Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro

I'll just cut to the chase here: if you're looking for a good historical mystery show, this isn't it. In the same season where Yesterday wo Utatte airs to old nostalgia (and immediately getting a bad rap for its obscene adaptation), this series created in the late 90s (1999 to be exact) and falling into obscurity is honestly not a surprise.

Fast forward 20 years later, and Liden Films' anime adaptation...will quickly fall into obscurity as well (not to mention the obviously low amount of people watching this).

Think with me like this: We have seen detective shows and played detective games before, but historical ones are ... rife with accuracy, and as much as "fiction" allows the brazen content to skirt around its intended "plot", sadly what we have here in the Woodpecker's Detective Office, is nothing but merely a Shakespeare-ish kind of mediocre play that wears on its audience. (Don't fault me on the adaptation though, I know next to nothing about it.}

Cases to solve a crime. There are many ways to go around this, especially in historical context (19th Century Japan, or the Edo Period), where works of art come around to play a part in solving crimes...that is: the art of poetry.

Characters are somewhat wishy-washy for the most part. The main leads Kyousuke Kindaichi (I'd swear that surname is to cash in on the late 90s craze of "Kindaichi's Case Files" from the novelist) and Takuboku Ishikawa. One full fledged detective, the other a poet. I'll admit that solving crimes through poetry is kinda of an art in itself, and it's interesting to see how it connects to the sole purpose of giving justice a name, but the story itself, feels like unconnected chapters of a novel, just there to give the book a name and "exposition" for the many "case files" to be tackled. Both of their relationship with each other is mutual, but a constantly fractured one as one acts insane, the other tries to quell his insanity, and it feels very forced for the most part. Not to mention the calefare "detectives" who are there to always give the main characters some pep talk about the cases and their narration, it just feels RPG-ish and something that's definitely not from a novel (that is, story content).

For the most part, getting subpar studio Liden Films to do this production just feels like it's the studio's bread-and-butter whilst awaiting for high-profile jobs (I'm looking at you, Cells at Work: Black) to produce with ease. Not saying that it looks bad, but the world around it just looks boring, even for shows that try to portray the historical theme to decent fluidity. Not to mention that studios like this are floating by just to get noticed, it just feels like wasted effort (and proven for the last year as well). Music really is so-so.

Not really memorable though, I feel like you could pass this show by and have better shows to watch instead of this. But if this ever tickles your fancy, try the 3-episode rule on this if there's anything to recommend by.

STORY: Based on fictionalized versions of a poet/private investigator and a linguistic professor, during the 19th century of Japan. This series is your typical crime/mystery anime where each episode the characters solve a crime. However, it differs from other animes for its abstract writing, poems dialogue, off-centre storyline and unconventional art.

The characters are OK. There isn't much information on them, so there's not much depth on their personalities. There are like around 6-8 recurring characters each episode, yet they are there just to say "hi" or "yes". What's the point ?
The story looks unconnected. I don't know if it's because they are rushing ... the anime adaptation from the novel, as they left some unfinished business or the novel is really this ~ inconsistent~.
I'm six episodes in and I still don't understand the friendship between the two main characters. They contradict themselves every single episode.

And I don't know what the author is trying to portray here. Is it just a normal fanfiction detective story that happened to be during the 19th century based on real people or do you want to discuss topics that Japan faced during the Westernization while making an entertaining crime story? What's the point of establishing real life characters if you're not going to at least address historical elements? Pick a side.

Each episode, the context of prostitution comes in. Yes, it was normal during that time, but the over sexualisation of women is really uncomfortable. The author is making a "light and relaxed daily life of male poets facing crimes together" type of story and I guess women are just an entertainment for them. I don't think it's okay to write a story like this, when we all know the struggles women faced during that time. At least have a female character that isn't portrayed as "disposable", if you want to make a light-hearted version of the 19th century in Japan.


Leaving that aside, the mysteries scenes are well made, but they all seem very predictable. There's a pattern that is repeating every episode, which is " the first new person that appears on the screen is probably the culprit". I guess there's consistency here.

