Great Pretender

A series of unfortunate events has led Makoto Edamura to adopt the life of crime—pickpocketing and scamming others for a living. However, after swindling a seemingly clueless tourist, Makoto discovers that he was the one tricked and, to make matters worse, that the police are now after him.

While making his escape, he runs into the tourist once again, who turns out to be a fellow con man named Laurent Thierry, and ends up following him to Los Angeles. In an attempt to defend his self-proclaimed title of "Japan's Greatest Swindler," Makoto challenges his rival to determine the better scammer. Accepting the competition, Laurent drops them off outside a huge mansion and claims that their target will be the biggest mafia boss on the West Coast.

As Makoto becomes increasingly involved with the cunning Laurent, his colorful associates, and the world of international high-stakes fraud, he soon realizes that he got more than what he bargained for as his self-declared skills are continually put to the test.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Thierry, Laurent Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Jones, Abigail Main

Fujiwara, Natsumi Japanese

Edamura, Makoto Main

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Moore, Cynthia Main

Sonozaki, Mie Japanese

Dorothy Supporting

Komatsu, Yuka Japanese

Ozaki, Seiji Supporting

Sakuya, Shunsuke Japanese

Kudou Supporting

Tadano, Youhei Japanese

Ibrahim, Sam Supporting

Komatsu, Fuminori Japanese

Suzaku, Akemi Supporting

Takashima, Gara Japanese

Meyer, Thomas Supporting

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

Okada, Maiko Producer

Ozaki, Noriko Producer

Itou, Hitoshi Producer

Saitou, Masaya Producer

Reviews

Sep 20, 2020

SingleH

Recommended

What we have here is an expression of love for art. It’s a treat in every sense of the phrase, being sweet to the taste beyond expectation and a dietary rarity worth your appreciation and indulgence. As time goes on, television ad rates plummet, and production committees get stingier and stingier with their limited funding and man power, impossibly ambitious original anime become more and more financially harrowing to fund and logistically nightmarish to create. Yet somehow, here we have it, the beauty to behold: Great Pretender.

How much of what I’m about to tell you which you find completely obvious is entirely dependent on how ... blind, deaf, and senseless you happen to be, because if you ask even such a staunch critic as myself, this is the hardest masterwork to overlook and the single most broadly appealing triumph of entertainment I can name. From the drop dead gorgeous artwork and animation to the surprisingly thoughtful, endlessly amusing storyline, and from the delightful cast of lifelike characters overflowing with charisma to the fantastic music which itself is just as charming and built with just as much personality as any one of the characters, every facet of the show is delivered with expert craftsmanship awarding its audaciously dedicated production values. Given just how expressive, experimental, and downright weird the roots of anime are, most of the standouts which you can find therein are just as esoteric, and Great Pretender stands to be an exception the likes of little before. Inspired by Western crime dramedies which it swiftly outclassed in a single debut episode of exceptionally clever episodic structuring and excellent visual direction, Great Pretender follows amateur swindler, Makoto Edamura, as he gets swept away by the real deal, a gang of con men with whom he exploits others and entertains himself all whilst reaping the seeds of trickery they’ve all sown together…which is what I meant by “broadly appealing.” Yes, I conveniently left out the show’s thought provoking themes, all its discussions and ideals on social injustice justifying an individual’s turn to crime, but my basic summary of the plot is no lie, and it is such a cliche setup as to be almost embarrassing, so the fact I can even get close to calling it the masterpiece which I nearly have already speaks to the brilliance of all involved in its peerless creation. Great Pretender is solid proof a simple concept can write its way to a classic. It’s exploding with life, love, and lavishness in every way it can, and anyone unable to appreciate the monumental effort and unrivaled talent necessary to deliver on such a beauty or empathize with the unflinchingly human psychological core behind all its scheming and hilarity is simply beyond my comprehension, or somehow just contrarian enough to deny it all.

