Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace (Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace)

After what appears to be just another ordinary day, middle school student Yoshio Kobayashi wakes up in his classroom to make a terrifying discovery: his teacher has been mutilated, and Yoshio happens to be holding the weapon used to commit the crime.

Despite the initial shock of finding himself in this predicament, the curious and detached Yoshio can't help but be secretly thrilled about this attempt to frame him. His put-upon friend Souji Hashiba is turned into a willing accomplice, and together, they are determined to prove Yoshio's innocence. Additionally, Kogorou Akechi, a genius high school detective, has come to the scene of the crime in order to investigate the case and when Kogorou meets the young man found guilty, an intense mutual interest sparks between the two of them. Kobayashi wishes to enter Akechi's world of crime solving as his assistant, and Akechi is determined to see if the enthusiastic boy is up to the challenge.

Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace is a surreal mystery and horror anime that contains brutal and bizarre crimes, loosely based on stories written by Ranpo Edogawa, who is famous for his influence on Japanese fiction.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace (lit. Strange Tales of Rampo: Game of Laplace) is inspired by the works of author Edogawa Rampo (a pseudonym for Tarou Hirai) and commemorates the 50th anniversary of his death in 1965.

He was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, the first recurring detective character in Japanese fiction and is clearly inspired by Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

(Source: Wikipedia)

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kobayashi, Yoshio

Main

Takahashi, Rie
Japanese

Akechi, Kogorou

Main

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Hashiba, Souji

Main

Yamashita, Daiki
Japanese

Kage Otoko

Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito
Japanese

Namikoshi

Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun
Japanese

Minami

Supporting

Fujita, Saki
Japanese

Kagami, Keisuke

Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki
Japanese

Kuro Tokage

Supporting

Hikasa, Youko
Japanese

Kagami, Tokiko

Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi
Japanese

Hanabishi

Supporting

Nakahara, Mai
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Higa, Yuuji

Producer

Matsumoto, Miho

Producer

Mori, Akitoshi

Producer

Edit

Opening Theme

"Speed to Masatsu (スピードと摩擦)" by amazarashi

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Ending Theme

"Mikazuki (ミカヅキ)" by Sayuri (さユり)

Reviews

Jun 16, 2023

Tulipfera

Recommended

Gonna try to tip the scales here.

To those reading the reviews to see if you are going to watch it or not, do NOT listen to the negative reviews, just see for yourself.

I read the reviews before watching and they were mostly negative. I stopped reading them so I didnt persuade my brain to expect it to be bad.

I ended up really enjoying it, like a lot. I laughed, I gasped, and teared up, I enjoyed the music, and the characters, and the storytelling. Ive seen some truly bad shows, but this one wasn't bad at all.

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Jul 27, 2021

UniversalPotato

Mixed Feelings

(Spoilers)

Overall 5/10- For this anime, I wasn't really impressed as it just felt plain even though it's about detective work and crime, it doesn't really make me feel hyped about it.

Story 5/10 and Enjoyment 5/10- I say that the story is connected to the enjoyment of the anime with its genre and that made the anime bland since the story was based on a student named Kobayashi who was framed for murder so he was taken by the police for investigation but the student is not normal as for him he was calm about the situation and that it only interested him which I thought ... the anime would be all about on how this student was going to find that he was innocent but after that that was taken care of Kobayashi became interesting on investigating crime so with a detective named Kogorou and his best friend Hashiba they basically go through different crimes but most of the crimes they face are linked to another crime named twenty faces and this also links to Kogorou past.

So, all in all, I feel that this story was 5 and the enjoyment a 5 because of how boring it can get for most episodes because it was interesting at the start but after that, we get more crimes shown to us and when watching these kinds of crime, horror or detective anime you would want to be shocked on who or what the victim had done in that crime but instead they have basically thrown every information at us which I think just makes it just unfun and even though it was 11 episodes and I sound like they had rushed everything but each episode just felt really long for some reason, maybe with how many backstories we get which I think didn't help improve the story for the suspect for most crime and I rather have a backstory between Kogorou and that crazy lady Kuro instead we get some weird man who loves little girls and disguises himself with a bag which I guess would still be a weird backstory but it would actually link to more about that twenty faces crime than most others than we've seen.

