Oof. This season. This season has been rough so far. Ten shows. Out of them, only three shows are ones I’m interested in continuing. And even them, I’m not over the moon for any of them like I was for To Your Eternity or Oddtaxi last season. But let’s get the worst out of the way first.
The Detective Is Already Dead
Premise (from memory)
A young man named Kimi finds himself forced to transport a mysterious briefcase on a plane. He overhears a flight attendant requesting a detective, to his confusion. But it turns out there is a detective on board, a young girl codenamed “Siesta”. She and Kimi meet a plane hijacker who turns out to be a cyborg and defeat him with a bullet made of blood. Then they solve a case involving zombie Hanakos during a school festival.
It Gud?
It’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen a show I disliked a show so much. The crazy part is I’ve seen a lot of shows where I’m bothered by its misogyny or having despicable leads it assumes we like. But The Detective is Already Dead gained my ire based purely on its own demerits. The things I hate aren’t based on being toxic or spreading an ugly message or worldview. The problem is that it is a self-satisfied, convoluted mess.
First off, its not a detective show. I suppose if the show was good, I would forgive the bait and switch, but it starts off with the veneer of the mystery when the detective gets to show how smart she is… except the says “I know the answer and I always knewed it” and never actually does any sort of homework in solving it. Instead, it is obfuscated by the reveal that the hi-jacker is an android. We never get to see how the lead works anything out, she just does because its that time in the script.
The second mystery is a little closer to what it could be but is still terrible. The problem with that one is that the premise is a mystery is hi-jacked by a romantic comedy, which is a potentially fun conceit but doesn’t work because it is painfully unfunny. But while there is a mystery the writer thought up with a solution, the portioning it out is terrible, with it front loaded with an exposition dump far to heavy to absorb with info that doesn’t feel like it turns out to be terribly relevant to how things plays out. If anything, the mystery is a poorly written book end to the piece.
A lot of this would be forgivable if it didn’t feel so very thrown together. Some of my favourite shows are crazy if you have to explain what happens, like Jojo. But this show doesn’t give me the impression that it cares or that I should care or that everything fits together tonally, logically, thematically, etc. And beyond that, the show really wants me to enjoy the chemistry between the two leads. It definitely feels like it is going for something similar to Rascal Does Not Dream of the Bunny Girl-Senpai and In/Spectre, shows I like despite some major flaws. But here, it all falls flat. It feels close to those shows if they made only a few more wrong moves in tone but they made for a drastically worse show.
The Detective is Already Dead is annoying. It isn’t fun to watch or parse. And the episode’s 50 minute run time feels like an eternity. The mythos is hot nonsense. The show feels like the writer lost the thread every five minutes and instead of going back, only uses the last page as a reference. It wants us to think this couple is charming but they are a snarky, hollow collection of facts. I did not care for this.
…
But at least its only up from here!
The Duke of Death and His Maid
Premise
Since he was a child a young aristocrat was cursed by a witch for reasons unknown. Now if he touches anything or anyone alive, they die. His mother has placed him in a mansion in the middle of nowhere but he does have a butler and a maid. His maid is sexy and makes no bones about the fact that she is into him, but the young man understandably doesn’t want to touch and kill one of the few friends he has in this world.
It Gud?
I feel like I’ve seen a wide variety of flavors of “I don’t want to keep watching this.” This is probably the most problematic one. To a certain extent, I’m thankful, because I’ve seen so much worse in this regard. But it hurts what could be a MUCH better show that’s buried not so deeply under the surface. The problem isn’t that he has a sexy maid who gets close but he is scared to touch. Its that she is very aware of what she is doing and in the words of the main character, he is being sexually harassed. It goes beyond “hey, cheeky” to “this is emotionally cruel and also you CAN’T just lift up your skirt at people. That wrong”.
In the second half, this is mostly dropped for an imperfect but much better story about the main character meeting a childhood friend and having to deal with how his power isolates him and make people think worse of him. And I like that he doesn’t mind the insults but he doesn’t like seeing the woman he like insulted by having it implied she is forced to be there. That’s a much more emotionally engaging story. Unfortunately, its frontloaded (no pun intended) by cheesecake shots and very noisy breasts (should they should like someone taking a dump?)
It is also hampered by some pretty weak CG-animation. Its not as good as Beastars or Drifting Dragons but its also not as memorably and boldly bad as Ex-Arm or Berserk. It just looks weird and cheap and it is a shame that it didn’t go with non-CG. I still would have had negative things to say, but I would have had one less bad one.
Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles
Premise
A guy remembers promising to marry a childhood friend and then his out of control bus is hit by a train. The end. No wait, he wakes up as a poor orphan in a medieval fantasy realm with only slight memories of his previous life. It turns out he, get this, has amazing super powers that make him more awesome than other people and after saving the life of a princess is given the chance to live as an aristocrat.
