Review of Ghost Stories

First aired in the year 2000, Ghost stories is an adaptation of the book of the same name aimed at young children to reintroduce them to classic japanese folktales. To say the anime flopped would be underselling how badly it did, so with the studio very much giving up on it the english adaptation was handed over to studio ADV Films. According to legend the studio was given three instructions:- 1. Keep the names as is (including the ghosts) 2. Don't change the way the ghosts are slain (a reference to Japanese folklore) 3. Don't change the core meaning of each episode. They were free to do whatever theywanted beyond this... and so we got the best dub in history.

Every episode feels like a fanmade riff parody. Because in a sense it was! They agreed on a few running gags but otherwise whomever got to the studio first would just, make it up as they went along and the others would join in. They very much decided to have fun with it and went as offensive as possible.

This anime has to be seen to be believed.

The plots are so generic it's painful in the sub, in the dub however you'll die laughing. The characters that were paper thin are now walking nuclear reactors with an actual personality. Art and animation are pretty bad even for something so old but even then the dub makes the best of it by mocking it.

This is pure entertainment and the "funny moments" on youtube don't even show the best parts. It's so much better within context. Do your self a favor and give it a go.