Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace

So the summer anime season is coming to a close and as we prepare for the Fall to simultaneously disappoint us and blow our minds, let’s start looking back at how awful these last three months have been. And what better way to start than to beat up a shitty noitamina anime? I’m actually kind of surprised Ranpo Kitan was amongst the first of this season’s crop to have an ending. Okay, it started on the first week of releases rather than wait until everything is out like noitamina anime usually do, but I assumed it was just 12 episodes like the other two offerings for the timeslot this year and that it anticipated that weekly delay that practically every show went through this season. But no, it’s the standard 11 episodes, which is a blessing in disguise because A) it ends quicker B) I get something to review and nothing says catharsis more than beating up a show no one in their right mind would defend. Yes, I’m sorry to say that unless A-1 somehow churns out a worse mystery anime next season - and I know it’s A-1, but this series is just sad - Ranpo is easily the least interesting of noitamina’s offerings in 2015. Punch Line had a decent story that was let down by execution issues and some people seem to like Saekano in all its poorly animated, stakes-less ugliness for some reason, but at least they promoted discussion. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone other than masochistic mystery buffs who made it past the first two episodes of Ranpo Kitan, mainly because it was directed by a hack who makes Akiyuki Shinbo look like David Fincher. Where exactly are these fans who still support Seiji Kishi enough to have him continue with this thing we humans call a career? Yes I know he’s always adapting really popular stuff due to whatever connections he’s got, but after a while, you’d think people would catch on and realize that Devil Survivor 2 will be more the rule rather than the exception. And more to the point, who was it that approved of him to adapt the works of Edogawa Ranpo in the first place? Who even owns the rights to the property these days? Because after watching this tripe, I think we’re going to need a change of hands to someone who can actually say no as well as some psychological counseling towards the original guy after he experiences the thing for himself. This is where I usually describe the plot of this show, but I honestly don’t know what to say because it’s just too fragmented and lifeless to put in coherent words whilst being way too dependent on the characters. I mean you’ve got this downbeat detective out for justice. You’ve got this kid who looks and talks like a girl, but is really a boy, and speaks like a robot. You’ve got his male glasses-wearing friend who may or may not be gay for him. Then there’s this bag-man and woman dressed in bondage gear - and I never actually read a Ranpo story, but I’m pretty sure the wacky nurse who looks like the bastard lovechild of Paranoia Agent and Danganronpa wasn’t in the original source, let alone took a substantial role in the show’s climax. All of these characters are given the Kishi hyper-stylization treatment and have about as much believable human emotions as Itchy and Scratchy when they’re phoning it in. And you remember how in Durarara where the unimportant people are drawn in gray and only when they actually have significance to what’s going on is when someone bothers to color them in? Ranpo Kitan has something like that too, except the characters fade into silhouette-like backgrounds at really arbitrary moments and it looks incredibly unfinished rather than stylistic. It leads to this weird disconnect of coldness most normal people who try to watch Ghost in the Shell experience in that even if you saw something worth watching in here, it’s presentation makes actually accessing it all but impossible. Only in Ranpo Kitan’s case, not only are the smart things just the same old bullshit regarding “what is justice” and every other moral you could get in any cop show either, but there’s no excitement to be had even if you penetrate the presentation and dig that sort of stuff. Now the show’s utter lifelessness makes remembering events difficult, but I do remember that most of the individual cases are more stuff the anime does to fill out time rather than pieces to a much bigger picture. The closest thing we get to an overarching plot thread is through some lunatic named Twenty Faces, who basically kills criminals for justice, and catching him would be a lot easier if there weren’t multiple people doing things in his name. But this conflict only takes up half the screen time and the rest of it is just piddling about. Please explain to me the significance of that one episode where The Amazing Bag-Man stops by the detective’s house and we spend the entire run time basically coming up with theories like a bad stand-up comedy before ending on a conclusion that - as the domesticated father said regarding the broken toilet bowl that had just been used by his kid after digesting food from Taco Bell- was full of shit. There’s taking a break from an on-going plot and then there’s just throwing shit out of that bowl just because you can. I’m probably going to have to address the elephant in the room regarding the actual mysteries in this show and whether or not they’re good at some point. Short answer: no. Long answer: Fuck no! The logic is incredibly hard to follow - not helped by the giant heapings of dialogue that desperately needed an editor during investigations - and the actual criminal is always some arbitrary person that the show just pulled out of thin air with either no foreshadowing or so little of it that it wouldn’t make a difference either way. Backstories