Bishounen Tanteidan

Mayumi Doujima promises her parents that she will give up on her dreams of becoming an astronaut on her 14th birthday if she cannot find a star she once saw long ago. Overhearing her troubles, the eccentric Manabu Soutouin offers to help her search for the star alongside the rest of Yubiwa Academy's mysterious Pretty Boy Detective Club, whose rules are as follows: "Be pretty, be a boy, and be a detective!"

However, Mayumi is unique—she can see many things that ordinary people cannot. Her eyesight allows her to see the tiniest of details, from people approaching her at a distance to hidden traps that would otherwise go undetected. When the search for the lost star begins to sour, the Pretty Boy Detective Club end up entangled in something far beyond what they ever imagined.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Doujima, Mayumi Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Yubiwa, Sousaku Main

Satou, Gen Japanese

Fukuroi, Michiru Main

Masuda, Toshiki Japanese

Soutouin, Manabu Main

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Ashikaga, Hyouta Main

Yano, Shougo Japanese

Sakiguchi, Nagahiro Main

Ban, Taito Japanese

Fudatsuki, Lai Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Rei Supporting

Nanami, Hiroki Japanese

Naganawa, Wana Supporting

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Bunny Girl Supporting

Chisuga, Haruka Japanese

Ishikawa, Tatsuya Producer

Itou, Youhei Producer

Miura, Fumi Assistant Producer

Oota, Shinya Assistant Producer

Reviews

Dec 13, 2024

ComprehensiveDog

Recommended

Many children around me seem to find growing up a virtue, and often desire to reach adulthood more quickly. However, just as there are some benefits to be gained by becoming and adult, there are also qualities that are lost when we let go of our sense of childlike wonder. This bring us to Pretty Boy Detective Club, a show about a 14 year old girl who is told that she must face reality, something all children are eventually told. On the night where she supposedly has to become an adult, she meets the members of the Pretty Boy detective club. Events transpire, and while ... she still has to give up on her childhood dream, she discovers that giving up on something does not mean giving up altogether, and she finds it within herself to dream again. Every arc that follows is thematically similar, a journey of self discovery and growth not in spite of, but with the help of childish optimism and imagination. In fact I was so enamoured by the first 2 episodes that I immediately went and bought all the light novels that were available in english.

Detractors are often looking for more grounded writing and logical puzzles, and when solutions to the mysteries does not feel satisfactory, they use it has a criticism of the show. They are missing the point. The main appeal of the mysteries was never about finding the most plausible solution; rather it was to revel in "child's play" and also to serve as metaphors for the thematic core of each arc, similar to the Monogatari series. Like Monogatari, the beauty of NisioIsin's writing allows seemingly mundane mysteries to generate philosophical questions, and such is the construction the story arcs that while your attention is directed toward solving the mystery, you do not realise how they are all interlinked with one another until the very end. As with the Monogatari series, SHAFT is behind it with Akiyuki Shinbou as the chief director of the series, and it shows. The shot composition and general direction of the show underlines and enhances the dialogue heavy storytelling, and the artistic stills and sudden but welcome shifts in art style serve certainly kept me constantly engaged and there were many instances when I was just left agape at the sheer beauty of it all. The sequence at the start of episode 8, or the entirety of episode 12 really shows that SHAFT went above and beyond for this adaptation. Seriously, I can unequivocally say that this show has the background art out of everything in their catalogue. Another element of the Monogatari series the show borrows is veteran voice actor Maaya Sakamoto, who was showed her immense talent voicing Shinobu Oshino and is able to bring out Mayumi's sarcasm and humour so that we never fail to be ceaselessly entertained by her monologues. (As with most of NisioIsin’s novels, not all running jokes and wordplay translated into the anime). If I do have one criticism of the show, it is that the cast outside of Mayumi (especially Hyota) felt underdeveloped and the show would have benefited from adapting more novels in more episodes, but then again I doubt we would have gotten such an astonishing production if SHAFT had decided to do that.

As we progress through each arc, Mayumi with all her strengths and insecurities are revealed to us, and at the same time she slowly becomes more confident and accepting of herself. The series also hints that each member of the club have something they want to hold onto as a boy and it is from there that we get a glimpse of why such a club was ever formed. For my money, the last arc is the best of the 5 arcs that are adapted. It is during this final arc that the stakes are high enough to threaten the very foundation of the Pretty Boy detective club. What is the solution? It is something so amazing yet so obvious in hindsight that I will leave you to find out for yourself.

