Bakegyamon

Mc have similar goal as some of the same characters  

1. Both have tournament 2. Winner of tournament get a wish granted 3. Power ups 4. Series actual has ending 

A crazy recommendation, but as I am part of the minority who have watched Bakegyamon, I can't let this similarity be unknown to people. Bakegyamon and Anohana share the theme of friendship, as well as having a ghost/spirit female character with a mystery that gets unfolded later in the series. Though Bakegyamon is a bit slower due to being a 51 episode long shonen aimed for a younger audience. Now, the sole reason I made this recommendation is mainly that both series share a very similar, if not the same, sad and heartfelt scene. Both occur around the climax of their series with the same setting and "game".  read more 

1. Both involve Japanese mythological creatures 2. On first few episodes, both anime may seem like just battling each other without any reason or just defeating the opponent, but later they become much and much clearer and eventually not being cliche 3. Both are niche shounen anime which need more and more love, they're epic apparently, you shouldn't underestimate it at all