The idea of the series is twofold; it was initially created to focus on the multitude of ghost stories that circulate in Japan, and the subsequent English language dub was created to take a relatively straightforward (if dull) show and turn it into a juvenile comedy by way of "making it up as they went along" as it was put to me. On the first score, Japanese culture is full of stories about demons, ghosts, and all sorts of supernatural elements so it makes a lot of sense that they'd be interested in things that go bump in the night so much. As a society that has been around a very long time with such a rich history, it should be expected that they'd retain a sense of emotional resonance to things that were more difficult to explain hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago. Western culture has plenty of faith in such matters too though I'm not going to start dissecting the Christian Bible here but it seems that schools are a particularly source of ghost stories thanks to the children or those seeking to control them via use of a "boogeyman" as some teachers have been known to do.

On the other hand, ADV Films probably found the title they had licensed to be somewhat of a dog after translating it and figured to take a shot at providing something unique in the way of an anime experience. To achieve this, they cast some of the most talented voice actors and actresses (Rial, Hagg, Patton, Ayres, and Auten were the primary English language cast) they could get and provided them with loose guidelines as to what happened in the stories they were dubbing. The goal was to produce a series of funny MST2K style adlibs with the loose structure allowing for some means of keeping the cast on track. Sadly, the overall quality of the humor produced under this method was not, as advertised on the cover "Wicked Fun", "incredibly hilarious", or any of the other comments I've seen used to describe the series. No, the humor was the kind that flows out of junior high school kids off the top of their heads which was less than satisfying (this holds true unless you're one of the participants or you've been drinking-everything is funnier when you've been drinking).

The general premise of the story is that a group of kids stumble across a treasure trove of ghosts in the form of a nearby (and abandoned) one room school house after some developers tear down a tree to make affordable housing in a community. This lets the mostly harmful ghosts wreck havoc on the nearby population, focusing their efforts on the group of kids in the story. Thankfully, they find a book that details how each one was originally trapped by one of their relatives' years prior. Unfortunately, knowing how to get rid of most of the ghosts doesn't eliminate the danger of doing so and nobody will believe them when they try to enlist the help of others. This leads them to becoming the equivalent of junior ghostbusters, risking life and limb while picking on one another throughout the episodes.

This volume had four stories about a rabbit brought back from the grave, a life sucking ghoul, a demon doll, and a nurse that sought to help her patients. Of all the stories, the rabbit tale was probably the most disturbing since it essentially turned into a giant killer, leaving a path of dead bunnies in its wake. The combination of comedy and horror was similar to that of An American Werewolf in London, just without the subtleties and cleverness that mainstream flick had. The characters spent most of the time during the episodes calling each other names, making long exposition speeches needed in such a project to help them make sense, and poking fun at the show (very self consciously at that). I don't want to ruin what minor fun some of you may derive from the DVD by outlining the plots, giving away all the (weak) jokes, and trying to sound like a paid employee of ADV Films so suffice it to say that with the original language track being boring and the dub track being completely alien to the original material, you'll either like this one or hate it with little middle ground. I suggest you Skip It and try getting the Ghost Stories 1 volume instead if you're interested in seeing what the show is all about (the stories do slightly build on one another) but you're certainly a niche market if you find this one enjoyable.

Picture: Ghost Stories: Semester 3: Junior Jitters was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame as it was originally produced in for release in Japan. The show was made five years ago and while that doesn't sound like a long time, it dated the look of the show considerably compared to many other contemporary releases on the market these days. The animation style was limited to relatively few frames of actual movement. The lines were clean and while there were some parts that seemed to have some minor pixilation and/or compression artifacts, the overall show was about average.

Sound: The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo with a choice of the original Japanese track or the newly made English dub (both with optional English subtitles). The music and special effects had some minor separation to them but the vocals almost all seemed to come from the center speaker. The dub was not as solid as the original track (and I'm a fan of several of the English language voice acting cast) since it came off as forced far too often. I didn't like the many religious references in the show either and while I wouldn't mind a separate audio stream like this, a straightforward dub would've worked better for me.

Extras: The best extra from my point of view was the profiles of the ghosts in the episodes, giving some basis for their origin, names and other basic information. The usual clean opening & closing, and trailers comprised the rest of the extras.

Final Thoughts: Ghost Stories: Semester 3: Junior Jitters was frustrating to me since it had the slightest glimmer of humor on rare occasion yet rarely lived up to the potential of the material, or the talent of the cast. Perhaps if they had been provided a chance to work on the material over time instead of needing to get it all in a single (or limited) take, it might've worked better. As it stood, the serious themes introduced were belittled and handled with boxing gloves rather than explore the depth of what could've been. For the record, bathroom humor and the other lame attempts used throughout the series so far might well be how kids react in some places but that doesn't make it funny to those of us watching (and I know it is far easier to jot off some generic babble about how great the series is but I have yet to show it to any adult and see them laugh). Pass this one up if you're over 12 years old.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.