The Millionaire Detective – Balance: Unlimited

This is my first review on MyAnimeList, and what a good choice for my first show to review. I am here to review The Millionaire Detective- Balance: UNLIMITED: This show felt like a breath of fresh air. This show had me looking forward to a new episode every single week. Let's get into specifics. Story: 7 The story of this show is pretty good. Some might say it's nothing to write home about but I believe that the story was good for the narrative the creators wanted to pull off. The first few episodes are sort of in an episodic nature, with just a case-of-the-day sort ofsetup, but the actual story picks up after that. As per what you'd expect with a detective show, the story has a good amount of mystery and twists that keep the viewers intrigued from start to finish. The concept of Daisuke's unlimited balance, hence the title, lends itself to very interesting, unique, and fun occurrences. When they're doing detective work, it's interesting to see them uncover clues and put the pieces together. The action is well done, and while some may see it as a tiny bit over-the-top because of Daisuke's James Bond-esque gadgets and obscene amount money, I think it's great in the context of this show. Art: 10 I absolutely loved the art style of this anime. The best way I'd describe it is quasi-simplistic. Everything in this show is animated with just a little bit less detail than a traditional anime, which gives it a quite unique art style. It really stands out from other shows and just looks really great. As for the characters, they are all animated very smooth and well. There are some instances of CGI in this show, mainly just with vehicles, but it doesn't distract from the show. Sound: 9 The sound design is well done in this show. All the effects sound like they should. As for the soundtrack, it is sublime. The soundtrack has a soundtrack reminiscent of buddy-cop shows and movies that helps to set this show apart from others like the art style does. It uses more brass-sounding music that just sound really good. This show also has really good opening and ending songs. This is one of the few shows where I never skipped the opening. NAVIGATOR by SixTONES is a very good song that is also quite catchy. It's more clean-sounding to reflect one of the main characters, Daisuke Kambe. The ending, Welcome My Friend by OKOMATO'S, is also quite good, although not as good as the opening. I often found myself staying for this ending, something I usually don't do. This song has more of a rugged-sounding effect to reflect the other main character, Haru Kato. Voice acting is also very good. Daisuke Kambe is voiced by, as far as I know, a newcomer to the voice acting business, Yuusuke Oonuki, as this is his first and only role listed on MAL. He does a fantastic job. The voice fits the character perfectly. That is the only voice acting I felt like specifically mentioning, but the rest of the voice acting is really great. Character: 8 The characters are done quite well in this show. For starters, the main characters are very likeable. Daisuke and Haru have great chemistry. Even though they often butt heads over conflicting ideals, their reasonings for doing things are perfectly understandable. Also, they are very entertaining together. The development the main characters receive is very good, as well. I won't delve into it to avoid spoilers, though. I won't spoil who the villain is, but I will say that the reveal was initially a little confusing, but once I put more thought into it I understood it fine. The side characters, while they don't add too much to the story, are still quite entertaining. It was always nice when they were featured in an episode. Enjoyment: 10 I couldn't get enough of this show when it initially aired. It was so much fun watching a new episode and seeing how the intriguing story progresses. It was also fun to see character interactions and how they bounce off each other. Overall: 9 Despite some minor flaws, The Millionaire Detective - Balance: UNLIMITED takes the detective genre and gives it a fresh twist that manages to stay very entertaining from start to finish. From the characters to the music to the art style, everything in this show is well done one way or another. It really sucks that this show is on the short side, as it only clocks in at 11 episodes, but that just gives you more of a reason to quickly check it out. I'd highly recommend seeing this show for yourselves. It's exclusive to Funimation if you want to go out and see it.

In the beginning, Balance Unlimited presented itself with a unique plot and cast of characters that don't fit the mold of standard investigators. With those two combined, it should've created a fantastic show. And it did, for the most part. Sadly, there's a lot that I found to be underutilized with some wasted potential. Story (6/10) The story I found to be entertaining in the beginning but before things started to get serious with Daisuke's story, the cases were somewhat episodic while following a linear storyline that would be presented later on. When the story suddenly shifts, it makes the first couple of episodes feel a bitredundant. Not to mention for someone of them it was hard to throw away my disbelief. I could get behind Daisuke using his money to solve most of the cases (which I did like) but they feel like an afterthought when compared to the later episodes. Speaking of later episodes, this is where it sort of falls apart with how rushed some things are. Given that there are only 11 episodes, I figured that the last remaining few would tie together nicely in an even-paced. But with how rushed some parts of it were, it left the ending somewhat bittersweet. Characters (5/10) This is probably my biggest gripe I have with the show as a whole. Haru and Daisuke were presented as polar opposites who don't agree with everything and goes about doing things their own way. Whether it be Haru going by the book or Daisuke going the easy way, it gives the viewer a look into who they are. Except, it doesn't. They don't work AT ALL in this entire series. They pretty much remain the same even at the end with little to no growth. I don't expect them to be best friends but somewhere along the lines of acknowledging their differences but working together. That does not happen at all. One anime that was recently released, Great Pretender, does a much better job at creating a group dynamic of different individuals coming together to get the job done. They may not agree with everything but they compliment each other and their bond is believable. Haru and Daisuke on the other hand... they're nothing more than co-workers and that's it. As individuals, they could've been better. Haru, in my opinion, is useless and a redundant character. Daisuke carried the series for about 90% of it while Haru carried the last 10%. For most of the series, he tries to be a by the book person but his attitude comes off as annoying and ovebearing. He sees his way as the only way when in reality, Daisuke using his wealth helps a lot with several cases even if it means going against what people do. He was useless while Daisuke was doing his part and only in the last 2 episodes did he actually do something. If he wasn't in the show, nothing would be different. I rather prefer Daiskue over him. Speaking of Daisuke, I do think he's an OK character but his personality could be summed up as a rich asshole. And that's about it. Now, I do like him and how he goes about things especially in the later half of the series, but I can't say that there's anything interesting about him other than he's rich. The other characters... I honestly couldn't care less since they didn't stand out other than a few. Art (7/10) I did like the art style though the animation did drop a bit in the last few episodes. Nothing major but I do like it. Sound (6/10) The sound was OK. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of the OP and prefer the ED. The OST was decent enough. Overall (6/10) Fugou Keiji: Balance Unlimited had lots to go on with it's unique plot and characters. And it does for the most part but there was lots of wasted potential with Haru, the last couple of episodes being rushed, and Haru's and Daisuke's friendship (if you could even call it that). At best, it's an average show.