If I had to oversimplify it, what makes Great Pretender so good in a single phrase is the tact with which each episode is handled and the way in which they are uniquely cared for by whichever member of the directorial staff headed its careful creation. Despite being an arc structured show which does not hesitate to grab you with low-stakes, hardly annoying cliffhangers, the true method to the narrative’s madness is every single episode feeling like an open and shut case nailing the finish and leaving you as gratified as you are dying for more, whether you be left hanging on the cathartic conclusion to a resonant character development, the satisfying resolution to an episodic or overarching plot point, or simply on the butt of an actual joke, landing yet another delightful punch line driving home the show’s damn funny comedic identity just a little more. Unlike most anime and, quite frankly, most entertainment in general, Great Pretender is self-aware regarding all its metatextual eccentricities and in-universe contrivances, so no matter how hysterically outrageous nor matter how artistically bold the story goes about presenting itself, it will always be tongue in cheek enough to come across as jest as opposed to being an irksome logical conundrum, and while not every episode is as perfectly balanced as the last, the show as a whole certainly is. Most anime which aren’t made for TV find themselves with the privilege to be as uncensored as they’d like, and by extension, they often end up leaning too hard on their freedom to finally incorporate vulgarity and nudity to their heart’s content, but Great Pretender stands as a complete and total exception. Accompanying its boisterous comedy and sensational personality is an incessant sense of realism offered by—yes, those brands of obscenity—but also by its deftly paced character time and nuanced characterization sewn throughout the hijinks. Comparable only to the best of Shinichiro Watanabe’s works from Cowboy Bebop to Space☆Dandy, Great Pretender has mastered the art of endearing and repulsing the audience with its duplicitous adult cast, the push and pull which invests viewers in the among the most human yet still the most entertaining on-screen individuals one can find in the most natural way one can find them.

What makes building a character such a delicate science is you want to make them worthy of the screen by having their actions be somewhat absurd enough to be entertaining, but you also want to keep their passions down-to-earth enough to be emotionally engaging as relatable human beings, and this is where Shinichiro Watanabe truly excels. No one just throws on episode one of Samurai Champloo immediately invested in characters as ostensibly ridiculous as Mugen, Jin, or even the comparatively normal Fū, but given how well-written and smartly characterized these misfits are over the course of the show—the show which itself makes a point to show them at their lowest, most vulnerable points in life and at their happiest, most unapologetically free spirited—even the most jaded among viewers will finish the journey completely immersed in their stories, assuming, of course, they weren’t cynical enough to drop the show before then. Great Pretender is not only a master of the exact same craft, but one which has just as handily mastered the accompanying craft of outstanding voice acting. Complementing the prepossessingly sharp character designs of industry legend, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, every character is deftly brought to life by a cast of talented actors and actresses who’s voices embody their respective characters to a tee. As Makoto and his compatriots march along the vibrant parade which the animation staff has made their lives, skeletons start falling out of closets just as you’d expect them to from the secret histories of real people, and the characters subtly progress in intimacy as they overcome problems of life and love alike. Be it Laurent, the mastermind fueling every fire under everyone’s asses; Abby, the blunt, stoic braun serving as the honest counterbalance to Laurent’s conniving brains; or Cynthia, the absolutely badass, electric heroine who you’ll be wanting as a best friend for life or desiring as a wife by the end of the show depending on your sexual preferences; every single one of the colorful personalities on screen has just as much to learn and love behind their beautiful faces as does the cover of the show itself. And speaking of having a colorful personality, Great Pretender is one hell of a feast for the eyes!

Great Pretender, visually, is straight fucking unbelievable. While you may get this impression immediately, credit to Takeda Yūsuke’s ever legendary background art, all facets of this anime prove themselves to be crafted to the perfection of a Production IG classic back from the days of the Kamiyama Team who shared the same art director. Be it the explosive yet expertly balanced coloration and its astoundingly consistent shading, the flawless character artwork and the intricately detailed linework required by those razor sharp designs, or the flowingly lavish animation elegantly weaving it all together, every frame of Great Pretender is laudable to some degree even at its very lowest points and worthy of a standing ovation at its mountainous heights. Everything is overflowing with personality and branded with an unforgettable artistic identity such that I can promise with complete confidence you’ve never seen anything quite like it at such a high production value, and I promise just as easily you’ll never see anything like it again outside the purview of Production IG. This is the first project handled by WIT Studio with the exception of their debut series with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa’s full involvement, and his intimacy with this endeavor is no secret given the amount of IG names inscribed on this gem. With Takeda Yūsuke having already been mentioned, Kyouji Asano, the now legendary graduate of Team Oshii and Animation Director for Psycho-Pass and the first two seasons of Attack on Titan, has made his return along with too many animators to count, and Ishikawa also seems to’ve organized the recruitment of the best of the best not already under the illustrious IG umbrella. From the criminally obscure genius color designer behind works such as Space☆Dandy and Redline, Yūko Kobari, to the industry veteran sound director who’s so prolific and who’s been around for so long that he worked with Chiaki Konaka in bringing to life the brilliant soundscapes of Serial Experiments Lain and The Big O, Shouji Hata, Great Pretender is stacked with more talent than you could ever imagine, and somehow, every little bit of it shows. Great Pretender is the first time WIT Studio has fully lived up to both the technical perfection and unflinching consistency of their founders at Production IG, and it never ceased to take my breath away.

