Ghost Stories: Complete Collection
$25.14
Streaming on Crunchyroll
Way back, when magazines roamed the Earth there was one called Newtype. It covered anime and even came with a DVD that showed off some random episodes of new series hitting America. I saw what looked like a kiddie anime called Ghost Stories, on the disc, on one issue. It looked so bad, a show for little kids, how did it even got dredged in.
Bored, one day I watched it.
What did that f*&%ing kid just say?
What, what's happening right now!? Is this a prank? Let me look this up! These kids are cursing just as bad as South Park. And boy, do they not care about sex jokes making it in this anime about school kids.
And then I bought all the DVD's in the series.
That anime was Ghost Stories.
Somehow, some way, ADV got the rights to an anime about five kids and a talking cat and decided to let the voice actors go nuts. They dubbed it and changed anything they wanted about this show. In Japan it was made for schoolkids.
In America, it was made for teenagers and adults. As a show about yokai (Japanese ghost and monsters) became a horror-themed, monster-of-the-week, South Park-like, voice actor Heaven anime I had to watch every episode of it.
The whole reason to watch is just for the way the voice actors change the stories to be dirtier and filthier than whatever the original intentions were. So, there's a joke almost every few seconds from these kids. The constantly insult each other or anyone else that comes near them.
Satsuki, she's the main character and the new girl in town. She gets a magic book that helps her fight the yokai passed down by her deceased mother...who in the ADV dub becomes a lesbian, because of her haircut.
Haijime, he's a little a-hole and usually says some of the most perverted things.
Leo, he became a Jew in the dub and is the nerd of the group.
Momoko, this purple-haired girl is a little bit older than the rest of the gang. She was a medium of sorts in the original anime. In the dub, she's a devout Christian, who never shuts up about Jesus.
And finally, Amanojaku, a powerful spirit that now resides in Sastuki and Keiichiro's cat. He's a huge jerk. But, he is a talking cat, so you just can't help but find him adorable. He insults the kids, so much; my favorite line, " You are some of the ugliest f*&%ing kids, I've ever seen." Imagine that from a talking cat.
There's just so many moments that will have you laughing hysterically, just by the timing of lines with what clearly was not happening in the original series.
Oddly, the show's ending theme, the original theme is a tune called "Sexy, Sexy." No joke. No idea why it was chosen in Japan and it doesn't fit the Japanese version at all. It perfectly ends each episode for the ADV dub.We suggest getting the series and not telling your friends about it and start playing the first episode. Just say you really like some part of the animation even though it's for kids and then it'll slowly dawn on your friends that this was made for adults.
Perfect to watch as Halloween gets closer. You"ll see monsters and laugh at kids making fun of them.
Update: Here's why and how the anime was allowed to be dubbed so dirty.