for the criminals are so token and predictable that you’d only need thirty seconds to explain it. Detective Conan-style. And yet for some reason, the show decides to devote entire half-hours trying to make me sympathize with these morons. The way the Twenty Faces arc concludes is pretty much a combination of all the problems I listed above with another one added, and that problem is the feminine main character. Up until that point, he’s always been an audience cipher that no audience member can relate to, but he was in the background so I let it slide. But the final few episodes put him at center stage for the crucial part of Twenty Faces’ grand plan and his emotionless accepting reactions become impossible to ignore to the point that he might as well have been wearing a yellow T-shirt that said “I am an obvious plot device” in big black letters. It wasn’t until the final few minutes that ended on him that I realized he was basically a walking metaphor for the show: a small lifeless pile of gimmicks who hangs around with the big boys just because he can. And if he died, no one but sad geeky losers would give a shit. So on the whole, I can’t really say I recommend Ranpo, even if you’re a die-hard noitamina fan. It’s badly written and it’s hard to even pay attention to the writing at times because there’s a high chance the visuals will put you to sleep beforehand. Some people may say Kishi’s style is still fresh and interesting even if it’s not being good, but I say that gimmicks are gimmicks. It was gimmicky back when Shaft first used it over a decade ago, and it’s godawful now.

Ranpo Kitan is often considered to be one of the worst anime of 2015, though being a completionist I nevertheless decided to give it a shot. Did it lead up to it's infamy? You bet. But why is that the case? Well, that's what this review is for. The series is based off the novels of historical mystery writer Ranpo Edogawa, and this series was dedicated to him. Needless to say it wasn't EXACTLY the best dedication in the world, but enough jibber-jabber. The show follows Kobayashi, a kid who pairs up with a classmate from his school and a famous detective named Akechi. Now, Ranpo's story line is messy to say the least. The show starts out episodic, but then dwells on the mystery of a figure named 20 Faces. The problem with the 20 Faces plot is that its pretty predictable. Once you see a certain theory that appears in the show, the culprit of the 20 Faces crimes is pretty easy to figure out. The other major problem with this show is that it relies too much on shock factor to get chills out of the viewers. We got a pedophile who turns disobeying children into wall paper art, a school teacher who turns people into chairs, a masochist who tortures people and pees herself constantly etc. These are too over the top to be taken seriously yet too disgusting to be taken comedically. It just fails to add up. One thing Ranpo IS good at though is info dumping. Some of the stronger episodes were those that dwelled on the backstories of certain characters. Too bad a lot of these are pretty damn clichéd and melodramatic. And a lot of the time the show isn't even good at being a mystery due to lack of any intrigue whatsoever and some episodes can barely be classed a mysterious in nature. The ending is pretty poor as well, leaving a sour note on a show that was already sour to begin with. Onto the characters. Well, the characters are mostly one-note and not even enjoyable to watch. There's Kobayashi, a bishounen who thinks everything is fun and is constantly confused for a girl. Doesn't help when they try and lure in the pedophile by making Kobayashi crossdress. My main beef with him is that his overly happy persona gets grating after a while and he solves pretty much all the cases even though he's basically the Watson of this story. Hashiba is pretty much pointless and is only there as either sub-par comic relief or to serve as yaoi bait, there's not much too him. Then there's Akechi. Now, I normally am fine with characters like him (cold-hearted and emotionless), but the problem is that he's so freaking lazy. He can never get a case solved on his own, and for someone who's a professional detective that's pretty pathetic. The rest of the characters aren't too notable. They either only serve as shock factor or have good ideas but very poor execution, though there were some I actually kind of liked (in particular, the nekomimi school teacher actually made me laugh intentionally). To end things out on a lighter note, Ranpo actually looks pretty solid. Its dark and grim settings along with the way the flashback and info dumping scenes change in style is handled wonderfully. The soundtrack is good too. The OP and ED songs are great listens on their own, and while the songs in the show aren't too memorable, they fit the mood. There's this one English song that plays in nearly every episode that does get a bit grating after a while, but the song it self isn't that bad. However, good production values don't equal a good show, and Ranpo is a big example of that. Overall, Ranpo Kitan is a show that fails both as a mystery and as a horror anime, due to its ludicrously over the top situations, uninteresting characters, and predictable mysteries in general. Something I do give Ranpo credit for is that its presented pretty well and that it at least never failed to amuse me. But that doesn't mean its a good show. Far from it. Several anime does its elements a lot better, and Ranpo doesn't really have much to set it apart other than human chairs and urinating masochists. I don't recommend it what so ever unless you purposefully want to watch a sloppily written show. That or you just like blood and guts with nothing much else to it. Either way works.

