At a small kindergarten, a young girl named Kaya is notorious for making trouble for the teachers. As such, Ms. Chie has taken a special interest in the child.
However, Ms. Chie soon discovers that Kaya’s antics aren’t just acting out. She can see spirits and occasionally intervenes when things get too spooky for others. Kaya isn’t a scary spirit medium, though, she’s just a child!
This gives new meaning to acting out because there is trouble at home. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary, head on down below.
Anime Like Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary
For Fans of Dealing With Ghosts
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.
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Dark Gathering
- Small child can both see and deal with ghosts without fear
- The adults in their life fear ghosts, but assist the child
- Slice of life with episodic ghosts, but an overarching plot
- Small child main character has mother-and-ghost related issues that form the overarching plot
- Ghosts and pregnancy themes
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Dark Gathering
- The child main character often acts less like a child and is sometimes the most adult person in the room in Dark Gathering
- The adults play a larger part in the ghost hunting in Dark Gathering
- Dark Gathering features more trauma for the characters and more malice from the ghosts
- Dark Gathering is the darker story
Mieruko-chan
Miko is a normal high school girl who has found her life turned upside down by the sudden ability to see spirits.
Despite being terrified by what she sees, she does her best to not acknowledge the spirits so they leave her alone.
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Mieruko-chan
- A girl can see ghosts, and most others can’t. Mostly she ignores them, sometimes she has to intervene.
- Slice of life with occasionally horrific ghosts
- The girls meets other people that can help with the ghost problem
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Mieruko-chan
- Mieruko is more about the main character enduring ghosts. She doesn’t have an ability to smack them out of existence like Kaya.
- Mieruko can be… oddly sexual in that the ghosts like to molest her friend sometimes and the anime has a bit of a lingering gaze.
- Mieruko is more purely slice of life with no overall ghost plot to deal with.
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!
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
- Children getting involved with the supernatural whether they like it or not
- Immature characters, mature subject matter
- Episodic ghosts and an overarching plot
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
- Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is about a human girl investigating supernatural occurrences at school with a boy ghost.
- There is a romantic element in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
Ghost Hunt
High school freshman Mai Taniyama likes to spend her free time telling ghost stories with friends. One day, she hears a ghost story about the cursed old school building. Overcome by curiosity, she decides to check it out.
After peeking in the window, she spots a camera. After a twist of fate, she ends up breaking the camera and injuring an unknown man. It turns out that both belonged to the young Kazuya Shibuya, a paranormal investigator and high school senior.
In order to pay him back, he forced her to become his assistant for his paranormal investigation company.
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Ghost Hunt
- Ghosts are being investigated and dealt with
- A cheerful girl gets pulled into a gloomy, creepy person’s ghost business
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Ghost Hunt
- Ghost Hunt is about a team hunting ghosts, so it is more of a standard ghost investigation mystery story
- The ghosts in Ghost Hunt are more arc-based stories rather than episodic.
- Ghost Hunt follows teens, so it has romantic leanings
- Ghost Hunt indulges in ghost hunting techniques from our real world rather than just using Kaya’s backhand.
Mob Psycho 100
Kageyama Shigeo, otherwise known as Mob, is a young psychic with a wide range of blossoming abilities. Despite having this incredible power, he just wants to become friends with Tsubomi, a girl in his class.
Due to negative reactions to his psychic abilities in the past, he now tries to keep them in check. In an effort to learn to better control his abilities, Mob becomes the apprentice to Reigen Arataka, who claims to be a psychic, but is actually a con artist that exploits Mob’s very real powers for money.
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Mob Psycho 100
- A young person just wants to live their life, but has a powerful ability they can use to help others.
- Ghost investigating
- More serious than it looks
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Mob Psycho 100
- Mob Psycho is more comedic and less creepy
- Mob Psycho is a shounen anime with a main character who just wants to live in a slice of life anime. Expect more action.
- Mob Psycho features scummy adults for comedy
For Fans of These Kids Are Vaguely Creepy
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.
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Kemono Jihen
- A small child main character is odd, and also half of the thing they are fighting
- A child main character is doing things children probably shouldn’t have to be responsible for (fighting ghosts, fighting demons)
- Immature characters, mature subject matter
- Darker than you would expect given the age of the characters
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Kemono Jihen
- Kemono Jihen is styled as more of a shounen series about fighting demons, so expect more action.
- Kemono Jihen is more about the main character finally making friends after being neglected and abused by his relatives.
Another
Ever since 1972, class 3-3 in Yomiyama North Middle School has had a strange tradition of pretending that one of their students did not exist.
When Kouichi Sakakubara transfers into the class, he finds himself drawn to a girl that no one seems to notice.
Not paying heed to the warnings of his classmates, all hell is about to break loose.
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Another
- A girl is weird and vaguely creepy, and another character takes an interest only to discover that she is actually quite nice.
- There is (at least one) ghost abound and only a few people know it
- Family issues for the creepy girl that she is not equipped to deal with emotionally
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Another
- Another is about classmates dying because the class is haunted and they are trying to find the ghost before more die. So expect fairly graphic death, frequently.
- Another is far more of a mystery than a slice of life like Kaya-chan isn’t Scary
- Another is styled more as a teen romance, though the romance isn’t much of a focus among the horror and mystery.
Hell Girl
It is said that those who hold a powerful grudge can access a particular website at midnight. By entering a name here, that person can be ferried straight to hell.
This is the tale of Ai Enma, the Hell Girl that carries out those orders.
Similarities Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Hell Girl
- A girl is quiet and eerie, carrying out a service to people
- Episodic stories
Differences Between Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary and Hell Girl
- Hell Girl is about a girl that ferries people to hell. It’s not about ghosts, and each episode is a new story of how someone was wronged.
- While Hell Girl does go into the main character’s story far later, the titular Hell Girl Ai is more the eyepiece for the audience into other people’s stories rather than a character herself like Kaya.
- Hell Girl is more frequently the darker story
Do you have more anime recommendations like Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary? Let fans know in the comments section below.
