Ghost Messenger

Ghost Messenger (Korean: 고스트 메신저) is a South Korean animated series made by STUDIO ANIMAL.

First released in 2010, it revolves around a series of events that happen as Ghost Messenger Kanglim(voiced by SungTae Park) accidentally meets Little Kanglim(voiced by EunJung), a human boy with extraordinary spiritual power.

It falls under the genres science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural, though STUDIO ANIMAL officially states its genre as 'Oriental SF Fantasy'.

Synopsis

Summon with cell phones!

Kanglim is a Ghost Messenger who's on a mission to capture a spirit when he makes a mistake and gets locked up in his own Soul Phone. Meanwhile, Little Kanglim is an elementary school 5th grader who lives with his grandfather and runs an antique shop together. Though he seems ordinary, he is gifted with extraordinary spiritual powers that allow him to see spirits. The phone ends up in his hands.

Little Kanglim starts using the powers of the Soul Phone and ends up having no choice but to let Kanglim, a powerful Messenger among Ghost Messengers, out when things turn out serious. A Ghost Messenger and a human, the two travel back and forth the world of the living and the world of the dead getting involved in several happenings, when someone mysterious starts tracking them down... ^[1]

Characters

Little KANGLIM (꼬마 강림)

Little Kanglim is a human child with extraordinary spiritual powers.

He runs a antique shop with his grandfather. He is able to see spirits but does not have the ability to stop them from doing harm. But after a Soul Phone comes into his hands, he starts to get involved with the fight.

KANGLIM (강림 도령)

Kanglim is a Ghost Messenger with strong potential power.

He is in charge of Area 202 in Seoul. Burying the sad stories of his past, Kanglim became a Ghost Messenger after making a contract with Yumla. He has no interest in others, standing alone in the world. One day he accidentally gets captured in his own Soul Phone and encounters Little Kanglim. He is about to change.

Kanglim's Soul Phone is Black Shark. It has a memory capacity of 15 Dan, and can be transformed into a sword-like form. Black Shark is greatly efficient for one-on-one battles.

BARI (바리 낭자)

Bari is the head commander of Sesung Pyeonjeon who has gone through various positions of the Underworld.

She is a smart, brave girl and an excellent Ghost Messenger who always shows perfection on her mission. She has a crush on Kanglim, but in order not to reveal such feelings, she is colder to him than any other. But when Kanglim runs into trouble, she is the first person to stand up for him.

Bari's Soul Phone is Fan Crane. It is a smartphone with a huge memory capacity, and can be transformed to display things on a half transparent, fan-shaped screen. When in battle, Bari usually summons spirits using Fan Crane, rather than having herself fight.

SARA (사라 도령)

Sara is a Ghost Messenger who belongs to Seocheon Hwarang-bu.

Though he may seem cruel and merciless from the outside, he has a strong belief in the rules of the Underworld and keeps emotions out of the way while on his missions. Being unable to stand anything that is not beautiful, Sara has a sense of great self-respect. But surprisingly, he also has a sensitive side.

Sara's Soul Phone is Guns N' Roses. It is a pair of Soul Phones that have a memory capacity of 42 Dan(combined, probably), and can be transformed into handguns. Specially-made bullets allow Sara to destroy the Marman of his targets quickly and effectively.

MAGO (마고 할미)

Mago is a Ghost Messenger with smooth mellowness.

She was originally the goddess of life, but when she saw evil spirits killing so many precious lives, she decided to become a Ghost Messenger.

Mago's Soul Phone is Soul Wave. Its memory capacity is unknown, and can have the form of a long smoking pipe. Soul Wave allows Mago to access Yumla-net's main server directly.

