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

Fukagawa, Ikumi Assistant Producer

Reviews

May 8, 2024

jus7aguy

Recommended

Initial impression after 3 episodes, then a further impression at the end. This is so if your initial does not mesh similarly with mine and you don't like it, you should stop. But if you do mesh and are unsure if you should continue, you can make an informed decision.

I don't understand why I'm liking this.
I was initially pissed off at it. It opens with a "quote" from Voltaire that he never actually said. (It was a forward comment written by the person who did a compilation of his stuff I believe, and then was mis-attributed to him and "went viral" as ... it were). It has an over-the-top animation style and dramatic posing, the Crunchyroll Subs I watched seemed to be missing bits from time to time too in the first few episodes. However there is some sort of draw to the show. It sucks you in and it's over-the-top drama style starts to be appealing in a naïve sort of way, if that's even a thing.

It hints at much deeper goings on than what appear on the surface, and the characters may be surprisingly more developed than the surface shows.

This show has everything that should irritate me, but it doesn't. It shows little that should draw me in, but it does.

At 3 episodes in I am starting to look forward to where this takes me.

Edit once finished:
Okay it was a fun ride. It went a few places and the world feels like it could go many more. There's several threads that could be pulled for further content, but it also has a full arc of character development in an appropriate direction to finish it off. Over-all I enjoyed the story/show but it may not be for everyone. Probably best watched 2-3 episodes at a time, as most of the individual stories are 2 episodes long with the last being a 3-episode arc.
Enjoy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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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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	Poll: Bishounen Tanteidan Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) KANLen09 - Apr 10, 2021	115 replies	by PhaatStakz »» Nov 20, 8:44 PM
	Poll: Bishounen Tanteidan Episode 12 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 26, 2021	46 replies	by iridi »» Jul 20, 6:36 PM
	Poll: Bishounen Tanteidan Episode 11 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 19, 2021	21 replies	by SuperAdventure »» Jul 18, 6:00 PM
	Poll: Bishounen Tanteidan Episode 9 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 5, 2021	15 replies	by SuperAdventure »» Jul 18, 5:22 PM
	Poll: Bishounen Tanteidan Episode 3 Discussion KANLen09 - Apr 24, 2021	41 replies	by SuperAdventure »» Jul 14, 5:16 PM