Story Enter into the tried and tested yokaiinfested setting of contemporary Japan where adolescent girls get kidnapped and become goddesses by having a leg chopped off and an eye removed. Where women see their boyfriends scare off monsters and dont fall more in love with them in fact they practice judicious social distancing and f off. In/Spectre is unambitious with its story and several consequential plot points arent properly explained which weakens it further. Were it not for its consistently top notch dialogue the anime would be lost in the pile of thousands of others. In/Spectre initially presents itself as a runofthemill actionadventure yet it is undeniably a slow paced crime drama at heart. That isnt to say no fighting occurs this is anime after all but whats there is unremarkable perhaps a bit on the gorey side for shock value. The vast majority of the show is exposition about crimes think of it as an anime version of the Hannibal TV series but not nearly as well written or trippy. That being said the writing is quite engaging if you let it take you where it wants. The crux of In/Spectre is that the main character Kotoko Iwanaga becomes a the? goddess of wisdom for the spirits/yokai/CaspertheFriendlyGhosts of Japan. She does this by getting her leg chopped off and losing her right eye which Im sure is very symbolically representative to wisdom in Japanese culture its minimally explained in the anime good enough for me. What isnt explained in the anime is well why is she so damn smart? She goes around investigating these crimes and intuiting the perpetrators extremely contextsensitive reasoning like a teenaged Will Graham. I understand she often has yokai eyewitnesses and such to help her but shes casting outlandish theories as fact and everyones just like Yeah I guess we voted her as Goddess of Wisdom so thats that. Did the limb subtracting sensory organ losing ritual make her into some literal savant or does it come down to a womans intuition? Its never explained. Alright so thats one sliiiiightly nitpicky problem down now onto the most glaring issue I have with In/Spectre. Spoilers Below. Character In/Spectre is interesting solely because of Kotoko Iwanaga. Kurou Sakuragawa is the narrative equivalent of Plank from Ed Edd n Eddy. He barely talks rarely has anything interesting to say and when he does it comes out in such a monotone that one wonders why they bothered to have him voiced at all. The notion that he would be able to attract not just one but two attractive intelligent girls to his side with all the personality of beige carpet is laughable. Kotoko much like Raphtalia in Shield Hero makes Kurou somewhat interesting. Her endless frustration with his complete lack of emotion or affection towards her is a constant gag that never really got old. Their onesided relationship is the lighthouse that keeps In/Spectre entertaining throughout its 12 episodes. Without this In/Spectre would be a miserable slog. As noted in my spoiler section above Saki Yumihara is the character I have most gripes with even competing against Kurous Purgatorial soullessness. At least thats somewhat explained by way of his Fed up childhood. Saki is an undiagnosed schizophrenic. One scene shes a sure shot policewoman the next a barely hanging on hysterical mess. In the real world a duality of personality like hers is common and interesting but it is portrayed so clumsily here that you cant tell if its meant to be a joke or if someone at the studio thinks women are manic idiots. Art Sound In/Spectres animation is top notch. Little facial expressions on the characters except for Kurou hes a necromasters vessel waiting to be filled give even the banal scenes life. The action sequences are bareboned but that was never the point of In/Spectre so I wont judge them too harshly. The intro has a nice song but other than that I didnt notice the sound at all which in many respects is kudos to the soundFX team. Enjoyment Ultimately In/Spectre is a confused final product. A generally lighthearted theme conflicts with definitelynotfunny crimes. I just dont think a silly anime approach to a grisly crime noir setting works well. There are better anime that do similar things like Monster or Mushishi though Mushishi obviously isnt noir. I dont regret watching it but I cant help but come away frustrated that In/Spectre couldve been more.