Story: 3/10
If there's one thing that Ranpo Kitan's story had in common with a regular story, is that I felt a sense of exhilaration when I finished it. This exhilaration is, of course, less because of excitement that I finished a story, but more because of gratitude that I finished this story. The plot is paper-thin, with the script writers probably just looking up "really really cruel deaths" on Google and thinking of a real life situation where that could happen. They then had to think of some extremely weird and convoluted way that those deaths would happen, while the main characters are somehow so enlightened in the art of investigation that they can come to a logical conclusion through threads of evidence that don't even tie together. Why this show even bothers trying to be all mysterious is the mystery element, as after the second episode, the ending is usually right in front of the viewer's face as the genius detectives do it again! By somehow tapping into the element of luck itself and hope that their theory, based off of nothing other than logical fallacies and insufficient evidence, works out in the end, which usually results in a confession from the murderer. It's like clockwork, if the clockwork squeaked really loudly and should probably get fixed since it gets more and more annoying at time goes on. The only reason this section is not a 2 or 3 is because of episode 4, but more on that in the Character section.
Art: 6/10
I really do wonder if the character designers are full of people who unironically say "the dick makes it better" when mentioning feminine-looking characters, because that is the main character. Yoshio Kobayashi looks like someone you pull out of a trap doujin and stick clothes on him. And if that's not enough, he apparently has a fetish for crossdressing, so there's an abundant amount of scenes where you have this "boy" dressed up in a frilly dress, with an abundant amount of ass shots for some odd reason. Other than this very glaring detail, the art style is nothing impressive, but nothing lackluster. The opening is the only part where I can see any kind of artistic freedom being taken, as the animated characters are interposed between real-life movies. The bondage play in the opening is also well-designed and well-drawn. It also says something about the show when the opening is the best animated out of the entire series.
Sound: 8/10
I will admit that the opening is the only reason why sound is rated so high, as amazarashi is a personal favorite and I wish they would do more openings and endings for different shows. Other than that, there's nothing really impressive about the soundtrack, and nothing stands out or misses its mark.
Character: 2/10
Ranpo Kitan is probably one of the only shows I've watched that I wanted the villain to win just to see the MCs die horribly painful deaths because the sheer amount of annoyance and anger that I feel because of them. We have Kogorou Akechi, the boy genius detective who can solve any crime by bullshitting a route of thought and twisting reality so that that route of thought is exactly how the villain thinks, and the villain gets caught. He is apparently so smart, that he doesn't even view other people as humans, but mere shadows on the horizon, uninteresting and bland (quite the parallel to this show). And by Kogorou Akechi I meant Yoshio Kobayashi, since they're literally the same character, except Yoshio is trap bait. In comes Souji Hashiba, the closet homosexual who knows that his best friend is a guy, but is still attracted to his overly-feminine body. But is liking traps really gay? That's a discussion for another time. And so goes the list of characters that I can't remember the names of because they were so generic that I shuffled them into the crowd of people that don't matter. At least one notable exception to these pathetic attempts at character creation is Tokiko Kagami, Keisuke Kagami's little sister. True to her archetype, she is innocent, kind, sweet, caring, and everything you would hope for in a bright and cheerful college-bound girl. When I saw her in episode 4, I immediately felt refreshed, as she, even being a generic archetypal character, is like the first flower blossoming after harsh and snowy winter. I also immediately knew where this episode was going, but that's besides the point. Overall, character is the least qualified category in Ranpo Kitan, although I do realize that that may not mean much.
Overall: 5/10
The lack of intelligent character design, the lack of intelligent investigation, the prevalence of the Marty Stu, and the lack of mystery in a mystery show makes Ranpo Kitan one of the worst ideas to come out of the otherwise decent studio of Lerche. Uninspired and sometimes downright disgusting character design kills any hope of redemption that the show may have from crawling out of its pit of overused archetypes and overpowered MCs. The only thing that saved this show from being a 4/10 is the existence of episode 4, where the show actually made me feel emotions besides mild annoyance and general distaste. If you are still interested to see what possible good can come of this show, just watch a portion of episode 3 and then episode 4. Trust me. It's as good as its gonna get here, so just sit back and eat your anime-watching snacks with a look of slight disgust on your face as you realize that perhaps the show is ruining the snacks this time, instead of the other way around.
