Kyokou Suiri

Hidden in plain sight, spirits known as youkai inhabit the world. While most are benign, a certain subset threatens the tenuous peace between youkai and humanity. Ever since she agreed to become their "God of Wisdom," Kotoko Iwanaga has served as a mediator between the two realms, resolving any supernatural problems that come her way.

At a local hospital, Kotoko approaches Kurou Sakuragawa, a university student whose long-term relationship ended with an unfortunate breakup. Kotoko harbors feelings for him and suspects that something supernatural lurks within his harmless appearance, so she asks Kurou for his assistance in helping out youkai.

Two years later, news of an idol who was accidentally crushed to death by steel beams flooded the press. However, months later, sightings begin to tell of a faceless woman who wields a steel beam. As is the case for any supernatural problem, Kotoko and her partner set out to stop this spirit from wreaking havoc—but this case may prove to be far more sinister and personal than they could have ever thought.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Iwanaga, Kotoko Main

Kitou, Akari Japanese

Sakuragawa, Kurou Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Yumihara, Saki Supporting

Fukuen, Misato Japanese

Sakuragawa, Rikka Supporting

Saco, Mayumi Japanese

Nanase, Karin Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire Japanese

Steel Lady Nanase Supporting

Tanio, Aoi Supporting

Hanawa, Manami Japanese

Detective Terada Supporting

Hamada, Kenji Japanese

Yoshikazu, Machii Supporting

Komainu (Kuro) Supporting

Hanawa, Manami Japanese

Ishiguro, Tatsuya Producer

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Ozawa, Fumihiro Producer

Yamaoka, Yuuki Producer

Reviews

Apr 10, 2024

ArchangelEST

Recommended

In/Spectre is a fun, contemporary paranormal mystery anime, that creates an interesting world supported by mythological fantasy themes, and modern crime scenarios. It boasts a great soundtrack, likeable characters and one of the more lovable romance undertones.


Animation / Art / General Visuals - 7/10
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The show doesn't look particularly noteworthy. The art detail is fairly basic, as are the animations. The show sticks to a largely dialogue based format, so despite the limitations in quality, it never feels problematic. The character emotions are clear enough, and actions scenes tolerable.


Sound / Music / Voice Acting - 9/10
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Despite not being a fan of the OP's or ED's, I absolutely fell in love with the music within the episodes themselves. There's a great mix of different styles, suitable for the different themes of each episode. There's synth, there's piano stuff, there's up-beat, and orchestral mixes for the victory moments. It's great.


Story - 8/10
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The world of In/Spectre is a fun one, taking contemporary Japan and bringing to life all the various mythological creatures like ghosts, spirits, demons, and other beings of lore in a less invasive way than many other such shows. In this world, the creatures of the paranormal prefer to stay by themselves and not interact with humans or cause trouble among themselves. That said, those things still occasionally happen, and to solve those problems, the various supernatural beings decided to contract a young girl to their service by making her a goddess of wisdom. Chosen to mediate problems of the supernatural through knowledge.

As luck or fate would have it, this girl also finds herself a most unusual of companions. Someone, who, like her, bridges the gap between normalcy and the supernatural. And together they decide to ensure that the world remains in balance.

In/Spectre takes a two-part approach to the way it handles the story. We get an introduction period where we get to know the main characters and the basics of the world through a simpler mystery. Followed by a longer story arc that tackles a much grander mystery while introducing a proper villain and fleshing out the characters further.

What's interesting about the story, is the way the mysteries are presented and solved. One could even say that it's a reverse mystery anime. What does that mean? Well, that's going to be for you to find out. Let's just say that it's not necessarily the truth that matters most when it comes to solving these mysteries that disrupt the balance of the supernatural world. And the mental warfare needed to deal with these cases takes on a life of its own.

The show also features a fun romance sub-plot, that is enjoyably non-standard, and sets up some nice adorable and comedic moments to mix up the scenes.


