Keishichou Tokumubu Tokushu Kyouakuhan Taisakushitsu Dainanaka: Tokunana

I liked the first episode of this show, it had a promise. I expected some kind of serious stuff, maybe like Psycho Pass (especially when I saw OP) or Cop Craft - something realistic (even though a setting is mix of fantasy and modern day), pragmatic and a bit grim. Instead I got a tale for kids that reminds me heavily of bungou stray dogs - in all the wrong ways.
Story and world - lacking. Not much background, not much events, once again some evil dudes doing some evil stuff. I can't really say much here, cause nothing is said, nor do we got ... any info about the current events. All we know - there are terrorists and they are evil (duh).
Art - from mediocre to lack-of-budget. Some scenes are ok, but most of the anime looks really cheap, action scenes are really weak.
Sound - well, it is ok, some voice actors in this title are great, but overall sound is lacking anything worthy of note.
Characters - while we got an episode with "off duty life" - they are still one-trick ponies. Everyone can be described in just otwo words, and this makes the whole story look really comical - when you have a set of "dumb and righteous", "serious but kind", "jaded but honorable", "NINJA DESU" - you are not going to get a good watch.
Yes, I know that this is an original anime. Yes I know that it is 12 episodes only - but still, why do you make so many characters if they all are bad and the events you describe can't help them to make the anime at least a bit interesting?

Before I get started, I just wanted to say that I don’t understand this underlying hatred or distaste for this anime. In my opinion it was one of the best anime’s I’ve ever watched. The story line and plot were simply amazing and unique as it was something I had never seen before in an anime. The build up to the last episode was simply exquisite as every episode led to me wanting to know more about the characters and the hidden meanings to many of the events going on. Every episode was full of mystery, action and suspense. It was so good that it ... led me to start to like some of the “bad” characters through flashbacks and character reveals. I think this anime is nothing but amazing. If you want to watch an anime with suspense, drama, great character development, shocking plot twist and that is just stunning I highly recommend it. I’m usually more of a romance genre lover but this anime has changed my views completely. Absolutely stunning!

OVERALL: 6/10
I would recommend this anime as a 'palate cleanser' anime (by that I simply mean a quick 1-season 12 episode anime to watch while in between 2 really good shows, for example I watch slice of life shows in-between shows such as Demon Slayer and Fire Force).

Ratings:

STORY: 5/10 at best tbh,
pretty slow and generic, I watched it weekly alongside Ahiru no Sora and BNHA S4 so I didn't retain much info between episodes.

ANIMATION: 8/10
Personally I love this style of animation so I thoroughly enjoyed that. It gave me some madhouse anime vibes which I also loved.
...
CHARACTERS/ VOICES: 9/10
9/10 Mainly because I loved the voice acting, Tsuda Kenjirou as a protag is quite rare for me 😂 but other than that Hiro Shimono, Suzuki Tatsuhisa etc. were all a really good combination.
BUT in terms of characters themselves its probably a 6.5, I liked all the characters, mostly Ichinose since he gave me Shinya vibes, but overall the characters were pretty generic.

OPENING/ENDING: 10/10
I LOVEEEE TAKE ON FEVER! Its SO good! One Wish is also REALLY good, but Oldcodex outdid themself with this one, probably one of my favourite songs from them and atm it's definitely one of my top songs.

With am absolutely ridiculous long title, you'd think that this show is from a LN source, but NOPE, it's an original series, which I'd applaud the production staff under this to take the risk for such "original" (but rehashed in some form) stories that hope to break the bank in the existing landscape of usual tried-and-true anime adaptations, I really do.

At first, I'd thought: "Is this Dance of the Dragons once again? Because it sure feels like it for the majority of the most part." But thank God that the story and the setting itself is fairly linear and easier to understand than that clusterfish ... of a work (much less its anime adaptation which was horrendous to say the least). So in essence, pretty much everything is laid out in the synopsis (that's mostly the beginning), but it has the Bungou Stray Dogs feeling towards the entire "special team" (that is Special 7) to eradicate crime (as a backdrop), but most importantly the remnant "evil" group known as Nine that still worships the Tokyo of time past where humans and supernatural creatures (of all sorts) coexist together in harmony, but ruled under dragons of power divine, to each their own to answer the fight for "justice".

