Anime: Shinreigari: Ghost Hound

Disclaimer: Although I don’t think I include any spoilers that would ruin the experience, I do talk about the aspects of the show that usually confuse viewers the most, by describing several of it plot points in perhaps more details than a first time watcher would want. For a short opinion, it is not the easiest watch and it has a lot of issues particularly near the end, but it is a worth watching show as long as you are in the proper mood for it.

Shinreigari: Ghost Hound is one of the most ambitious anime I have watched in my life, not for being very hard to understand or follow, it certainly isn’t, but for covering and tying multiple plot points, topics, themes and several character arcs together. That’s also what makes it one of the hardest anime to review I have come across so far.

The first two things to clarify about it is that although you will see the horror and psychological tags in it, and even though it appears on every recommended horror anime list or video, it is not a scary show. It has ghosts as the title implies, and sometimes they appear out of nowhere, as well as an intense atmosphere, but if you go into it expecting the level of craziness from Mononoke, the jumpscares and creepy visuals from the first season of Yami Shibai, or the dark visuals and creepiness that sometimes anime like Boogiepop Phantom and even Serial Experiments Lain have, you won’t find them here.

And also, although it is not a complicated anime to follow in its structure, theme exploration, narrative or dialogues, it is still quite complex in scope, plotlines and presentation, this is not a series you just go into casually expecting to have a good time as soon as you begin watching it, you don’t just sit and watch this show, it requires you to pay attention to all of its different elements, topics and characters, with sometimes heavy exposition of different things and terms, while it also reveals certain details and character dynamics slowly and through its visuals instead of its dialogues, it shows instead of telling crucial plot points at times. This is why some have a hard time with it or don’t like it much in the end, while they also think that several plot points were left uncovered, forgotten or without answers. That’s why I think it might have been quite the challenging watch when it was airing weekly and why it’s better to watch it now that it’s fully complete and you can dedicate all your time to watch it from beginning to end, without watching much or anything else at the same time.

That is also why it stands between a niche and cult classic status for an acquired taste, it is not deep nor complicated nor thought provoking enough for the hardest to please most critical elitists, nor entertaining nor digestible nor easy enough to watch for the more casual viewers, even more so with the current era of anime, way different from the one when this title came out.

Which is a shame because, at least partially, thematically it is a series that would caught more attention nowadays because it deals with mental health, something that is very relevant right now, and what makes this show stands out the most. It is a very rare topic to cover within the medium, and that is also what makes it a bit of a valuable title. But presentation wise, if Ghost Hound were to air nowadays, it would go mostly unnoticed for its slow pace and mostly serious tone. Also, since it is a show aired from 2007 to 2008, I would imagine that part of the real life information and investigations it uses might be outdated in the way it is presented.

Anyways, the show follows three main characters, the polite and rather shy and quiet protagonist Tarou Komori (it’s always this type of protagonists in this type of anime for some reason), the also quiet but hot tempered and rude Makoto Oogami, a distant relative of the former, as far as I understood, and the also rude but seemingly more relaxed, extrovert and more noisy Masayuki Nakajima. These three have initially a rather weird relationship, as the first two are distant and indifferent towards each other, but the third one ends up getting them closer by annoying them by questioning them about a certain tragic and mysterious incident from eleven years before the series begins, and almost forcing them to go with him to the place directly responsible of or linked to their biggest traumas. This, is what ended up making them friends, soon after one of them threatens to kill another.

The three of them had experienced a direct link with death, either as a witness and almost victim of it, or as an indirect (or direct, depending on how you look at it) responsible for it, which is what left said big traumas on them and what would be the reason why they develop out of body experiences and later on gain super powers within the Spirit Realm, an element within the show. Despite this aspect being something close to beliefs and spiritualism, the series also incorporates real experiments, treatments, studies, terms and explanations from psychology, psychiatry and neurology both within the episodes and in the post ending song teasers of the following episodes, as appendixes, despite being a television show, to explain how those incidents had a direct impact on their mental health.

