TV-Series
Description
"Ghost Hound" is a psychological and supernatural anime series set in the rural town of Suiten, located in the fictional region of Kyushu, Japan. The story revolves around three teenage boys—Taro Komori, Makoto Ogami, and Masayuki Nakajima—who share a connection to traumatic childhood experiences. Taro, the protagonist, was kidnapped as a child along with his older sister, an event that left his sister in a coma and Taro with fragmented memories. Makoto, the son of a local Shinto priest, struggles with the pressure of living up to his family’s expectations, while Masayuki, a transfer student, deals with the aftermath of his father’s suicide.

The narrative explores the concept of the "unseen world," a parallel dimension that intersects with reality and is inhabited by spirits and supernatural phenomena. The boys discover they possess the ability to project their consciousness into this realm, a state referred to as "astral projection." Through this ability, they begin to uncover hidden truths about their pasts and the town’s dark history, including a series of mysterious incidents tied to a local biotechnology company, Suiten Pharmaceuticals. The company’s experiments on human consciousness and its connection to the unseen world play a central role in the unfolding mystery.

As the boys delve deeper into the unseen world, they encounter various entities, including malevolent spirits and a mysterious girl named Miyako, who appears to have a connection to Taro’s past. The series intertwines themes of psychology, spirituality, and science, drawing on concepts such as collective unconsciousness, trauma, and the boundaries between reality and perception. The narrative is driven by the characters’ personal journeys as they confront their fears, unresolved emotions, and the lingering effects of their traumatic experiences.

The plot is structured as a slow-burn mystery, with each episode revealing new layers of the story while maintaining a focus on the psychological development of the characters. The series balances supernatural elements with grounded, emotional storytelling, creating a tense and atmospheric narrative. The town of Suiten itself becomes a character, with its isolated setting and eerie ambiance contributing to the overall sense of unease. "Ghost Hound" is a thought-provoking exploration of the human psyche, blending supernatural intrigue with deeply personal character arcs.
Information
Ghost Hound
神霊狩
Type: TV-Series
Anime Episodes: 22
Movie/Episode length: 25 min.
Date: 10/18/2007 – 04/03/2008
Official Website:Ghost Hound @ Production I.G
Categories
Genre
DramaGhost StoriesHorror
Settings
Mystery
Tags
Psychologically
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Episodes
Staffel 1
1Lucid Dream
2E.M.D.R. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
3Phobia Exposure
4Altered States of Consciousness
5O.B.E. Out of Body Experience
Tarou Komori resumes his normal routine following the group's out-of-body experience at the abandoned hospital. His psychologist,Atsushi Hirata, visits the Komori household to meet Tarou's parents. During the visit, Hirata notices something unusual about Tarou's mother, Miki Komori. Makoto Ogami draws upon knowledge from his family's religious group to explain astral projection to Tarou and Masayuki Nakajima. He describes the hidden realm and details how the boys can access it through out-of-body experiences. The three boys subsequently enter the hidden realm together again. In that state, they encounter phenomena invisible to the physical world. Makoto emerges as the most knowledgeable member of the group regarding the mechanics of their shared experiences. Hirata's observations during the home visit suggest a deeper connection between the Komori family and the supernatural events. The boys' repeated ventures into the unseen realm increase their exposure to its unknown dangers. In the next episode, Makoto searches through his father's desk while Masayuki attempts his own version of phobia exposure.
6Episode 6
7Phantom of the Labyrinth
Tarō and Masayuki follow Miyabi to the closed sixth floor of Suwa General Hospital. The floor contains one patient,a man named Hirata who claims he has lost his physical body. Hirata demonstrates his ability to enter the Unseen World, the same out-of-body realm Tarō accesses. He warns Tarō that staying too long in that realm risks permanent separation from his own body. Tarō's father, Atsushi, receives a call about the unauthorized visit and rushes to the hospital. He confronts the three teenagers and orders them to leave the sixth floor immediately. Tarō demands to know what experiments Atsushi conducted on children eleven years ago, but Atsushi refuses to answer. Miyabi's father, Dr. Ogura, arrives and dismisses the incident as a misunderstanding. Later that night, Tarō projects his consciousness out of his body and follows Atsushi into the hospital basement. He discovers a hidden laboratory with surveillance monitors, medical equipment, and a sealed room. Through a window, Tarō sees a young boy connected to life-support machines inside that room. Atsushi enters the sealed room and closes the door, leaving Tarō outside watching through the glass.
