Gakko no kaidan

As the ANN reviewer notes, the times when fans were enthusiastic about any anime just because it's an anime have already passed. A huge amount of anime flooding the market makes the difference between a quality work and cheap stuff more and more clear. The anime “Ghost Stories” was so cheap. There was nothing in it that the viewer would not have seen before. The characters' characters were standard, and the story is as commonplace as one can imagine. The quality of the animation was unexpectedly good for such works. Both opening and closing topics were successful. However, the work caused only yawning ^[1] .

However, from the point of view of the reviewer, everything changed when the anime was dubbed by ADV Films : “Having discarded the original script and retained only the basic plot, they turned a terribly boring work for children into a fun show for adults that cannot be torn off. The story turned out to be a bit overwhelming with dirty jokes, and the second episode went too far with references to pop culture icons. But if you try to accommodate so many jokes in 23 minutes, it is not surprising that some of them will be unsuccessful. If you saw the English translation of “ Samurai Pizza Cats ”, in which the translators completely rewrote all the dialogs, you’ll understand what to expect from the ADV Films translation. ” ^[1] .

The main character Satsuki Miyanoshita moves with her family to her mother’s hometown. Once, she, her brother Keiichiro, neighbor Hajime Aoyama, high school student Momoko Koigakubo, as well as classmate and friend Satsuki Reo Kakinoki, were in the old school building and found that youkai were sealed here.

It soon turns out that Satsuki's mother herself sealed them, however, due to the urbanization of the city, the demons are again released. Mother left a special book before her death, which explains how to permanently expel demons. Satsuki first encounters a ferocious Amanojaku , however, through negligence, seals it in the body of his beloved cat. At first, the youkai does not want to help the main characters, but the city is now in danger, and amonojaku and the heroes are united to stop the demon invasion.

Satsuki Miyanoshita ( 宮 ノ 下 さ つ き ) - The main character of the series. He moves with his father and younger brother to the deceased mother’s hometown. There, she found out that her mother had once sealed the youkai so that they would not disturb the city. Mother also left Satsuki's special book for Satsuki to finish her work and expel the demons. Satsuki is very strong and brave, defines everything with accuracy, but a little capricious, mainly because of his reckless behavior.

Seiyu : Tomoko Kawakami

Momoko Koigakubo ( 恋 ヶ 窪 桃子 ) - Grade 6 student and Satsuki's best friend. Never afraid of anything, even in the most dangerous situations. Always ready to help and fight the spirits. She also has a spiritual connection with Satsuki's mother.

Seiyu : Kumi Sakuma

Hajime Aoyama ( 青山 ハ ジ メ ) - Satsuki's neighbor. He always says that he is very strong and always ready to fight ghosts. But actually very cowardly. Despite this, he is the most loyal and reliable friend of Satsuki and even defended her more than once. Hajime has a bad habit of peeking under her skirts and Satsuki often becomes the object of peeping. As a result, this leads to unpredictable situations. Throughout the series, one can observe how the relationship between Hajime and Satsuki is developing.

Seiyu : Takako Honda

Reo Kakinoki ( 柿 木 レ オ ) - Friend of Satsuki. A very cowardly person. Obsessed with paranormal phenomena, declared himself a great researcher of paranormal. Every time Reo tries to prove the secret of the existence of spirits, he does not succeed. In the English version, his name is Leo.

Seiyu : Makoto Tsumura

Keiichiro Miyanoshita ( 宮 ノ 下 敬 一郎 ) - Satsuki's younger brother. By nature, she’s very shy, and starts to cry a little, but she’s trying to be courageous and resist ghosts. When Keiichiro is scared, he begins to speak inarticulate and his sister, as a rule, cannot understand his speech. The only one who really managed to make friends with Amonojaku.

Seiyu : Kurumi Mamiya

Amanojaku ( の 天 邪鬼 ) is a powerful youkai that was once sealed by Satsuki's mother. However, due to the gradual urbanization of the city, he was completely freed from his magic cage. However, Satsuki soon accidentally sealed Amanojaku in her beloved cat, Kai, during the battle. At first, the demon was hostile to the main characters and even rejoiced when they were in trouble, but later begins a kind of courtship for them, especially for Satsuki and Keiichiro.

Seiyu : Rusei Nakao

Sakata ( 坂 田 田 ) is a teacher in the class where Satsuki, Hajime and Reo study. More than once she became a victim of supernatural events, for example, she was cursed and kidnapped by ghosts several times. Despite all this, she does not believe in the supernatural.

Seiyu : Yutaka Aoyama

Reiichiro Miyanoshita ( 宮 ノ 下 礼 一郎 ) - Satsuki's father. He does not believe in the existence of the supernatural and does not know that his children have become exorcists and are conducting a campaign to expel evil demons from their world.

Seiyu : Takehiro Murozono

Kayako Miyanoshita ( 宮 ノ 下 佳 耶 子 ) - The late mother of Satsuki and Keiichiro. Satsuki later finds out from her diary that her mother was also an exorcist in her childhood. She appears in the series several times in the form of a spirit to help Satsuki fight against the spirit of the piano of Kutabe and Anamnaneki. But for some reason, it can only connect to the living world through Momoko. Her maiden name is Kamiyama.

Seiyu : Cotono Mitsuishi

On August 19, 2005, the release of the series with a parody translation according to ADV was announced. Because of the translation, the plot and meaning of the series was greatly distorted. Some fans of Gakko no Kaidan spoke out sharply against the transfer, calling it an unfair attempt to get big sales revenue.

In particular, in this translation, characters often use profanity, there are also many references to American pop culture. So, for example, when Hajime and Momoko first come into spiritual contact with each other, Momoko in the original says every time: “She is beautiful,” in the ADV translation “Diggiti Diggiti!” Which is a direct reference to Glenn Quagmire from the American animated series “ Family Guy ". There are also links to various store chains, television shows (such as Lost or E! True Hollywood Story ), Wal-Mart products, Charmin toilet paper.

The character dialogs have been radically changed. For example, Momoko is a fanatically devoted Christian - Pentecostal , and Satsuki's mother is a lesbian . Miyanoshita became "Manshita", which means a pun. Reo also becomes a Jew , which is the main reason for his insecurity and fear. Satsuki's younger brother is turned into a mentally retarded. And also the role of minor characters for comedy purposes is slightly expanded.

• Official website of the series (Japanese)
• Ghost Stories anime in the Anime News Network Encyclopedia
• Ghost Stories anime in AniDB database