The Detective Is Already Dead

The Detective is Already Dead gives off an ambigious feeling of uncertainity. And by that, I do mean how potential viewers should expect from the show altogether. Let's face it, the English title should also fire some questions into your head. You may be asking yourself why the detective is 'already dead' or who really dies in the show. In what seems like a thematically intriguing premise quickly turns sour when we realize just how mediocre this actually turned out to be. Taking a step back, I didn't want to be judgmental at first glance. In fact, I was actually impressed by some of the promotionalmaterial it showed off, especially a gun wielding girl fighting what seemingly taking place on board an aircraft. It's very confrontational from the start and leaves little room to breath for the first episode. To further its experience, the show decided to air the action style pilot at double the standard length, as a way to give us a taste of what to expect. Does the first episode make or break the chance to enjoy the anime? Let's find out. For starters, we do meet two prominent characters - Siesta and Kimihiko as they get caught in the middle of a plane hijacking. To make matters worse, the hijacker has supernatural abilities that can threaten everyone aboard the plane. Siesta's request to Kimihiko to become her assistant is replied with ambigiouity although he has little choice than to team up if they both want to survive. It sets forth the core of the show as the duo begin their adventures together. Fast forward and later, they are thrown into a high school setting and for some reason, the anime decided to add in a wedding dress for Siesta. I'll leave that to your imagination but let's just say that such a transition is a massive direction in setting. But you may still be asking yourself: just who exactly is Siesta? With Kimihiko's rotten luck, you'd expect him to be the last person on Earth to meet a stunning girl like Siesta. Even more so, he becomes her partner after displaying his innate skills in a complicated situation. Watching the two work together at first seemed as mysterious as the main premise itself. They have nothing in common but are seemingly bound by fate. It's not soon after when the story transits into meaning of the anime's title and we find out who the dead detective is. However, it would also appear that Kimihiko isn't fully ready to move on with his life and this draws him to other girls such as Nagisa. From here, his life gets perhaps even more complicated than ever before. Now I want to be discret and warn that the anime's story can be a bit confusing at times. From what the anime adapted, some novels are out of order and it deepens the confusion. It's not that the anime is difficult to understand but that it doesn't follow a traditional chapter-by-chapter adaptation format. Watching this anime did show me the depth of Kimihiko's personality as he develops peculiar relationships among its cast. Unfortunately, most of these lacks the sort of concrete depth you should be expecting. For instance, Kimihiko's character relationship with Nagisa is bleak at best as the girl practically forces him to help her. Their confrontation can almost be described as brutal and replusive to the point where Kimihiko feels like a victim. That is to say, it's also hard to feel sorry for Kimihiko when we can't get fully invested into his character. We don't know much about his past except for his relationship with Siesta. In respect, I think it's dangerous for the anime to plant the story in this direction. We can only ask ourselves more and more questions about the past while almost being neglected to know about the present. Then again, this is a mystery anime, right? In some aspects, I do appreciate at how the show handles its mystery in terms of revelations. While some story segments are easily predictable, others can be misguided and with red herrings. However, it's not a complicated storyteller where the show feels like a puzzle. What's unsettling about the storytelling is the way the anime depicts Siesta's overall character role. She goes from alive to dead in different episodes and sometimes, you have to ask yourself what exactly the author wants you to experience. Sorrow? Suspense? Ambiguity? In essence, I ask myself what the purpose of the premise really is. Yes, the detective is already dead but at the same time, she is also alive. I think from the beginning, killing a character like Siesta permantely would set off a massive red flag so the series avoids this by bringing her back in different ways. It's clever on some levels but also disappointing. Why? Let's just say that the more times she is on screen, the less appealing the mystery is. If it can even be called that...because