Gregory Horror Show

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 in Room 205. With the help of various guests residing in the hotel, Gregory gradually erodes away his individuality, denouncing the first guest as nothing more than a small part of himself and confronting him on his workaholism. 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. Though he escapes back to his wife and son, he finds reality too boring, and returns voluntarily. It is heavily implied that he becomes an empty shell, Haniwa Salaryman. 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. She has had to endure many failed relationships and careers. It is also implied that her old flame was once the first guest, but their relationship went disastrously wrong. Due to her insanity from the degrading events, she starts a fire, burning down the house - however, the Gregory family survive, and welcome her into their family. The third series, "The Last Train", is set with 26 stories during a bizarre train ride that Gregory embarks upon. It differs from the previous two series in that there is no guest, nor is the hotel the central setting. Instead, Gregory himself is the protagonist, and the series takes place on the previously mentioned train as Gregory tries to escape from his own home and role as the innkeeper. However, unlike the previous two protagonists, he fails, and the train only takes him back to Gregory House. The fourth series, "The Bloody Karte", is a set of 12 stories about Catherine working in a mysterious hospital. ==Characters==

; :Voiced by: Chafurin (Japanese); Dave Pettitt (English) Elinor Holt (English) :She is a pink lizard nurse with a giant syringe. She has an obsessive desire to steal blood from guests, and searches for any excuse she can find to do so. One suck of her syringe appears to drain almost all of a person's blood. She easily falls in love with people with nice veins, but she is also shown to take blood for no reason other than personal pleasure, suggesting that it may be fetishistic in nature. She has had relationships with many characters throughout the house, although all of them have ended badly - usually for the other person. ; :Voiced by: Naochika Hayashida (Japanese); Brendan Hunter (English) :A set of anthropomorphic scales balanced between love and money. He passes judgment on all of the troubled souls of the hotel, and can see through anyone's lies. His skills at determining the truth are slightly questionable. When he's not judging others, he usually sings to himself about himself ("Do you know who I am? They call me Judgement Boy!"). ; :Voiced by: Naochika Hayashida (Japanese); Steve Olson (English) :He is a 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. In Bloody Karte, it is revealed that he isn't really gold; he's just gold-plated. ; :Voiced by: Ryuzaburo Otomo (Japanese); Byron Close (English) :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. ; :Voiced by: Naoko Matsui (Japanese); Angie Beers (English) :She is a poor girl looking forever for her doll. At first, she looks harmless but when approached or picked up, she becomes violent and 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. ; :Voiced by: Hitoshi Takagi (Japanese); Jonathan Love (English) :He is a father dog with bandaged body and his skull partly cloven by a saber which does not affect him at all apart from a headache. He is a proud hypochondriac with a loving son. ; :Voiced by: Natsumi Sakuma (Japanese); Sean Broadhurst (English)'''''' :He is Mummy Papa's son, a smaller dog in dungarees and bandages with his skull partly cloven by an axe. He is also a proud hypochondriac like his father. As he suffers from constant migraines, Mummy Dog is very empathetic to those who look or feel poorly, by getting them help. Unfortunately, that medical attention usually comes in the form of Catherine. ; :Voiced by: Yoshiyuki Kono (Japanese); Roger Rhodes (English) :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 tough while any real danger would easily scare him away. ; :Voiced by: Mikako Sato (Japanese); Carol-Anne Day (English) :She is Cactus Gunman's younger sister. She is fiercer than her brother and uses a lasso to steal other's clothes, confident of their lack of fashion sense. ; :Voiced by: Yoko Asada (Japanese); Mariette Sluyter (English) :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 terrible mishaps and accidents for the players. For this reason, Gregory absolutely hates Roulette Boy as he's always haplessly landing on unlucky squares. ; :Voiced by: Masashi Hirose (Japanese); Mike Shepherd (English) :He is the God of Death who visits guests in their dreams with his 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 wears a Swedish flag on his head in reference to the Ingmar Bergman movie The Seventh Seal. Death personally intervenes with the first guest, enabling him to evade Gregory, but forewarns that he may never truly escape for reality is no paradise, but a dull monotonous cycle. ; :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, including one with a Gregory TV satellite. ; :Voiced by: Katsumi Suzuki (Japanese); Meredith Taylor-Parry (English) :She is a green frog residing in the hotel. . She appears before people from a white mist, telling people of their fortunes, never seen without her booth or crystal ball. All of her fortunes come true, but how long it takes before it does can very greatly. ; :Voiced by: Jin Yamanoi (Japanese); Jonathan Love (English) :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's a very civil and jolly fellow. However, if he catches anyone he even remotely suspects of picking on his child, My Son, he flies into a fit of time-warping rage. ; :Voiced by: Maiko Ito (Japanese); Mike Thiessen (English) :He is the son of Clock Master, who is currently learning the art of time control. He greatly admires his father. ; :Voiced by: (Japanese); Roger Rhodes (English) :He is a skeleton character that resides under the cemetery in front of Gregory Hotel. "Drinks his cares away" with wine 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. ; / :Voiced by: Rei Sakuma (Japanese); Chris Simms (English) :She is a canine with an 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. Gregory, being the embodiment of eternal Purgatory, has a negative relationship with her, as she is the manifestation of Heaven and Hell. She acts like a teenager, arguing with Gregory about how he is always cleaning when she wants to watch football. ==Release==