The introductory paragraph of this review is worded in such a way to mirror the first anime review I ever read, which I’d directly quote if not for having unfortunately forgotten the address of whatever blog I saw it on. I only remember the impression its wordage left on me. Sentimental, I know. It was a review for an anime equally ambitious and equally outstanding as Great Pretender which shocked as many critics as fans it elated. It was a work also made at the dawn of a new decade, relatively speaking, and much like this decade, it was a time in which anime as a whole was on a downturn. Studio Madhouse had just thrown out Masao Maruyama in the face of their ambition fueled bankruptcy, and now, a decade later, their only remaining holdout of talent is Director Natsume, who’s work is the only excuse optimists have left to not call the studio dead. Gainax had been exposed for their toxic business environment which drove away Hideaki Anno only to then lose its remaining creative leads, who now, nine years later, are thriving in their own limelight at studio Trigger whilst proudly carrying the creative torch of the Gainax of old before it all went sour. More positively speaking, Kyoto Animation was redefining the word “polished” and winning award after award for their work on genres most powerhouse studios would scoff at, yet now, nine years later, a fifth of their staff was horrifically massacred in an inhuman arson which has gone down in history as the second most deadly mass killing on Japanese soil since the end of the Second World War. So much has changed since that review was posted, so much, except the studio which pioneered the anime it was reviewing. That’s right, the studio was Production IG, and the anime was Psycho-Pass. The reviewer offered his thanks to the pantheon of artistic prowess and creative genius which had, in such an incredible fashion and with such an epic production, restored their hope in an industry they saw as stagnating, and now it’s my turn to do the same. The son has grown into the shoes of the father, as WIT Studio has finally, unequivocally matched their founders at Production IG, and with their achievement, my own hope in the anime industry has been restored just as those of the cynics before me.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 23, 2020

Cipher3030

Mixed Feelings

Man, in all of my years watching anime, I've never watched such a good show that left me with such a bad taste in my mouth. Before I get into the meat and potatoes of my review, let me first say that I will try to avoid spoilers for those of you who aren't watching the sub online off of Netflix, since the final arc isn't available on US Netflix yet. Furthermore, a lot of my harsher scores in the story, character, and enjoyment areas are heavily influenced by the final arc, and especially the ending, so if you don't want to be jaded before ... the final arc officially releases, just stop reading here.

Story: 4
The story follows the exploits of Makoto "Edamame" Edamura, a two-bit scam artist who took advantage of old people in Japan until he meets Laurent, the first person to con him. After joining up with Laurent, an enigmatic and charismatic confidence man, Edamura gets roped into several schemes all targeting wealthy criminals who have used their influence to avoid justice. The series takes a mostly light-heated and fun approach to each of these cons, although there are moments of genuine emotion sprinkled throughout that help make the cast a lot more likeable and relatable. Furthermore, there are enough twists with each of the cons to keep them exciting, though some of them do require a good deal of suspension of disbelief. This fun story manages to stay consistent for 14 out of the 23 episodes before taking a sharp turn in the final arc. In order to avoid spoilers, I'm not going to talk much about this final arc, but basically the plot becomes silly at best despite the grim subject matter -- international child sex trafficking -- and the resolution feels like a slap in the face given how the story had played out up until that point. One of the interesting ideas of the show is that Makoto is one of, if not the only good person in Laurent's crew, and he essentially acts as the heart of the group comprised of manipulative narcissists. Because of his earnesty, Makoto ends up being taken advantage of constantly in Laurent's schemes, often finding himself completely in the dark about what's going on until the final minutes. The final arc deconstructs this aspect of Makoto in a really interesting way as well, essentially exploring the hypocrisy of Laurent's group and how their actions might actually push Makoto far enough to turn on them. However, in a massive cop out that I will not reveal, this whole character arc gets completely uprooted, leading to an unsatisfying conclusion that completely ignores the previous 3 arcs and just feels hollow. On one hand, I understand why the show did this, given that one of its core themes, especially in the final arc, is forgiveness. In every previous arc, one or more of the characters learned either to forgive themselves or one of the people they were scamming, so it makes sense that this theme continues in the final arc. Hell, you could even try and call the ending a subversion of expectations given how it really does subvert the viewers expectations; however, subversion for subversion's sake isn't inherently good, the payoff has to be satisfying, and it just isn't here. Furthermore, the way that this theme is explored in the final arc with Makoto just isn't satisfactory and honestly felt very contrived. There's honestly no reason for Makoto to forgive these people, especially considering what they put him through, and yet he does anyway. Maybe this speaks to my own poor character more than poor writing on the part of the show, but still, there are still examples of undue forgiveness past this moment in the finale that are even more contrived and a lot harder to rationalize for me. Finally, there's the post credit scene at the end of the final episode, which I don't even want to think about and I honestly can't make sense of. It seems like sequel bait, but it completely spits in the face of everything the final arc was about, making the last nine episodes feel like more of a waste of time. All this being said, the actual resolutions for each character outside of all of this are really sweet and pretty satisfying, though what comes before it is legitimately awful.

