The Daughter of 20 Faces

Nijuu Mensou no Musume (The Daughter of 20 Faces) is an Action, Adventure, Mystery, Drama that feels just like many of the classic detective shows. It consists of 2 story arcs, so expect changes during the transition between the 1st & 2nd arcs. The story follows a gang of thieves led by the infamous man known only as ‘Twenty Faces’, who one day decides to take a young girl with him (hence the name of this series). The beginning is nothing spectacular, it just sets the scene for this late 50s themed detective fiction, which focuses mostly on Chizuko. The series follows an episodic nature, witheach episode dealing with individual endeavours but unlike most episodic anime, the story actually progresses nicely from episode to episode. Though the endeavours the group undertake tend to be more geared towards anime theatrics than thought-provoking realism. This all changes once it reaches the major turning point, early on and the series goes downhill a bit, upon losing all direction it once had. Adjusting to the sudden change does take some getting used to and it doesn’t help that the once entertaining story of thievery becomes something too complex for its own good. What makes up the story has to be the large cast of characters; which 20 Faces’ gang, the important recurring characters of the second arc and the unimportant episodic characters make up. Chizuko (Chiko) is quite the remarkable girl because not only is she really intelligent in the beginning, she is also the only one that develops very well throughout the series. 20 Faces does prove to be quite the enigmatic figure however the rest of the gang just don’t seem all that important but that doesn’t mean they are any less entertaining. Just what you’d expect from Bones, the series features some great animation & sounds. This anime has some immensely detailed environments, aesthetic realism for the settings, appropriately used CGI & nicely animated characters that fit in well with it all. Overall it’s great but I did feel the animation could have been much better. The music on the other hand fit the theme it was going for perfectly, going for some suspenseful music to match the detective-fiction themed adventure. Overall this anime series is a very entertaining experience, as it’s full of action, drama & suspense then develops into something very mystifying. Though there are still numerous flaws, most of which are prominent in the second arc, when the story diverges and the ‘great war’ subplot becomes more apparent. It really isn’t clear what to expect upon watching this series, so it’s best to just watch and experience it yourself. Note: May edit if necessary. ^_^

There is a very specific reason why Daughter of 20 Faces doesn't work. However to properly explain this point, I have to spoil pretty much the entire plot. Bear with me though, because it's a damn good point. Daugh­ter of 20 Faces is a Bones anime from spring 2008. The story is about a girl called Chieko who was freed from her hor­rible life with her evil step­mother by a band of thieves led by the cha­ris­matic 20 Faces. The band became Chieko’s sur­rog­ate fam­ily, with 20 Faces become a father fig­ure to her. He taught Chieko tricks of the trade along with many other les­sonsabout human­ity and mor­als and so on. Chieko was a pretty tal­en­ted thief in her own right even at a young age, many sug­gest­ing she would suc­ceed 20 Faces to be the new leader. She became the ‘daugh­ter of 20 faces’ so to say. That is, until shit got real in epis­ode 6. I can’t quite remem­ber the exact details, but basic­ally 20 Faces res­cued Chieko and dis­ap­peared off on a burn­ing train, pre­sum­ably to have died. This is the Death of the Tutor, a pretty stand­ard trope in any mode of story-telling. Everything from Star Wars to Madoka Magica does this. The reason it hap­pens is to allow for fur­ther devel­op­ment of the main char­ac­ter. They learn the life les­sons from the tutor but they can’t move on while they live in the shadow of said tutor. The Death of the Tutor shocks them out of that sense of secur­ity and forces them to develop them­selves. This is exactly what hap­pens in Daugh­ter of 20 Faces. Chieko’s devel­op­ment went from tal­en­ted child under her evil step­mother to finally hav­ing the free­dom and guid­ance to train these tal­ents of her. Get­ting 20 Faces out the pic­ture forced Chieko to develop fur­ther. There was some mop­ing but she then went on to form the ‘detect­ive girls’ with some friends, start­ing down the road of a per­haps more law-abiding ver­sion of 20 Faces gang of thieves. They dis­cover a big­ger plot is going on, Chieko and co. start to uncover the mys­tery until about epis­ode 12 where the fatal happens. 