I really enjoyed this as there is lot's of twists you don't see coming. The anime overall has really nice visuals and has a good storyline. The Characters could have had more development to them, as some main characters in particular had more development than the others. A shame it was only 11 episodes, more plot could have been developed but overall was very good in my opinion. Loved the soundtrack as it was quite catchy. If you like crime/mystery anime's then you will most likely enjoy this one, especially with the added humour. Would definitely re-watch this in the future and recommend to friends+family.

Woah, this was a pretty intense anime if I do say so myself. So to start off here's a short summary: Kobayashi,a middle schooler, meets genius detective Akechi due to a murder case that occured in his school. He takes an interest in the detective and despite his friends Hashiba's worries, he volunteers to be Akechi's assistant. So as you can see from the summary the story is obviously a detective genre anime. But it's not a series of different cases but matter of fact these cases are all connected to a huge case. So it's not one of those anime series based on random cases but there's actually a connection between each case which eventually leads to the master case which is revealed towards the end. I've gotta to say I didn't realized until a few episodes later that the murder cases were somewhat related. The art is pretty cool and do I need to say more about the story? You can already tell that I enjoyed the series. If you're a huge fan of horror/puzzle type of anime series, this is the series for you.

**Warning: I spoil the end of this abysmal show three paragraphs in** Imagine that a movie gets to a chase scene, and at the exact moment the action hero turns on the ignition, there is an immediate cut to a theatre set. The action hero and villian, no longer in cars, are under spotlights, crouching, handling invisible steering wheels and chasing each other around the stage while a narrator fills in the gaps. This is, with minimal exaggeration, what watching Ranpo Kitan is like. It seems Studio Lerche, struggling with the workflow associated with three shows in a single season, decided to sacrifice the work and budget put into at least one, and out of a gimmicky moe/horror hybrid (Gakkou Gurashi), pure filth (Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou), and a 50th anniversary tribute to a renowned mystery author, they decided to sacrifice the latter. Excrement, I mean excellent. Although turning the most difficult-to-animate scenes into theatre sets is certainly bad enough, Ranpo Kitan really outdoes itself to make the story and characters as shallow and unlike-able as possible. For a mystery show, there isn't much mystery, let alone suspense. If you haven't already figured out what's going on you will need to suspend your disbelief pretty hard. As soon as you get over a high school girl who literally wants to be mutilated by her teacher, you meet a man wearing a paper bag who can apparently disguise himself in a matter of seconds. And what of the main story? It's the most patently juvenile pile of bollocks. Apparently murderers and rapists and whatnot are being allowed to run free because of this horrible thing called the insanity defence. In real life this is meant to protect people with mental illnesses from pointless, inhumane punishment, but in the world of Ranpo Kitan apparently 50% of all the really bad criminals are being released in a matter of days and killing everyone. Sucks, right? Then, under the banner of a 'villian' called twenty faces, people decide to take matters into their own hands and kill the criminals, saving money and making up for the contrived incompetence of the injustice system. From this absurd scenario there is no reason to blame people from wanting to protect themselves, and it seems the scriptwriter realised this a bit too late. After 6 episodes of the heroes failing to morally challenge the situation [SPOILERS] Twenty Faces wins and the world becomes a better place. So what about the characters? Well, we have Detective Akechi, who's only 17 years old and a detective and drinks black coffee and takes pills etc. Then there's the real main character (I think?) Kobayashi, who's personality is that he's a sociopath with no personality (he's not the only one) and looks like a girl (this is some revolutionary character development I tell you). Who else? We have Hashiba, Kobayashi's bff but really wishes Kobayashi were his bf. There is an imprisoned villian, Kuro Tokage, who pisses herself. Nearly every character in this show is expressly written to annoy the viewer, with the only pleasant characters existing to be savagely murdered or harmed. In summary, this is possibly the most pointless show I've ever watched. I've read the undercurrent of depraved fetishism and shock value in this show is actually a feature of Edogawa Ranpo's works, but in this case it sits very poorly with the lack of maturity in the script and artstyle. Well, next season Noitamina has another chance to do mystery right with Subete ga F ni Naru, so let's see if that will wash out the bad aftertaste of this abysmal series.