tl;dr: a great story that manages to drop the ball spectacularly in the final few episodes. If you're going to have a tonal shift in the final arc, at least follow through. Also, the way they pulled off the final con was stupid at best and reminded me of a quote from Community which I will paraphrase: So, according to the Sting, in order to pull off this grift, we need a full crew, a bunch of briefcases, and a fake hospital for some reason.

Art: 9
Yeah, the art is mostly really great and expressive, but the CGI looks genuinely awful. Even though the CGI is stylized, it still looks super jarring and it's even worse when characters are modeled with CGI. Everyone keeps comparing this show to Lupin, but Lupin's recent anime and films blow GP out of the water completely.

Muisic: 8
A pretty above average soundtrack overall, though there are quite a few tracks that blend in with one another. The vocal tracks are all pretty excellent, though.

Characters: 6
Again, for the first half of the show, the characters are all really great. Edamura is a likable lead, Laurent is incredibly funny and commands the screen when he's on, Abbie is one of the most charming characters of the year, and Cynthia just oozes with charisma. Plus, each of these leads has a really compelling backstory and character motivation, and each is given some genuinely superb character development throughout the series. The villains are all fairly one-note, but it works in the show's favor because it gets you to really despise them. The one stand out is Suzaku, the villain of the final arc, who is not only despicable, but sympathetic in a way because she develops a really compelling relationship with Makoto, almost becoming like a surrogate mother to him. Unfortunately, the main cast outside of Abbie all become genuinely insufferable during the final arc and that's when you realize that they've been self-serving, hypocritical narcissists for the entire series and have been insanely cruel to Makoto for almost no reason, seemingly enjoying his suffering and treating him as a joke throughout the entire series -- literally none of the characters actually call him by his proper name. As a minor spoiler, I think it's really telling that while Makoto is basically in the middle of a mental breakdown after a severely traumatic event, the rest of the cast is at a hot spring having the time of their lives -- it really shows how awful the rest of the cast are, which makes the resolution even more frustrating when none of them actually get what's coming to them in spite of Makoto's really passionate and eloquent rant about why he hates them all. Again, like the story, the characters are great until you realize that everyone but Makoto is a legitimate piece of shit who never gets theirs.

Enjoyment: 7
I think the one takeaway from my review is that it's a really enjoyable show and if you just ignore the final arc, the show's probably like a 9/10. Unfortunately though, you can't just pretend that almost half of the show doesn't exist. Maybe I'm an outlier in terms of how I wanted the ending to play out, but from what I've seen online, I'm not the only person upset with the ending in general. A bad ending can really mar what could have been a great show -- just look at GoT -- and Great Pretender has joined the ranks of other really promising shows that just couldn't follow through in the final stretch. It's the first show in a long time that has genuinely made me feel conflicted after watching it, not sure if it was worth my time or not. I enjoyed it, but I was only able to tolerate the show's absurdity up to a point.

Overall: 6
I was really rooting for this show, and it was genuinely the most fun I've had with anime in a really long time. However, I just can't look past its ending and final arc in general. The writers seemed to through everything fun and compelling about the show out the window in the final arc in favor of a forced tonal shift that they didn't even have the guts to follow through with. I know my other scores average out to about a 7, but I felt that it deserved to be docked another point for the post credits scene, which just felt like a slap in the face after an already flawed and frustrating arc.

Overall tl;dr:
A good show that had a lot of potential, but completely squandered it in the final 9 episodes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 11, 2020

LilToadie

Not Recommended

I have never felt so compelled to write a review about an anime until I watched the end of Great Pretender.

