Ghost Hunt

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Ghost Hunt Volume 1

Most people try and get out of buildings they suspect are haunted. But as its name suggests, the characters from this manga series don't run from a few spooks. Instead, following in the footprints of the Ghostbusters, Scooby Doo and The X-Files, they're more likely to investigate a haunting to find out what's going on using the usual ghost hunting tools: video cameras, scientific equipment and nerves of steel.

Mai Taniyama is a typical schoolgirl who stumbles upon the activities of Shibuya Psychic Research when an old disused building in her school grounds falls under suspicion of being haunted. On finding out that the research company is headed up by Kazuya Shibuya, a mysterious but cute boy not much older than herself, and accidentally injuring his regular assistant, she joins the team investigating the haunting - a Buddhist monk, a Catholic priest, a Shinto priestess and a TV celebrity who claims she can speak to the dead.

What follows is a series of things that go bump in the night as the team try and solve the mystery and close the case. Interspersed into the action, Mai struggles to come to terms with her feelings for Kazuya but finds them difficult to pin down because his narcissistic personality leaves little room for externalised emotion.

There are elements of a teen X-Files at play here with the paranormal and the emotional aspects behind the characters having a similar billing. However, there's a certain element of character build-up happening here and the supernatural gets more of a showing in later volumes.

It's a pleasant enough little ghost story - spooky in places, a little bit daft in others, but it would makes a pleasant enough diversion for those that like a bit of a ghost story and can't find enough of the genre in western comics.

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Ghost Hunt Volume 2

It's in book two that things start to get properly spooky. Perhaps there's something deep in our childhood that we don't want to examine too hard, but we find the concept of evil or possessed dolls to be particularly disturbing. In this story, a young girl's doll is possessed by a destructive spirit, which threatens the life of the doll's owner.

Because the mystery in the first book was solved without finding any ghosts, the supernatural elements on display here are all the more startling. While the ghost-busting team started to look a bit daft trying to exorcise poltergeists from a building with subsidence, in this volume they come into their own. Mai has also joined the team part-time, though she's still no closer to working out her 'loves me, loves me not' feelings for Kazuya.

The result is something that's perhaps more traditional ghost story than the first volume; while the team dynamic also comes further to the front, increasing the reliance on the supporting characters now that the main players have been set up.

It's an above average modern ghost story and although it feels derivative, it's widely ranging influences are bound to find attraction, especially in a teenage audience.

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