It Gud?
This is the most generic isekai I’ve seen in some time. And they are all a certain level of generic with each other, so that is an accomplishment. Most feel that way despite relying on one high concept premise to carry them through but if Seirei Gensouki has a saving grace, it isn’t trying to be “meta”.
Unfortunately, if fails to give me a reason to care about the events that are unfolding. It lack any really repugnant qualities but it also lacks anything to make the show interesting in any respect. Its another show were it doesn’t seem to matter that the main character is transported from another realm (he doesn’t remember it), he’s magically strong for plot reasons and he’s very quick to go from lowest on the totem pole to a big wig. It all feels very played out. It does make the choice to have an electric guitar sting once he gets dressed like a noble, which is weird. Like, it doesn’t even feel like a cheeky or ironic choice, just assuming the audience thinks “isn’t the badass rad”? Seirei Gensouki has nothing to offer unless you’ve never heard of the genre.
But also, apparently there’s a crowdfunding campaign for the show’s… presence? Just for hype? So there are now external sources giving me slightly more ire towards it.
New rewards added as characters are introduced in the anime
www.animenewsnetwork.com
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
Premise
Uramichi is a host on a kid’s show on the edge. A former gymnast, he now entertains on a morning educational program for young children but spends his evenings drinking and feeling sorry for himself. And frequently, Uramichi’s anger and regrets make their way on the show proper and while he tries to smile through the pain, he often imparts on children some life lessons they aren’t quite ready for.
It Gud?
In the category of show I will not continue watching, this one fills out two on the punch card. One is: this is something I was genuinely looking forward to. To a lesser extent, Duke of Death and the Detective is already dead was on it, but that was more like “this will probably be fine enough” instead of super disappointing. But my hope with Uramichi was something that filled in the comedy slot similar to Househusband, focusing on a character with a personality counter to his job but he still does it well or has some sort of saving grace.
And its KIND of that. I don’t know if he’s a great host but while the character is two-faced, he does mention he likes working with kids. As someone in a similar position, I can relate in trying to codeswitch for the kids but being confronted by situations that challenge that.
Unfortunately, the show just… isn’t funny. And it wasn’t painfully unfunny like a lot of bad comedies. It didn’t hurt to watch. But I was left bored having to sit through a lot of antics that, at best, elicit an occasional “ah”. It’s a real bummer. I really wanted to like this one. And I feel like all the ingredients are there. I think each cast member has potential to bring laughs, including the lead, two mascot characters terrified of him and two other hosts who are equally cynical off-camera in different ways. All the ingredients are there. But it just doesn’t make me laugh. I don’t know if it’s a bad adaptation but I suspect I wasn’t going to like the source material either.
So I don’t even “hate” it. It doesn’t make me “angry”. I’m not here to rail against it. I’m just really bummed that a show that is close to being fun is just a swing and a miss. I’d certainly rather sit through this than the Detective is Already Dead but with Detective I’d be interacting with it, mostly to yell at it and mock it. With this, I would sit silently until my time is up. And for a comedy, that might even be even more damning.
Kageki Shoujo!!
Premise
A pop star whose dislike of being touched resulted in her having an unfortunate encounter with a fan and being forced to “graduate” from her group. Deciding to move on to performance arts, she joins a special university for theatre (particularly musical theater). While attending the super exclusive school, she is shocked that her roommate seems completely different than any other student: incredibly bubbly, absent-minded and tall as heck. But she also has some hidden talents as well, including fearlessness in any performance endeavour. And it turns out she has acting in her blood… a very old, classical form of acting.
It Gud?
FINALLY!!! FINALLY!!!
Finally, something worth watching. Something that speaks to me and is fun to watch and I have absolutely no complaints about. It’s been a rough start to the season to me. So often, I’ve complained about watching too many shows at a given time but this is the first season where there just isn’t enough. So I am sooooo thankful that this show is fun to watch.
It’s also exactly the kind of show I want to see. I like good shows about a craft or a process. This one feels like it wants to really dive into it while remaining fun throughout. I also like the main character a lot. She definitely feels like a long line of eternally optimistic shounen protagonists but it really works to have a relentlessly positive character in a world where it is easy to become cynical. In fact, its clear the crux of the show will be the friendship between the friendly giant and the jaded pop star and it is already fun as the two make a fun comedic pair.
Over all, the show is just a joy. Its fun to be in that world. After one of the sloggiest viewing evenings to memory, its nice to have a complete pick me up in every sense of the word and I’m looking forward to seeing how the main character’s atypical acting knowledge will benefit her in her quest to play Lady Oscar in the Rose of Versaille. That’s right anime nerds, the end game is musical based on a manga!