Ranpo Kitan is a mystery show homaging the biggest influence on the Japanese mystery scene: Edogawa Ranpo. Ranpo Kitan doesn't just adapt his works, instead it blends the themes, narratives, and characters from many of his works. Unlike more orthodox mystery shows, Ranpo Kitan isn't about solving the mystery of a crime. The who, how, and why dunnits are unimportant and given little focus. Instead Ranpo Kitan asks 'what'. What is this crime scene presenting to us? Its gore and horrifying violence aren't just shocking images. They're artistic pieces created as a response to troubles of society. But are the troubles of society as seen by an early 20th century man still relevant a century later? Our primary protagonist of Ranpo Kitan is Kobayashi. Kobayashi is a young child who is dragged into solving a series of serial killings after he is framed for the murder of his teacher. Kobayashi is an interesting protagonist, in the ways he opposes the other, far more Sherlockian, detectives we follow. We are shown Kobayashi's world view through the show's very controlled aesthetic. It depicts all unimportant characters as empty silhouettes, or as mannequins. By 'unimportant' I am not talking about unimportant to the plot, mystery, or narrative of the show. These characters are unimportant to Kobayashi (Or whoever's viewpoint we're following at that moment). Kobayashi only seems interested in the broken, rotten, and perverse aspects of the world. His classmates, teachers, and even police officers are all blank until they do something to interest him. Things like having scars hidden on their wrists. Talking about new parts of the serial murders. Or by having unique capabilities such as Akechi being above the law. Kobayashi's twisted outlook is something Ranpo Kitan makes explicit from the very start. It is this twisted nature that is the main focus of the show. This visual story telling is what Ranpo Kitan is best at. Rather than aiming for realism, Ranpo Kitan depicts dialogue and exposition through fantastical 'stages'. These stages have a variety of different styles and designs, reflecting the character who's mindset they are depicting. Sometimes, they have bubbly and happy music and dialogue. Even though this happiness is often clashing with exposition of how the victim died, and the dark empty visuals. Sometimes they show us the crime scene. At which point the stage is full of grotesque, gaudy and rich colours. Off putting not in a gorey fashion, but in a more disconcerting fashion all together. This enables Ranpo Kitan to address more intimate issues than it otherwise could through a more traditional depiction. The crimes in Ranpo Kitan are reactionary crimes. The culprits have all been intimately wronged by the victim, and society cannot or will not help them. These crimes thread together an overarching narrative of a war against the parts of society that allow these wrongs to exist. This corruption is unfortunately of an aged, privellaged, and surreal type. Such as the police being unable to punish people due to abuse of mental health laws. If someone pleads insanity, they 'get away' with murder so to speak. Women having sex, or homosexuals are sexual perversions. These corruptions in a modern setting are all very reactionary ones that are fighting against the changes in society. However, these reactionary responses are where our protagonists quirks stand out. Our protagonists are not straight, able people. They are queer in many aspects and a variety of ways, even if the show rarely treats women well at all. Many parallels are drawn between them and our culprits. Be it in how similar their ideals are, their queer gender and sexualities, or in just being neurodivergent. Our protagonists are often the very thing the crimes are lashing out against. Yet, not once are our protagonists treated as being wrong. The narrative is firmly on the side of Kobayashi and his friends, even when the various arcs would suggest otherwise. This confusion over what Ranpo Kitan is trying to say is not a small thing. For one thing, it brushes over pedophillic grooming as a love story. Only demonising it later on when kidnapping is involved. When one arc is great another is often terrible. Even when the actual storytelling methods are just as phenomenal in both. Sometimes the show is addressing and exploring real relevant horrors that are present in modern society. Sometimes its exploration is just another story scared of people who are always used as scapegoats for real issues. Its aesthetic carried it through its weaker moments for me, but that may not be the case for everyone. As no matter how stellar its style and tone is, it is rare the content of the arcs lives up to similar standards.

