Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace

The Academy Awards, also known as The Oscars, is an annual American award that honors the best in cinema and their achievements in the film industry. Since its introduction in 1929, winning this award has become the gold standard to which movie titles are measured against, as well as the end goal that many bigwigs within the film industry aim for. It encourages innovation and progress, which is always a good thing in any form of storytelling medium.
And while the Oscars celebrates the "best of the best," there's an equally recognizable award that does just the opposite, The Golden Raspberry Awards. Better known by ... its shortened name The Razzies, since 1980, it has served as the antithesis of the Oscars by honoring the "worst of the worst" to come out of the film industry. Needless to say, this isn't the award anyone wishes to be bestowed with. And if anime titles were to ever be given an equivalency to the Razzie award, I can safely say that Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace would be nominated with flying colors.

Overworked, ostentatious, and utterly deplorable, Ranpo Kitan was a tethered together mess with inconceivable plot twists and dizzying tonal shifts that relentlessly forced a narrative along with no proper rhyme or reason. It's a title that fails so much that it transcends to an ethereal plane of stupidity, becoming something like a "how-to" guide to making a bad anime. An achievement so successful in fact, that as an end result, it manages to turn shitty writing into an art form.

Ranpo was classified under the mystery genre but was better suited to be seen as a comedy. Trying its best to tell an interweaving story of a conspiracy, we're introduced to our trap protagonist Yoshio Kobayashi, or who I like to refer to as Fujoshi-kun, as his mundane life is flipped upside down when he finds himself involved with a detective after a gruesome murder. The rest of the story chronicles Fujoshi-kun's misadventures with this detective and the rest of the wack jobs they encounter along the way.

The mystery genre tag for Ranpo Kitan is extremely misleading since most of the cases have no real "mystery" behind it. For the most part, the show is simply dedicated to showing fucked up psychopaths and the extreme methods they're willing to take in order to murder people. There's no guessing, there's no clues, there's no investigation, just a bunch of crazy dimensionless lunatics killing people in very over the top ways. It's like Spike's TV series "1000 Ways to Die" with an extra serving of vanilla homoerotica. And at the off chance, the show does try to tell a mystery story, it became irrelevant since Fujoshi-kun and the detective Kogorou Akechi are basically the Houdinis of solving crime. With little to no foretelling clues, they're able to piece together a case as if it was simply routine. There's no proper answer given and when they made any attempt to explain it, the reasoning was convoluted logic that only made sense when the writers retcon past events.

Another poor element the show attempts to use is a highly volatile sub-form of math known as chaos theory. Like time travel, chaos theory is in its fledgling stages of understanding and falls more into the realm of make-believe than factual content. Most of what is known of it come from a lot of guess and check work that ultimately pans out to a dead end. To put it in layman's terms, it's impossible to prove accurate. And since math is all about accurate assessments, trying to incorporate such an unstable arithmetic equation in a real world setting only comes off as stupid. And that's precisely what Ranpo attempts to do; it takes an asspull theory and uses it to haphazardly explain away events as "it's all according to plan" logic. If you use an inkling of common sense while watching this it'll frustrate you to no end. It's the equivalent of a "mystery" show making up bullshit as the story goes along and pretending it was predestined.

But perhaps the aspect of this show that became the most grating wasn't the ludicrous story but rather the ill-conceived cast of characters that populated it. This is a show that's asking you to take things seriously while presenting a loli teacher who looks like she's 10 but is actually 32, a fujoshi bait lead who is far removed from reality and think everything is "fun," a man who wears a paper bag over his head and watches little girls, a masochist that wets herself, a detective who's a living breathing Gary Stu, a 4th wall breaking medical examiner who happens to be a loli, and the list just goes on and on.

These caricatures that make up Ranpo Kitan are tonally conflicting with the dreary atmosphere the story is trying to present and as the story continues along, they somehow manage to get worse. It's a motley crew of one terrible personality after a next, each one adding a headache inducing layer to the show. This conflicting tone between the characters and story results in some of the worst tonal whiplashes imaginable. Dark scenes can be immediately followed up by yaoi fanservice or poorly placed comedy. Nothing is treated seriously despite the show's desperate attempt to be serious and as a result, nothing feels significant in the least. Just poorly handled "dark" moments being forced to share screen time with subpar humor.

The only thing Ranpo deserves recognition for was its audiovisual presentation. It used very interesting techniques to convey certain scenes and even had a few motifs, that while too deserving for such a badly written show, still helped to enhance it from being a complete failure. Some notable examples were the 'butterfly effect' visuals that tied back to chaos theory (obviously being represented by the butterflies) and silhouettes being used to show a character's relevancy to Fujoshi-kun within the story, by either masking the person in it or having them step out of it. It was a well thought out idea that deserved credit for its inclusion. No, it wasn't on the same pedigree as something Masaaki Yuasa or Kunihiko Ikuhara would use but it was certainly a step above average.

The opening and ending theme were also nice ear-worms and even had accompanying visuals that were well paced. "Speed to Masatsu" by amazarashi, which served as the opening theme, was a catchy progressive rock fusion song that really got the blood pumping. Certainly a standout track from the summer season. The same could also be said about the ending tune "Mikazuki" by Sayuri, a bittersweet ballad that hit the right high notes while building into a nice pop rock anthem finish. They were both sonically soothing and were great as stand-alone listens.

2015 saw with it a sleuth of detective/mystery anime titles, Ranpo Kitan was yet another statistic. However, out of the bunch, Ranpo was quite possibly the worst to make its debut that year. And for that, it earned its Razzie and spot in the annals of shitty anime.

Enjoyment: 3/10

The only thing I enjoyed was the opening and ending themes... the show itself can jump off a cliff into oblivion.

Overall: 2/10

I'm not going to mince words here, this anime is really bad. It sets out to create a mystery and the end result was a faux pas into B-grade territory. Unintelligible and pointless, there is nothing here worth digesting outside of a superficial level. With that being said, I highly suggest you save yourself the trouble and ignore this honking pile of turd.

A damn shame, i didn't had a lot of hype about it but i was hoping that it would end up good.
It failed.

Ranpo Kitan is an anime to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Edogawa Ranpo. He's pretty much of the godfather of mystery series. If he was alive, i'm not sure if he would be happy about this adaptation of his works with the modern twist of these days.

For the story, i'll not talk about it you can just read the synopsis. However, what i can say is that the mysteries around the cases aren't really good. They are cases ... that could have been interesting but it goes so fast and they don't even show you a clue, they just throw the answer like that.

''Hey, we never showed you that girl or these clue but it doesnt matter, that's what happened deal with it.''

Where's the fun in this ? Dammit Makoto Uezu and Seiji Kishi stop touching mysteries and stuff. Stay with comedies. Please.

The art is good. It's not ugly but it's not ''holy sh- it's beautiful'' too ! However, we can see that they try to be original with the presentation and some of them are really appreciated like the people who only were silhouettes representing people that Kobayashi doesn't care at all and only the people that he finds interesting is seen normally. Just background characters for him. Sometimes, they try too hard with the symbolisms that it just gets boring.

The sound is ok. The OP and ED were some of the best in this season. ( I listen to them a lot in my car, no joke.) The OST is also nice, but there one song in particular that plays almost every episodes. Is the song bad ? No. But it gets annoying, a little bit like the song ''Don't loose your way'' in kill la kill.

The characters are ... most of the time forgetable. With the exception of one : Kobayashi. A boy who got us all confused, thinking that it was a girl. Kobayashi is bizarre and wants some action in his life... thats pretty much it. The protagonist pretty much gets in trouble, help sometimes Akechi and gets our ding confused. The other characters aren't worth mentioning with Hashiba who might be gay for Kobayashi (we will never know), the detective super-duper intelligent and anti-social Akechi and Minami the medical examiner aka one of the worst character this season. Popping out randomly, trying to be funny. The Shadow-man was good tho. Weird and sometimes creepy but he was definitly the most interesting one.

Overall, i was hoping that it gets better. The first episode people were sceptical and i was thinking: ''Oh c'mon people it's just the first episode. Give it some times.'' The more it was going, the more i was thinking that ... yeah, that's not good at all.

4/10, don't waste your time with it.
Well, there's only 11 episodes so you can try if you want but don't get your hopes up.

In the first 3 episode, I started to think that this series was interesting. But in the last 3 episodes, it all goes wrong..., in almost every aspects.

I will first discuss the story, the anime was identified as the mystery genre with no other genres. I should say that at first, the story promising many things. As we know, in mystery series, there's only one item that been offered to us. And the answer is 'the mystery' itself, but if we identified all of the available cases in Game of Laplace, there's not much mystery in it. It just a blank question that ready ... to be answered at any time and any place. The bad thing is the anime unable to present intense mystery settings to the screen. Which a fatal error to the story plus the enjoyment. Imagine this,
"Have you had any idea if we watch a detective or a mystery movie without any mysteries within it?". The mysteries revealed with unclear reasons and many plot holes. Good thing this is just 11 episodes.