8Episode 8
Tarō Komori projects into the Unseen World during a psychology session with Dr. Hirata. Hirata observes Tarō’s altered state and records his vocalizations. Tarō sees a memory of Mizuka,Miyako’s missing sister, inside a white room with a masked figure. Masayuki Nakajima and Makoto Ōgami investigate the abandoned Kaminoshi facility. They find a hidden basement door that requires a code. Miyako Kaminoshi confronts her father, Shigeharu, about the cult’s past. Shigeharu admits that the Kaminoshi group performed experiments on children’s consciousness. He denies direct involvement in Mizuka’s disappearance. Tarō returns from his projection and tells the others about the white room. The group deduces that the room exists in the real world inside the Kaminoshi facility. Masayuki recalls a similar room from his own traumatic experience in the hospital. The three boys return to the facility at night. They enter the basement using a code Miyako secretly provided. Inside, they find a locked steel door. Tarō projects again and passes through the door. He sees Mizuka’s faint figure sitting on a bed. A loud alarm triggers, and the facility lights turn on. The episode ends with an unseen person watching the boys from a security monitor.
9Existential Ghosts
Four teenagers encounter a black humanoid ghost near the abandoned building where the kidnapper died after being hit by a truck eleven years earlier. The spirit attacks the group,and they flee the area. Tarō learns about the incident and proposes using out-of-body experiences to question the ghost directly. He, Masayuki, and Makoto enter the Unseen World together near the site of the attack. They locate the same black humanoid figure in the other realm. The spirit notices their presence and turns its attention toward them. It moves aggressively in their direction, forcing them to retreat. The encounter demonstrates that the Unseen World is pressing closer to the physical world. The ghost, identified as the deceased kidnapper Sukua, appears trapped and hostile. The boys barely escape its pursuit, but the spirit now knows they can enter its domain. The episode closes with the entity fixated on the three protagonists, setting up a direct confrontation in the episodes ahead.
10Water's Surface
Taro and Masayuki enter the astral plane together and hover above a pond. A woman’s reflection appears on the water’s surface and reaches toward Taro. Masayuki pulls him back before the figure can drag him under. In the hospital basement,Makoto plays back audio recordings and identifies a low-frequency hum that triggers panic attacks. Dr. Ogami examines an old shrine behind a locked door and finds a desiccated snake coiled around a stone. The kidnapper, a man in his forties, watches Taro’s house from the forest edge. He removes a girl’s hair ribbon from his coat pocket. Taro wakes from a nightmare of drowning and sees the man standing under the streetlight. He runs outside and chases the stranger into the woods. The man vanishes into a patch of thick fog, leaving only the ribbon on the ground. Taro picks up the ribbon and recognizes it as Miyako’s. The episode closes with Taro holding the ribbon while the sound of footsteps circles him from the mist.
11Syntax Error
A corpse appears floating in the dam. Authorities retrieve the body as local residents revive talk of a curse. The curse connects to the abandoned hospital outside Suiten. Tarō,Makoto, and Masayuki learn the story of four high school students. Those students entered the same hospital years earlier. The four students encountered something inside that led to their deaths or disappearances. The three protagonists hear the specific details of that past incident. The curse narrative gains new weight from this historical account. The boys recognize direct parallels between the earlier group and their own expeditions into the hospital. The episode supplies backstory that deepens the mystery surrounding the hospital and its connection to the unseen world. The identity of the floating body and its cause of death remain undisclosed. The episode closes with the three protagonists explicitly reconsidering the dangers of their astral projection activities.
12Homeostasis Synchronization
Miyako's father receives a call from her school. He travels there to address the situation. He later meets with Hirata to discuss Miyako's unusual behavior. Hirata starts to suspect the local area causes the supernatural occurrences. Tarō sees Miyako become possessed firsthand. The possession occurs without warning while Tarō watches. Miyako speaks in a different voice during the episode. Her father grows increasingly concerned about her condition. Hirata's professional interest in the case deepens after observing her symptoms. The episode connects Miyako's trances directly to the town's abnormal spiritual activity. Tarō's previous out-of-body experiences help him recognize the possession. He struggles to understand how to help Miyako as the episode ends. The next episode follows Tarō into a prolonged out-of-body experience where he encounters the entity known as Snark.
