Ghost Hound

For those who are wondering whey I didn’t post an anime season preview post this month, well, it’s because there’s pretty much nothing new in this latest TV season that I’ve been wanting to watch. Outside of the much-hyped new Gundam series — I’ve never been interested in Gundam, and so I don’t really see any reason to change that, unless it’s to see the original series that aired in the 70s, since my wife is quite obsessed with it — the only show that I’ve been wanting to check out is Production I.G‘s GHOST HOUND, which premiered last week on WOWOW, and is being advertised as a series to celebrate the studio’s 20th anniversary. It’s a collaboration with Shirow Masamune (GHOST IN THE SHELL), and is being directed by Ryutaro Nakamura (SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN).

I just watched the first episode, and I’ll definitely say that I’m intrigued. As is the norm, you can’t really tell where everything is going from the first episode alone (I prefer not to read previews, because they tend to spoil too much), but I really like the way things are set up. We meet a young boy, who has flashbacks/dreams (somehow supernatural in nature) that finally suggest that something happened to him and his sister a few years ago — kidnapped, and I’m assuming the sister died. The most amazing thing about the series, and this is probably due in part to the fact that I was watching with headphones on, is the sound design. Half of the story, or rather the mood, is completely due to the sounds that sort of guide us through the boy’s dreams, or even his reality. Can’t wait to see where this is all heading.

Update: I forgot to add that I really like the opening theme song by Mayumi Kojima, “Poltergeist.”