Art 6/10 and Sound 6/10- Sound was ok, I watched through the dub and the VA did ok and the opening was ok I liked it. The art was different, background, the scenery was fine but when showing characters it different, I get what they trying to show here and I don't hate as they either have characters that aren't important blurred through some single color or later in the anime we seem most characters in mask skull showing who's side is who and it's different so I guess it was ok.

Character 6/10- For the first 4 or 5 episodes, Kobayashi was basically important to the series with how he, and yes I was surprised he was a boy, was framed through murder and luckily due to how he isn't some normal student, he acts fine and goes with the police investigation on helping this investigation on why he is innocent and after that, it only grew his interest in solving crimes because he thinks it is very interesting and fun but then after we see about the twenty faces cases, the anime directs to more on Kogorou who is related to these cases and I think he the only characters that interested me in this anime with his calm, collective personality and I guess his backstory with his school life was ok from the rest but not that many characters I did not care or like about.

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Feb 25, 2024

BigBoyAdvance

Not Recommended

Just another pretentious and nonsensical detective show that has nothing good going for it.
Positives:
- The MC is a cute femboy trap with a nice ass, and his classmate is "secretly" in love with him.
- There was one (only one) scene that had an emotional impact and made me feel sympathetic for the killer.

Negatives:
- The stories are too simplistic, devoid of mystery, they lack the necessary depth and impact, and aren't explored sufficiently. The final story is the worst offender here, as it fails to achieve a satisfying closure to the overarching plot.
- The MC might be a cute boy, but he doesn't feel like a ... human being. He always speaks in a robotic cheerful tone no matter what happens.
- It's hard to take anything that happens in this show seriously because of the sudden and drastic tone shifts. In one episode we have a grim and tragic story, which is immediately followed by a cheerful and silly comedy episode. This anime doesn't know what it wants to be.
- The MC doesn't play an important role in most of the cases, making him almost feel like a redundant main character.
- The biggest shortcoming of this anime - illogical and nonsensical writing. I can't cover it all because it would spoil the story, but here's a few examples:
1) An experienced killer falls for an obvious and idiotic trap?
2) Suspects who immediately confess to a crime after being accused (with little evidence) of being the killers?
3) A guy knows where the killer lives, but instead of contacting the police, he leaves it to MC (a 14yo boy) to apprehend the killer? He also knows that MC is a detective for some unexplained reason?
4) A guy has a seemingly magical ability to change his face, body structure, voice and clothes to perfectly imitate anyone? And despite having this amazing disguise ability, he feels the need to wear a suspicious-looking mask in public? And to make it even more stupid - the police are actively looking for a guy wearing that mask, but it doesn't deter him from wearing the mask in public anyway?
5) A wanted criminal casually arrives before the detectives, and they treat him like a guest instead of calling the police? And they let him go free at the end of the episode?
6) The final story is pretentiously pseudo-scientific (read up about the scientist who's in the title of this anime, and you can guess what this story is all about) and it ends on a cliffhanger. It even commits the "you predicted my next move, but I predicted your predicting, but actually the power of love wins in the end" sin.

It all feels like the show was written for a teenage audience that's too stupid to notice any of the pretentious writing. Sorry, I'm not stupid enough to enjoy those type of dogshit shows.
Final rating: 3/10

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Poll: Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Sep 17, 2015	146 replies	by Archean-Return »» Dec 4, 2023 11:47 AM
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Characters & Voice Actors

Kobayashi, Yoshio

Akechi, Kogorou

Hashiba, Souji

Kage Otoko

Namikoshi

Minami

Kagami, Keisuke

Kuro Tokage

Kagami, Tokiko

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Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace

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Synopsis

Background

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Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

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Reviews

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