Another annoying thing is the character. I didn't even know why there's always psychopath that do the killings. The main cast could be told as one of the most typical, uninteresting, and ridiculous cast I've ever seen. You must know that the director is having a brain wreck. Instead offering a great mystery, they offering a yaoi fan service. Really? YAOI?! In mystery genre?! They exacerbated the situation with many other annoying and bizarre cast which I didn't want to describe one by one because it's just too.......ridiculous.

The animation and sound settings it's fair enough to make me watch this until the last second. Thanks to that two aspects, my headaches starts again.

Comic Relief, Ridiculous Cast, Unfulfilled Individual Element, and many other bad things make this anime got worse and worse. All of that wrapped up in just 11 episodes.Trust me, if you have any idea about watching this, I suggest you too forgot this for an instant.

This anime to me resembles a lot like Tokyo ESP v2.0. It is pretty sad to say that Kishi Seiji has declined in quality ever since Persona 4 the Golden Animation which I didn't watch.

STORY (3):

This anime marks the 50th anniversary of Edogawa Ranpo's passing. Edogawa Ranpo was known as the Sir Author Conan Doyle of Japan who produced mystery fiction books. Now, Kishi Seiji the director undergoes this project.

You know a mystery fiction has to build tension and suspense when it comes to mystery solving and riddles to be solved. However, this anime failed on that ground. Everything was extremely cliché and countless ... mystery fiction have done before in the past years. Everything was unresolved at the end.

Some mysteries try to include all those sexual fantasies of the creators which Japan has been infamously known for. I told you I am very tired of all these sexual fantasies of the creators, they have been done to death in the past decade of anime. Like for example Kuro Tokage being tortured and she shows joy, especially Yaoi in this anime. Yes, I'm not joking.

ART (4):

The animation is below average just like Tokyo ESP. The animation never give the other characters some colors, imagine just like Watamote.

SOUND (4):

The opening was the best thing that will ever stay in my head in this anime.

CHARACTER (3):

I really hate to say this but Kogoro Akechi has great character development other than the rest of the casts. Seriously, Kogoro Akechi was like a wish-fulfilment character.

Souji Hashiba is just like another Azuma Kyoutaro with no personality that can stand out among the generic crowd. And do you guys remember Azuma Kyoutaro in Tokyo ESP, neither do I. But I do remember that Azuma Kyoutaro was useless and relied on Rinka Urushiba for help. Just like Souji Hashiba, he barely did anything but just be there for Kobayashi AKA Mr Transvestite.

I will just define Kobayashi's personality with this quote.

I'm just a sweet transvestite from Transylvania. I can't do anything and I jerk around with Akechi & Hashiba.

Kuro Tokage was the most creepiest person in this anime. She tries to be like a sex desire but she became creepy instead. The voice actress Hikasa Yoko this Summer 2015 anime has now voiced actresses that moaned a lot and including one character from Bikini Warriors. She is just a sex model.

The main villain was as cliché as the main villain as in Tokyo ESP.

CONCLUSION (3):

It seems that this anime is basically Tokyo ESP v2.0 with mystery that is not compelling and characters that are as bland as they can get.

I've got nothing more to say. Lerche has now declined in quality this year.

This anime gets a 3 out of 10.

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

Crime has been around for as long as humans have roamed the Earth. While it would be awesome if everyone held hands and made peace and sang carols, an idyllic world of that kind simply does not exist. There are “bad apples” everywhere. People who, for whatever reason, resort to crime.

Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace centers on crime like pedophilia, torture, and murder. Grotesque crime, but crime all the same. It shows the lengths people on both sides of the law will go to and what that means for everyone in society.

I have never committed ... a crime and I have (thankfully; knock on wood) never been the victim of a crime. Someone did steal a USB drive of mine once, but I was not so annoyed that I wanted to call for an investigation. Thinking about it now, I wish I still had that USB from way back when. And thinking about it more, if I had a copy of Ranpo Kitan on that USB, not only would I not care about it getting stolen, I would thank the thief for stealing it.

STORY

Ranpo Kitan is filled to the brim with problems, and nowhere is that more evident than in the tale it tries to tell.

The anime touts itself as a “Mystery” anime, and to be fair that is partially true. Each crime committed is usually quite strange: people contorted into furniture, little girls kidnapped and molded into concrete slabs, and so on. No matter the crime, the characters logically determine who the culprit is, what the culprit did, and why the culprit did it. Though the point is not this detective work because the crimes are usually solved within the episode, which realistically means within about ten minutes. Worse still is that the mysteries mean very little to the rest of the show. Individual mysteries do not affect the other mysteries, nor do they affect the characters themselves. Thus, the mysteries serve little else besides providing the setting. A misstep, especially considering the “Mystery” tag.

The main theme of the anime is the idea that crime goes unpunished. That these murderers and pedophiles escape conviction either for making bail or for having a mental illness, allowing them to “cheat the system.” This is where Ranpo Kitan encounters another major problem. The show is so one-sided that it becomes difficult to take the narrative seriously. The police are aggravatingly inept. Akechi and Kobayashi often need Kuro Tokage, the masochistic criminal who is madly in love with Akechi, to tell them where to go, even though she is behind bars and is a criminal herself. Kagami, one of the detectives, is put behind bars forever despite doing the exact same thing as the other criminals.

This last detail is meant to show the stupidity of the system in place. But it is so silly because of how contradictory it is. The precedent had already been set: criminals walk free even after committing egregious crimes. So when one case out of the (presumably) hundreds of others goes against this norm, it comes off as a cheap way to show how “unfair” society is.

Ranpo Kitan also has a glaring problem with just the tale it is telling. It starts off with these singular, mystery cases that allude to a so-called “Twenty Faces.” What was supposed to happen was a build-up towards the eventual boiling-over of the Twenty Faces dilemma. Instead, what occurs is a lot of stagnation. The crimes are, at best, semi-related to Twenty Faces, so when the Twenty Faces conflict reaches its climax, it comes out of nowhere. Build-up is further squandered when the anime interrupts the conflict. Episode six is too comical and too unrelated to the overarching plot. And episode ten, while expounding on Namikoshi and hence the origins of Twenty Faces, disrupts the tension that was finally being created.

Then there is the so-called “Dark Star” law which cheapens the narrative further. This law coming out of nowhere is a problem, but the biggest problem with this law is its scope. As an omniscient law, it is never wrong, meaning the narrative gets to do whatever it wants without consequence. When the law is wrong, it is either unfairly avoided (Namikoshi conveniently “updates” the law after Akechi “solves” it) or the explanation is nonsensical (Namikoshi and Kobayashi have to commit suicide in order for the law to be “complete”).

The ending also has issues. Rather than gracefully concluding the season, Ranpo Kitan tries way too hard to wrap everything up. The attempt made is a bunch of words without fully showing the aftermath, acting as a sort of catch-all to cover its bases. But the ending does not stop there. As the characters discuss, Namikoshi is (possibly) still alive, which is ridiculous. Not just because he has now pretended to die for the second time, but also because the entire purpose of the ending – the reason why Namikoshi went through this overly complicated crime – was to, in the end, kill himself. So when the anime nonchalantly states that the main antagonist is still alive, then everything throughout the season was for naught.

Even the tone of the anime is problematic. The crimes depicted are dark, yet the anime regularly dips into comedy. For instance, Minami, the doctor, is regularly used for comedic effect with her joking about the violent deaths. The idea is that the contrast is supposed to be funny, but because the anime is too serious when it comes to its subject matters, the contrast is less hilarious and more jarring.

Ranpo Kitan’s narrative simply has too many problems to consider it well-executed; contextually, the narrative is as barebones as it gets.

ANIMATION

Arguably the best aspect of Ranpo Kitan is its artistic direction. Multicolored lighting and nice shadows are used, but its best move is embracing its weirdness, creating scenes that bend reality at will. Impossible proportions, impromptu objects, and involved symbolism are just a sampling of the ways in which the anime depicts its scenes. “Scenes” in the literal sense. Curtains, spotlights, and fourth-wall breaking are used to make elaborate, stage-like creations to explain the crimes and events. The show even goes so far as to have the characters viewing the explanations as if they were watching a play. Since the crimes are a spectacle, presenting the anime in this fashion is not only interesting but also quite fitting.

When Ranpo Kitan is not focusing on the imaginary, the anime can look pretty dull. Besides Akechi’s abode and various parts of the city, the backgrounds and locations do not have the same pizzazz as the previous scenes. Although that is sort of the point. Similar to the story’s tonal contrast, a contrast between the crazy scenes and the mundane ones is designed to make the crazy scenes that much crazier. Dissimilar to the story’s tonal contrast, the artistic contrast actually works.

Another cool detail is how the anime presents uninteresting people. When Akechi’s perspective takes the limelight, uninteresting people are drawn as wooden puppets, symbolizing how they are controlled by the world around them. The most interesting case, however, is when the anime draws them as outlines with faded colors. Light grays, pinks, and greens cover the people that are currently uninteresting, including the main characters. How the anime determines who is uninteresting is based on Kobayashi’s feelings. He is disinterested in the world, so much so that the people he does not care about – the people he finds uninteresting – receive this faded treatment.

