Haunted Junction Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2005-11-25 (updated 2012-07-22)
• 3 stars out of 5 (?)

Haunted Junction is a classically-styled wacky comedy series. It's more off-the-wall than most, and features a few character quirks that toe the line between extreme and offensive, but while the simple, stupid, and slightly dirty sense of humor may not appeal to everybody, I certainly ended up laughing a lot. The cast is mostly capable, the artwork old-school but decent, and the background music memorable for its wide variety of styles, but the series seems to end just as it's getting into its groove, and the last couple of episodes are something of a downer, trying and, unfortunately, succeeding at getting more serious.

Even with the disappointing end, Haunted Junction is very weird, very silly, and if hard-core bizarrity and constant funny-making is your cup of tea, very worth a look.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2005-11-25 (updated 2012-07-22)
• 3 stars out of 5 (?)

Haunted Junction is another wacky comedy series in the vein of classics like Urusei Yatsura and Ghost Sweeper Mikami. It's more off-the-wall than most, and while the sense of humor may not appeal to everybody, I thought it was pretty darned funny.

Don't expect to see much in the way of touching moments or sweet romance, and be prepared for some hard-core bizarrity, serious personality quirks (borderline pedophilia high on the list), totally ridiculous school ghosts, and good old-fashioned toilet humor (of many sorts), as well as the occasional moderately dirty joke. Also be prepared for largely cartoony comedy--serious moments of any sort are rare, so if you prefer your funny with a more firm reality and characters that you can do more than just laugh at, then you'll probably do better to look elsewhere.

The writing and style of the series, as with others of its ilk, is pretty jumpy. A la classic American cartoons, the continuity is tenuous and it bounces from one gag to the next sans-segue. The series does acknowledge that mass strangeness isn't nearly as funny without something grounded to contrast it with, a burden that falls on straight-man Haruto, who bears it well enough. On the positive side, the stories aren't completely random, and the characters have at least enough personality to make their actions make sense.

In its few semi-serious moments (about one every two or three episodes), Haunted Junction takes a crack at being either mildly scary or touching (as in episode 3, which isn't nearly as weird or silly as it could have been). Even in these the humor level is high, so with one exception they don't feel out of synch with the rest of the series.

That exception, however, is a big one: The last episode and the second half of the one prior are so serious that they don't seem to belong in this series. They don't exactly feel out of place, and I must admit they work from a dramatic standpoint, but for a series as upbeat and silly as Haunted Junction, it seemed a waste to have it end on something unnervingly close to a sober note, particularly with only 12 episodes to play with. The wet-blanket end doesn't ruin it, and it was nice to see the characters... well, actually develop a bit as characters, but it wasn't the best choice of moods given the circumstances.

On a related note, my only other disappointment is that the end comes so quickly--I wouldn't usually call a 12-episode comedy short, but with these one-trick comedy ponies the familiarity becomes a sort of advantage, and Haunted Junction seems to be just getting its footing when it ends.

Despite the unfortunate end, I did enjoy Haunted Junction, mostly as a result of the high weirdness factor. It's not the strangest anime I've seen, but it is on the list. There are a lot of bad Japanese puns that get lost in the English translation (which can't really be helped, though Bandai did try very hard to salvage what they could), and most of the actual gags are basic and rather stupid. The outrageous situations and characters, however, are where the real humor is to be found.

Mutsuki and her boy-fetish, for example, is close enough to disturbing that I'm sure it'll bother some, but for others it's liable to be hilarious (besides, it's nice to see a female character with her mind in the gutter for a change). Elsewhere are anime parodies in abundance for those who appreciate that sort of thing (Red Mantle as an over-the-top version of a certain masked fellow from Sailor Moon with a few added personality quirks, for example). Best of all, not a single character is immune to having the most embarrassing (and usually hilarious) things happen to them. There are even a few bits of cleverness worth noting, foremost being a little rant by Red Mantle about why a certain name reminded him of darkness... via hot cookware, trivets, and carpet. Good stuff. On the opposite end of the clever spectrum, the last episode contains a seriously cool interpretation of the contents of Pandora's Box.

Visually, Haunted Junction owes a lot to classic series in the same vein, with slightly rough, older-style art (it looks almost like an '80s series despite being a product of the late '90s), bright colors, and cute but unoriginal character designs. The cast has a bit of a shoujo look, and are varied enough to keep straight (they're also faithful to the comic original). As cheerfully colorful as it is, a few dark scenes fitting for the more menacing spirits actually border on scary (for a few seconds, anyway). The animation tends toward choppy, around the median mark for a TV series of the vintage. On the plus side, it doesn't fall back on re-used animation (with the exception of the summoning sequence, which I'll forgive for its classic appeal), and the occasional chunks of action aren't half bad, as silly as they are.

The visuals may not stand out, but the music does. The intro and end songs are forgettable, but Hayato Matsuo's instrumental background score toys with a wide variety of styles, from appealingly overblown orchestral action fare, to tribal-style drums, to really abstract stuff, all of it distinctive and well composed. It gets less creative as the show goes on, but if you pay attention (it's surprisingly easy to miss) you might be surprised.

The Japanese voice acting (there is no English dub) is about what you'd expect for a wild comedy series: Over the top and funny, although most characters are stamped from a standard set of molds. Veteran Aono Takeshi leads the capable cast of secondary characters with a great turn as the Principal, but the three leads are all voiced by relative unknowns. Of the two male leads I'm particularly fond of Haruto's mix of would-be schoolyard heartthrob and complete exasperation, but the most memorable member is Mutsuki, voiced by newcomer Yukie Nakama (who also sings the show's theme songs, and has since become a popular singer/photo idol/live-action actress). Her distinctively dry, aloof tone works with the character, but she doesn't seem to get comfortable until well into the series, and her so-so performance sounds particularly weak in competition with the rest of the over-the-top production.

In all, Haunted Junction is another classically-styled, off-the-wall comedy, but it's a decent one. The animation, acting, and stories aren't much to write home about, it's a bit short on the whole, and the end is too serious, but the weird-factor is high, the wacky spirits are creative, and the jokes and parodies are rapid-fire and plentiful. Very weird, mostly very silly, and if hard-core bizarrity and constant funny-making is your cup of tea, very worth a look.

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