20 Faces comes back. And with that, the story dies. Chieko reverts back to how she was before epis­ode 6. Her devel­op­ment is abor­ted. She’s back to rely­ing on 20 Faces for guid­ance, unable to tackle these prob­lems her­self. The ‘plot’ con­tin­ues, but the plot was never par­tic­u­larly good to begin with. It was a vague mys­tical sci­ence thing where water can blow up, scary sci­ent­ists plot world dom­in­a­tion and plot holes are as reg­u­lar as a panty flash in Ros­ario to Vam­pire. The real appeal of the anime lay in the devel­op­ment of Chieko’s char­ac­ter, which until now had been done bril­liantly. That ended with 20 Faces return. She wasn’t cap­able of devel­op­ing further.The author didn’t have the balls to kill off 20 Faces, but in bring­ing him back, he suc­ceeded in killing his very own story. The Death of the Tutor seems like a tired trope, but watch­ing Daugh­ter of 20 Faces brought to light how import­ant it truly is. Since this is MAL, you're apparently meant to cover points like animation and sound even when they have nothing to do with the points you are making. So here we go: Story: Plot is as dumb as fuck. The real story ends in episode 12 Art: Good. This is still Bones after all Sound: Forgettable. Lots of Aya Hirano going 'Oji-san' Character: See entire above review Enjoyment: Ended when 20 Faces came back

The Daughter of Twenty Faces basically makes its own plot based on characters from the classic Japanese mystery novels written by famous Japanese author Edogawa Rampo, in particular the thief Twenty Faces and detective Kogoro Akechi to a lesser extent. The series centers on orphaned girl Chizuko becoming involved with the thievery of Twenty Faces and his gang with the first five episodes of the series focused on their world-traveling thievery. Some shocking events in the sixth episode, which I won't spoil here, completely change the focus of the anime in later episodes as it changes over to Chizuko trying to seek out Twenty Facesand learn more of his past as two antagonists acquainted with him in the pasthave their own diabolical plans in store for the thief and anyone close to him. Daughter of Twenty Faces offers up an engaging focus on the bond between Chizuko and Twenty Faces as the former regards him as a surrogate father and the latter sees her as potentially being his future successor while teaching Chizuko the tools of the trade as a thief. The first five episodes are somewhat setup like Rupan Sansei with Twenty Faces being gentleman thief and focus on his international exploits stealing loot overseas from those who are better off without it, only without the perversion and slapstick comedy from Monkey Punch's classic series. The episodes are used to setup the bond that Chizuko and Twenty Faces develop with one another and it did quite well in having me believe that their bond was genuine. The shocking events that develop in the sixth episode made for a surprising and effective twist in the title's plot to change its focus from the thievery of Twenty Faces' group to Chizuko now having to reunite with him and learning of his past when she is returned back to Japan. The rest of the series goes into some retro-futuristic like developments in its focus on Twenty Faces confronting the elements of his past as the foes he confronts make used of advanced versions of technologies commonplace during the era in which the series is set. It does accurately depict the Showa era in Japan with the fashions and traditional norms of the era, as well as many folks still being on edge from the events of World War II during the time period. It also features Chizuko adapting to the sudden changes in her life as she settles into a somewhat mundane routine as a teen schoolgirl after being brought back to Japan, learn of Twenty Faces' exploits, avoid attempts on her life from both her greedy aunt and said antagonists of Twenty Faces and not being around Twenty Faces' gang. Many of Daughter of Twenty Faces' prominent characters are reasonably fleshed out as many of them carry tragic pasts they are trying to move on from. This fleshing out works well in either learning more about what connections said characters had with the past of Twenty Faces, how their lives were effected from the war or being exploited for the personal gain of the later antagonists confronted in the series. The animation to Daughter of Twenty Faces sports solid production values sporting vast and detailed scenery shots, nicely rendered CG animation used for some scenes such as the rendering of blimps and a good amount of fluid movement and solid choreography shown within the title's action scenes. The music does its part in adding suspense and drama to the title's revelations on the exploits of Twenty Faces and the actions of the various villains seen throughout the series, though there was nothing that stuck out too strongly for me. Despite its solid setup though, Daughter of Twenty Faces is muddled with a fair number of flaws. Suspension of disbelief is