English Dub Season Review: In/Spectre Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Yokai, ayakashi, spectres, demons, mononoke, and ghosts fill our world. But nobody can speak with them. Well, nobody except for one girl: Kotoko Iwanaga. Chosen from a young age to become the ‘goddess of wisdom’ to the supernatural spirits, she sacrificed an eye and a leg to gain the abilities to communicate with the spectral realm. Her job is to solve problems in the spirit world. She’s not alone, thanks to her steadfast boyfriend, Kuro. He also has supernatural abilities: he can predict the future. And he’s immortal. Pretty good boyfriend material, right? Together, the two of them investigate cases.

Until one day, when Kuro sets off on his own. His cousin, Rikka, is causing mischief in a town nearby. Kotoko follows, and meets up with his ex-girlfriend, Saki. Saki is a police officer who is looking into the strange case of a former idol who died under suspicious circumstances. The three of them eventually wind up working together, and find out that Rikka is using her own powers to bring a ghost named Steel Lady Nanase to life through the minds of Internet wiki readers. It’s not an easy task to rid reality of the Steel Lady, but it’s one that must be done, because Kotoko is the girl who defends the gap between the spiritual and the real worlds.

Our Take:

In/Spectre had a lot of potential. It’s a series with a lot of things going for it, from the well-regarded past works of the creator to the attractive character designs and spooky setup. For the first several episodes, it seems to be taking the shape of a mystery of the week type show, with Kotoko and Kuro deepening their relationship while investigating ghostly dilemmas. But then comes the Steel Lady Nanase story arc, and it takes up the entire back half of the show in a way that gets a little too tired.

Kotoko is a wonderful leading lady. It’s kind of rare to see someone so peppy and wholesome on the outside, but so mature and sarcastic on the inside. It’s a lot of fun to watch her, whether she’s questioning a giant serpent water spirit or letting Kuro know why he’s lucky to be her boyfriend. Kuro himself is a bit of a blank slate at the start, but over the course of the season, his personality fills out a bit and by the end, the two of them share a really nice dynamic that I’d love to see more of. It’s cool to see Saki take such a big role despite being the ex-girlfriend, and I enjoyed seeing how she grew closer to Kotoko and Kuro throughout the Steel Lady Nanase arc.

But characters can only do so much for a series. It takes an engaging storyline to make it worth watching, and unfortunately, that’s where In/Spectre doesn’t bear close inspection. The Steel Lady Nanase storyline starts off interestingly enough, with a timeskip that sees Kotoko accidently connecting with Saki while following Kuro to the city. For a couple episodes, things are great, with a thought-provoking mystery and new dynamics to explore between Kotoko and her boyfriend’s ex. But then it just keeps going. And going. And by the end of it, the show is over. The overall themes of the idea of truth in an online world are cool, but it could’ve been covered more effectively in a shorter amount of time. It’d be one thing if the story had kept getting into new ideas or topics, but I feel like the entire arc of Steel Lady Nanase suffered because of how much time it got.

With a setup based in the supernatural world, I would have loved to see the show get into more creepy ghosts and unique mindbenders for Kotoko to solve, and introduce more unique characters and antagonists. Rikka is a good villain, but the show only barely gets around to properly introducing her as the antagonist.

The dub is very well done, with great casting for the main characters. Lizzie Freeman especially shines as Kotoko, and her deliveries are rarely off. The script is adapted fairly well too, including puns and double meanings like Kotoko’s banana joke in the finale.

In the end, it’s no mystery why I didn’t enjoy In/Spectre as much as I hoped. It took a lot of great ingredients, but didn’t quite know how to finish the recipe. If you’re looking for a show featuring fun characters investigating supernatural mysteries with a bit of romance on the side, I’d encourage you to give In/Spectre a try and inspect its highlights and flaws for yourself.