In/Spectre (虚構推理, Kyokou Suiri) is a 2020 television anime series based on Kyo Shirodaira’s light novel series of the same name. The series was produced by studio Brain’s Base, and the staff credits include director Keiji Gotoh, screenplay writer Noboru Takagi, character designer Takatoshi Honda and music composed by Akihiro Manabe. The series first aired in Japan on January 2020.
Background:
“Iwanaga Kotoko became the god of wisdom to the supernatural beings and spends her days solving problems for them. However, the boy who she fell head over heels for, Sakuragawa Kuro, is someone that is feared by all supernatural creatures. The two of them face various mysterious incidents involving the supernatural in this love x romance x mystery series. Where will these fantastical incidents lead them and what will happen with Kotoko’s crush?”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, June 2022.
In/Spectre is an interesting anime that is similar in concept to the Monogatari franchise in terms of its structure. There’s a lot of emphasis on the ghost lore and a lot of the scenes were mostly dialogue. Despite one story arc that essentially overstayed its welcome by being too long (likely due to how they paced it), the series did enough to get a second season which I have heard will improve on its pacing as there will be more shorter arcs than what we have seen thus far.
In/Spectre was licensed and streamed by Crunchyroll when the series was being simulcast at the same time as Japan. They even provided an English dub to the mix. The series was one of the few that got confirmed to be distributed by Viz Media in North America, however the US distributor’s reputation on the disc authoring side has gotten very messy and as such the video quality is not up to par.
Anime Limited, continuing their relationship with Crunchyroll despite the latter now having their own UK branch via Funimation, was able to license In/Spectre for the UK & Ireland and release it on Blu-ray. Since Viz Media titles normally get a new disc in Region B territories (due to a bonus feature or two not being allowed), Anime Limited took note of the feedback on the video quality and made their own discs to fix the problem.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
While Viz Media went for a regular Blu-ray release, Anime Limited managed to get enough assets to provide In/Spectre with a collector’s set.
The package is presented as a rigid box with an digipack to house the discs. Also included with the set is a 32-page booklet featuring character designs, spectre designs, illustration artwork and an article about the series written by Andrew Osmond.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £59.99. A standard Blu-ray is expected to follow suit later down the line.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and digipack packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 32-page booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 13th June 2022
The collector’s edition release for In/Spectre Season 1 contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring produced by VDMS. Viz Media kept dropping the ball with their authoring and since Viz titles generally had to get a new author in Region B territories, Anime Limited took this opportunity to improve the presentation by teaming up with VDMS (Cardcaptor Sakura, Jujutsu Kaisen) to make the UK discs. The audio options include Japanese with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! English dub commissioned by Crunchyroll.
The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Japanese Blu-ray Advert
- Clean Opening “Mononoke in the Fiction“
- Clean Opening Episode 1
- Clean Ending “Last Dance”
- Clean Ending Episode 4
- Clean Ending Episode 6
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
In/Spectre Season 1 is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray can be acquired through Anime Limited’s store, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, and United Publications.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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