honest to God, the 'mystery' of the show is more of an amateur detective fiction. Holding the show further back is the reminder of the cast. Among them advertised from the key visuals include Yui, Charlotte, Alicia, and Nagisa. Yes, this anime may not be a harem but having Kimihiko pair up with them gives off a stench. Oh and did I almost forgot to mention the SPES? That's a mysterious organization who is deeply involved with Siesta. Unfortunately, the show does a poor job at making them look like a credible threat or at least one for fans to invest into. The more and I watched the anime, the less appealing it felt with each episode lacking the thrilling suspense I anticipated. The characters are underdeveloped and far too much emphasis is dedicated to Siesta, whether she's dead or alive. If I wanted to see a mystery anime, I could've picked up something more coherent. What we got here is nothing short of a jumble of incoherent mess. But....I do want to praise the anime's visual quality. While the main story lacked a compelling plot, the artistic visuals speaks another language. The female cast such as Siesta, Charlotte, and Nagisa are characterized with alluring appeals that makes them stand out compared to almost anyone else. Furthermore, the consistency of colorful backgrounds is clear from the very first episode. It also falls no short in showing the action sequence and violence on occasions, when given the opportunity. Elsewhere, there's also some degrees of fan service such as the classy swimsuit episode or when Nagisa ruthlessly bullies Kimihiko with suggestive yet sexy behavior. Yes, that's it. To call this show a deep complex mystery would be an illusion. What started as an appealing premiere ended up being one of the most underwhelming anime of the Summer 2021 season. That's not an exaggeration because after watching the anime, I felt almost betrayed. If you want better a mystery, watch something with an actual planned out plot and meaningful character cast. This ain't it folks.

Between the good anime and the enjoyably bad anime sit the ones that are unremarkable in every way, and you can’t help but wish you hadn’t wasted your time watching it. The Detective is Already Dead fits this role perfectly. With one-dimensional characters, an unengaging story, and plain awful visuals, there is next to no praise that can be given for the series. Don’t worry though, as it makes up for this by making sure there’s at least one cute girl in every scene. There is an abundance of poorly directed scenes that lack the intended impact that they were going for. The moments that aresupposed to feel emotional will feel no different from every other scene. This is due to a number of reasons but ultimately comes down to the flat characters and their lackluster responses to anything that happens. The art and animation quality doesn’t help either when every character is awkwardly placed in a scene with a blank expression. As a viewer, you don’t know what you’re supposed to feel at a scene because it never gives you a good reason to feel a certain way. All it does is chuck in a couple of potentially sad scenes without using proper visual techniques to back it up. You might’ve noticed a certain mystery tag on the show but don’t be fooled, there are essentially no mystery elements to be found. I’m not even sure if Mystery was supposed to be a major aspect of the plot, but when mysteries are present they are handled terribly. In most good mystery anime, you'll find that it engages you with foreshadowing, hints at a greater narrative, and an exciting sense of discovery. The best part of mysteries is when you feel as though you are figuring out the plot right along with the characters. This anime, however, makes no attempt at the aforementioned techniques. Instead of uncovering the plot with the characters, you will be stuck watching as the main character figures things on his own with no explanation to the viewer. Then, once the whole “mystery” is over he will explain it all in one big long scene of boring dialogue. The foreshadowing is atrocious, and the only purpose mystery serves is to make our main character look all clever by the end of it. I’m not kidding when I say one episode of Scooby-Doo would have better mysteries than what this show tries to do. The characters were particularly frustrating throughout the show, including everyone’s beloved white-haired waifu, Siesta. I felt physical pain every time there was attempted humour in the dialogue. It’s obvious what they were going for with the main character’s deadpan reactions and Siesta’s typical kuudere bluntness, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a worse attempt at it. The dialogue aims to be clever but never achieves more than being flat and unfunny. While I can