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If "Ghost Stories" is so "bland", "




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TheHTRO



Joined: 20 Oct 2005
Posts: 328
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:57 pm Reply with quote
...then how do you explain [url=http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/学校の怪談]this[/url]?


Lemme be more specific. It turns out that "Gakkou no Kaidan", which certain people believe to be one or more of the three things in this topic's title, was originally a series of NOVELS. NOVELS I tell you. These novels are published in Japan under the "Kodansha KK Bunko" line (According to Kodansha's "Bookclub" website, they were published beginning in 1990, 10 years before the Japanese broadcast of the anime). There are nine of them (novels), and just recently they started publishing a "New" series of novels (although there is only one right now).

Did ADV know any of this when they licensed the anime?! (Don't answer that; it was a rhetorical question.)

CLEARLY, the Japanese DON'T think that it's "bland", "banal", or "cliché". There was still no reason for ADV doing this, but after discovering this anime's "legacy", this is especially so.

Anyway, I just thought you should know what I found (even if it was by accident Smile).
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one3rd



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1818
Location: アメリカ
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:07 pm Reply with quote
Umm....I'm not exactly sure what your point is, but you can still watch the faithfully translated sub-titled version on the DVD.
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor


Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 1325
Location: San Diego
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:45 pm Reply with quote
Maybe the Japanese like the books, but didn't care for the anime because the show itself was a poor adaptation of the stories?
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uberfrosch



Joined: 20 Jun 2005
Posts: 48
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:49 pm Reply with quote
Where's the rule that popular novels can't be bland, banal, or cliche?
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6897
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:53 pm Reply with quote
Okay, there are worse anime stories/plots out there than Ghost Stories, but part of its appeal is either a) to kids, or (b) to nostalgia for the common Japanese school ghost stories that everyone over there knows from their elementary/junior high school days. Since we don't have that cultural well to draw on, we don't see the same appeal that they do. It's just like shows on the lines of Family Guy or South Park--they draw so heavily on common American cultural knowledge that they aren't as effective/funny in other places. (And I do recall hearing that South Park was something of a dud in Japan, for those reasons.) Maybe I will watch Ghost Stories in Japanese sometime, but for now, the dub alone justifies what I paid for the DVDs.

(And perhaps this post was supposed to be in the "Talkback" forum thread about Ghost Stories Vol. 2)
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Mugen The Great



Joined: 26 Jun 2005
Posts: 189
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:12 am Reply with quote
TheHTRO wrote:
...then how do you explain this?


Lemme be more specific. It turns out that "Gakkou no Kaidan", which certain people believe to be one or more of the three things in this topic's title, was originally a series of NOVELS. NOVELS I tell you. These novels are published in Japan under the "Kodansha KK Bunko" line (According to Kodansha's "Bookclub" website, they were published beginning in 1990, 10 years before the Japanese broadcast of the anime). There are nine of them (novels), and just recently they started publishing a "New" series of novels (although there is only one right now).

Did ADV know any of this when they licensed the anime?! (Don't answer that; it was a rhetorical question.)

CLEARLY, the Japanese DON'T think that it's "bland", "banal", or "cliché". There was still no reason for ADV doing this, but after discovering this anime's "legacy", this is especially so.

Anyway, I just thought you should know what I found (even if it was by accident Smile).


Ever consider that the novels might be terrible as well? Wink
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Coffeeman



Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Posts: 298
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:41 am Reply with quote
TheHTRO wrote:
...then how do you explain [url=http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/学校の怪談]this[/url]?


Um... What does that say?

Seriously... It's a total mystery.


But still..

On the whole. Okay, so it started out as a series of books.

Books, like The Hardy Boys series?
Or in the UK, the Secret Seven, or the Famous Five?

Books, in fact, with an essentially childish bent, but which explore an element of mystery and adventure, without being - oh golly - too dangerous, too shocking.

Is it in fact, possible that Ghost Stories could be based on series such as those named above?

And more so, could it be that ADV realises its' audience is ever so slightly older than the audience for anime in Japan?
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