“Dazai-san’s Nail Biter / If Only I Could Express My Hundred Thoughts / Please Share! Armed Detective Agency!”
What They Say:
Spin-off series about the everyday life of the members of the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As much as I enjoy this show I also dread it because it feels like it hammers on with too much material since there’s nothing to it beyond light humor. The individual pieces are fun but almost twelve minutes of it runs the gag through the ground. I continue to like the characters and the lightness about it since it plays well to highlight their personalities more. Hell, I’d love to see some of these mixed into a playlist with the original series with where they might fit in order to break up the more serious dynamic of that show.
The opening story here has the two guys talking about Kunikida and his positive qualities and the like all while Dazai ends up kind of checking out of his own responsibilities. It’s amusing to see how he sets Kunikida up for some abuse only to realize that he may end up in a really bad place for that to be revealed, even potentially causing his end. It works especially well as Dazai really gets panicked, a true rarity for the character, and he has to go after him while trying to figure out how to get the sign off his back – unless it falls off on its own?
Another tale here goes for the scary stories thing with the hundred thoughts concept standing in for the thousand stories or whatever it usually is in the horror realm. It’s definitely amusing watching four of the core cast of characters together at night and by candlelight as they try coming up with things to scare each other. Mostly it’s just things that scare themselves, such as a paper cut, but it crosses to the others as well at times and it’s just weirdly silly when it comes to what defines horror. I love that it has all the right trappings for it but they’re so weak.
In Summary:
With the final story having a bit of a dance performance that completely obliterates remembering anything about the story itself, it’s a cute and fun episode. The final piece with its dance choreography and music hits a nice comical note and builds off what the other stories were like in a good way, especially with the end gags included with it. It’s a decent episode that delivers the goods but still feels like too much.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
