Ghost Hound ep1 – ghost out of a shell.

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I’m going to say this straight up. I wasn’t impressed by this episode much and I felt bored from time to time, however, that doesn’t mean this episode was awfully boring with low production values, it just means that I wasn’t into it.

So far, there aren’t any philosophical elements introduced, only tiny hints and pieces plus that bigger piece hinting about some philosophical view during the preview for the next episode. What this episode does is it lays the ground work for whatever will come later.

I do realize not every show can be terribly exciting from the beginning, but I have to be fair – this episode didn’t grab me. I watched it twice, but I’d fall asleep if I were to watch it a 3rd time. Maybe I’m just getting more mainstream or just getting older, but philosophical shows aren’t terribly exciting to me. I wasn’t impressed by Eva or Lain and they meant nothing to me until Mike explained their true meanings.

We learn 3 major things in this episode: 1. Komori and his sister were abducted 11 years ago. He survived but his sister…died, I guess, and his family is still pretty traumatized till this day. 2. He has the ability to dream about out of body experiences, which I suspect are real – that his “ghost” really gets out of his “shell”. 3. His experience is connected to something major that’ll happen later.

Deconstructing these points apart, and I got these conclusions: 1. His “out f body experiences” is very similar to Kusaragi’s “Dive” experiences, except instead of electrical information, he gets images (real time?). 2. There was a rather special reason that he and his sister were kidnapped, and fast forward to today, the transfer student apparently know a lot about it and he’s poking his nose into the lives of the people related to this event. 3. His sister knew something and tried to tell him but he forgot what it was.

The 3 pretty boys, Komori, Ogami, and Nakajima will obviously come together and solve this mysterious connection between the kidnap, the out of body experience, oh and the ghost seeing girl ‘s (Miyako’s) ability.

Overall, the sound effects and the background tunes  gives off a strong sense of “Lain”. The animation is superb (did you see that fly??? Damn it’s super detailed!) and the sound effects give that creepy “Lain” feel. But, because I’ve had many interesting dreams in real life in real life (full) colors that are way weird or more interesting than this, and I saw “Lain” and Boogipop Phantom before I saw this, I wasn’t impressed much. At the end of the day, I’d say,

82% recommended for your daily anime diet. Keep in mind that I’ve seen many things not just in the anime world, and “Out of body experience” may indeed be fascinating subject to many, but to me it’s actually nothing new. Great animation and fairly interesting concept is keeping this afloat, however.

Author: Ray

I'm a hardcore Anime Fan and I'm proud of it. I know so many things and I've acquired so much knowledge you wouldn't believe. But my love is anime. I've been drifting in this world for so long that I don't even know what an anchor means. I've seen so many shows that I've lost count. The only thing I'm sure of myself is that I care for the lowly and disenfranchised. I hate the rich and powerful and I love what I do, or what I can do. I like anime and I don't mind watching different types of shows. I have experience in different types of Japanese animation. I would be called an "expert" in a bizzaro world. One day, I'd like to start a revolution. I love the US, pizza, beer, sashimi, Chinese food, and steak. But I love freshly baked bread more than a well-aged steak. In reality, if I were born Japanese I'd be a real, hardcore Otaku. I love to love and I can hate strongly. I'm passionate in nature and I don't mind shedding tears. I can be reached at rayyhum777 at animediet. My Twitter is rayyhum777 at twitter.