Saturday Review #9
Oct. 11th, 2010 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaSTEAM DETECTIVES (Kaiketsu Jouki Tanteidan)
Cover copy (borrowed from Anime News Network): The scene is Steam City, a London-ish city which represents an entire civilization run by coal and steam power. Because of steam, the city is sometimes covered in a mist. Villains take advantage of the steamy mist to hide and execute their evil plans. Only a few dare venture into what's beyond the steamy mist. They are known as the Steam Detectives: Narutaki (and his convertible all-purpose pistol), his nurse-assistant Lingling, and his Megamaton robot Gohliki.
There's something already wrong with this picture - namely the 'steamy mist'. They're going for the kind of fog that Victorian London was so famous for, even to the acknowledged dependence on coal - except that the reason for those thick fogs wasn't because of the steam, but because of the coal-smoke. Instead, we have this magically cleaned up fog that's supposedly based on steam...which should be hot, shouldn't it? Except that mist depends on the ground being warmer than the air, doesn't it?
This is about where my knowledge of weather patterns and fog creation gives out, but it's still extremely distracting. I'm supposed to be wrapped up in giant robots! stealing from banks! and instead I'm all over here 'but the fog doesn't make sense - maybe they cleaned the coal smoke somehow?' Pfft. Anyway.
So anyway! Yes, giant robots, which look pretty much like your standard anime giant robots -- well, okay, more on the bulbous side of things than the blocky side of things, these definitely ain't no Gundams. Narutaki's pet giant robot even appears to have something like AI, possibly so it can stand in for the usual strong-but-stupid sidekick type in shonen shows. There's nothing particularly steampunk-ish about them, though, which seems like a lost opportunity: if you're setting this up as a world run on steam, and then giving us giant robots, then clearly the giant robots are also run on steam, yes? Except that at one point the hero figures out that the bad robot is being directed by remote control! Which...how are they powering the remote control? Steam powering electricity powering...charging up batteries, maybe? Are the robots themselves running on batteries of some kind? They don't emit steam or coal-smoke... And I'll stop there, as I have the horrible suspicion that I've already put more thought into the worldbuilding than the creator of this show did.
He might've been able to get away with it, if the characters were interesting enough. They're not. There's Narutaki, the Genius Boy Detective, with no explanation given for why he's allowed to run around detecting and definitely not enough charisma for me to care; Ling-ling, the girl/sidekick/love interest, who is dressed as a nurse (either because she's employed by our hero as such or just for straight-up fetish fuel); the old butler who's become standard issue to all Bruce Wayne wanna-bes; the stupid pseudo-Lestrade policeman; the more intelligent older policeman who for some reason gets ignored... All right, that last is less common. But really, if you've seen much of any Japanese detective shows, you can practically say the lines with the characters. It was boring.
To add insult to injury, it wasn't even visually interesting to compensate. With the given set-up, I was anticipating Japanese steampunk, or at least a Japanese attempt at Western steampunk, given the comparisons to London. Alas, no: the general look was Generic Late 90s Anime, with gratuitously spiky hair, trenchcoats, and big enough boobs on the women to make me blink a bit (not beyond the bounds of a kid's show, but that's due to the necklines rather than the boobs themselves - those were edging into anatomically implausible). It doesn't look bad, it just completely failed to live up to the possibilities inherent in its concept.
ANN's review claims, "There's plenty in here to keep any serious mystery junkie happy for a long time." This mystery junkie disagrees. Even if you enjoy mysteries, this series is one to give a pass.
Cover copy (borrowed from Anime News Network): The scene is Steam City, a London-ish city which represents an entire civilization run by coal and steam power. Because of steam, the city is sometimes covered in a mist. Villains take advantage of the steamy mist to hide and execute their evil plans. Only a few dare venture into what's beyond the steamy mist. They are known as the Steam Detectives: Narutaki (and his convertible all-purpose pistol), his nurse-assistant Lingling, and his Megamaton robot Gohliki.
There's something already wrong with this picture - namely the 'steamy mist'. They're going for the kind of fog that Victorian London was so famous for, even to the acknowledged dependence on coal - except that the reason for those thick fogs wasn't because of the steam, but because of the coal-smoke. Instead, we have this magically cleaned up fog that's supposedly based on steam...which should be hot, shouldn't it? Except that mist depends on the ground being warmer than the air, doesn't it?
This is about where my knowledge of weather patterns and fog creation gives out, but it's still extremely distracting. I'm supposed to be wrapped up in giant robots! stealing from banks! and instead I'm all over here 'but the fog doesn't make sense - maybe they cleaned the coal smoke somehow?' Pfft. Anyway.
So anyway! Yes, giant robots, which look pretty much like your standard anime giant robots -- well, okay, more on the bulbous side of things than the blocky side of things, these definitely ain't no Gundams. Narutaki's pet giant robot even appears to have something like AI, possibly so it can stand in for the usual strong-but-stupid sidekick type in shonen shows. There's nothing particularly steampunk-ish about them, though, which seems like a lost opportunity: if you're setting this up as a world run on steam, and then giving us giant robots, then clearly the giant robots are also run on steam, yes? Except that at one point the hero figures out that the bad robot is being directed by remote control! Which...how are they powering the remote control? Steam powering electricity powering...charging up batteries, maybe? Are the robots themselves running on batteries of some kind? They don't emit steam or coal-smoke... And I'll stop there, as I have the horrible suspicion that I've already put more thought into the worldbuilding than the creator of this show did.
He might've been able to get away with it, if the characters were interesting enough. They're not. There's Narutaki, the Genius Boy Detective, with no explanation given for why he's allowed to run around detecting and definitely not enough charisma for me to care; Ling-ling, the girl/sidekick/love interest, who is dressed as a nurse (either because she's employed by our hero as such or just for straight-up fetish fuel); the old butler who's become standard issue to all Bruce Wayne wanna-bes; the stupid pseudo-Lestrade policeman; the more intelligent older policeman who for some reason gets ignored... All right, that last is less common. But really, if you've seen much of any Japanese detective shows, you can practically say the lines with the characters. It was boring.
To add insult to injury, it wasn't even visually interesting to compensate. With the given set-up, I was anticipating Japanese steampunk, or at least a Japanese attempt at Western steampunk, given the comparisons to London. Alas, no: the general look was Generic Late 90s Anime, with gratuitously spiky hair, trenchcoats, and big enough boobs on the women to make me blink a bit (not beyond the bounds of a kid's show, but that's due to the necklines rather than the boobs themselves - those were edging into anatomically implausible). It doesn't look bad, it just completely failed to live up to the possibilities inherent in its concept.
ANN's review claims, "There's plenty in here to keep any serious mystery junkie happy for a long time." This mystery junkie disagrees. Even if you enjoy mysteries, this series is one to give a pass.