In/Spectre has returned! There aren’t a ton of mystery anime going on right now so it’s always fun to check one of these out. The first season was also fun in part because of how unique the whole premise was. I’ve never seen a detective solve all of their crimes through a bunch of lies before but it really makes sense in part because there should be very few characters who could actually call her bluff on it. Season 2 continues with this and brings in some more fun cases. I’d definitely like to see this show get a season 3 and keep on going because the cases have been consistently interesting.
The first episode is fairly low key to remind you of what the premise is. Kotoko is basically a legendary goddess among the undead spirits and so they come to her with problems to be solved. She will then use her detective skills to get to the bottom of the situation. It always involves some kind of a mystery after all. What separates her from other detectives though is that she will lie in order to put the client at ease. For example she doesn’t always know the answer to the mystery. Other times she does, but figures the truth will not be easy for the client to hear so she changes it up. Often times her boyfriend Kuro will notice that she’s lying but he tends to stay quiet about it.
The first adventure involves creepy sounds in the house. Possibly a vengeful spirit or was there an explanation that’s a little less supernatural? It’s stand alone so Kotoko solves the case pretty easily. It’s probably the least eventful out of all the episodes but as an intro to the season is works well enough. I should also mention that since Kotoko can talk to all these dead spirits it does give her a huge leg up over the other detectives. After all she doesn’t have to question a bunch of people. She can just ask some nearby spirits on the details and then the case is solved. Often times for that reason as the viewer we don’t see her chat with the spirits so she can explain things in the end. We’re kept in the dark until the end so that the whole thing can be a surprise for us too.
After that we get the first big mystery saga. So big in fact that Kotoko basically misses the first part of this arc. There’s a guy named Masayuki who has been having some rather rotten luck. He was thrown out of his own company and then his friend tried to murder him. Then his wife ended up divorcing him so he lost 50% of his assets. Yeah it definitely has not been an easy road for him and he’s been super depressed when he ends up meeting a strange being known as a Yuki-Onna. The legends say that they will slay any human they come across but she doesn’t seem so violent. In fact, Yuki is the one who saved him when his “friend” left him to die on the mountain. Masayuki believes his luck is finally changing but then his ex-wife is murdered and he is the primary suspect.
Because Masayuki has been hanging out with Yuki all day in his house he doesn’t have much of an alibi. He’s also trying to not get her in trouble with the authorities so he’s very cryptic about everything. Now he may have to spend the rest of his life in jail. Yuki needs some help and so she calls in Kotoko to handle this. Surely the goddess of wisdom can handle such a task right? Well, it won’t be as easy as all that because Kotoko also isn’t sure that this guy is right for her in the first place. Relationships between humans and yokai don’t always go very well after all so she tests them quite a lot.
It’s an engaging mystery in part because there was so much setup. Not having Kotoko or Kuro jump in until later was a good idea. This way we really got to experience Masayuki’s life first and see exactly how everything had gone wrong for him. He makes for a decent main character although obviously I can’t say that the romance was very solid. It’s a rebound no matter how you slice it. Also by coincidence Yuki looks a lot like his ex-wife…so that does not help matters.
As a yokai Yuki’s values are a lot different than a human’s so she doesn’t mind having an affair and teases him a lot. To Masayuki’s defense he never crumbles though and does want to take this very seriously. He passes the tests quite well and doesn’t really lose his cool even when Kotoko is slandering him quite a lot. The guy gets threatened and is already in a rough situation but I’d say he mainly takes it in stride. The story really has everything you could want in one of the In/Spectre cases from Kotoko’s constant lying with false scenarios to building up a pretty unique case.
After that we get a smaller adventure where Rikka gets most of the screen time. She decides to crash at a nice couple’s house and they are glad to have her even if they are a bit nervous. She has a ton of money and seems a little shady. Plus her story about running away from some terrible people sounds concerning and then she leaves as soon as she appeared, only for Kotoko and Kuro to show up. There is a tiny mystery squeezed in at the end but this was really just a chance to see the main villain again and how she can keep up with Kotoko in wits. They really parallel each other quite well even though they can’t stand each other.
Of course Rikka is the big villain of the series so you can’t root for her, whether she’s charismatic or not. Also there’s still the very problematic romance with her and Kuro so you couldn’t let her win for that reason as well. I expect she will continue to bring the main characters a lot of problems over the next few seasons but the dynamic is fun. She’s actively trying to murder Kotoko but the heroine takes this in stride and they still seem to have a lot of begrudging respect for each other.
Now we have the biggest mystery in the season. A wealthy old man hires Kotoko to explain to his relatives that he actually murdered his wife. Here’s the thing…he didn’t. However, he hired a yokai to destroy her and so he wants to take full responsibility before he dies and he wants to do this directly. Lying is what Kotoko does best so she’s up for the task but the only other stipulation is she needs to get the relatives to come up with this theory first rather than just telling them. So she has to subtly lead them down that path which isn’t exactly easy. In addition she will have them rank which death story is the best one and then that will decide who gets the largest part of the inheritance.