Heck, as the show goes on and moves more from one element to the other, and incorporates more topics and scientific fields, those appendixes even incorporate physics and physical and chemical reactions, so the series ends up expanding to more scientific branches as well.

Shinreigari doesn’t stop there, as it also showcases the family drama each of the three main characters have, from having lost members, whose deaths also left more relatives traumatized, to dysfunctional familial relationships, to divorces, affairs, to labor and economical struggles, what they want to do or not in the future, even with one of them rejecting being the successor head of an influential religious cult. And it’s not that these elements are shown just to flesh out the main cast, they are all related to the main mystery of the plot, and they also end up integrating more side characters, making those more relevant and interconnected than they initially seemed to be. Choosing a rather small town as the main setting was a real good move in terms of writing, otherwise all these connections and relations would come off as a bit too convenient.

Anyways all these different connections, relationships, personal drama and tragic backstories is what definitely make the main trio of characters to be memorable and fleshed out, making up for their rather simple personalities and not very strong developments and catharsis. They open up, they face their biggest fears, they gain abilities, they find out more about their tragic pasts and all the deaths in them, they grow more confident and end up confronting more people, they achieve something at the end, it’s just that it doesn’t feel very impactful for them nor properly presented in series. I will come back to this later.

Other relevant characters worth mentioning include Taro’s counselor and therapist Atsushi Hirata and neurologist and part-time doctor Reika Outori, who also works at Bio-Tech with Masayuki’s father. As plot devices, they function as mouth pieces for the heaviest information, but also have objectives on their own. He initially rejects all the supernatural events happening in the show as different kinds of mental stress, but as they begin to take over and be noticeable to everyone, ends up having his own spiritual occurrences and professional and personal views challenged. She wants to find out what they are really doing at Bio-Tech, but not much else can be said about her because everything about this woman is a spoiler.

Then there is Takahito Komagusu, a lecturer at an university and head of a shrine, used to be close to Makoto’s parents and knows stuff about the Spirit Realm. He also has some interesting things to say about global warming, though his views would feel outdated watching the anime now. Honestly this dude doesn’t have much to add to the show besides information, so more important than him, is his daughter Miyako, a rather serious and mature girl who has the ability to see ghosts and practices exorcisms along with her father, and is also possessed by spirits from time to time. That’s what leads other people to be afraid of her or see her as the dead people that possess her, which is why a big part of her character is she reaffirming that she is her, not anyone else. At some point she is possessed by a certain God being mentioned in classic Japanese literature, from what I gathered, so that’s another field integrated in the plot through it.

There are more side characters with their own problems and objectives, but otherwise don’t have much of a character arc to offer to the show, they are plot devices more than anything else. I could talk about what they do but that would make me spoil a lot of things.

But how does everything and everyone comes together within the plot? It’s hard to explain without spoiling the whole show, I’ll try my best off my memory, I apologize beforehand for any details I might remember wrongly.

Several characters are behind or partially responsible for the kidnapping eleven years before the beginning of the series and the deaths, traumas and more consequences it led to. This ends up allowing a certain religious cult with important political connections to grow in influence and power under the radar, and it also leads to a dam project being cancelled. In present time, Bio-Tech is in charge of a project/program to create artificial bodies of sorts with no actual lives, but because of a sabotage and the strong spirits present in this town and the spiritual energy of its different cultists and priestesses, they do end up being alive, and their spirits, being initially rejected by natural spirits, almost cause a natural disaster by the end of the show. The dude sabotaging the project to sell the information to competitors (I think), throws the bodies to the dam, which is what contaminates the fields, and that’s why Tarou’s family struggles to produce sake. A fake writer who works for the government is investigating everything.

See? Everything comes together.

