Re-Kan is a Japanese yonkoma manga series by Hinako Seta, serialized in Houbunsha's Manga Time Jumbo magazine. Re-Kan! was first published as a one-shot in Manga Time Jumbo's December 2009 issue, and it later began serialization with the February 2010 issue. It has been collected into four tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation by Pierrot+ began airing April 2, 2015.
Hibiki Amami is an odd girl who can see and communicate with ghosts, as well as talk to animals! Originally a Yonkoma, it has received an anime adaptation as part of the spring 2015 anime lineup.
The show is available on Crunchyroll here
and on Hulu here for people in the US and Canada.
Not to be confused with RIN-NE, another show about seeing ghosts whose anime adaptation aired in the same season.
The anime contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight:
- Several of the ghosts get a half or whole episode that focuses on them and the main characters helping them out.
- After Kenta asks about it, Makoto finally reveals more about her obsession with zombies in the second half of episode 10 stemming from a zombie manga some students drew when her father attended school there. Though Hibiki is touched by the zombie's curse, the others are more skeptical of it, and still don't see why Makoto obsesses about zombies so much.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Narumi adamantly refuses to believe in ghosts. This would be a rational point of view if not for the fact that even the completely mundane people around Hibiki regularly see evidence that they're real, not to mention the strong hints that Narumi herself has a sixth sense.
- Ambiguously Gay: Hibiki and Narumi. They get a lot of legit Ship Teases and the way they act around each other makes them practically the series' Official Couple, but nothing goes beyond Pseudo-Romantic Friendship subtext... albeit heavy subtext.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Zigzagged. Several of the ghosts do this after being helped with whatever was keeping them bound to Earth. But some of them, like the Roll-Call Samurai, stick around anyway because they like spending time with Hibiki, and in many cases, protecting her against Ero-neko.
- Bait-and-Switch: Episode 9 starts with Hibiki's friends freaking out over finding out that Hibiki is making Valentine's chocolate for someone. Assuming it's for a guy she might have a crush on, her friends stalk Hibiki in hopes of finding out who it is. Of course, much to Narumi's relief, it all turns out to be just another ghost problem Hibiki was helping with.
- Barehanded Blade Block: Ero-neko does this to one of the Roll-Call Samurai's attacks in episode 2. Kana manages to take a picture of it.
- Beach Episode: The first part of episode 4 has the characters go to a beach. Due to the nature of this show, it's also haunted by ghosts.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: It's revealed that the ghosts are quite friendly to Hibiki because not only can she see them, but she often tries to help them out, such as treating ghost children to candy or creating a scarf for a samurai ghost and offering him food. They try to return the favour in episode 11 by watching over Yuuhi's room so she can visit Hibiki at least once, something the latter has desired for a long time.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Inverted example with Ero-neko. He tries to watch the girls changing in their locker room, and later tries to look up Hibiki's skirt. This becomes a Running Gag in the show.
- Big "NO!": Hibiki does this a few times in episode 2 when telling her classmates about the dream she had with Ero-neko.
- When the girl possessing Hibiki says she's meeting somebody for Christmas, Hibiki's friends come to the conclusion that she—and therefore Hibiki—will be going on a date. Kenta lets out a Big No, but gets shoved aside by Narumi, who lets out a bigger one.
- Blank White Eyes: Narumi displays these quite often due to the shock of seeing ghosts around Hibiki.
- Blatant Lies: In episode 2, the characters discuss if they're more scared of humans or ghosts. Narumi claims she's more afraid of humans after her grandmother's spirit appears over her, despite always screaming in fear at paranormal events.
- Blue with Shock: Hibiki does this in episode 2 after hearing about Kenta's ghost story. See the Comically Missing the Point entry for further details.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In episode 2, the teacher does a roll call. When he gets to Hibiki, she's sleeping. The ghosts answer for her, but then Ero-neko is also heard asking for a Panty Shot. The teacher tries again, and once again the ghost and the cat answer, with yet another request for a Panty Shot.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Episode 4, Hibiki addresses the camera with the words, "Summer means the beach," the title of the episode.
- Butt-Monkey: A few examples:
- Kenta tends to get beat up by the girls a lot, even for stuff he didn't do but just happened to be around for. And in episode 8, they hit him after a rare earnest, non-moment-killing reply.
