Kazuya Shibuya
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, originally titled , is a
light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...
series written by
Fuyumi Ono is a Japanese novelist best known for writing , which was adapted into a popular anime series. She is married to Yukito Ayatsuji, the author of the horror novel '' Another''. Biography Ono is married to , a mystery novelist who writes under th ...
. It follows the adventures of Shibuya Psychic Research as they investigate mysterious occurrences all over Japan with a team of other spiritualists and clever assistants. Although the last novel was published in 1994, the story was left incomplete. The novels were adapted into a
radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
for ''Akuryō Series'' in 1997. A manga adaptation written and illustrated by Shiho Inada began serialization in ''
Nakayoshi is a monthly ''shōjo'' manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 60 years of manga publication history. Notable titles serialized in Nakayoshi include ''Princess Knight ...
'' in the July 7, 1998 issue and ended on the September 30, 2010 issue. The individual chapters have been collected and published in twelve ''
tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...
'' volumes by
Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...
. It is licensed for English-language release, under the name ''Ghost Hunt'' in North America by
Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing rela ...
and in the United Kingdom by Tanoshimi. An
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series adaptation of the manga was animated by
J.C.Staff , is a Japanese animation studio founded in January 1986 by Tomoyuki Miyata, who previously worked at Tatsunoko Production. The studio's first release was ''Yōtōden'' in 1987. They have produced several well-known anime series, such as '' Food ...
and premiered on October 3, 2006 in Japan on
TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...
where it ran for twenty-five episodes until its conclusion. The anime is licensed for English release on Region 1 DVD by
Funimation Entertainment Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...
, which also uses the name ''Ghost Hunt''.


Plot

''Ghost Hunt'' follows the ghost hunting adventures of Mai Taniyama, a first-year high school student who becomes involved with Shibuya Psychic Research (SPR) and its young manager, Kazuya Shibuya. Mai nicknames Kazuya Shibuya "Naru" because of his attitude, and the nickname is generally adopted by all those who come to eventually work with SPR: Buddhist monk Houshou Takigawa; shrine maiden Ayako Matsuzaki; celebrity teen psychic Masako Hara; and Catholic priest John Brown. ''Ghost Hunt'' also explores the paranormal abilities of the characters, particularly focusing on Mai's "latent psychic abilities," demonstrated by her dreaming about information relevant to their cases. She is often joined in her dreams by someone whom she assumes to be Naru, who acts as a spirit guide, but who is later revealed to be Naru's dead twin brother who had died long before.


