So, the first episode of this was apparently an hour-long special, which GG decided to release in two parts. I decided to watch EveTaku instead, since Part B wasn't out when I began, and the subbing quality wasn't bad at all. I'll stick with this group for a while longer to see how it goes.
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| That pun stings... |
This episode was pretty much exactly like I had imagined this anime would be, just slower. It took me about two hours to get through the episode, since I kept pausing to do other things. What kept me coming back with the same fervour as before was the fact that this thing was
so much like Gosick that it was a little eerie. Then again, I had really expected that, so I was only pleasantly happy. There's no chance that I won't be watching this to the end.
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| Just like in Chobits! |
The episode began with the texting exchange between the two parties of a
compensated dating session, and the "main character" of Fujisaki Narumi introducing himself (without names). In the initial scenes of this episode, he set himself up to be a character with lots of ennui, pretty much going with the flow of life without trying hard and just accepting things. Having just recently moved to the city, the address he was following turned out to be wrong and he (fatefully) met some of the members of the NEET Detective Agency as they were foiling a certain situation.
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| As usual, a lively girl on the side. |
Immediately thereafter, the episode followed Narumi through his school days, wherein he was once again laying back and fitting in just the "right" amount. His classmate, Shinozaki Ayaka, destroyed his plans of quiet hanging out and immediately forced her friendship onto him, pulling him into the Gardening Club with her. After that, she took him along to where she worked, the ramen shop Hanamaru. As coincidences would be, the NEET Detective is settled in that shop.
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| NEET-ness is contagious! |
As this episode had bouts of slowness and then a lot of sudden info-dumping, most members of the anime were introduced in the same scene. There was the brawns of the operation, Tetsu (who dropped out of Misono High School, which Narumi attends now), the survival game maniac, (Major) Mukai (who's currently in college but has no plans of graduating), and the host, Hiro (who was quite adept at his juggling of women, actually). The owner of the ramen shop, a muscled (and probably sexy to some) woman, was named Min. I really can't remember if full names were introduced or not.
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| Sigh. I fail a lot at that too. |
Alice's introduction was quick, as she wanted some ramen delivered to her house on top of the shop and the four (Narumi included) battled to see who would have to do it. Once again coincidentally, it was Narumi that was tasked with it, and so began Alice's scene. Being the girl the anime is about, I had high hopes - and they weren't dashed at all. She reminds me so much of Victorique from Gosick that it's almost uncanny. I'd say that she's a slightly less jaded and tsundere version, potentially more mature (in some ways). Similarly, Narumi is quite like Kujo, although he's probably a little more jaded (so it was a trade-off).
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| I'm in. No questions. |
Alice is the proudest NEET of them all, and used her screen time to clearly speak of her motivations to become a detective. Some of it I really felt was reaching, such as being powerless to save the starving children, but it gave insight to her (verbose) character. Narumi was only dumbfounded and listened, just like that character type is supposed to. Being a Mystery of the Week format, she immediately included him into the situation, as they were investigating the rash of compensated dating in the neighbourhood (and also what the girl from the beginning was doing).
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| I'm astounded at what people in college these days have access to. |
In a disjointed move reminiscent of Horou Musuko's story-telling, there was an odd jump to the end of the day as Narumi and Ayaka walked home wherein there was a flashback to
earlier in the day, when Alice briefed the members (and Narumi) on their next course of action. Random flashbacks like this bother me, especially considering we were at the beginning of the timeline anyway. Essentially, Alice is the type of detective that uses various methods (that, of course, work) to find out information. Some might say it's underhanded, but it's pretty interesting.
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| Giant bear hug! |
Being the length of two episodes instead of one, they decided it was more prudent to lengthen the normal episode instead of providing enough content for two. Or, at least, that's how I felt. I had a real problem keeping track of the internal timeline throughout the entire episode; it didn't help that every scene just felt longer than usual, without any extra things happening. It's basically the effect of stretching a rubber band. It just gets thinner with less substance per unit.
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| I'd probably start clicking everywhere. |
Very differently from Victorique, Alice took to Narumi right away and showed absolutely no hesitation in showing it. (Of course, given my confusion, maybe weeks and weeks passed in anime-time.) When her teddy bear's ear ripped (
how?!), she immediately jumped on Narumi to help her. Once again, I was really hooked. Anyway, this led Narumi to spend some time with Hiro as they took the bear to the local yakuza clan leader (who generally fixs all of Alice's toys), who also happened to be the client for the current case (coincidence?!). The scene was pretty funny, showing how Alice was revered...and also how Narumi, surely, will now also be revered. (He, after all, had Gold Fingers.)
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| That's how you just had to find out... |
Finding out more about the case, Narumi tracked down the girl from the beginning (Kimura Miku) to determine what she was doing. In true Gosick-style, there was absolutely no mystery and the story just poured out at convenient points. Miku was attempting to find her missing senpai, Sakuma Shouko, along with the senpai's boyfriend, Teraoka Satoshi, by going through a list of Shouko's cell phone contacts (of men to "date"), which is how they fell into the detective group's radar. Throughout all of the retelling, there was interspersing of Teraoka remembering his days with Shouko, and obviously falling apart from the stress.
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| ...right. |
As if to make up for the slow points earlier in the episode, the ending blazed forward at a lightning pace. Narumi returned to Alice, who had (with Major's help) tracked down Teraoka. It was time to end the case, so Alice changed (to look
more like Victorique) and headed off to meet with Miku (...for some reason). The conversation was pretty "philosophical", as Alice revealed the truth to Miku (that Shouko had intentionally disappeared, leaving Miku her cell phone, and that Teraoka knew where she was) in an all-knowing manner. The case ended with the police apprehending Teraoka, who had been keeping Shouko in a bathtub of ice since she had committed suicide. (Yeah, that kind of did just suddenly happen...) His reason had been that he wanted to be with her forever.
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| To bring viewers back next week? |
The episode ended with a pretty obligatory scene with Ayaka coming to strip Alice to get her to bathe. Much of this really screamed Gosick at me, which is nice since that's ended already. (I'm waiting on the group Victorique to release the last episode...) Just like with that, there's no real mystery here. It's more a story about Alice and Narumi, and maybe about the other members of the detective agency. Although the first episode dragged a little, I attribute that to it being an hour long and also to it being the first episode (things usually take a few to really pick up). At any rate, I'm definitely watching this~
~Aaro