Unfortunately, the character designs are a step down, mainly due to their plainness. Akechi wears dress clothes with a red tie, but he looks a bit too old for his apparent age. Hashiba is similarly plain; besides his glasses, he has no outstanding qualities. There might be a case for Kobayashi who is designed to be feminine in appearance, but he, too, has a design that lacks any “oomph.” Shadow-Man might have a case as well given his signature paper bag he wears over his head. The paper bag symbolizes his ability to disguise himself as anyone he wishes, disguises that he regularly uses. Hanabishi, the teacher, has a strange design with cat ears, pink colors, and a short stature, although why her design is like this is never explained. Altogether, even giving Shadow-Man the benefit of the doubt, the designs lack the necessary appeal to call them impressive.

As for the actual animation, there is a moderate amount. The elaborate scenes are most likely the culprit for this, since they are more for show than they are for movement, although they can have moving parts and shiny sparkles. Hair, eyes, and limbs hardly move, and besides Akechi fighting some bad guys, there is not a whole lot of action. But again, to be fair, the anime’s focus on standalone shots of fancy setups makes this an expected outcome.

CHARACTERS

The characters of Ranpo Kitan are as abysmal as the story they find themselves in.

Kobayashi, the main protagonist, starts off well-enough but quickly tapers off. In the beginning of the season, he (indirectly) talks about his “boredom.” His “empty” feeling, as he puts it, causes him to be disinterested in the world around him. As if life had nothing to offer. That is a sad thing for a junior high school student to say since the world has so much in store.

It is not until he is framed for a murder that he finally finds the calling he had been searching for. He then starts working with Akechi, this work considerably lifting his spirits. At this point, Kobayashi’s character stagnates. He is always present, but he does not stray far away from his characterizations of solving the crimes and acting carefree. So when the finale comes around, and he is ready to commit suicide, it is perplexing. Not only was he finally enjoying himself, he had Hashiba, he had Akechi, and he had his ability to help solve those heinous crimes. There was never any indication that he was contemplating suicide let alone regressing back to his earlier thoughts.

Namikoshi is likewise a weak character. Namikoshi does not enter the series until midway through episode eight (out of eleven) and very briefly at the end of episode nine. All of episode ten is spent on characterizing and developing him. This episode shows everything: the bullies he had hounding him, the abusive parents he had at home, and his cherished friendship he had with Akechi. Doing this characterization and development so late is a major issue because the audience has no time to understand him as a character. He shows up, he gets developed, and then he disappears, all within the span of essentially a single episode.

What Namikoshi is ultimately meant to be is a parallel to Kobayashi. Both Namikoshi and Kobayashi felt left alone by the world around them. Both Namikoshi and Kobayashi were intelligent in ways that few others knew. And most importantly, both Namikoshi and Kobayashi had a best friend that, no matter their troubles, would fight to stay by their side. This parallel is supposed to exist between them, however, it is poorly handled. Namikoshi appears at the end (their relationship has no foundation) and Kobayashi no longer feels the same way as Namikoshi (his actions and demeanor throughout the season prove this). So not only are Kobayashi and Namikoshi weak characters individually, but they are also weak on a relational level.

Other relationships have problems as well. Akechi and Kuro Tokage – the masochistic, psycho woman in prison – presumably have some kind of past. But how they met or what kind of relationship they had is never explicitly shown. Akechi and Namikoshi’s also lacks strength; their relationship, while constructed, is not around long enough to say that what they shared was worthwhile.

The worst offender, however, is Hashiba and Kobayashi’s relationship. Unlike Akechi and Namikoshi, whose relationship demonstrates that they care for one another, Hashiba and Kobayashi’s relationship lacks that same sense of friendship. This is mostly due to Kobayashi’s attitude. Hashiba pesters Kobayashi and saves him from certain death, so he clearly cares for Kobayashi. In contrast, Kobayashi regularly ignores Hashiba’s pleas, making it clear that Kobayashi does not care about Hashiba as much as Hashiba cares about him. There are a few scenes in which Hashiba and Kobayashi interact in a meaningful manner, but they amount to nothing more than small apologies or asides. The result is the awkward relationship they share.

As for Hashiba’s individual character, he blushes a lot whenever Kobayashi is nearby – while maybe not romance, it is assumed that he is attracted to Kobayashi. Besides this fact and that he comes from a rich, gambling family, nothing else is known about the best friend.

Hence, the best character is Shadow-Man, though even he is not without problems. His hobby is protecting little girls from would-be criminals, though people misread him as a pedophile. He is undoubtedly the most unique character the cast has to offer, yet as is common with Ranpo Kitan, the anime fails to use him. This is not even about developing or changing his character, he simply has next to no presence within the show. After his initial introduction, he appears in episode six (the comedic one) and then not until the finale. So while his character is strange, that is all he is, because that is all that the anime used him for.

Thus, like the story, the characters are as barebones as possible.

SOUND

The opening theme is not slow; there is a quickness to it that pulls the listener along. And contrary to the anime, the song is not spooky. The first section has a single beat that seems like it will build towards that, but it is followed by a softer section that feels like longing. The middle section is comprised of a smattering of noise, leaning heavily on repetition. But the more its heard the more spiritual it becomes, fitting the sort of spiritual mood that the anonymous Twenty Faces and death in general entails. Also, the lyrics are interesting: “Sing notes of bronchitis,” “And my blood is my escape route,” and “All as speed and friction burn my insides” are graphic and haunting, once again fitting the anime’s mood. The song is not that impressive, but it at least hits the right atmosphere for Ranpo Kitan.

The ending theme starts off somber, an acoustic guitar and strained singing filling the piece. When the song picks up someplace in the middle, the piece becomes, like the OP, a cacophony. It is a bit overbearing, but it does have a purpose. As the visuals help to illuminate, this cacophony represents the craziness and figurative fall of society that the show regularly depicts. The piece goes back to its somber roots as it concludes, ending the piece on a sad note. This flow of emotion – from low to all-over-the-place to low once more – reflects the story’s own progression, making the ED, if nothing else, symbolic.

The rest of the original soundtrack is subpar, to say the least. The anime expectedly uses spooky compositions, such as a slow, ambient track that was essentially lifted from a haunted mansion. These set the mood, but are not fun to listen to outside of the show. Ranpo Kitan also uses a lot of piano tracks for the dramatic moments, but these tracks lack emotion. One dramatic piece in particular is Namikoshi’s favorite song, the song that Akechi plays from time to time on his jukebox to calm himself down. This song goes too far the other way; the song is too emotional and feels out-of-place. Then there are the comedic, jazzy tracks that only further the jarring tonal problems. Altogether, the OST is a largely forgettable offering.

Voice acting has no noteworthy performances. Rie Takahashi as Kobayashi gives the feminine male a girly voice but that is because Ms. Takahashi is a woman. Takahiro Sakurai as Akechi uses a voice that is a bit too old for his age. And Yoko Hikasa as Kuro Tokage, while energetic, does not come off as the conniving “Black Lizard” she claims to be because she always sounds so hyper.

ENJOYMENT

I cannot say that I liked this one.

For starters, the comedy and the drama did nothing for me. I was not laughing when Kuro Tokage peed herself from pleasure (which happened a lot), and I was not emotional when Kagami was recounting the tale of his sister. My disliking of the comedy and the drama stems from my dislike of the characters. Kobayashi was too annoying, Akechi was too full of himself, and Namikoshi was too nonsensical for me to take seriously.

Shadow-Man was interesting, if only because he wore a paper bag over his head. His episode, where he tries to save Sachiko for the second time, is also the best of the season because there was an actual relationship and person worth caring about. Sadly, the anime forgets about Shadow-Man for much of the rest of the show, so I cannot say I will remember him too much. Fitting, considering his name and disguises.

The mysteries were lame, too. Akechi and Kobayashi always instantly got the answer, so it never felt like I got to solve the mysteries or at least try to figure them out in some capacity. If they had some kind of trouble with the mysteries, it would have felt more genuine for the show and the audience.

Then there were all of the ludicrous instances. The mother of the little-girl kidnapper literally not turning her demented son into the police. Everyone in the city joining Twenty Faces’ cause so suddenly. An island that basically amounts to a slavery ring that nobody ever investigated. And (albeit petty) Akechi slurping his black coffee all of the time.

My favorite aspect of the entire anime was something that was insignificant: the cat. The cat was a happy cat, which made me a happy person. She was a fun cat, but she had nothing to do with anything. She was there be a cute cat and nothing more. If she was the only part I found entertaining, that speaks volumes for how I felt about the rest of the show.

Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace is awful. The story is broken, the characters are weak beyond belief, and the show is generally a bore to sit through. The art and parts of the music save this one from total atrocity, but only barely. It is practically a crime that this anime even got made in the first place.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, the mysteries are pointless, the main theme on crime going unpunished is silly, proper tension is never built, the “Dark Star” law is cheap, and the ending is handled horribly

Animation: Good, the elaborate scenes are interesting, the lighting, contrast, and other details add purpose, about average actual animation, but subpar character designs

Characters: Terrible, Kobayashi, Akechi, and Namikoshi are weak individually and in conjunction with each other and the rest of the cast

Sound: Bad, okay OP, okay ED, bad OST, below average VA performances

Enjoyment: Terrible, only the cat was fun to watch

Final Score: 2/10

DISCLAIMER: I haven't read any of Sir Edogawa's work when I wrote the review for this anime.

Ranpo Kitan is an anime coming from the mystery genre which produced Un-Go, Hyouka and Case Closed. The show's setup was good enough. The characters are quirky enough. The premise of the mysteries was creepy enough to pick the interest of the audience. To be honest, I really thought it can be a successor of Un-Go but what went wrong with this show? Oh well, let's proceed with the review.

Ranpo Kitan's direction is more mysterious than the story itself because the way on how the outcome of stories were ... solved was bereft of any thrill and life. It was also randomly handled at times that it managed to squeeze all the characters in a single episode for God knows why. It can also be inferred that one may not enjoy fully this series if he is not familiar with Sir Edogawa's works. That alone sends a distress signal in this anime given that it cannot stand in itself.

In addition, the audience was not given enough time and clues to solve the cases it had. A typical Ranpo Kitan case goes as follows: Akechi and his gang do their daily hijinks, a case comes up and bam! it was solved immediately. It was as if you are listening to a narration which suddenly jumps to the resolution and bores you to death.

The main story picks up at episode 8 (after some empty fillers), which is really late for an eleven episode anime and the payoff is not anything grand either. The sense of belief and tension in the finale were not there. It was as if I was just waiting to see what happens in the end. It starts to become passable then but it was too late to redeem the audience who dropped this early on.

Instead of focusing to create a solid plot, Ranpo Kitan focused in the quirks of the characters which was never good enough to compensate the lack of story. Twenty Faces, Shadow Man and the Medical Examiner are interesting enough since they are portrayed in a theatrical manner but without a good story to anchor them, they are just talking cardboards.

Ranpo Kitan's characters were also not given proper development and were only shown for the sake of the writing staff to move the plot. The only standouts given these characters are Kobayashi who seems to be a sociopath and Akechi who received fair amount of development from an overpowered protagonist to someone who is likable enough in the end.

Yet to say that Ranpo Kitan is a total waste of time is not fair. The visual techniques are really pretty that it compensates its inability to deliver a good story and I can certainly say that the background sound is one of the best I have heard this season. The opening song sets the mood for the show and the ending song is a pure earworm pop rock.

In the end, it seems like the noitamina slot is not fail proof when it comes in producing quality shows. Ranpo Kitan is one of their casualties this season which is a shame given that this is supposed to be the tribute to Sir Edogawa's 50th death anniversary.

SPOILERS: This show is garbage. It started as a simple, but decent murder mystery show. But then it goes into WTF territory of pretentiousness, head scratchers and forehead smacking that would have Evangelion telling it to relax.

This show sucks.

What’s good?
The main character Kogorou Akechi is the cool headed boy detective that I actually grew fond of as the show progresses. Always one step ahead, brilliant and having a sympathetic motivation, Akechi is what keeps the audience drawn to the show.

Souji Hashiba is possibly one of the most underutilized characters in the show, which is a shame. He doesn’t do much in the show, ... but the scenes with him (sans that trap) are some of the best moments in the show. I liked that he is straight man of the main trio while Akechi and that other one are eccentric and out-of-the-box. Hashiba should have been Akechi’s right hand man. Though rare, the best moments in the show are the interactions between Akechi and Hashiba, especially in the last few episodes where the two are working together.

The concept of 20 faces is really interesting. I wished the show put more focus on that than waiting for it to have any significance in the latter half.

The music is nicely composed, with some scores reminding me of Kingdom Hearts, oddly.

Why this show is garbage?
One, Kobayashi. This show is ruined simply by this person’s existence. First of all, why is she a trap? There’s no reason for her to be one. It’s become a trend in anime in the last few years that needs to die. It doesn’t help that she is possibly that worse case of traps in anime.

Second, the god awful pretentious behavior of this character and the outright neglect of consequences. It pertains to the last episode where he, (SPOILERS, but no one will want to watch this show), helps the villain only because he finds the villain to be more interesting than Akechi. She attempts to commit suicide along with the villain and the other 20 faces simply because he finds it interesting. Piss off!! Oh, and no gratitude towards Hashiba, the only one who genuinely cares for him, for saving his life. Poor Hashiba. His hormones must be a mess. Oh, that cringe worthy moment when Kobayashi saw Hashiba as a faceless mannequin.

Why is there a seductress that soils herself whenever she sees Akechi, let alone a teenager?

Why is there a gothic lolita teacher who clearly has some issue that I thought would play into the story, but never did?

How did Minami and her corpse doll interact with the real world? Weren’t they a figment of everyone’s imagination? What’s with those Family Guy cut-aways? That form of comedy got old 10 years ago.

Why there was an episode dedicated to a cat right after the good episodes Kagami??!!

Overall
Such a shame that this simple, yet enjoyable murder mystery show turned into a complete mess. Akechi, Hashiba and their interactions are great, but are not enough to cover all the badness this show has. Off pacing, nonsensical directing and the wasted potential of 20 Faces really made this show into a downer.

And screw you Kobayashi with your pretentious behavior and cross dressing. Where are Subaru and Charles to give this dude the 3D through the table? Kobayashi would make a fine chair.

As I normally do, I will have spoilers as you can't really explain how good/bad the story flows without actually explaining/telling parts of the story. So don't read if you don't want to get spoiled.


Story: 1
For an 11 ep series, it sure took its time to get to the main story: the Twenty Faces identity. The first few eps are largely character introductions, showing how inadequate the police force is, how great Akechi is and how unjust the justice system is. It dragged on needlessly as it could have easily been condensed within two episodes; maybe even one. And even when Twenty Faces was introduced ... it dragged on quite a bit with continuous side missions/mysteries.

The highlight was when the origin of Twenty Faces was revealed and that was when it became interesting. Unfortunately the writers probably have little to no experience regarding the philosophical/mathematical concepts they throw out, like 'Laplace Demon', 'Chaos Theory' as they mentioned how they were both similar; except a quick wiki search will show you that Chaos Theory is a counter to Laplace's demon.

Continuing... the ability for Twenty Face to affect people is largely excused with "people are angry" combined with the pseudo-intellectual application of "Butterfly Effect".
Now, you might be thinking that I'm harsh and that I should have a suspension of disbelief. Sure, let's try that for a moment and believe that everything works.
So as the climax, the antagonist then kills himself/disappears to complete his formula to make Twenty Face realised/complete. And the aftermath is that Twenty Faces appear more, then... they're forgotten... ??? All this is explained within the last few mins of the episode. It's as though the concept of Twenty Faces went back to square one and that the formula suddenly stopped working.

So the entire series was basically four episodes long that contradicts itself and ends up having essentially no effect as the concept of Twenty Faces pre-dates the story's timeline.

PS: There was even, what I consider, a filler episode (ep 6), in that nothing happens that advances the actual story. It is literally a side mission/mystery that's presented and solved in one episode.




Sound: 7
I liked the ending song and the piano insert song (look up Ranpo Laplace Dream on youtube and have a listen). Voice acting was pretty standard, I didn't feel like I felt attached to any particular character's voice selection. Overall, very average/standard.




Art: 7
The art isn't particularly bad, though the colours are a bit all over the place which reminds me of the *monogatari series. Though I feel that they share some kind of artistic overlap, in this series' case, it's not done as well as the *monogatari series and really just feels random.
Character designs are your more typical modern anime types in that their eyes don't take up half their face and hairstyles are more refined.



Character: 1
Akechi - Of all the three main characters, it feels like Akechi is the only one whose impact is actually felt outside of plot devices from the other two. He solves everything, fights everything and is basically the get-out-of-jail card that's used every single episode.

Kobayashi - He is basically the plot device to bring the camera to the villain (of the episode) so we can get some expository dialogue about the situation, then have Akechi come in and solve it.

Hashiba - His character feels completely out of place with the overall mood and story. His yaoi tendency serves no purpose towards the story nor does it even have any humourous impact. He's basically the incarnation of the concept of 'devil's advocate', except in a really annoying manner and without effect.

Supports - When we find out that some of the recurring characters turned out to be part of Twenty Faces, their impact towards the story just feels like the writer was trying to pull a 'bet you didn't expect that' card. But since their purpose basically fades away instantly, you end up not really caring too much about it in the end.
- Black Lizard had literally no purpose other than perhaps providing some fan service which also applies Hanabishi who is a 'moe', loli looking school teacher introduced for the sake of more fanservice (probably).