Characters

* is a 16-year-old first-year high school student who becomes involved with Shibuya Psychic Research (SPR) after she accidentally breaks an expensive video camera that was being used by the SPR in an investigation of an old building at her school. In the same incident, she is saved from a falling bookcase by Lin Koujo, who is injured instead. To repay her debt, she fills in for Lin to assist SPR's manager Kazuya Shibuya.It is later revealed that the camera that Mai broke was covered by insurance, and that Shibuya was happy for the help After the conclusion of the first case, she is offered a paycheck for her work and a part-time position at SPR. As the series progresses, it is revealed that Mai has
ESP ESP most commonly refers to: * Extrasensory perception, a paranormal ability ESP may also refer to: Arts, entertainment Music * ESP Guitars, a manufacturer of electric guitars * E.S. Posthumus, an independent music group formed in 2000, ...
abilities, which include
postcognitive Retrocognition (also known as postcognition or hindsight ), from the Latin ''retro'' meaning "backward, behind" and ''cognition'' meaning "knowing", describes "knowledge of a past event which could not have been learned or inferred by normal means" ...
dreams and
clairvoyance Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
. Mai also demonstrates an instance of astral projection, when she gives Masako a key to comfort her after she is kidnapped by Urado and his men. As she is still unfamiliar with her newly discovered powers, Mai is often not confident in her abilities and often does not disclose the full details of her dreams, where someone that resembles Naru frequently appears and guides her. The other members of the SPR teach her some useful techniques, which she utilizes in the series. She develops feelings for Naru as well as the other 'Naru' who appears in her dreams. * is a 17-year-old paranormal researcher and manager of Shibuya Psychic Research. Mai nicknames him "Naru" for his attitude; this nickname generally comes to be adopted by their colleagues. Though appearing cold and critical in front of his friends, he does care for them deeply and earns their trust and respect. Initially, it appears that he has no spiritual powers. However, later it is revealed that Naru is actually the famed paranormal researcher and psychic, Oliver Davis, and that he has very strong
psychokinetic Psychokinesis (from grc, ψυχή, , soul and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), or telekinesis (from grc, τηλε, , far off and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person ...
abilities, which Masako Hara has witnessed. Although Naru has been taught how to manage his psychic abilities by Lin Koujo, it takes such a large toll on his body that the one time he does use it in the series, he collapses and is hospitalized. It is also revealed that Naru had a twin brother named Eugene (that Mai sees in her dreams as "dream Naru"), who originally helped Naru to control his abilities. They were nicknamed Gene and Noll; when Mai gives him the nickname Naru ('Na-ru'), he is taken aback because (in Japanese) it sounds similar to Noll ('No-ru'). Naru and his brother were
orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...
s who were later adopted by the Davis's, paranormal researchers in England. Naru learns that his brother has died, and using psychometry, is led to Japan. It is discovered that Gene was run over by a car driven by an unknown woman, and his body was thrown into a lake to destroy any evidence of the accident. Mai Taniyama is his love interest as the author has confirmed that they would eventually become a couple, though she states that she has no interest in writing such a story. The original author
Fuyumi Ono is a Japanese novelist best known for writing , which was adapted into a popular anime series. She is married to Yukito Ayatsuji, the author of the horror novel '' Another''. Biography Ono is married to , a mystery novelist who writes under th ...
stated almost as if apologetically to her fans that she 'does not do happy endings'. * , originally from Hong Kong, is Naru's solemn and taciturn assistant. He seems to get most of the unpleasant jobs, and works through the night. He appears to be a strong '' onmyoji'' and has a wide range of paranormal skills from exorcism to summoning spirits that he has captured and can then control
familiar In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to r ...
s. He acts as Naru's guardian to help him find his brother. It is revealed that the three are childhood friends. It was Lin who taught Kazuya how to control the enormous energy that Kazuya has had since birth. Lin says he dislikes Japanese people because of the past conflicts Japan has had with China. At one time, he told this to Mai and she told him that he should forget the past to move on and if he should hate her, it should be because he hates her as an individual. At this, he stated that a long time ago, someone told him exactly the same words. In the novels, it is revealed that this person was Gene. * is a 25-year-old ''hakkaisou'', a Buddhist monk who has left his position at the headquarters of the Koyasan
Shingon file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...
sect of
Japanese Buddhism Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a ...
, Mt. Koya. He says he "came down from the mountain" and has grown his hair out, has pierced ears, and wears fashionable clothing. He claims that he left because they did not allow music CDs; his day job is playing
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
in a popular local band. He is one of the more powerful and effective members of the group and takes the lead in Naru's absence, as seen in the Cursed House File. The other members of SPR refer to him casually as "Monk". He is also very protective of Mai and acts like an older brother to her, even teaching her some Buddhist warding chants. * is an outspoken 23-year-old self-styled shrine maiden ("self-styled" because she was not raised in a
shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
; in fact, she is the daughter of wealthy doctors who own a community general hospital). She is confident and proud of her abilities, though her attempts to demonstrate them have almost always fallen short. She does teach Mai some defensive
sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...
s and it is later revealed that her powers only work when she is around living trees as she draws power from the spirits in them. As a child, the spirit from a large tree in front of her house taught her much of what she knows now. Being near such trees allows her to purify disquiet spirits through a particular Shinto ritual. This makes her a unique kind of priestess as she performs her rituals not in a shrine but anywhere that has trees nearby. However, she has to let the spirits from the trees to rest for six months after she uses them. * is a 19-year-old Caucasian
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
priest from Australia who speaks Japanese with a
Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...
(Australian in the English dub) accent. Good-natured and helpful, he helps Mai and Naru however he can. His means of exorcism is spraying
holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...
while reciting the first passage of John from the New Testament of the Bible. In most cases SPR relies on John's exorcisms whenever a human being is possessed by a spirit. In "The Cursed House" File, it is revealed that John's exorcisms, unlike Hosho's Buddhist Mantras or Ayako's Shinto Kuji, do not cause physical harm when used on a possessed living creature. * is a 16-year-old
spirit medium Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...
who stars in a popular television show; she has the ability to channel the deceased. Aside from Mai, she is the only one who can sense spirits and their natures. Because she is always wearing a
kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...
, even while sleeping, she is remarked as resembling a Japanese doll. She has romantic feelings towards Naru and often gets jealous over Naru's treatment of Mai resulting in the two girls considering each other rivals. After Mai saves her in the "Blood-stained Labyrinth," they reach a shaky truce. In personality, she is often serious and condescending towards Ayako and Mai. However, this is most probably because she viewed Ayako and Mai as rivals for Naru. In the novels, it is revealed that Masako knows of Naru's true identity and his psychic powers and has used that secret to extract favors out of Naru himself, despite his reluctance to participate in social events. * is a third-year top-ranked high school student and president of his school's
student council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...
. Yasuhara first appears as a client of SPR as a result of unexplainable phenomena occurring at his school. After the case is solved, he continues to help out SPR on other cases, including standing in as "Kazuya Shibuya" at the request of Naru and performing background research off-site while the others are on a case. He has no psychic powers of his own, but his sharp mind and work efficiency make him a great help to the team. In the Cursed House arc, he was called to research the folklore of the surrounding areas and was able to determine the source of all the spirits being manipulated to kill the family. He has an unorthodox sense of humor that usually consists of telling convoluted lies that creep out or irritates the other party. He does it mostly to people who tease or are rude to him. He refers to it as "being a jerk to a jerk". He also does not scare easily as demonstrated when he was not afraid of reversing the curse on him and the rest of the students in his school in the Forbidden Pastimes arc. * is an associate and mentor to Naru, who requests the SPR to investigate the mysterious disappearances of two young people at the estate of a former Prime Minister. However, it is revealed that she actually wanted the SPR to expose another investigator at the estate (posing as "Oliver Davis") as an impostor. She aided in the case by researching the house and the inhabitants for SPR. She enjoys frequently teasing Naru and also knows the secret reason for his being in Japan.


