“Christmas ghost lalalala~” – Ghost Hunt Episode 12
Mai is so cute when she smiles so innocently. Isn’t she?
Accordingly with the festive season, Ghost Hunt brings you the best of Christmas ghosts, where they have assorted Christmas ghost of the past, present and future….Just joking. This is a new case, with a case of spirit possession in a church with a lot of children. What will await our ghost hunters in which to find out what is the true case.
Is it really possession or simply a prank by the children?
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Episode summary
We started with a kid in black and white, sitting down alone as the darkness surrounded him. He then asked if anyone would find him. It’s December 24th, with Christmas arriving as Mai was preparing some decorations. We see Mai fixing up a Christmas tree but Naru asked her to put it down. The others sans John came over and Naru sarcastically said that if they wanted to celebrate Christmas, they should go to a church. However, John came in, saying that he had a task for them. They then went to the church, with Mai saying how nice it was but Naru said that if they were here to have fun, they could go home. The monk and the others also added how fun it was to be coming to the church for Christmas, with the monk saying that they should help clear this case so that they could have a company.
As John introduced Naru to the priest of the church, they realized that the place was also the home of many children whose parents were working overseas or did not have the time to take care of them. A few of the kids then recognized Masako, asking her to conjure up spirits as she was troubled. Eventually, Naru suggested that they should take care of the kids as the monk was in great spirits. The kids then pestered Masako to conjure spirits, calling the witch an auntie, the monk playing with the swing while Mai playing soccer with them. In the house, we realized that there were cases of child possession, even though nothing dangerous was done. We then saw Mai, who was trying to pick up a ball that she kicked into the forest as she showed a strange boy who was sitting down with a stick.
Mai then tried to chase it, as we were told by the priest’s voice over that the possession came when a child held a stick and a stick hitting sound would appear, as though they were playing this hide and seek game. One of the kids in the church had been missing since the morning, and Mai eventually found the kid that was in hiding. Naru and the rest also rushed to the scene when they heard the knocking sound, as the child suddenly rushed over to Lin, exclaiming that Lin was his father.
We then see all the children playing indoors, with Lin getting closely attached by the kid who was possessed. It seemed that Lin looked like Kenji’s father. Kenji was the boy that was missing 30 years ago, and that was when possessions started to occur. It seemed that Kenji was abandoned by his father (my guess) and that he would be picked up after next Christmas. The boy, Kenji was unable to speak and the stick was used as a form of communication with the kids when they played hide and seek. As the place was under construction, it was an excellent place to play the game, as he would hit the stick once to indicate that he was still searching for a place and many times that he was ready. Kenji was one of the best in this game.
However, as Christmas was approaching, Kenji was given a whistle to use instead of the stick. However, they then realized at night after one of the hide and seek games that Kenji was missing as they tried to search for him. They still could not find him, with a huge rubble in front of the church. As they cleared the rubble, Kenji was also not there. The next day, as they continued on their search, they found a whistle that was behind the church, near the warehouse. Behind the church, there was a huge drain (which was not covered by the fence last time) and they suspected that Kenji drowned. However, they could not find the body as they followed the path of the drain.
It seemed that due to the fact that the whistle was lost, the possessed kid used a stick to communicate. They had asked John to exorcise the spirit but it seemed that they could get rid of the possession, only for the spirit to posses again. Also, the frequency of the possession had been increasing, which was why they asked Naru for help. Mai then said that if Kenji did not do anything, it was fine to leave it as it was. However, the monk said that when a spirit emerged, it no longer had the conscience that it had after a period of time, with the surrounding affecting it. Hence, there was no way to judge when Kenji would change to a malicious spirit, even if he was a kind boy when he was alive.
Eventually, the boy was still playing with Lin, as John carried out the exorcism effectively. As the boy fainted from the ritual, Mai was suddenly inflicted with something as she looked down, with the monk worried that Mai was feeling a bit bad (since Mai had been quite affected by the child being separated from his “dad”). Mai seemed to be possessed instead by the spirit as she creep up to Lin, smiling happily.
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Thoughts
For a start, I have to say thanks for some of the guys in the animesuki forums for reading Ghost Hunt and spreading the good word about this series. I am almost distraught at times when I feel that no one is reading the summaries or think that Ghost Hunt is good because to me, it really has a good decent premise and I was a little sad that no one was watching it. Now, it seemed that more people are slowly picking this up, which is always a good thing!
Bad digression, and let me go on with the thoughts of this episode proper.
I am pretty surprised that Kenji only started to increase his frequency after 30 years of the incident happening. I personally do not understand why this certain period is the cause of it. I can fully understand if the possession started during this period, since spirits do stay on more frequently during their period of death. However, why now? Why wait 30 years later until the frequency of possession started to increase. My presumption on this case is what the monk said, that the constant interaction of the surroundings have slowly changed Kenji, which took a long while for him to change to this.
