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A.D. Vision (commonly referred to as ADV) was an American international multimedia entertainment company.

On August 19, 2005 at the 2005 Otakon Anime convention, ADV Films announced the North American release of Ghost Stories on DVD in October of that year. ADV's dubbed version retained the basic plot structure and storyline, but altered much of the dialogue into a comedy written by ADV screenwriter Steven Foster and ad-libbed by the voice actors. This split the fans. While some did not like the change, many enjoyed it.

Origins[]

The nature of the events that led to the unusual nature of ADV dub are somewhat in dispute. According to the voice actors appearing at convention panels, the original Japanese licensors, who were dealing with a financial loss on the anime series, had given almost free reign to the producers at ADV Films in dubbing in an attempt to break even. However, sources that watched the original show's performance have pointed to signs that it had a reasonable performance among contemporary anime shows. The YouTube channel The Cartoon Cipher speculated that the anime's prime-time time slot in Japan was poorly suited for an anime like itself, leading to the impression that it had failed.

In any case, when ADV was contracted to make a dub, the Japanese studio gave the company almost a free hand to change the script, in contrast to the normal protectiveness studios display regarding modifications. There were only a few simple rules:

  • They could not change the names of any of the main characters or ghosts.
  • They could not change the method of each ghost's defeat.
  • They could not change the overall meaning of each episode.

Any other changes were fair game.

Production process[]

Steven Foster

Ste7en Foster

According to the voice actors, the dubbing process quickly turned into a giant improv session, with individual actors frequently creating their own lines as they went along. Monica Rial, who dubbed the character Momoko, stated that actors would often rush to be the first one in the recording "box", so that they could set the tone for the day's session, and everyone else would have to follow their lead. Lines frequently involved heavy swearing, references to politics and pop culture, sexual innuendos, and fourth wall breaking jokes.

Many characters underwent dramatic personality changes. Momoko, instead of a "psychic," was instead portrayed as a fanatical evangelical Christian. Satsuki's Mother is portrayed as a lesbian. Leo is also Jewish in the dub, and Keiichirou is depicted as "mentally challenged." Hajime stays fairly true, albeit made more perverse and offensive, sometimes saying racist and ironic things, for example: "Think of a big black man chasing you!"

Reception[]

The reception of the dub was overall positive but highly controversial among fans. Watchers who disliked or had never seen the original loved it, turning it into something of a legend of how a "bad anime" could be turned around into something hilarious. The dub brought in a large new audience who otherwise would have never seen or perhaps known about the original. However, older fans who liked the original story as it was resented the dub immensely for what they perceived as the deliberate butchering of a show they genuinely loved. A few tried to find common ground to like both, but overall the two sections settled into an uneasy coexistence.

As many were offended by the ADV version of the anime, the anime television network, Animax, commissioned an alternate English dub of the series under the title Ghosts at School. This Animax dub stayed true to the original Japanese dialog. This version of the dub is often overshadowed by the bombastic nature of the ADV version, and is very difficult to find.

On August 28, 2013 Discotek Media announced that they licensed the series and would release it in 2014 with the ADV dub and the Japanese audio with English subtitles. The entire series was released on a 3 Disc set on March 25, 2014.

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