Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Haunted Junction – episodes 7 to 12

June 19, 2004 on 8:46 pm | In Haunted Junction | Comments Off on Haunted Junction – episodes 7 to 12

Haunted Junction turned out to be, all in all, a high dosage of fun. Every episode had something funny to offer. The first lesson learned is that a lifelong desire to be smart can be destroyed through the discovery of pornography, so all students should take note. As each episode with the exception of the last two stands alone, it’s hard to write about it as a whole.
That’s part of the reason that I don’t generally like episodic anime; but every episode was a comic … not masterpiece or extravaganza … enjoyment. Then the last two episodes did what I love; they took the comic premise and built on it to turn it into drama and then they took something from each of the ten episodes preceding and worked them into the big finale. It was a work of genius that gave Haunted Junction a highly satisfying ending.

As the episodes wore on, it became increasingly obvious that religion had nothing to do with it. Seeing a Minister dressed as a tanuki kind of suggests that the writers didn’t bother looking into anything other the costuming and artifice of any religion; like so many other things in anime, it’s just an excuse to look cool without coming off as gimmicky.
Now, the things that need to be mentioned: “Bones” and Sato’s Cossack dance was hilarious each and every time. But to say much else would just end up being a listing of jokes; comedy is so hard to write for! However, the ending to episode eight was comedy genius/brilliance/gold. The writers ran out of story so they faded to a black screen and provided a skit.

The characterisation was consistent, the only bad thing being that of the seven spirits, some of them didn’t get enough screen time. The Giant was just a pair of legs, and the Mirror Girl didn’t get to do anything at all. Hanako-san is one of the best characters there is, though; it’s so odd to see something from an era when fan service was so understated. There should have been more! More! More! The true fan service junkie can never get enough, except when they get too much.

Haunted Junction is out of print, but you can still rent it. Admittedly, the only reason I bought it was because I knew it was going out of print, but I’m glad I did. I bought Don’t Leave Me Alone, Daisy for the same reason; but I’m kind of suspecting that wasn’t quite so wise.
Hilarious comedy, then some drama; it was a good balanced program that preaches what I consider one of the most important you can learn from anime: there’s a difference between cheap animation and bad animation. That’s something very important that we should all remember.