First Impression: The Detective Is Already Dead

I don’t even know where to begin. Our protagonist is a middleschooler with a freakish knack for being present at crime scenes and other dangerous situations. When a flight attendant starts asking if there’s a detective aboard the plane, the girl in the seat next to him claims to be a detective, and spontaneously appoints the protagonist, whom she dubs “Kimi,” as her sidekick. A guessing game, fight with a tentacle-eared cyborg, and use of smuggled gun that can use magic blood for bullets ensues. The girl, whose codename is “Siesta,” begins trying to recruit Kimi as her full-time assistant. He’s desperately trying to living a normal life, but then they bust some pink rabbit drug dealers, and he finally agrees to be Siesta’s sidekick. Then there’s a timeskip and Kimi informs us that Siesta is dead. Disclaimer: this is a totally inadequate synopsis of this double-sized first episode, but it feels like there’s so much happening that I’m not sure how to summarize it better without going on for multiple pages.

I still don’t know where to begin. This opening episode covers how Kimi met Siesta and became her assistant. Having read vol. 1 of the light novel, I just want to say this episode presents the story differently: basically, events that are shown as flashbacks in the book happen in the “present” of this episode, and we only get a brief glimpse of the novel’s “present” at the close of the episode. This looks to be a hilarious mystery / romantic comedy / adventure story. As is often the case with anime adaptations of comedy-heavy stories, the audio and visuals add quite a lot to the entertainment value. I also quite like the musical accompaniment for this episode, so that’s another reason to keep watching. I will definitely be watching more of this show, and recommend checking it out.

The Detective Is Already Dead is airing on Funimation.

R86 adds: Unfortunately I cannot share Jeskai Angel’s opinion on the first episode of this show, though I think his synopsis is spot on. For my tastes, the relationship between the two main characters was too painfully one-sided. I would have thought the same if the genders were reversed, or even if the main characters were of the same gender. Does the detective lack any kind of deus ex machina among her “seven tools?” Is there any imperfection whatsoever in her foresight? Does her would-be “sidekick” really have nothing to offer besides his terrible luck (which, now that I think about it, must actually be pretty good luck if he has survived to this day)? And somehow I’m to believe that a detective this perfect mou shindeiru, is already dead, only to be replaced by an equally perfect detective somehow both different and the same? Certainly we need to suspend credulity in order to watch anime, but I’m afraid I just can’t stretch this far. Yet I’m relatively certain that, as often happens, my opinion will be decidedly in the minority, and this show will achieve success. And that actually doesn’t disappoint me in the slightest.