Category: No Case Too Small

No Case Too Small: The Venture Bros.

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The case in question is episode 51 of The Venture Bros.:
Everybody Comes to Hank’s

This is one half of a two-part story from season 4 with each half telling about the summer vacation of one of the titular Venture Brothers. It is like the Venture Brothers version of Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation. Episode 51 starts with Dr. Venture demanding that Hank get a job over the summer which prompts Hank to starts a chain of small business including working as a private eye. Hank starts with the “case” of his friend Dermott’s mom not coming to pick him up after work. Dermott’s mother almost immediately picks him up but Hank starts working on the much more interesting case of who is Dermott’s unknown father. The gimmick of the episode is that whenever they are on the case everything has a black and white film noir aesthetic and the dialog is the straight out of a hard boiled detective novel.

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No Case Too Small: Heroman

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The case in question is episode 20 of Heroman: Missing

Heroman wasn’t exactly a great show, but when Holly’s love of being a detective comes to the surface in a later episode, I had to laugh. When livestock and eventually people start disappearing the case has everyone baffled. Then when Professor Denton goes off to look for something he winds up missing, too. But never fear (or please fear a lot) Holly, Joey, and Psy are on the case!

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No Case Too Small: Hayate the Combat Butler

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Welcome to our latest detective initiative! In No Case Too Small we will be highlighting series that pay homage, do a parody, or simply have an episode that involves a detective. These are one or two episodes stints in a larger series that doesn’t really involve sleuthing otherwise. Since our detective series list excludes such we wanted to give them a place all their own. And we want to make sure they don’t go overlooked or get forgotten.

The case in question is episode 30 of Hayate the Combat Butler: “The Beautiful Rich Great Young Detective Lady Saw It! The Case of the Murdered Female Teacher Amidst Clouds of Steam”

hisuiconHayate the Combat Butler is a character based comedy series but they love to parody and poke fun at a wide variety of topics at the same time. Given the popularity of detective anime, and detective series in general in Japan, it is no wonder that Hayate and Nagi encounter a mystery while visiting the hot springs. This intentionally cliché scenario leads to a  fourth wall breaking look at the mystery genre with tongue firmly in cheek. Continue reading →