Mysteries are mysteries no matter the decade.
What They Say:
It is the 2030s. A group of mysterious detectives, the Shonen Tanteidan, work at the command of Akechi Kogoro. They’ve solved case after case, large and small, with their innate enthusiasm. One day, one of the members of the group, Hanasaki Kensuke, meets an odd boy named Kobayashi Yoshio. Robbed by a strange fog of his ability to die, Kobayashi spent his days in isolation, longing for death. Hanasaki takes an interest in him, and invites him to join their group. Their fates become intertwined with those of the nefarious Fiend with Twenty Faces and Kogoro Akechi.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a few different Edogawa Ranpo shows coming up in the last few years to celebrate various anniversaries, Trickster is the latest one to land as part of the fall 2016 anime season. It’s a two-cour show that carried right into the winter 2017 season without much in the way of a break but the first half largely serves as its own storyline with a decent enough climax to it. I’ve seen a few Ranpo works in the last few years and while I generally enjoy mystery shows I’ve struggled with these largely through what I think are creative choices made in bringing them to the screen. This series comes from TMS Entertainment with Shin-Ei Animation handling the production that’s directed by Masahiro Mukai and series composition by Erika Yoshida.
The premise for this one is familiar enough as we get a Boy Detectives Club that exists that was pulled together by the detective Kogorou Akechi. The twist, get ready for it, is that it takes place in the 2030’s. That means some very, very, slight near future stuff that outside of the robots that we get doesn’t seem any different from the world of today. In fact, it feels like a decade out of date in how people interact and deal with each other in terms of devices. If not for the robots it could have been done anytime in the last twenty years or so. Akechi has put together this group as he continues his search in trying to take down the Many of Twenty Faces, a longstanding part of the Ranpo narrative that weaves in and out of this half of the series as a background piece outside of the bookend aspects of it.
The group that Akechi has put together is fairly decent as we get Hanasaki, the outgoing and thrill seeking type that’s engaged and really wanting to accomplish things all while having a smile on his face. He’s the real main character of the series alongside Kobyashi, a mysterious character that Hanasaki comes across early on and brings into the group because of the strange request that Kobayashi has. Essentially, Kobayashi is unable to be hurt or die and he wants help in ending everything. We do see instances where Hanasaki tries to help him and how it doesn’t seem to do any good as the immortality is pretty solidly put together. There are some minor teases as to what’s going on with him but this is kept more for the second half of the series to deal with. Kobayashi provides for the emo character of the show as he’s fairly sullen and grumpy and often reluctantly brought in to help with some of the situations that unfold. He’s holding Hanasaki to his promise, something that others that he may have encountered before didn’t want to have any sort of involvement in, making for an odd relationship.
Akechi has two other interesting characters that we deal with to varying degrees, such as Inoue, a paraplegic character that has been there the longest and is whip smart. With him bound to a wheelchair we get some interesting bits along the way in how he interacts with others but it’s just welcome to have someone of his nature as a leading character and getting on with his life while not being singled out because of it. There isn’t a big deal made of his situation, which is definitely welcome. It’s rare we get these kinds of characters in general and most often they’re brought in to raise the emotional stakes rather than being an engaging and fully participatory character. Inoue is balanced with Noro, the only girl of the group that’s essentially a shut-in at her place where she does the information work and communications side of things for Akechi and the others. That means some cute factor and the usual banter but she’s largely underdeveloped as a character here.
The problem with the show is that it is all fairly formulaic. There’s some minor setup early on about a mystery involving the robots that gets them taken out of the equation for a while, reducing the kind of security details that are out there. But then it shifts into the standard one-off tales and minor mysteries that are wholly uninteresting and utterly forgettable as they progress. They’re not designed to really provide anything interesting but rather serve as ways to see how the group dynamic of the club works and the individual characters. It also lets us get some time in seeing how Hanasaki and Kobayashi interact with each other and as Kobayashi’s issue is explored. They needed more scenes of Hanaski trying to help him die, including more drops from high buildings just to make it clear. With Kobayashi often just relegated to the sullen background, especially in contrast to Hanasaki’s lightness, it’s a weak link in the show.
As one might expect with a show of this nature, the midseason point pushes forward with a more distinctive arc from around episode ten through twelve. This has the Man of Twenty Faces essentially acquiring Hanasaki for a while in order to twist and turn him to his own goal. Since he’s playing a long game against Akechi it’s no surprise that he’d used what he views as Akechi’s pawns in their struggle against each other. This does dig into some of Hanasaki’s past and motivations but there was so little to make him really interesting and engaging earlier in the run that this just ends up as a drawn out piece. And that on top of the already drawn out aspect of the mundane mysteries that are forgettable simply makes this half of the season dull and uninteresting.
In Summary:
The first half of Trickster starts with the potentially interesting idea of dealing with some Edogawa Ranpo work in a mild near-future based setting of the 2030’s but instead ends up feeling like it’s taking place in 2006 instead. The characters are boilerplate material with nothing to really define them, though Inoue was a welcome change of pace, and the stories themselves aren’t memorable in the slightest as standalone pieces. So when we hit the three episode arc at the end as “things get serious” it just feels even more forced and drawn out. There are some decent bits along the way and the animation is serviceable enough, but this will do little to energize a strong new following of Ranpo’s style and works.
Content Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
