Gregory Horror Show is a 3D CGI

Computer-generated imagery

Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...

 animated

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 television series created by Naomi Iwata and televised by the Asahi National Broadcasting Co.

TV Asahi

, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....

Story

The first series, "The Nightmare Begins" is a set of 25 stories about a businessman arriving at the hotel after taking a train home from work. He encounters the mysterious owner of the hotel, an old mouse known as Gregory, who suggests that he stay awhile. The man soon becomes drawn into a bizarre series of events taking place within Gregory House as he tries desperately to escape from this purgatory.

The second series, "The Second Guest" is similarly set with 25 stories, except this time the main victim is a woman who has just taken a taxi home from her best friend's wedding ceremony.

The third series, "The Last Train" is set with 26 stories during a bizarre train ride that Gregory embarks upon.

The fourth series, "The Bloody Karte" (Presented as a side series on the DVDs) is a set of 12 stories about Catherine working in a mysterious hospital.

Characters

Gregory is the Innkeeper of the hotel and also the narrator, a slightly creepy old mouse with an obsession for keeping guests at his hotel. He loves to mess with one's mind and has a habit of appearing out of nowhere.

It is strongly implied that Gregory is in fact a manifestation of the hidden dreams and desires that people suppress, and his hotel the same. Although how several different people can manifest the exact same apparition is unknown, and it is highly probable that Gregory is in fact a spirit of dreams and desires, instead of a single person's manifestation. Gregory's aims seem unclear in both the game and the series.

In the game, a player can overhear him monologuing about how s/he wouldn't be in any danger if they simply accepted the purgatory of Gregory House, but several times in both the series and the game, Gregory is seen to be an antagonistic force, putting his guests quite literally through hell.

As is typical for a man his age, Gregory also has a secret (little does he know that it is not so secret to the residents of the hotel), a liking for dirty magazines and often reads them when he thinks he is alone; in the game, his secret place for reading the magazines is the storeroom.

He is Gregory's grandson, a mischievous young mouse who loves to play pranks on anyone he can find. In the videogame, he is the one who allowed the guests to steal bottled souls from Gregory's Mama.

He is a zombie cat who once lived with a family that stayed in Gregory's Hotel. Once a glossy beautiful cat, it escaped from reality and ended up at the hotel where Gregory stitched up its eyes, mouth and ears as act of revenge, possibly against cats in general due to their inter-species conflict.

He is the character who seems the most supportive of the protagonist in both the game and the series, as he is constantly giving them hints on how to battle their inner demons. He also attempts to kill Gregory and his mother during the Great Fire of Gregory House (during the series, this fire is caused by him).

He is a manifestation of a broken heart, stitched together by anger and misery.

She is a pink lizard nurse with a giant syringe

Syringe

A syringe is a simple pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...

. She has the obsession to steal blood from guests. One suck of the syringe drives a guest to being drained almost entirely of blood.

Although her reason to put a syringe into people is often because she easily falls in love with people with nice "veins", she also sucks blood for no reason other than personal pleasure. She has had relationships with many characters throughout the house, though all of them have ended unwell.

He is a set of anthropomorphic scales balanced between love

Love

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

 and money

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...

. He passes judgment on all troubled souls of the hotel and can see through anyone's lies, although people are skeptical whether or not he really can tell the truth or if he only swings his arms around. When he's not judging others, he usually sings to himself about himself ("Do you know who I am? They call me Judgement Boy!").

He is solid gold Judgment boy and the boss of all other judgment boys. In the game, he trains all the other judgment boys for the final judgment and is the last guest to visit the hotel.

He is the chef of Gregory Hotel that looks very much like a dark-faced candle with glowing red eyes and a giant knife that is said to cleave elephant bones like butter. He often butchers/poisons the guests that don't eat or refuse his meals (even if they are just not hungry), and then serves them to other guests. He speaks with a dark, sinister, evil voice.

He is apparently very particular and passionate about his food preparation, and refuses to eat anyone's cooking but his own. He hates smokers/smoking because "They are the enemy of cuisine!" (he hates that it eventually numbs the taste buds). The candle on his head is almost always seen burning because it somewhat acts as his life spark - if it's blown out, he stops moving and his eyes stop glowing, and when it is re-lit, he continues as if nothing had happened.

In the game the only way to get his soul is by putting a lot of items into the cooking pot (therefore ruining it) and getting him to chase you into the hotel's storeroom.

She is a poor girl looking forever for her doll with a pink face and a blue face. At first, she looks harmless but when approached or picked up, she becomes violent with her face turns blue. She herself is in fact the doll she is looking for. She has a good friendship with Cactus Gunman. Her name may have once been 'Katie'. Her only friend was a doll which was her constant companion, but one day, her parents decided to dispose of the doll. The girl searched endlessly for her lost doll, until she happened upon the place known as Gregory House, where she became a permanent resident.