Nakimoshi - The only one who's remotely interesting but is quickly off'd as the series had to come to a conclusion. Basically a bullied guy who has a 'notice me senpai' complex who looks for affection from Akechi and took his disapproval as rejection which led him to Twenty Faces



Enjoyment: 2
I really dislike episodic series if they're trying to have an overall story. Stuff that's a slice of life like Non non Biyori works fine because of its nature, but when something has an overall story but takes almost 6/11 to get to it, then there's a problem with the writing. A large portion of character interaction is bland and has no development and the mysteries aren't even that enjoyable as they're resolved too fast with little complexity.



Overall: 1
I would not recommend this series

Honestly I wish there were a negative scoring system because I don't think this even deserves a 1.

Story - 1/10

Unfortunately, any attempt to establish a plot utterly failed. Most episodes just seemed like a generic crime show where they would present the case and then come up with a culprit out of nowhere. Aside from that, there were a few episodes which were so cliche that they were utterly predictable.

Art - 1/10

Animation seemed really lazy for this anime. Most notably the fact that all the characters irrelevant to the plot were just grey blobs.

... Sound - 1/10

A lot of people seemed to like the OP and ED, personally I disliked them. Nothing from the OST really stood out either.

Characters - 1/10

The characters were really one-dimensional in this series and they utterly failed when it comes to character development. Kobayashi was a generic trap, Akechi was a generic bored detective and Hashiba served no purpose.

Also... they seriously had a character who could shape-shift? This was supposed to be a mystery/horror anime, not magic. Did Nymphadora Tonks get reincarnated or something?

Enjoyment - 1/10

When it started out, I thought this was kind of an interesting anime but that quickly descended into "do I really want to watch Ranpo Kitan this week?". There's really nothing noteworthy about this series and I'd say the rewatch value is 0/10.

Overall - 1/10

I had pretty high expectations for this series but it ended up being a train wreck. Went into this expecting mystery, ended up with a mishmash of comedy, death and yaoi scenes.

This was a huge waste of time, please don't bother watching it. You'd be better off watching pretty much anything else from this season.

So the summer anime season is coming to a close and as we prepare for the Fall to simultaneously disappoint us and blow our minds, let’s start looking back at how awful these last three months have been. And what better way to start than to beat up a shitty noitamina anime? I’m actually kind of surprised Ranpo Kitan was amongst the first of this season’s crop to have an ending. Okay, it started on the first week of releases rather than wait until everything is out like noitamina anime usually do, but I assumed it was just 12 episodes like the other two offerings ... for the timeslot this year and that it anticipated that weekly delay that practically every show went through this season. But no, it’s the standard 11 episodes, which is a blessing in disguise because A) it ends quicker B) I get something to review and nothing says catharsis more than beating up a show no one in their right mind would defend.

Yes, I’m sorry to say that unless A-1 somehow churns out a worse mystery anime next season - and I know it’s A-1, but this series is just sad - Ranpo is easily the least interesting of noitamina’s offerings in 2015. Punch Line had a decent story that was let down by execution issues and some people seem to like Saekano in all its poorly animated, stakes-less ugliness for some reason, but at least they promoted discussion. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone other than masochistic mystery buffs who made it past the first two episodes of Ranpo Kitan, mainly because it was directed by a hack who makes Akiyuki Shinbo look like David Fincher.

Where exactly are these fans who still support Seiji Kishi enough to have him continue with this thing we humans call a career? Yes I know he’s always adapting really popular stuff due to whatever connections he’s got, but after a while, you’d think people would catch on and realize that Devil Survivor 2 will be more the rule rather than the exception. And more to the point, who was it that approved of him to adapt the works of Edogawa Ranpo in the first place? Who even owns the rights to the property these days? Because after watching this tripe, I think we’re going to need a change of hands to someone who can actually say no as well as some psychological counseling towards the original guy after he experiences the thing for himself.

This is where I usually describe the plot of this show, but I honestly don’t know what to say because it’s just too fragmented and lifeless to put in coherent words whilst being way too dependent on the characters. I mean you’ve got this downbeat detective out for justice. You’ve got this kid who looks and talks like a girl, but is really a boy, and speaks like a robot. You’ve got his male glasses-wearing friend who may or may not be gay for him. Then there’s this bag-man and woman dressed in bondage gear - and I never actually read a Ranpo story, but I’m pretty sure the wacky nurse who looks like the bastard lovechild of Paranoia Agent and Danganronpa wasn’t in the original source, let alone took a substantial role in the show’s climax.

All of these characters are given the Kishi hyper-stylization treatment and have about as much believable human emotions as Itchy and Scratchy when they’re phoning it in. And you remember how in Durarara where the unimportant people are drawn in gray and only when they actually have significance to what’s going on is when someone bothers to color them in? Ranpo Kitan has something like that too, except the characters fade into silhouette-like backgrounds at really arbitrary moments and it looks incredibly unfinished rather than stylistic. It leads to this weird disconnect of coldness most normal people who try to watch Ghost in the Shell experience in that even if you saw something worth watching in here, it’s presentation makes actually accessing it all but impossible. Only in Ranpo Kitan’s case, not only are the smart things just the same old bullshit regarding “what is justice” and every other moral you could get in any cop show either, but there’s no excitement to be had even if you penetrate the presentation and dig that sort of stuff.

Now the show’s utter lifelessness makes remembering events difficult, but I do remember that most of the individual cases are more stuff the anime does to fill out time rather than pieces to a much bigger picture. The closest thing we get to an overarching plot thread is through some lunatic named Twenty Faces, who basically kills criminals for justice, and catching him would be a lot easier if there weren’t multiple people doing things in his name. But this conflict only takes up half the screen time and the rest of it is just piddling about. Please explain to me the significance of that one episode where The Amazing Bag-Man stops by the detective’s house and we spend the entire run time basically coming up with theories like a bad stand-up comedy before ending on a conclusion that - as the domesticated father said regarding the broken toilet bowl that had just been used by his kid after digesting food from Taco Bell- was full of shit. There’s taking a break from an on-going plot and then there’s just throwing shit out of that bowl just because you can.

I’m probably going to have to address the elephant in the room regarding the actual mysteries in this show and whether or not they’re good at some point. Short answer: no. Long answer: Fuck no! The logic is incredibly hard to follow - not helped by the giant heapings of dialogue that desperately needed an editor during investigations - and the actual criminal is always some arbitrary person that the show just pulled out of thin air with either no foreshadowing or so little of it that it wouldn’t make a difference either way. Backstories for the criminals are so token and predictable that you’d only need thirty seconds to explain it. Detective Conan-style. And yet for some reason, the show decides to devote entire half-hours trying to make me sympathize with these morons.

The way the Twenty Faces arc concludes is pretty much a combination of all the problems I listed above with another one added, and that problem is the feminine main character. Up until that point, he’s always been an audience cipher that no audience member can relate to, but he was in the background so I let it slide. But the final few episodes put him at center stage for the crucial part of Twenty Faces’ grand plan and his emotionless accepting reactions become impossible to ignore to the point that he might as well have been wearing a yellow T-shirt that said “I am an obvious plot device” in big black letters. It wasn’t until the final few minutes that ended on him that I realized he was basically a walking metaphor for the show: a small lifeless pile of gimmicks who hangs around with the big boys just because he can. And if he died, no one but sad geeky losers would give a shit.

So on the whole, I can’t really say I recommend Ranpo, even if you’re a die-hard noitamina fan. It’s badly written and it’s hard to even pay attention to the writing at times because there’s a high chance the visuals will put you to sleep beforehand. Some people may say Kishi’s style is still fresh and interesting even if it’s not being good, but I say that gimmicks are gimmicks. It was gimmicky back when Shaft first used it over a decade ago, and it’s godawful now.

Another anime ruined be its ending. I am very picky, even small things can ruin my mood. This ending definitely ruined the enjoyment for me. Was expecting an ending more like the one in fight club and not a wimpy nonsensical melodramatic wannabe happy one.

Story:
The story in a way is the embodiment of a shapeshifter transposed into the plot of a series. Interesting in itself, but as a result it's creepy and unenjoyable.

So it first starts of as a nice mystery anime, with murder solving elements, although a bit awkwardly exaggerated it was still great and from the first episode on i only expected it ... to be a mix of horror and detective crime solving anime. Would have been truly awesome.

However the 2nd or 3rd episode, not sure which, starts a bit comical with a guy wearing a bag over his head. I thought it sure adds a bit more excitement to the anime, even if it's not what i had expected it's deviating from a monotonous linear genre driven story. Unfortunately that line deviating from horror/crime solving towards comedy runs all over the place. It makes you wonder if the author threw a dice to see what genre it should intersect next.

From there on it swings even more chaotically. Unfortunately the ending crash lands the plot into a dumpster with the most putrid, rancid and nausea inducing pile of decaying matter you could imagine.

Character:
Sure the mc being a cross dresser was funny, especially since he was so excited about it. His friend showing strange feeling towards him was odd but intended to be comical.