The first season, known in Japanese as "The First Guest" and "The Nightmare Begins" in English, ran for 25-episodes on select TV Asahi stations between October 1, 1999 and March 31, 2000. The second season, "The Second Guest" or "The Guest from Hell", aired for 25-episodes between April 1 and September 30, 2000. The third season, "The Last Train" or "The Nightmare Train", ran for 26-episodes between October 7, 2000 and March 31, 2001. The spinoff, "The Bloody Karte" aired for 12-episodes between April 7 and June 30, 2001. In Japan, NEC Interchannel published the initial two seasons on DVD and VHS across six releases between March 3 and November 22, 2000. The first three volumes included exclusive animated segments known as "Gregory Gallery Tour". VAP would later release all four series (excluding Gregory Gallery Tour) across three DVDs between July 22 and September 22, 2004. During Anime Boston 2004, Geneon Entertainment announced that it had acquired the series to release in North America. The company commissioned Ocean Productions to produce an English dub, which was recorded at Blue Water Studios. The entire series (excluding Gregory Gallery Tour) was released on DVD across three volumes between September 21, 2004 and January 12, 2005. ==Other medias==

Manga In October 2000, Naomi Iwata launched a Gregory Horror Show comic that was serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine Uppers. It follows Tooru Takenozuka, a 22-year-old freeter who 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. He ends up in Room 404 and endures the nightmarish surroundings and residents. Over the course of chapters, it is revealed that Takenozuka's very form and spirit, is in a state of constant flux. He is, in reality, Tooru is a 94-year-old man in the year 2078, though part of him could never accept the fact that he grew beyond his twenties without accomplishing anything extraordinary or wonderful with his life. All of his dreams and ambitions went unfulfilled. As Gregory is a collector of the rare and unusual, he takes an instant liking to Takenozuka. The man battles between choosing his dreams and the reality that he has responsibilities as a father. Though he manages to escape Gregory, like all the protagonists, he eventually wanders back, becoming a permanent guest who refuses to abandon his dreams. Video games G-Mode Mobile Games G-Mode debuted an eponymously titled DoJa adventure game for mobile phones in Japan. It launched on Vodafone on August 18, on EZweb on October 1, and on i-mode on December 1, 2004. It was re-released for Nintendo Switch and Steam as part of the G-Mode Archives series on October 26, 2023. G-Mode also produced Gregory Bakyun, a themed version of their Bakyun series of fortunetelling shooter games. It debuted alongside the other game on Vodafone and EZweb, with the i-mode release on September 1, 2004. A BREW version launched on May 26, 2005 for EZweb. Soul Collector The anime was adapted into a PlayStation 2 game by Capcom Production Studio 3 and published by Capcom on August 7, 2003 in Japan and December 15, 2003 in Europe. 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 Room 101. In the game, Neko Zombie helps explain the gameplay and introduces the player to mental health. 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 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 many 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. Lost Qualia Milky Cartoon and Unframe, Inc. launched a mobile game based on the show in October 2018 for Android and iOS, titled Gregory Horror Show: Lost Qualia. It has yet to be released outside of Japan. Gregory Horror Show: Lost Qualia is a Gacha-based RPG mobile game that combines the elements of dungeon crawling with a Gacha card system. Lost Qualia uses the original 3D cube-esque graphics and style that the series is known for. The main storyline tells of the player showing up at Gregory House, where Gregory the manager himself meets the player and tells him about a previous guest known only as "that man". Gregory further explains that the guests delusional beliefs has gotten far too powerful, and that he is able to take over the hotel, turn it into a dungeon, and distort the surreal world around it. Gregory wants the player to help him and the other guests on a quest to take back Gregory House and defeat the man, who is mad with delusional power. The main quest also takes the player and company outside the hotel to the cactus sibling's homeland, (seen in volume 3) which is called Cactus Land. The quest also takes the player & co. to Roulette boy's casino. Like the PS2 video game, the player has a hotel room that serves as the central hub when they finish the tutorial or start up the game. They are able to customize their