520https://bloodydisgusting.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/11/ghoststoriesbanner.jpg Its not much of an exaggeration to say that for most in the anime community dubbing is an insidious charged word. That single word is powerful enough that at its mere utterance most anime fans faces will turn into an ugly sneer their stomachs will lurch and theyll have to fight off the urge to violently vomit. Most fans strongly prefer subs to dubs and are quite inflexible in this preference. To them dubs are of shoddy quality and even the best ones fail to capture the sense of the original work due to changing the audio. If the reception of the dub of Ghost Stories is any indication however anime fans are more than willing to like even adore a dub if it doesnt at all care about being the equivalent of the original. Ghost Stories is a parody dub through and through and this fact seems to have paid off for the creators. A somewhat lackluster show is now immortalized thanks to its dub. Almost everyone suggests to watch the dub rather than the sub. From what I can see everyone absolutely loves it. My personal take is that everyone absolutely loves the concept and how marvel it is more than the dub as a whole. Dont get me wrong I still enjoyed my time with Ghost Stories its just nowhere near a masterpiece. In total jokes seem to miss more than they land and the show takes a while to hit its stride. The original Ghost Stories was a formulaic monsteroftheweek anime about grade school children having to deal with all manner of ghosts that haunted their school and the surrounding town. The distributors were worried that the show would flop in America so save for some ground rules such as not changing names of any character or ghosts the dubbing team was instructed to do whatever else you want to make the show successful. To the dubbers this translated to making an irreverent parody series filled with all manner of jokes. While the premise remains the same the characters change wildly. The one trait that they share is that theyre all quite rude to one another thus helping foster the irreverent tone I talked about. 520https://media1.tenor.com/images/a33522d1aa90a6196d1a292826bf998d/tenor.gif?itemid=14328860 I wont be comparing the dub to the subs most reviews Ive seen seem to be preoccupied with the quality of the subs and it seems to me that this compromises them scrutinizing the dub. The bottom line is that from what Ive seen you should really only have the dub in consideration when deciding whether or not you want to watch this show. Starting off with the positives while the tone of the dub is irreverent and the dub itself is a giant gag the voice actors really care about their work. In this instance their task is making people laugh. Because of this performances dont feel phoned in: every voice sounds like the actors are actually trying. Keiichirou sounds absolutely awful but thats because his voice actor is trying to make him sound that way every bout of inane babbling on his end and the laughs they garner are intentional. Rob Mungles performance as Amanojaku is absolutely a riot as he chews the scenery just from his voice. Whether hes making some snide remark making a joke or just getting angry Im liable to crack a smile just because of how much fun he was having in the booth. Another standout voice actor was Brittney Karbowski as Mio in episode twelve. Her performance was just so overthetop that I couldnt help but laugh. Mios rabbitloving antics combined with Karbowskis performance really stole the show. There are several voicebased gags in this show but another one that I get a kick out of is Miyukis voiced by Shelley CaleneBlack random hysterical screams in episode 17. And of course the dub features amazing jokes. They make fun of everything and everyone under the sun. While they dont always land as Ill get to shortly when they do theyre great. I particularly loved the episode in which Momoko reveals her backstory as a nymphomaniac drug addict its so different from her current day selfrighteousness that its absolutely hilarious. This show really endorses laughing at things that often one shouldnt laugh at. 520https://66.media.tumblr.com/55126beed3a4e186cb5159ecf06ea88b/tumblrowwe1mvrCD1taibz9o1400.gifv I most often found myself laughing at situational comedies rather than throway jokes. An example is the aforementioned bit with Momoko and also a section in which Satuski and Keiichiros father has his genitals mutilated after playing with a doll ghost. I also in general enjoyed the sexrelated jokes and anything involving Momoko as she was my favorite character of the principal cast unless you count Amanojaku. Its not really something addressed in the show but its kind of hilarious that even in the dub the characters are still stated to be in upper elementary school when they each should realistically at least be about three years older. 520https://1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire4tmb/220381358eb88e0f25d07f6bc6c129dd1452213708fwide.jpg Ghost Stories also employs meta jokes very well as they actually hold a purpose in showing how ridiculous the show can be. One particular one I love is a variation of a monster running towards the characters. Their actions bound to the animation they can only remark well how about we stand here and stare at it some more. Amanojakus hilarious heelfaceturn is rendered as Why am I doing this it doesnt fit my character arc. Oh well Im getting paid its a living. 