“Welcome to the murderous party File 1”
What They Say:
Rich heiress Reiko Hosho lives a double life as a novice detective, fighting crime under Inspector Kazamatsuri—also from a wealthy family. After work, Reiko sheds her pantsuit to don a lovely dress for dinner each day. Difficult cases force her to confide in her butler Kageyama, who proceeds to savagely ridicule her inability to solve mysteries, all while brilliantly unraveling each case himself.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the novel of the same name, this anime adaptation is one that’s definitely an interesting one, with how it drops you into things and you have to claw your way to understanding. But it does so in style which makes it engaging. The show is directed by Mitsuyuki Masuhara who has directed works from Paradise Kiss to Ace of Diamond as well as Chi’s Sweet Home. Mariko Kunisawa handled the series composition for this and has been crafting a lot of things fans like, including Ascendence of a Bookworm for all the seasons so far, as well as working on a lot of Orphen. Madhouse handling the animation production is a huge win, especially their outdoor backgrounds, but just the look of the designs, expressions, and the way the camera moves is fantastic.
I have a fondness for murder mystery stories but I’ve always leaned more toward Kindaich- type stories than Case Closed stories. This series has a slight feeling of both in a way but with multi-episode storylines at play as we’re introduced to Reiko Hosho. She’s living a double life as she’s a detective working under Inspector Kazamatsuri while she tries to hide that she’s an heiress to the Hosho family business. Her higher-up superiors know but Kazamatsuri hasn’t a clue. And by which I mean about anything. You get the sense that he’s just plain lucky and has good people around him but he comes from wealth himself and flouts it. The problem is that his family makes its money from what are considered awful cars that are just stylish. They have a Ferrari-style branding to them and Kazamatsuri definitely has a flourish and showmanship about him, right down to the white suit and hat that he wears. You know what to expect from him from the start and why it’s so easy for Hosho to hide things from him.
Our introduction to Hosho, however, is at her friend’s father’s birthday party, where they’re all dressed to the nines. It’s fun to see the dynamic between her and her friends since they’ve all got money to varying degrees and the usual mean girls elements creep in. It’s not hard to keep up on the dynamics once it gets further along but it’s messy at first since you’re just dropped into it and there are a lot of characters since it’s a party with ongoing relationships. But one of those at the party, a young woman named Mizuho who I believe is Ayaka’s cousin, ends up attacked and it sets an investigation underway – though I don’t think she dies, at least so far. But the attack has the police called in and Reiko has to shift gears from being all dolled up to getting her usual detective’s outfit and trying to create separation. That she has a servant who keeps offering advice and brings her clothes – who is almost never seen himself – just adds to the comical surreality of it.
And that’s what makes this work. If it was played straight, it would work well because the settings are great, the character designs work well, and the way the story is layered and slowly revealed has a good classic mystery about it. But there are so many lighter moments carefully mixed in and combined with Reiko’s personality (and some like Ayaka) just bring a lot of laughs because they’re “of wealth” and don’t react normally. Reiko largely handles the shift to detective mode well but there are some really great moments for her where she gets to be over-the-top and the kind of panic she has is an absolute delight. The mystery doesn’t feel as important as it goes along because of the nature of how it’s all set up – the episode feels more like it’s just using something light to introduce the basics – but it unfolds in such an engaging way that you want to know more of all of these characters. Reiko and her friends would be great for a bar hang and just letting it all out there. But also knowing there are darker moments within them all.
In Summary:
The Dinner Table Detective is something that, to me, did not feel like it was an easy intro when I watched it. It’s had the weakest promotional run in its lead-up, and just mysteriously appeared on Prime Video with no real promotion. And while it has a lot of language options, there are plenty of concerns for a lot of them with translation and the method of creation. Having watched it in its original Japanese with English subtitles, I struggled a bit at first, but it doesn’t spoon-feed the viewer all the basics right away and just takes its own time and pace to introduce everything, so you know how it’s going to work. Once you get that, it’s either going to really work or not. I absolutely love the animation design for it and the visuals, so it’s a big win there. And so much of how this operates feels like a late 90s show but with modern animation, making me enjoy it even more. Definitely a dark horse show for the season.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Prime Video