That's not to say that the characters here are without their special unique caveats: the Special 7 consists of:
Sakon Zeroemon "Boss" Kiryuin, the boss of the entire team that is Special 7, and one of the original dragons from time past.
Rokusuke "Sniper" Endo, a master sniper just because he could effectively shoot long-range attacks with 100% precision.
Bellemer "Ninja" Cinq, loli homunculus blonde-hair girl with tricks of the trade on electronics.
Akane "Samurai" Shikisai, master swordsman-cum-vampire, just because humans and supernatural beings coexist (see my front pointer).
Kujaku "Analyzer" Nijo, highly intelligent elf with his large vast of connections for insider trade. His brother Luka is part of the puzzle, as you'd see down the road why.
Shiori "Charisma" Ichinose, the non-marksman and the only human in the team, yet bizarrely his misfire shots only work 1% of the time. Oh and his ability to deduce criminals intent is so good, his ability is just that.
And the newest member of Special 7, Seiji "Rookie" Nanatsuki. Due to an attack years ago, Nijo's brother Luka saved his life whilst sacrificing for Nine's qualms in inheritance of Warlock's inherited dragon powers of the past. Now reincarnated from the dragon's life (due to his innate "surprise" magic-dispersing abilities), he exists to find his own "justice" both as a former police officer, and current Special 7 Rookie.

In all, indeed a "special" group of people tasked to thwart people of time past like Warlock, head of the evil group Nine which used dragons and manipulative efforts to bring the world of dragons to existence, and earlier with Nijio's brainwashed brother Luka Mizuma to aid in his efforts in world domination (like almost any simpleton evildoer wannabe would do).

It's a simple story and plot to follow, but the cut-out setting and the one-note characters just aren't quite as appealing, though it'd rake in the enjoyment factor a little amidst its boring plot and storytelling. And I'd say that the execution is just decent, nothing to blow off minds about.

No-name studio ANIMA&CO. (apparently from what I speculate, a sister studio of Studio NAZ) heralded this production, and it's as average as you can get for a decently-sized budget on the original front, that all it takes is a simple hook to get money pumped in for this production, and wah-lah. Not to mention that while character designs are striking as they could get, the visuals and especially the animation are again, nothing to write home about.

Music is also decent for a hyper-active show of crime fighting and otherworldly affections. OST is good, shall I say? OLDCODEX and SCREEN mode certainly did their best for the respective OP and ED with this, and I'd like the songs a fair bit, but its not something that I would listen to outside of the anime.

All in all, this is just your average crime-fighting show that's just screams "mediocrity" in the slew of the many better similar genre shows out there that are worth your time than this. It's not a bad show, mind you, I did get some enjoyment out of it, but most of it is just...boring and uninspired. It's an easy skip if recommendations are a question, that's for sure.

First, quick disclaimer: I dropped the show after 6 episodes, so maybe it improves afterwards (don´t think so). Oh, and very mild spoilers on some action scenes ahead (no spoilers on the story, though).

Special 7 depicts a Shadowrun-esque world, similar to Copcraft, but one where magic use is very restricted and really powerful. It follows the adventures of an elite police unit that for reasons unknown operates independently from, and it´s despised by the rest of the police force.

It loosely follows the GitS template so we have the usual array of members. We have the MC (or more like audience surrogate), a normal human and ... rookie detective, that joined the force because of [tragic childhood event]. Then there´s a small girl from some magical race I don´t remember who is a hacker and drone operator, and whose only character trait seems be to repeating 'I´m a ninja!' ad nauseam. The real ninja is a vampire gal, who looks cool but doesn't´t say much. Then the mandatory elite sniper with an eye-patch. And as driver we have a snotty elf with a grudge. Oh, and the mysterious boss too. The most interesting character is Ichinose, senior detective who cannot hit the broad side of a barn (except when plot demands it) but is apparently a tactical and analysis mastermind (although his plans are basically charge the enemy head-on).

