Sometimes it’s rewarding to take a complete stab in the dark and pick up something different from what you normally read. I’m unfamiliar with Yutaka Tanaka for instance, which isn’t surprising since his CV largely consists of ero stuff and a few bit parts in animation on the side. I had second thoughts about reading and blogging about My Lovely Ghost Kana since it is, in parts at least, an ero title.

The legal alcohol drinking age in Japan is 20, so yeah. No thought-crimes committed on my part

There is indeed a lot of sauce in this, to the point at which the opening chapters give a false impression of where the story eventually chooses to go. The infamous ‘deceptive-ness of the first impression’ isn’t on the scale of Onani Master Kurosawa, but the effect it had on me was similar. It even manages to go some way towards justifying the sexual content, which is an achievement in itself; the clincher is that it pays attention to the characterisation and even makes a worthwhile attempt at a storyline. Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised.

The opening chapters don’t really do the story as a whole justice because at times they feel like an excuse to show as much nudity and bedroom antics as possible, with the spiritual form of the female lead being a gimmick to set it apart from the competition. One of Kana’s tricks for instance is her ability to chill a can of beer by tucking it into her cleavage…a handy tip worth remembering if you’re with a ghost at a house party where there’s no working refrigerator. (¬_¬)

You wouldn’t want a warm one now, would you?

Little moments like this are in fact quite important additions because its premise could be quite downbeat and almost macabre. Kana can’t remember anything about her life with the exception of her final moments: a view of a sunset from her bedroom window during her act of suicide. Rather than wallowing in the tragedy, My Lovely Ghost Kana draws some positives from the situation, showing the heroine finding meaning in life after death through her (living) boyfriend, which in turn helps him overcome the hardships he had faced prior to their meeting.

Daikichi was left jobless and homeless (we don’t learn the details, sadly) so he’s understandably feeling like it’s the end of the road for him…at which point the resident ghost of the building he’s squatting in materialises and talks him round, what with her having first-hand experience of how meaningless The End Of The Road can be. Glad to be in the company of a cute girl (even if she’s no longer of this world) who understands him and likes having him around, they hang out and find mutual solace in each other. And have sex a lot.

Whether you have a problem with the amount of pages dedicated to showing what Daikichi and Kana get up to in bed depends a lot on where you draw the line on the label ‘gratuitous sex’ (a definition that begs to be discussed on its own now I’ve read this and the Type Moon VNs). The reality of Ghost Sex fortunately isn’t as weird or creepy as it sounds, and the portrayal of it doesn’t feel as needless as it could’ve been either because of the life-affirming nature of their relationship.

What I mean by this is that there’s a *point* to showing (in excessive detail perhaps, I admit) how much they value each other. Including even the most private moments of their time together actually gives a really balanced and frank overview of their relationship so, for a change, the ecchi doesn’t seem too out of place. It also gives some bits of comedy which, again unusually, had me genuinely laughing out loud.

One of my favourite comedy scenes is one in which Daikichi and Kana are at the local convenience store run by Goro Inagawa, a guy who has a fascination for the occult. As usual Kana is floating around and playing pranks on him but as Goro is gushing about how he wishes he could have contact with the spirit realm, Kana inadvertantly materialises just as he holds his hands out so he ends up accidentally groping her. It’s not often a boob-grab gag, or any ecchi slapstick for that matter, gets a LOL out of me but in this case it works.

The story is long enough to get a sentimental attachment to the two leads and introduce some interesting and likable supporting characters, but it wouldn’t be any worse from being a bit longer. Goro the shopkeeper, the old man tending to the grave of the local unidentified dead and especially Monou Utako, the girl who ends up moving into the same building as Daikichi and Kana, would benefit a lot from more background. The artwork is nothing extraordinary but character designs are great – they’re expressive and Tanaka’s knack of drawing attractive girls is almost up there with the likes of Ken Akamatsu to me.

What really sticks in my mind about this little-known serial is how Kana’s after-life touches those around her. The obvious one is Daikichi, but Goro realises his lifelong dream of communicating with a being of the supernatural realm, a complete stranger finds a bit of happiness through a case of mistaken identity and Monou begins to overcome her own problems (I just wish they’d been set out in more detail because she’s such a cool character) thanks to being around Kana.

The biggest of the gaps in the story’s background is Kana’s own past life, but I didn’t mind too much by the end. There’s a keen sense of trauma and loss from her gruesome and tragic end but the writing goes out of its way to show that Kana compensates for this by the way she brightens up the lives of those around her. With a potentially depressing premise and a storyline as flimsy as Kana’s own negligée, genuinely funny comedy and a feelgood iyashikei vibe were as unexpected as they were welcome.