Do I recommend this? Well, I think you should try a few episodes. I really like the art, but is it worth my time? Is it entertaining? Yes, who doesn't like wasting brain cells trying to solve a 2D crime. Is it memorable? No.

I feel like this show started off with a good first episode, but then really went random the next two episodes. Which is not good, and in my view, hurt the anime a little. But it's not a complete and utter mess. It's not a bad show at all, just I'm not sure what to say about it.

The story follows one of our mains past. Seeing how his relationship with his 'best friend' is, and how they do as detectives. They have quite the chemistry. That does push the show forward in some cases. So do the characters and cases in a way. Both contribute ... and mesh well together to make an OK show. Some characters just feel flat, while others are for sure more developed in their own way. Better than having them all bland for sure.

Art style for sure is different, but it's not bad at all. Same came be said for the music, no real problems either way there.

I feel like this show is gonna be mixed all throughout it's run. But I hope I'm wrong, as I'm gonna keep watching, you should give it a try and see how it is for you.

In fiction, a MacGuffin is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.

What is the MacGuffin here? The murders, the conspiracy, the ensuing detective work. If these are insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in themselves, what matters?

1. Friendship. Real friendship. Until about episode 9, Ishikawa lives a life of total self-indulgence. While his Epicurean lifestyle creates genius-level poetry, it comes at a cost. This cost is burdened by Kindaichi.

Is Ishikawa a bad friend for consciously using Kindaichi? Is Kindaichi a little groveling bitch for deluding himself that Ishikawa is going ... to change... giving him limitless chances?

Kindaichi understands that he is being "used" for his deep pockets. Although Kindaichi admonishes Ishikawa, cuts him off financially, cuts him out of his life... he always comes back. Is Kindaichi a sucker, or is Ishikawa's friendship worth whatever the cost may be. The 21st century American view would be to "cut that negativity out of your life." But maybe true friendship is worth any cost.

2. Raison d'être. (Or as it was translated in my subtitles "Reason for being born".) Existentialism crises are always interesting; I don't know why.

To be honest, I'm not sure I picked up on any conclusions the characters made. (Sorry!) This could be because I binged the show, or because I am a slow reader. Or maybe its because purpose is always just outside our grasp.

Does the show have anything novel to say about Friendship or Telos? No. But if someone wants to explore these genuinely, I'm not only going to watch it but love it.

(Caveat: I don't know anything about poetry. I'm a person who loves prose; I "don't get" poetry. I know nothing about Japanese poetry. Nor do I know anything about the real people these characters are based upon. I'm not sure the show is any more or less enjoyable being informed, contextually.)

I have very mixed feelings about this.
Never read the original story before, so I can’t say if this is a decent adaptation of the source material or not.
The first episode was really intriguing and I loved the art style. The Meiji-era is also especially interesting I think, although you won’t notice it much in terms of politics etc., you’ll notice it in the way they speak and obviously what they wear and so on. But personally, I love this period where Japanese and „western“ style first came together like this.
The story itself wasn’t really interesting to me, halfway through the show I didn’t even pay ... much attention to what was happening - until episode 8 or 9. The score is also just what I like, and even though the anime is mediocre, I’m starting to feel low-key obsessed with it. I don’t know, it’s romantic somehow. The way this anime looks, poets sitting in cafés, wearing suits and Kimono, the change of the seasons, talking about friendship, accompanied by soft piano and dramatic strings. I just like that.
This whole mystery-solving thing is just something that also happens. It’s not a good detective show. I think a lot of people will like this on an emotional level, but I can’t really say it’s good. The story (or stories) as a whole seem not very well thought out (at least in this adaptation) and might as well not happen. This is how I felt, at least.

Thank you for your time.

Very intriguing anime series in the beginning which quickly deteriorates into obscurity. I was drawn in by the beautiful art and great soundtrack but the story just falls apart very quickly and the enjoyment with it. The visuals alone just can't hold everything on their own and I was forcing myself into watching the fourth episode. I refuse to watch more.

First episode was promising and showed some interestig characters, but after the second ends it betrays everything it had built in an unexplainable turn of events which is never properly discussed afterwards. It almost seems like these people don't know how to tell a story.

