Tucked away in the back alley of Kamifucho is an apartment above a theater. Inside, a lazy genius known as Akuma-kun researches a way to make a paradise for everyone as his sacred calling. However, in order to make rent, he is often hired to solve mysterious supernatural cases for people.
With the help of his half-demon assistant, Mephisto the Third, Akuma-kun unravels the truth behind everything from locked room murders to demonic possession.
While it was just made to celebrate the 100th birthday of its original creator, Akuma-kun was a fun little series and makes you remember that simple things can be enjoyable too. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Akuma-kun, head on down below.
Anime Like Akuma-kun
Akuma-kun Has Prequels
You can fully watch Akuma-kun (2023) and enjoy it without watching any of the prequel series, but you should know that Akuma-kun isn’t a new series. It is based on a manga from the 60’s and had an anime series and movie in the 80’s.
The older Akuma-kun series actually follows Shingo and Mephisto the Second, so all those times Akuma-kun (2023) mentions that is a nod to its source material and original story.
For Fans of Dealing With Demons
Gegege no Kintarou
In the 21st century, people no longer believe in yokai. However, unexplained issues plague people still. To get answers, Mana writes the Yokai Post when a boy named Kintaro appears before her.
Both Akuma-kun and Gegege no Kintarou have a lot in common in not just the plots of their series, but also the history of their series too.
Both Akuma-kun and Gegege no Kintarou are about young detectives who solve mysteries about demons and supernatural occurrences with the help of an assistant who is some form of human. They are both made with a pretty old school, childish art style due to the age of the source material as well. You could also say that both are anime aimed at younger audiences, despite having some more serious subject matter.
It is worth noting that both Akuma-kun and Gegege no Kintarou are modern remakes of very old series. Gegege no Kintarou has just gotten more love over the years, since it has had many revivals.
You’re Being Summoned, Azazel
Sakuma is employed by the Akutabe Detective Agency to do regular office work. However, one day she discovers the secret to Akutabe’s mystery-solving success. It turns out he is a demon detective, capable of summoning demons from a grimoire and utilizing special abilities to solve cases.
Intrigued, Sakuma wants to start learning to become a demon detective, but the demon who becomes attached to her – Azazel – isn’t quite what she hoped for.
What if the detective was the normal human and the assistant was the lazy demon instead of the reverse that Akuma-kun presents? Well, then you’d have You’re Being Summoned, Azazel.
Both Akuma-kun and You’re Being Summoned, Azazel are about detectives that often work closely with demons to solve more supernatural-seeming mysteries. Sometimes they are murders. Sometimes they are demonic incidents. However, while the mysteries are interesting in both series, You’re Being Summoned, Azazel leans harder into comedy by making the titular Azazel be wildly crude and lazy.
Demon Detective Nougami Neuro
Neuro Nougami is a demon that feeds on mysteries and puzzles.
However, as a demon who must remain unnoticed by humans, he pairs up with a human girl in order to solve mysteries. A job she hopes will help her solve her own personal mystery.
Both Akuma-kun and Demon Detective Nougami Nuero are about demons and their human (or half-human) assistants solving mysteries. However, while Akuma-kun mysteries are usually related to demons, Nougami Neuro mysteries are more often just murder mysteries.
Furthermore, the dynamic in these two series is a little different. The human in Demon Detective Nougami Neuro often has to keep her demon in check, but he is usually the one that solves the mysteries like Akuma. He also eats the mysteries, and his hunger for them makes him act much more sinsiter.
While both are supernatural mystery-solving anime, they do well to balance serious subjects with a lot of levity and explore all this with unique art styles.
For Fans of Supernatural Mysteries
Dark Gathering
Keitarou Gentouga is a college student who hates ghosts. Unfortunately, spirits have always been unnaturally attracted to him, so much so that he was previously a shut-in after causing his childhood friend, Eiko Houzuki, and himself to get cursed by a spirit.
However, Eiko helped him get back out into the world, and as part of his rehabilitation, he started tutoring Eiko’s young cousin, Yayoi.
It isn’t long before Keitarou finds that Yayoi actively seeks out dangerous spirits, using him and various other tools to capture them for a mysterious purpose that all stems back to the spirit that took Yayoi’s mother after her death.
Do you like disarmingly cute characters investigating supernatural events where the tone goes from cute to straight up horror frequently? Well, no one can call Akuma-kun too scary, but Dark Gathering is what you are looking for if you did wish it was a little more legitimately scary.