Aekichi seemed to be rather odd. At first he is supposedly the genius detective, always invoking cold thinking and a cold heart too. He can solve about any crime effortlessly and emotionally detached, not really caring about who dies or lives, but just about solving crimes for fun. By the end of the show however he pulls a 180 and becomes an hyper emotional slut that wants to save the world and his best childhood buddy.

A lot of the characters and their actions don't make sense. Those that do make sense are a bit shallow.

Wish they would explain Aekichi's girlfriend who sits behind bars. Why is she tied up with strings and why are her ogres escaping later on, or how are the even escaping. Nasty plot hole, seriously.

Art:
I liked the art a lot. If it weren't for the blanked out characters it would have been perfect.

Sound:
eh? not sure what to say about it, the OP/ED theme was crap

Enjoyment:
I did find the anime interesting enough to watch it in one go, but seeing it intentionally sabotaged and destroyed like a plane flown into a skyscraper, it only left me irritated at the end. Yes, it was exactly that depressing. The only thing missing to completely ruin the enjoyment is to have the creator jump from a building and live streaming the event ...

If you want a clear picture of this anime, then imagine drawing a line from point A to point B. Before getting to point B you will move your pen in all directions as chaotically as possible and then only reach point B. That is exactly how this anime is in it's entirety.

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.

Ranpo Kitan is the most confused anime I’ve seen in recent memory, with so many ideas pulling it in different directions until it fails to satisfy anyone. Presented as a psychological horror detective-show, it has far too little of each of these three elements to merit the title.

In terms of production-value the show has proper animation-quality and music, the opening and ending themes being particularly superb. One upside to the directing is how the show dramatizes certain scenes. With many other adaptations based on books, you can sometimes see awkward pauses where there is obviously supposed to be internal monologues. Ranpo Kitan gets around this ... pet peeve of mine by creating theatre-stages that represent the characters’ internal thoughts, a welcome bit of inspiration. The choice for the designs are however jarring, with mixes of cartoony and edgy scenes.

As a mystery-series it falls flat on its face due to showing too little detective-work, on the contrary it dumps exposition that instantly solves each case in the viewer's lap. On more than one occasion, the mystery will be solved in a rush and the murderer will turn out to be a complete stranger that was never part of the story until that point. This makes it all the harder to make a single guess on your own, hindering immersion.

As a horror-story it has a few redeeming qualities, though few and far in between. While the twisted and dark backdrop exists to give the show a pretty Halloween-wrapping, the presentation is far too cartoonish to provide any real tension or scares. The only area Ranpo Kitan excels in would be its attempts to disgust and shock the audience, turning itself into a freak-show of characters that are meant to entrance and fascinate in how strange they are.

Credit where credit is due, a few side-characters do become fascinating to follow. The problem arises when the majority of the cast act like aliens that contradict every social norm and logical thought-process. The main character is detached and bored with regular life, to the point that seeing horrible things will make him feel happy and alive, which is another trait that makes it hard to take anything that happens seriously. While I personally am not against stark tonal-shifts, you need sympathetic characters that you want to follow through the madness in such cases. In Ranpo Kitan's case the characters just add to the confusion on what the show is actually trying to be.

I could only recommend this to people interested in seeing a trainwreck, as it can be entertaining in that regard. Overall Ranpo Kitan ends up being an annoying and rushed kind of bad, showing potential in some moments but ultimately dropping the ball.

**Warning: I spoil the end of this abysmal show three paragraphs in**

Imagine that a movie gets to a chase scene, and at the exact moment the action hero turns on the ignition, there is an immediate cut to a theatre set. The action hero and villian, no longer in cars, are under spotlights, crouching, handling invisible steering wheels and chasing each other around the stage while a narrator fills in the gaps. This is, with minimal exaggeration, what watching Ranpo Kitan is like. It seems Studio Lerche, struggling with the workflow associated with three shows in a single season, decided to sacrifice the work and ... budget put into at least one, and out of a gimmicky moe/horror hybrid (Gakkou Gurashi), pure filth (Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou), and a 50th anniversary tribute to a renowned mystery author, they decided to sacrifice the latter. Excrement, I mean excellent.

Although turning the most difficult-to-animate scenes into theatre sets is certainly bad enough, Ranpo Kitan really outdoes itself to make the story and characters as shallow and unlike-able as possible. For a mystery show, there isn't much mystery, let alone suspense. If you haven't already figured out what's going on you will need to suspend your disbelief pretty hard. As soon as you get over a high school girl who literally wants to be mutilated by her teacher, you meet a man wearing a paper bag who can apparently disguise himself in a matter of seconds.

And what of the main story? It's the most patently juvenile pile of bollocks. Apparently murderers and rapists and whatnot are being allowed to run free because of this horrible thing called the insanity defence. In real life this is meant to protect people with mental illnesses from pointless, inhumane punishment, but in the world of Ranpo Kitan apparently 50% of all the really bad criminals are being released in a matter of days and killing everyone. Sucks, right? Then, under the banner of a 'villian' called twenty faces, people decide to take matters into their own hands and kill the criminals, saving money and making up for the contrived incompetence of the injustice system. From this absurd scenario there is no reason to blame people from wanting to protect themselves, and it seems the scriptwriter realised this a bit too late. After 6 episodes of the heroes failing to morally challenge the situation [SPOILERS] Twenty Faces wins and the world becomes a better place.

So what about the characters? Well, we have Detective Akechi, who's only 17 years old and a detective and drinks black coffee and takes pills etc. Then there's the real main character (I think?) Kobayashi, who's personality is that he's a sociopath with no personality (he's not the only one) and looks like a girl (this is some revolutionary character development I tell you). Who else? We have Hashiba, Kobayashi's bff but really wishes Kobayashi were his bf. There is an imprisoned villian, Kuro Tokage, who pisses herself. Nearly every character in this show is expressly written to annoy the viewer, with the only pleasant characters existing to be savagely murdered or harmed.

In summary, this is possibly the most pointless show I've ever watched. I've read the undercurrent of depraved fetishism and shock value in this show is actually a feature of Edogawa Ranpo's works, but in this case it sits very poorly with the lack of maturity in the script and artstyle. Well, next season Noitamina has another chance to do mystery right with Subete ga F ni Naru, so let's see if that will wash out the bad aftertaste of this abysmal series.

The first half of this show was awesome -- hardcore murderers, creative mysterious, likeable characters, and light humor the take the edge off, too. Through and through, the art and music of this show were amazing, but unfortunately, out of nowhere, it went from being a nice gruesome mystery show, chock full of tasteful references to classic detective tropes, to an overly pretentious supernatural romance schlick that was trying way too hard... to be the next Steins;Gate? Death Note? who knows? and getting nothing accomplished.

If you want to watch the first 4 eps, go ahead, but stop there. The flat characters, non-mysteries, and pretentious ... empty symbolism make for a weak combination.

I write this review with gladness and joy knowing that the Lerche A team was working on worthwhile projects like Assassination Classroom and MonMusu while the Lerche B team was indulging themselves on dollar store mystery novels and power fantasies when they decided to, for some reason, combine the two and animate it. I am willing to say that Seiji Kishi probably just glanced over at Ranpo Kitan's script and waved it off while looking at more worthwhile projects, while the writers took that as a go-ahead and told the animators to get to work. But nonetheless, here we are, with a mystery show that ... holds an extraordinary ratio of "piss you off" in contrast to mystery. Ranpo Kitan is a disgrace to Ranpo Edogawa's work, and if you are thinking of watching this show because you are genuinely curious, I beg of you, the cat may have come back after satisfying its curiosity, but it remained mentally scarred of the horrors it witnessed as a result.

Story: 3/10
If there's one thing that Ranpo Kitan's story had in common with a regular story, is that I felt a sense of exhilaration when I finished it. This exhilaration is, of course, less because of excitement that I finished a story, but more because of gratitude that I finished this story. The plot is paper-thin, with the script writers probably just looking up "really really cruel deaths" on Google and thinking of a real life situation where that could happen. They then had to think of some extremely weird and convoluted way that those deaths would happen, while the main characters are somehow so enlightened in the art of investigation that they can come to a logical conclusion through threads of evidence that don't even tie together. Why this show even bothers trying to be all mysterious is the mystery element, as after the second episode, the ending is usually right in front of the viewer's face as the genius detectives do it again! By somehow tapping into the element of luck itself and hope that their theory, based off of nothing other than logical fallacies and insufficient evidence, works out in the end, which usually results in a confession from the murderer. It's like clockwork, if the clockwork squeaked really loudly and should probably get fixed since it gets more and more annoying at time goes on. The only reason this section is not a 2 or 3 is because of episode 4, but more on that in the Character section.

Art: 6/10
I really do wonder if the character designers are full of people who unironically say "the dick makes it better" when mentioning feminine-looking characters, because that is the main character. Yoshio Kobayashi looks like someone you pull out of a trap doujin and stick clothes on him. And if that's not enough, he apparently has a fetish for crossdressing, so there's an abundant amount of scenes where you have this "boy" dressed up in a frilly dress, with an abundant amount of ass shots for some odd reason. Other than this very glaring detail, the art style is nothing impressive, but nothing lackluster. The opening is the only part where I can see any kind of artistic freedom being taken, as the animated characters are interposed between real-life movies. The bondage play in the opening is also well-designed and well-drawn. It also says something about the show when the opening is the best animated out of the entire series.