a requirement to get enjoyment out of a nice number of the various acrobatic feats from Chizuko and the abilities of other characters seen throughout the show as they are certainly not possible to pull off in real life. In addition, beyond the nice amount of depth many characters get in this series, a number of them still follow standard character archetypes you would find from older or more conventional anime titles. The later antagonists introduced get their moments of depth yet they also are a bit over-the-top at times with their behavior to the point where it was more laughable than serious. The plotting to the series also has its rough elements as there are some plot developments with supporting characters left unresolved thanks to the larger focus on Twenty Faces' past and the resolution to the conflict with the second villain from Twenty Faces' past was so contrived in its developments that it got a bit mind-numbing for me. Putting aside these flaws, Daughter of Twenty Faces still made for a somewhat solid and unique take to Edogawa Rampo's classic characters that believably depicted 1950s Japan alongside its addition of the retro-futuristic developments that come about from the title's later episodes. It's far from being the best anime I seen, but it still made for an entertaining watch nonetheless.

A good mystery is hard to make. You have to take a lot into consideration when making one. Is it satisfying? Is it smart? Is it entertaining? But most of all, do I care? Well I can say with an honest heart, that I cared about The Daughter of 20 Faces. I really, really did. the story is about a girl who gets "kidnapped" by the famous thief known as Twenty Faces, and begins travelling with him and his gang of fellow thieves. Instead of viewing her "kidnapping" as a curse, she instead views it as a gift and quickly warms up to her new comrades,viewing them as the family she never had. For what it is, the story is very well paced throughout the show, and it never feels as though there's a dull moment. Now, the show is separated into two very distinguishable arcs, that are handled in two very different manners. The first is very fun, mysterious and a plain old joy to watch. This arc is important in establishing how Chizuko grows in strength and as a character, whilst also depicting how close the gang is and how they grow as a family. The second arc adds in a sense of adventure and drama with the inclusion of characters Koito and Tome. Although the second arc tries to replicate the same level of fun that is had in the previous arc, it never quiet matches up to the same level of enjoyment I had watching the first, but instead adds new things by making the story darker in tone to keep me interested till the very end. The animation is, for lack of a better word, fantastic. All of the characters have a natural sense of movement that really adds to the overall nature of the show. Where the animation stands out the most however, is in the action sequences. Never before have I seen an anime that has fights as smooth and well choreographed as this. The character designs, although not ground breaking, are really nice and unique. Every character is distinguishable and can be easily recognised by the viewer many months prior to finishing (probably). The soundtrack is one of my favourite things about this whole show. It gives off a very atmospheric post-war vibe that really adds to the overall quality. The opening song is a very nice song to listen to that gives off a certain feel of tragedy and, of course, a sense of mystery. The ending song feels as though it's the polar opposite, with a more upbeat, almost "childish" vibe to it. It's also worth mentioning, each song is reminiscent of the first and second arcs respectively. As far as protagonists go, Chizuko is amongst the best. She's a very well realised character that has a very realistic sense of development and growth. Both the script and voice actor have a very good understanding of who her character is supposed to be. I was also surprised to find that Twenty Faces is actually a really well rounded and realistic character whom you can sympathise with, through the use of flashbacks. However great these characters may be, I felt as though I would have liked to have seen more backstory and development given to some of the supporting cast. Although they're not bad characters in any way, I feel that giving the members of Twenty Faces' gang a reason as to why they joined would have given the anime that extra push that would have made it that extra bit closer to perfection. This probably won't effect your enjoyment in any way, because I'm just nit-picking at this point. On the whole, The Daughter of Twenty Faces is an outstanding anime with interesting characters, exceptional animation, a kickass soundtrack and most of all, a mystery I cared about. Hope that helped.