A castle burns with the flames of war, and a young princess flees through a portal to another world. An energetic OP plays, seemingly combining real-world photos/video with animation for a super trippy result. In Gifu, a “rather simple, bland detective” named Sosoke tails a mark when a portal opens in the sky and a… Read More First Impression: A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics
It’s Tokyo, 1897—only it’s not quite the Tokyo we know from the history books. Here, the rabble are entertained not by kabuki or sumo, but by bare-knuckle brawls between the monsters and ghouls that once roamed the land of Edo on the one hand, and a tattooed man nicknamed the Oni Slayer on the other.… Read More First Impression: Undead Murder Farce
It’s the dead of night and a palace coup is afoot. Murder and mayhem! Vengeance and usurpation! The commoner prince takes out his wrath on the elderly Dowager Empress, and then storms to the secluded palace of the Raven Consort—where no man or woman dare set foot—in order to demand a favor of the mysterious… Read More First Impression: Raven of the Inner Palace
A girl stands in the spotlight on stage and monologues about Voltaire, with a punchline about death. In the next scene, which takes us back to the beginning of her story, Doujima Mayumi nearly becomes that very punchline, but fortunately is rescued by a pretty boy in an outfit reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, just in… Read More First Impression: Pretty Boy Detective Club
Kyosuke-san, a Literature professor from the Meiji Era, visits the apartment he used to rent as a youth and remembers the life and death of his dear friend, the genius poet and detective Takuboku Ishikawa (a real person, apparently). In the years of the Europization, this man, who was carefree, dispendious, and quite a flirt,… Read More First Impression: Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro (Woodpecker Detective’s Office)