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jennariaWoodpecker Detective's Office - 2020, available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: 1 episode
Official description: It is the end of the Meiji Era. The genius poet Ishikawa Takuboku, who’s struggling financially, starts a detective business out of his lodging in response to a certain murder case. He calls it the Woodpecker Detective’s Office. "The ghosts of the Twelve-Story Tower in Asakusa," "the man-eating figure who wanders the streets on snowy nights"... Takuboku involves himself in one bizarre case after another with his hometown acquaintance, Kindaichi Kyosuke, as his assistant.
Weeb rating: 9 out of 10. My impression is that anything set in Japan during the Meiji Era carries about the same amount of cultural implications and baggage as something set in Britain during the Victorian Era, or set in the US during the Roaring Twenties. Kindaichi Kyosuke is an Actual Historical Person from that era (and just for fun confusion, Kindaichi Kosuke is a famous-but-fictional detective from just a little later, which I only know because I love Golden Age Japanese murder mysteries). And Takuboku Ishikawa is also an Actual Historical Person, who writes tanko poems both in the show and in RL. ...look, anything where I have to hit up Wikipedia three or four times just to write up this commentary is, by definition, high Weeb.
Ass rating: 5 out of 10. The murder in the first episode takes place in a "teahouse" - and yes, those quotation marks are absolutely intentional. Ishikawa finds the body by wandering down a hallway and opening every single door, to the reveal of lots of naked bodies and implied sex. To be fair, it is confined to a single scene, and it's played more for 'ha ha, that Ishikawa, he just doesn't care about societal taboos' than real salaciousness, but still.
Shit rating: 7 out of 10, although I admit this is hard to judge. Ishikawa clears one suspect of murder charges, but doesn't find the actual murderer. Is this setting up a season-long arc? Is it because the character doesn't care? Is it careless writing? For the moment, I'm going to downgrade it, because regardless of the handling of the mystery, the first episode suffers from the Dreaded Six Words - I don't care about these characters.
Violence rating: 3 out of 10, because dead body and blood. Still surprisingly low for a murder mystery!
Crack rating: 2 out of 10. Aside from the crack inherent in 'hey, let's make these historical characters into detectives,' it's not nearly as bad as, say, Detective Conan.
Actual opinion: Maybe if I knew more about the Meiji era, I'd care more, or at least the historical charm would impress me more. As it stands, I have the grumpy feeling that I'm supposed to be charmed and impressed by Ishikawa - lord knows Kindaichi is - but I'm just not. He's an asshat, and I don't find him nearly as clever as the show seems to. I'm not giving it a second chance. Out of my queue it comes.
Next week: a pair of Very Tiny Series, Bananya and Room Camp
Amount watched: 1 episode
Official description: It is the end of the Meiji Era. The genius poet Ishikawa Takuboku, who’s struggling financially, starts a detective business out of his lodging in response to a certain murder case. He calls it the Woodpecker Detective’s Office. "The ghosts of the Twelve-Story Tower in Asakusa," "the man-eating figure who wanders the streets on snowy nights"... Takuboku involves himself in one bizarre case after another with his hometown acquaintance, Kindaichi Kyosuke, as his assistant.
Weeb rating: 9 out of 10. My impression is that anything set in Japan during the Meiji Era carries about the same amount of cultural implications and baggage as something set in Britain during the Victorian Era, or set in the US during the Roaring Twenties. Kindaichi Kyosuke is an Actual Historical Person from that era (and just for fun confusion, Kindaichi Kosuke is a famous-but-fictional detective from just a little later, which I only know because I love Golden Age Japanese murder mysteries). And Takuboku Ishikawa is also an Actual Historical Person, who writes tanko poems both in the show and in RL. ...look, anything where I have to hit up Wikipedia three or four times just to write up this commentary is, by definition, high Weeb.
Ass rating: 5 out of 10. The murder in the first episode takes place in a "teahouse" - and yes, those quotation marks are absolutely intentional. Ishikawa finds the body by wandering down a hallway and opening every single door, to the reveal of lots of naked bodies and implied sex. To be fair, it is confined to a single scene, and it's played more for 'ha ha, that Ishikawa, he just doesn't care about societal taboos' than real salaciousness, but still.
Shit rating: 7 out of 10, although I admit this is hard to judge. Ishikawa clears one suspect of murder charges, but doesn't find the actual murderer. Is this setting up a season-long arc? Is it because the character doesn't care? Is it careless writing? For the moment, I'm going to downgrade it, because regardless of the handling of the mystery, the first episode suffers from the Dreaded Six Words - I don't care about these characters.
Violence rating: 3 out of 10, because dead body and blood. Still surprisingly low for a murder mystery!
Crack rating: 2 out of 10. Aside from the crack inherent in 'hey, let's make these historical characters into detectives,' it's not nearly as bad as, say, Detective Conan.
Actual opinion: Maybe if I knew more about the Meiji era, I'd care more, or at least the historical charm would impress me more. As it stands, I have the grumpy feeling that I'm supposed to be charmed and impressed by Ishikawa - lord knows Kindaichi is - but I'm just not. He's an asshat, and I don't find him nearly as clever as the show seems to. I'm not giving it a second chance. Out of my queue it comes.
Next week: a pair of Very Tiny Series, Bananya and Room Camp