Informatii

Ghost Stories, Ghosts at School or roughly Gakkou no Kaidan (学校の怪談, Gakkō no Kaidan?, literally School Ghost Stories) is a twenty episode anime series created in 2000 by animation studio Pierrot and Aniplex for Fuji Television, based on a book series by Toru Tsunemitsu.

The series is licensed for the North American market by ADV Films whose English dub replaces the original script with a comedic one. It was also aired in Latin America by Cartoon Network, who has broadcast the entire series unedited on October 1, 2005. The series was also translated and dubbed into English by the anime television network, Animax, who has broadcast the series unedited and uncensored under the title Ghosts at School within its respective networks across the world in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other regions.

Storyline
Ghost Stories tells the tale of Satsuki Miyanoshita, who moves with her family to the hometown of her deceased mother. On her first day of school, Satsuki; her brother Keiichirou, a first-grader; their neighbor Hajime Aoyama; Momoko Koigakubo, an older schoolmate; and Reo Kakinoki, 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 mother was responsible for sealing several ghosts who haunted not only the school but also the town, and now they are 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. In her first confront, Satsuki faces a demon called Amanojaku, but in the process Amanojaku is sealed within Satsuki's pet cat, Kaya. Although Amanojaku does not want to help Satsuki at first, the danger soon threatens to envelop the town and it is left up to Satsuki, her friends and Amanojaku to stop the ghosts.

[edit] English dubs

[edit] ADV dub
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 for North American distribution. The controversy stems from ADV's dubbed version, which largely re-writes the autentic script (while still leaving the basic plot structure and storyline intact) in favor a comedic one written by ADV scriptwriter Steven Foster, and lines that the voice actors ad-libbed. While the original show is still be available on the DVD release via subtitles, a few 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.

Ultimately, response to the ADV dub has been overall positive, due to the addition of humor, mainly through numeroase 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 ADV dub, he says "Giggidy giggidy!" (a reference to Glenn Quagmire from the animated sitcom Family Guy). The ADV 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. They also make references to older songs and many different references to pop-culture, making it seem more American than Japanese at times. The dub also pokes fun at not only certain Japanese customs, but also certain anime archetypes or animation flaws (e.g. running without actually moving, purple hair, and poses that rarely occur in real life, which the characters address). Lastly, there are some character changes, such as Momoko being changed from a psychic to that of an evangelical, Pentacostal, and racist Christian, Satsuki's mother portrayed as a lesbian, the Miyanoshita name changed as "Manshita" in an attempt of make a pun and Reo changed from a mere researcher in the supernatural to that of a Jewish character with an inferiority complex, making his name change for "Leo". Several minor characters' backgrounds are expanded slightly (mostly for comedic purposes), as well.

In addition, sexual humor not in the original version become more and more overt as the series goes on, eventually changing from subtext to overtext. The final DVD volume contains overt profanity, and graphic senzual humour.

[edit] Animax dub
The series was translated and dubbed into English by the anime television network, Animax, under the title Ghosts at School. The Animax dub stayed true to the original, retained all of the original Japanese plot, character and dialogue details, broadcasting the series uncensored and unedited within its respective networks across the world, including Southeast Asia and South Asia
Discontinued episodes
An episode based on the Kuchisake-onna (あたしきれい? 口裂け女) was initially scheduled to air on November 5, 2000 but was never broadcast as many people complained to Fuji TV, because they thought it looked like cleft palate. Information (Japanese