So.. not top notch but not too bad, right? And is some aspects it is not. The characters are really one-dimensional but that´s not a cardinal sin if the story and action are OK. And the story, though bland and very predictable, kinda keeps the interest. But oh man the action sucks soooo much it utterly destroys the show.

Basically, the action is A-Team level of stupid. Blow a van with explosives? No problem, the passengers just walk out if it unscathed and ready to be cuffed. Shootout against 30 terrorists holding hostages? No issues, our team is able to shoot the guns out each and every terrorist hands! But the vampire has a sword, right? Worry not! She hits everyone with the flat side!

Now, I´m not a fan of gore, and I don´t need all my shows to be R-rated. But the action is so ridiculous it breaks all suspension of disbelief. Also, it´s not consistent. The snotty elf blows the head off 4-5 bad guys (in a fade-to-black, sure, but they´re gone for good). And then he gets shot in the gut. And there´s blood. And the bad guys kill people too. Off-screen mostly but they do and we even see pools of blood.

So why sometimes we have deaths and the rest of the time is A-Team level of nonsense? Go figure.

To summarize: Not great, not terrible. If the above does not bother you and you dig the 'orcs, elfs and magic in today´s world' setting, then give it a chance.

The anime isn't anything special in terms of story or characters.
The characters are all very one-note and don't change throughout the entirety of the story, which is always a let down. Character growth and development is wonderful, even if it isn't something major, if there is growth it makes the characters more developed.
Not only that, but the story itself is just mediocre. It's the same bad guy wants to release big bad power. Protagonist group goes to stop bad guy but oh no! Bad guy has old good guy who is now bad because big bad guy made him that way.
The story isn't ... really engaging, but it's not horrendous to watch.
The ending is also predictable but yet still unsatisfying to see.
So, if you want something to just fill in your time or to just mindlessly watch with really having to care for characters, this show is good for that.
My feelings remained that same even after finishing the entirety of the show.

After watching an important number of Gordon Ramsay's famous show called "Kitchen Nightmares", a few words dug their place in my memory : bland, dreadful, disgusting.

Well Keishichou Tokumubu Tokushu Kyouakuhan Taisakushitsu Dainanaka: Tokunana was bland & blank by its universe, dreadful by its abnormaly long title which I never dared to pronounce and... not disgusting, this one is just a bonus. Contains minor spoilers.

Let's get straight to the point which I disliked the most : the universe and its logic. A modern world where different species such as vampires, "homonculus girl with blonde hair", dwarves and any type of magic users live in harmony. Found ... this part attractive ? Hell forget about it because the main plot is centralized around a serie of terrorists attacks who eventually had the resurrection of the dragons who disappeared from Earth. And no, all these terrorist attacks and all the cases seen during the 12 episodes barely involved magic, like a very tiny bit of magic. Quite disappointing for a universe which includes a lot magic users.

Now what is the biggest disappointment for me, is the absolute lack of originality for the 7 main characters. If 2 are humans, the rest are non-humans which looks interesting on the paper, at least it caught my interest. However this show could have 7 perfectly human characters, it would be exactly the same : what's the point then to build a unit made of "on the paper" complementary members ?

Great question I couldn't answer after 13 weeks, including the very useless recap (how ironic that all the greatest 24-episodes animes this year, such as Dr. Stone, Vinland Saga and Kimetsu no Yaiba didn't EVEN have a single recap/week break...). The characters are absolutely non-interesting and we hardly learn anything about themselves besides the real MC and his partner/superior who are... humans. The dwarf is a basic sniper eye-patched man, the vampire is basic katana warrior, the "blond imp" is just a electronic master, the sort of elf is just a basic detective with long ears and their boss is purely an old magic user who stopped using magic (a regular human ? Kinda)?