Ranpo Kitan is the most confused anime I’ve seen in recent memory, with so many ideas pulling it in different directions until it fails to satisfy anyone. Presented as a psychological horror detective-show, it has far too little of each of these three elements to merit the title. In terms of production-value the show has proper animation-quality and music, the opening and ending themes being particularly superb. One upside to the directing is how the show dramatizes certain scenes. With many other adaptations based on books, you can sometimes see awkward pauses where there is obviously supposed to be internal monologues. Ranpo Kitan gets around this pet peeve of mine by creating theatre-stages that represent the characters’ internal thoughts, a welcome bit of inspiration. The choice for the designs are however jarring, with mixes of cartoony and edgy scenes. As a mystery-series it falls flat on its face due to showing too little detective-work, on the contrary it dumps exposition that instantly solves each case in the viewer's lap. On more than one occasion, the mystery will be solved in a rush and the murderer will turn out to be a complete stranger that was never part of the story until that point. This makes it all the harder to make a single guess on your own, hindering immersion. As a horror-story it has a few redeeming qualities, though few and far in between. While the twisted and dark backdrop exists to give the show a pretty Halloween-wrapping, the presentation is far too cartoonish to provide any real tension or scares. The only area Ranpo Kitan excels in would be its attempts to disgust and shock the audience, turning itself into a freak-show of characters that are meant to entrance and fascinate in how strange they are. Credit where credit is due, a few side-characters do become fascinating to follow. The problem arises when the majority of the cast act like aliens that contradict every social norm and logical thought-process. The main character is detached and bored with regular life, to the point that seeing horrible things will make him feel happy and alive, which is another trait that makes it hard to take anything that happens seriously. While I personally am not against stark tonal-shifts, you need sympathetic characters that you want to follow through the madness in such cases. In Ranpo Kitan's case the characters just add to the confusion on what the show is actually trying to be. I could only recommend this to people interested in seeing a trainwreck, as it can be entertaining in that regard. Overall Ranpo Kitan ends up being an annoying and rushed kind of bad, showing potential in some moments but ultimately dropping the ball.

*Spoiler Free* 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...

