Ranked #3607

Debutante Detective Corps

When you think of great character design and artwork two of the studios you might think of almost immediately are Gainax and Studio 4°C. So it’s a bit amazing to me that artistically, Debutante Detective Corps turned out to be one of the most horrible looking turds I have seen to date. I guess even the best have to start somewhere.

Given Debutante's title I am not sure what I was expecting, but regardless of what it was I certainly didn’t get it. Nothing about the story or the title make a lot of sense. Obviously this was a title given by the English dubbing studio and it’s really only the beginning of this epic fail abortion of an anime.

Our story starts with our five heroines entering the scene in spastic, silly, and unnecessarily flashy manners. We are given brief bios of the quintet and you better read it because that’s all the character "development" and background story you’re going to get on any of them. They are all fabulously wealthy girls and apparently are being threatened by a mysterious organization. So of course the police, instead of taking our spoiled bitches to some place secure like um, the police station maybe, they take them to a completely unsecure high school where they end up just locking them up in the principal’s office. Of course despite the school being blanketed but literally hundreds of armed officers in riot gear our three villains do manage to get inside the school where predictable, over the top, silly, and retarded action ensues.

Nothing about the story works. The comedy doesn’t because it relies mainly on having some sort of emotional investment in the characters. Given the shortness of the OVA this is practically an impossible task. Once the revelation is made at the end as too who is behind the attack, you’re likely to either explode into a howling laughter at its stupidity or face palm. Or perhaps both. Obviously that this was meant as a pilot episode for a potential series. It’s not shocking at all that this was never picked up. At least someone with some sense and good judgment realized how god awful the concept was and thus the world was saved from the potential of a full season of this garbage.

The characters are standard 90s clichés. You have every kind of "action" girl in the cast. The Chinese martial arts master, the Russian big guns girl, the explosives expert, the master of disguise, and the psychic master of magic’s. In addition we are treated to the usual tsundere, moe, and bratty personality types displayed in every other anime ever made. There is nothing extraordinary or memorable about any of them and honestly you will have a tough time just remembering their names let alone anything about them. The villains and supporting characters are equally stale and stupid.

Artistically this is about as bad as I have ever seen. The style is typical of the era of which I am not a fan of at all but even for the 90s this is epically horrible work. It’s really shocking to me too when you consider the studios involved in its production. For me it’s really difficult to imagine how anyone ever thought this looked good. The sound and music score are as drab and uninteresting as the animation. The lack of a decent story makes it impossible for any talent level of seiyuu to give a good performance.

If you’re considering watching this because of the studios involved in its production like I did, don’t. You will be disappointed. Debutante Detective Corps is best left to the dustbin of history. I am sure those who made it would also wish you forget it exists too.
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This is a one episode OVA that, to be quite honest, is not worth anyones time. If you just wanna see some girls do a few action sequences, fine, but don't expect ANYTHING from this show. That is all.