Any horror fan will be more than familiar with what usually happens when someone has to live with ghosts, but anime tends to have a surprisingly different opinion on the matter. Living with ghosts isn’t a scary thing, it is often a fun thing!
Horror anime focused on a main character being haunted by a ghost and dealing with the terror actually isn’t that common. However, more light-hearted anime about characters happily living with ghosts is pretty plentiful.
Maybe it is some kind of coping mechanism for a country so steeped in supernatural lore to make scary things into comedy, or maybe creators think that no one would actually stay in a house with a scary ghost in a way that would be believable. Regardless, if you are looking for anime recommendations about living with ghosts, head on down below.
Anime About Living With Ghosts
Nanana’s Buried Treasure
Nanana’s Buried Treasure is one of those underrated anime series that will forever remain underrated because it set the foundation for an epic story, but needed more than one season to get off the ground.
This series follows a guy who moves into his new school dorm only to find that a girl is already living there. He also discovers that it isn’t that she is squatting there, but rather she is a ghost haunting the room after her unsolved murder there a decade earlier.
This cute ghost tells him that before her death, she, an avid adventurer, hid items of magnificent power all around the city, and it is believed that this treasure hunt led to her death. It sets this once-normal student on an epic treasure hunt full of danger, betrayal, and intrigue.
Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs
Hot springs and ghosts – two things that seem so diametrically opposed to each other, but both are things that harem anime loves to play with. Although, Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs is the only one that does both at the same time.
Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs follows a psychic who takes a job to exorcise a haunted boarding house and hot springs in hopes to get a cheap place to stay. However, what he finds there isn’t a scary malicious ghost, but rather a cute and lovable one. What’s more, the other residents, all supernatural in their own ways, seem to know about her.
Anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day
Anohana is one of the more rare ghost-based anime that deals with actual tragedy. While it has its moments, there’s no barrel of laughs in this one. Keep the barrel though, you can fill it with tears.
Anohana tells the story of a group of childhood friends who suffered the loss of one of their friends in a tragic accident. Wrecked by the event in one way or another, the group of friends had drifted apart in their teen years. It isn’t until that dead friend shows up as a ghost do they come together to try to make her wish come true.
Keep the tissues close as the characters work through their various emotional problems while also unraveling the mystery of what exactly this friendly child ghost actually wants.
Invaders of the Rokujyoma
When it comes to hauntings, Invaders of the Rokujyoma really packs them in shoulder-to-shoulder. It’s not just one spirit that haunts a room, but a whole gaggle of them. It’s okay, though. This is a harem anime.
The Invaders of the Rokujyoma puts about as much effort into plot as most harem anime series do. It follows a guy who rents a room that is cheap, but it turns out that it is cheap because the large amount of spiritual energy surrounding the room attracts tons of spirits.
From there, he gets bombarded by, not just ghosts, but all manner of supernatural things that just so happen to be cute girls. They also end up making themselves at home.
Natsuyuki Rendezvous
When it comes to anime about living with ghosts, they tend to be pretty impersonal. The characters didn’t know the ghosts in life, so thus they don’t have a much emotional attachment to them after death. Natsuyuki Rendezvous tells a story of emotional attachment.
This series follows a guy who becomes rather enamored with a woman that owns the flower shop, so much so that he gets a job there. He discovers that not only is she a still-grieving widow, but she is also haunted by the ghost of her dead husband who constantly cock-blocks his efforts to grow closer to her.
While there is some comedy in someone being constantly shut down in romantic endeavors by a ghost, this series is a rather touching romance about letting go and moving forward.
Elegant Yokai Apartment Life
The premise of Elegant Yokai Apartment Life is a familiar one by this point in the list. It follows a guy who, not wanting to be a burden, gets the cheapest room in a dorm he can find. It turns out that the dorm is cheap because it is home to ghosts and all manner of supernatural beings.
Unlike other series where the main character learns to happily coexist with everyone, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life features the main character meeting another resident who knows a series of techniques to remove the particularly spooky or troublesome spirits and ghosts.
Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost
While the concept of an overworked office lady haunted by a child ghost is innately sad when you think about it, Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost doesn’t often acknowledge it. Instead, it becomes more like a cute iyashikei anime where the young ghost tries to scare Shachiku out of the office so the lady can get some rest.
While the series starts off about the pair meeting at the office and the child ghost starting to take care of the office lady, eventually the ghost leaves that building and moves in with her. It is pretty standard cute iyashikei like Meddlesome Kitsune Senko-san, but for overworked women.
Mieruko-chan
Mieruko-chan is probably the closest thing you can get to a horror anime on this list.
This series follows a girl that manifests the ability to see ghosts, and she sees them everywhere – At home, at school, in the bathroom – Everywhere. Unlike the ghosts in all the above mentioned anime, the ghosts in Mieruko-chan are often legitimately horrifying, and the main character actively pretends not to see them so they won’t become more aggressive towards her.
While the ghosts in Mieruko-chan are chilling, the horror of it is often cut by comedy or, surprisingly, lewdness. The ecchi isn’t graphic, but it is there, etched among the obvious panty lines and lingering camera gazes.
Do you have more anime recommendations about living with ghosts? Let fans know in the comments section below.