- Ero-neko ends up this way when the ghosts start protecting Hibiki from his attempts to view her panties.
- Narumi and ghosts. Though it's mostly not intentional, her hanging out around Hibiki also means she witnesses a lot of paranormal events, and she always gets freaked out by them. By episode 5, she wonders if she's being made fun of because of this.
- Car Fu: An Imagine Spot in episode 10 has Makoto, among other bad things, getting hit by a ghostly car. It's then Played for Laughs when said car hits Ero-neko later on.
- Childhood Friends: Kana and Kyouko are the Vitriolic Best Friends version.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome:
- Kyouko, when she was younger, would go around beating up other delinquents to protect the people they targeted, earning her the nickname "Flame-Haired Messiah". Kyouko doesn't like the name, and claims she never meant to help people; she just couldn't help it.
- Hibiki often goes out of her way to help ghosts.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Narumi shows shades of this at the end of episode 10 when she overhears that Hibiki might end up spending more time with the new students than her. Though she won't admit it, she doesn't seem comfortable when she hears it.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Hibiki's mother Yuuhi, as seen in flashbacks. When she and her father Asahi meet for the first time, she relays a message from a dead pigeon, in pigeon.
- Comically Missing the Point: In episode 2, Kenta talks about a ghost story with a girl with no face, who offers you an umbrella then steals your face in return. Hibiki goes Blue with Shock over hearing it, but out of regret for an accidentally insensitive comment she'd made to the girl, rather than fear. She then decides to create a Teru-Teru Bōzu doll for the girl.
- Cuteness Proximity: Ero-neko plays up this trope in the first episode when he appears in the window by the girls' locker room. They think he's cute, until Hibiki hears him mentioning wanting to watch them change and closes the window on him.
- Delayed Reaction: In episode 9, Kenta announces that Hibiki is researching making homemade chocolates. It takes a moment before the realization hits the rest.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
- Kenta's beatings are all Played for Laughs when he's hit by the girls. While he does deserve some of them, other times it could easily be seen as abuse were the genders reversed.
- Even the Roll-Call Samurai isn't immune to this, as the Kogal Spirit beats him up from time to time. Like with Kenta, this is Played for Laughs.
- Despite being a cop, Kenta's brother Masaki often gets his ass handed to him by Kyouko.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Narumi first sees Hibiki at a crosswalk. The latter crosses the street by hopping up and down and screaming. Narumi thinks she's strange at first, until she spots hand-shaped shadows on Hibiki's leg and then sees a ghost boy clinging to her.
- Kenta's Butt-Monkey status is shown by him getting a door slammed on him in the first episode. And in episode 2, he keeps getting hit in the face with things tossed by the other characters.
- Hibiki's father is introduced when he is seen screaming at nothing, much like Narumi does. It turns out he can also sense ghosts, and later relates how he met Hibiki's mother when they saw a dead pigeon on the road.
- The Faceless: A ghost girl shows up in episode 2 that has no face.
- Five Stages of Grief: Narumi's little cousin Yuuki, in episode 3. They later find out that his father recently passed away in an accident while his mother was giving birth to another child. After Narumi learns how to cook eggs the way Yuuki's father did, he breaks down crying, learns to accept his father's passing, and moves on with his life to look after his new sibling.
- Flash Back: Used regularly in the show to reveal events that occurred with various characters in the past, such as when Narumi tells Hibiki about the times her grandmother tried to teach her how to cook, but she refused to learn.
- Fog Feet: The ghosts that do have human upper halves still lack anything below the waist or knees.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Kyouko is very uneasy around Masaki in episode 4. A Flash Back reveals they met years earlier, and she smacked him on the head after getting too excited over meeting the "Flame Haired Messiah" that was going around beating up delinquents picking on helpless girls. At the beach in the present, he doesn't seem to recognize her.
- Four Is Death: The Roll-Call Samurai somehow figures out how to text and call Kana. His phone number is shown as a string of 4s.
- Freudian Excuse:
- Kyouko claims that she's afraid of ghosts in episode 2, citing humans' punchability. This is shown some more in her Flash Back during episode 4, when she did in fact go around beating up thugs a few years earlier.
