[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Ghost Hound final thoughts: everyone is connected here too
I’ll admit up-front that I loved Ghost Hound right from the outset, even during those tentative episodes when it wasn’t clear whether there was method in the madness (SE: Lain) or whether it was a monumental misfire in which Konaka and Nakamura lost sight of their goal of entertaining the audience (Malice@Doll). As it turns out, Ghost Hound takes only some of what made Lain great but fortunately makes up for this by succeeding in areas in which its seminal predecessor didn’t; I don’t think it’s as ground-breaking or profound but on the other hand it was considerably more accessible and easier to digest so I can still declare it a fantastic show.
Taking material from Masamune Shirow and placing it into the hands of the creative team behind Lain and Kino’s Journey was an exciting prospect, I must admit. Any premise that dealt with out-of-body experiences, parallel worlds or any form of sci-fi meshing with the supernatural is well within their zone of experience after all, and with I.G.’s involvement it certainly had potential. Fortunately it ended up being pretty consistent throughout, with only one or two minor derailments as opposed to serious missteps that all too often blight the more ambitious series.
Several aspects of Lain, particularly the marriage of innovative art style and music, was also evident in Ghost Hound; the soundtrack was one of the highlights from my own point of view. The op theme was so out of the ordinary for anime shows these days (particularly its sexy jazziness…or is that its jazzy sexiness?) that I loved it right away and made a point of never skipping through it for each episode. It wasn’t just the music itself either: this series took a highly unusual approach to its entire audio mix, dropping dialogue down and increasing the volume of background noise at certain points, often with the use of numerous studio effects such as filtering and the rasp of static to enhance the feelings of oddness and unease. The eerie, textured soundscape accentuated the moodiness of the visuals and blended the modern, industrial pieces with the traditional instrumentation to reflect the subject matter.
Is it just me or does the research facility look one hell of a lot like the O2 Arena?
Although the character designs took a bit of getting used to it was a really nice-looking series with I.G.’s trademark CG being fairly subtle, which isn’t surprising given the rural contemporary setting. The entire storytelling approach was ‘grown up’ while still being coherent too: it avoided the traps of alienating the audience or alternatively spoon-feeding the facts and insulting our intelligence. The allusions and references to real-life people and events that were scattered through Lain were also in evidence; name-dropping researchers and their work added a great weight of credibility and made it all feel like convincing hard sci-fi, which is no mean feat when it deals with two very disparate thematic threads in the form of science and spirituality.
This strange mixture is, oddly, one of the reasons why I come back to Japanese-based fiction, be it the GitS franchise, Ghost Hound or, indeed, the likes of the original Ring feature film. The way in which modern technology and ideas sit right alongside the religious and traditional side of the culture is a fascinating contrast: while my own home country is constantly debating the pros and cons of religion versus science (as much as I respect Dawkins as a scientist, his antipathy to the Christian faith overdoes it a bit even by my agnostic standards), shows like Ghost Hound throw them together and let the ensuing mayhem and creativity run their course.
I know I shouldn’t laugh…
While Ring scared the pants off us with haunted household appliances, GitS threw humanity into a futuristic dystopia and Lain explored the nature of humanity and the soul on the ‘net, Ghost Hound takes a remarkably humanistic approach. For all its striking visual, music and thematic concepts, Lain was cold and devoid of humanity - deliberately, I guess - but had the unfortunate side-effect of being less entertaining because its heart was forgotten in an effort to concentrate on what its brain was up to. In Nakamura and Konaka’s latest effort, they keep their straight-faced sci-fi chin-scratching thing but the take-home messages of Ghost Hound extended far beyond the scientific references and brooding atmospherics, examining how the bizarre events shape the lives of the people involved.
The focus of the series seemed to be on the three characters of Taro, Masayuki and Makoto; just look at the way in which the final moments of the op animation sequence shows their classmates as disappearing blurs while our three heroes are left standing together alone. That moment sums up their situation - they are united by a common goal to both confront past demons and make sense of the uncertainties of the present, the intertwining circumstances reiterating Lain’s tagline that “Everyone is connected.” The great thing is, they aren’t empty vessels to convey the ideas of the writers; like Haibane Renmei perhaps, the underlying messages are delivered with a healthy dose of everday events and situations to make them easier to swallow. Granted, the incidents from their early lives separate them from their peers but the surroundings of Suiten are fairly everyday, which also ironically makes the weirdness of the show’s events, well, weirder.