As for the visuals, being produced by Production I.G, initially the series looks quite good, though that there are some quality drops here and there, and the backgrounds and special effects are really good. The character designs by Mariko Oka are reminiscent of Jigoku Shoujo but not to the point of feeling rehashed, plus there is a lot of variety in body types, faces, even heights, something which ends up playing part of the plot near its end. Unfortunately, being the kind of show it is, there isn’t much to talk about the motions, and as the show goes on, everything starts to feel a bit sloppier than in the beginning, quality drops are more obvious, characters go off model, some of the spirits look quite ridiculous and not serious for the type of show this is, stuff like that. A very good example are the spiritual forms of the main characters, which look and sound like babies made of bubbles with huge heads and visible baby butts, and their evolved forms aren’t much better either. At least the directing is pretty good, using first person perspectives during the out of body experiences, or aligning the movements and sound effects during certain scenes, like a clock clicking just as someone moves a finger, or as the eyes of a character keep opening and closing, stuff like that.

Speaking of that, legendary anime sound director Youta Tsuruoka is the real star from the production team behind this show, even though it’s filled with big names within the industry. Shinreigari has easily one of the best and most immersive atmospheres in the medium, and it’s thanks to its great sound effects, uses of distortion, what I can only describe as spooky ghost noises, sudden silences, among many other things. Too bad this has less presence in the final episodes, as the anime loses a bit of its creepy ambiance for a more lighthearted one. The music is also quite good but not on the same level, as it is not used much because the sound effects are, thankfully, prioritized. The opening is a pretty cool jazz song and the ending is a melancholic and beautiful ballad, sung from the perspective of Miyako, if I understood the lyrics correctly. As for the voice acting, the characters talk with a certain accent, and since I’m not Japanese I can’t tell how good or bad it is, to my ears, the voices sound fitting and the performances atypical, mature and well done, except for the voice you hear the most, and thus most important. Oh poor boy Tarou, to be voiced by a very green Kensho Ono, not once did this man deliver a single line with a convincing emotion that any scene required, unfortunately he brought everyone else down.

But even though Ghost Hound does a good job in connecting so many different plot points and characters, it still isn’t a remarkable series in terms of writing for several reasons.

-The pacing is slow, and I don’t mean that in the general sense, used for when something it’s unexciting and unengaging. Several episodes are dedicated to explain certain details or terms, while the plot doesn’t move much.

-The main trio gains super powers that allows to literally kill their problems, and as the show goes on, said abilities even start working or not however it conveniently suits the plot and/or characters at the moment. Plus, only one of them has a clear reason for why his powers are the way they are. With the other two, you’ll have to explain them yourself based on minor hints.

-There’s a ghost inside Tarou’s head helping him at crucial moments, and it’s never clearly answered nor explained who that was, at best you can make your own headcanon based on vague assumptions.

-Characters give away crucial information with extreme ease to either people that more likely don’t know the beginning of what they are talking about, or to clearly suspicious others.

-Besides Tarou’s dad, who’s completely absent from the plot and themes, and perhaps Miyako’s dad, every other parent just plains sucks or is poorly handled. Makoto’s dad? Quite the ambiguous character. His mom? Impossible to feel empathy towards her, she did everything wrong and even went through and back from amnesia in just one episode (ROFL), at most I felt good for the kid, but her? Just no, terrible character. Miyako’s mom? The absolute worst. Tarou’s mom? Her problem was resolved out of screen. Masayuki’s mom? Barely even a plot device, I don’t even remember hearing her voice. His dad? He never pays for everything he does or is responsible for throughout the show, the way he goes back to his family and they act like a happy family with no issues at the end was one of the most stupid things in it.

-There is a project/program to create life, and only two people are in charge of it? And they are not even properly monitored? One of them even betrays the lab at some point. Just, no.

-Resolutions are simple and easy, especially in the last episode, which was so unfittingly silly, happy and cheesy, on top of rushed and convenient, that it felt like the series was planned to go for a little longer but had to finish sooner than expected for some reason, thus it ended up leaving a bad taste and impression.

