What is Ghost Hunt?

Ghost Hunt is a 2006 Anime and 1997-2010 Shoujo Manga based on a series of light novels by Fuyumi Oto, the Akūryo series. Ghost Hunt follows the adventures of Mai Taniyama a sixteen year old high school student who after accidentally breaking the camera of a Ghost Hunting Team run by seventeen year old prodigy Kazuya "Naru" Shibuya, gets a part time job working at Shibuya Psychic Research where she, Naru along with a diverse team of spiritualists help people plagued by the supernatural.



Ghost Hunt Canon

Light Novels (1989-1992)

8 Japanese Language Light Novels by Fuyumi Oto

As far as I know only fan translations exist, no official English releases.

Manga

The Manga was written by Shiho Inada and first published in shoujo manga magazines Amie and Nakayoshi in the early to mid 1990s after volume five they moved from the serial magazine publishing to a direct-to-tankoban release. There are eleven tankoban volumes. Official English Translations exist in both the US and UK. With an additional volume 12 that covers the Forgotten Children Arc not covered in the anime.

The English editions of Ghost Hunt are incredibly hard to get a hold of in stores

Some are available on Amazon

It is however available on Archive.org
A special one off story: Akuma no Sumu Ie by Shiho Inada and Fuyumi Ono was released in 2013. It's a one off case and it is unclear where it fits in the established manga canon.
  • Buy Akuma no Sumu Ie - Secondhand (Japanese)
  • Archive.org Copy (English)

    Anime


    The Ghost Hunt Anime was produced by J.C Staff Studios in 2005. It premiered Fall 2006. There are 25 episodes. The English Dub is by Funimation.
  • Ghost Hunt on My Anime List
  • Ghost Hunt on Crunchyroll
  • Ghost Hunt on Funimation

    Why should I watch it?

    Because its camp and fun! It has a found family feel to it, It's a shoujo horror that treats its supernatural material with the proper weight and respect. It has a level of Shoujo romance that interferes with the agency of its female cast but it is still a decidedly feminine horror show. Mai is both a everygirl shoujo protagonist and a defined young woman with a lot of heart and depth to her, she acts like a sixteen year old girl in situations, not a mini-adult and I find that refreshing. Also Ghost Hunt has that garbage anime appeal without being completely terrible, if it had been a shounen it would have been unwatchable. Why is one of their experts a 15yo girl? Shoujo Anime. Why is their other experts, an unemployed girlboss Miko in her mid twenties and a 19yo Australian Priest who looks like fucking Olivier. Shoujo Anime babey. Why does the Australian speak only in Kansai-ben? Okay, that I don't know. If you read the manga and learn Naru's backstory it is highly concentrated Violet Evergarden melodrama. The horror elements pull no punches. Japanese imperialism in Hong Kong and Manchuria is inexplicably brought up once and never again. There's a Dracula puzzle. It's campy and shoujo and very touching in places, it addresses teen suicide rates in Japan and the unfair treatment of kids in cram schools

    Content Warnings (Anime and Manga):

    All Arcs contain horror elements such as blood, death and jumpscares.
    All but one arcs have a suicide as part of the plot, the Doll's House Arc involves kidnapping and death of a child as well as implied child endangerment, the After school hexer arc involves: Severe and traumatic bullying of a teenage girl, verbal abuse and mention of suicide, train accidents. The the Mysterious Manor Arc includes: Suicide, Mass Murder, Exsanguination, violence towards women, mention of Japanese Imperialism in China. The Forbidden Pasttime arc includes:Teen suicide, rabid dogs, emotional and verbal abuse of high schoolers. The Forgotten Children Arc includes: Mass child death, car accident, dead pets, grief and death of a family member of the main cast.

    There is no sexual content. This is shoujo manga. There is one-sided romantic content, and teenage jealousy depicted.

