she seems to have some budding romance with her new infuriating boss. Naru is intriguing as well -- a chilly, sarcastic teenage genius, but he has a lighter side that comes out in less stressful circumstances (his "talking pet coin").

And the supporting cast is pretty good as well -- Ayako takes most of the series to reveal her unique skills, but is a kind woman overall, while Masako seems rather devious and stalkerish. Hosho (or "Monk" as he's constantly addressed) is a hilarious combination of rock'n'roll star and powerful Buddhist monk, while John is a mellow, sweet-tempered Aussie who serves as the volatile group's peacemaker (as well as its strongest exorcist). And Lin serves as a silent enigma through most of the series, but is revealed to be an essentially kind and powerful man.

Ghosts, curses and bizarre occurrences abound in "Ghost Hunt: The Complete Series." It moves rather slowly at times, but has the right balance of comedy, suspense and horror.

5/5 ghost hunt dvd
  by patriciae (Pa)
Nice box set. I preordered it so I got the preorder price which was better than the going price now. It is well done on the dubbing to English. Very entertaining.

5/5 A Nice Series For Any Fan Of The Supernatural Or Folklore Stories
  by Rich (CA)
The series has a nice twist of having both a touch of the scientific and the mystical as a group of psychic researchers take on cases that involve the spiritual or the unusual, the seven(And later eight) all have qualifications and abilities that help them along their cases from a catholic priest to a spiritual medium. The team tries to solve the cases in order to discern if they're truly hauntings, psychical phenomenon, or just hoaxes concocted by thrill seekers. The series is a nice mix of the storylines of psychical research into the spiritual world and the need to believe in the unusual with only faith, the episodes are mostly stories that come in multi-parts meaning that a story of a school haunting will last about three to four episodes instead of just ending with one episode which is very good since some of these stories need more than just one episode to explain whats going on with the case. The video quality and audio of the series is wide-screen and clear and sharp no distortions or blurriness to complain about and as with most of the anime coming from Funimation the voice cast for both the English/Japanese actors/actresses were great for their character roles, the extras are decent but not much to really shout about but for the price very forgivable. The set as with some of the other Funimation box set comes in two thin dvd cases that hold two dvds each and than put into a laminated thin paper sleeve, so if you're a fan of ghost or spiritual anime series, shows about ghost hunting, or just looking for a great series here's a good choice for anyone's anime home library...

4/5 Creepy, Mysterious, Fun
  by ONENEO (Buffalo, NY)
I'll be the first to admit that in the grander scope of things, I've never really been enthralled with paranormal-themed entertainment. Sure I enjoyed The Sixth Sense well enough when it was new and I may have even reviewed some anime titles in the past that bordered on supernatural, but I consider myself the type of guy who enjoys science fiction over mysticism and action over horror: In other words Star Trek over X-Files. That said, it's tough to argue with what an intriguing property Ghosthunt really is. But before we get ahead of ourselves here, let's take a look at the hard facts.

Originally released in individual season sets by Funimation, this set represents the first time the company is getting a Complete Series release out to the public. Coming in at a total runtime of 600 minutes, Ghosthunt The Complete Series spans 4 discs and comes packaged as a pair of thin packs within a cardboard slipcase.

The show wears an appropriate TV MA (14+) rating, which is due to some disturbing imagery and horror-themes over bad language or nudity.

Language options are typical sub & dub meaning the option of original Japanese dialog trackor an English dub (either of which is in stereo) and English subtitles available under either language choice.

Extras are quite thorough and include scans of the original manga pages, character case files, ghost sightings, textless opening, and of course, a nice host of Funimation trailers.

To explain the show to someone who has never seen it would go something like this: Take the mystery solving elements of say, Case Closed only center them on supernatural occurrences (ranging from ghost possession to legions of zombies).

Some of the scenarios are more realistic than others but each maintains a sort of creepiness throughout that is hard to dispute. The viewer follows the exploits of Naru, the founder of Shibuya Psychic Research, while he attempts to tackle such mysteries with John, Ayako, Houshou, Lin, Masako, and Mai.

Yes the names are a mouthful, but not to worry, they are easy to keep separate thanks to some unique and well assembled character development.

The cast is well rounded and plays well off each other (part of the show's charm): Naru represents levelheaded-ness and business aspects of running a Psychic Research operation. Ayoko is the intelligent and quick-witted shrine maiden (priestess). Housho gets the distinctive honor of being both a monk and a bassist for a rock band. John Brown (no, not the Sheriff) is an Australian priest straight out of the seminary (with Australian accent to boot), and a kimono-sporting psychic-hotline ghost buster Masako rounds out the crew. In other words, you'll have no trouble telling this motley crew from one another.

The source material was adapted from a manga that was itself based on an original novel series by Fuyumi Ono and pays homage to the material from which it was spawned surprisingly well (don't take my word for it, the manga pages are included here in this collection for your viewing pleasure).

Pacing is pretty slick as, and unlike most anime serials, Ghosthunt is actually a collection of several (two-part) self-contained mysteries. Once the individual case in question is solved, it's on to the next one. This formula works out thanks to the fact that the mysteries are pretty unique, save for the fact that they all involve the supernatural of course.

Voice work is a pretty even toss up between the languages. The Japanese version succeeds in terms of its dynamic flow while American counterpart introduces some interesting accents and ethnic touches.

In all, Ghosthunt is sure to appeal to fans of horror-mysteries and the paranormal alike. While a bit of the priest versus entity stuff comes off as a little too, um, cliché Americanized occult horror (over the generally more intriguing Asian thought-provoking stuff), on the whole the show meets some pretty lofty goals. It's especially nice to note that Funimation is bundling together the entire collection for the same price each of the two individual seasons has been selling for until now- An extra star for that!