Secondary Characters & Victims

* is Mai's best friend and classmate from school, she along with Mai and Keiko enjoy telling each other ghost stories after school. * is Mai's other friend from school. * is the class-president and another classmate of Mai Taniyama, in episode 3 she is revealed to be a latent psychic however she wasn't aware that she had supernatural abilities until Kazuya told her this. * is a young girl, eight years old, who appears in the episode ''The Doll House'' in this episode she was experiencing strange behavior after her father had remarried which was caused by her toy doll who hypnotized her into believing that her new mother is "a witch" and that her father is "her assistant". According to Ayami every time she would play or make friends with other children, Minnie would often punish her-(by moving the bedroom furniture) as a result. * is Ayami's aunt and caregiver while her brother Ayami's father is overseas on a business trip. * is a young man whose family lives all the way near the seaside, he came to the SPR team to show them a mysterious rash on his niece Hazuki's back and neck; the actual cause was because of "Kaimyo" a spiritual name for the dead, however it wasn't just Hazuki and her cousins that were cursed it was the entire Yoshimi family, according to Taizo every time there's a new head of the family strange things start happening. * is Akifumi's niece, she arrived with her uncle (who is also her legal guardian) and was shown to possess ugly looking marks all over her body which he believed was an infection and took her to the hospital for a check up; but it turns out Hazuki got the rash after her grandfather died which began the curse. The marks on her body disappear after the curse had been lifted. * is Hazuki older brother, after he gets possessed he tries to commit suicide but likely Mai uses her spiritual powers to release the spirit within him and his cousin Wakako but her abilities end up injuring the children in the process. * is the new head of the Yoshimi family after his father-in law had recently died. According to him, every time there is a new head in their family; strange horrible things begin happening. * is Taizo's wife who just like Masako is always seen wearing a kimono. 32 years before the series, her grandfather died along with eight other family members; after that five of her mother's siblings also died from unknown causes and was the only one who had survived. Then the day after her father's funeral when he also died, is when her own granddaughter Hazuki had the scars on her body and with the scar on Hazuki neck it's like her father's ghost wants to kill his grandchild from beyond the grave. * is one of Hazuki and Katsuki's cousins, when she and Katsuki were possessed the two of them would be seen walking together and saying weird things.