If we swap to the other side, aka the villain side : is it any better ? Oh god no, there are only 2 villains who don't get any interesting afterall. Classic thema of "wannabe master of the world so let's start a ritual to proceed". Their whole plan is absolutely boring and instead of giving any sort of emotions (horror for example, especially with a terrorism thematic), it just gives yourself a dose of anesthetic.

Is there any positive point left ? Well I didn't drop it so that means it is not horrible enough. Actually I desire every Sunday that the weekly episode would eventually bring life to this universe, I wished it would explain me how come non-humans and humans can coexist and what the hell is the goal of this special unit. I first thought this was a unit made to deal with magic users but the only enemies faced were low-skilled/amateurs terrorists with MP5 and a video-game intelligence (no, that's not a compliment). Only a few moments just reminded me it was a magical/supernatural show and not your average police show.

So to summarize my global opinion : disappointing, the universe itself fails to have its own identity and I could only see a blank green background where a bunch of non-natural things were thrown to appetize. Honestly the mix of police thema with supernatural can be interesting, at least I appreciated something a bit similar : Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin which succeeded to give consistancy and life to its universe. Actionless globally (unlike this show I wrote about) but much more captivant and interesting. Talking about action, Keishichou[...] was not a catastrophe with its decent fights but they were nothing but lifeline instead of a strong point.

Why people hate this so much...? Once again, here I am to come to the rescue of not so loved anime.

Art + Sound:
Let's be real, I have close to zero interest in both in whatever anime. This as it is won't change the rating. I think the animation was a bit rough for the male characters, but that's it.

Characters:
I don't really have an idea why they chose unnatural beings (vampire, elf, homunculus, and dwarf) to be part of the Speical 7. It is hardly in use. But let's pretend. Sure, the dragons are necessary to the plot.

Seiji Nanatsuki (Rookie) is the high spirited naive character, ... who... well can't continue to be naive forever right?
Shiori Ichinose (Charisma) is kept quiet in the dark most of the time. We have a hard time to learn about his characters, especially with Nijo's remark.

The other members of Special 7 get less spotlight, and for that reason, less development. I know they are called main in this site, but I feel they are minor.

And Warlock... well... a classic annoying villain. Quite a flat character, kind of "Disney" villain, but who said villain always have complicated motives?

Story:
In the beginning, it's nice to see how Nanatsuki is getting along with his new job as well as there is an interest in everything revolving the dragons. And of course THE mystery of the anime. Later, we get a more serious side of all our characters.

Enjoyment:
There was an episode that felt a bit useless, but in general, it was really fun to watch.

This anime is the best police/Detective anime i had ever seen
I'm little dissapoint about the story and character but i enjoy it so much
The story is very good but it give me some little dissapointing moment
Actually i want to give 8.5 but it don't have (lol)
The Art i saw some moment that they draw Casually
When i'm watching it i shocked the art line lol
Sound the Op make me want to sing a long with it lol
And Ed is good enough
Character i don't understand at the beginning that why it have to be like this
Well when i watch till The end of this anime and ... i got an answer
Well...i'm not good at review i'm really sorry =-=°

Where to start...
Okay let's start from the Character, the very poor part in the anime, first the character design so awful and tacky especially the villain and the detective who Follow him ( seriously? Is this even a serious design? ), and of course don't forget the design of the hero of the show، in short the character design look like the one who make it just dropped some hair style here and there, and some Scars here and there, and here we have some stupid character design, second thing.. the characters writing so weak and all the characters just Molded characters you can see ... them in many anime, and they even don't have a good Development, you will finish the anime and you will found that you don't know anything then what you know in the start of the anime about them, they just Ready-made templates

The story had some good points but generally it's so poor, where even the writer don't know what to do with it, he put elements in it, but the question is he use it ? The answer NO!
Weave the story is okay, but of course not the weaving of the climax
And the mixing of fantasy was weak where the writer like what i said before don't knows what to do with his story..

The art is so normally, especially the art style, the animation is bad even when the hard scene by the number of fingers, the background is boring and empty

I want to say more, but there's nothing important left, generally the anime is so normal With a tendency to be bad

After watching the show, I thought: "Adding elves, vampires, wizards, dwarves, and dragons won't guarantee an interesting story."

