Kyoukai no Rinne has nearly the same premise as one of the best TV shows of all time. It is a slice-of-life comedy about a dirt poor teenager who has to balance everyday life with the demands of his job as a shinigami. If you don't know, I'm talking about Dead Like Me, a show about a dirt poor teenager who has to balance everyday life with the demands of her job as a grim reaper. In fact Kyoukai no Rinne is almost exactly the same as Dead Like Me...
...minus the memorable, well-developed characters...
...the overarching intrigue...
...the interesting themes...
...the masterful comedy...
...or pretty much everything that made Dead Like Me great.
If you couldn't figure it out from the previous paragraph, Kyoukai no Rinne is trite, derivative, banal, and a waste of a perfectly good premise. But why does it fall so flat?
While they share the same plot, Kyoukai no Rinne is not trying to be Dead Like Me. Its significantly lighter tone permeates through much of its themes and delivery. Having a lighthearted tone is perfectly okay but Kyoukai no Rinne doesn't seem to do anything with it. Many times, it feels lke the whole shinigami business has no bearing on the plot and is just used to provide a flimsy justification for the characters to interact.
Additionally, the show has a terrible habit of telling, not showing. The incessesant narrator is incredibly obnoxious and redundant, often repeating obvious facts about the world. (I know what the Haori of the Underworld is and what it does, you don't have to remind me every time Rinne puts the f**king thing on.) The comedy is stale as well, often you will hear the narrator explain the joke to you as a reminder of when to laugh. I guess this was "helpful" because I couldn't tell when the show was trying to be funny. Considering the lack of an engaging plot, the stale humor, and the nonexistant subtext, are the characters able to pick up the slack?
Short answer: no.
Long answer: nooooooooooooooooo.
In all seriousness though, Kyoukai no Rinne's characters are probably the worst thing about the show. I could forgive the poorly written episodes and much of the show's shortcomings if the characters were at least intersting to watch. They aren't. Most of the main cast is recycled from Inuyasha and those that aren't are still boring. I honestly couldn't tell you much about the characters as they left only a minimal impression. I guess you have the main character Rinne, whose biggest defining trait is that he's poor. The emotionally dead Sakura who has the power to see ghosts but has zero agency or motivation. There's the deadbeat dad who is utterly deplorable (I wouldn't be surprised if the writer had daddy issues). And... there's the Shippo clone, I guess. He's poor too. There are others too but they only exist as character love-interests, pointless rivals, or living gags. The only character I will give a pass to is the grandmother. She's a good balance of quirky yet in-control.
The anime tries to be a romance too but the characters' chemistry mixes as well as oil and water. There's not much to say about it. It exists, but since it's so poorly executed and forced, it's best to not even bother. Rinne likes Sakura because... I dunno. Tig 'ol Bitties I suppose. Some ditzy rich girl likes Rinne because love triangles and stuff. Sakura likes no one because she is a sociopath. And that pretty much sums it up.
Listen, if you enjoy this show, more power to ya' and it is not my intention to insult YOU personally. But I did not like Kyoukai no Rinne, every minute I spent watching it was slow and arduous. If you want something with a similar premise but executed very well, watch Dead Like Me (although it is not an anime). As for anime recommendations, you'd be better off watching Soul Eater: Not.