At a young age, Kotoko Iwanaga was abducted by yokai and asked to become their Goddess of Wisdom to act as a mediator between spiritual and human issues. She agreed and lost her right eye and left leg in the agreement. Meanwhile, Kotoko meets Kuro Sakuragawa, a man who just broke up with his girlfriend after a kappa fled before him. Kotoko makes her move to not only lock him down as a boyfriend, but to have him help her settle various disputes with spirits.
Unexpectedly cute and examining some interesting spiritual quandaries, In/Spectre is a fine way to take a tour of spiritual creatures and yokai lore. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like it, then head on down below.
Anime Like In/Spectre
For Fans of Supernatural Problem-Solving
Beyond the Boundary
As the last surviving member of her clan of spirit warriors, Mirai Kuriyama must use her special power of fighting using her blood in order to subdue Youmu, creatures that are the manifestation of negative human emotions. One day at school she happens across Akihito, a rare half-breed Youmu in human form. Immediately trying to kill him, she finds out he is an immortal being and the two strike up an impromptu friendship.
There is so much in common between these two. Both have male mains that are immortal. Both have cute and small female mains that have an important spiritual task. Both have a pretty fluid and cute animation style. The difference is that Beyond the Boundary features high school characters, so it can’t be as mature, but it is vastly more visually stunning at moments.
Natsume’s Book of Friends
For as long as he can remember, Takashi Natsume has been chased by spirits, but recently he discovered that the reason was because his deceased grandmother had passed on to him her “Book of Friends,” a book containing all the spirits she had brought under her control. Now Natsume realizes that these spirits haunt him in hopes of gaining freedom. With few friends, no loving home, and constantly hunted by malicious spirits, Natsume looks for a place where he belongs.
While In/Spectre has those really sort of soft and funny moments to it, there is always this distinct tinge of darkness to the supernatural world around them. However, Natsume’s Book of Friends isn’t quite so. The spirits have every right to be horrifying, but are typically pretty nice. Both series are about characters that help spirits through mediation, but Natsume is a much more chill series.
Noragami
There will be times where you may happen across an odd phone number written in red. If you call it, you will get in touch with a young man who introduces himself as the Yato God. This Yato God is a minor deity and the self-proclaimed God of Delivery. He dreams of having millions of worshippers, but there isn’t a single shrine dedicated to his name. He spends his time doing odd jobs for spare yen until the day his weapons partner deserts him. Just as things are looking down, he happens across a young school girl that saves him from a car accident by taking the hit for him. She survives, but her soul becomes loose. Together they set out to find a way to tighten her soul back up.
Both Noragami and In/Spectre feature a seemingly normal human drawn into the supernatural world by another. While In/Spectre is all about mystery solving and mediation, Noragami is more about helping people and granting wishes. Even though they have vastly different plots to them, they have quite a bit of similarities in their key themes and how the two protagonists interact in their pairing.
For Fans Boy/Girl Detective Duos
Beautiful Bones
Initially high schooler Shoutaro is suspicious of Sakurako Kujo, a cool beauty in her twenties, for the disappearances in his neighborhood. However, he soon learns her true talent is analyzing bones as an osteologist. Accompanying her on her outings, he finds himself embroiled in a number of mysteries.
While In/Spectre is deeply supernatural, Beautiful Bones is a mystery steeped in reality. Despite this key difference, the partner dynamic is similar albeit reversed in gender. The pair solves mysteries and is pretty cute while doing it.
Gosick
Kujou Kazuya is a transfer student to the elite Saint Marguerite Academy in the Southern European country of Sauville. However, because of his Japanese descent, he is shunned by the other students. One day in the library of the school, he ends up following a long blonde hair to a beautiful doll-like girl call Victorique de Blois who can predict the future, including their own currently entwined one. Together, the pair begin to solve the mysteries that are beginning to plague their surroundings.
The similarities here are obvious. Both series are about two people being brought together, one of them being a man that is shunned by his peers and the other being a girl that is small, cute, and deep into mysterious entities. Together they end up working together to solve a variety of problems that happen around them.
Red Data Girl
Izumiko Suzuhara just wants to be a normal girl, but that will never happen. She was raised in a shrine deep in the woods because she is in fact the vessel of a Goddess. Even something as simple as cutting her hair is a shock to her protectors. However, even this painfully shy living shrine can make a go at changing her life, but it might put everyone in danger.
Both series follow human that are well intertwined with the mystical world. However, because of the fundamental differences in the characters, they end up being very different. In both shows, the male and female pair are two different character archetypes that affect how well they get along with each other.
For Fans of Dark Supernatural Beings
Ancient Magus’ Bride
After being abandoned by her family, Chise Hatori is a 16-year-old teenager without hope. In order to not have to worry about herself, she sells herself to slavers, only to be purchased by Magus Elias Ainsworth. There she is told she will become his apprentice and, in the future, his bride. Together they work together to build a relationship and work to control her own magus powers that will eventually result in her early death.
Both of these series lift up the veil that sits between worlds. You take a little tour of the beings that dwell on the other side and see how they interact with the human world. Furthermore, both shows also feature a male main character that is widely feared by most of his peers as well for not immediately obvious reasons.
Death Parade
After death, there is no heaven or hell, but there is a bar that decides whether you reincarnate or disappear into oblivion. Pairs of the recently deceased must play a random game which decides their fate.
As In/Spectre deals a lot with yokai issues, much of the plot surround ghosts and death since that is how much of the world interacts with each other. Death Parade takes place away from the mortal realm and deals with the same sort of human issues. Both shows have a way of being thought-provoking, but you expect it less in In/Spectre.
Do you have any more anime series similar to In/Spectre? Let fans know in the comments section below.