To sum it up, I loved this show until the last arc. I genuinely thought that it would go down as one of my favorites of all time. The art is fantastic--every scene looks like it could be a convincing computer wallpaper, the animation is super fluid, the music and sound design is exceptional. And, until that last arc, the character development and plot seemed just as good. I felt attached to the main cast, invested in their backstories and growth as they worked ... together in elaborate con jobs. The dialogue and pacing was great as well--it struck a delicate balance between funny moments and handling serious topics very well. There seemed to be strong foundations for a fantastic ending to this show.

That's what I thought, at least, until I actually watched that last arc.

I don't think there's really a way to address the problems I have with Great Pretender unless I spoil some things, simply because I truly thought it was amazing up until that last arc. So, if you still are interested in watching it and don't want to read on, a spoiler-free analysis of the show would be that it almost felt like the first 3 arcs and the last arc were from 2 completely different shows. In the last arc characters acted in complete opposite ways as they were built up, plotlines weren't fully developed and, at times, did not seem to make coherent sense, pacing was extremely rushed, and all of the accomplishments and character growth established in the plot of the first 3 arcs seemed to be erased--especially in the last episode.
So, I would recommend to just watch the first 14 episodes, because they're really fantastic. If you do feel some compulsion to continue watching after that (and, if you really like the show, you probably will, since episode 14 doesn't really offer a satisfying conclusion), I would say go ahead, but just keep in mind that you're setting yourself up for disappointment and confusion.

SPOILER REVIEW BEGINS HERE:

I'm going to review the easily most consistently good parts of the show first--briefly, since I don't really think there's much to say other than that they're really good.

ART: 10/10

EASY 10. As I said before, every shot looks like it could be screencapped and used as a photo or computer wallpaper. Animation is very clean, character designs are polished, and the color pallete is bright and creative. I am in love with the art style and direction, as both were inventive and made the anime really stand out.

SOUND: 9/10

I think all of it was great in terms of music--there was a variety of different music styles and variations of the theme that I loved to here recur throughout the show. The ED is fantastic because of course, it's Freddie Mercury, and the OP is really fun and poppy big band, which fits the show perfectly. The only thing I took issue with was the fact that there were often many different languages being spoken in a scene, and it wasn't clear what language people were speaking at times. This was mostly due to the fact that Japanese was established as being the substitute for English in the first episode to make it easier for VAs to actually voice act instead of speaking a foreign language. That distinction began to get muddled when scenarios started happening in Japan, where it became unclear as to who was speaking English vs Japanese since they all audibly were speaking Japanese in the show. It even got more unclear when one of the main characters actually started speaking English audibly, but the rest of the cast continued to speak Japanese while calling it English...it sounds confusing because it is. Overall though, it didn't really interfere with the story, except for in that last arc...but there are definitely bigger problems with that last arc than just weird translations.

And now, for the parts that I feel extremely conflicted about--STORY and CHARACTER. I'm addressing them both at the same time because I feel like it would be impossible to address one without having discussed the other.

STORY and CHARACTER...I have no idea what to rate them. N/A?

I genuinely cannot decide on a number to give the STORY and CHARACTER sections of this show. If I were just discussing the first 3 arcs, my ranking would probably fall within the 9-10 range--again, I really believe it was great. I think the only arguable detriment of that first arc would be the "predictability" of the cons. I personally don't believe that the twists were super predictable, moreso that the predicability came from audience always knew the outcome was always going to be in favor of the main characters, or else it wouldn't feel satisfying. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing though--many shows thrive in the fact that you always know plots will resolve in a satisfying way. The interesting thing about Great Pretender's first 3 cases was not how the case would end, but how the con was handled, and how the plot would change one of the main characters and increase our knowledge of and empathy for them.

Speaking of characters, all were likable and relatable in the first 3 cases. We got to see the backstories and growth from 3 out of the 4 main characters--Edamura, Abbie, and Cynthia. Each of the cases focused on something from their past that drew them to becoming conmen, and how that history related to the con at hand in the current case. Personally, I liked the first case (Edamura's case) the best just because the novelty of the main cast and certain twists in the case, such as Abbie and Laurent "dying" and Cynthia being a conwoman the whole time, were well-executed (however the initial shock of these "deaths" and reveals for the audience is what made them great...boy, it would be a shame to have the writers recycle these plot details again in the last arc...). Each character's traits and personalities are also explored well through the con--Edamura is kind-hearted and honest who is always kept in the dark about details of the con (acting as a lens for the audience to view the plot through), Abbie is rebellious and, to put it simply, a badass, and Cythia is the flirty, quick-witted and quick-tempered woman of the team (she reminded me a lot of Faye from Cowboy Bebop in ways). The only main character who isn't explored is Laurent, the smooth-talking classic conman who recruits Edamura and acts as the de-facto leader of the group. He's still good enough of a character to be likable while also remaining mysterious through these first 3 cases, which says a good deal about the talent of the writers up until episode 15.

