Category: Detectives

Ongoing Investigations: Case #135

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The BEST series of the year is shaping up to be Mawaru Penguindrum. So far in the first 6 episodes Kunihiko Ikuhara has proven that Utena was not a fluke. The show has stayed as consistently excellent as the first episode and I look forward to a new episode every week. The animation, imagery, and direction remain high quality and imaginative every week. The Rose of Versailles style fantasy imaginary in episode 4 is just scrumptious. Also the laser guided slingshot is both goofy and bass ass at the same time. The plot remains mysterious but we are always getting enough information that we never feel that the show is spinning its wheels. I get the feeling that Ikuhara is more of an “I got this all planned out” sort of guy so it is more a matter of seeing the tale unfold then see him make it up as he goes along.  Kanba and Shoma’s antics in trying to find the Penguindrum are always amusing but retain a creepy vibe without either feeling hurting the other. That said I need to know what is going on with Kanba’s ultra shady deals. Ringo has that same mixture of very funny and very disturbing. I am curious how popular she is among the American and Japanese fans. Narutaki seems to think she would be insanely popular. I cannot disagree. And I know there is more to Himari than meets the eye. She is too innocent for a Ikuhara anime. There has to be more going to with her than you see on the surface. If you don’t have a moral objection to watching fan-subs then you need to watch Mawaru Penguindrum. Otherwise you should get this the second it gets licensed. Because it will get licensed. Fabulous Max!

The most anticipated arc in recent Detective Conan anime TV series was the London case, the 11th OVA happens concurrently featuring Ai and the detective boys back in Japan. It starts as just a cute mystery involving peanutbutter and jelly, a mistaken starlet, and kick the can. But the kids discover kidnappers in an abandoned building and things turn more dangerous when they themselves become trapped. The real treat for this OVA is seeing Ai’s smarts at the forefront since Conan is a world away. Her use of the cellphones as well as the detective boys badges is nicely done. It combines the kid antics at the beginning and a more tense situation later well. The ending has a couple of surprises in store, though nothing too earth shaking. A fun and nice OVA if not remarkable.

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The Speakeasy #019: Sherlock Holmes, On the Trail of Detective Anime Pt. 1

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Anime 3000 presents The Speakeasy Podcast:
Drink #018: Sherlock Holmes,
On the Trail of Detective Anime Pt. 1

As part of our ongoing initiative to promote detective anime and manga we will be doing a series of Speakeasy podcasts about the wide world of detective works. This first part is a primer to the world of sleuths, gumshoes, private eyes, flatfoots, shamuses, snoops, and spies. We start with the origins of modern detective fiction in Japan and take a very brief look at the development of detective manga. We then offer some tools for the analysis of mystery stories and some titles everyone should know. There is no real schedule to when these episodes will come out but be assured that there will be more episodes like this one in the future. If you have any area of the genre you would like covered just let us know otherwise it will be our whims that dictate the course of this series. Until then . . . the game’s afoot!

(Listen)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:

Sherlock Holmes

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all of the remaining ingredients and stir well. Double strain into a chilled coupe.

Gosick Final Thoughts: After the Funeral

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The anime blogging community is always a strange little place. As far as I can tell there are three major camps within it. There are the episodic bloggers, the reviewers, and the editorial bloggers. Some blogs combine two or even three of those styles but most people fall firmly into one categories and perhaps dabble in the other two. From what I can tell the greatest divide is between episodic bloggers and the editorial bloggers with reviewers being in the middle. So as writers who work on a mostly editorial blog we both wanted a little insight into the episodic blogging experience. Naturally, we picked a detective show for our test. Now that this experiment has run its course lets us examine what we thought of Gosick and the experiment as a whole.

I wanted to walk a mile in the shoes of an episodic blogger because I am just that curious. Granted most blogs of this nature follow more than one show, but I just wanted to walk a mile, not set up shop. Not only was Gosick a detective show, but it was a series we were already familiar with. But would the format of our reviews ruin my experience of the show?   

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