It is a common belief in the western anime community that dubs are an inferior product compared to the original. This is a view that I very much disagree with, but that is still the overall consensus. What I can agree on is that most of the time the dub only really serves to help make a Japanese show accessible to a different language and culture. It rarely adds a thing, and definitely doesn't make it a better show. That is what's so amazing about today's show. Ghosts Stories is a horrible show until you watch the dub. Then somethings magical happens.
Before I get into details about the show, I first want to go a little into behind the scenes for the show. It did not do well in Japanese, but somehow it was approved to be dubbed. Normally when dubbing a show, the original creators have input on the dubbed product so it can resemble the original as much as possible. Because nobody cared about this show, the only instructions they got were that they couldn't change the name of the characters or how the ghosts were defeated. They were free to change everything else, and WOW did they change everything else.
Plot:
The plot of the story remains unchanged from the original. Older sister and young brother Satsuki and Keiichirou move and are the new kids in school. The school they go to is actually a newer school. The older school, which was run by their now dead mother, is now abandoned. One day Satsuki ends up going to the old school and learns it is haunted. Thankfully she finds a book written by her mother on how to defeat the various ghosts now affecting the town. Now it is up to her and her new friends to send away the ghosts whenever they show up.
While I would never hesitate to call the dub of this show a comedy, it doesn't follow the normal flow for how a plot typically works in a comedy. A normal comedy plot is designed to create situations and actions to create jokes, but this plot seems more designed to create tension and mystery before humor. That's because it is. This show was not meant to be a comedy, but the dub turned it into one. This means that the humor of the show can't rely on situational humor. Instead it has to be mostly character humor.
Now, you may then be asking, what are these characters like? Well I'm sad to say that they don't really have any complex character workings going here. Satsuki is very bitter about the world. Keiichirou is a little kid. Momoko is a SUPER born again Christian. Hajime is a pervy overly confident kid. And I really can't tell you a thing about Reo. Despite these limited character traits, the humor always works well. Momoko is probably my favorite of all of these characters just for how extreme she can get.
A friend of mine once called the show "the anime where the voice actors gave up." I don't believe this to be true because if it was, then the show would not have been any better in the dub. No, I feel this is the anime where the dubbers didn't see what the show was, but what it could be. And what it could be was an extremely funny show that no one saw coming.
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