LogFAQs > #969648769

12. Re-Kan!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/25859/Re-Kan
Spring 2015 (13 episodes)
My Score: 9/10, MAL Score: 6.75/10
Best Characters: Amami Hibiki, Inoue Narumi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO3MnzaL8ko

Premise: The new transfer student is nice and friendly, but for Inoue Narumi theres one big problem with her. Amami Hibiki can interact with ghosts, which is a constant source of terror for Narumi.

The Good: Re-Kan is a supernatural comedy. Hibiki can see ghosts, but, unlike Miko in Mieruko-chan, she isnt afraid of them and they cant do any harm. Hibiki befriends the spirits who cross her path, doing everything she can to help them and make their afterlife pleasant. When she transfers to a new school, supernatural occurrences become commonplace. Most students take it in stride. For Narumi, however, being Hibiki's friend is terrifying! I wont claim that Re-Kan is an amazing anime that will appeal to everyone, but it really appealed to me specifically. I enjoyed the comedic parts. Hibiki has a lot of zany ghostly friends, including a samurai, a bound spirit, and so on. Most of her human friends never get a lot of focus, but theyre fine as people to react to the supernatural shenanigans.

Still, the thing I found funniest was Narumi. She is afraid of ghosts and is constantly freaking out in the most hilarious ways. The video I linked for her character write-up is a six second one where Hibiki is being dragged off by friendly child ghosts who want to play. The way Narumi panics and screams is amazing. Her unbridled terror was endlessly amusing to me. Another comedic character in this is a cat, and Hibiki's powers let her hear its thoughts. The cat is the archetypal pervert character always trying to look up skirts, which frightens Hibiki as much as ghosts do Narumi. Normally I hate pervert characters, but for some reason turning it into a cat made it amusing. It helps that Hibiki is always surrounded by an army of spirits who are looking out for her, so the cat is usually taken down in slapstick ways without ever getting close to her.

Re-Kan also has a serious heartwarming side. Quite a few plots deal with helping ghosts move on, or helping them pass something on to still-living loved ones. Hibiki is willing to do everything she can for her ghostly friends. Im a sucker for stories like that, and Re-Kan made me tear up more than once. The plots were the perfect balance of sad yet happy, and it never became melodramatic.

The Bad: The human side characters in Re-Kan arent bad, but theyre easily the weakest part of the anime. They all only have one trait to set them apart, and none of them are as amazing as Narumi's terror. While I didnt mind the perverted cat, another character has a policeman brother who likes to hit on high-school girls. He was the absolute worst. I just refuse to let a side character's support character ruin the rest of the anime for me.

Overall: Re-Kan probably isnt for everyone, but I absolutely loved it. Hibiki is such a genuinely friendly girl, and I enjoyed watching her interact with everyone whether they were human or spirit. Narumi was also always terrified in really amusing ways. Most of the side characters werent great, but the main two more than made up for them. I loved the heartfelt stories some of the ghosts had as well.