Big ... disappointment overall because the anime is set on the backdrop of early 20th century Japan and it does some good contemporary social commentary on the side. A big shame - I don't usually drop shows but I can't make myself go through this no more.

I really wanted to like this, truly. I love poetry, I enjoy slower paced shows, and the concept of adding a detective/mystery element sounded intriguing.

However, I really just do not care. The animation is beautiful, subdued but as is the tone of the show. The actual poetry that is read is quite pretty, probably because the main character is based off of a real poet. But every other character doesn't really have much to add.

The sound design is fine, nothing incredibly special, but not bad either.

The story just meanders and goes nowhere until it wraps up. Similar to how the main character behaves. I ... guess theres some poetic understanding of the story in there somewhere. But regardless its a shame it had to be so bland.

I was hoping this was going to be a good detective series with lots of hot dudes in it. However by episode 2 they are in the sex work district and the whole of episodes 2 and 3 are making a joke of sex workers death. I guess we can't have a detective series without murdering a sex worker. Their lives are so worthless aren't they? We spend 2 episodes here doing a "but what if..." with all the characters. One even mentioning the murder might have been committed by a cat. As if her death was jsut some game for a bunch of men ... to sit around a table with and play guessing games.
I was hoping it'd be more historical as it's set in that time of the "consumption" (1880s) but alas it's only set dressing.
This anime is not a serious take on any kind of detective work, nor is it an over the top one where it bends the universe a bit (Like Conan and his gadgets)
Kindaichi (Actual linguist and researcher of the Ainu people) is the straight man and Ishikawa (who really was an asshole in real life as well) is the boke. He actually laughs at why Otaki dies. Then the characters are seen as not caring at all about her.
These are the characters to expect for the rest of the anime.

*May contain spoilers*

Okay, first of all, I have been watching anime for about 2 and a half years and have used MAL as my reference for which ones I should be watching and usually it hasn't let me down, but the score for this one really did not sit right with me. I'm honestly surprised it's so low. I guess to each their own and that it's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I still don't understand why it only has 6 stars. I took a dive into this anime because my favourite seiyuus play the main roles and I honestly couldn't understand the ... 6-star score from just the PV.

To start off, the story having been set in the Meiji period was something new and exciting to me. I haven't read the original manga and neither do I have enough knowledge about the early 1900s in Japan, but it seemed like a well-handled setting with characters that fit said setting. The story itself is not just a detective mystery drama but also a slice-of-life chapter in the characters' lives. It has been created with these specific characters set in mind and that's the beauty of it. The way that poetry was set to be the tying ribbon in the story is also beautiful in its own way.

Moving onto the characters, they're all named after and inspired by famous Japanese poets and authors of the time. Each character has a personality of their own; a way they communicate and a way they fit in with the story. The friendship between the characters, especially the main characters, is gently crafted too with various layers to it. There are people that are always looking for concrete reasons for certain people's behaviours or personalities and relationships, but there is no way to fully understand something as deep as emotions. Trying to overanalyse the friendships in this or most any other animes of the same type is not something I understand. Unlike other animes, we don't really learn a lot about the past of the characters but we are given a front-row seat to their current selves and their growth in the short period that we are with them.
The added fact that Asanuma-san and Sakurai-san play the main roles really did the best for me. Their voice acting was amazing, as usual.

The art is probably one of the biggest points of this anime. Its use of colours that are pleasing to the eyes, the simple feel it gives in some scenes while in others it shows raw emotion and life, is definitely something to keep in mind.

The only places that found me just a little less interested were how some of the cases were just a little bit on the cliche spectrum, not that it matters at all in the big picture, and how the dialogues seemed fairly scripted but then again, set in a whole different era, I'm no one to say what is right as I know nothing of how people used to speak at the time.

While I say that it is a good anime, I cannot say that it is to everyone's taste. To some that come looking for complicated detective stories or thriller mysteries, this might fall short of their expectation but I suggest that anyone that is wishing to watch this, watches it with no prior assumptions.

Happy watching! :)

A story like life:
Impossibly long, and yet...
So painfully short.

