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 Story by Fuyumi Ono
Manga by Shiho Inada

Fuyumi Ono’s best-known work outside Japan is the anime ‘The Twelve Kingdoms’ based on her best-selling sequence of fantasy novels that explore the adventures of three teenagers drawn by magic into an alternate world (www.12kingdoms.us ). ‘Ghost Hunt’ also has teenage protagonists: Mai Taniyama, a lively high school student and Kazuya Shibuya (more familiarly known as Naru) the precociously gifted seventeen-year old president of Shibuya Psychic Research (SPR).

The theme of the haunted high school is a familiar one both in Japan and the USA and there seems nothing particularly noteworthy in the opening pages of Book One ‘Partners in Fear’, as Mai and her girlfriends scare each other silly with ghostly tales. Then Mai accidentally breaks an expensive camera. She learns that it has has been set up by Naru to record any signs of paranormal activity. He has been hired by the principal to investigate the stories that the old building is cursed. (Mysterious accidents have happened every time the owners try to redevelop the site.) To pay for the damaged camera, Mai agrees to act as Naru’s assistant. At first she is excited at the thought of working for the good-looking young man. But as the investigation proceeds, she finds herself increasingly irritated by his cold and aloof manner towards her. ‘He’s dishonest, a liar, has a mean streak, is a narcissist…’ she rages, on learning she has to work on a Saturday. So far, so predictable, was my response on reading the first thirty pages or so. But touches of a sly and subtle humour begin to appear (drawn directly, I imagine, from the original novels). Soon other psychic experts arrive: Takigawa Houshou, a long-haired, laid-back Buddhist monk; Ayako Matsuzaki, a worldly and glamorous ‘self-claimed’ miko (a Shinto priestess); Masako Hara, an exorcist and TV personality; and John Brown (!), a young Christian monk from Australia. As the notes at the back of book point out rather charmingly, it seems that John Brown has learnt Japanese in the Kansai region and ‘is using Kyoto dialect, mistakenly thinking that speaking Kyoto dialect is the polite way to speak to others’. These useful notes are a feature of all Del Rey’s manga translations and add greatly to a Western reader’s appreciation of the text.

The story and the characters gradually reveal themselves in unexpected ways; the bickering between the mediums as they try and fail to solve the mystery is amusingly portrayed, as is Mai’s growing realization that her constant exasperation with her boss is masking another, quite different, emotion. They are, after all, teenagers…

Volume 2’s main story is ‘Doll House’ and, as the title suggests, a scary and malevolent child’s doll features in the next case for Naru’s SPR team. Naru and Mai go to investigate the sinister activities of a poltergeist. Their researches reveal that the haunted house in question has a dark and tragic history; every child that has lived there has died in mysterious circumstances. Now the new occupants are experiencing terrifying psychic phenomena and little Ayami Morishita’s life is at risk as her doll Minnie is captured on Naru’s equipment. ‘Dolls were originally made to contain spirits,’ Naru tells Mai. ‘They were hollow inside so spirits could easily possess them.’ One by one, the exorcists attempt to identify the spirits animating the doll. The increasing sense of menace is counterpointed against Mai’s confused feelings for Naru, leading to a chilling climax.

After the dark themes explored in ‘Doll House’ the concluding episode ‘Ghost Stories in the Park’ is a much lighter affair, involving a jealous ghost that pours water on…couples. To draw the spirit out, the team are obliged to pair up as decoys, causing a frisson of romantic tension as pretty medium Masako Hara teams up with Naru, leaving the furious and disppointed Mai with laid-back Houshou Takigawa (‘Monk-san’.)

Any reader hoping to find the psychic chills of recent Japanese horror films such as ‘Ringu’ and ‘Dark Water’, or anime in the ‘Boogiepop Phantom’ or even ‘Witchhunter Robin’ series, will inevitably be disappointed. But this comment is not made to disparage Shiho Inada’s work. The pleasures in reading ‘Ghost Hunt’ come from the interplay of the characters, especially the rival mediums, as they all try to outclass each other. The character designs are pleasantly drawn, although Mai spookily resembles Hitomi, the schoolgirl heroine of ‘Vision of Escaflowne’. The story moves more at the pace of a novel than most other mangas and this may irritate readers looking for a faster fix! But once I had become accustomed to this slower rhythm of exposition, I found myself enjoying ‘Ghost Hunt’ and wanting to find out how the tangled relationships develop between the members of the team. In the preview of the third volume, a disturbing ghost is shown slowly protruding, hair-first, through the ceiling. I regret to say that I have no knowledge of kanji, so I have no idea what Mai and Naru are saying to each other as they face this phenomenon - but I’m looking forward to finding out.

The final accolade comes from the novelist herself. ‘I’m very happy to say that each of the characters in ‘Ghost Hunt’ portrayed by Inada-san,’ writes Fuyumi Ono at the end of Volume One, ‘perfectly matches with the images I have from my original novel.’

Reviewed by Sarah Ash
Author of The Tears of Artamon
www.sarah-ash.com

Ghost Hunt Volume 1
Translated by Akira Tsubasa
Adapted by David Walsh
ISBN 0-345-48624-2 $10.95
Del Rey Kodansha
Rated T Ages 13+

Ghost Hunt Volume 2
ISBN 0-345-48625-0 $10.95

Ghost Hunt Volume 3
ISBN 0-345-48626-9 $10.95 March 2006

www.delreymanga.com