I personally feel that Lin’s appearance might also be a catalyst, as Kenji is in fact waiting for his father to arrive. In that notion, even though the child had disappeared in the morning, it is still possible that the spirit had already sensed that Lin is coming from afar, hence the increased frequency. The awakening is probably resulting from the promise that his father is going to be back, hence he wants to get the attention of everyone.
He is probably excited and not yet malicious for now. However, the fact that he possessed Mai meant a change to me. That is also where the fun part comes, since I really want to see the cute Mai fawning all over Lin. Hoohohohoh~ Fun fun~ Another fun thing was the interaction in the office, where Naru was saying how he hated the Christmas ambiance and asked them to go to a church if they wanted it. Oh man, he is really a boring man.
That’s it for the thoughts and I cannot wait for the possession of Mai to be played out. It sounds totally fun!
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Nice summary, I had a feeling Naru wanted Mai to take down the tree XD I loved when “Kenji” grabs Lin in the first place but its done so much better in the manga just based on his expression but anime is a decent job.
(btw Im Manju on animesuki
)
wahahahaha….i think Lin was like O_O wth. Surprisingly, which i did not include in the summary, is that Lin is in fact rather popular with kids. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine how this inference came about. -_-
I made my friend watch the episodes I have of Ghost Hunt and now she’s a convert too! ^-^
I do hope more people decide to give this show a chance because its definetely very enjoyable.
I wanna see something really ruffle Naru’s feathers though ^-^
Naru wanted Mai to take down the Christmas tree? I’m sad that the anime added that. It makes Naru look like a Scrooge. He doesn’t come across that way in the manga. Maybe the ending scene in episode 13 will have Naru change his mind about the tree. Or least have him explain why he didn’t want it up in the first place. I would hate for him to leave such a negative impression.
I wish more people would watch this series too. I’ve introduced it to about 4 people who are following the subs. There are a couple of other bloggers out there. But no one writes as extensively as you do. Nor do they generate the feedback comments that you do. You are definitely the leader in blogging this show.
Posssessed!Mai should be a hoot to watch. Athough the tone of this story is more serious than the one in the park, it’s still more light-hearted than any of the major story arcs.
Ah, I’ve waited so long for this summary *_* Thank you thank you. Not many people are watching this? >.
My stupid reply was cut. Sorry, anyways…Not many people are watching this? I’ve always thought this was a popular series considering the number of views on each episodes on youtube. The raw uploads seriously go up to 20,000 views or so. I guess the viewers are just silent or too “keyboard-challenged” to leave a comment and stuff XD
I too want to see Mai fawn over Lin. Next episode should be interesting. ^.^ It would be really worthwhile to watch how Naru will act from here on as well.
hahahahaa, i got a feeling that Mai will make Naru jealous? No way….I must be dreaming to even say that. However, there is really nothing plot twisting for this arc because it feels really standard. Unlike the previous two arcs, there is some guessing (minimal but…) at least there was something.
I think the mystery factor in this arc is quite missing…Maybe i am just being a little harsh ^+^
According to the mangaka’s notes, the Christmas story is one she created, not the original novelist. The main story in volume 4 was too long to fit into a single volume. The mangaka needed to split the story into volumes 4 and 5. However, there wasn’t enough story material to completely fill two volumes. So the mangaka created this Christmas side story to fill the space in volume 4. This story is a filler in the truest sense of the word. If the story doesn’t feel as complicated or complex as the previous story arcs, it’s because the storyline was created by someone other than the novelist.
Well, I love this anime. Probably my favourite ongoing anime that I’m watching now! I love the interaction between Mai and Naru, as well as the other characters. And although I don’t particularly like horror movies or animes, I’m really, really enjoying this show. The doll arc did scare the crap out of me, though. >_
So its not part of the orginal novel? That makes sense.
Man I cant wait to see Mai possessed, there is one thing Im looking forward to in the anime that I HOPE they carry over from the manga but Im not getting my hopes up.
hmmm, now i can understand why the story does not feel as powerful as it seems. Still, they have put a good climax in this episode. A possessed Mai, will she be cute or scary?
Mostly cute, i bet, and molesting poor lin. rofl!
“Mostly cute, i bet, and molesting poor lin. rofl!”
THAT I would LOVE to see, just to see what myriad of expressions we’ll get from Lin for once ^-^ Still probably wouldn’t top the great ones Mai manages to pull though.
Mostly cute is a good guess. But the overall story is rather sad, don’t you think?
…well, just have to wait and see. Actually, I am sure that they will make it slightly more bittersweet for this arc…just a very strong gut feeling ^_^
I keep having to remember that Kenji was from 30 years ago, for some reason I have a hard time remembering that this orginally happened 30 years ago. But its very sad and (I wont spoil) the end of the manga chap was sad, hopefully the anime pulls it off.
i love ghost hunt! this one was so sad though..that little boy died all the way up there…how did he even get up there..i really wanna know….
hahahaha, ya, he actually climbed the construction structure to hide there. Eventually, he died while hiding still….
Sigh.