Special 7 is a crime anime seemed to add fantasy elements without actually thinking about how it affects world building and the story telling. Other than the terrorisms, everything else could've been done without the fantasy elements. It was fun at first, until it fell flat at the end. The Special 7 themselves were forgettable characters, and don't get me started with the main lead.

The art is alright, the animation's a bit static but not terrible, and the OST is nothing special.

It's not the worst show that ever ... existed, it's just forgettable.

I don't intend on writing too much since in depth reviews aren't my forte, I tend to ramble, what I will say first off is that like others I had some hope for this anime; the premise seemed good and episodes 1 & 2 aren't bad. It started losing me at 3, by 5 I was watching episodes in 1.5x speed and after that I was skimming them, only finishing the series 'cus I don't like leaving reviews unless I've seen all the episodes.

What prompted me to realize why it was losing me was the supernatural side of it, something I usually enjoy if nothing ... else. I wanted to know more about why creatures like elves exist and when introduced to the characters I remember them mentioning something about vampires being rare, so I went looking for information...and couldn't find any. Striking me as odd I searched a little more and found the exact phrase I thought would be the problem, "original anime".

Let's get one thing straight; there's nothing inherently wrong with an original anime, done right they can be very compelling, Mononoke, Cowboy Bebop, Darker Than Black, Anohana, Kill La Kill and Tsuritama are all fantastic original anime. This one is not done right. For lack of a better word it's vapid, there's no substance to it, they wrote a story for a single timeline with a single purpose and nothing else, despite hinting at something deeper there's nothing there, no grand past to it, no tangible lore, nothing.
The characters are bland and boring stock personas without any real emotion or goals that you can find in any mediocre anime. The police drama side of it felt like a fanboy's misguided version of mystery thriller with just one of those holier-than-thou super detectives who can work things out from clues the viewer is never privvy to, so it just gets boring. The action is stiff and sub par at best, and the crime part is often so damn contrived it's like a 10 year old wrote it. Don't even get me started on the supernatural element that doesn't even make much of a difference to the plot until the very end, in fact it would've been more interesting if the whole dragons ruling the world thing was actually made up and the villain boss was just deceiving his followers into believing he's some God figure, that makes more damn sense than the crap we're fed.

Never have I watched an anime before now and openly thought "Wow, this is a cash grab" but there's a first for everything right? Needless to say if you're looking for a fun supernatural police-like anime I'd recommend Bungou Stray Dogs, waaay better than this garbage space filler that's not even worth your time.

Keishichou Tokumubu Tokushu Kyouakuhan Taisakushitsu Dainanaka: Tokunana is an original anime from Anima&Co. I've talked about the one episode special already. It was highly mediocre. Now it's time to look at the full series. Which I'll just call Seven Little Officers, as its actual title is way too long to keep using. 

Story:

We open with newbie officer Nanatsuki Seiji getting caught up in a bank robbery. Fortunately for him, the titular Seven Little Officers' unit is on the case. And they're even so impressed with the way he handled himself that they transfer him into their little unit. Which is good because it gives them exactly seven ... officers and it makes their unit title more fitting. The series follows the group as they combat Nine, a ruthless terrorist organisation out to conquer the world. Probably because someone heard that stupid "Seven Ate Nine" joke and thought they'd have a natural advantage. 

Let's start with the most persistent failing of the series, it's not really interesting. Every case they get is really obvious. Every investigative path they follow is predictable. There's never a point where you aren't certain what could happen next. And this is a series that includes magic. You'd think having magic would allow you to do something at least a bit unpredictable but both this and Cop Craft managed to not. I also have to bring up the fact that the writers of this don't know what a dwarf is. They make them basically tall, hairy humans when they should be short, stocky people with long beards. Yes, even for the women. Just ask Cheery Littlebottom. 