room with items they get either in a quest or in the Gacha cards from the fortune teller, level up their characters, and manage their Gacha cards and deck to use in a quest. Occasionally and randomly, Gregory, Neko Zombie, Catherine, Hell's Chef, and other playable characters will drop by to visit the player in their room talking to them and offer their support in a quest where the player is able to optionally choose them and play as them in any level. If the player has a playable character unlocked from either in a quest or found in Gacha card pack they can engage in conversation with the other visiting characters in the player's room, usually giving their commentary on the player, the current situation, and chat among themselves based on relationships they have with the other characters, or different topics. The game has the player, Gregory, or other playable characters going through a labyrinth, where they battle through hostile mages and souls that lurk in the dungeons and can appear from anywhere. Using melee attacks, throwable or ranged items, or using Gacha cards to regain health, buff their attacks or speed, special abilities, and using "horror show" Gacha cards to even the odds with one or many hostile souls surrounding them. The objective is for the player to survive and reach the goal to complete the level, sometimes having to climb stairs to the next floor to get there. Optionally, the player can set the game in autoplay (similar to an idle RPG) where the AI takes over for the player on certain parts of the game or just tapping the move button on-screen has the playable character temporarily moving through a corridor and resuming control back to the player when they are in an area with more room. While reaching the goal is important, it also vital for the player to look for Kinko safes around the dungeon for items such as skull gems, soul energy, or gacha cards for the possibility of getting new customize hotel room items or unlocking a character to keep permanently and play as in a quest. In addition to the main story quest, there are two types of quest offered in the game: event quests that can sometimes be holiday-based events, and special events that are added in the game during updates and have their own storylines. For example, the "Gregory Quest" events tell about the player, Gregory, Neko Zombie, and the other guests getting sucked up by TV fish and entering into a world based on fantasy RPG video games and became RPG characters based on character classes, each with their own quest in each Gregory Quest event. Depending on certain quest events and levels, both will automatically have the player play as specific characters as they have specific quests in the event storyline, or Ranked quests which are competitive survival quests where the player have to fight through hostile souls to reach the highest position of the leaderboard. Depending on the first, second, and third position when a ranking quest ends, the winning player earns a trophy to display in their hotel room. Soul of Roses On May 19, 2023 Iwata and Unframe launched a crowdfunding campaign on Campfire in Japan to produce a new game titled, Gregory Horror Show: Soul of Roses. Intended for Windows, the game is a 2D roguelite. It was successfully funded, raising over 400% of its goal. Iwata launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to produce an English translation of the game alongside a new animated pilot on April 11, 2024. It failed to meet its funding goal. A second campaign dedicated exclusively to translating Soul of Roses was launched on June 15. It was successfully funded. The game launched through Steam early access on November 15, 2024. Board game A board game based on Gregory Horror Show was published by Upper Deck Entertainment in 2002. ==Possible revival==

In 2016, Naomi Iwata's website announced that a new Gregory series was to be produced under the title of Gregory Horror Show: Mystery Holiday by Polygon Pictures. Little is known about it other than a plot synopsis and some redesigns. The series would follow a young boy named Hiroshi, who wanders into Gregory House on a whim hoping it will grant his wishes but has to stop Gregory's evil plan to destroy the world. No release date was announced. In April 2024, TV Asahi pitched Gregory Horror Show: Save Our Souls to potential partners. It was intended to be a new, full-length 26-episode animated series aimed at 8 to 12-year-olds. Separately that same month, Iwata launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for an English translation of the Soul of Roses video game alongside a pilot for a new animated series featuring Hell's Chef, called ''Gregory Horror Show: Hell's Restaurant.'' The campaign failed to meet its funding goal. ==Notes==