History Literature / GhostHunt

* KansaiRegionalAccent: Father Brown speaks in Kansai-ben because he spent his first few years in Japan in the Kansai area and thought it was standard Japanese. In the English dub, he just has an Australian accent.

* {{Surprisingly Good English}}: An American investigator in The Bloodstained Labyrinth. You only hear it in the Japanese dub, though.
** Said investigator was [[FakeNationality supposed to be English]], but since he's explicitly a ''fake'', this is not surprising.

* RelationshipVoiceActor: The dub voice actors for Monk and Ayako are [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Roy and Riza]], while the dub voice actors for Naru and Mai are [[Manga/SgtFrog Keroro and Natsumi]].

!!This anime/manga provides examples of:

* TragicVIllain: The "The Doll House" File. It turns out that the ghost haunting the house [[spoiler: was a distraught mother who committed suicide after her daughter was abducted, and continues to search for her in death, causing the deaths of other children living in the home. It is implied that the abductor may have killed the child, but it is never actually confirmed--although it ''is'' stated that Tomiko's body was found in the pond some six months after her disappearance]]. Also, [[spoiler:the little girl currently living in the home is feared to have drowned, but luckily nothing bad ever happened]].

* [[spoiler: TwinTelepathy]]: [[spoiler: Oliver and Eugene Davis.]] However, it was mentioned that [[spoiler: their PsychicLink got weaker as they grew older]].

* TheDollEpisode: Yup, there's one.

Mai and Naru are accompanied by an Australian Catholic priest, a spirit medium, a Buddhist monk, a self-styled Shinto priestess, and Naru's really tall and really quiet assistant Lin. The series was originally published as a series of novels by ''Literature/TheTwelveKingdoms'' author Fuyumi Ono; it was later adapted into a manga, and then a 25-episode anime. A manga adaptation of the relatively-unknown sequel "Akumu no Sumu" was recently announced, and is being released on a bimonthly schedule.

* AllMythsAreTrue: Among the main cast are a Shinto Miko, a Buddhist Monk, a Catholic Priest, and an Onmyoji/Taoist priest who successfully use rituals from their respective religions to interact with spirits and perform exorcisms. Natural disposition and energy is shown to be a factor in dealing with spirits, as seen when Naru describes Mai as having ''latent'' abilities as an Esper rather than ''developed'' abilities as an Esper, so it's likely that their respective religions are just ways of processing that energy in a direct and focused way. On the other hand, spirits for sure exist, and definitely remain in this life because of conflicts before their death that didn't allow them to move on.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The Bloodstained Labyrinth arc is this in ''spades''. Whereas past arcs were creepy enough as it is, this one takes all that and ramps the creep factor UpToEleven. [[spoiler:The "ghost" in question is implied not to be a ghost at all, and unlike previous cases, there are actual casualties.]]

* CoolBigSis: Ayako begins to develop into this around the second arc.
** Madoka seems to be this as well.

* CreepyDoll: One arc is called "The Doll House." 'nuff said.
* DemonicPossession: Several times.

* FakeNationality: John Brown, an Australian, is voiced by the very American Jason Liebrecht, whose Australian accent is [[SoBadItsGood less than stellar.]]
** Though this actually manages to work because in Japanese, John ''does'' have a funny accent. He speaks with a mixture of Kansai and Australian dialects, which gives his sentences a rather odd, humorous structure.
* FieryRedhead: Ayako Matsuzaki.

* GhostlyChill
* GratuitousEnglish: Right away in the first episode, a bunch of "technical terms" pop up in English that Shibuya needs to translate for Mai. Makes you wonder why he didn't just say them in Japanese. Naru can also be seen writing notes on his computer in perfect English.
** ...Because he's ''Naru''?
** Justified in that [[spoiler: Naru was adopted by a married couple of parapsychologists in England, raised there and actually is the famed Oliver Davis that gets mentioned from time to time. As such, he's probably been speaking mostly English for most of his life.]]
* HiddenBadass: Monk. You start to get a hint of how powerful he is in the last arc of the anime [[spoiler: and in the following arc (manga only right now), Naru gets a close look at his vajra and decides that he's been underestimating Monk. It's hinted that he's been keeping Mai safe even after he went missing.]]
** Many of Ayako's rituals seem ineffectual early in the series; but in the final episode [[spoiler: she performs a massive cleansing that frees the multitudes of angry spirits that have been trapped where they are]]. Ayako's limitations are justified in that she requires [[spoiler: live trees to perform her cleansing ritual, which are less prevalent in the city]]. This is a legitimate handicap when you consider that Shinto is a religion that revolves around nature. Even if the requirements are met, however, [[spoiler: the specific trees require a six month rest period before they can be used again]].
* IdiotBall: Justified in that this is [[spoiler: Mai's first year as a spiritualist and she gets better as time goes by, but she has a real trouble remembering that she doesn't have "just dreams" while on cases and thus sometimes decides something vitally important isn't worth saying. Actually, this might be an Aversion of {{Instant Expert}}ise that is so often seen in fiction.]]