Characters - 8/10
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The show revolves around two main characters, and a strong third supporting. The cast is small, but powerful.

Iwanaga, Kotoko is a petite young woman who takes on the role of the goddess of wisdom, mediating the troubles of the supernatural world. And she's a feisty one. While small, she is incredibly confident and honestly even arrogant. Her intellect is out of this world, matched only by her persistence when it comes to doing her job, and ensuring her ongoing romance with Kurou.

Sakuragawa, Kurou is a young man who is by all accounts non-remarkable, yet has an air of the supernatural about him. This peculiarity causes him to break up with his girlfriend which leaves him in a state of uncertainty. Which is exactly when Iwanaga shows up and does her best to "woo" him. Despite failing miserably, Iwanaga is persistent, leading to Kurou accepting her presence and deciding to entertain the strange little woman through his stoic, yet occasionally caring and heroic actions.

Yumihara, Saki is the ex-girlfriend of Kurou and by all accounts their relationship should have been done and buried. But fate causes them to run across one another yet again, and the trio teams up to tackle the mystery. Saki is a fairly normal young woman, who ends up quite simply horrified at the existence of the supernatural, yet is also fascinated by it, and by the notion of the romance between Iwanagi and Kurou that seems to be largely based on Iwanagi demanding it to exist.

This fun romance spiced trio dynamic carries the show in a great way, rarely having a dull moment. Whether it's Iwanaga wowing us with her intellect, or making us laugh with her attempts of coaxing Kurou into sexual themes, or Kurou rebuking Iwanaga's advances, or Saki being utterly confused as to what is going on with the world and these two, there's a lot of fun to be had.

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Total - 8/10

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In/Spectre is a fun paranormal mystery that deserves to be called underrated in my opinion. It doesn't look amazing, but it has great music, fun mysteries and intelligence flexing, and lovable characters with their funny trio dynamic.

If you're a fan of other paranormal mystery anime like Ghost Stories, this is another one that might scratch a similar itch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 23, 2024

billy00

Mixed Feelings

This is a show made to sell the light novels, The first two episodes creates fun characters in an interesting dynamic that almost makes you hype to see what they do with it.
Then a time skip to probably the best arc in the novel series so far and your just waiting for something to happen because as an anime viewer we have no character development for this very character centric arc. then we get to see the "Intellectual fight" that you can predict the story beats immediately even if this is your second monitor entertainment, slowly drag on for 4 episodes.
But then it ends with ... a quick hook by developing a new plot of taking down the big bad that your gonna need the light novel to see.
id recommend just watching the first two episodes and image your own story during the time skip then actually watching the entire thing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 14, 2024

Izzikf

Not Recommended

The way the writing handles the anime's chosen themes is so convoluted that it hurts.

The writing is bad and never successfully conveys any of the 'messages' this anime might have.

The directing is a mess, without any regards to what is being said or the moment in which the story is. Directed in a way that seems experimental at best, and unprofessional at worst.

The music is out-of-touch for the genre, the scenes and the 'action'. Audio design is 'just there', nothing interesting for the ears throughout the entirety of the show.

Example for how bad the directing and writing are: in episode, when the female police ... officer is in the hotel room with the wisdom princess and the male MC, there’s a moment in which the princess explains that ‘tonight is the night when it all be determined’ (paraphrasing), to which the police officer responds (while she is standing and sweating, after looking at her wrist watch) ‘there’s hardly any time’. Immediately afterwards, the show cuts to the same hotel room, only now the police officer is calmly sitting down, being served coffee by the male MC, and conversing with the princess without haste about their future plans on how to resolve the matter - no sense of the urgency that the show just finished establishing before the cut.

The drawings are simplistic and boring.

It seems that the writer tried to say something about something, but the outcome of the attempt is so bad, that you have to watch it for yourself if you want to understand why I claim as such. Although, trust me, you'll feel like you were robbed of precious time.

Have fun watching

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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