    • Character profiles

    Mai Taniyama (谷山 麻衣)

    A sixteen year old high school student. Mai is kind and cheery but she doesn't take slights quietly. She has a strong empathy that the show treats with the same weight as that of the adults and I find that incredibly refreshing. She can be stubborn and rush in putting herself in damsel in distress mode but this seems to more revolve around the plot and her age than her gender so she feels less paper-thin than other shoujo heroines of the time. Mai is also an orphan, something the show uses to explain why she has no trouble getting time off school, the school is aware of her situation and willing to give her time off to work her part time job at SPR. Mai is just the right blend of clumsy feckless shoujo protagonist and confident kind young woman to make her likeable.

    Naru / Kazuya Shibuya (渋谷 一也)

    Naru is intended to be a brooding tall dark handsome love interest with a mysterious past and narcisscist tendencies but after reading the manga, and the novels, to me the guy is just a homeschooled autistic seventeen year old. He's got the sherlock holmes aroace autism coding and I am at odds with how the show wants to display Naru and how I actually interpret his character. He has no social skils because he's a prodigy raised by academics, he is extremely autistic and I don't think this man knows he's in a shoujo anime, he would be much more at home in Shiki, Oto's other horror themed series. I like Naru, I think, but I don't understand why the teenage girl cast are throwing themselves at the most wearing-a-suit-to-school-everyday seventeen year old young Tory nerd who is sufficently unreliable that he has not one but two permanent caretakers.

    Lin Koujo (林 興徐)

    Unironically my favourite character, Lin is the straight man of the cast (comedy wise - I'm not convinced he's heterosexual) he's Naru's assisstant and childhood friend from Hong Kong, he's an onmyouji, he can calm down Naru when he has a meltdown, he seems to think the others are kind of annoying. I love him, he does not want to be here, he brought up Manchuria as a gotcha to make Mai stop asking stupid questions. It's funny, it's a running joke that he's a little bit gay for Naru something the text has no interest in engaging with seriously. He's good with computers and he's arguably the adult in the room despite him still only being like twenty eight.

    Hōsho Takigawa / or Bou-san (滝川 法生)

    If Bou-san was a real person he'd be on a watchlist, but as a cool anime guy he's fine and I like him. He's an ex-monk who currently plays bass in a local rock band that is very popular with teenage girls exclusively despite him being 25. I like Bou-san because I like the glimpses of Buddhist and Vedic practice he offers, I find the japanisation of the sutras really interesting as well as the idea that the spirits are non-demoninational.

    Ayako Matsuzaki (松崎 綾子)

    First of I hate that the show treats Ayako who is canonically 23 like she's a middle aged woman? She's 23 that's practically an infant. I love her. This woman is a bitch (approving) and a Shinto shrinemaiden. Her parents are wealthy doctors. She loves make up. Her childhood best friend was a tree. She spends all her time hanging out with teenagers who are rude to her. Queen. Most Normal Woman. I love you Ayako.

    Masako Hara (原 真砂子)

    A teenage TV medium, Masako dresses like a Yamato Nadeshiko but acts like a rich 16yo, she's Mai's 'rival' in that they both have crushes on Naru but the man does not care, I genuinely do not think the guy experiences romantic attraction so them fighting over him seems very silly. I like Masako, it's nice to have someone Mai's age and they are friends who care about each other when they're not failing the Bechdel test. I do feel that the show treats her powers as an excuse to endanger her similar to how it treats Mai, which while a shoujo trope feels a little sexist.

    John Brown

    I cannot for the life of me understand why the ghost hunting party has to have an Australian twink but it is better for it. John Brown is some how a catholic priest at 19 which is physically impossible but also he knows exorcist rites which are fairly tightly held. I think you'd probably have to have been a priest for several decades before you can become an exorcist but it's fine, it's a shoujo anime. John doesn't have much characteristation except being non-threateningly Catholic and cool with going into the middle of nowhere in rural japan to do an exorcism. Again, I maintain none of the SPR are normal people.

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