at least give credit for the attempts at fun dialogue for the main duo, the rest of the characters are simply boring. It amounts to nothing more than some basic personalities slapped onto a generic character design. I find it amazing that they can describe the main character as ‘forgettable’ throughout the show and not wonder if having a forgettable main character is actually a bad thing. Of course, these major issues don’t matter when there are some cute girls in the show. While going about defeating the big bad organization the main character manages to get several cute girls on his side to help him fight his battles. In fact, he’s so good at attracting cute girls that there isn’t a single other male character that isn’t on the side of the antagonists. I feel like this would be a given at this point, but don’t expect any sort of character development. Even after a character's death, which is so major that they included it in the title, we don’t get to see any characters attempt to cope with it. Instead they just sort of go on about their lives and all is okay right after a time skip. There are times where the writing in this series can feel even childish. Take the antagonistic force for example, it’s nothing more than a generic evil organization given the name ‘SPES.’ Things like the motives and ideologies of the organization aren’t clearly explained and the representatives of the organization are your average bad guys. It’s unable to challenge the views of the protagonist, only seeking to end the world. It would’ve been much better if it stuck to one clear villain that can properly conflict with the protagonist’s own motives and world views. The series thinks up one cool scenario, such as a plane hijacking for an opening episode, and never uses it to its advantage. If you were hoping for visuals to make up for this prepare to be disappointed. Some people may view the quality to be acceptable, especially after an okay first episode, but you can easily see it drop right from the second episode. For starters, I couldn’t help but notice that most scenes would just leave out crowds from backgrounds making the whole show feel isolated. Movement is stiff and the fight scenes avoid movement as much as possible, just throwing in still shots of characters talking rather than fighting. The expressions fail to give a good impression of a character's feelings and are never more detailed than the average wide-eyes shocked face. As far as soundtracks go this one was unimpressive and forgettable. It never quite matched the scene and added little value to the show as a whole. I might just be nitpicking here, but there was a noticeable amount of sound effects missing that the show needed. Scenes felt quiet because of this and were unable to really stick out as something important. The Detective is Already Dead is awful in every way possible. It calls itself a mystery yet fails to actually provide engaging mysteries. The characters are nothing new, though I can guarantee that people will watch this for the sole purpose of seeing more Siesta. On top of this, it doesn’t even have good visuals or soundtracks to back it up. It’s what happens when a studio has no sense of direction or time management, only seeking to capitalize on a popular light novel, and I would recommend staying clear of it if you value your time.

This show is so bad and so terrible, that it is literally my favorite anime now. 10/10. There is truly nothing in this world better than The Detective is Already Dead. This series deserves a movie, a second season.. no not even a second season 4 extra seasons. In fact we need this series to last longer than humanity itself, so when aliens look back into our world's history they can also watch The Detective is Already Dead. I do not know how else to describe this show other than an absolute beauty, from the characters having absolutely zero value to the idol scenes. Thisanime truly has it all, I always joked that having a beach episode was the dumbest thing but how about a cruise that lasts 3-4 episodes. I thought characters looking into their past was a generic attempt at filler but try having the whole anime just be the past. Time skips are no longer the biggest problem in life anymore when there are middle school children that the mc is literally falling for and proposing to. I wanted to take a second to voice my feelings on this show so badly because personally I feel actually so saddened that there is no second season in this show. It is truly life changing and has inspired me to even make an account on MAL and even go as far as to making a whole review. But somehow a fictional series has done so. Please go watch Tantei Wa Mou, shinderiu. It is truly a masterpiece, this is no anime. This is truly a modern day work of art.