Sound: 8/10
I will admit that the opening is the only reason why sound is rated so high, as amazarashi is a personal favorite and I wish they would do more openings and endings for different shows. Other than that, there's nothing really impressive about the soundtrack, and nothing stands out or misses its mark.

Character: 2/10
Ranpo Kitan is probably one of the only shows I've watched that I wanted the villain to win just to see the MCs die horribly painful deaths because the sheer amount of annoyance and anger that I feel because of them. We have Kogorou Akechi, the boy genius detective who can solve any crime by bullshitting a route of thought and twisting reality so that that route of thought is exactly how the villain thinks, and the villain gets caught. He is apparently so smart, that he doesn't even view other people as humans, but mere shadows on the horizon, uninteresting and bland (quite the parallel to this show). And by Kogorou Akechi I meant Yoshio Kobayashi, since they're literally the same character, except Yoshio is trap bait. In comes Souji Hashiba, the closet homosexual who knows that his best friend is a guy, but is still attracted to his overly-feminine body. But is liking traps really gay? That's a discussion for another time. And so goes the list of characters that I can't remember the names of because they were so generic that I shuffled them into the crowd of people that don't matter. At least one notable exception to these pathetic attempts at character creation is Tokiko Kagami, Keisuke Kagami's little sister. True to her archetype, she is innocent, kind, sweet, caring, and everything you would hope for in a bright and cheerful college-bound girl. When I saw her in episode 4, I immediately felt refreshed, as she, even being a generic archetypal character, is like the first flower blossoming after harsh and snowy winter. I also immediately knew where this episode was going, but that's besides the point. Overall, character is the least qualified category in Ranpo Kitan, although I do realize that that may not mean much.

Overall: 5/10
The lack of intelligent character design, the lack of intelligent investigation, the prevalence of the Marty Stu, and the lack of mystery in a mystery show makes Ranpo Kitan one of the worst ideas to come out of the otherwise decent studio of Lerche. Uninspired and sometimes downright disgusting character design kills any hope of redemption that the show may have from crawling out of its pit of overused archetypes and overpowered MCs. The only thing that saved this show from being a 4/10 is the existence of episode 4, where the show actually made me feel emotions besides mild annoyance and general distaste. If you are still interested to see what possible good can come of this show, just watch a portion of episode 3 and then episode 4. Trust me. It's as good as its gonna get here, so just sit back and eat your anime-watching snacks with a look of slight disgust on your face as you realize that perhaps the show is ruining the snacks this time, instead of the other way around.

Hoo boy... this is going to hurt.

So when starting this show, I saw some promise at points. This anime is based on the works of Edogawa Ranpo, who himself is influenced by Edgar Allan Poe. And that does intrigue me, seeing as I enjoy Poe well enough, especially the Telltale Heart. And boy does it fall flat.

So let's start with this as a mystery. Mystery stories can work well in two ways. 1, giving the audience the clues to solve the mystery, or 2, having the story behind/of the mystery being incredibly engaging. The first just simply doesn't happen, so it tries for the ... second. But the big issue is that most of the criminal motivations episode per episode feel incredibly contrived and so far detached from human reason to be taken seriously. So one time characters are often horribly developed, and then the main characters are... better, I guess... but still not great. Most of them feel like they have their personality established at the beginning, and never really grow or gain depth. Main character, I am looking squarely at you.

Beyond just the mystery, it tries to create a dark tone, and the animation does work really well for that. The animation is often full of deep colors that sets a tone that would make for the type of story it wants to tell, if only it ever actually utilized it. The tone can shift sporadically with many moments just being completely immersion breaking and again, detached from reality. That's really the underlying issue here, everything feels like it's detached from reality.

Ending is not much better. I won't spoil it, but this is an ending that while not unfinished like so many anime that are out there, is just incredibly unsatisfying.

Now to reprieve for a second, there are a couple of things that work. Episode 5 is actually very well done, easily being the best point in the series. Also, this has a really good soundtrack that fits well with the tone it's trying to establish. And I must mention this, the ending theme is one of the best ending themes I've ever heard. I'd honestly say it's worth it to check it out on it's own, since it's very well done. And the opening is also good, although not as much what I like. However, none of this is enough to save the show by any stretch. At best, it's a guide to what is worth checking out in this show, if anything.

Overall, this is a show that just fails so hard so often. And while I can't say it has nothing worthwhile, you could have an ounce of gold in a pile of poo and I still wouldn't recommend digging through it.

This anime is a miracle. It's an absolute phenomenon. Never before has there been such a tonally confused, unlikable, pretentious and yet completely superficial, amalgamation of inappropriate, clashing and frankly bizarre components in any media anywhere. This is a sprawling, choking, frankly apocalyptic, train wreck. I'm talking real Gog and Magog stuff here. Not one single thing works. Not one element is executed with a shred of care or dignity. Never have I felt so personally insignificant to a writing, animating or directing team than upon the completion of this anime.

Right, so, story time. Once upon a time, My Anime List had a rating called ... "unwatchable" that coincided with a numerical value of '1'. I had vowed never to assign a '1' to any anime that I'd watched to completion, because, simply by virtue of watching it, I had proven that it was not unwatchable. But this anime is so pernicious in its execution, so unforgivable in its conception, that it has granted to me an epiphany: something can also be considered unwatchable if you wish you could go back in time and unwatch the entire thing.

Where, where, where do I begin? The fact that literally eighty percent of the characters in this anime are not drawn ninety percent of the time? That backgrounds are routinely reused, and sometimes even entire clips deployed, sometimes when they don't even make sense? That there is absolutely no distinction, or care to make any kind of distinction obvious, between what is actually happening and what's just going on in some character's head? That this anime defies all classification? That one second it's Tokyo Ghoul, and the next it's Lucky Star, and other times it's Mekakucity, except in those moments when it's suddenly a fetish film, only those are actually decent expressions of their respective genres? It's as if there were fifteen writers in a room, and they had a dart throwing tournament every day to decide who would write which scene, and another dart throwing session to actually pick what would happen in each scene.

I can only presume that once this rabbit from a hat writing sequence was completed that it was passed on to the art team, who proceeded to literally just write 'go fuck yourself' over and over and over again in paint shop pro before handing it off to the animators who desperately tried to at least draw two of the relevant characters in each episode before sheepishly handing it to the dubbing team, who were also, it happens, the editing, aftereffects, and quality control team. That's how I imagine this process went, except that actually, no, all of the teams are literally just one person using multiple voices to make themself feel like they weren't being paid $10/hr over a twelve hour period to do literally everything.

No, but, in all seriousness, I would liken this to that group project you got in high school where maybe one person really tried, but everyone else half-assed their portion, and one guy didn't show up at all, before you were forced to nervously present your project without the powerpoint because someone saved it as a word file. Oops.

The characters are shallow. The motives make no sense. Plots are picked up and abandoned at a rate that can only be described as emotionally abusive. Nothing connects to anything. People know things they shouldn't, and are good at things just because the writers decided it would squeeze the story along. For instance, changing variables in an abstract mathematical equation allows you to, no joke, have god-like control over reality -- no, seriosuly, I'm not joking, and no, it's not a spoiler. For it to be a spoiler there would have to be some kind of coherent storyline to spoil -- there isn't. I watched this entire anime, maybe because I was so engrossed in the outrageousness of it all, maybe I was in shock, maybe I was hoping it would be comedic. But I watched it. And I have /zero/ clue what the first nine episodes were about. It seems like we /finally/ got to the story in episode 10, only to have it assassinated in the most unbelievably unceremonious way in episode 11.

And that's actually the most amazing thing about this anime. It does nothing, and I mean /nothing/ by the book. So please explain to me how this is somehow one of the most cliched, regurgitated, anovel conceptual traffic accident that has ever inserted itself into the confused pile of garbage that is B-rated, effortless anime? Oh, wait -- I know how. It's because this anime is actually an incredibly lazy hodge podge of anime tropes from other /successful/ anime series all smashed together in the hopes of making the most money for the least amount of effort (money.) For chrissakes, they literally leave over three-quarters of the characters depicted in the anime as silhouettes. Or mannequins! When it's trying to be art.

I mean, it could not be more obvious how little of a shit these producers gave about the viewer. They sat there, folded their hands over their knee, looked you straight in the eye and said "this is a pile of garbage, and you're going to eat it." Not one ounce of love or, my god, compassion -- mercy even -- was spared for this anime's creation. And here's something else that's bizarre -- because this anime is apparently part of a franchise, the characters all share their names with another series that is coming out right now called Trickster. But the characters have nothing to do with each other. They don't share personality traits, they don't share backstories, they don't share physical features -- nothing. Zilch. Nada. The main characters in the two stories (if I dare even try to parse out who might be a 'main character' in this mess) aren't even the same. There is literally no connection. No similar motifs. No suggestion that it even takes place in the same universe. Someone just decided that they would be connected. For no reason!

