Haunted Junction - Reviews

Story
Haunted Junction is basically an episodic random jaunt into the world of a haunted school and its ghosts. The only humans that we really see are Hojo, Mutsuki, and Kazumi, and then a ton of spirits and ghosts. For quite a few episodes I thought that they would literally be the ONLY humans we are introduced to, but near the end, there are a few brief encounters with other school goers. The story begins with Hojo and his two companions tracking down the 7 badges of the school. Each of these is able to summon one of the school spirits, who are all a motley crew to begin with. Each episode deals with some new spirit encounter, whether it be related to a main character or not, and how the bumbling Hojo (who just wants a normal school life) can get it under control with the help of the spirits.

Haunted Junction is a random comedy at its core, with TONS of "wtf" moments that will make no sense. The comedic level is fairly adult, with not only plenty of ecchi moments (involving the toilet Hanakos, who happen to be quite.. seductive to say the least), but a great deal of toilet humor as well! One scene comes to mind the most for making me exclaim out loud "nooo!" while laughing: One of the main characters, who is obsessed with toilet Hanako, sees her leaning over, her supple breasts pushed together, and he hears her saying she feels sick. He very eagerly places a thermometer between the breasts, then it pans out and we see that in fact, it isn't Hanako at all, but the small, old (and male) headmaster bending over, with his exposed behind sticking through a picture of Hanako. Kazumi is horrified, and while a conversation continues like nothing happened, the headmaster moves, the thermometer flies up in the air, and lands in the mouth of the unsuspecting Hojo, while everyone else becomes ill. Also, each episode ends with Hojo yelling "OH MY GOD!", which was amusing.

Although hilarious, I will say that the comedy was only sometimes funny, just like I felt about shows such as Abenobashi. When it was funny, it was really funny. When it wasn't funny, it was fairly boring and hard to keep my attention.
Animation
The animation of Haunted Junction definitely wasn't the best, but it still fulfilled its purpose. Characters themselves looked older, but had a wild, comical look to them. The colors used were fairly bland, with nothing being very vibrant except for a select number of scenes.

The monsters were definitely a highlight of the visual experience, looking anything from comical, to scary comical, to outlandish and crazy.

Since Haunted Junction was supposed to be a random type comedy, the animation was clearly supposed to be as well, and it worked. Spastic scenes were thrown together with a great deal of motion and flashing color, with scene transitions happening extremely fast and with random things (such as "Red Mantle Wipe!", with the spirit Red Mantle wiping the screen with his cape, or "cold roe!" with thousands of small roe whipping across the screen).
Sound
Definitely not a highlight of the series, since I can't remember literally one track from it. Then again, I also didn't remember it being bad either, so that's a plus. The intro song definitely wasn't a favorite of mine, nor was the ending. Fairly typical keyboard fare from what I remember.

The voice actors did help out with the tone quite a bit, from Hojo's whining tone to the cutely funny monsters.
Characters
The characters definitely were a shining part of the series, considering most of the comedy revolved around their quirks and strange habits. Kazumi, for example, was always getting possessed by a wayward spirit, at least once per episode. Sometimes the spirit was fairly benine, such as a dog. Other times, it was downright hilarious (like the spirit of a pool monster who likes to drag people under the water). His random possessions made for very comical moments. Mutsuki is a girl with a shouta complex, which was very interesting in itself, and also made for very "oh man, this is so wrong but so funny" moments. Shouta, as I didn't know before seeing this, is like a lolita complex, but for boys. As in, liking young children of whichever sex (lolita for female, shouta for male). So here we have a teenage woman who is obsessing over seeing the cute under 12 boys! Hojo was a bumbling leader of the Holy Student Body Council, who only wanted to lead a normal life, but is stuck dealing with all the spirits. And this, of course, makes all the bad things happen to him, hence causing comedic moments.