Cast

Little Kanglim was voiced by EunJung

Kanglim was voiced by SungTae Park

Bari was voiced by JungHwa Yang

Sara was voiced by JaeHeon Jung

Mago was voiced by JiYun Park

Little Kanglim's grandfather was voiced by ManYeong Park(in episode 1)/YongJun Kim(in episode 2 & the movie version)

Daesu was voiced by BumKi Hong

Monsters were voiced by YeongJun Shi, HoSung Kim, and KyuHyeok Shim

Operators were voiced by EunJung

Little Kanglim's friends(extras) were voiced by EunJung, SungTae Park, JungHwa Yang, JiHye Park, Jisu Kim, and EunSu Lee

Theme

The theme of Ghost Messenger is "to cover, not too lightly nor too gravely, the (Korean) traditional aspect of death and how the living remembers and mourns the dead, and to think about how a boy would change while going through such situations."^[2] Accordingly, the world of Ghost Messenger is based upon the Korean traditional view of the afterlife, and many characters are named after characters in Korean traditional folklore and more or less resemble them in some way, though more differences are noticeable than similarities.

Production

Development

Back when smartphones weren't widely used, STUDIO ANIMAL planned Ghost Loader, a mobile TCG game in which players would fight by downloading digitized spirits to their phones. However, due to the circumstances at the time, the game ended up not being developed. 2 years later, when browsing various websites on KOCCA, STUDIO ANIMAL came to read information about various Korean traditional folklore and culture considering the underworld, and when the company combined Ghost Loader with Korean folklore, the concept of Ghost Messenger was born.^[3]

During the time when the title of Ghost Messenger wasn't decided between 저승사자 강림 (The Ghost Messenger KANG LIM) and the current title, STUDIO ANIMAL first made the 1st promotional video of Ghost Messenger. After the PV was made, a Spanish animation company, BRB Internacional, contacted STUDIO ANIMAL and planned to fund them for the production of Ghost Messenger as a TV series,^[4] but as BRB asked too much(such as saying the main character needs to have a girlfriend and the girlfriend needs to get kidnapped in every episode or suggesting for the studio to draw a fantasy future city instead of Seoul^[5]), the co-production deal between the two companies was broken. Due to the lack of money and considering the various limitations on Korean TV animations-such as those on violence-STUDIO ANIMAL decided to make Ghost Messenger as an OVA series.

Sound Effects & Recording

The insertion and arrangement of sound effects and recording of voices were done by YeongBin Lee of Legend Sound.

Music

The overall background music for the first episode of the OVA was edited and/or replaced when it was combined with the second episode into the movie version.

The opening theme song is Connexion by Outsider. The ending theme song is track 9 by SoRa Lee.

Variations of just wanna (Original) by H. Matilda are often used related to the series, and My world (Original) by Jeebag is used in the first episode of the OVA.

All songs, except for the ending theme, were composed by d. a.(Jimmie Park)

Release

The DVD of the OVA's first episode was released on December 21, 2010.

The DVD of the OVA's second episode was released on August 19, 2014.

On May 22, 2014, OVA episode 1 and 2 combined and edited as a movie, 고스트 메신저 극장판 (Ghost Messenger: MOVIE.1), premiered in Lotte Cinema theaters, the Korean Manhwa Museum, and Seoul Animation Center. The official release date of the Blu-ray of this version is January 9, 2015.^[6]

Media mix

고스트 메신저 일월차사전

Publisher(s)	TTU Soft.
Publication date	June 11, 2015
Genre(s)	TCG, Visual Novel
Language(s)	Korean

On March 31, 2014, a novel based on the series that tells what happened between OVA episode 1 and 2 was released: 고스트 메신저 무제경전. Published by the Korean light novel company Seed Novel, the story revolves around a novel-original character named 상후(Sanghu), and characters from the OVA also appear in and interfere with the story.^[7]

On June 11, 2015, the mobile trading card game made by the collaboration of STUDIO ANIMAL and TTU Soft., 고스트 메신저 일월차사전, was released on Google Play.^[8] It mainly focuses on what happens as the main character 지오(Jio), an original character that has not appeared in the animation nor the novel, becomes a ghost messenger after he suddenly dies for an unknown reason.

References

External links

• Official website (Korean)
• STUDIO ANIMAL Official website (Korean)
• STUDIO ANIMAL on Twitter (Korean)
• STUDIO ANIMAL on Facebook (Korean)