Episode 1: Tonight, the Spirits Will Be Resurrected!! Amanojaku is the first episode of Ghost Stories. The Animax-dubbed title for this episode is The Awakening.
Episode Ghost: Amanojaku
Synopsis[]
Moving to a new town is tough on kids. Nothing is familiar, and with no friends, it can be scary. In Satsuki's case, that last part isn't helped any when she, her little brother, and three kids from school end up in the old schoolhouse, which just so happens to be haunted by ghosts.
Cast[]
- Satsuki - Hilary Haag
- Hajime - Chris Patton
- Leo - Greg Ayres
- Momoko - Monica Rial
- Keiichirou - Christine Auten
- Amanojaku - Rob Mungle
- Reiichirou - Illich Guardiola
- Manager - Andy McAvin
- Hanako - Lesley Tesh
- Mover - George Manley
- Genta - John Swasey
- Man-Faced Dog /Teacher - Andrew Love
- PA Announcer - Shelley Calene-Black
Plot[]
Opening: A janitor is attacked by an evil force; he screams but nobody can hear him.
Hajime, the boy next door
Satsuki and her brother Keiichirou move to the house where her dead mother grew up, along with their father and cat Kaya. While exploring their new house, Satsuki and Keiichirou meet Hajime, who is spying from next door. The two of them argue with each other before Reiichirou asks the kids to help him with moving.
The next day, on the way to school, Kaya jumps out from the backpack and enters the old school house. Satsuki and Keiichirou follow him in. They are then surprised by Hajime and his friend Leo, who came to warn Satsuki and Keiichirou about avoiding the old school house because it is haunted. While joking about ghosts, they all meet Momoko, who is looking for her hat. They find her hat on the statue of Kinjiro Ninomiya, which was outside earlier. The children are scared away when the statue introduces itself to them. They then meet Jimenken, the human-faced dog, who also hangs out in the old school house. Momoko then introduces the new kids to Hanako, one of the well known friendly ghosts of the old school house. They also encounter Kyonosuke and Teke Teke.
Amanojaku is no longer in ghost form
Next, they meet Amanojaku, who chases them around the school house. Kaya knocks over a picture frame, which causes Satsuki find a book. It says that in order to banish the demon to the old camphor tree behind the school, they need to draw a circle and chant, "Jaku, Jaku, go to sleep!" They do so, and the ghost disappears. After looking at the cover of the book, Satsuki discovers that it is actually her mother's old diary.
The children return to the new school building when they hear the bell ring. Unfortunately, they have missed their entire first day of school. Additionally, they find that Amanojaku has become locked inside the body of Kaya, since the old camphor tree Amanojaku was supposed to return to was chopped down. The children decide to keep an eye on Kaya for the timebeing.
References named in the episode[]
- "Just Say No" was an advertising campaign prevalent during the 1980s and early 1990s as a part of the U.S. "War on Drugs", aiming to discourage children from engaging in illegal recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying no. The slogan was created and championed by First Lady Nancy Reagan during her husband's presidency.
- The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main historic rival, the Democratic Party.
- Kinji Ninomiya is the main protagonist of The Dungeon of Black Company. He is a young man overflowing with extreme overconfidence. Right when he thought he was set to live a cushy NEET lifestyle, he was swept off to another world.
- The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterparts. The characters were created by American writer Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of book-packaging firm Stratemeyer Syndicate. The books themselves were written by several ghostwriters, most notably Leslie McFarlane, under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.
- Exodus International was a non-profit, interdenominational ex-gay Christian umbrella organization connecting organizations that sought to "help people who wished to limit their homosexual desires". Founded in 1976, Exodus International originally asserted that conversion therapy, the reorientation of same-sex attraction, was possible. In 2006, Exodus International had over 250 local ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries in 17 other countries. Although Exodus was formally an interdenominational Christian entity, it was most closely associated with Protestant and evangelical denominations.
Gallery[]
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