Basically, I think the characters and story were pretty solid for the first three cases. I could go on about certain plot details, but what drove me to write this review was my feeling about episodes 15-23 (aka the last arc/case), so let's just get right into that.

The last case focuses on Laurent's past, which is certainly not a bad thing--his backstory is actually pretty interesting, and I thought the way they tied Laurent's connection to Edamura's dad was handled pretty well. I also think episode 15-middle of episode 18 isn't horrendous--Edamura is shown to have compassion for the kids that are being trafficked, and the narrative is showing the toll that being an undercover member of the trafficking company is having on his mental health. He begins smoking in every scene, and, when it comes down to it, forces the kids out of their imprisonment at gunpoint, this scene being harsh but necessary to expand the audience's perspective that Edamura spending a significant amount of time with bad people is wearing down on him, even though his intentions may be good. Judging by these actions, it seems like the plot is going in a direction of focusing on freeing those kids and absolutely destroying Suzaku (the human trafficking organization)...because human trafficking is WRONG. And anyone who participates in it is NOT GOOD. THAT IS THE PRECEDENT THEY ARE SETTING UP FOR THIS ARC. And, given what we know about Edamura so far and his actions in the past arcs, he seems to have a strong moral compass and will often do the right thing even in the face of adversity, even if it's rash or not completely thought-out. It's what makes you root for him, and the way others adapt to these actions during a con is what makes you root for them.

However, things take a turn in the middle of episode 18 that sets the precedent for the rest of the show to plummet into confusion and inconsistency. The part I'm specifically talking about is when Edamura's father appears to have ratted out Edamura, Abbie, and Cynthia to the Shanghai and Suzaku trading companies while they attempted to free the imprisoned trafficked children, and Edamura, Abbie, and Cynthia are all facing seemingly certain death, as they've been taken to a boat and are being held at gunpoint over open water. Before this point, there are some minor red flags that have happened, mainly concerning Edamura's father. In the span of about 1 episode, the audience's perspective of him has flipped from being on the human trafficking side, to him conning the human trafficking side, to him conning Edamura and ultimately working with the trafficking side. It is a lot of side-flipping, which makes it kind of confusing for the audience, but not inherently self-destructive in terms of guiding the show's plot. Another thing to mention is that the leader of the Suzaku company is portrayed as a stern and vicious old woman who has a soft spot for Edamura. This last aspect has not influenced Edamura's actions so far because, like all of the audience, he understands that she is a BAD PERSON. Because she literally buys and sells children. So there should be NO SYMPATHY for her.

What changes everything is when Edamura's father tells Edamura to kill Abbie and Cynthia to gain the respect of the Suzaku lady. When Edamura refuses, he "kills" them himself, which is a big no-no, because there are really only 2 options that this action creates for the audience to believe. The first option is that Cynthia and Abbie really have just died, which feels anticlimactic and disappointing, and, given that there are about 5 episodes left and so much work has been invested into their characters, probably not likely. The second, more believable (and yet somehow worse for the plot) option is that Cynthia and Abbie aren't really dead, and that Edamura's dad is actually working with THEM, not the trading companies (so...4 side flips within a single episode, at this point). This also feels unearned and does not bode well for the rest of the story because 1. they already used the "OMG someone just died!" trick during the first case, and 2. because of the frequent side-flipping, the audience starts to lose trust in the identities that have been established for characters.

It only gets worse from here, though.

The part that seals the deal (at least narratively for me, and seemingly for the rest of the case, given how everything proceeds from this point) is that as soon as Cynthia and Abbie "die," the narrative immediately begins to push this idea that the Suzaku lady (who SELLS CHILDREN) is kind and compassionate. She takes pity on Edamura seconds after the people who she was most likely going to kill were just "killed" by giving Edamura the freedom to decide what he wanted to do with his father, giving him a gun and expressing her sympathy. Everything can still be fixed, though. At this point, the authors could still make it believable that Edamura's father truly is a scumbag who just killed his friends, or they could go the other route (as they did) and make it turn out that he's part of the con, and actually on Edamura's side. All they really had to do was just make sure they represent that Edamura is still exhibiting his traits of compassion and kindheartedness by NOT KILLING HIS DAD, despite everything his dad seems to have done. It's a little cliche, but it would allow the writers to show that, despite everything that Edamura has gone through, he will still make the morally right decision. This is something that has been accentuated in EVERY. SINGLE. CASE.