* InSeriesNickname: Naru, given to him by Mai from the Japanese word ''naru''shisuto, or narcissist. Can also be an InsultOfEndearment.
** In the manga, Yasuhara actually blames Mai for doing this because it [[spoiler: hid the fact that Naru was actually supposed to be Noll, a shortened form of Oliver]].
* InsufferableGenius: ''Naru''.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Naru is critical, harsh and is rather arbitrary in his decisions, but it is very clear that he generally has the safety of his friends first in mind.

* MyParentsAreDead: Mai: "But, I'm an orphan."

* NiceGuy: John.

* OldSchoolBuilding: The setting for the first story in Mai's school.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Naru. [[spoiler: One of the things that first catches Naru's attention about Mai is when she comes up with this nickname - as "Naru" is the closest word a Japanese speaker can pronounce to his ''real'' nickname, Noll (short for Oliver). This was intentional on the author's part.]]
** Monk
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Mai.

* AdultFear: The "The Doll House" File. It turns out that the ghost haunting the house [[spoiler: was a distraught mother who committed suicide after her daughter was abducted, and continues to search for her in death, causing the deaths of other children living in the home. It is implied that the abductor may have killed the child, but it is never actually confirmed--although it ''is'' stated that Tomiko's body was found in the pond some six months after her disappearance]]. Also, [[spoiler:the little girl currently living in the home is feared to have drowned, but luckily nothing bad ever happened]].

** This further explained as [[spoiler:[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080606035039/https%3A%2F%2Fkagedreams.livejournal.com%2F181722.html WordOfGod has stated, in a phamplet]], that she had originally expected [[OfficialCouple Mai and Naru be canon]] - meaning Mai eventually gets over Gene. However, the author eventually [[ShipSink scrapped that idea]], to continue with the sequel and keep the supsense/tension, and decided to do an unhappy ending and leave their [[UnresolvedSexualTension relationship as is]] since she doesn't do "happy endings". At the very least it is confirmed that Mai and Naru do have feelings for eachother]]

Mai and Naru are accompanied by an Australian Catholic priest, a spirit medium, a Buddhist monk, a self-styled Shinto priestess, and Naru's really tall and really quiet assistant Lin. The series was originally published as a series of novels by ''LightNovel/TheTwelveKingdoms'' author Fuyumi Ono; it was later adapted into a manga, and then a 25-episode anime. A manga adaptation of the relatively-unknown sequel "Akumu no Sumu" was recently announced, and is being released on a bimonthly schedule.

* GratuitousEnglish: Right away in the first episode, a bunch of "technical terms" pop up in English that Shibuya needs to translate for Mai. Makes you wonder why he didn't just say them in Japanese.

* PhenotypeStereotype: John Brown, an Australian.

* PsychicPowers: At various times [[spoiler:Mai]] displays precognition, postcognition, clairvoyance and astral projection. There's also some extremely sensitive instincts that tell her intuitively whether someone intends her harm, and sometimes whether someone can be trusted.

* KiAttacks: Some of the spells manage to resemble this. Especially the one fired off by [[spoiler: Naru against a god]] in the last episode.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Naru.

* PsychicPowers: [[spoiler:Mai]] displays precognition, postcognition, clairvoyance and astral projection.

* BloodBath: Based on both the Elizabeth Bathory legend and UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, one of the scariest villains was a Japanese Lord who bathed in the blood of numerous servants in the hope of extending his life and took up the moniker "Urado" (Vlad).

* ShipTease: Quite a bit with Naru and Mai. Also, there is Ayako and Monk, further ship-teased by Mai identifying them as TeamMom and TeamDad respectively.

* {{Expy}}: C'mon, when you first see [[{{TheStoic}} Lin]] tell me you ''don't'' think of [[Anime/FruitsBasket Hatori Sohma]]!

** Subverted [[spoiler: WordOfGod has stated, in a phamplet, she had expected Mai and Naru be canon - meaning she eventually gets over Gene. However, she decided not to show how they get together and write an ending with them coming together as she doesn't do "happy endings"]].

* AllMythsAreTrue: Among the main cast are a Shinto Miko, a Buddhist Monk, a Catholic Priest, and an Onmyoji/Taoist priest who successfully use rituals from their respective religions to interact with spirits and perform exorcisms.