And if that wasn't bizarre enough, you might recall me mentioning that at times this anime is a fetish film. Yeah. I didn't say that to be flippant. Literally we are treated to not one, not two, but three different scenes where a chained up woman is inexplicably turned on past her tipping point by another character unironically and unemphatically telling her that he doesn't give a shit about her. In what tasteful flavor was this handled? She pissed herself in what can only be described as a hasty, poor, who actually gives a shit, euphemism for a spontaneous orgasm. Am I even allowed to bring up that that actually happened? Because it did. And I'm not sitting here knocking anyone's kink, but it did. not. work. It was out of no where. It had no build up. It had no point. It was as if one of the writers decided that he's into that, and, fuck it, no one gives a shit about this project anyhow, I'm writing it in. Or maybe it was put in out of pure contempt. I can not reconcile the disastrous state of this anime with the idea that any effort was actually, at any point, put into it.

And, I know this is nitpicking. I know it is. But they gave one of the main characters lime green highlights in his eyes. It's such a small thing, but it so poignantly demonstrates my point: there is not a pixel in this anime that wasn't in the wrong place. The mood of the scenes was confusing. Colors never worked. Every frame was busy, cluttered and utterly without any sense of balance or framing. CGI was just overlayed over computer animated backgrounds. Backgrounds literally disappeared when we were supposed to be in the character's heads (except that sometimes the things in their head turned out to be what actually happened [?!?]). And, God forgive me for even mentioning the name of this anime in a review for a piece of shit like this, but sometimes it just had that Madoka Magica animation style out of no where. Like, it looks like they literally ripped it out of one of the witch scenes If you're not familiar with the series, and don't mind spoilers, just watch any scene in Madoka Magica where there is a witch and you'll understand exactly what I mean.

Look. I'm not an art guy. I can tolerate some pretty egregious art mistakes. But the art and animation, like everything else screamed "we could not care less about how this turns out. It's anime; people will watch it no matter what we do." And that's what all of this really boils down to. It's lazy. It's insulting. It has no idea what it wants to do, and it has no problem wasting hours of your time figuring it out, only to realize it used up its entire season getting there and the only solution is to immediately kill the plot before you can muster the energy to care.

If you like bad anime, this has to be one of the greats. If you are entertained by such things as watching asteroids wipe out humanity, stars imploding at the end of their life cycles, and the inevitable heat death of the universe, and you're having yourself a bit of a chuckle just imagining any one of those things, you'll probably love this anime. I'd say it's analogous, in many senses, to the other belovedly horrific phantasms of our time, like The Room, Birdemic, Titanic: The Legend Goes On and all of its sequels, and Food Fight, except that at least those had enough cohesion to convey a comprehensible plot. This does not. There are quantum expressions fourteen pages long that I could probably explain better to you -- and at least those mean something.

So first a disclaimer. I really wanted to like this show, hence my rating is probably a bit higher than it actually should be. It takes/has a lot of elements from (in my opinion) two of the greatest crime shows to ever exist. Hannibal and Psycho-Pass. The first half of the show (and the style throughout) leaning more towards Hannibal, and the second half being very Psycho-Pass-esque with elements of the plot as well as the feel. So you may ask yourself, with emulation of such great works, how could they screw it up so bad?
First lets get the good parts out of the ... way. Unfortunately... It won't take long.

Sound: 8/10 The sound is great. Nothing mind breaking, but definitely memorable. The music all fit enough to set emotional tones during scenes, it never felt too out of place. Will definitely listen to a few of them again. The opening and closing where both very artistically pleasing, and the music was great and fit the tone of the show. When I still had high hopes for the show, they were definitely something I looked forward to.

Art: 8/10 The art style reminds me of Danganronpa, the animation is pretty smooth. What stood out to me, was the stylistic choices, which really made me want to like this show. I'll have to bring up the comparison to Hannibal here. Many of the murders that take place throughout the show (and in Hannibal as well) are framed to look artistic, or the victim was actually made into something to resemble art, or their death was a retribution for a crime they committed. The first killer, for example, makes their victim into a human chair. Its grotesque, a bit over the top, but it fits the tone of the show. The art really shines here, genuinely making something you'd see in a rather twisted art show out of the carnage. Additionally, there are artistic representations of the characters thought processes, which I always enjoy in an anime, as well as moments where we are shown different characters' perceptions of the world (i.e. characters that feel isolated, like they don't fit in, see others as things rather than people). I would love to have seen how the animators could have used this style with a show that had a better script. Alas...

Characters 3/10 The characters... It's really a matter of opinion here I guess, a lot of cliche characters. Regardless, nothing outstanding or memorable. The main character is supposed to be this borderline naive, apathetic individual (a comparison could be made to Gon of HxH , but don't expect any character development, depth, or growth here). Who is also a guy... but looks incredibly like a girl. To the point multiple characters get embarrassed or infatuated with him when he acts like a girl (YES ITS A TRAP). Its out of place a bit in the show at first, till we meet the rest of the cast of rather zany characters, almost as if to say "hey if you thought that was weird check this out". His sidekick/voice of reason is normal anime protagonist #4. Hes just as bland, wants to protect his friends, blah blah. He just kind of exists to say how bad an idea everything is. You know the type. The detective, Akechi, who this show centers around is sort of more interesting, at face value anyway. Think of a young Kogami from Psycho-Pass. He can fight, hes distant, he is a super genius... But wait there's more! Oh wait, no there isn't. Like I said, expect 0 depth. There is also a master thief who can disguise himself as anyone. Wow... what a surprise. I ended up liking him the most out of all the characters besides the superintendent of the police. There is also some lady who can control the city from her prison cell. She's a sadist... except for when it comes to Akechi then shes a masochist who will do anything if he just talks down to her. No one stood out really, and only one or two characters got any real development. And at some points the characters could be downright annoying.

Story 3/10 Now I'm usually very forgiving of attempts to be new and innovative with a story. As long as plot devices aren't extremely shallow, or used to beat me over the head (MCGUFFIN MCGUFFIN MCGUFFIN), I'm fairly forgiving. But this plot... Just no. The grand plot actually starts to move about halfway. Prior to this, I might have given the show a 7, as it was intriguing enough that I wanted to follow along to see what was in-store. Without spoiling too much, the author probably read a Wikipedia article on Laplace's demon, and doesn't really show any understanding of the concept beyond that. Basically in the show it comes down to "with this I can influence all events, nothing more needs to be said, explained, or expanded upon". Without getting too deep into it, its sort of like someone is handed the key to the universe and infinite knowledge of the present and future. And what they do with it... its akin to then only using that key to unlock their front door after they forgot their keys. Its so uninspiring what they do with something so incredibly powerful, that no amount of domino or butterfly imagery can save it, though it sure doesn't stop them from trying (hmmm what do you thing that is a metaphor for? I wonder... WE GET IT BUTTERFLY EFFECT). All in all its a mess. Nothing pulled me in, it barely kept in a straight line. It tried to be deep by throwing out the concept of Laplace's demon, but then didn't explore it in any depth at all. Additionally there is a theme of punishing criminals that escape justice, but any message they were attempting to put forth was lost in the absurdity of which they presented it. The show basically showed almost every single criminal and serial killer being released back on the street for various reasons. Instead of criminals slipping through the cracks, it was more like you'd have to be a very unlucky criminal to face punishment at all. I assume the intent of this was to make you sympathize with certain views, but all it did was bring enough disbelief in that I couldn't suspend it. My last critique on the story (though I won't subtract any points for this) is that it seems to almost market itself as a mystery show, when in reality its more of a thriller. There isn't really any solving of the cases that the audience can go along with. Sad really, because I love the Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie style mysteries, that would have really won points for me.

Enjoyment 6/10 Now after that rant, how can I give the show a 6/10 for enjoyment? Simple. It had a lot of cool stuff to look at, it sounded good, and if you shut your brain off completely it might even be a bit of fun. This is more of a personal rating. As I said, it resonated with me because it had a lot of shared elements with two shows I loved. So while objectively, this show is pretty bad, subjectively I sort of almost liked it. Sort of.

Overall 4/10 If you really like shows that are shallow and look pretty, you might really like this. I see people either hate this show or love it. I recommend you watch the first episode, then decide if its your cup of tea... albeit a partially steeped one at best. Also keep in mind that its all downhill from the first half.

Another show which I cant find much story in it. It takes me more than 1 year to finish the last episodes as I always stop half way along it and the time it comes when I watched the last episodes is already a year later

This is what I want to shout when watching! Ahhh!!The Mc is so cute...Ahhh!!but the Mc is a guy...Ahhh!!They solved another case...Ahhh!!! the case is so stupid...

No story no art and I guess I really cant find any thing good about this anime. I wonder how it get 6+marks overall...If any of you can tell me please kindly pm me. ... Thank you.

Don't ask how I managed to finish the show...cause the Mc is so cute in dress :3

And that is obviously a lie!