He is a father dog with bandaged body and a saber cleaved into his head which does not affect him at all apart from a headache. He is a proud hypochondriac with a loving son.

He is Mummy Papa's son, a smaller dog in dungarees and bandages with an axe

Axe

The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...

 cleft into his head. He is also a proud hypochondriac like his father.

He is a cactus in bandit clothes and sombrero who loves to challenge guests into fights. He was once a leader of revolutionaries and is infamous for his terrible aim. He is also quite the macho man, playing though while any real danger would easily scare him away.

She is Cactus Gunman's younger sister. She is fiercer than her brother and uses a lasso

Lasso

A lasso , also referred to as a lariat, riata, or reata , is a loop of rope that is designed to be thrown around a target and tighten when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the American cowboy. The word is also a verb; to lasso is to successfully throw the loop of rope around something...

 to steal other's clothes, confident of their lack of fashion sense.

He is a small red-faced child with a roulette wheel on his head. He loves to play games and challenges guests to test their luck, usually ending in bad luck for the players.

He is the God of Death who visits guests in their dreams with his scythe

Scythe

A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe...

. He seems to be manic-depressive, considering the fact that in the anime he speaks darkly with a grim voice, while in the game he has a funky and cheery presence. He wear a swedish flag in his head in reference to Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...

 movie The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death , who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play...

It is a skeletal floating fish able to swim in the air and through walls. It has a TV for a face and projects the memories of any guests nearby passively. However, because all guests at Gregory Hotel are uncertain of themselves, the TV shows distorted images. In the anime, there are multiple TV Fish, includion one with a Gregory TV satalite.

He is a man with the face of a clock residing in the hotel. He has the ability to control time, although he has grown old and can't travel that far in time anymore. He usually drinks his problems away.

He is the son of Clock Master, who is currently learning the arts of time control. He greatly admires his father.

He is a skeleton character that resides under the cemetery in front of Gregory Hotel. "Drinks his cares away" until he can find a body to replace his own fragile form. He is weak to wind and water because his powdery bones can easily blow away or melt in the rain.

/

She is a canine with angelic appearance that invites you to be near her. She has somewhat of a split personality, however, and frequently changes into the Devil Dog and invites you to hell. She acts like a teenager, arguing with Gregory about how he is always cleaning when she wants to watch football.

Video game

The anime was adapted into a PS2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 game by Capcom

Capcom

is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...

 in 2003. The general premise of the game involves the player (who can choose to be male or female) trying to escape from Gregory House, a deranged hotel run by the old mouse Gregory. The game involves having to steal bottled souls from twelve guests, and returning them to Death before going to sleep.

In the game, Neko Zombie helped explain the gameplay and introduces the player to mental health

Mental health

Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

. Mental health acts like a health gauge of the player's mental fortitude. The player must maintain a good level of mental health by sleeping, reading books, or using special 'herb' items reminiscent of the Resident Evil

Resident Evil (series)

Resident Evil, known as in Japan, is a media franchise owned by the video game company Capcom. It was created by Shinji Mikami as a survival horror game series that was initiated with the eponymous PlayStation title Resident Evil in 1996. Since then, the game series has strayed from its roots to...

 game series. If the player's mental health completely runs out, then the character goes insane, and becomes a permanent guest at Gregory House.

While the bizarre cube-esque graphics (which were a staple of the 'anime') give the game an unusual look for a survival horror game, there is still an element of tension and unease because the player must creep around the hotel, avoiding detection by the various guests. If the player gets caught by one of them, then the guest will attack them by forcing them to watch some 'Horror Shows', a bizarre vision of violence set in a traditional Japanese theatre in which the guest will inflict severe harm upon you.

The game features a goldmine of easter eggs and backstory which either reference or expand upon certain events of the series. For example, in the 'Bloody Karte' arc, Catherine develops an attraction for Hell's Chef; in the game, the player can find a signed trading card of him in the psychotic nurse's treatment room. Also, if a player takes the time to follow the guests around the building at various points in the game, they will often divulge interesting tidbits about the hotel and each other. For example, if the player follows Gregory around early in the game, a huge amount of how Neko Zombie came to be the way he is can be learned.

Manga

A manga adaptation of GHS called Gregory Horror Show: Another World by Suzuki Sanami started in the Nov. 01, 2007 issue of Weekly Morning

Weekly Morning

is a weekly Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha, aimed at adult men. It debuted in 1982 as and is also known as simply .- Series running every week :- Series running every other week :...

 magazine; it was then published as a graphic novel and became available to buy in Japan, on Sept. 22, 2008.

It follows Tooru Takenotsuka, a 22 year old freeter comes to the city to follow his dreams. Thanks to his status he is unable to find an apartment to live in until a seedy real estate agent introduces him to Gregory House.