Reviews

Mar 2, 2016
Ranpo Kitan is often considered to be one of the worst anime of 2015, though being a completionist I nevertheless decided to give it a shot. Did it lead up to it's infamy? You bet. But why is that the case? Well, that's what this review is for.

The series is based off the novels of historical mystery writer Ranpo Edogawa, and this series was dedicated to him. Needless to say it wasn't EXACTLY the best dedication in the world, but enough jibber-jabber.

The show follows Kobayashi, a kid who pairs up with a classmate from his school and a famous detective named Akechi. Now, Ranpo's story line is messy to say the least. The show starts out episodic, but then dwells on the mystery of a figure named 20 Faces. The problem with the 20 Faces plot is that its pretty predictable. Once you see a certain theory that appears in the show, the culprit of the 20 Faces crimes is pretty easy to figure out. The other major problem with this show is that it relies too much on shock factor to get chills out of the viewers. We got a pedophile who turns disobeying children into wall paper art, a school teacher who turns people into chairs, a masochist who tortures people and pees herself constantly etc. These are too over the top to be taken seriously yet too disgusting to be taken comedically. It just fails to add up. One thing Ranpo IS good at though is info dumping. Some of the stronger episodes were those that dwelled on the backstories of certain characters. Too bad a lot of these are pretty damn clichéd and melodramatic. And a lot of the time the show isn't even good at being a mystery due to lack of any intrigue whatsoever and some episodes can barely be classed a mysterious in nature. The ending is pretty poor as well, leaving a sour note on a show that was already sour to begin with.

Onto the characters. Well, the characters are mostly one-note and not even enjoyable to watch. There's Kobayashi, a bishounen who thinks everything is fun and is constantly confused for a girl. Doesn't help when they try and lure in the pedophile by making Kobayashi crossdress. My main beef with him is that his overly happy persona gets grating after a while and he solves pretty much all the cases even though he's basically the Watson of this story. Hashiba is pretty much pointless and is only there as either sub-par comic relief or to serve as yaoi bait, there's not much too him. Then there's Akechi. Now, I normally am fine with characters like him (cold-hearted and emotionless), but the problem is that he's so freaking lazy. He can never get a case solved on his own, and for someone who's a professional detective that's pretty pathetic. The rest of the characters aren't too notable. They either only serve as shock factor or have good ideas but very poor execution, though there were some I actually kind of liked (in particular, the nekomimi school teacher actually made me laugh intentionally).

To end things out on a lighter note, Ranpo actually looks pretty solid. Its dark and grim settings along with the way the flashback and info dumping scenes change in style is handled wonderfully. The soundtrack is good too. The OP and ED songs are great listens on their own, and while the songs in the show aren't too memorable, they fit the mood. There's this one English song that plays in nearly every episode that does get a bit grating after a while, but the song it self isn't that bad. However, good production values don't equal a good show, and Ranpo is a big example of that.

Overall, Ranpo Kitan is a show that fails both as a mystery and as a horror anime, due to its ludicrously over the top situations, uninteresting characters, and predictable mysteries in general. Something I do give Ranpo credit for is that its presented pretty well and that it at least never failed to amuse me. But that doesn't mean its a good show. Far from it. Several anime does its elements a lot better, and Ranpo doesn't really have much to set it apart other than human chairs and urinating masochists. I don't recommend it what so ever unless you purposefully want to watch a sloppily written show. That or you just like blood and guts with nothing much else to it. Either way works.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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