Ghost Hunt Vol. 1-6

Kazuya Shibuya is the handsome young owner of Shibuya Psychic Research. He has been hired by a high school that is having problems with ghosts, where he meets Mai Taniyama who, unintentionally, breaks one of his cameras. Now, to repay the camera Mai begins working for Kazuya and gives him the nickname of Naru (short for narcissist. A brilliant working relationship obviously). Now they’ve got to figure out what is causing all these ‘accidents’.

Normally with manga, there is an overall story arc, wherein something underpins the individual stories and links them together, but Ghost Hunt doesn't seem to have a larger tale to tell than the day to day comings and goings of the central cast. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t what you would call a bad thing. The fact that Ghost Hunt is so self-contained makes it much easier to follow and relieves the need to constantly reference back to previous volumes for some clue about what's happening in the present.

Don’t think that because there's no huge conspiracy in the background pulling the strings that the series isn’t worth taking in. Like any good series, the characters are the main driving force, and Mai and Naru have excellent help at the SPR in the guise of exorcists and Buddhist monks, to a woman who can talk to the dead. The chemistry between the characters is the main attraction, giving the reader a reason to actually give a damn about the outcome of each investigation.

The only major negative is the art. More a personal taste, but some of the characters, such as Mai have a very 80’s feel to them which can be very off-putting. The most predominant example is actually the front cover of the first volume. I actually passed on this volume a number of times as the covers didn't appeal (the series looked older than me). After volume one however, the style does improve as more and more characters arrive, allowing for some variation as well as gradual improvements to the main characters too.

Ghost Hunt does have a very engaging and entertaining storyline, that can’t be faulted. The self-contained nature of the story arcs makes this nice light reading. The art style will very much split people down the middle as to whether they like it or not, but give it a chance and you could be surprised.