Vatican Kiseki Chousakan

(NO SPOILER)

Well, I saw this anime because I was amused that they are priests, at first I started watching it to laugh a little (the truth is that the Christian theme is not very common), and without a doubt I was pleasantly surprised, my question is: why what is not so popular? Will they release more seasons?

One of the best mystery scripts, seriously, I love how it mixes the theme of religious miracles with the worst cruelty in the world (it's an antithesis).

The protagonists, even if they have faith, solve the cases with SCIENCE and LOGIC, something that can surprise because devout Christianity is not ... one that tends to rationalize in their situations and prefers to preach.

The art is good, and its soundractk even more so, I invite you to listen to its opening and ending, on the other hand, the OST of the whole series is also good and it's perfect when "Ave Maria de Schubert" sounds at the best moments.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a dense anime, with mystery, depth and script twists and you like the "da vinci code" theme, congratulations, this series exists.

I watched Vatican Kiseki Chousakan (including OVA), also known as Vatican Miracle Examiner. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is about two religious scholars who travel around investigating the validity of various miracles on behalf of the Vatican. This show has an intense Roman Catholic theme that is quite unique – I really appreciated this aspect of it. However, aside from its strong unwavering commitment to this rich Catholic theme, this show isn't well directed. The actual screenplay and script are kinda dull. Furthermore, as much as I love the premise, the writing is undeniably super amateurish and feels like a novel you'd find in the ... bargain bin of somebody's neighbourhood yard sale. The plot is so absurd it feels like a kid wrote it. The explanations used to justify the various mysteries in the story are completely ridiculous. As a whole this show is incredibly campy, but that's what makes it fun to watch.

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan is a very unique show. It's so over the top it's comical, yet plays it dead serious at all times. Like, I honestly can't tell whether or not this is all just pokerface satire. This anime has a unique satirical charm that I really enjoyed and think others would as well. On a related note, I definitely got a shounen-ai vibe from the two main characters, which is somewhat ironic to say the least, and also enhanced the parody feeling even more. Plus, they were super cute together.

The two MCs are actually great characters: unique, likeable, memorable, and they complement each other well. Additionally, I liked both of their VAs and thought they suited the roles. Another thing that adds to the show's campy charm is how the many English words in the script are mispronounced by the seiyuus (to the point that referring to the subtitles is often still necessary).

Visually, the show is adequate at best. Some of the character designs are decent, but other than that it is super basic and feels low budget. I think much of the poor visual budget was compensated for by using poor lighting in many scenes. Thankfully, not much character animation is needed to tell this dialogue-heavy story. I do like the seemingly authentic church-like OST. There is a lot of choral music, organs and that sort of thing, which suits the themes and mood of the anime. I'm glad they committed to the themes in this regard as well, instead of using a more-generic soundtrack.

One thing worth mentioning is that the show constantly cycles through supporting characters. The two MCs travel frequently, resulting in the surrounding cast constantly changing (or disappearing because they were killed off). The show is constantly introducing new characters, only for them to disappear within an episode or two. The cost of this constant recurring exposition is significant and is a drain on the show. This is compounded by the fact that some random just-introduced character is usually key to whatever 'miracle' they are investigating at that time, which makes for a sometimes-confusing viewing experience. They randomly throw in characters who are fundamental to the plot and then they vanish and an entirely new supporting cast is introduced – this happens multiple times throughout the show and it is a lot to digest during a 12-episode runtime. I think a fixed set of supporting characters would have been much more suitable for this anime.


My overall rating: 6/10
As much as I adored the premise of this show and really wanted to see it succeed, I can't ignore its very real flaws. Foremost, the writing is unignorably amateurish. It feels like some hack novel that was just barely publishable, although it does have a lot of satirical charm; similar things could be said about this anime's direction and production quality. Regardless, this is still a very unique show and I'm glad I discovered it. A huge portion of my score here is a result of how unique this anime is, as well as the confidence and conviction with which it is presented. The intense Roman Catholic theme of this show is one of a kind and I valued it tremendously. The shortcomings of this anime are unfortunate – it had enormous potential. This appalling waste of potential is a mortal sin indeed.

If Catholicism interests you then you might find this anime enjoyable despite all its flaws. Or if you like (comically absurd) mystery stories, or the unique premise appeals to you for whatever reason. I would love to see the premise of this show executed more-competently.

An anime about people uncovering the truth behind allegedly miracles with science? Well, sign me up; that was my first thought. Now that I finished it, I wish I just hadn't signed up for this at all.

The first problem to point out is the opening and ending, I don't why someone thought that mixing animation with real footage would be a good ideia because it turned out so bad that I'm not even sure how to say anything about this, so let's move on to another problem: how the miracles are solved. They're supposed to use science to solve them and they kinda do ... use it but at the same time they don't? At least it doesn't fell like it because in the end the main reason is always "evil people are doing it for Satan" or something along those lines.

The characters are really boring and Hiraga is specially annoying and the most dumb of the duo despite being the one who actually uses the science, and yet both of them are smarter than cops and well, almost everyone else. I'm not really sure of what the antagonist, if it's possible to considere him one, was supposed to do.

Despite all of that, what really killed the story was the effort to try to create a bigger plot to link all of the elements of the last two arcs because it failed, terribly. Instead of just focusing on the main task that was uncovering those so called miracles, they ended up solving murders and all sort of things that didn't have anything to do with their purpose and the worse is that they tried to make it seem like all of the events were connected, and personally I hate when the interests get so dispersed like this and at this point the focus was completely lost.

To say this one was a disappointment for me is an understatement, because the first arc is decent but after that everything went downhill and it just got worse and worse.