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Monday, 19 February 2007 |
 | | ▪ | PUBLISHED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | ART/AUTHOR: | | SHIHO INADA / FUYUMI ONO | | | | ▪ | FORMAT/COLOR: | | JAPANESE FORMAT / BW | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 198 | | | ▪ | RATED: | | T13+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 12/26/2006 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/20/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN |
It’s a world turned upside down and inside out for the ghost hunters of the Shibuya Psychic Research group in the taut thriller GHOST HUNT Volume Six from Del Rey. Dark secrets lurk in deep shadows and it’s a race against time to shed light on this terror before it consumes everyone completely.
Leading the cast, as always, is Mai Taniyama, a high school student working with Kazuya Shibuya, known as Naru, who is president of a psychic research agency. Other members of the agency include Lin, the technical genius in the group and mystic himself, John Brown, an Australian minister, Houshou Takigawa, a former monk and all round stylish guy, Ayako Matsuzaki, a self-proclaimed Miko, and Masako Hara, a pretty television celebrity psychic. This group matches competence with interpersonal combativeness as they employ their various talents to drive out the spirits haunting their clients. In this volume, the group has been called by the Prime Minister no less to a strange mansion which stands out not just the European influences in its design, but also for the fact that it possesses myriad trap doors, dead ends, windows that open to nowhere, and other strange features. Because of political sensitivities, the group is locked up in the haunted house along with competing agencies, including some characters that appear to be more charlatans than clairvoyants.
Of course, the atmosphere of the place does not deter the members of the S.P.R. from sniping among themselves. Add to that, Madoka Mori, the real leader of the S.P.R. shows up, and in insisting the mystery is investigated, temporarily demotes Naru to the rank of investigator to draw off unwanted attention towards the organization by the media. ‘Replacing’ him is the school president from the group’s previous case (see Volumes 4 and 5), to add a little smoke and mirrors to the proceedings. With the players in place, the hunt begins for the source of the trouble at the mansion. Mapping the house the investigators find one strange logic defying door or window after another. The deeper into the house they get, the more unsettling the place becomes. When members of the other investigating teams start disappearing, and Mai looks like she may be joining them, the tension rises to the breaking point.
GHOST HUNT Volume 6 lives up to the high standards set among its predecessors, giving readers a winning combination of solid storytelling and great art. The translation is smooth and natural. Missing from this edition, however, are the notes from the creators inserted where ads would have run in the original manga publications. These little gems gave some useful insights into the creative processes behind the stories, and made for entertaining diversions at times. Yet, with so much going in the story itself, though, they are hardly missed. Carried on, however, is the tradition of solid storytelling in GHOST HUNT free from gore, foul language or mature subject matter. This mystery is very much a tale for the mind, spiritually suspenseful rather than gorged with sensationalist horror. It works beautifully because of it.
IN SUMMARY
A mansion full of malice. A ghost with a grudge. Sounds like another GHOST HUNT story! Great art, great pacing, and cool characters give edgy life to this latest installment in the GHOST HUNT series by the team of Inada and Ono. This mystery will grab you and possess you from the first pages when you see the knife raised in the air and the blood on the walls. |
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