Ghost Hunt

Ghost Hunt (ゴーストハント Gōsuto Hanto), originally titled Akuryō Series (悪霊シリーズ), is a light novel series written by Fuyumi Ono. It follows the adventures of Shibuya Psychic Research (SPR) as they investigate mysterious occurrences all over Japan with a team of other spiritualists and clever assistants.

Plot

Ghost Hunt follows the ghost hunting adventures of Mai Taniyama, a first-year high school student who becomes involved with Shibuya Psychic Research (SPR) and its young manager, Kazuya Shibuya. Mai nicknames Kazuya Shibuya "Naru" because of his narcissistic (narushisuto) attitude, and the nickname is generally adopted by all those who come to eventually work with SPR: Buddhist monk Houshou Takigawa; shrine maiden Ayako Matsuzaki; celebrity teen psychic Masako Hara; and Catholic priest John Brown.

Ghost Hunt also explores the paranormal abilities of the characters, particularly focusing on Mai's "latent psychic abilities", demonstrated by her dreaming about information relevant to their cases. She is often joined in her dreams by someone whom she assumes to be Naru, who acts as a spirit guide, but who is later revealed to be someone quite unexpected.

Characters

• Mai Taniyama (谷山 麻衣 Taniyama Mai) is a 16 year-old first-year high school student who becomes involved with the Shibuya Psychic Research (SPR).
• Kazuya Shibuya (渋谷 一也 Shibuya Kazuya) is a 17-year-old paranormal researcher and the manager of the Shibuya Psychic Research center. Mai nicknames him "Naru" for his narcissistic (narushisuto) attitude; this nickname generally comes to be adopted by their colleagues.
• Lin Koujo (林 興徐 Rin Kōjo), originally from Hong Kong, is Naru's solemn and taciturn assistant. He appears to be a strong onmyoji and has a wide range of paranormal skills from exorcism to summoning spirits that he has captured and can then control familiars.
• Houshou Takigawa (滝川 法生 Takigawa Hōshō) is a 25-year-old hakkaisou, a Buddhist monk who has left his position at the headquarters of the Koyasan Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism, Mt. Koya. The other members of SPR refer to him casually as "Monk".
• Ayako Matsuzaki (松崎 綾子 Matsuzaki Ayako) is an outspoken 23-year-old self-styled shrine maiden ("self-styled" because she was not raised in a shrine; in fact, she is the daughter of wealthy doctors who own a community general hospital).
• John Brown (ジョン•ブラウン Jon Buraun) is a 19-year-old Caucasian Catholic priest from Australia who learned to speak Japanese with a Kansai accent, thus giving his sentences a rather odd, humorous structure. Good-natured and helpful, he helps Mai and Naru however he can. His means of exorcism is spraying holy water while reciting the first passage of John from the New Testament of the Bible.
• Masako Hara (原 真砂子 Hara Masako) is a 16-year-old spirit medium who stars in a popular television show; she has the ability to channel the deceased. Because she is always wearing a kimono, even while sleeping, she is remarked as resembling a Japanese doll.
• Osamu Yasuhara (安原 修 Yasuhara Osamu) is a third-year top-ranked high school student and president of his school's student council. Yasuhara first appears as a client of SPR as a result of unexplainable phenomena occurring at his school.
• Madoka Mori (森 まどか Mori Madoka) is an associate and mentor to Naru, who requests the SPR to investigate the mysterious disappearances of two young people at the estate of a former Prime Minister.

Media

Manga
Written and illustrated by Shiho Inada, the manga adaptation premiered in Amie magazine in 1998, then moved to sister publication Nakayoshi. After this, the series moved to being published in volumes only. The series was completed in September 2010 with the twelfth and final volume. The manga is licensed for an English-language release in North America by Del Rey Manga, which has released 11 volumes of the series to date. Ghost Hunt is licensed for release in the United Kingdom by Tanoshimi.

Anime
An anime adaptation of the manga was created by J.C.Staff. It premiered on October 3, 2006 in Japan on TV Tokyo where it ran for twenty-five episodes until its conclusion. The anime is licensed for English release on Region 1 DVD by Funimation Entertainment, which released the entire series across two 2-disc volumes, and later in a single box set.
See List of Ghost Hunt Episodes

Live Action Film
In November 2013, production companies Twins Kadokawa Shoten announced that a live action film adaptation of Ghost Hunt was in production. The film will be directed by Yoshitaka Yamaguchi with Atsuyuki Shimoda and Shotaro Oikawa writing the screenplay. Shinichiro Inoue will serve as executive producer, and Adrian Chaw will serve as co-executive producer. The film is slated for a summer 2014 release.

As previously reported, Japanese actor Miura Haruma has officially signed on with Maya Fukuzawa to star in the adaptation. Haruma would play “Kazuya Shibuya”, the owner of SPR (Shibuya Psychic Research). Fukuzawa will play “Mai Taniyama”, the film’s lead. Other cast includes Mizuki Yamamoto as young celebrity medium Masako Hara, Yosuke Kawamura as 25-year-old monk Houshou Takigawa, 24-year-old French model Theo Gauchet as John Brown. Sanae Tsukamoto has also signed for the film though her role is not yet known.
Additional casting has yet to be announced.