Media


Light novels


Akuryō Series


Ghost Hunt Series (White Heart Series)


Manga

Written and illustrated by Shiho Inada, the manga adaptation premiered in ''Amie'' magazine in 1998, then moved to sister publication ''
Nakayoshi is a monthly ''shōjo'' manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 60 years of manga publication history. Notable titles serialized in Nakayoshi include ''Princess Knight ...
''. After this, the series moved to being published in volumes only. The series was completed in September 2010 with the twelfth and final volume. The manga was licensed for an English-language release in North America by
Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing rela ...
, which had released eleven volumes of the series. ''Ghost Hunt'' is licensed for release in the United Kingdom by Tanoshimi.


Anime

An
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series adaptation of the manga was animated by
J.C.Staff , is a Japanese animation studio founded in January 1986 by Tomoyuki Miyata, who previously worked at Tatsunoko Production. The studio's first release was ''Yōtōden'' in 1987. They have produced several well-known anime series, such as '' Food ...
. It premiered on October 3, 2006 in Japan on
TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...
where it ran for twenty-five episodes until its conclusion. The anime is licensed for English release on Region 1 DVD by
Funimation Entertainment Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...
, which released the entire series across two 2-disc volumes, and later in a single box set.


Live action film

In November 2013, production companies Twins Japan and Kadokawa Shoten announced that a live action film adaptation of ''Ghost Hunt'' was in production. The film will be directed by Yoshitaka Yamaguchi with Atsuyuki Shimoda and Shotaro Oikawa writing the screenplay. Shinichiro Inoue will serve as executive producer, and Adrian Chaw will serve as co-executive producer. The film will star Maya Fukuzawa as Mai Taniyama, Mizuki Yamamoto as Masako Hara, and Yosuke Kamamura as Hōshō Takigawa. Additional casting has yet to be announced. The film was slated for a summer 2014 release, but no announcement has been made since.


Reception

Pop Culture Shock's Michelle Smith criticises the ''Ghost Hunt'' manga for its "noticeable slide in quality" after volume five, attributing this to "the end of ''Ghost Hunt''s serialization in ''
Nakayoshi is a monthly ''shōjo'' manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 60 years of manga publication history. Notable titles serialized in Nakayoshi include ''Princess Knight ...
'' and the beginning of direct-to-tankōban releases". Mania.com's Eduardo M. Chavez criticises the main protagonist, Naru, for not taking "action on initial calls for distress. He then changes his mind, takes the case while always providing a perspective that is contrary to the work that he is actually assigning his staff." He also criticises the repetitive nature of the manga, saying, "every bit of paranormal, psychic and occult culture is dissected to death often repeating a few times a book". ActiveAnime's Sandra Scholes commends the anime for having "the feel of a well-known supernatural TV series with its roots deep in Japanese mythology and history."
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
's Theron Martin commends the anime for its "excellent pacing, offers good entertainment value, sometimes genuinely intense and horrifying" however, he criticises it for "lax characterizations" and oversimplifying some things.
DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
's John Sinnott compares the anime to ''
Case Closed ''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994, with its ch ...
'' with a supernatural twist. He also stated within his final thoughts that he "was initially disappointed, the show did turn out to be an enjoyable mystery show with some fun and intriguing characters".


Notes


References

*


Further reading

* * *


External links


Official Kodansha ''Ghost Hunt'' website

Official TV Tokyo ''Ghost Hunt'' anime website

Official Funimation ''Ghost Hunt'' anime website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Hunt (Light Novel) Book series introduced in 1989 1989 Japanese novels 1994 Japanese novels 1998 manga 2006 anime television series debuts 2007 Japanese television series endings Anime and manga based on light novels Del Rey Manga Novels about exorcism Fiction about urban legends Fuyumi Ono Funimation J.C.Staff Kodansha books Kodansha manga Light novels Occult detective anime and manga School life in anime and manga Shōjo manga Supernatural anime and manga Television shows based on light novels TV Tokyo original programming Yōkai in anime and manga