Anime Like Demonbane
A detective broke down to his last yen picks up a sentient grimoire, and suddenly he's piloting a magic mecha to fight Lovecraft-adjacent horror in a city that doesn't care which one of them is actually in control. The show treats this premise like it's completely normal. The romance between Kuro and Al works because they're both trying to survive something bigger than either of them, and the ecchi moments land as nervous energy rather than distraction, which is harder than it sounds.
SYNOPSIS
Kuro Daijuuji runs a struggling detective agency in the grimy streets of Arkham City, barely scraping by on pocket change jobs. When a wealthy woman from the Hado Financial Group offers him serious money to track down a mysterious grimoire, he can't afford to refuse. What he finds instead is Al, a girl who claims to be a sentient spellbook incarnate. Against his better judgment, Kuro agrees to form a contract with her, granting him access to her considerable magical power. Things escalate quickly. Al summons Demonbane, a colossal supernatural mecha under the Hado Group's control, to fight off an interdimensional threat from the Black Lodge. Suddenly Kuro finds himself caught between rival factions, piloting an impossibly powerful machine alongside a girl who literally rewrites reality with words. The supernatural arms race spirals into full war, with Kuro and Al as unlikely soldiers in a conflict that blurs the line between magic, technology, and pure chaos. Buckle up for mayhem that doesn't take itself too seriously.