-Related to the previous point, the antagonists in this series are some of the worst ever and you don’t even see what happens with them in the final episode.

-There is supposed to be a catharsis for everyone, but it doesn’t feel that way, the way the characters reach a conclusion for what they wanted answers for or achieve their objectives just…feels incomplete, they just kind of go: “You know what? Forget it, it’s not that big of a deal”.

As a whole, Shinreigari: Ghost Hound is one of the most ambitious and interesting anime I have ever watched in my life, covering many different themes, topics, ideas, scientific fields and branches, beliefs, several plot points and character arcs together in a way that felt overall well done, with overall good visuals and some of the best sound designs and atmospheres ever in anime. Unfortunately it loses steam as it goes on, and the writing, resolutions and character arcs have a very bad conclusion, leaving some very poor final impressions and after taste, which is why it doesn’t have a very strong rewatch value for me It was still a worthy watch, almost to the end.

I was really waiting for this series because it was made by a famous studio for a big occasion (20th anniversary) and made by famous people (Shirow Masamune, Nakamura Ryuutarou [Lain, Kino no Tabi], Ogura Hiromasa [Ninja Scroll, Last Exile], etc.).

Art & Animation:
The characters looks quite unique, the colors are really great and the backgrounds are really well done. But sometimes the quality drops a bit, especially at the and, which would be important. But in overall is still better than many of the recent series.

Sound:
Maybe the strongest part. Great mixing, creepy effects, and one of the best recaps I've ever seen. Flawless.

Story:
It sterted really strong, I've anticipated great outcome, but it's also flawed a bit at the end. Till the end there was a deep, depressing atmosphere on the events, and the closong actually ruined it. The sudden happy end did not fit the earlier things. And also many questions were open on the end. It was too sudden, looked like they wanted to make a 26 ep. series, than run out of money and closed the story in a was which did not fit the whole story. But it was only the end, the earlier parts were well done.

Character:
All characters were well written, not only the main ones. Maybe Ootori Reika was a bit weaker than the other ones. And also at the and many character acted different than it was lgical.

Value:
The story contained many (sometimes too many) thing to think about. Some of them had deep meanings but almost all of them were closed too sharply.

Enjoyment:
As I said I was really waiting for it and actually I was worth to wait. I usually have free time for max 1 ep. each day, and it was so interesting for me, that I finished it in 4 days.

Overall:
It worth for me 8 ponts, it could have been 9 easily if they wouldn't ruin it with the ending. But still worth to watch it.

Story
What Ghost Hound really is is a look at the human psyche with a basis in psychology, folklore, and religion. It focuses on what humans are, what memories are, the basis or emotions, and the nature of existence itself. The outside events, the actual plot where things happen, is just a vehicle to create instances for discussing these issues. So you get a lot of food for thought, but the actual plot is often abandoned half way through to switch to another one and just generally thrown in there. Also, a lot of the plot’s settings are blatantly stolen from When They Cry, from dams to curses. I’m actually surprised no one got sued, it’s that bad – although Ghost Hound is not violent like When They Cry is. So if you are looking for plots based on events and even character development, this series isn’t for you. If you are looking for a philosophical type of anime, you will probably enjoy this.

Animation
What really strikes me about the animation is the character designs. They took the essence of each character’s personality and motivations and solidified it into a character design. Even some elements of later plot were incorporated so that there was a strong reference to them in the character design, although you wouldn’t catch it till after what it referenced occurred. While this isn’t uncommon in Anime, I’ve never seen it taken to such an extreme as it is in Ghost Hound. The problem is it’s taken to such an extreme that some of the characters are very bizarre and ugly. But being able to almost see inside a character’s head just by looking at them makes up for that. Another plus in the character design was how very different the main character’s faces and eyes were from each other, which became important later on, but I can’t explain why without spoiling the plot. The anime really could have jerked to a halt if they hadn’t been careful about distinguishing traits, suffice to say.
However, besides these aspects the art wasn’t really that great. Sometimes the movements were distractingly bad, and the background art wasn’t particularly impressive. They also used reused a lot of scenes, although they attempted to find reasons to in the plot and in the feel of the series. The constant reuse of scenes may annoy some though. There were also quite a few unnecessary still shots. If it hadn’t been for the innovative way of dealing with character designs, the animation would have been subpar.