The episodes of this detective story had always an engrossing tinge of sadness to them that I couldn't quite put my finger on for the longest time. After merely twenty minutes, I felt as though my heart had been immersed in the stories of these poets for hours. Every time, without fail, this time distortion only grew, and after a while, I began to enjoy it.

I put off watching the final episode for almost a year, precisely because a part of me couldn't believe all these hours of serene storytelling could, or rather should, come to ... an end. It left me feeling both empty, like a church without faith, and incomplete, like a letter left unwritten.

But that didn't make the finale less beautiful. Even without faith, the psalms remain gorgeous verses, and even without dramatic twists and turns, the much more intimate and human tales I had been told made me glad to have heard them. If anything, they made my heart ache for more, but I suppose that's the way life, and specially death always are.

If each life is a book, then one's love is a poem.

I know this review isn't useful, nor did I want it to be. The technical aspects matter little in this tale, yet they were always sufficient. The story was muted and methodical, yet the characters were anything but, and the music seemed more like that they would choose to enjoy, rather than anything meant for us, much like the entire work. But I love it all the same.

Woodpecker Detective's Office is pretty okay.

Production-wise, the artwork is beautiful. The animation may be static in most places, but the camera work and the tone of the story makes up for it. The OST suits the mood, though unremarkable.

For a story about a poet being a detective, it doesn't feel like a detective story. There's rarely a battle of wits or the tension that occurs when solving a mystery. That being said, I think the anime itself is more interested to how we as the audience solve the mystery. The characters' dialogue and routines, the way the camera shoots the scenes would often become ... clues for the viewers to think about. They can even be a form of foreshadowing, which definitely shows in the final episode where the key to a certain mystery is just thinking about what's already established before.

Furthermore, Woodpecker seems to be about the relationships between the characters, particularly the two main leads.

Of course, the show's pacing and writing aren't necessarily amazing. It can feel slow at times or uninteresting, but it's still an okay watch. The characters themselves are fine. While the two leads seem to be the most fleshed out, most of the others seem flat in comparison which doesn't have to be bad since those flat characters have okay personalities and they don't have a character arc so it makes sense.

Overall, Woodpecker Detective's Office may not have the best experience, but I'm still recommending it because it's an okay experience.

You know the anime is great when on episode 5, gruesomely murdered women outnumber alive and plot relevant women 3:1.
(4:1 if the ending of episode 5 implies that another woman has died a horrble bloody death. I do not care to find out)
It’s not a spoiler, by the way, the dead women are irrelevant, half of the time nameless and their sole purpose is to be murdered and have their deaths investigated by the uninterested leads. As you can guess, it doesn’t make the situation better.

Do you like detective stories? Do you like the ones where most of the case is spent discovering and ... analyzing evidence to reach a logical conclusion? Do you like the grounded ones about regular people doing their best? Or do you like the ones where a charismatic genius assembles the finer details with ease and then proclaims their findings to the audience to everyone’s great delight? Well, then you’re out of luck!

In Kintsutsuki Tanteidokoro, get ready for the never-failing formula of:
1. Discover that a murder has happened in the very beginning of an episode.
2. Spend the next ten minutes following annoying hijinks of characters with neither depth nor common sense. The hijinks include: Ishikawa having no money (or spending whatever he suddenly does have on food and sex workers), Kindaichi being awkward and Ishikawa’s plot-irrelevant friends drinking in the same old bar/cafe and trying to do comedy(?) to no avail.
The hijinks may also include a confusing amount of gay subtext and moments that may sincerely read as romantic, though the reason for their inclusion is unclear as I see no tags/comments mentioning bl in sight. Is this just a way to poke fun at Kindaichi’s virgin-ness, implying that he’s so awkward with women because he’s gay for his womanizing bestie? Is this an awkward attempt at genuine representation? I wish I could find out, but the anime is so painfully boring and uneventful that I struggle to find the motivation to find out if the fruitiness is a gimmick or a feature, though I have to admit that sincere gay rep would make the show better only by a small margin.
3. Ishikawa will suddenly come to a conclusion that he has it all figured out and confront the killer, explaining the entire murder plot to the audience.
4. Que the ending, the first shot of which depicts a crab and a train, the relevance of which I do not know. Honestly, after episode two the mystery of the train and the crab was the only thing that kept me going, but even the combined power of it & the gay subtext couldn’t keep me from dropping the show.