Unlike Akuma-kun, the detectives in Dark Gathering all have quirks, but are all human. Instead of investigating mysteries that are usually demons, they are looking for ghosts, possession, and curses to capture and use in the most terrifying Kodoku event ever explored in anime.
Despite how youthful the characters in Dark Gathering are designed to look, this series loves horror and loves body horror in particular.
Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
Hanako is said to be a ghost that occupies the third stall of the third floor girls’ bathroom in the old building. When summoned, she is said to grant any wish.
Nene, an occult lover with dreams of romance, summons Hanako, only to find out that this traditionally girl ghost is a boy!
What Akuma-kun is to demon mysteries, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is to ghosts and urban legends.
Both Akuma-kun and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun are about intelligent and difficult to get a long with detectives and their comical and kind assistants solving supernatural mysteries. However, as Hanako is a ghost bound to a school, this limits their mysteries to events that are happening at the school.
Alongside similar subject matter, Akuma-kun and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun also both enjoy exploring dark tales with characters that look adorable due to the art style.
It is also worth noting that Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun has a few hints of romance, which is something you don’t see in Akuma-kun.
Kemono Jihen
A boy nicknamed Dorotabo lives with his aunt in a rural Japanese inn after being abandoned by his parents. One day, a detective that specializes in the occult named Kohachi Inugami arrives from Tokyo.
He is there to investigate mysterious livestock deaths and takes an interest in Dorotabo. The boy ends up helping Inugami and discovers that he is only half human.
Possessing skill at dispatching beast-like entities known as Kemono, Inugami takes him back to work at his agency in Tokyo.
While both Akuma-kun and Kemono Jihen are about demonic people solving mysteries involving other demons, the differences lie in what type of anime each series is.
Akuma-kun is a pretty standard supernatural mystery anime. While Kemono Jihen does enjoy supernatural mysteries, it is also a shounen battler. This means most supernatural mysteries end up with a fight.
That said, both series feature younger characters who are discovering their own origins slowly through the mostly episodic series while learning the meaning of friendship along the way.
For Fans of Childish Art. Mature Subjects
Kotaro Lives Alone
Unsuccessful manga artist Shin Karino has his daily routine interrupted one day with the introduction to his new neighbor – a four-year-old boy who moved in next door, lives by himself, and talks like a samurai.
While this boy is more put together than most of his neighbors, living alone has its difficulties at any age.
Both Akuma-kun and Kotaro Live Alone have that basic art style that you would see in shows that are targeted at children. However, while they look like they are for kids, the subject matter they explore is anything but.
Akuma-kun is about solving supernatural mysteries involving demons and murder while Kotaro Lives Alone is, at first, a wholesome found family anime where the dark undertones of child abuse, death, and various other forms of domestic abuse start popping up.
Made in Abyss
The Abyss is an enormous cave system and the only unexplored place in the world. No one knows how deep it goes, but generations of bold adventurers have descended into it.
In the town at the edge of The Abyss, an orphan named Rico dreams of raiding, as her mother did before her. One day while exploring the murky depths, she meets a boy, who turns out to be a robot, kicking off the start of her epic adventure.
While Made in Abyss has a more refined art style, its notorious “potato people” still makes it look like a childish anime like Akuma-kun’s art style. However, both of these series are ankle deep in horror.
Akuma-kun gets it horror from more traditional sources like demons and death. However, Made in Abyss takes things much further by doing terrible things to children and having an above average amount of shocking body horror.
Kaiba
In this world, it is possible to store memories so that the death of your body is not the end. However, it has also led to the rise of memory trading, the illegal act of stealing memories.
One day, a man named Kaiba awakens in a ruined room with no memories and a pendant with a picture inside. This is his story of unraveling his own mystery and that of a ruined world.
At a glance, Akuma-kun and Kaiba both have an art style that looks like it was pulled right off a children’s TV network. However, that cute art is likely used to disarm you for the mature subject matter that these series explores.
While not a traditional supernatural mystery like Akuma-kun, Kaiba is a mystery – a psychological one full of symbolism and mindfuckery. While Akuma-kun is episodic and solves each story after an episode or two, Kaiba is one long linear mystery, feeding you clues as to what is going on in each episode.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Akuma-kun? Let fans know in the comments section below.
