[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Ghost Hound 13-15: curiouser and curiouser
An inevitable recurring thought that occurs with me while watching Ghost Hound is that of “is this show being odd for oddness’ sake or does it actually mean something?” I suppose this is going back to Hige’s astute observations regarding what makes a ‘pretentious’ anime but the truth is that even if it is just providing an outlet for its creators’ thoughts on their respective bookshelves or Production I.G.’s CG art department working on their overtime, I don’t consider that to be necessarily disastrous. Some shows are taking you on an express route to a certain destination while others are a guided tour through the writers’ minds; I’m actually quite content with Ghost Hound’s opportunity of a trip with the Nakamura and Konaka Sightseeing Company™. Not that this prevents me making all manner of wild guesses and speculations though, nor does it stop things feeling a bit frustrating when the narrative is going off at (admittedly fun) tangents.
One detail is the snippet regarding the description of who I’m assuming is Masayuki’s father being described as Dr Frankenstein: iirc, Shelley’s famous character created something that brought about personal ruin and ultimately led to his downfall and untimely demise. Add this analogy to the typed dialogue by the green-haired(?!) scientist at the beginning of ep #14, and you end up with a bizarre and fascinating sci-fi subplot that seems to portray a project that’s toying with life itself and possibly playing God.
From what I understand (you really have to trust the skills of the fansub group’s translators in shows like this) they are forbidden to create life so are instead using humans’ consciousnesses to run ‘programs’ on behalf of the ‘cellular automata’. Or similar. Don’t quote me on that one unless I happen to be right. I guess this means that some of the strange behaviour exhibited by the characters is caused by some artificial life-forms becoming self-aware and using their minds as vessels; the point I’m leading up to here is that I think Miyako is not possessed by the ‘God of One Word’ of legend but an artificial entity who, being the first of its kind in the tank to become self-aware, takes on the role or identity of the first being to be asked its name. Maybe there are indeed too many gods in the town: some weirdos in white coats are creating them. This theory of mine is certainly sketchy at this point but judging by Shirow’s track record of portraying artificial life (Appleseed) and mind-hacking (Ghost in the Shell), this sort of theme is a recurring one in his work.
While ep #14 was excellent, #13 didn’t impress me nearly as much. As much as it references one of my favourite collections of stories (Carroll’s Alice books are indeed literary classics, even if they were written by an alleged paedophile on a mushroom trip) I’m unconvinced of its importance in the bigger picture. A boojum is a particularly nasty type of snark but the character who called himself Snark could be merely a guy who spouts nonsense rather than being something dangerous.
Fortunately #14 made up for this moment of apparent filler by moving things forward apace; despite the frequent slips off-track this is still a series that has a fascinating tale of spirituality, hard sci-fi (in that it draws from real-life sources for its theories and ideas) and even industrial espionage. Right now the villains of the piece are likely to be that creepy Noriko, who was a friend of Makoto’s late grandmother, and the shadowy people of the Biotech Company. Although Hirata looked a bit shifty at first I think he’s one of the good guys: the poor sod is getting more and more unnerved by what’s going on and in recent episodes is frequently getting spooked out of his mind; not a pleasant experience for a man of science who is clearly the sort of person who finds security in hard facts and convincing theories.
On a personal level I had another Moyashimon moment with the sake brewing room and would also like to declare that Taro’s dad has one seriously hax sound system. Not only was his record collection impressive (I’m guessing that the music he was playing is some sort of experimental modern jazz, which I actually quite enjoyed much to my surprise) but his hi-fi rig is pretty goddamned awesome. It puts my 30 year-old Technics amp setup to shame really.
Posted on March 23rd, 2008 @ 4:28 am
I wonder at the idea that the creatures more and more people are seeing are being created at that lab. Maybe they’re being manipulated or revived instead. The spiritual types in the town seem to recognize them. Or they’re members of our collective unconsciousness coming to life.
As for “what it all means,” I’m trusting the show on this. It’s kept me watching even while they throw scientific/spiritual concepts around like crazy. GitS managed this, too.
It does a good job keeping me guessing about the characters, too. I too thought was a bad guy, based on his look and demeanor. They did a nice job turning Masayuki from a smarmy person to one I actually like now. As for Reiko, I don’t know what to make of her.
Posted on March 23rd, 2008 @ 11:51 pm
@Peter S: you have some good theories there. Quite a lot of the creatures are indeed prehistoric and recognisable - maybe there’s some form of artificial evolution going on? Taro’s projected form started off as a monkey butt homunculus, as did Masayuki’s and Makoto’s, but all three of them went through some sort of change over time. As a character in general Masayuki’s turning out quite well I think - he’s had just as much attention on-screen as the other two, if not more.
Damn, this show makes my head spin at times…