As if this wasn't enough, all the school spirits had their own quirks and behaviors that stole the show. My favorites were the skeleton and anatomy body. In one episode, they kept getting summoned and could do nothing but the Cossac dance (the russian dance where you run in place and kick your feet out). They also always ended up falling apart! The giant was hilarious, just a huge shoe. Only one of the spirits wasn't exciting, the girl in the mirror. Not only was she never shown, but her time on the screen wasn't even that funny.

Even the random monsters provided a good dose of comedy, each with unique stories and behaviors. All in all, a fine selection of characters who interacted well and interacted with the tone of the story well, and helped to provide an excellent comedy.
Overall
It's hard to rate Haunted Junction, because there were a few conflicting factors to consider. First of all, there's no denying that it was hilarious, at times. Randomness and spasticness abounded in some episodes, while being in the background in others. Each episode was fairly hit or miss if you'd like it or not, so that's a small negative to think about. The animation, while crude looking, still portrayed the humor quite well. Music was uninteresting as well.

I don't know, I still thought it was very entertaining, but I will stick with saying that you probably will like some, and dislike some. This isn't a series you can watch all the way through, and if you do, odds are you'll be bored and it won't be easy to stick with. Though I can plow through entire 26 episodes series in a matter of days, I still had a hard time finishing only 12 episodes of this in a week. Why? I'm not sure... probably because the lack of a cohesive plot, coupled with the randomness of if I'd like the episode or not.

So, if you like randomness, you really need to check this series out. There aren't that many out there that I think are truly funny like this. But on the other hand, I'd suggest watching only a few episodes at a time, and spread out amidst other plot heavy series. This way, you won't be bored, and can get a good laugh once in awhile.

The story is fairly simple. Three high school students, each member of a different religion, form a spiritual council in order to prevent the spirits in their over-the-top haunted school from causing trouble to the general public. Only the first and the two last episodes have story continuity while the rest (2 to 10) are stand-alone missions, where the three teenagers face the mischief of some spirit. So the premise is just an excuse for endless comical situations yet it focuses a lot on its characters since everything centers on someone’s quirks.

Although there are no prevailing or original characters, they all have very funny and nicely depicted personalities.
- The leader of the council is a Christian male, who always plays the moral and incorruptible and nags all the time like an old maid. He is the target of everything depriving and chaotic happens in the story. His catch phrase “OH MY GOD!” is the sign that something awesomely funny just happened.
- The second member is a Shintoist female with an uncontrollable sexual urge for underage boys. You won’t believe the bold things she does in order to satisfy her twisted fetish.
- The third member is a Buddhist male, who gets possessed by spirits every 10 minutes and acts like a ridiculous sex-driven beast.
- The president of their school is the ghost of an old man who loves to play tricks and causes more trouble rather than helping them with his wisdom.
- The most famous spirits in the school are a sex-bomb girl that arouses boys in the boy’s toilets, a handsome man that seduces girls in the girl’s toilets, a living statue of a studying boy that becomes a sex toy, and two living anatomy statues that like Kozac dances.
- To sum it up, most characters are essentially reverse stereotypes of ideal images of religious people and renowned spirits of Japanese folklore. You must be well aware of Japan’s traditions if you want to “get the joke” but even if you are not, they are still very funny most of the time.

DEEN is again proving what a worthless piece junk of a studio it is. The production values are very crude and of low budget, as there is plenty of choppy animation, stale images and repeating footage. But that still doesn’t prevent the show from having funny body motions and good old slapstick humor.

The music themes are not bad yet nothing to remember. Also, the voice acting is very passionate most of the time, even if it feels like they weren’t really trying much.

Despite its silliness, it is still decent slapstick comedy with many bold jokes and memorable scenes. The thing is that you must be aware of several cultural and mythological features of Japan in order to get most of the jokes. If you do, this title will be a almost non-stop laughing ordeal. It’s still not much of a show to bother rewatching ever again but it is a fine one-timer.

SUGGESTION LIST
Urusei Yatsura, Ranma ½, Slayers, Mahoujin Guruguru are famous old slapstick comedies.