Re-Kan

Summary: >

Inoue hates scary things, making it an odd twist of fate when she befriends Hibiki, a girl who's on friendly terms with those in the afterlife. Hibiki is a spaced out priestess with a gift for speaking with ghosts and spirits. Thus far she's never befriended anyone living, but perhaps she can show everyone the ghosts mean no harm. Probably.

Thoughts: >

I guess it kind of goes without saying that a show about ghosts may be lacking substance, but as a guy who likes occult type stuff I'm a little disappointed. But only a little. Re-Kan (6th Sense) is a light hearted way to kill time, and that's about all.

The characters aren't even remotely original, made worse by most of them adding nothing to the show. The core relationship between Inoue and Hibiki works okay, but everyone else just fills space. The ghosts were a bigger disappointment, although some had great potential. A samurai ghost with a crush on Hibiki is probably the most featured. Later on, the ghost of a (dated) trendy high school girl becomes a regular as well. Putting the samurai and the ghost gal together seems like magic just waiting to happen, so it's hard to fathom how Re-Kan doesn't get much out of these two. The gal ghost at least has some hilarious dialog (like, gag me with a spoon OMG totally).

What hooked me (at first) in Re-Kan were the sincerely creepy and scary nature of the ghosts. I liked how ghosts were frightening, combined with the easy going air headed girl who thinks of them as friends. Over time most of them are demoted to "Casper" friendly variety, and bland. Also kind of lame the way people can see ghosts with cell phones, which diffuses much of the mystery surrounding them.

Re-Kan is clearly budget constrained in animation and art (especially with colors looking "off"), but very consistent. It's precariously positioned, like at any second the animation and artwork will turn to crap, yet it never does and always looks "just okay".

The stories are hit and miss, but the saving grace of this anime are the few hits. Some of the ghost's stories were sweet and enjoyable. That's about the best I can say for recommending this one: maybe hang in there for a few decent stories while wading through the rest. It's sometimes cute, amusing far less often than it wants to be, and sometimes touching, but mostly none of the above. While I don't regret watching Re-kan, I find it hard to recommend.

Screen Caps: >