And yet, they decide to have him just shoot his father in the chest. Which, of course, the audience is less likely to believe, because now we just got 3 sudden main character deaths, and we have the knowledge that they can fake dying.

I think this choice was to accentuate the fact that being in the human trafficking business has taken such a large toll on Edamura, but I think the cost of doing this definitely outweighs the benefits in terms of creating an interesting story. For one, Edamura genuinely believes he is killing his dad in that scene. I don't care if that's just a ruse and his dad is actually fine (which is exactly what happens)--the sentiment behind that action cannot be taken back. If you're going to make such a dramatic move like that, there should be no room for lighthearted reconciliation between Edamura and his dad when everything's said and done (which is exactly what happens).

What I also don't get is the real motive behind Edamura's dad's actions. He lies to his own son on the boat, "kills" Edamura's friends right in front of him (potentially causing trauma for his own son), and for what? Dorothy? While again I'll say I don't really have a problem with the Dorothy-Laurent backstory, I think it doesn't make sense that all the characters, which have been shown to be generally pretty reasonable, would go through so much to essentially just mess with Edamura while getting some kind of revenge for Dorothy. Seriously, why even bring Edamura into it at all if you genuinely want revenge for your dead friend, and why even go through all the trouble to deceive him and incite a possibly permanently broken relationship with your child? This is addressed a little in the end of the show when Edamura is yelling at his dad with the Suzaku katana to his dad's chest (which, by the way, ends in Edamura getting killed...but not really, because, you know, faking your death is a great plot point when you use it 5 times in a row, right?) but the ending seems to show that they were working in kahoots the entire time...so was that even a real argument? The back-and-forth shifting of what "side" Edamura's really on and who he's fighting against from episode 18 onward, undermines all of the character development that was established for him before and makes the narrative feel like it's aiming to be confusing for the sake of being confusing.

What's more frustrating is that the focus of human trafficking being bad is essentially thrown out the window after the "deaths" of Edamura's dad, Abbie, and Cynthia in episode 18. Edamura decides to throw out his conscience and LEGIT work for the Suzaku human trafficking business (which BUYS AND SELLS CHILDREN) because the Suzaku lady seems nice, and it's heavily implied he reminds her of her estranged son, and she reminds him of his mom...which is so messed up for so many reasons. I get that they're trying to humanize the villain, but this humanization is addressed so sloppily after setting this precedent that human trafficking is BAD and anyone who participates in it freely is a BAD PERSON (which is absolutely correct!). This, again, completely subverts the audience's belief that one of the sole aspects of the Edamura's character is that he's compassionate and kindhearted and the fact that he serves as a moral rock for the rest of the conman crew. And yet, the narrative still seems to want you to sympathize with him and the Suzaku lady. Which, not gonna lie, kind of feels like they're asking you to sympathize with human traffickers. I think a good story is capable of making you feel sympathy for anyone (take the Sopranos--the whole show is about making you feel sympathy for a mob boss that commits crimes and ruins lives on a daily basis), but completely changing the ideals of a main character to be sympathetic towards the head of a human trafficking company within the span a of a few episodes, after CLEARLY ESTABLISHING that this company is the ABSOLUTE WORST...that ain't it, chief. That ain't right.

Another thing to mention is that, when they introduced the Dorothy-Laurent plotline, they essentially shifted audience's perspective of the goal of the conmen from being noble (destroying a terrible company that BUYS AND SELLS CHILDREN) to being vengeful (getting revenge for Dorothy). That second goal wouldn't be so bad if it didn't completely overshadow the first, seeming to prioritize the importance of revenge over fighting against human trafficking. The children and the plotline the writers started about them feeling like they'll "never be wanted" is completely forgotten as soon as that Dorothy plotline is introduced--the fate of the children is thrown in as an afterthought in the final minutes of the show. The main conflict at the end of the con isn't about fighting THE BUYING AND SELLING OF ACTUAL CHILDREN--it's about being mad about a friend dying because wow I can't believe someone died while trying to infiltrate a company that BUYS AND SELLS CHILDREN AND HAS NO MORALS. The worst part about this is that it's revealed that Dorothy isn't even dead--she just lost her memories and is just chillin' with an old couple on the beach--which means that the "revenge" plotline holds less weight than it even did before. No, actually, scratch that--the worst part about this is that all they do to get "revenge" (and fight human trafficking, I guess) is put the leaders and a few of the members of the Shanghai and Suzaku trading companies on an island and let them just vibe there. Like BRO you're not even going to get them arrested?! They are either going to die on the island OR they're going to make it back to the mainland, the second option being more likely given that at least one of them probably has a phone and will be able to call for help at some point. Regardless of whether or not they make it back from the island alive, it's guaranteed that BOTH of those trafficking companies will be fine, unless they are so inept that they can't figure out a new leader and are so crippled by the financial sacrifice that both companies seemed pretty okay with making in that deal that was supposed to take place in the final episodes. I think the show doesn't make it clear enough that the company is "ruined," unlike the other cases, where each villain was shown to have lost everything due to the conmen by either getting thrown in jail, losing all their money, or a mix of both.