Unlike many others around me, I was terrified of growing up, scared of turning cynical and world weary like many of the grownups I see. This show came to me at the point of my life when I needed it, and told me that is it it okay to grow up, and still be childish every once in a while. In fact even in adulthood, it is vital that we do not give up on the beautiful qualities we possess as a child. As Manabu would say, being a boy is not a matter of age, but a matter of attitude.

In short, Pretty Boy detective club leaves all of us with a reminder that young or old, we need to stay in touch with our inner child and treasure our everyday, such that we never lose sight of who we are. The show is not just wonderful to behold, it is also a beautiful experience

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 19, 2024

SuperAdventure

Mixed Feelings

It's been a while since I watched a Shaft anime. DO YOU like black and white stripes? Or black and white tile? Do you like 2D collage backgrounds in eye-gouging gumball colors?
Is a school that looks like the inside of Versailles Palace when Marie Antoinette lived there your idea of good taste?

Do you prefer prettyboys over girls in your anime? If you answered yes to ALL of those questions this is for you. If not, you'll be disappointed.

Shaft is known for a certain, uh, STYLE. IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'D CALL QUIET!!! It's LOUD. It assaults your eyeballs.
The designs of the characters are really sharp, all ... of them look great- although the primary color coding seemed a bit hokey. My favorite was Hyouta, who wears a shorts uniform and well I design nearly all of my own characters with bare legs or shorts that short nearly always, and it's probably the most liberating style I've seen an anime boy wearing in forever so, But all the characters were likable.
The main is actually a girl named Mayumi who wants to join their 'totally secret' not-a-formal-club that has its staff room that looks like another room out of Versailles, she has a special ability that her eyes can see things other people can't. The other boys all have some kind of ability but honestly they seem more like the same old archetypes you see in any anime: The Quiet One, The Cooking One, The Cute One, The Tall & Mysterious One, The Fearless Leader.... you can probably guess their hair colors based on those tropes. And their personalities are just as 2D as the backgrounds- but I get they're supposed to be. This isn't meant to be deep or to break any ground with great animation. There's hardly ANY animation actually, it seems to stay still a lot, and just throws these blaring bright colors at you and every scene looks like you're having an acid trip.
The story... well it started off really strong; there's a mystery about a star Mayumi once saw but can't find again, one where they go to a secret casino that's like a speakeasy (my favorite), but those were the high point- from there it really got kinda boring. They investigate some paintings (all within the school), then some loli shows up and they try to figure her out, and the final arc is terrible. I hated the last few episodes, and it dragged down my rating- I was leaning toward a 6 but should give it credit for the first half being solid and it's cute and fun and different I guess your mileage may vary...

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 3, 2024

Curlybrace101

Not Recommended

One common argument made in favor of Pretty Boy Detective Club is that, because it is by the author of the Monogatari series, one must be a Monogatari fan to enjoy it. For two reasons, that's bullshit:

1) One should not have to enjoy a completely unrelated work of fiction to enjoy something.
2) Whether you are a Monogatari fan or not does not change the fact that the plot of this show is absolute nonsense.

I cannot express to you how much this anime lacks any amount of reason or sense. Don't get me wrong, I am very good at suspending my disbelief, and a lot of ... my favorite anime are the stereotypical "confusing" anime (Lain, Utena, Baccano!, etc), and not even that can save this show for me. The plot is just one random, absurd, and unrelated event after the next without any reason for any of them to be happening or any logical pathing to get us from point a to point b. Things just kind of happen. Once you think you're on track, something comes so far out of left field it has you baffled by how random it is, because there was no build up to its insanity or reason for it to happen.

The characters leave little to be desired as well. They're all middle schoolers, which...fine, whatever. That's not the problem. It's a bit ridiculous, but I can suspend my disbelief enough for that. The problem is that they're all boring, one-note, annoying, or confusing.

One of the main characters has nothing going on outside of showing off his sexy legs. He's 12. Another character is in an arranged marriage with a first grader so we get treated to jokes about him being a lolicon. Wow, this is so funny. Someone get the writer of this a late night show.

The main character is a girl crossdressing as a boy to join the club, which is...fine, I guess, but they never treat her like she's a boy nor is she really putting on an act for anyone outside the club (not to mention the male lead frequently crossdressing as a girl for no reason that actually holds up or makes sense) so I really don't get what the point is. And when it comes to her actual character...well, I'm not going to spoil it, but it's just bizarre. The male lead is...honestly too young——he's in elementary school——and exists to just do random things and act very smart in an attempt to make the show come off as smart. Spoiler alert: neither are actually smart.

There are two other characters I haven't mentioned but they're also pretty one-note and not worth mentioning. One's an artist and the other cooks.

It's just 12 episodes of nonsensical bullshit that thinks it's smart when in reality it's just saying random things and acting like they connect.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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