Review of Ghost Stories

"Now I know it will never work between us. And it's not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black." Ghost Stories will go down as the greatest anime dub of all time. The dub is great, and not because the voices are speculator or anything, but due to the dub turning a supposedly garbage anime into a great one. For those who don't know, Ghost Stories is a horror mystery anime that bombed in Japan due to how bad it was. For some reason, ADV got the rights to it and gave absolutely no shits when dubbing it. Supposedly the only things they weren't allowedto change were the character's names and how the ghost were defeated in every episode. All of the names are the same, but there are a few episodes where they break the second rule which is completely fine by me. In one of the last episodes they defeat a ghost by telling it not to eat the yellow snow which is perfect.

Story: 3
By far the worst part of Ghost Stories would be its story. Every episode is episodic and sticks to the same generic formula. The cast is dicking around, they find out a ghost is causing trouble, and they stop it. It gets really old really quick. None of it is scary and it just gets boring most of the time. We all know no one is going to die, nothing is going to change, it just sucks. Not even the dub could save the shitty story.

Art: 6
From what I've heard, Studio Pierrot put a lot of money into this show and its not that good looking of a show. It doesn't look like shit, it looks fine. There are some good looking scenes but most of the time it just looks fine. Character designs aren't really good, especially Leo, no idea why his lips aren't like that, and I'm also more surprised that the dub never made a joke about it.

Sound: 8
Kind of hard to score the sound. The soundtrack itself is whatever. It's always over-exaggerated a lot but sometimes it could be so bad that its funny. The OP Grow Up I actually enjoy and I love the ED Sexy Sexy even if it has no reason to be in a kids show.
The voices however, are perfect. Voice acting is good, but of course the dialogue is fantastic.

Characters: 9
The characters in Ghost Stories are great. Satsuki is a bitch and hates her brother. My personal favorite, Hajime, is a perverted piece of shit, Momoko is a full on Christian, Keiichirou is retarded, and Reo is Jewish. It's a great cast of characters and the series shines the brightest when all of them are together talking about the dumbest shit imaginable.
On a short serious note, I realized that the dub may have actually added a bit of character development to the character Momoko. In the dub the only thing she cares about is being a Christian and spreading the word of God. However, midway through the series, its revealed that she used to be a stripper, and was addicted to drugs. She changed her ways in rehab and transformed into a Christian. I know its really stupid and the writers or Monica probably had no intention of doing this but its still notable.

Enjoyment: 8
Ghost Stories used to be in my top 15 anime of all time, however while rewatching it I enjoyed it considerably less. Sure it can be hilarious during a handful of episodes but during most of it I'd say it's above average in terms of comedy. The jokes aren't even clever most of the time. It's just funny hearing a bunch of little kids talking about fucking midgets, spreading the word of God, etc. My problem during a second viewing would have to be consistency. The first 2 episodes aren't great, they have their moments, but they're nothing amazing. Episodes 3-11 are great, 12-16 aren't good, but the last 4 episodes get great again. A lot of the jokes in episodes 12-16 were either just repeated jokes that were used before that just got old, or they weren't nearly as many jokes in the episodes at all. Don't know if the cast didn't get enough beer that day or what but it's definitely noticeable.

Overall: 8
Despite enjoying it a lot less a second time around, I still really really like Ghost Stories. It may be inconsistent with its episodes, the jokes may get stale, the story sucks, but fuck it.
If you haven't already, Ghost Stories is an absolute must watch for everyone.
Also, Drop the Crispy Cremes Serpico.