This is my first Review, so please dont take it too seriously. And please don't be a Grammar Nazi, i'm imperfect. Oh! And maybe it's contained spoiler(s), so be careful. Story : 8/10 Ranpo Kitan : Game of Laplace is an anime about a certain girlish boy named Kobayashi who bored about his daily life, until someday he becomes a culprit for the murder of his teacher. Because of that, he feels amused and want to solve the case with Kogoro Akechi, a high-schooler Detective that handle his case. ("Kogoro" and "High-schooler Detective" huh? Feels like had heard it before) After the case solved, Kobayashi joined Akechi as his Assisstant Detective, with his best friend Hashiba. Art : 7/10 The art is a little bit complex, but it is good and stable enough. The way the scenes show up is always feels dark and mysterius. The background characters, too, only sometimes looks normally. But don't be confused. How the scenes shown is how the caharacters tought about it. Almost 65% (maybe more, maybe less) of this anime is inside their tought. The way how the background characters is drawn is not because the staffs too lazy to draw it (LOL), it's depend on each character's perspective. For example, Kobayashi see them as plain colors, Akechi see them as wooden models, and 20-faces see them as bones and skulls. (Makes you remember them easier right?) Sound : 9/10 The sound was great! Opening and Ending was so catchy (a litte bit gloomy and mysterious though). And there's a great, perfect backsound on some important scenes (it forces me to cry little. Only a little). Characters : 9/10 The characters are full of unique peoples. As example, Kobayashi is a girlish boy who only interested in mysteries, always smiling, happy-go-lucky, and girlish (yes, i wrote it twice). Akechi is a High-schooler Detective who keeps consuming anti-headache pills by crushing it and drank it with canned coffee, always feels troubled by everything, and a Sadist (Sadist enough to makes a certain M wet herself only by his words). Hashiba is a son of a rich company (another one who could-do-anything-with-money), and always blushing when he is around kobayashi (yeah, he loves him). And there's Kage Otoko or Shadow Man (on my fansub). A man who covered his face with a paper bag and could disguise as every character in this show (If there's Shinichi, there's also Kaito Kid. Right?). Enjoyment : 6/10 Well, i don't very enjoy a dark, gloomy anime. It's not my type. But Ranpo Kitan is good enough to me give it 6 of 10. So maybe if there's someone out there who likes this type of show, maybe he/she will gave it eight or nine. Overall : 7/10 I count this as : (8+7+9+9+6)/5 = 7,8. I put it at 7 not 8 because of nothing, just wanna do it. Personal Notes (A lot of Spoilers ahead) Ranpo Kitan : Game of Laplace is a weird, good anime i say. Of course, i can't say it normal anime (but i can't find what is this "normal" refer to). This anime shows dark side of human's heart, made bodies into furniture, killing by drown it to cement and makes it to be a wall, and kobayashi is the most weird one that he always smiling brightly in every situation. Some cases at first is nothing than introducing new characters. The real trigger is started by Kagami's act as 20-faces's copycat, and then the show is on. The real intention of this anime is how 20-faces want to change the world, the social, by spreading 'self-judgment' ideality. "Kill the bad guy by yourself, police and government are useless" Something like that. Using a weird formula named Dark Star (Chuunibyou, really) that he built together with Akechi, he could see what comes after and makes every one die by "accident" that he makes. By that too, he knew how to act so that the social will changed. Feels familiar? Yup, Ranpo Kitan maybe copying Death Note's concept and converse it into more a more scientific version. Using it and makes a new possibility so that we could enjoy it.

So first a disclaimer. I really wanted to like this show, hence my rating is probably a bit higher than it actually should be. It takes/has a lot of elements from (in my opinion) two of the greatest crime shows to ever exist. Hannibal and Psycho-Pass. The first half of the show (and the style throughout) leaning more towards Hannibal, and the second half being very Psycho-Pass-esque with elements of the plot as well as the feel. So you may ask yourself, with emulation of such great works, how could they screw it up so bad? First lets get the good parts out of the way. Unfortunately... It won't take long. Sound: 8/10 The sound is great. Nothing mind breaking, but definitely memorable. The music all fit enough to set emotional tones during scenes, it never felt too out of place. Will definitely listen to a few of them again. The opening and closing where both very artistically pleasing, and the music was great and fit the tone of the show. When I still had high hopes for the show, they were definitely something I looked forward to. Art: 8/10 The art style reminds me of Danganronpa, the animation is pretty smooth. What stood out to me, was the stylistic choices, which really made me want to like this show. I'll have to bring up the comparison to Hannibal here. Many of the murders that take place throughout the show (and in Hannibal as well) are framed to look artistic, or the victim was actually made into something to resemble art, or their death was a retribution for a crime they committed. The first killer, for example, makes their victim into a human chair. Its