TV Shows: The New and Improved Books

TV Shows: The New and Improved Books
Ghost Hunt; a very witty anime show that takes us into the world of spirits and their hunters. The show is a lovely drawn cartoon that captures its viewers as the team uncovers the truths to various ghost cases. The team is made up of a variety of charming and mysterious characters. Miya, the main character tells each episode through her point of view as she helps her boss, Naru uncover the cause to the strange happenings. Also to add depth to the show the authors adds a Monk, Median, Shrine Maiden and a Priest into the show to mix different cultures and beliefs into each case. Each of them add a little knowledge to the group and make them an unstoppable force. To be honest, this show has become one of my favorites by keeping me on the edge of my seat. I wonder though, am I really getting anything more out of this show besides entertainment? Could this show be making me more smart?

Steven Johnson, the author of a book called Everything Bad is Good for You, tells us his thoughts on how he believes that TV shows are making us more smart. In Johnson’s book he uses what he calls, “ The Sleeper Curve”, to help prove his point. Between the pages one through fourteen he explains that The Sleeper Curve is to show how the media today is not making us dumb, but doing the opposite. Johnson explains that as time goes on, the minds of today are asking for more complex shows and we are getting just that. (Johnson,1-14)

According to Steven Johnson not all shows require the same mental work. To see if a show would make you more smart Johnson tells us to look for these signs, multiple threads and information being withheld from the viewer. Multiple threads occur when in one show you are following various main characters and what they are doing. In a lot of “Smart Shows”, as Steven Johnson would call them, they tend to leave out vital information, making the viewer have to fill in the empty spaces to be able to understand the show. (Johnson, 63-4)

As I watch the first episode, I quickly pick up on only two main characters. Miya, who tells the story through her eyes and her boss, Naru, the mysterious owner of the research team. There are no other main characters and the plots are simple, solve the ghost case and Miya is trying to figure out Naru. They use a lot of ghost terms such as poltergeist and I would have no clue what they are talking about, except since Miya is new to the team, they explain everything they say. So onto another Johnson term, there is no filling in, the show is a mystery but as the characters figure stuff out so do you and by the end of the episode the case is solved. There is one ongoing mystery, Miya trying to figure out who Naru is.

Johnson also mentions flashing arrows in shows, these give us insights to stuff that is going to happen, like maybe someone getting killed. Johnson explains that flashing arrows are found in less shows today, which is good because it makes us think more when there are not as many clues.(Johnson, 73-4) In the anime show, Ghost Hunt, there are a lot of flashing arrows, I think the reason for this is because anime shows tend to be very visual on the feelings and actions of the characters. In my show whenever a ghost is about to appear the screen flashes and sharp loud music plays. Also a lot of the time one of the characters experiences foreboding that something is about to happen. The characters experience this mostly because there are so many psychics or people with other senses on the team. Well no matter what the cause this is not going with Johnson theory.

My show doesn’t seem to follow Johnsons guidelines very well. It has to many flashing arrows and they give out more information then what they hold. There is though, one ongoing mystery, and the is Naru. The hardest part of the show to me is all the ghost vocabulary that is in the show. If it wasn’t for them explaining each word they use, I would be lost.

I then decided to go onto the Internet to see if I could find any fan sites for Ghost Hunt. I ended up finding the main site called, http://funimation.com/ghosthunt. All the website really offered to me was a chance to by the videos and it told about the show. I was a little disappointed, I was hoping to find a place to blog or something , but there was nothing. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you can only watch the show if you buy the DVD’s and the fact that the show is only about two years old. On the website there was a blog place for the other shows, but no blog’s on Ghost Hunt.

One of the other things Johnson said was that smart shows get people involved by them going online to fan sites and talking about the show and trying to figure it out. If I cant find any fan sites that talk about the show, then I cant say my show completely fits into the Johnson’s smart show theory. I was reading one of the articles for class called Thinking Outside the Idiot Box by Dana Stevens. Steven’s highly disagrees with Johnson’s theory saying that she watches shows all day for her job and doesn’t see anyway that they are making us more smart. Dana says that there are some shows that are good and involved but they aren’t making us learn, anyone with a brain could watch them and be fine. I believe that Steven’s would use my show as an example to disprove his theory because my show can seem so simple at times.

Even with this said, I feel like she is wrong to totally disprove Johnson theory because even with how simple my show is, I still learn things from it. Most people learn today by interaction and I can see how visual could be an interaction. Such as when I watch my show I listen closely to all the things they say and I solve the case with them and learn new words. Also think of all the times you have watched a show and felt what the character is feeling, or when they won or failed you felt like you yourself had gone through it. When I really think about it, TV shows and videos are like picture books and every time I read a book I take something from that book with me. Isn’t that consider learning? I would classify it as such.

My show does not follow Johnson’s theory, but at the same time Ghost Hunt is not just some mindless past time for me. In his book he vaguely touches on cartoons and he say nothing about anime. I believe that anime is in its own category and a lot of anime shows can have something to teach us, but in there own way. Yes they have flashing arrows but that is a trademark of anime shows, they always show the persons feelings and thoughts. To me, it makes it more personal and makes me feel more involved because, I’ve noticed as the character is making that sad face, so am I. Also my show is still fairly new and when I watched one of the newest episodes, I noticed that the show was growing. We learn more about the other characters and their lives, also we come across another mystery that deals with the median. We begin to see that she knows some things about Naru that other people don’t and we start to see that she, like Miya, likes Naru. So the plotlines start to melt together more as a love triangle forms but Naru doesn’t seem to know or care if the two girls like him. I also saw that I picked up on things more quickly then the characters this episode, almost like they were giving me more of a chance to think. At one part a ghost wrote the name Vlad on the wall to help them solve the case of who had killed them and I knew right then that they meant vampire. All in all it is a show that interest me by allowing me to relax and keeps me entertained by having at least a little mind stimulus.

Works Cited
“ Evil Spirits all over.” Ghost Hunt: Season One. Writ. Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada. 7 Oct. 2008. DVD. Funimation Productions.

Funimation Entertainment. Funimation Productions. 22 May. 2009. http://www.funimation.com/ghosthunt.

Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
Stevens, Dana. “Thinking outside the Idiot Box” 25 Apr. 2005. 23 May 2009
https://www.slate.com/id/2117395/

“The Blood Stained Labyrinth” Ghost Hunt: Season Two. Writ. Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada.
7 Oct. 2008. DVD. Funimation Productions.