520https://i.ur.com/Y7kzPfW.png The music is surprisingly good for this show if not a bit mismatched for the dub since it can get legitimately eerie at times. At first I thought the music was generic or public domain because I swore I heard it before. As it turns out I basically did for the composer also worked on Inuyasha as a show that also dealt with monsters I guess he couldnt help but end up making an OST that sounds similar. The music isnt bad it can just be a bit distracting if youve watched Inuyasha. 520https://66.media.tumblr.com/e414860c8b4754c1b0f913381b16fb0a/tumblrncyyq7OwgX1s4mcupo1500.png The animation isnt too great. The characters will be offmodel very often. If you notice it it can be very distracting but I honestly was too busy focusing on the comedy to really care. And now we move onto things that dont work. The dub can be quite crude and there are certain jokes that I just dont find funny. Call my PC or whatever but I find jokes about Keiichiroi being rtrded or a fg pretty tasteless. I roll my eyes when Keiichirou and Satsukis mom being lesbian is framed as a joke in and of itself like homosexuality is just intrisically funny. The same goes with Jewish jokes And I didnt really find most of the black jokes funny either yelling Just pretend youre being chased by a big black man to prompt a character to run faster but that might just be because its harder to laugh when you feel like youre the butt of a joke. One thing to keep in mind is that the dub holds no punches just as its likely youll find something funny theres the likelihood youll find something unfunny. Hopefully it doesnt get to the point where youre offended but if youre anything like me there will be and it will take some enjoyment out of the show for you. 520https://i.yt.com/vi/iv0w6EffYfY/maxresdefault.jpg One type of humor that didnt do it for me were pop culture references. Unfortunately there are many many references in Ghost Stories and I got very few of them leaving me annoyed and baffled. The primary problem with references is that they are very situational: either you get them or you dont. If you get them great youll have a laugh but if not youll be left scratching your head wondering whats the significance of what was just said. As reviled as they are at least with Family Guy s cutaway gags even if you dont get the initial reference the show shows you why its funny. To some it may seem lazy and an insult to viewers intelligence but for crude comedies I dont think the point is to stoke viewers intelligence in the first place its to make them laugh and references often dont do that because one has to get the reference. Plus references are inherently lazy if nothing is done with those references. At the very least Ghost Stories usually packages those references with jokes but they fall flat if you dont know the reference. As a geek I have a very specific range of interests and I wouldnt get references that fall outside of that range. I got a Jessica Alba reference but thats only because she was in Fantastic Four. I got the Charlie Sheen and Oprah references but thats only because they managed to stay in the limelight. I can only imagine even less references will be funny for future viewers. Alanis Morissette Steven Foster Linda Blair Al Sharpton are all names that I dont know yet theyre referenced meaning those jokes flew clear over my head. Unfortunately references are the most common type of joke in Ghost Stories meaning I just plain didnt get a vast majority of the humor. The references are fired in a machine gun manner: fire as many at the audience as you can in hopes some of them land. Making matters worse is that the cast really likes to run some references to the ground. Made all the more annoying because I still dont get the blimin reference. I swear Ill lose my mind if I have to hear that X is/will be deader than Ys career usually Christian Slater whoever the hell that is. Oh and comparing the events of the episode to The Ring which Ive never watched. 520https://pa1.narvii.com/6311/320805b325a0b76f308eed98f2a8496794ccbfb2hq.gif I can excuse the overreliance on references due to the fact that the entire dub was apparently ad libbed. Honestly that makes me impressed though still doesnt make them any funnier it just makes me less annoyed at the cast. Another problem is that the anime really doesnt get hilarious until the ninth episode The Corpse that Roams in the Night Shirotabi. There are certainly funny moments prior but this is the first episode that Id say is funny in its entirety. There are a few more afterward. While Ghost Stories is certainly funny its rarely gutbusting in its comedy. Some of its meanspirited jokes and overreliance on references hurt it but even without these its oftentimes not that funny. It might be a bit dull for some viewers early on so I might suggest watching select episodes 913. Still as I said there are laughs to be had in every episode even if theyre not guffaws. The concept itself is quite marvel so Id recommend checking Ghost Stories Id just caution not to expect the magnum opus of comedy. 7.7/10 C+ 520https://i.ur.com/z1r5G4X.jpg
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