Speaking of the outcomes of the villains from the last cases...the icing on the salt-filled cake that is the last case of Great Pretender is that it appears that all the people who were established as TERRIBLE people from the previous cases are in on the con. Edamura appears to just happen to have the contacts of all three of the antagonists from the last 3 cases, and he has them help him with the con for reasons that I believe are not fully explained. And these actual criminals, one who one of the main characters (Cynthia) has had a personal vendetta against for about 20 YEARS, are just chilling on the boat, explaining to the audience how they regained their status and were totally content. The main characters don't even seem perturbed by these villains being involved with the con--the most surprising non-reaction is from Cynthia, who I would assume would be livid about someone who took advantage of her and her ex-partner's lives for his own benefit just chilling and gambling on a yacht like nothing happened. This particular development seemed to just erase both the goals of the conmen, which were to bring down bad people (which they clearly failed at or didn't care about, given that the three antagonists they had supposedly "brought" down seemed perfectly happy and content with their lives) and all of the deplorable acts that these antagonists were shown to have engaged in in the previous cases.

In other words, it felt like the show almost betrayed everything that it said it stood for, in terms of dealing with serious topics and actual crime. Judging by the rest of the reviews I've seen submitted here for this show, I think some other people feel similarly to me about this.

That's not to say that all of the parts of this case were completely nonsensical and bad, however. If I am to say anything positive story-wise about case 4, I really thought Abbie was solid the whole way through, even though she had very little screentime. And, except for the last part where she just seems totally okay with that painter fraud guy just chilling on the yacht, I think Cynthia was fine as well--she provided some comic relief when her and the rest of the conmen gang were painting the fake Suzaku building...which I'm not even going to get into how stupid and convoluted that whole idea was, given that I've been writing this for approximately 2 hours straight and my exhaustion with just writing simple sentences is probably showing at this point.

ENJOYMENT (...no number again)

Once again, I don't really know how to rank this section either. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3 cases, I was utterly baffled and disappointed by the last case. I don't know how any of that would translate to a comprehensive score of enjoyment without being completely biased towards my feelings towards either the first three cases or the last case. I will say once again that it really does feel like cases 1-3 were from a completely different show with completely different characters than case 4, so I don't feel like it's appropriate to group them into one score.

OVERALL CONCLUSION (TLDR) (4/10)

4/10 doesn't feel like it's a low OR high enough score when addressing this show. There are so many aspects that I absolutely adored from the first 3 cases that were just obliterated in the last few episodes from a few odd narrative choices that completely subverted the tone and our understanding of key characters. I am astonished by how plotlines were started and then just immediately thrown out and characters were just changed on a whim for shock value, and am just kind of awash in disappointment right now, as I really thought this show was going to go down as one of my favorite anime.

It feels like the last case of Great Pretender was the big reveal of a giant con that ran through the entire show. The first 3 cases served as the deception that Great Pretender was truly going to be (and end) fantastically, with a solid cast of likable characters, a good sense of humor and dialogue, and a coherent plot that would make you wish you could just erase your memory and watch the show again for the first time. And that last case served to show all of us that, like any great con, things that you thought were undeniably true could easily be undermined. If someone were to tell me that I would be ranting about how much I was disappointed and infuriated by the the ending of Great Pretender about a month ago, when I was excitedly waiting for Case 4 to drop after bingeing all 3 of the cases within a few days, I would've laughed. I just wouldn't have expected a show that seemed to exhibit such sensitivity for establishing solid characters and understandable plots to completely throw everything out the window within the last few episodes of a show...and yet, here I am, ignoring the real-life work I should've done 2 hours ago, instead spending my time typing furiously at my keyboard, writing an overly long review that I'll be lucky if one person actually reads through, feeling like I've just been duped.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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