The biggest problem, however, is the frequent reliance on dumb shounen action cliché moments. The final battle is basically a string of them. Nanatsuki basically has plot armour and it does that thing that some really stupid shounen works do where a character has the ability and opportunity to make a big contribution but lets the main character do it for no adequately explored reason. In this case there's a sequence where Akane gives Nanatsuki her sword for an action sequence even though she's the one who's actually skilled with a sword, there's no reason to believe he's ever even held one before and she's not injured or incapacitated in any way. 

Characters:

The characters in this range from one-dimensional archetypes to downright obnoxious. Bellemer is easily the worst. Just because she feels the need to call herself a ninja every ten seconds. Did you know she's a ninja? It's especially bad in the one episode that focuses on her character where she reminds you she's a ninja roughly two thousand times.

Nanatsuki is also pretty bad. He's that variety of shounen anime protagonist that's dumb as a brick and full of empty platitudes. 

The rest of the Seven Little Officers are just trite. Those two are the ones who make you wish you could say "And then there were none."

Art:

The artwork has its lazy moments but it's generally fine. The character designs are decent enough, even if the dwarf looks nothing like a goddamn dwarf. The action sequences are pretty generic, but functional. The backgrounds are... there. 

Sound:

The acting is acceptable. I'm sure this is one of those cases where the performances are weakened by the characters having no depth whatsoever. But Tsuda Kenjirou, Kaida Yuuko, Shimono Hiro, Nomura Kenji, Suzuki Tatsuhisa and the others are all fine. And I hope I never hear Ozawa Ari say she's a ninja again. Takahashi Ryo's soundtrack is decent enough. Not as good as his work on Citrus, but it's fine. 

Ho-yay:

There really isn't any to be found. The only characters we see in relationships or romantic scenes are in hetero-normative relationships. 

Areas of Improvement:

1. Less Reliance on clichés. I get that no matter what you do with story writing, there are going to be some tropes and some elements that have been used by other people. There's so much media out there, that's just a reality. But you need to add your own flavour to it. Make it something you and only you can write. This could have been written by a robot that studied using TV tropes. It's that bereft of originality.

2. Characters should be complex. I get it, you have Seven Little Officers and only twelve episodes to work with them but even then your main partner pair should be pretty well developed and your more supporting characters should at least show some hints at having more to them.

3. Take Some Risks. A lot of the issues with this series and its characters being overly trite and predictable seem to come down to the writers wanting to play it as safe as possible. But that just makes things too obvious and dull. Which makes the flaws more pronounced. 


Final Thoughts:

Seven Little Officers is a mostly mediocre anime with some really annoying aspects. Which ultimately does put it a few steps below Cop Craft. It's not one I can recommend unless you really love this type of crime show even when all the twists and resolutions are really obvious. In the end, I'm giving it a 3/10. 

Dropped it after 9 episodes. The story is decent, but after a while, I realized I just didn't care anymore. My biggest complaint is that it's hard to care about the main characters. They try so hard to make the story seem mysterious by having the characters talk around the subjects when they chat, but that leads to the conversations being very inauthentic. So much could be solved by them just speaking directly instead of talking in riddles or avoiding proper response. That gets old after a while but they keep doing it anyway. I found only one of the characters to be actually interesting ... but even he wouldn't speak directly about anything. I'm sick of it.

If it weren't for it being so unoriginal, I might've had a higher opinion of it. I don't know if anyone else has noticed or pointed it out, but this is basically an exact copycat of Double Decker Doug and Kirill...only with elves, dwarves, vampires, etc randomly thrown into the mix. Don't get me wrong, I know Doug & Kirill isn't exactly original either. However, this one's wayyy too similar. From the whole team 7 band of misfits thing, to the rookie cop getting teamed up with the cop who's got a slight chip on his shoulder dynamic, the boss who's quirky and insists on ... codenames (heck, they even look the same!)...the list goes on. Despite Doug & Kirill of course not being entirely original itself, it still is more enjoyable than this one in my opinion. Additionally, the art is superior as well. So my opinion is if you're into this sort of theme, skip this and go with the aforementioned.