The Ghost Stories English dub anime is a cult classic and is perfect for when you have a bad day and don’t care what anyone says. Instead, you want to watch something slightly educational and hilariously offensive.
Not all the jokes will be up your alley, but that’s ok. You’re not here to see good triumph over evil; you want to see what kind of mess a group of pre-adolescent children can get into.
Plus, a talking cat claims he’s out to get the children, but he usually sits there and gives creative advice from time to time. The Ghost Stories dub is a trainwreck in the best way, and if you’re still not sure if you should watch it.
Let me ask you. Do you like any abridged series? Because even though Ghost Stories dub is official, one can claim that it’s the original abridged!
Think about that. An official abridged exists, and you watch it on Crunchyroll along with the original Japanese subtitles.
What’s the story behind Ghost Stories?
Toru Tsunemitsu made a manga based on popular ghost stories for children ages 12 and under. A 4-part series adaptation ran from 1995 to 1999.
Ghost Stories has also been made into a tv series, and there’s a video game! Studio Pierrot adapted Ghost Stories into an anime in 2000, but unfortunately, the anime did poorly in Japan.
But fortunately for us, Animax, the owner of the western rights for Ghost Stories, approached ADV Films to produce an English dub and gave them four rules to follow.
- Do not change the names of the characters, including the ghosts.
- Do not change how the ghosts are killed, as the methods come from Asian folklore.
- Don’t change the meaning of the episode.
- Do whatever else you want to make the show successful.
The ADV team took those rules to heart, threw out the original script, and gave the characters comedic personalities. For example, Satsuki drops F-bombs and complains about her body.
Momoko has a psychic connection with Satsuki’s mother and is a right-wing born-again Evangelical Christin. She’s rich, most of her dialogue is quoting the bible, and she used to do drugs, among other things, before converting.
Hajime is supposed to be the male lead, and the dub makes him out as a stereotypical boy with a horny streak. Leo is Hajime’s best friend who often tries to impress the group with his paranormal knowledge but is the butt of most jokes.
The dub has him being a dorky teenager from a Jewish family, so he and Momoko trade insults throughout the series. Keiichiro is Satsuki’s younger brother and tends to cause more problems for the others.
In the Ghost Stories dub, he has a learning disability, and most of his dialogue turns into babbling, squeals, and tears. But that works for Keiichiro because he’s age 4, Satsuki, Hajime, and Leo are 10, and Momoko is 11.
The cat owns all of his scenes!
Last but not least is Amanojaku, a powerful spirit that Satsuki’s mother sealed into a tree behind the school before the show began. But Amanojaku is sealed into Satuski’s pet cat Kaya and threatens to kill the kids fairly often.
A black cat with one blue eye and a gold one pops up wherever he wants and breaks the fourth wall by complaining about the animation, writing, and paycheck. Ghost Stories is the first anime that’s switched genres between the sub and dub versions.
The Japanese sub is a supernatural horror adventure, while the dub is a dark comedy horror. What’s surprising about the Ghost Stories anime, in general, is its ending theme song.
It’s called Sexy, Sexy by CASCADE, and its light use of English lyrics make you wonder about the intended audience. Along with the panty shots of ten and eleven-year-old girls.
The dub makes fun of these situations, but these scenes are in the Japanese version. A second season was considered due to the success of the English dub, but we’re still waiting.