Kotoko immediately makes some alterations to this plan but in a nutshell the story is really about the whole family coming up with ideas on how the old man could have murdered her. The official story is she was stabbed in the middle of the night by a stranger so using that as a baseline they have to figure out how to tie it to him. As the saga unfolds we see that most of these relatives were quite shady and he wasn’t exactly the only one who wanted to bump her off. The lady had made quite a few enemies in and out of her family.
It’s actually pretty tragic the more they get into it because she did have her heart in the right place initially. The problem is that she became a pawn for the CEO and then the rest of the family were not bold enough to actually talk and help her out. They never voiced any of their reservations and issues. The fact that they were ready to jump straight into murder actually speaks quite lowly of them to be honest. When that’s your first option then perhaps you were twisted from the get go. So none of these characters are particularly likable aside from a niece who didn’t actually have anything to do with the murder plot. Just about everyone else had some blood on their hands.
This helps the saga last for so many episodes of course because there is twist after twist in each one. Kotoko is good at getting the truth out there by lying enough times. Ultimately it’s got a pretty solid conclusion and you’ll be engaged the whole time. On paper you may wonder how the story can keep your focus as it keeps replaying over and over with new details but they do pull it off rather well.
Finally we end with another one shot mystery. In this one a guy decides to finally turn himself in to the cops for murdering his wife however first he gets called to a café by his friend. Has the friend figured it out? The guy figures if the friend finds out then that works too but either way he will be turning himself in. Kotoko of course ends up getting involved too and makes for a pretty fun distraction while the two guys are eating. You’re constantly wondering what she is even doing there and that mystery is explained by the end.
The end of the episode is surprisingly mean spirited with how things go for the guy but you have to remind yourself that he is by no means a good person. He’s a literal murderer so if anything it’s good that he didn’t get off too easy. Yeah this guy’s going to be in for a lousy time for a very long while but that actually makes a lot of sense and fits the crime. The Supernatural legal system doesn’t bow to the moral setup so he may not have known what he was getting himself into but then he definitely shouldn’t have gotten mixed up in this in the first place. Another really solid case to end things off with.
I actually skipped one mystery in this summary. Which one did I skip? Well that’s a mystery!! Yeah I got a little mystery of my own in there. In the end the show’s cast is fairly small so you should be able to quickly know all of them. Right now there’s really just 3, Kuro, Kotoko, and Rikka. I thought Kuro’s old girlfriend would have returned in this season but I guess that wasn’t to be. I like Kuro and Rikka a lot but Kotoko is definitely the weak link of the 3. Her gimmick of constantly being desperate for Kuro can be a bit iffy and she’s intentionally vulgar at times which the other characters really grill her about.
I know that’s her character and effectively that’s the humor of the subplot but I wouldn’t say it lands. The show is at its best with the mystery angle and isn’t quite able to balance the humor on top of that. Usually I like the dry humor style too so this is really just one of those exceptions. Still it’s not like she’s a Roshi character or anything. She limits her teasing and flirting to Kuro and doesn’t mess with anyone else so I appreciate the loyalty. I’d just say the romance isn’t going anywhere fast.
The soundtrack is decent but a step down from the first season. The new opening isn’t as catchy and the general ost is a bit on the generic side. There’s really just not a whole lot to it. The visuals are okay. I’d hardly call this one of the more high budget shows though. It looks good enough to pass by and that’s really about it. So the show is standing on its plot completely without the technical backdrops to help it out. Fortunately when the core of your show is good then the rest will follow suit but I do think it’d be nice if the show could have looked a bit more solid.
In/Spectre should continue to operate on a consistent level though because the angle is just a lot of fun. I can’t emphasize enough how interesting it is to have a detective who is constantly lying and pulling the wool over everyones’ eyes. It’s very unique and it also does not take away from the fun part of solving the mystery since we usually do get to know the truth. In the cases where we don’t, Kotoko at least has a very good idea of what it was and we just have to fill in some of the blanks which I’m always happy to do anyway.
Overall, In/Spectre has another solid season here. The mysteries are on point and the writing for them is good. At times Kotoko can still be a little too annoying and I can’t say her crude personality does her any favors. Fortunately there isn’t a ton of time for that when making deductions which is still the main purpose of the show after all. The overall story of the series may not have moved a whole lot here but it’s the kind of show that could probably stay in slice of life style for years and that would be fine. There are plenty of supernatural mystery stories to tell after all. I’d definitely recommend this one if you’re looking for a fun mystery series to check out.
Overall 7/10