"(The love of) money is the root of all evil. So I came, I saw, I sponsored." Balance: UNLIMITED, proudly sponsored by the Kambe Conglomerate. Another series that was unfortunately delayed by COVID, but gained its foothold back into the Summer season, and I'd have to say that for a police/detective mystery show of a novel like this, it was good overall, but somehow faltered along the way for the precedence of speculations as far as Fujoshi fandom between the 2 central characters. Don't quote me on this, it's just my gut feeling on this show, but this has to be just said out loud: fanservice:UNLIMITED. I have long trusted in director Tomohiko Itou's ways of doing work that through time have never ceased to impress (a.k.a. Gin no Saji, Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin (Occult Academy), SAO Season 1 and 2, AND ESPECIALLY Erased), but it's scriptwriter Kishimoto Taku that raises a lot of red flags when it comes to the source adaptations of ANY type (see Hanebado!, the collab of both in Erased, and Joker Game). And speaking of Joker Game, Fugou Keiji is more of the same under the novel adaptation, to put it best and quote-unquote ZephSilver's words: "Cool gadgets. Fine women. Exotic locations. Fast cars. Espionage. Epic Adventures." Based on the novel of the same name, Fugou Keiji (or the Millionaire Detective) is as what it sounds like: a total gung-ho mystery detective show that has a gimmick to it, and that's the "Balance: Unlimited" part, where money is used from the most basic stuff to the ultimate extreme parts of espionage and bribery in the most flattering way possible to outwit any level of disaster in typical crime-fighting fashion. The centrifugal force on this show lies between 2 main characters: the simplistic Haru Kato and the millionaire himself, Daisuke Kambe. More often than now, justice is defined very differently in the eyes of the beholder, and this is a perfect case when debating against both of their practices. Haru is more of the down-to-earth approach in wanting to see justice be served in the most humane way, and Daisuke is a man who leaves nothing out of proportion when it comes to spending money on the footbill of millions of yen (and yes, there was that one episode where Daisuke was Balance: Limited, and that's one of my favourite episodes). Regardless of how these two fine gentleman mete out their accord of justice, the time of collaboration when Daisuke was called to help in Haru's police division truly shows how the both of them have their discords that while can be divisive, they must work in tandem with each other to utilize strengths to solve crimes along the way, from typical public crime to a family conspiracy. The other supporting characters, from Daisuke's personal digital assistant HEUSC (something like out of Knight Rider) and the close cousin Suzue, to Haru's colleagues, they each serve their purpose of roaming around both Haru and Daisuke to figure out their schtick, and regardless of conflicts, work together to fight crime that does not pay to evildoers in an episodic basis that slowly conjures up to the limits of Daisuke and the conflict between his family (even though high access is given but only to the person in control). If anything, most screentime is served on both Haru and Daisuke, and to see the background characters get some story plot is already taking liberties at what made the original novel good. In a nutshell. to understand humans, It shouldn't come as a surprise that the high detail of animation through CloverWorks (after splitting from A-1 Pictures) was high-octane great with utmost clarity. With great animation comes great action, and it absolutely doesn't disappoint at maintaining a very high crisp level of detail that's reminiscent of the parent company from one of its subsidiaries. The pumped-up action also isn't wavering from quality, so that's a good indication. Sound wise, the OST is pretty much synonymous with the setting of the entire show in flesh, blood and heaps of money thrown in your face. SixTones's "Navigator" is honestly one of the best OPs I've heard, and it's in a J-Pop idol style, so that makes all the charm so wise. Okamoto's "Welcome My Friend" for the ED puts a jazz spin that's screams "the show must go on, more than ever". One great start and a decent end, something does not seem right here, but for what it is, I will gladly take it. I do love mystery, spy-tactical shows (a.k.a Princess Principal, Spy X Family) that manage to keep me invested from start to finish, but sadly for Fugou Keiji, the contents just whizzed by in an episodic format, and while I can say that "For this episode, I liked so and so", it just doesn't connect as fluidly as it should have, and novel readers are right to swear if the content is somewhat missed or axed out. This show does nothing to stand out, and I don't blame you if somehow the dropping turnover rate does increase till the ending. In the end, what our rich boy Kambe does with his money, it's one thing and one thing only: Balance: UNLIMITED. If you want a war with Daisuke, match his millionaire status and espionage skills with elegance.