Probably, you may not remember the anime Ghost Stories or you may vaguely remember this anime.
Ghost Stories, also known as Gakkou no Kaidan (Japan) and Ghost Stories (USA), was a 20-episode anime that premiered in Japan in 2000.
The anime was produced by Pierrot Studios, known for producing the animations of Naruto, Bleach, YuYu Hakusho, among other animes.
It is the story of Satsuki Miyanoshita, the daughter of a deceased exorcist who sealed the spirits that haunted her city and left a diary that provided instructions on how to seal them if the spirits were to be freed.
The diary is found in an abandoned and haunted school, and due to the urbanization process of the city, the spirits are freed and begin to haunt the city.
Satsuki, along with her brother, Keiichirou, her friends Hajime and Leo, her friend Momoko, and her cat Kaya who was possessed by the spirit Amanojaku, will have to seal all the ghosts back.
The anime, in general, was a ratings fiasco and ended up being canceled after 20 episodes.
Then, Pierrot sold the rights to an American studio called ADV.
The Japanese basically told the Americans that they could dub the anime however they wanted as long as they followed the original plot and did not change the names of the characters.
The Americans then decided to dub it in such a way that the anime, whose genre is horror and supernatural, ended up turning into dark humor.
Japanese Dub and American Dub
The Japanese dub was considered amateurish and the characters had similar voices. In the original version, Satsuki is brave, Keiichirou is cowardly, Hajime is perverted, Leo is a boy curious about the supernatural, and Momoko is a calm and serene girl.
In the American version of the dub, Satsuki is foul-mouthed, Keiichirou is mentally challenged with speech problems, Hajime is a pervert, Leo is a Jew, and Momoko is a fanatical Christian.
Moreover, the American dub contained offensive humor involving blacks, Jews, and mentally disabled people comparable to jokes from South Park, and certain scenes gained sexual connotations that did not exist in the Japanese version.
The anime ended up gaining an offensive tone due to the jokes placed in the American dub.
Ghost Stories – Reactions
Many reacted negatively to the American dub, but over time, the general opinion ended up taking it lightly.
Many considered the dub as an official parody of the anime. An English version of the dub that remained faithful to the original version was released later.
The anime was released in Brazil with the dubbed version in 2005 on Cartoon Network. The Brazilian dub remained faithful to the Japanese version.
It’s hard to understand these choices of horrible animes for adaptation.
Have you heard of this unknown anime? Did you have the chance to watch it? What did you think? We appreciate comments and shares.
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