Sound
The casting for the Seiyuu in Ghost Hound is absolutely phenomenal. I really got the impression that they chose the Seiyuu first, and then drew the characters and decided on their personalities based on the Seiyuu’s voice. That’s how perfectly all of those aspects drew together. Seeing that match in the first few episodes, I was expecting superb voice acting from the Seiyuu as the series continued to develop – and didn’t get it. While it seems the roles were made for these particular voice actors, that doesn’t mean that the Seiyuu are that talented at acting. Their performance is a letdown. This was pretty uniform with all the characters.
There are more sound effects setting the mood than there is music, and this aspect is done very well. The creators play with rhythms and dissonance to draw your attention to the inner workings of the characters, their state of mind, and of course the plot. The loud ticking of a clock will suddenly go off rhythm, a schoolbell will sound a discordant note, and the effect is absolutely awesome. There is also some background music that’s decent, but the sound effects are so well handled that I prefer when they are the primary mood setter. To make sure the viewer doesn’t miss the significance of the background sounds they are quite loud though, sometimes louder than the voice actors, which is a bit odd at times.
The opening track is perfect for this series; jazzy and moody and dissonant. I would probably never listen to it on my own though, because of the screeching and the dissonance, but it was a wonderful mood setter for the series and I never skipped it. The opening track brought to mind the plot elements, while the mellow closing track brought to mind the characters. I enjoyed the mix. The closing track was also a simply beautiful song.
In the beginning of each episode there’s a recap in which the characters’ voices are garbled. This has a neat effect for the feel of the show. The garbling is different from scene to scene, and if you listen to the pitch and other characteristics of the garbling they reveal whole new aspects to the scene. The more you listen, the more you recognize patterns of sound that hold significance to the series, so its best never to skip this part.

Characters
Like the story, the characters really just exist to further philosophical questions, but the creators don’t leave them in the dust as much as they did the plot. The characters are somewhat interesting, and they do go through some development that’s rewarding to watch. The character development is notable in that almost all of it takes place from within – it’s not really caused by outside events, but by the character’s own inner search for enlightenment. At first I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that, but it turned out to be very refreshing. The only big problem with the characters is that some of the very minor characters just change into someone completely different off screen at the last second so the series can have a happier ending, which is extremely annoying.

Value and Enjoyment
There are a lot of things about Ghost Hound that annoyed me, like the way the plot was handled, the voice acting, and some of the animation. But when it comes down to it, I think this is worth watching and I recommend it. In particular, if you like Serial Experiments Lain or Ghost in the Shell, you’ll probably like this one. If you like anime that make you think but at the same time can suspend your disbelief, then you will absolutely love Ghost Hound. Even for the general anime fan, this is worth watching.

Thought Material! Great idea! Oh, and some plot and characters.

Oftentimes when a show tries to focus on the so-called thought material (issues one keeps thinking about even after finishing the show, like ethical issues) it often forgets to add a solid plotline to it, or well-developed characters.

This series suffers from it in the sense that it didn't really know what it had to do with the characters in order to suit the initial idea. Every now and then they simply switch angles in the hope a different focus would suit the show more. The characters also suffer from this, which results in them being simply uninteresting.

Does that make the show uninteresting? No. But it makes the show so much worse than it could've been. Because this show is simply original and it has plenty of potential.

Animation: Both hit and miss.

