~{Story}~
The story is about a professor, Saikawa, and his mentor’s daughter, Nishinosono, travel to an island to meet Magata, an intelligent programmer and an idol to Saikawa. When the two get there, they find out Magata has been murdered. The plot revolves around the two trying to solve the problem, with sprinkles of Magata’s past being thrown around here and there. For a mystery anime to be any good, it must present a good storyline and this anime doesn’t disappoint. Though at times, it can be predictable for some, the buildup for its plot twists make the delivery great. The ending was very satisfying, especially after many episodes of buildup before it. But here is the problem, the anime heavily relies on buildup plot points to the point where the audience lose interest. The anime’s pacing, which I will talk about more later, is unfortunately very slow, as many episodes progress the story pinch-by-pinch. And as a dialogue-heavy anime, many of its dialogue rarely move the storyline and it feels like as if the writing is stalling with the audience. However, undeniably the anime still presents a very interesting storyline and at times it can get you at the edge of your seats.
Story: 8/10
~{Presentation}~
As a mystery anime, the style of the anime does create a unique feel to it. Its cinematography style gives the anime a very cinematic feel which makes this anime better than what it is. However, as I mentioned before, the pacing is a massive drag at some points. You will watch some episodes, only to know the plot has moved barely an inch. Characters can talk for ten minutes, but only one is builds up the plot and two adds some character development. With the cinematic style of the anime, I couldn’t help but think how much better this anime would have been better if it was a two-hour long anime film rather than a series. The pacing would have been much more improved and it would feel more interesting for the audience. For a mystery, it is important to have a good pace to it. If it’s too fast, the suspense buildup won’t be there. If it’s too slow, it’s will start to break apart and feel less and less interesting. The Perfect Insider falls in the latter. However, its style does redeem it presentation by a bit.
Presentation: 6/10
~{Character}~
The anime consists of three main characters, and the story revolves around their relationship with one another and how compatible they are together. The protagonist of the anime, Saikawa Souhei, is a very interesting character, as he is shown as times as a genius, and other times lost. His interactions with another main character, Nishinosono Moe, is fairly interesting, as most of the anime consists of conversations between the two. If both characters were uninteresting and dumb, the anime would have felt like a terrible drag, but luckily if manages to have great characters. Nishinosono at first felt like a dumb addition to the cast, however she quickly proved that her deductive and observation skills are top-notch, and at times, better than Saikawa. The anime’s third main character, Magata Shiki, is what makes this anime better than what it already is. She’s creepy, she’s mysterious, and she’s the one who leaves more questions unanswered than answered. Throughout the series, there’s sprinkles of her backstory here and there and they all manage to build up tension. This anime does have a sort of love triangle situation in some ways, but it’s too unique to be considered as one.
Character: 8/10
~{Art}~,
As it is an A-1 Pictures anime, one can expect a lot to be delivered from here, and they didn’t disappoint. The art style however is far different from what they normally use. At first you will notice that the color palette is very limited, as every color has a greyish tint to it. This adds for a subtle, mysterious style for the anime and manages to make the situations feel more and more tense. And as most of the anime takes place in a facility, you’ll be seeing the color grey quite a lot. The backgrounds are very well detailed at times, and some of the more strange settings look great with their color palette. Character designs are also quite unique. Their facial structure has some depth shown, such as their eyes being more inside their face, and their skin color having a greyish tint to it. The art style helps in adding more to its mystery genre, and it make it stand out more than the rest of the other anime in the lineup.
Art: 8/10
~{Animation}~
Animation quality is also top-notch, which is to be expected from A-1 pictures. The animations are fluid and very organized. And the animations have a realistic feel to it, just like it’s art style, therefore the two perfectly blend together to create a unique presentation. As a more of a different anime for A-1 Pictures to do, they managers to be consistently good with the animation quality of this anime. Though some of the CG usage can feel weird at times, specifically at the movement of vehicles, but overall it isn’t anything too bad. Also it’s rotoscoped OP is pretty cool, as rotoscoping was done properly there.
Animation: 8/10
~{Voice Acting}~
The main cast of the anime is voice acted by, well, pretty unknown seiyuu. Kase Yasuyuki does Saikawa well, even though he is unexperienced with doing main character roles. However he is able to give a more mature feel to Saikawa pretty effectively. Tanezaki Atsumi does Nishinosono pretty well to, and gives the character a decent range of tone depending on the situation. At first I thought Hanazawa Kana did Nishinosono, because Tanezaki does almost just like her in this anime. Kido Ibuki does Magata Shiki, which happens to be a totally unique role for her as she mostly did jolly type of characters. She manages to do well with Magata, giving the character a solemn and mysterious tone, and bring the character to life. Some popular seiyuu such as Horie Yui and Hikasa Yoko also have a role in this anime, but it’s barely there to notice that they were part of it at all. Overall, the main cast does a decent job with the voice acting.
Voice Acting: 7.5/10
~{Music}~
The opening of this anime really reminds me of Death Parade, because the tone of the OP is different from the tone of the anime. The OP “talking” is quite catchy and ended up being one of my favorite OP of the season. And the rotoscoped presentation of the OP really looks good. The Ending is really good to, and I’m not quite sure if it’s matches the tone of the anime or not. The ED “Nana Hitsuji” is really good to listen too. However the overall OST and background music is okay. The background music rarely adds to the suspense of the anime, if it’s there that is. For most of the time, the anime lacks background music. At times it works, at time it doesn’t, especially when some scenes crave for some background music to add suspense. Even if the OST is a mixed bad, at least the OP and ED is fantastic.
Music: 7/10
~{Enjoyment}~
The anime would have been a lot better if the pacing was better. Most of the episodes, I started losing interest, and It made me check the time over and over again. And some of the dialogue in the anime is there just for the sake of dragging this anime, rather than actually adding something. However this is such a shame, especially since the plot and characters are great, and those the major reasons why the anime can still be considered good. If only the pacing would have been better, this anime could have been so, so, so much more. This would have worked more if this was a movie rather than a series.
Enjoyment: 6/10
In the end The Perfect Insider is worth checking out for its story and characters and it’s delivery in suspense and mystery. The pacing and some unnecessary pacing does pull the anime down to a place where it doesn’t deserve to be. Its lack of background music at times also is disappointing as background music in a mystery anime can do a lot more to the content. It’s sad to such great content be pulled down by some major flaws, but in the end, The Perfect Insider has some great plus points that makes it a good anime.
+ Great plot and storyline and plot twists feel just right.
+ Interesting cast of characters and their interactions with one another is top-notch.
+ Unique art style and animation.
+ The OP and ED are great.
- Terrible pacing at times with some dialogues leading up to nowhere.
- Lack of background music at times and OST isn’t anything special.
Overall: 7.3/10