- In episode 9, a Grumpy Old Man appears at the park and yells at people, especially couples. The man's wife apologizes to Hibiki for his behavior, while teaching her a red bean paste recipe. It's revealed later that the woman is actually a ghost, and she passed away sometime in the last few months. As a result, this was the man's first Valentine's Day without her.
- Generation Xerox:
- Hibiki is the spitting image of her mother, who also had the ability to talk to ghosts.
- It's implied that Hibiki shares her mother's taste in a partner, which is used to Ship Tease Hibiki and Narumi similarly to the former's father and mother.
- Ghost Butler: Some of the ghosts at school automatically open doors for Hibiki.
- Giving Up the Ghost: Kenta does this in the first episode after getting a door slammed on him.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: The Kogal Spirit and Roll-Call Samurai offer to watch the flowers in Yuuhi's room in episode 11, but she warns them that the two of them alone won't be enough to keep the flowers from wilting. Ero-neko then shows up alongside virtually all of the other spirits in town, to help Yuuhi to see her daughter at least once.
- Grumpy Old Man: One shows up in episode 9 with a particular disdain for couples.
- Heroic BSoD: Hibiki suffers one in episode 12 after losing her ability to sense ghosts.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Hibiki in the first half of episode 10. She tries to make a good impression on the younger students, but they're always scared away by the ghosts around her. At least two girls at the end do find out more about her and how she tends to help the ghosts, however, and aren't as scared by that point.
- High-Pressure Emotion: Done from time to time, especially in episode 8 when the girls are discussing marriage partners.
- Hime Cut: Not obvious because of the art style, but Hibiki has one.
- Holding in Laughter: Inoue is trying, and failing, not to laugh when she hears that their Fiery Red Head former delinquent classmate Esumi used to be nicknamed "The Red-headed Messiah" for beating up some local toughs. She hides herself behind the curtains of the classroom windows to try and hide her laughter.
- Improbably Female Cast: There are quite a lot of female characters compared to the male ones. Kenta and the Roll-Call Samurai are the only ones that regularly stick around, while the other male characters (such as Hibiki's father) are only seen a few times at best.
- Inseries Nickname:
- Kyouko was nicknamed the "Flame-Haired Messiah" due to her tendency to beat up delinquents back in middle school. Kana mentions the nickname to the little ghost girl in episode 8 and gets a Cranial Eruption from Kyouko for it.
- Kenta is introduced as "Doofus Yamada" to the little ghost girl due to being The Ditz. She ends up calling him that every time from then on. Younger students end up calling him that as well in episode 10.
- Kenta attempts to call Narumi "Tsundere-chan in episode 10, something she doesn't like. A couple of her friends jokingly call her that later as well.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Kenta is prone to getting hurt. Despite that he seems to largely shrug it off.
- I See Dead People: Played for Laughs in this show.
- Hibiki can talk to, and interacts frequently with, ghosts. However, many of the other characters can't, so to them it looks like she's just talking to thin air.
- Narumi claims she can't see them, and is very skeptical of the notion. However, she is able to see the ghost children in the park, and ends up playing with them while waiting on Hibiki. Not that she realised they're ghosts, mind you.
- Episode 2 reveals that the ghosts show up on camera. Kana in particular enjoys this, because she can then share the pictures on her blog. The Samurai in particular seems to take quite a few pictures of himself after Hibiki creates a scarf for him.
- It Runs in the Family:
- Kenta's older brother acts just as airheaded as he does. The only difference between the two is their height.
- Hibiki's odd abilities, such as being able to talk to animals and see ghosts, were inherited from her mother.
- Kana's love of photography and blogging, as well as her investigative tendencies, seem to be related to her heritage, as both of her parents are journalists.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: In episode 5, Yoshida of the manga club cosplays as Kyubey... with a few lawyer-friendly alterations.
- Love at First Sight: Hibiki's father falls in love with her mother when he first sees her.
- Missing Mom: Hibiki's mother passed away soon after giving birth to her.
