From the sublime to
the ridiculous, we go from the classic Wicked City to another personal
favorite of mine, Haunted Junction. This twelve episode OAV series,
released by Bandai in subtitled VHS and a two disc DVD box site, is one
of the most entertaining series I have ever seen. Why? Because it’s so
outlandish, it’s funny!The story begins with a group of three students (Haruto Hokujo, Mutsuki Asahina, and Kazumi Ryudoh) are meeting with the chairman of their school. Haruto, Asahina, and Kazumi are their school’s Holy Student Council. They’re charged with the simple task of keeping the school spirits up. LITERALLY.
Asahina and Kazumi joined the council out of their own free will, because of the perks. Members of the Holy Student Council don’t have to attend class, plus they get other bonuses as well. However, Haruto was tricked into joining by the chairman because his father is a minister. All that he wants is a normal life, and thus he wants nothing to do with the Holy Student Council.
The chairman “convinces” him to stay in the council, and gives them an offer.. Seven badges were stolen from the office many years ago, and a legend says that a person with all seven badges will have their wish come true. All three members agree to search out the badges. Asahina wishes for a condo, Kazumi wishes for a map to all the locations of the Toilet Hanakos (more coming on this later), and Haruto just wants out of the council.
In their search for the badges, Haruto stops to get a drink of water. After quenching his thirst, Haruto gazes up into a mirror and receives a shock: there’s a KAWAII girl gazing back at him! A second shock hits him as he notices that the girl is wearing one of the badges that they need! Asahina thinks about clobbering her to get it back, but Haruto finds a way to get the badges without resorting to violence.
There are rumors of seven spirits existing in seven spiritual hot spots, so it stands to reason that if one spirit had one badge, then seven spirits have the badges split up between them. With six more to go, the group goes to a lady’s restroom for the second spirit.
Here they find Red Mantle, a toilet spirit. He’s known as a toilet spirit because he lives in the lavatory. It’s said that his voice can cause a grandmother of 80 years to go into a swoon and a fever for three days. He charms girls and asks them if they want a red mantle or a blue mantle. However, he normally doesn’t show himself to men, so Asahina is forced to go in and try to get the badge from Red Mantle. Mantle appears to Asahina, and tries to get her to swoon..
Asahina pats Mantle on the cheek, which completely surprises him. She then reveals her secret: she has a shouta complex! Therefore Mantle’s charms mean nothing to her. She then walks out of the restroom with the second badge in her grasp.
I can see the confused looks on your face, Dear Reader, so I’ll explain. A shoujo complex is the exact opposite of the lolita complex. Whereas a person with a lolita complex is only attracted to girls, a person with a shoujo complex is attracted to young men. Therefore, Asahina wasn’t affected by Red Mantle’s charms.
Got that? Good.
They next confront Red Mantle’s counterpart, the beautiful Toilet Hanako. There are many Hanako’s around Japan, but this one makes a home out of the boy’s lavatory at Saito High School. She is… AHEM… friendly to the young men who use her lavatory, without being TOO friendly. You get what I mean?
Kazumi is described by Asahina as “a real Hanako nut”, and this is true.. He is completely smitten with her, but Asahina should know as well as anybody that those in glass houses should not throw stones. More on this later.
They get that badge, and journey to a science lab for the next badge. They find it with Bones and Haruo, the comic relief of the story. These two dopes are two anatomy models come to life, and they always mess things up no matter what they do. They have a tendency to fall apart at the most inopportune times, as well.
They run into the gym for the next badge, and meet the dancing giant who lives there. Asahina uses a bigass thumbtack to hurt the giant long enough to get the badge from him. The giant isn’t used much, so there’s not much more to add.
They go outside for the next badge. Reportedly, it’s on a walking Ninomiya statue. After finding a chimeric statue that has the badge, Asahina falls in love with the 11-year old, whom she dubs Nino.
