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m moved Ghost Stories to Ghosts at School: Changed title to Ghosts at School, the English title of the anime series as broadcast and translated by Animax.
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For other uses, see Ghost Story.
Ghost Stories (Japanese TV series)
File:GAKKOU.jpg
Japanese cover to volume 2 of Gakkō no Kaidan or School Ghost Stories
Genrehorror, suspense, comedy, drama
Anime
Directed byNoriyuki Abe
StudioStudio Pierrot

Gakkou no Kaidan (Japanese: 学校の怪談, Gakkō no Kaidan, Ghost Stories or School Ghost Stories) is a twenty-one-episode anime series created in 2000 by animation studio Aniplex for Fuji Television, based on a manga series by Yosuke Takahashi. The series has recently been licensed for the North American market by ADV Films. Though considered a fairly subpar series by many critics and fans, it has become recently controversial for the English dub.

In Latin America, Cartoon Network aired the entire series which premiered on October 1st, 2005 at 11:30PM / 10:30PM(EST) Monday to Thursday.

Storyline

Gakkou no Kaidan tells the tale of Satsuki Miyanoshita (宮ノ下さつき, Miyanoshita Satsuki), who moves with her family to the hometown of her deceased mother. On her first day of school, Satsuki; her brother Keiichirou (敬一郎, Kei'ichirō), a first-grader; their neighbor Hajime Aoyama (青山ハジメ, Aoyama Hajime); Momoko Koigakubo (恋ヶ窪桃子, Koigakubo Momoko), an older schoolmate; and Reo Kakinoki (柿ノ木レオ, Kakinoki Reo), a classmate and friend of Hajime's with a penchant for the paranormal visit the abandoned school building adjacent the current school complex and discover that the building is haunted.

It is soon after revealed that Satsuki's grandmother was the school principal, and her mother was responsible for sealing a ghost named Amonojaku, who has been released due to the urbanization taking place in the surrounding area. Satsuki's mother left behind a book detailing how to exorcize the ghosts once and for all, but in the process, Amonjaku is sealed within Satsuki's pet cat, Kaya. Though the group does not want to get involved at first, the danger soon threatens to envelop the town and it is left up to Satsuki (with her friends) to stop the ghosts once and for all and to send Amonojaku to the next life.

Episodes

1. Tonight the Spirits Will Be Resurrected! Amanojaku

2. A Hand Reaches out of The Toilet... Red Paper, Blue Paper

3. Raise the Curtains! The Cursed School Arts Festival! Kutabe

4. Requiem of the Dead: Fur Elise

5. The Bloody Sports Festival: Datto!

6. The Demon's Hand Splits the Door: A Night of Tragedy

7. The Soul Stealing Mirror! Utsushimi

8. The Circuit Connects to Hell: Demon of the Underworld

9. The Corpse That Roams in the Night: Shirotabi

10. The Tunnel With No Exit

11. The Talking Mary Doll! Shadows of Death

12. The Nurse Who Tells Your Death: Mother's Feelings

13. The Picture That Swallows People: Da Vinci

14. The Life-Taking Psychotic Photo

15. The Devil's Spell: Rites of Darkness

16. The Apartment That Eats People: Nest of Evil Spirits

17. Terror at Bloodstain Lake

18. Akane-San of the Broadcasting Room: Voice of the Dead

19. The Headless Horseman!

20. Farewell, Amanojaku...

Characters of Ghost Stories (Gakkou no Kaidan)

  • Satsuki Miyanoshita: Satsuki is the main character of the show. She moves with her father, her young brother Keiichirou and the cat Kaya to the hometown of her deceased mother, where she finds that her mother confronted several evil entities that haunted the town, which included Amonojaku, and wrote all her supernatural experiences in a diary, which Satsuki entitles "The Ghost Journal". She is very determined and sometimes moody mostly because of Hajime.
  • Momoko Koigakubo: Momoko is a 6th grader and Satsuki's best friend. She seems to have no fear of anything, even in very dangerous situations, and is very brave when it is to help Satsuki and the gang to confront the ghosts. She also seems to have a psychic connection with Satsuki's mother.
  • Hajime Aoyama: Hajime is Satsuski's neighbor. He is always determined to help in defeating the ghosts, but though he says that is very brave he is actually a coward. Despite this, he is one of the most reliable of Satsuki's friends and has saved her on more than one occasion. Hajime also has a naughty habit about flipping girls' skirts, and his constant victim is no more than Satsuki, which always results in many comic moments. Along the anime it seems that he and Satsuki develop mutual crushes on each other (not that they'd admit it).
  • Reo Kakinoki: Reo is Hajime's friend and has a big obssession about paranormal themes, what makes proclaim himself as a respected paranormal researcher. However, all the time that Reo finds a clue about the existence of supernatural entities it seems that the clue turns against Reo, like in the episode The Circuit Connects to Hell: Demon of the Underworld. Like Hajime, he tries to be brave but actually he is just a coward.
  • Keiichirou Manshita: Keiichirou is Satsuki's young brother. He is very frightened about many things and is seeing crying sometimes, but he shows courage when it is to help in defeat the ghosts. He creates a special friendship with the ghost Amanojaku.
  • Amanojaku: Amanojaku is a powerful entity that a long time ago was sealed by Satsuke's mother in a tree in the mountains, but was finally released from his magic prison with the urbanization. However, he didn't take his freedom so long due Satsuki sealed him (by accident) in the body of Satsuki's cat, Kaya. At first, Amanojaku is hostile with the kids and shows joy when sees them in trouble, but along the series run he begins to develop somewhat of caring around them specially with Satsuki and Keiichirou.

Dub Controversy

Template:Spoiler On the weekend of August 19 2005, at the 2005 Otakon anime convention, ADV Films announced an October 2005 release of Ghost Stories on DVD. The controversy stems from the dubbed version, which completely dismisses the original dramatic script in favor a comedic one written by ADV scriptwriter Steven Foster. While the original show will still be available on the DVD release via subtitles, several fans lashed out against the ADV dub, charging that the company made too many edits for the dub simply for the sake of potential successful sales. This in turn, was rebutted by the favorable reviews that ADV's preview at Otakon has received to date, and the news that the original Japanese licensor, Aniplex, approved the changes. Volume one of Ghost Stories went on sale on October 22 2005 with little fanfare.

Ultimately, response to the dub has been overall positive, due to the addition of humor, mainly through multiple pop culture references. For example, in the first episode, when Hajime encounters Momoko for the first time, in the Japanese version, he says "She's beautiful"; however, in the English dub, he says "Giggidy giggidy!" (a reference to Glenn Quagmire from the animated sitcom Family Guy). The English dub also makes notes of Wal-Mart and Charmin toilet paper rather than the Japanese version's "store" and "toilet paper". There are also political swipes ranging from Republicans to Democrat politician and Christian preacher Al Sharpton.

Lastly, there are some character changes, such as Momoko being changed from a psychic to that of an evangelical Christian, and Reo/Leo changed from a mere researcher in the supernatural to that of a Jewish character with an inferiority complex. Several minor characters' backgrounds are expanded slightly (mostly for comedic purposes), as well.

Discontinued episodes

External references

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