Sherlock once said "I never guess. It is a shocking habit,—destructive to the logical faculty", a quote which any and every viewer of this particular anime should be able to relate... as Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace never will never provide you the time or opportunity to even begin guessing as to how a crime came to occur let alone guess who committed the deed. Unfortunately this mystery anime likely deserves to be tagged as a 'psychological' anime more than it does a mystery anime.
Story: 4/10
This anime annoyed me immensely as I really, and I mean really wanted to like it far more than I do after completing all 11 episodes. In all honesty each case had the potential to have so much depth and when combined with dark undertones in the art and sound I couldn't help but get a little excited.
However, every ounce of suspense and my excitement would suddenly dissipate in each and every episode (note that this anime fits every case into singular episodes with exception to the last case). As quickly as I could find my self getting slightly excited I would find myself being spoon fed an extremely underwhelming 'answer' that had been put together by a slightly haphazard trio in mere seconds. And I use the term 'answer' over 'theory' because every word of their theories would hit the nail so hard on the head that the culprit would just come out and admit everything on the spot without fail.
If it was that easy then why go as far to call it a mystery? Fortunately there is an under-lying plot regarding our prestigious but mundane detective Akechi and a person in his past, which links in well (credit where it's due) to almost every episode that may gain one's attention. But yet again there is hardly any sort of 'detective work' required and almost everything is spoon fed to the viewer. The only beneficial compromise is that the viewer is then able to focus on questioning the morals of the scenario but even with that the entire scenario felt over inflated in terms of it's impact on the world and the people who inhabit it. I was told to expect a mystery anime not a psychology lesson.
Art & sound: 8/10
I place these two together as when combined they were probably the saving graces of this anime.
The OP and ED music for me are perhaps the best of this seasons anime's and for me the most original; the ED especially managed to send a small chill down my spin the first few times I heard it as both of these areas have dark undertones. Refreshingly, there are very few bright colourful parts to this anime as it is instead filled with deep, rich, dark colours and 'mischievous' music which help to create a nice tension and theme for a 'Game of Laplace'. This somehow well crafted theme is most likely what was able to keep me going through all 11 episodes without making a complaint.
(Note: As I would hope from modern standards, I did not notice any drops in quality of animation)
Character: 5/10
The focus is primarily on 3 young boys who if I'm really honest, regretfully do little more than bounce off of each-other and the support cast to help provide a little life to the anime. If one were to look hard enough they may find a shred of depth among them but you might need to enlist Sherlock's help for that. As a result I'm left with very little to describe them with.
1st we have the young super genius, canned coffee drinking detective Akechi. I believe the 'anime' term that would best suit him is 'kuudere' (cold, blunt, cynical but might care slightly some-where with-in). However without providing spoilers and only having 11 over-filled episodes (1-case fitted into each 25min episode) there isn't much else to say unfortunately other than he does see a little bit of character development.
Next we have Kobayashi our bored gender trap (he's male) who finds murder cases and similar things fun. But unfortunately there is almost no attempt what-so-ever to help the viewer understand his unique character...
And finally we have Hashiba who is perhaps the most rational character in this anime... except when it comes to Kobayashi as it would seem Hashiba is ensnared in the gender trap; this helps bring some humor to the anime but again, there isn't much else to say unfortunately.
Enjoyment and overall: 5.5/10
I meant it when I wanted to like this anime, I really did. It brought a change of pace from the multi-coloured hair and everyone lives happily every after in a world full of big boobed girls anime that have come to swarm the anime industry in recent years. The art and music got me excited for a mystery or two with depth, and I might still download the OP and ED. BUT for me, with much remorse, Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace falls painfully short of the mark. All that was needed was to make it necessary for the characters to actually spend some time solving and struggle slightly with the cases..*sigh*-If only...
