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 rerelease, 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.
Weeelllll, 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 GOOOOOD the DUB is. Now you might be asking me right now, "Arkada, 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 Arkada and welcome to Glass Reflection. Today-- ooohh booyyy-- 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, to the part where I normally talk about the dub, then backtrack. Okay? That's what we're gonna 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? Wah heugh hwegh... *mockingly* WAHH HEUUGHH HWEEGHH Now we'll never find out who the ghost is. I hope to GOD you're adopted. AAH HEUGH. From what I've been able to gather from rumors in that one Q&A video between Greg Ayres 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 dogshit 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.
1) No name changing - this includes both the main characters and the ghosts that they banish - and also,
2) 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 your head 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. Ahehehehaha, *inhale* ahaha. Then some characters get introduced and you question their backstory... ♫ You're such brave strong handsome men. ♪ HaveyouacceptedJesusasyourpersonalsavior? - No, I'm Jewish! And then, about eight or nine episodes in, *laughing* they really don't seem to care anymore. Aww, perfect. It's in JAPANESE. CHING CHONG DONG MING DAO. No, wait, that's Chinese. Luckily, I can read Barricade. It gets to the point where they might have just thought, "You know, heeey, as long as I'm able to match the lip flaps, who cares?" Hey, put the donuts down!!*panting* DROP the Krispy Kremes, Serpico, we need your help here! - Theytookovermyhouselooklikemyfathermybrother ahftnighmishoostah- Yah, BoobidyGiddiGoogityDigDigDigDiggityDiggity!!! 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 '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... fandub. *Panting* Think of a BIG BLACK MAN CHASING YOU!! HAAHAHEUGH!! *Panting* Well, he's not racist. Okay, so we're gonna go back to the beginning of the review now... Just keep in mind that some of the things that 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, and AWAAY we GOO! <<RW<< 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 "haunted schoolhouse," after some less-than-tasteful panty jokes. Inside said school house, 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 aaalll 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 that 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 campout as a child and someone decided that 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 she was... REEAALLY f*cked up AAAHH. 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 1, 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? - HAAAH!? I guess from a historical standpoint, it is somewhat interesting, as every ghost is based off of an actual spirit or legend from Japan, or, 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 Layer. 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. 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 to use that overly cliched string sound effect for ~SCAAARY~ Moments. AAUUGHH!! *Gasps* AAAAAGHHHHGLGLGL???!*SCREECHING VIOLINS* 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 its upbeat tone, rather than one about ghost hunting. And, man, the ending song-- the ending song. It's called "Sexy Sexy" in a show about elementary school children and ghosts. What - uh - what's supposed to be sexy about that?! Like, 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 fourth graders. Smooooth. 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 do 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 that this sort of thing is an ABOMINATION because it changes the original Japanese material. And if you are that kind of person, WEEEEELLL get out. No, don't actually get out. Come-- come back. Come back. Don't-- don't get out. But still, that's just like... your opinion, man. With all that in mind, I present ghost stories with recommendation to BUY IT, rather than stream, because, well, you can't stream it even if you wanted to. Not 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 Discotek 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, dubbed-wise. that show, of course, being Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. Fun fact about that one is that the dub casts between Fumoffu and Ghost Stories are more or less identical; Fumoffu just has a lot more Luci Christian in it. Also, if you're 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 for 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 me 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, Nicolai Grey, Rurika Adachi, and JustAHuman for donating already. You guys are ALL SUPREMELY AWESOME. Thank you. And until next time, ladies, gentlemen and others, Stay Frosty. *Kickass Outro* *UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE*
Weeelllll, 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 GOOOOOD the DUB is. Now you might be asking me right now, "Arkada, 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 Arkada and welcome to Glass Reflection. Today-- ooohh booyyy-- 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, to the part where I normally talk about the dub, then backtrack. Okay? That's what we're gonna 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? Wah heugh hwegh... *mockingly* WAHH HEUUGHH HWEEGHH Now we'll never find out who the ghost is. I hope to GOD you're adopted. AAH HEUGH. From what I've been able to gather from rumors in that one Q&A video between Greg Ayres 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 dogshit 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.
1) No name changing - this includes both the main characters and the ghosts that they banish - and also,
2) 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 your head 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. Ahehehehaha, *inhale* ahaha. Then some characters get introduced and you question their backstory... ♫ You're such brave strong handsome men. ♪ HaveyouacceptedJesusasyourpersonalsavior? - No, I'm Jewish! And then, about eight or nine episodes in, *laughing* they really don't seem to care anymore. Aww, perfect. It's in JAPANESE. CHING CHONG DONG MING DAO. No, wait, that's Chinese. Luckily, I can read Barricade. It gets to the point where they might have just thought, "You know, heeey, as long as I'm able to match the lip flaps, who cares?" Hey, put the donuts down!!*panting* DROP the Krispy Kremes, Serpico, we need your help here! - Theytookovermyhouselooklikemyfathermybrother ahftnighmishoostah- Yah, BoobidyGiddiGoogityDigDigDigDiggityDiggity!!! 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 '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... fandub. *Panting* Think of a BIG BLACK MAN CHASING YOU!! HAAHAHEUGH!! *Panting* Well, he's not racist. Okay, so we're gonna go back to the beginning of the review now... Just keep in mind that some of the things that 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, and AWAAY we GOO! <<RW<< 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 "haunted schoolhouse," after some less-than-tasteful panty jokes. Inside said school house, 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 aaalll 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 that 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 campout as a child and someone decided that 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 she was... REEAALLY f*cked up AAAHH. 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 1, 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? - HAAAH!? I guess from a historical standpoint, it is somewhat interesting, as every ghost is based off of an actual spirit or legend from Japan, or, 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 Layer. 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. 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 to use that overly cliched string sound effect for ~SCAAARY~ Moments. AAUUGHH!! *Gasps* AAAAAGHHHHGLGLGL???!*SCREECHING VIOLINS* 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 its upbeat tone, rather than one about ghost hunting. And, man, the ending song-- the ending song. It's called "Sexy Sexy" in a show about elementary school children and ghosts. What - uh - what's supposed to be sexy about that?! Like, 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 fourth graders. Smooooth. 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 do 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 that this sort of thing is an ABOMINATION because it changes the original Japanese material. And if you are that kind of person, WEEEEELLL get out. No, don't actually get out. Come-- come back. Come back. Don't-- don't get out. But still, that's just like... your opinion, man. With all that in mind, I present ghost stories with recommendation to BUY IT, rather than stream, because, well, you can't stream it even if you wanted to. Not 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 Discotek 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, dubbed-wise. that show, of course, being Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. Fun fact about that one is that the dub casts between Fumoffu and Ghost Stories are more or less identical; Fumoffu just has a lot more Luci Christian in it. Also, if you're 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 for 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 me 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, Nicolai Grey, Rurika Adachi, and JustAHuman for donating already. You guys are ALL SUPREMELY AWESOME. Thank you. And until next time, ladies, gentlemen and others, Stay Frosty. *Kickass Outro* *UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE*
