Ghost Hunt Vol.#03

By: Eduardo M. Chavez
Review Date: Thursday, April 27, 2006
Release Date: Monday, March 13, 2006



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Inada Shiho / Ono Fuyumi
Translated by:Akira Tsubasa
Adapted by:

What They Say
SCHOOL NIGHTMARE

The psychic investigators are going back to school - this time to solve a baffling mystery. Every student who sits at one particular dish is later caught in a train door and dragged away to who knows where. As if classes weren't hard enough! And when Naru and Mai find themselves stalked by their own evil spirits, the case becomes even more bizarre.

Could this dastardly desk be the revenge of a quiet young girl named Chiaki? Or is there another unhappy soul to reckon with? One thing is certain: Voodoo dolls, bad vibes, and sinister curses won't stop the psychic pals from solving their most difficult and dangerous case ever!

The Review
Packaging:
The presentation from Del Rey is solid. To be completely honest it does not impress me much, but it does almost everything well. This time Del Rey uses the original cover art for this volume (volume one had the first cover for the bunko series). This is great image with Mai running looking back at her chaser (off the cover), and in the background is the creepy profile of Shibuya Kazuya in a broken mirror/glass. I wonder if Mai is running from him!? The opposite cover has an image of two kids from the haunted school featured in this volume on a plaid background.

Inside, the printing looks fine. The screen tone looks good to me and the lines are clean. This manga is not very complex but it does have some delicate line work, so seeing those lines as clear as possible is important. Del Rey seems to have done that well this time. The cropping is a little off and with all the shaded panels, I found that distracting.

At the start of the GN, Del Rey has provided a page of character intros and kept the original volume and chapter headers. And closing out the book, this volume has creator bios and five pages of translator notes. This volume has a ton of mangaka notes spread throughout the volume. Inada-sensei discusses her cast and her hobbies. I was glad to see Del Rey leave those in.

Artwork:
Inada's art is extremely derivative. It would not take much searching around to find designs that look exactly like these. Actually, when I look at the character designs closely, a few of the characters even look similar to each other. Change their height and hair color, and Mai, John and Shibuya could be mistaken for one another. When I initially picked this series up, I thought I was getting a manga drawn by another Kodansha artist but I was gravely mistaken. Inada's line work is pretty delicate and that really worked in this volume where the supernatural beings were spirits. She really made their images look wispy and light. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast looks very simple and almost out of character. Costume designs are out of date and often contrast the personalities of the characters. At least Monk-san is only a part-time monk full time bass player, so his crazy outfits fit him well.


Backgrounds are not very good. This was very frustrating because the house is HAUNTED!! Readers should be able to get to know the main character of this arc intimately, but Inada never makes an effort to show what the place looks like from inside. More often than not rooms seem empty, even though the building itself is fancy and its owners are quite well off. The layout is dull as can be. Inada does not use mampu much either, so one never gets a sense of forthcoming horror from this series. The pacing is so slow and clunky; I had a hard time getting into much of a rhythm.

SFX/Text:
As is Del Rey's policy, SFX are subbed. Their subs tend to be of a small font usually placed below the original SFX. Because of the font size, original art is not compromised, but with the lack of SFX in this series (kind of weird for an action title) one might not notice them at times. Still, I appreciate the effort and the more I see this done the more I find myself liking it (font size and placement can make a big difference).

The translation sounds good and everything should be satisfactory to fans of this series. However, unlike previous volumes, this one has a few silly typos. Del Rey uses honorifics in all of their titles. They finally fixed the strange use of "Monk-sama" and dropped it down to a respectfully casual "Monk-san". In addition, Del Rey provides many notes on culture, specifically the supernatural and paranormal.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Something is going on at Yuasa High School. Over the last few months, there has been a string of serious accidents each one graver than the last. No one knows the source of the terror but over the last few months, accidents have been focused on two different locations on campus.

First, there is the haunted desk in room 2-5. Everyone who has sat in that desk has felt a hand from under the desktop! The hand would randomly appear in broad daylight and massage the stomach of whoever sat there. After a while, the desk's threats would expand beyond the room. The teacher of the class the desk is in was sent to the hospital. And eventually each person who sat in that desk would fall victim to a train accident. Supposedly, the hand would pull the students back from a train door right before boarding leaving the student caught in the closed doors. The train would then embark dragging the student along the platform! Four students experienced this and the last one was seriously injured.

Then there is the haunted locker room. Recently the locker room has been the center of all sorts of strange phenomena. Heavy objects are moving around by themselves. Lockers bolted to the floor would randomly fall over. Ghosts and strange images have been seen in that room where strange sounds are heard at night. Not even the teachers on night duty can handle this situation.

This is where you call the Shibuya Psychic Research. They will handle practically any job for a fee. But the catch here is that you have to convince the president of the company to take on your case. If the situation is not serious enough, he might pass on it. However, if they do take the case, the SPR's team of psychic experts will use their various expertise to systematically track down the source of the terror and end the horror. They might take longer than most, but their record of accomplishment speaks for itself. Ghosts, voodoo curses and even fox demons can be handled with ease by the SPR. Just remember to bring enough evidence, okay.

Comments
I think I mentioned this in my last review but I love horror. The whole genre has an unlimited number of sources to draw fear from its readers. Being able to read a book and to feel a sense of desperation and danger from something that can do me no harm is a great feeling. With Inada's Ghost Hunt I am never shocked or afraid. These stories based on a novel by Ono Fuyumi (Twelve Kingdoms) are sure weird but since we never see when the real terror happens none of it feels threatening.

Instead of thrills and chills, we get a huge cast of characters bumbling around, ala Shaggy and Scooby, until lead character Naru figures out the mystery. You don't see him put the pieces together and you do not see anyone ever get hurt either. So unlike say Murder She Wrote or Matlock where there is some blowback along the way, here we get minor threats and plenty of Naru's smug attitude.

Honestly, three volumes into this series and I know as little about him as I did in the first. I really am no longer interested either, as I am now officially fed up with him. How can one relate to him or find him interesting without learning more about him? Same can be said about Mai but we often see her with other characters acting normal. Inada does not have to try too hard with her because this title as a whole is an adventure/coming of age situation for her. Therefore, while we see Mai hang out and we learn about her that way, there is Naru doing something extreme where his actions seem strained. It is as if Inada has to force the notion that Naru is not what he seems, possessing few (if any) supernatural talents. Why can't he just be a teen? Nah, he has to be a hard assed jerk or nothing, unless he shocks you when that twisted smile comes out.

Even with my troubles with the male lead, I have to say the writing is improving. I still do not understand why the entire Psychic network is always called in for each volume. So far, usually only Naru, Mai and one more do anything critical to the plot of each arc. And even if I am really getting sick of haunted houses/schools, I can see that the actual dialogue is bringing in more terminology and psychic history to this title. At least, this gives readers a chance to better understand the elements of this brand of psycho-mystery. This volume in particular mixes in Japanese folklore, western psychic-phenomena and magic together showing different perspectives on how to solve this cast. Moreover, with Inada now able to actually draw some decent looking ghouls gave the mystery a sense of tension (even if the spirits were generic looking). There is some improvement but since each volume is one long story, the progress is very slow.

I guess when I initially picked this series up I just came from the wrong perspective. I was looking for horror when it was possibly never there. Instead, I should have been looking for a mystery drama where characters just happen to deal with the paranormal. As Mai' investigative talent is given more focus, these stories should begin get a little more personal and hopefully more entertaining. You just have to go hunting for the good stuff; right now and I wanted it to come at me.