13Terror of the Other Side
Tarou Komori,Makoto Ogami, and Masayuki Nakajima project their consciousnesses into the other side and descend into the sealed basement of the Suwa clinic. The basement walls bear old bloodstains and a pentagram drawn in chalk. A desiccated corpse sits in the center, its chest cavity open. The three boys circle the corpse, and a black mist emerges from its mouth. The mist coalesces into a humanoid shadow that screams and lunges at Masayuki. The shadow enters Masayuki's astral body, forcing him to relive the cult's ritual sacrifice from eleven years ago. Tarou concentrates his fear into a sharp mental image of a cage, trapping the shadow inside a geometric barrier. The shadow shrieks and releases Masayuki, retreating back into the corpse. The boys snap back to their physical bodies in the clinic's main room. Masayuki collapses with a violent seizure, and blood drips from his nose. Dr. Ogami, Makoto's father, administers first aid while Tarou explains what they saw. That evening, Yukio Nakajima arrives at the Ogami residence and admits that the corpse belongs to a cultist who volunteered to become a permanent gateway to the other side. Yukio warns that the entity now knows Masayuki's fear pattern and will attempt to cross over through him. Tarou decides to confront the entity alone, projecting that night into the clinic. There, he finds his dead sister Miyako standing over the corpse. Miyako places her hand on Tarou's chest and says the entity has already attached itself to his heart. Tarou wakes in his bedroom gasping, and a black handprint burns onto his windowpane from the outside.
14Emergence Matrix
15Toward an Abandoned City
16Hopeful Monster
In Kurata city,Tarō and Makoto locate Sanae Ōgami, Makoto's mother. Makoto attempts to kill Sanae but fails in his assassination effort. During the encounter, Tarō recognizes Masato, Sanae's lover, as the Snark from the Unseen World. This identification confirms the Snark's identity as a living person connected to the Ōgami family. Meanwhile, Masayuki projects out of his body at the biotech research facility. He observes his father and Reika Ōtori discussing ongoing research projects. A laboratory assistant releases mutant spirit creatures into the facility. These entities, termed 'hopeful monsters,' attack Masayuki during his out-of-body state. The attack forces Masayuki to retreat from the unseen realm. The episode reveals Masato as the Snark and exposes dangerous experiments at the biotech lab. Makoto's failed vengeance and Masayuki's assault by the hopeful monsters push all three protagonists into greater peril.
17Implicate Order
Genma Saruta observes that the spirits in the hidden realm display fear of an approaching presence. He warns Takahito Komagusu that external parties seek to exploit Miyako Komagusu's spiritual powers. Tarō Komori directly tells Miyako that he believes she is the reincarnation of his deceased sister,Mizuka. This declaration upsets Miyako severely and strains their interaction. Makoto Ōgami remains absent and has not returned to the group. The journalist Seiichi Suzuki monitors the Ōgami household and notices a suspicious group of men gathering around the property. Suzuki's observation suggests an organized threat closing in on the Ōgami family compound. The episode advances the converging dangers facing the protagonists: supernatural entities in the unseen realm and human conspirators in the physical world. Tarō's attempt to connect Miyako with Mizuka creates emotional distance at a moment when unity becomes critical. With Makoto missing and hostile forces surrounding the Ōgami home, the characters face isolation and imminent external pressure.
18Holographic Paradigm
19Negentropy
20Shaman's District
21Stochastic Resonance
22Passage
Cast
Comment(s)
Staff
  • Director
    Ryūtarō Nakamura
  • Screenplay
    Chiaki J. Konaka
    Daishirō Tanimura
  • Episode Director
    Ryūtarō Nakamura
    Itsurō Kawasaki
    Toshiya Niidome
    Yasuhiro Geshi
    Hiroshi Tamada
    Daisuke Takashima
    Daisuke Tsukushi
    Tarou Iwasaki
    Kenichi Matsuzawa
    Hye Jin Seo
    Takashi Andō
    Hodaka Kuramoto
  • Original creator
    Masamune Shirow
  • Art Director
    Hiromasa Ogura
  • Animation Director
    Minoru Ueda
    Mariko Oka
    Masahiro Hamamori
    Akiharu Ishii
    Mitsunori Nakamura
    Seiya Numata
    Toshiyuki Yahagi
    Hitomi Matsuura
    Kyōko Kotani
    Jouji Sawada
    Akira Tabata
  • 3D Director
    Kenji Kobayashi
  • Director of Photography
    Naoyuki Ohba
  • Series Composition
    Chiaki J. Konaka
  • Storyboard
    Ryūtarō Nakamura
    Itsurō Kawasaki
    Yoshitaka Koyama
    Toshiya Niidome
    Katsuhisa Yamada
    Daisuke Tsukushi
    Tarou Iwasaki
    Takashi Andō
    Ryūgu Akebono
  • Music
    Reiji Kitazato
    TENG
  • Character Design
    Mariko Oka
  • Chief Animation Director
    Mariko Oka
  • Art design
    Kazuhiro Arai
  • Sound Director
    Yōta Tsuruoka
  • Producer
    Katsuji Morishita
    Tetsuya Kinoshita
    Daisuke Katagiri
    Masahiro Yonezawa
    Fumiki Yamazaki
Production
  • Production
    Pony Canyon
    Production I.G
    WOWOW
    Showgate
    TYO
    Mag Garden
  • Animation Production
    Production I.G
Relations
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