I sat through five and a half episodes of this show and found not a single reason to stick around. I can’t even hatewatch, it has managed to be bad in the blandest, most oatmeal-on-water way possible.

Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro is overall, a pretty forgettable anime with some pretty decent art. The show really fails to deliver any impact due to the structure of the story arcs that get presented.
This show is essentially, an episodic detective mystery show. Yet, it doesn't fully commit to this idea. The murders are the focal points of each arc, yet a lot of the content of the episode is focused on the main characters' feelings, or side characters' feeling, and rarely is there a murder case that's thought provoking. You generally get to know the gist of the murderer's backstory, and the case gets closed pretty ... fast, with not too much focus on it for the entire episode. The episodes always have the investigation in the background, but you're basically watching the main characters interact with each other more often than not, completely ignoring the murder case. While there is definitely "investigating done," it always doesn't feel like there's too much emphasis on it, but rather, you get the idea that this show is more of "slice of life" than anything else. The way the murders are done are also not very innovative nor interesting, and it's all pretty basic. Murderer kills someone, tries to run away or frame someone else. It's not done in any elaborate fashion, and the only reason why they get away is due to the fact that this story is set in feudal Japan, where forensics and cameras are unavailable.

Well, as a result, you get to know the main characters more. But, you basically only get to know Ishikawa. The other characters don't really get too much dialogue or development, and Kyousuke especially, is a static character that doesn't get too much love despite being a major part of the story most of the time. I really can't get attached to characters if their entire role consists of being a foil to Ishikawa and playing the "straight man role." Other characters are mere ornaments that progress the story, whether it be providing clues to the murder mysteries, or being the murderer themself. I really find it strange that there are so few suspects and dialogue being spoken with different characters in each episode/arc. It means that the murderer can really be selected from a very small pool of characters. So, it doesn't really provoke any mystery. Of course, you don't really get to know how the murder was pulled off, but this is more of the fact that the show conceals essential details that Ishikawa catches onto, so it's really just a form of narration that excludes any possibility of the viewer catching onto how the murder actually happened. Rather than you discovering clues along with Ishikawa, you kind of just sit through his analysis after he figures out how the murder panned out.
I've got to admit, the art is pretty stellar. Characters notwithstanding, the backgrounds specific angles and views are pretty interesting, especially with the choreography pairing with some of the poems that get frequently thrown out. However, everything else is kind of against it.
I didn't mention pacing yet, but pacing is pretty hit or miss. Sometimes, episodes are alright in terms of pacing, and others, it's extremely rushed. I'd say the first three episodes were the best paced and overall best story-wise, and the rest are kind of just mediocre. There isn't much of a buildup from the past episodes, and it seems to be episodic until the "climax arc." Sure, there are feelings and characters that come and go, but the overall story is pretty stagnant.
I understand that this anime is a novel adaptation, so it's pretty hard to actually make good material out of a mystery novel. That being said, the end result is for all of us to see: badly paced, boring mysteries, and lack of any genuine characters other than Ishikawa brings me to unfortunately, drop this anime

I really want to like this show. The art is gorgeous, the Meiji-era setting is super interesting (and not one I see terribly often)... however.

While the characters have so much potential, each episode reuses the same conflict. Kindaichi is terrible with money and Ishikawa pays Kindaichi's debts to his own detriment. They're supposed to be great friends, but they're at each other's throats and just a few episodes in--

****SPOILER

Kindaichi accuses Ishikawa of murder, with apparently very little thought, despite being a "detective."

******END SPOILER.

Now, I'm a huge fan of found family, and full disclosure, I want to ship them. But the repeated cheap conflict just ruins ... the whole show for me. Kindachi's smart and thinks outside the box, but thus far he doesn't really have enough redeeming qualities for me to continue.