They pull Asahina off of the poor Nino and travel to the final hot spot: the office. Yes, it turns out that the chairman of Saito High HIMSELF is a ghost! He takes the six badges from them and puts them, along with his badge, into the indentations embedded in a nondescript door in his office. It opens up to reveal a passage to the Spirit World!
Realizing that he had been tricked into helping out the chairman, and realizing that he wasn’t any closer to getting out of the Holy Student Council, Haruto spits out a resigned, “OH MY GOD!” to end the episode. This winds up being his catchphrase at the end of every episode.
The plot thickens a little more when Haruto finds out that he can summon the spirits with the badges in the second episode. He needs to summon the spirits so they can help whenever the school is threatened, and this leads to a conundrum for Haruto. He hates the spirits, because he doesn’t want anything to do with them, but he has to co-exist with them solely for the purpose of furthering his future. If he quits Saito High, the chairman tells him that no other school will accept a transfer from the school, because it’s thought of so poorly. So he continues to do a job that nobody wants. In time, he grows to realize that he likes the spirits… even Bones and Haruo.
The other members enjoy their position quite a bit, as well as their relationships with the spirits. Asahina takes Nino as her page, a go-fer, and a model for photographs of him in his underwear. Kazumi lusts after Hanako, but he also is on good terms with the other members of the council and the other spirits. Haruto finally becomes friends with the spirits (despite his prejudices against the spirits), however, his friendship doesn’t extend far.
Haruto attempts to get the spirits out of the school at every opportunity, even after he realizes that he’s fond of them. His desire to have a “normal” life overrides almost everything else, but Haruto needs to decide for himself what a “normal” life really is. This is the main underlying SERIOUS element in this otherwise nutty series.
There’s 12 episodes in all. My top five episode rankings:
1. “Alone in the dark? Nurse’s room” The spirit of a troubled cartoonist haunts Saito High. His creations cause massive trouble at the school, but Haruto mistakenly believes that he hears the chairman telling the other spirits that he might not make it graduation if he doesn’t ease up! He spends the rest of the episode deciding which spirit would be best to use in a certain situation and tries to summon them one at a time… EXCEPT that the spirit of the cartoonist has painted the badges black, so it’s a gamble to summon the correct spirit. Think 1 to 7 odds are decent? Think again! This episode also rates highly on my list because of scenes that parody other anime series (mecha, Sailor Moon) and an homage to Iron Chef.
2. “Leave it! Chase it! Caught in the middle!” The Council travels to another school to appease a troublesome spirit named Teke Teke… things get out of hand rapidly, however. Very funny episode.
3. “Oh, the forbidden red and blue” Red Mantle’s jealous younger sister causes trouble at the school. Will he be able to save everybody from her wicked plot?
4. “Popular maidens Hanako and Yamiko” Hanako has a challenge from a lesser known (and very jealous) toilet spirit named Yamiko. The result: a competition, with Hanako’s spot and Haruto’s life on the line!
5. “It’s good to have school spirits!” This episode beats out the first episode to make it onto mu list. Very entertaining episode where Haruto’s efforts to rid the school of spirits go HORRIBLY awry. Includes an introduction to the seven spirits of the pool and the infamous “Red Mantle wipe“.
The art and animation is very well done, and has a very deep Japanese flavor to it. The sound is pretty good. I’m not a huge subtitles person, so I’m out of practice when it comes to critiquing Japanese tracks. However, it gets the job done.
Extras? We don’t need no stinking extras! And it’s a good thing, too, because there aren’t much in the way of extras. However, the attraction of this set is the series itself and the fact that all 12 episodes are delivered to you in one cheap package.
Granted, this OAV series isn’t for everybody. It’s humor comes from it’s quirky style, and it‘s very quirky. However, if you have a strange sense of humor like me, and you can stand reading subtitles, give this series a try.
RATED: 9 out of 10.
Next time: MAYBE I’ll get the Ranma project done. I’m not holding my breath, but I’ll get it done as soon as possible so you, Gentle Reader, get the opportunity to share my enjoyment of the series.
AND SEND ME MAIL, DAMMIT!