General animation
The animation starts off well: great visuals for a tv-series with excellent backgrounds and a good sense of nature. It's all relatively pretty detailed, which is a great thing to have in your show. The problem lies in that it gets sloppier after time. After half the show has been aired, the animation is remarkably worse than it was in the beginning. Examples would be forests which don't consist of trees anymore, but simply a green washed-out color which is supposedly a forest. Have we seen this before? Yes, plenty of times in other series, but it hurts when you know that in the earlier episodes of a show they spent so much more time and effort on this aspect.

Character design
A strong contrast is also the character design. Where the animation was really good at the start, the moment a character pops up in that environment, it shows that they simply don't fit. In that way, it is better for the show that the animation level dropped rapidly, since by then the characters don't stand out that much anymore.
It would be even better when they had simply made the character design better. Because simply said, the characters are simply bland. Other than an occasional glimpse of wrinkles in a face, there are almost no real details in faces.

The most memorable character is Makoto who is by far more detailed than any others. His almost-always angry face simply shows the emotion, something which is often not there when looking at others. The most unmemorable character would be, unfortunately, the protagonist Tarou. A bland face, a bland look and none of anything in him dares to make an impression, which makes it almost annoying to see him at times.

Character movement is done well – at least, most of the time. In some occasions they also move as if they have spasms though. And that's not even when they're in mid-air.

Sound: Good music, relatively good voices.

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of music. OP/ED were done really well, both in terms of visuals as in terms of musical enjoyment. Although one shouldn't really expect whatever the OP-animation shows you, because most of what it displays simply never gets used in the show itself. Which is a pity, because the OP shows a few nice action scenes and a few interesting ideas.

The music throughout the show was done well. Unsettling BGM in creepy situations, serene music whenever necessary and so forth. There are almost no scenes which didn't have any suitable music, which is a good display of how music gets attached to a show.
A place where they used unsettling BGM is for instance the ‘recap’ at the beginning of each ep. Every time someone says something, you only hear a scrambled sound, as if someone speaks to you while being under water, or through some obscure voice-changing device. It works. It simply works for the show.

Voice actors sound good, but despite not liking some of the voices, they fit their roles really well. So relatively, they are good voice actors.


Story: Indecisive which turn to make.

The idea behind the show was really nice. The series started off fairly well by having a particular idea being the center of the show, but after a few episodes, that aspect was mostly explored. And then they needed to find other aspects to explore, which often resulted in sub-plots which still needed to connect to the main story.
Angst made place for OEB experiences. OEB experiences made place for a conspiracy theory. The conspiracy theory made place for a detective play and then they tried to go into horror – or at least more than currently was the case.

All these switches didn't bring the show to a higher level, but rather made the show look less consistent. In some cases one would speak about a show which tried to be too ambitious, but this show merely looked like it didn't really know where to put the focus on. Should it be on the kidnapping? Should it be on the characters? Should it be on the supernatural? It simply can't decide and therefore appears hesitating, which makes the series a lot worse than it should've been. Especially since all of the above issues are one by one good subjects to go into, but all of them is simply not working out.

Characters: Uninteresting characters.

If you have seen Persona : Trinity Soul , then you might understand what this series has to offer. It would be unfair to say that these characters are not making sense, because they obviously do. They are an integral part of the show and they play an important role. So, what's with the similarity then?
The similarity to above mentioned show is that these characters simply aren't interesting at all. Perhaps this is a personality trait of 14 year olds, but none of them make much of an impression. Most of the time they simply go along whatever comes their way, which is a bad thing to do if the show tries to make them the pivotal aspect. There are indeed moments where they really become solid characters, but most of the time they don't.