grotesque, a bit over the top, but it fits the tone of the show. The art really shines here, genuinely making something you'd see in a rather twisted art show out of the carnage. Additionally, there are artistic representations of the characters thought processes, which I always enjoy in an anime, as well as moments where we are shown different characters' perceptions of the world (i.e. characters that feel isolated, like they don't fit in, see others as things rather than people). I would love to have seen how the animators could have used this style with a show that had a better script. Alas... Characters 3/10 The characters... It's really a matter of opinion here I guess, a lot of cliche characters. Regardless, nothing outstanding or memorable. The main character is supposed to be this borderline naive, apathetic individual (a comparison could be made to Gon of HxH , but don't expect any character development, depth, or growth here). Who is also a guy... but looks incredibly like a girl. To the point multiple characters get embarrassed or infatuated with him when he acts like a girl (YES ITS A TRAP). Its out of place a bit in the show at first, till we meet the rest of the cast of rather zany characters, almost as if to say "hey if you thought that was weird check this out". His sidekick/voice of reason is normal anime protagonist #4. Hes just as bland, wants to protect his friends, blah blah. He just kind of exists to say how bad an idea everything is. You know the type. The detective, Akechi, who this show centers around is sort of more interesting, at face value anyway. Think of a young Kogami from Psycho-Pass. He can fight, hes distant, he is a super genius... But wait there's more! Oh wait, no there isn't. Like I said, expect 0 depth. There is also a master thief who can disguise himself as anyone. Wow... what a surprise. I ended up liking him the most out of all the characters besides the superintendent of the police. There is also some lady who can control the city from her prison cell. She's a sadist... except for when it comes to Akechi then shes a masochist who will do anything if he just talks down to her. No one stood out really, and only one or two characters got any real development. And at some points the characters could be downright annoying. Story 3/10 Now I'm usually very forgiving of attempts to be new and innovative with a story. As long as plot devices aren't extremely shallow, or used to beat me over the head (MCGUFFIN MCGUFFIN MCGUFFIN), I'm fairly forgiving. But this plot... Just no. The grand plot actually starts to move about halfway. Prior to this, I might have given the show a 7, as it was intriguing enough that I wanted to follow along to see what was in-store. Without spoiling too much, the author probably read a Wikipedia article on Laplace's demon, and doesn't really show any understanding of the concept beyond that. Basically in the show it comes down to "with this I can influence all events, nothing more needs to be said, explained, or expanded upon". Without getting too deep into it, its sort of like someone is handed the key to the universe and infinite knowledge of the present and future. And what they do with it... its akin to then only using that key to unlock their front door after they forgot their keys. Its so uninspiring what they do with something so incredibly powerful, that no amount of domino or butterfly imagery can save it, though it sure doesn't stop them from trying (hmmm what do you thing that is a metaphor for? I wonder... WE GET IT BUTTERFLY EFFECT). All in all its a mess. Nothing pulled me in, it barely kept in a straight line. It tried to be deep by throwing out the concept of Laplace's demon, but then didn't explore it in any depth at all. Additionally there is a theme of punishing criminals that escape justice, but any message they were attempting to put forth was lost in the absurdity of which they presented it. The show basically showed almost every single criminal and serial killer being released back on the street for various reasons. Instead of criminals slipping through the cracks, it was more like you'd have to be a very unlucky criminal to face punishment at all. I assume the intent of this was to make you sympathize with certain views, but all it did was bring enough disbelief in that I couldn't suspend it. My last critique on the story (though I won't subtract any points for this) is that it seems to almost market itself as a mystery show, when in reality its more of a thriller. There isn't really any solving of the cases that the audience can go along with. Sad really, because I love the Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie style mysteries, that would have really won points for me. Enjoyment 6/10 Now after that rant, how can I give the show a 6/10 for enjoyment? Simple. It had a lot of cool stuff to look at, it sounded good, and if you shut your brain off completely it might even be a bit of fun. This is more of a personal rating. As I said, it resonated with me because it had a lot of shared elements with two shows I loved. So while objectively, this show is pretty bad, subjectively I sort of almost liked it. Sort of. Overall 4/10 If you really like shows that are shallow and look pretty, you might really like this. I see people either hate this show or love it. I recommend you watch the first episode, then decide if its your cup of tea... albeit a partially steeped one at best. Also keep in mind that its all downhill from the first half.

