Ghost Hunt

[DB]

Seen all 25 episodes.

I'm a bit uncertain how to catagorize this one. Basically this is a series that centers on a high school girl who joins a Psychic Research company that investigates strange goings on, all of the cases involving ghosts and spirits. Mai, the central character, has something mysterious (in a ghostly way) happens at her school. Unable to stop the strange goings on, the principle hires Shibuya Psychic Research, led by Naru, a somewhat cold, completely in control, standoffish, (but handsome) genius and his even less talkative assistant, Lin. Mai ends up being drafted into helping them out, and goes on to be hired as an assistant.

Over the course of the cases, a quartet of other ghost hunters from various fields (A Buhdist, a shrine maiden, a tv spiritualist, and even a young Catholic priest who specializes in exorcisms, invariable get called in to the difficult cases, and serve as a supporting cast.

Over the course of the series, Mai begins to develop strange abilities of her own, most of them related to a talent for dreamwalking in the realm of spirits. Also she develops something of a crush on Naru, though it's never really romantic.

The series is divided into multi episode arcs of each case, none of them interelated, though as each case progresses, the cast grow tighter and become friendlier with one another, though not in the same manner, given the diverse personalities involved. Also the cases become more serious as the series progresses, the dangers involved increasing with each new case.

I really don't know how to describe it in an effective way, other than I really, really liked it, and looked forward to watching each episode as it came out. It's not a true mystery, like Detective Conan or Kindaichi, and ghosts are always involved, but there is a similar style in that they delve into the case, trying to discover the cause of the malevent spirits and how to drive them away before others are harmed or killed. It's a formula, but an effective one, and with each case, more of the individuals characters are revealed.

Part of the reason I probably like it is there are no characters in this that are over the top, despite the nature of a ghost type series. All of them are, well, human, even the standoffish Naru, who's the most brilliant of the cast, though even he needs to do research to discover the answers to the problems at hand. Also the storytelling is nicely done, as the facts to the case come in, and the appropriate dangers on hand increase the tension in each case.

Basically I recommend giving the first 2 story arcs a try. If you like them, you'll like the series. If you don't, it's not going to work for you.

I give it a solid 8 out of 10. This was unquestionably a must-see for me, and I'm hoping they'll do a second season of it.