Kadokawa is a Japanese media conglomerate founded in 1945. And it is the bane of my existence. Imagine this: in the leadup to your anime, you have to promote your show. Someone comes up with a brilliant idea: “let’s confuse them so much, they’ll HAVE to watch the show!” And what’s more, this idea actually fits with the themes of the story! And so, all the PR staff put their heads together and come up with an intriguing, faithful, and popular marketing campaign that garners eyes from all over. People are constantly speculating, discussing, and spreading the word about your adaptation! Bloody brilliant! The PR team’sdone its job, and a spectacular one at that. All you have to do now is execute even a HALF-decent adaptation and you’ll get a respectable number of BD/merch sales, possibly even enough to cover production costs. NOTHING can possibly go wrong. Oh, wait. There are a number of issues with your show. Subpar direction. Atrocious animation -- apart from one sakuga sequence in episode 1 by Hashimoto Ryuuki. Barely functional backgrounds. A disjointed story. How? Well, your answer lies with 株式会社KADOKAWA - not Studio ENGI, as I, and many others, may be inclined to believe. Shall we begin? Earlier this year, during KADOKAWA’s FY2020 report, the company outlined plans to ramp up anime production to 40 per year. 40. Per. Year. From. One. Company. It’s an obviously unsustainable plan - the industry in its CURRENT state is chock-full of production bottlenecks, overwork, and thin profit margins (if any at all). It didn’t bode well for anime as a medium. And Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. (Tanmoshi) is case in point. Tanmoshi entered production in LATE 2020. FOR A JULY 2021 PREMIERE. To illustrate how absolutely absurd that is, in an absolute time crunch, a studio may be able to produce a fully-animated episode of an anime in five weeks. (That’s an incredibly unrealistic pace for even just one good episode, let alone an entire cour, but we’ll let it slide.) Tanmoshi has approximately 13 episodes worth of animation material (the first episode premiered with 50 minutes - which in itself was a terrible decision that I’ll get to later). So, doing some very simple mathematics with some very unrealistic benefit of the doubt, 13*5 comes out to 65 weeks for Tanmoshi to be a fully finished product with regard to animation. Assuming a July 1 production start date - again, being very generous here - that’s STILL ONLY 52 WEEKS AND SOME CHANGE. Oh and, of course not accounting for national holidays like Obon in September of 2020. So - that’s a whole 13 WEEKS shaved off the schedule. Which, again, for those of us who have forgotten our times tables, is TWENTY. GODDAMN. PERCENT. With this, inevitably, comes outsourcing. And said outsourcing did not perform well. Which is not out of the norm. So, uh, no surprise that the anime really struggles on the production value side of things. You may be wondering, what does Kadokawa have to do with this? Well - as the owners of the rights to Tanmoshi, it’s Kadokawa who both choose a time to approach a studio AND who largely dictate when an anime will premiere. THEY foisted this timeline upon ENGI. Logically, the next question would be “why didn’t ENGI simply reject the project?” Well… they couldn’t. Kadokawa is the majority stakeholder of ENGI. ENGI is beholden to Kadokawa. It’s likely that no other studio could handle such a fantastical contract, and so it was dumped upon the youngling ENGI - who, by the way, don’t have the greatest track record when it comes to their anime. All this begs the question, “how is this remotely beneficial for Kadokawa?” Easy: as a publishing company first and foremost, Kadokawa couldn't care less about studios, anime as medium, or adaptations. Their first and predominant priority is the promotion of source sales - the light novels, in this case. Anything else is a bonus. Which means, the adaptation did its job. The light novel has skyrocketed in Oricon sales rankings, with all five volumes out currently in the top 20. (The light novels are GOOD.) Thus, most of this train wreck of anime can be wholly attributed to Kadokawa -- ENGI really just needed more time. I say most, because while I addressed the categories of Art and Sound (all of the production value related stuff), I have yet to consider the merits of the story. As a diehard fan of the source, I have my prejudices here - but they probably won’t matter. This is an objectively trash adaptation story-wise, too. Remember that 50-minute premiere episode I said I was going to get to? We’ve just gotten to it. A terrible decision to start the cour off. What the anime did was take a coherent story - and rearrange events in the timeline to the point where the intrigue, the charm, the suspense - all vanished. It took a well-developed but mysterious Siesta and inappropriately (in the context of the story) contrasted it to the seemingly 2D, bland Natsunagi. The characters didn’t work with the flow of the story. In essence, it made episode 1 work better than it should have had it kept a normal length and stuck to the story - but in relation to the rest of the show, IT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE. The story jumped from setting to setting, seemingly with no distinction to the development of any character, and left plotlines hanging unresolved until a later point with a dissatisfactory conclusion supported by a lack of exposition and storytelling. There were hints of the source’s brilliance and of passion/competency on the part of the staff throughout Tanmoshi. Episodes 1 and 4, episodes 8 and 10, they were tolerable, acceptable, even, in many aspects. But that isn’t enough to salvage a show. It simply isn’t. If you’re considering getting into this show, may I suggest the light novel? Because otherwise, the show isn’t worth your time. 2/10. Thanks, Kadokawa.