The Case Book of Arne

It's an enjoyable ride, but it needed more room to breathe. And if you're in the EN audience, you're definitely missing a few things. This anime is based on an RPGmaker game title available on Steam, which I bought and played as a bundle (base game + DLC) before I started watching this series. It was actually on my wishlist anyway, since I took note of any paid RPGmaker games now on Steam that were originally available as freeware translated by vgperson. The base game is a single mystery covered in episodes 2-5, leaving the majority of the series as anime-only installments. And overall, I enjoyed thesenew mysteries, even if they were predictable for some and usually only given 1-2 episodes per case. I liked seeing mysteries play out with different supernatural elements, from vampires to mermaids to invisible men, but the pacing will already feel rushed on that element alone. From there, there are a few more bumps in the road in what they choose to adapt. They never adapted the DLC, which answers some minor questions at the beginning of episode 6, would have been some fun carnival-based fluff for an episode, and would have provided a solid introspective moment for Lynn - all that skipped over. But more importantly, while "Teils 1-4" of the video game is what the EN gaming audience has to go by, the JP audience has much more, apparently up to "Teil 13". This, I hope, would have given some more context to who Amy is within the detective agency and how she joined, as well as the team's past with "Phantom Thief Red Riding Hood", so that's two major characters that the anime speeds through introducing to us as if we should have some context, which almost everyone in the EN audience certainly won't from our version of the Steam game. And that just adds onto the speedy pacing that makes the whole thing feel rushed. But knowing that major flaw... I still had fun? I've certainly been more disappointed by other anime this season. And I'm following a fan translation for the manga as well, to see if anything was covered there too. So I can't say I didn't like it. I personally would have made different decisions for what mysteries to adapt and what to create that's original to the anime, but since I'm not in charge, I'll just leave this here saying it was a solid seasonal to follow despite all the headaches. I'd say for you to just go in knowing what to expect.