Ghost Hunt

(Volume 7)
Story by
Fuyumi Ono

Manga by
Shiho Inada

Del Rey, December 2006, 202 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-345-49138-1

Genre: Comics
Subgenre: Manga
Reviewed: 6/18/2008

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Manga Page

Synopsis

The Shibuya Psychic Research team is sent on a job by Madoka Mori, the woman who trained Naru to be a ghost hunter. It seems that two people have disappeared in an old, abandoned mansion. The first was an 18-year old student who was partying with his friends. He wandered out of the room they were all in and was never seen again. A week later, after the boy was reported missing by one his friends, a search was started and one of the firefighter looking for the boy also disappeared.

Two more people have disappeared, and one of them was was a girl from from another psychic research team. After words appear on all the wall written in blood, Lin invokes the spirits of the house to see if the latest two missing people are dead. The ghost of Suzuki appears, but she doesn't know that she was dead. With evidence that the two people are murdered, the team figures they are looking for a man named Urado, which is a name that appeared written on the wall.

Urado was the pen-name of Kaneyuki Miyama, the man the built the house over 100 years ago. Having figured out that there is an extra fireplace, they deduce that there is a hidden room in the middle of the house. They find the room and discover three bodies in wooden crates near a furnace. When Masako disappears, the team realizes that they have a small window of time to find her before she ends up dead like everyone else.

Ghost Hunt: Volume 7 is a manga book written by Fuyumi Ono and and drawn by Shiho Inada. This story was Translated by Egan Loo, Adapted by David Walsh and Lettered by Foltz Design. There are also some sections in the book for: A) Honorifics Explained, B) About the Creators, C) Translation Notes, and D) Preview of Volume 7, although the preview is in Japanese. The book reads from right to left and back to front, just like a book from Japan. This manga book is intended for readers ages 13 and up.

Review

Ghost Hunt: Volume 7 is a just a little better than the last book, but not by much. It still has the main issue that this book is more talk and bite. Sure, we get to see a ghost, but this is more of a murder story than a ghost story. The ghost we see doesn't even know she is a ghost. How scary is that? Well, the answer to that is, "Not very." After seven books, I would think that I might have become a little scared from something in one of these books, but I haven't been.

As for this story, it is the second half of the story that started in Ghost Hunt: Volume 6. It is a decent story, it just has way too much dialog, and barely any action, to keep me interested very much. Yes, it was great when they found the missing room and when they were searching for Masako, but that was about it.

I think the main problem is the writing while the other problem is the Translation and Adaptation. A lot of the times I read something in this series and you think to myself, "Huh? What did all that mean?" So, I either read it again and don't get any clarification or I just forge ahead ignoring all the gibberish. I now opt for the latter.

As usual, the artwork is very good.

Overall, Ghost Hunt: Volume 7 is not bad, but it could be so much better. It looks like there are only two more books in this series. I am going to hope that they are a little better than the previous seven. So, I will give Ghost Hunt: Volume 8 a chance. I hope I get really scared. Please, scare the heck out me. i am begging.

I rated this book a 6½ out of 10.