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Ghost Hunt Manga Returns in Sequel Series in Japan

Kodansha's ARIA magazine celebrated its second anniversary by launching the sequel manga series Akumu no Sumu Ie: Ghost Hunt (The House Where Nightmares Dwell: Ghost Hunt) in its September issue on Saturday. Shiho Inada is once again adapting Fuyumi Ono's supernatural mystery stories, just as she did for the first Ghost Hunt series.

In particular, the new series adapts Ono's 1994 novel Akumu no Sumu Ie; this novel serves as a followup to the original Akuryō novels that inspired the first Ghost Hunt series. Due to its rarity, the Akumu no Sumu Ie novel is known as the "elusive sequel" among fans.

In the original Ghost Hunt series, high school girl Mai Taniyama encounters Shibuya Psychic Research, a paranormal investigation agency led by a tall, dark, handsome — and, naturally, aloof — teenager (who Mai nicknames "Naru" after the English word "narcissist"). Before long, Mai joins the ranks of the agency, whose associates include a Chinese occultist, a world-famous psychic, a self-proclaimed Shinto shrine maiden, a former Buddhist monk, and a Catholic exorcist.

In Akumu no Sumu Ie, Mai, "Naru," and the rest of Shibuya Psychic Research investigate the paranormal phenomena transpiring in the home of the character Midori's mother. ARIA will publish a new chapter every other month.

Inada ended the first Ghost Hunt series in 2010, and Del Rey published 11 of the 12 volumes from the first series in North America. Funimation licensed and released the 25-episode television anime version of the manga on DVD in 2008. Participating bookstores are giving away an Akumu no Sumu Ie: Ghost Hunt message sheet (pictured below) to people who buy ARIA's September issue.

Sources: Comic Natalie

Images © Shiho Inada, Fuyumi Ono/Kodansha