Ghost Talker's Daydream

In this fancifully-titled anime miniseries, Misaki Saiki is a woman who is able to see and channel spirits, and acts as a medium investigating supernatural phenomena. She also happens to moonlight as a dominatrix at an S&M club (to put food on the table.) But it's really the first aspect of her lifestyle that is the focus of the show.

In episode one, Misaki investigates the site of a murder-suicide and finds the case is not as closed as the authorities had thought, and makes the acquaintance of a teenaged girl named Ai who was connected to the victims.

In the next episode, Ai wants to join Misaki's ghost busting crew, and falls prey to a vengeful spirit herself. We also get some insight into Misaki's childhood.

The third and fourth episodes comprise a two-part story. Misaki is hoping to get a vacation (and look into some, ah, restoration therapy) but instead gets involved in a twelve year-old murder case concerning several children whose ghosts are still haunting a construction site.

I didn't quite understand why they decided to throw the S&M angle into the story. It only turns up in one scene, and it's mainly an excuse for the heroine to show up for her spiritualist job in a sexy leather outfit. Not that I minded that or the large amount of nudity, but it didn't gel with the main plot and seemed oddly tacked on. Some people might be disappointed if they pick up this DVD for the cover art. Still, it is an enjoyable, interesting and funny show. I particularly liked the character design on Misaki. She has a unique look - attractive, but not too cute.

The complete four episodes are available in Japanese 5.1, English 5.1, or English 5.1 DTS. I watched a bit of the show in English and while Misaki's English voice actress is wonderful, most of the others are average with Ai's English voice downright irritating - one of those fake little girl voices that makes your teeth hurt. Extras include creditless openings for each episode (which is a bit silly since there is no real title sequence; it just goes straight into the episode) and trailers for this and other Geneon releases. You can also put the disc in your computer to access poster art and desktop wallpaper.

GHOST TALKER'S DAYDREAM contains sexual content - though not terribly explicit - and is recommended for teens and up.

Like Elfen Lied this is a show (its really a complete four episode OVA to be exact) that strangely melds together comedy/fan service and hardcore violence. While not quite as gory as Elfen Lied the show has its moments. At first you probably won't be sure what to think of this show. The opening begins with its fare share of perversion and more or less unecessary nudity depending on your taste, but once it gets going and you've been introduced to the characters it becomes very involving and in some cases surprisingly touching. The main character of the story, Saiki Misaki, a spiritual medium/dominatrix is more interesting than she should be and the show in my mind was very reminiscent of something like Satoshi Kon's animated feature Perfect Blue. Word to the wise...Don't even bother with the english dub on this disc though. Absolutely horrid. The japanese is very well done. The animation is also pretty solid for what was clearly a low budget release by Geneon. I have to say I am kind of shocked they are not planning on doing more episodes/volumes of this series. They really could stretch it out even further. I appreciate the fact that it is a standalone disc though as far as the price tag is concerned. I wish there were more animes sold that way. And thats why I feel comfortable giving it the high 5 star rating.

I expected mostly a soft porno with the focus on the female body, lots of "SM" and "bondage". I got half of that, the first half. The focus of the three stories (the last is a two-parter) is really on the medium spirit not on the dominatrix. The characters seemed to develop a bit in the course of four episodes and that was good. I just wish it had more SM and bondage.....