An Ogami heirloom (I think it’s a Gibson ES). I loved the way in which Makoto’s backstory was filled in
The similarity to the film Stand By Me that Bateszi highlighted dropped the last piece into place for me; for not only is it a great movie but it draws an interesting parallel with Ghost Hound. For all the talk of artificial life and the Unseen world, it is also a coming-of-age tale, adding the oft-visited theme of kids finding a way that doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the previous generation. It still had a sense of humour on occasion though, which is I think important when dealing with such highbrow subject matter that ranges from the meaning of life to childhood trauma.
I think the criticisms concerning the rushed nature of the ending that I’ve been reading about in the blogosphere are pretty well-founded (it might have benefited from a 24 ep run instead of 22) but if nothing else the final scenes adress the main issues, albeit in a somewhat rushed fashion, without leaving too much dangling. By the end I wasn’t 100% sure about what was going on in the background but for the kids at least, the future looks bright for them: Taro has come to terms with his sister’s death, Masayuki is on better terms with his parents and Makoto learns the truth about his father’s suicide. Hell, we even see the lad smile.
All in all this has been one of the most intriguing shows of recent months - one that has had me thirsty for more with every twist, and been impressive in its presentation too. Happy Anniversary Production I.G. and here’s to the next ten years. ^_^
Posted on April 30th, 2008 @ 4:44 am
I was going to post an epic rant, but you pretty much touched on everything. Well, maybe a minor one.
One more part of the three kids’ dynamic that you see in the blurred bit in the OP is that they’re not standing together. They’re not really friends, but learn to trust each other in seeking their goals.
I loved how Taro got to tell the little girl (whose name escapes me): “You’re not anyone else! You’re you!” He turns the tables on his mistake from a few eps ago.
Yeah, that last ep was rushed to say the least. For a moment I wondered if I had accidentally skipped an episode. All of a sudden they have a plan! There’s a typhoon! Huh, what? And I was surprised to see all the characters in one piece at the end, smiling and even posing for pictures!
I wound up loving the show, but I wonder what kept me going at the start, when it was one of dozens of new shows and I get impatient easily. Thinking back I think it was because of Taro. They got me to empathize with him early on, so I kept watching. Then fun weird stuff happened.
Posted on April 30th, 2008 @ 10:04 am
I really liked the last episode, but I can understand some complaints that it felt rushed. Going by Naruto standards, at least 5 episodes could have been spent by Tarou running through endless corridors and opening doors to empty rooms!
Though I expected as much, one thing that remains a bit of mystery to me is who this “person” was that Tarou would occasionally meet during his O.B.Es (not Snark, the other, more mysterious one). In one of the last scenes, he says that his sister “isn’t dead”, but is “alive inside me”. That might suggest that it’s the spirit\soul of his sister that has been guiding him all this time and, in that case, you can understand why Miyako would brake-down into tears.
Just to echo your thoughts on Tarou, I thought he was a really interesting central character. It’s rare to find a story that’s based around such a thoroughly normal boy and his reactions to everything around him were so realistic and subtle. I’ve read a few reviews where people have called him boring or whatever, but I really liked him.
Posted on April 30th, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
@Peter S: good point. The three lads form a strong bond but it takes time for them to earn one another’s trust - quite a true-to-life way of portraying it actually. Taro is the main character of course and his reaction to Miyako was both touching and telling, but there wasn’t really a character I disliked at all.
@Bateszi: I think it may have actually been Miyako who was helping him, but I’m not certain. As is always the case in Nakamura/Konaka efforts, I suspect a rewatch would be a rewarding experience. Getting back to Taro again, his ‘ordinaryness’ may have come across as boring to some (especially when Masa and Makoto were interesting in their own right) but he’s a perfect lens for viewing the series through. ‘Realistic and subtle’ sums up why I warmed to his character in the en too.