For such an astoundingly huge fandom (That apparently popped up overnight), I had a surprisingly hard time when it came to researching into this animated music video, and so all I could do is gather together bits and pieces from various sites and forums before mixing them in together with my own opinion.
American indie pop/electronica musician Luis Dubuc, better known as Mystery Skull, initially released "Ghost" on May 8th 2012, an official live action music video was released on February 6th 2014 with various scenes parodying the first "Exorcist" film, and as humorous as it was, this song didn't get as much attention did not get much attention until an animated music video came out in October 2014.
This version was done in collaboration with Ben Mangum (Mystery Ben), an animator (Who seems to specialise in Adobe Flash) on Youtube who was first known for his fan music video tributes to "My Little Pony", and then later on a fan music video for Mystery Skull's "Money", which featured various animated characters from the Ace Attorney game series, which garnered nearly 1.6 million views in the following three years. The success of this fan video had then drawn the attention of Mystery Skulls, who later contacted Ben to commission an official animated music video for "Ghost".
I suppose the first thing that comes to mind for all of us is the fact that the characters in this video parodies Scooby Doo and the Gang (Down to the Mystery van, cowardly huddle and chase sequences), but seeing that Mystery Ben happens to be a fan of "My Little Pony" and "Ace Attorney", it is no surprise that he based some of his designs from those series too.
Seen above, the haunted portraits consists of figures that resembles "Ace Attorney's" Miles Edgeworth (The one on the left with a cravat), a human version of "My Little Pony's" Rarity (Woman on the right), and what appears to be the preacher from the live action music video (Man in the far right) that came before this animated version. The wrestler appears to be the only original (Or generic) character, there are however a few fan theories about him and what he represents, along with these other portraits, instead of being thrown in there for no reason.
The colours play a huge part in this animation (Aside from it bringing it all together and just making it all aesthetically pleasing), it doesn't take long for the viewers to figure out that each character has his or her own fixed colour scheme. And that is where some pretty interesting links can be seen between certain characters.
For instance, Vivi (The girl in blue) is wearing a pair of magenta shades, that happens to be Lewis' (The young man to her right obviously) own colour scheme, while the dog Mystery is wearing a pair of orange shades, the color that is associated with Arthur (The gloomy one at the back).
Some simple assumptions could be made that Lewis might have given Vivi those shades and/or that they happen to be in a relationship of sorts ("I only have eyes for you."), while Mystery is actually Arthur's dog (Which feels like a very small homage to Scooby and Shaggy's friendship seeing that the designs for those two are clearly based on them as well).
This is just one of those details you don't notice the first time you watch the video, but it really just shows how deep the back story actually is for this music video, as the Mystery gang fall past these mirrors, when you take a closer look at their reflections, Viv is missing her eyes, Arthur is missing his arm, while Mystery's own mirror just shatters completely... so what could all of that possibly mean?
I assume that you must have watched the music video (Provided at the very beginning of this post along with the original live action one) by now, so I suppose I shouldn't worry too much about spoiling the plot for you guys... so here goes. It is soon enough made clear that it wasn't just bad luck that brought the Mystery gang to this mansion, but something much worse.
It is revealed that during the exploration of a cave in the past, that Arthur had murdered Lewis when he was under the possession of a green coloured spirit. Arthur was supposedly seen as the weakest of them all, and so was the easiest to possess. Aside from the fact that he was seen as the coward of the group, past scenes such as him hanging out sadly at the back of the van speculates that he might have held some feelings of discontent and jealousy (Green is also associated with that feeling) towards Lewis (Which the spirit all too happily preyed upon), who supposedly had it all.
It was assumed that Vivi had witnessed the death of Lewis (When you consider the fact that she should have headed to the lower level of the cave), and as one of his final acts, he erases that memory from her mind, so that she would never have to remember ever seeing her beloved die so horrifically before her eyes (Hence the connection to her eyeless reflection in the mirror).
The green coloured possession appears to start from his left arm (That was also used to push Lewis off the cliff and to his death), which is possibly why it was later on removed and replaced with a robotic one in the present. While this part was a little harder to figure out, it is assumed that Mystery was the one that had saved Arthur and snapped him out of his possession, by actually removing the arm off himself...
Much like his name, Mystery is believed to be more than just the canine companion of the Mystery Skulls gang, while the first reflection shattered, the next one (As seen above) appears to show his true form, that being a nine tailed fox spirit, or a Kitsune. While he appears to be depicted as a seemingly evil spirit (Though Kitsunes aren't actually portrayed as particularly evil creatures), many have speculated that he only swore to protect Arthur (I will once refer to the fact that he is wearing a pair of orange shades), and only took action after Lewis had perished, when the spirit chose to attack Arthur next.
While he was initially meant to explore the other part of the cave with Vivi, it is shown that he instead chooses to quietly follow after Arthur, a clearly wary expression on his face as compared to the rest of the gang. And so it is assumed that Mystery was actually a spirit guardian that goes under the disguise of a dog, but other than that... he is still one of the biggest enigmas out of all the characters.
Going back to the colour choices, throughout Lewis' rage-filled rampage, his heart was shown to be orange in colour, which clearly represented all the hate he feels for Arthur (Also helps that he is clearly trying to kill the guy throughout video). It changes to blue however when he is reunited with Vivi, the girl he loved, and when he seemingly calms down and resigns to his heartbreaking destiny in the end, knowing that that had probably been his last chance to see her...
Overall, I can see why this animated rendition of "Ghost" appealed to so many people, the designs are cute and highly appealing and is decently animated (The fact that most of their movements seem to sync with the beat and rhythm of the song is just awesome). While I probably shouldn't compare an officially commissioned music video to a fan made one, I can clearly see that Mystery Ben has improved immensely when it came to his animation and designs, especially when comparing "Ghost" to "Money", also, this video was done from scratch, as compared to "Money", when he was pretty much just recycling some animations used from the "Ace Attorney" games.
And there is a surprisingly deep and rather emotional backstory to these characters (If you didn't know that already) that has brought about many entertaining fan theories for all to read. It may sound like a lot is going on, but the story was just so well presented in this single music video (And originally when I had first found out about it through Tumblr, I thought that this was just some animated series I had yet to watch, especially seeing all the incredibly detailed and heart felt discussions and fan works done for it). And I absolutely love how the designs and colour choices totally connects to the story itself, to me, that is probably still one of the best things about this animation.
And well, there's nothing wrong with basing your character designs on existing ones ("League of Legends" has done it for all of their characters after all), I felt that this was one of the best homages to Scooby Doo and the gang, while also having unique personalities and backstories that gives them their own separate identity to the original source.
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| Fanart found on Tumblr, I would credit the artist but it got buried under hundreds of other fan works... But look, this was that little head bopping thing I was talking about! |
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