- Mistaken Identity: In episode 5, during the school culture festival, the ghosts mistake Narumi wearing a long black wig for Hibiki. As such, they do things for her that the normally only do for the latter, such as opening doors automatically, as well as writing on the chalkboard to ask questions. Narumi lampshades this when she realizes it, and also mentions Hibiki's father being with her reinforcing the mistake.
- Mood Whiplash: Goes from
Moe comedy to Nightmare Fuel and back in record time. - Mundane Made Awesome: Kenta yelling out that Hibiki's making homemade chocolate in episode 9 in a dramatic fashion.
- New Transfer Student: The fist episode starts with Hibiki preparing for her first day going to a new school.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Kogal Spirit and Roll-Call Samurai enter Hibiki's mind in episode 11 to visit her mother. Yuuhi warns them that she has to stay in the room or else the flowers there would wilt and bad things would happen. However, a lot of ghosts show up to watch over them so that Yuuhi can visit her daughter at least once. Though Hibiki clearly remembers seeing her mother, in the morning she's unable to see or hear any ghosts, implying that they failed to keep the flowers alive.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Hibiki is plunged into a depression by the loss of her powers in episode 12, Kana and Kyouko are so subdued that they don't even bother punching Kenta.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Though some of them are creepy, most of them are actually rather friendly, and help out Hibiki quite a bit. They also show up on camera, which lets Muggles see them, and they can "talk" to the other characters via a phone call or text messaging. However, as episode 12 shows, they need the presence of a medium to manifest, as when Hibiki loses her powers, there's no supernatural activity around her whatsoever.
- Pet the Dog: In episode 11, Ero-neko calls other spirits to help the Kogal Spirit and Samurai watch over Yuuhi's room so she can visit Hibiki. He claims it's because sneaking a Panty Shot of her isn't as fun if she's too sad to react to his attempts.
- Pinky Swear: One is made in episode 8, between Moriya, one of the teachers, and a little girl ghost. When he was younger, he spent a lot of time in a hospital, where he met a little girl and befriended her. They made a promise to see each other when they grew up, but she unfortunately died shortly afterwards. In the present, though, they still manage to keep their promise.
- Posthumous Character: Hibiki's mother, and pretty much every ghost in the series.
- Power Limiter: The pair of glasses Hibiki wears in episode 7 shuts off her ability to see and hear ghosts. Unfortunately, this causes a problem when she's unable to ask them for help with finding a young girl that got separated from her brother and grandmother.
- Rubber Face: Narumi does this to Hibiki twice in episode 1, and again in episode 5 after being teased by Kyouko about women falling for men who are like their fathers, and getting mad at Hibiki for blushing at the comment.
- Running Gag:
- Ero-neko's antics and his constant requests for Panty Shots. The ghosts start to protect Hibiki from this whenever possible.
- Kenta Yamada seems prone to getting hurt. In the first episode, a ghost slams the door on him while he's in the doorway. And in episode 2, things keep getting tossed in his face, such as a cellphone, even if he wasn't the one doing anything to provoke said reaction.
- School Festival: A cultural festival is held at the main character's school in episode 5. Naturally, the gang decide to run a haunted house.
- Seers: Hibiki's mother was able to see future events, and sees Ero-neko in a vision during episode 5's Flash Back. Unfortunately, she also knew she wasn't going to be around for much longer after giving birth to Hibiki, though her husband says he's still happy with the short time they spent together.
- Serious Business: All of Hibiki's friends, especially Narumi, seem a little too interested in the fact that she's making sweets for someone for Valentine's Day.
- Ship Tease: The show is very blatant about this for Hibiki and Narumi. With the not-so-subtle OP credits, ghosts shipping them together, Hibiki's shyness over Narumi, Narumi's tsundereness over Hibiki, and Hibiki's parents sharing some traits with them, it gets to the point that one can assume that they are the Official Couple of the show.
- Both the first and last episodes close with Ero-neko gushing about his fondness for yuri.
- Shipper on Deck: Ero-neko ships Narumi and Hibiki because he thinks Girl on Girl Is Hot. Ghosts also ship the two, such as the beach ghosts giving the two matching heart-shaped shells and telling Narumi not to be shy. Their friends and family also seem to ship the two.
