Anime Like Ghost Stories

Satsuki and Keiichirou Miyanoshita move back to their mother’s hometown after her tragic death, it is there that the siblings find out that their mother banished a number of ghosts from the old school building, but suddenly they are all starting to reappear again. It is up to Satsuki and her new friends along with the help of her mother’s journal to seal them away again.

Watch this series subbed and it is interesting, but rather unremarkable. However, Ghost Stories achieved fame in the west for its ADV dub that hardcore anime fans wanted desperately to hate. Extensive liberties were taken to take the serious translation and make it comedic, and you know what? It works.

Anime Like Ghost Stories

For Fans of Japanese Ghost Stories

Yamishibai

As the sun sets, a mysterious man comes to town. The children all gather round to hear his sinister tales based on Japanese urban legends. Along with his demented narration, he uses a kamishibai, a traditional paper-scrolling device, to add in visuals.

Although you can argue that both are aimed at children, Yamishibai is easily the more chilling in terms of content. Both shows technically feature horror stories that are safe for children, but still really creepy, which is a pretty impressive achievement.

Kaiden Restaurant

Kaiden Restaurant follows the creepy and mysterious events that surround a sixth grader and her friends. Each episode is served up in three parts – an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert – with the first two parts being about the aforementioned student while the dessert is a ghost story told by the friends.

Kaiden and Ghost Stories are very close to being the same show. They both surround ghost stories and a group of kids. However, Ghost Stories takes a more mystery solving approach and is generally more focused on school.

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.

Like Ghost Stories, Hell Girl is about solving supernatural problems. However, While Ghost Stories follows the good guys, Ai might not always seem the good person. However, if you liked a variety of stories and mysteries, both shows can provide.

Where Does The Ghost Stories Anime End In The Light Novel?

You have watched the anime, now it is time to pick up where the anime left off with the manga or the light novels.

For Fans of Gag Dubs

Samurai Pizza Cats

When corrupt prime minister Seymour Cheese decides to become emperor and take over Little Tokyo, there is only one group that can save it. In a little known pizza joint that serves great pizza by day, the meowvelous warrior of justice, the Samurai Pizza Cats, fight crime by night.

The dub of Samurai Pizza Cats wasn’t technically meant to be a gag dub, but it ended up that way because the scripts and original translations weren’t really available, so…Everyone had to improvise. It was much the same with Ghost Stories, but the original creators were involved and maintained that the original plot and names needed to stay intact.

Super Milk-Chan Show

Dead broke and living with her two deadbeat sidekicks, Milk earns some extra cash by going on secret missions for the president.

The dub of Ghost Stories ends up spoofing the popular supernatural genre while Super Milk-Chan ends up spoofing those old school spy thriller shows and movies, though it did so before the ridiculous dub. However, there is both an original dub and a spoof dub, the original airing on TV and the spoof available, but harder to find.

Crayon Shin-Chan

This is a story about the everyday life of Shinnosuke, or Shin-Chan, his eccentric parents, and his little sister Himawari.

Shin-chan is considered one of the more famous gag dubs, but the truth is the original show is of a similar nature. However, the western dub instead chooses to show off the immaturity of the show with profanity and a lot of adult-oriented dialogue to turn a child’s show into something more interesting to an adult audience.

For Fans of Fighting the Supernatural

The Mystic Archives of Dantalian

After losing his eccentric grandfather, Lord Hugh “Huey” Disward is set to inherit his estate, but on one condition. He must take over care of his grandfather’s archives full of forbidden knowledge and care for a mysterious girl named Dalian. However, he soon learns that the rival of his grandfather’s and his suspected killer is in the possession of a cursed tome that is causing problems in the world. Now with Dalian’s help, he must work to do what his grandfather failed to do – seal the tome away.

What do these show have in common? They have the most generic plots in the supernatural genre. At their core, the shows are about people hunting down ghosts and trying to seal them away. In both shows, they consult particular books for knowledge on the subject. If you watch them both subbed, they are very similar despite the age different in characters.

Hell Teacher Nube

Although clumsy and goofy, Nube is a very kind teacher to his students. However, he also has a secret. Under the glove on his left hand is a monster hand that has the ability to sense spirits. In order to protect his students, he must use this hand to keep spirits away from the school.

If Ghost Stories focused on a teacher instead of a group of meddling kids, it would be Hell Teacher Nube. Both shows take place in or around a school that is infested with ghosts. In it, someone needs to fight those ghosts. While the characters in Ghost Stories have no special powers, they solve the mysteries just as well as Nube.

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.

Ghost Hunt is essentially a more mature Ghost Stories with a serious dub. It isn’t just the dub that keeps things serious, it is the nature of the tales. Ghost Stories goes to great lengths to explain the hauntings as well as using real ghost hunting techniques to deal with them.

If you have any more anime recommendations like Ghost Stories, let us know in the comments section below.