Makoto is most of the time the always-angry guy, who isn't happy at all with his family. While he has the most personality of all, most of the time we see him as the always-angry guy who never wants to be part of anything.
Masayuki starts off as the most interesting character, being the one with a hidden agenda, but he simply fails to keep up with the plot itself. By the time 1/3 of the series has gone by, he has blended in with the shadows and turns out to be a whiny guy most of the time.
Tarou, as the protagonist, is simply a boring guy. He comes across as a kid who doesn't dare to make decisions, simply because they can go wrong. By the time he finally decides to do something completely unlike himself, we're already far into the second half of the show. So much for an interesting protagonist.

They try to integrate a couple of more adult characters in, but once again, all of them are just as uninteresting as the rest, or simply don't get the coverage to sympathize with them, or even see through their personality.

Value & Enjoyment: Interesting, yet boring.

It would be unfair to say that this series isn't worth your time, because it is. It has really nice aspects and the ideas they incorporated into the show are really interesting and original.

The only drawbacks are that the characters are simply uninteresting and don't add much to the show and that the plot seems not to know where to go. It takes away a lot of suspense and thrill this series builds on, but it doesn't take away what the show has to offer: a lot of unexplored content, which by itself should be enough to keep a show up. And it shows that here too, that it still manages to be a fairly decent watch despite all the flaws any other show would've caused to crash and burn.

Since I've heard of this anime I've been interested in watching it, and week after week I've checked how far it was from ending. As soon as the series reached a conclusion I downloaded it and saw it, ending up disappointed after I had seen the final episode, not because it was bad, it was actually pretty good, but for some reason it didn't seem worth the wait. Anyway, I've decided to write a review since there were none yet. Please try to undestand that I am not a professional at this so I can't promise I'll be completely impartial in the review, what you'll be seeing is no more no less than my humble opinion.[br][br]Anyway, here we go:[br][br]Animation:[br] The animation is not one of the best you'll find out there, but since this is a series it's pretty good, I haven't noticed any reused animations, the design is good as well full of details and fits very well in the mood of the series. Also, there are some dementia oriented scenes where the balance between dark and light is greatly done making them look beautiful in a weird way (since the scenes are depicting dark and... i dunno, gothic (?) themes I don't really find beautiful to be the right word). I mean, this is no Seirei no Moribito, but the animation here is not bad at all either.[br][br]Sound:[br] The sound is like the animation, it suits the series. In the beginning I found it really weird, with all those distortions and such that contribute for the dementia part of the series, but it really suits the series, so I believe a hight rating is justified. The music in the background fits in nicely too. I just didn't gave the sound a 9 because I think the OP/ED are a bit out of place (I mean, I don't mind the ED, but I can't make myself like the OP).[br][br]Story:[br] I liked the story, it grows well and every episode makes you want to see the next one. I think it was too small for the number of episodes on the series though, perhaps if they'd made the series shorter some parts of it wouldn't be so boring, and I don't like the way it becomes towards the ending, with some cliché, predictable and somewhat uninspired ideas. They're not enough to make the viewer give up the series though, especially when he's so close to the finale, which is not the great ending you'd expect in my opinion but it's good enough.[br][br]Character:[br] The main characters (and some of the secondary ones too) are one of the best parts of the series, they're all interesting and different, each has it's own motivations and each of them surprises the viewer as their past is uncovered and their personality changes according to the situations they face. There are also some uninteresting and predictable characters, but even those fit in and contribute to the story and development of the interesting ones.[br][br]Value:[br] I don't think this is an anime that will be a future reference to others. Despite having some good ideas it's just not really something exceptional. But don't get me wrong, it's so much better than most of the crap out there.[br][br]Enjoyment:[br] Despite some boring parts and a somewhat disappointing ending I ended up enjoying the series and I would gladly recommend it to anyone who likes a good supernatural psychological and demented thriller, but it's definitely not one of my favorites. It was worth my time though, I just can't handle the disappointment it was having waited all this time. But then again, 7 is not a bad rating is it? [br] So, overall a good anime, don't know if it's worth a second watch, but watching it once is definitely recommended.[br][br]