- Sick Episode: Episode 7. While Hibiki technically wasn't sick, constant requests from ghosts had made her exhausted to the point her friends make her wear a Power Limiter pair of glasses so she can get some rest.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: A few examples:
- Ero-neko and virtually all of the ghosts, due to his habit of peeking at panties, particularly Hibiki's. As a result, they often try to defend her against his antics.
- The Kogal Spirit and Roll-Call Samurai are often constantly arguing with each other about what's going on in the human world.
- Kana and Kyouko have a relationship like this, but it's downplayed and not seen too often in favor of other things going on.
- Smashing Watermelons: In episode 4. However, the Samurai helps Hibiki out by slicing the watermelon after she gently hits it. Several of the girls call him out on it.
- Speaks Fluent Animal:
- Hibiki says she can understand some of the things animals say, such as Ero-neko.
- Yuuhi, Hibiki's mother, could apparently do it too, as the first thing she said to her future husband was something in pigeon after he tried to retrieve the bird's corpse in the middle of a busy street.
- Super-Deformed: The characters in the ending sequence.
- Super-Reflexes: Ero-neko, who is able to dodge the Samurai's sword swings in episode 2.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Samurai in episode 9 says he's following Hibiki out of concern for her, and not because he wants to find out who she's giving some chocolates to for Valentine's Day.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Narumi steps on Ero-neko in the first episode. He doesn't exactly mind.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Yuuki likes eggs prepared a certain way. Unfortunately, his dad was the only one who could cook the eggs that way, and he passed away recently in a traffic accident. Narumi then learns that he was taught by her grandmother, and asks for Hibiki's help in talking to her so she could learn to cook the eggs the same way.
- Tsundere: Narumi is a harsh type. She is very vocal in her skepticism that Hibiki can see ghosts.
- Universal Group Reaction: Shows up frequently.
- In the Beach Episode, when a ghost tries to use his silhouette to form a kanji during a fireworks display, all of the cast simultaneously respond with "Lame!"
- When Masaki suggests the girls should show more skin for the summer, he states that they should "do what they shouldn't" when they're young. Cue Kyouko looking for a blunt object to batter her Abhorrent Admirer, with the others thinking, "She's about to do what she shouldn't!"
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
- Played straight, initially. Several of Hibiki's classmates have already gotten used to see Hibiki acting weirdly and talking to air after only a week of school. Narumi is still insistent on being skeptical however.
- Averted in episode 10, when Hibiki and the others become second-years. The younger first-years are freaked out by all the supernatural happenings much like Narumi is.
- Valentine's Day Episode: Episode 9. Hibiki's friends are also way too obsessed with finding out about who she's making sweets for, thinking she might be interested in a guy they don't know about.
- Vitriolic Best Friends: Kana and Kyouko seem to have this kind of relationship, having grown up together.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: After Hibiki loses her ability to see/talk to ghosts in episode 12, she suffers a massive Heroic BSoD. It gets so bad that even Narumi, who's terrified of ghosts, does what she can to help her friend regain her powers again.
- Wham Episode: In Episode 11, Hibiki gets her Tanabata wish to meet her mother, but loses her sixth sense at the end.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Hibiki claims cats are scarier than the ghosts she meets, probably because the one cat she sees keeps asking to see her panties.
- Narumi is terrified of ghosts. The irony is that they seem to like her, and it's possible Narumi has at least a subtle sixth sense, as she is able to see ghosts sometimes. It might be the reason she's so terrified of them.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: The zombie in the manga in episode 10 is afflicted by this, and tries to make his way into heaven after suffering from an immortality curse in spite of a decaying body.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Hibiki has quite a few points: she's polite and soft-spoken, lives in a traditional Japanese house, is a good cook, and has a Hime Cut as well as Tareme Eyes. Her mother was one as well, as seen wearing a kimono in the flashbacks in Episode 5.
- You Are Not Alone: Narumi tries to say this in episode 10 after Hibiki's attempts at befriending the younger students fails due to them being scared of the ghosts. However, she's unable to do it, and Kenta ends up saying it instead, getting smacked for ruining the mood.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Played for Laughs in a dream sequence in episode 2, after they overwhelm Hibiki, the Samurai, and Ero-neko while in a mall. Ironically, Makoto gave them to Hibiki to help with her nightmares.
