Ghost Hound - 1
You have to be a bit careful with Chiaki Konaka. His/her/its (who knows, with that freaky doll collection?) weirdass stories and scripts can be very hit-and-miss, from the sublime (Big O, that RahXephon episode with the clay Dolem, Digimon Adventure 2 and Tamers) to the ridiculous (Texhnolyze, much of Lain, Air Gear). Re-teaming with Ryutaro Nakamura, the director of Lain, brings us Ghost Hound, which is of course pretty bizarre. However, the first episode is bizarre in a good way, which does at least bode well for the rest of the series.
Tarou Komori has difficulty sleeping properly - when he does sleep, he has strange, out-of-body-esque experiences that cause him to flash back to a traumatic event at the age of 3 when he and his sister were kidnapped and his sister died in the process, an event which still haunts his family. He documents his dreams on a tape recorder and is referred to a therapist by his teachers, but nothing seems to stop them; however, the strange element is that he always sees a mysterious girl walking up a path in this dream. He has now been referred to a creepy new therapist (who, to my mind, looks like the shadowy figure from Tarou’s kidnapping nightmares), but there is clearly more to the situation than meets the eye, as the “ghost” of Tarou’s sister appears at a crossroads visible only to Miyako, the girl from Tarou’s dreams.
This episode is confusing, certainly, but not impenetrably so. The pacing is relatively conventional, the dialogue itself only complicated by the thickly accented speech patterns rather than being deliberately obscure, and we are given a clear sense of how the scenes tie together - it’s far closer to early Lain episodes than the completely nonsensical Texhnolyze, for instance. Whilst we don’t really get any indication of how the other principal characters, the annoying Masayuki Nakajima and lone wolf Makoto Oogami, are going to fit into the grand scheme of things, nor what the monstrous ghosts seen in the opening sequence will have to do with things, enough “happens” that I’m intrigued to see where the show takes us.
From a technical viewpoint, Ghost Hound is almost unremarkable. The art is pleasing, and the somewhat “vacant” looking character designs suit the spaced-out, almost lethargic feel of the show. The use of a soundscape rather than a score is a nifty gimmick - static bursts and echoing sound effects create an unsettling mood alongside the shifting and voyeuristic storyboards that characterise Tarou’s “dreams”.
Ghost Hound obviously isn’t going to reveal its hand any time soon, and as such it will take a few episodes to really guage what kind of series it aims to be. However, the first episode is intriguing enough that I plan to give it a chance.
October 21st, 2007 at 5:30 am
Strangely enough for the most part, we’re all watching the exact same shows (with the exception of Dragonaut on your end), yet we have entirely different opinions regarding each one. Lain and Texhnolyze really floored me, and the first episode of Ghost Hound did the same. Ghost Hound felt like a combination of Lain and Texhnolyze with a racked up budget. It had the imagery “digressions” and used its dominant sound effects in a way that recalled Texhnolyze. It really struck me that the first episode essentially didn’t have any real music, but made up for it with real fantastic sound direction. The music also sounded really crappy from the trailer.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:43 am
I wouldn’t include Digimon 02 and Air Gear in Konaka’s list of accomplishments/failures. For the former I’m pretty certain he was only involved in the initial scenario and possibly a few episodes, not the chief screenwriter. For the latter that’s asking for a manga with a shitty story and purdy art and trying to adapt with the core plot in-tact, incomplete, and without the purdy art — it’s a futile case.
I also have never understood how people can consider Texhnolyze’s first episode to be confusing. Boring is an assertion that I can accept, but confusing? It’s people not paying attention to a straightforward story.
Don’t quite understand how you get say that Ghost Hound is “almost unremarkable,” either. The animation is far and away some of the best anime T.V. will ever see (not up with Mushi-shi, but nothing really is). The art direction is diverse yet subtle, and the sound direction is completely unlike anything else in anime.
I’ve also said it on AoD, and will say it here again: I’m shocked at how… simplistic the opening episode is. It’s practically conventional, though few outside of the “interested in alternative anime” crowd are going to be fascinated by it.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Good review. I agree it’s “weird in a good way”, although I’m biased since I’m a fellow fan of Nakamura’s and Konaka’s stuff (Lain, Kino, Texhnolyze). The soundtrack’s great - really sparse and creepy but the character designs let ths visuals down a bit. Other than that, it looked awesome and I’ll be watching more in future (if only to find out what the hell’s going on!).
Anyone who finds this ‘boring’ or ‘confusing’ obviously isn’t familiar with the writers’ unusual approach to storytelling - I personally find it to be a refreshing change in that the viewer is expected to be patient and think for themselves. That’s not everyone’s thing I guess (we all like to switch our brains off every now and then) but I was really impressed with this show. Should be a good one! :)
October 28th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I was interested in this a soon as I found that the writer was involved in that awesome RahXephon episode and Lain.
I really loved the atmosphere in this. For some reason it reminds me of The Ring (the American version).