I write this review with gladness and joy knowing that the Lerche A team was working on worthwhile projects like Assassination Classroom and MonMusu while the Lerche B team was indulging themselves on dollar store mystery novels and power fantasies when they decided to, for some reason, combine the two and animate it. I am willing to say that Seiji Kishi probably just glanced over at Ranpo Kitan's script and waved it off while looking at more worthwhile projects, while the writers took that as a go-ahead and told the animators to get to work. But nonetheless, here we are, with a mystery show that holds an extraordinary ratio of "piss you off" in contrast to mystery. Ranpo Kitan is a disgrace to Ranpo Edogawa's work, and if you are thinking of watching this show because you are genuinely curious, I beg of you, the cat may have come back after satisfying its curiosity, but it remained mentally scarred of the horrors it witnessed as a result. 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.

This series is extremely unique and appeals to a very specific set of philosophies/mentalities that I think may not be best portrayed through the anime medium. Additionally, it can be very brutal with its depiction of certain elements of the story. Anybody who is uncomfortable with extreme situations or mentalities will most not likely not enjoy this show at all. There seems to be a general consensus concerning this show that it was either misguided, not captivating, or generally lacking in any concrete merit. The source of this dissatisfaction seems to come primarily from the mystery genre to which it has been assigned. This show most certainly does not fall within the ordinary realm of the mystery genre. More so, it is an examination of the philosophies and psychologies of the characters involved in such scenarios. This is exemplified through extremes in order to more vividly portray the message, resulting in a more artistic outcome, as opposed to a more logical and puzzle-like approach one would expect from a mystery story. The story is also very unique and incorporates a quasi-intellectual background to some extent as it directly references Laplace's demon. This is necessary for fully understanding the computer formula constructed that is integral to the plot. Anybody who is put off by intellectual or philosophical concepts will therefore find it difficult to become emotionally invested in such things or the characters related to them. It also must be stated that this series is quite bloody and grotesque at times, revealing the hideous nature that lies within humanity as well as the acts which result from it. One example of this is a man who kidnapping little girls, pretending they were his children and burying them in concrete if they didn't accurately play the role of daughters. The characters themselves are the shining light of this series and the main source of my enjoyment. The viewer is taken on a journey through various criminal acts and is exposed directly to the motivations and mindsets of the criminals in a very personal and emotional manner. I must admit, however, that they can be quite enigmatic at times and they are not always portrayed seriously either. This series tackles big themes such as the nihility of man and the search for purpose, the best example of this being kobayashi's innocence and blatant disregard for any significance associated with death. I would describe it as being kafka-esque , once again, a quite niche genre within the anime community. In order to reinforce this message, there are often glimpses of happiness and hope thrown in matter-of-fact, seemingly as if they were arbitrary. This arbitrary nature, I would argue, is intentional, and serves to illustrate an existentialist perspective. The character's hopes and happiness are short-lived and despair, failure, or loss are the ultimate result. No character ever truly recognizes their goals or is completely satisfied with their current position in life. To think such things to be possible would be purely fantastical or fictional! This series quite accurately depicts reality from a philosophical perspective and borders on fantastical realism, yet another characteristic of Kafka. However, in spite of loss, despair, and failure, as humans we are forced to live on and perservere. In order to do this, we must make peace with ourselves, our situation, and our past. I feel this is the ultimate message of Ranpo Kitan. It provides a sense of ephemeral curiosity and serene acceptance in the face of death. The ending of this series was well done and significantly increased my opinion of the series as well as provided a feeling of profound satisfaction that I rarely receive from conclusions of anime series. I do believe enjoyment of the series is highly dependent upon the viewer's mindset and their reluctance or acceptance towards existentialist concepts. As such, if you don't enjoy this show, it may not be up your alley, so to speak.

If you want a serious mystery anime then Ranpo Kitan: Game Of Laplace is not for you. It completely fails at the mystery genre, as other reviewers have explained. However when I began watching it I didn't know it was meant to be a mystery anime, and I have completely enjoyed this anime. So I personally would encourage you not to approach this as a mystery anime, but instead as a psychological. This is an unrealistic psychological tragedy with a strange amount of comedy, in my opinion. I think this is why many people haven't enjoyed it- they wanted a proper mystery anime with properly constructed mysteries you can solve set in a realistic setting. If you want that too, give up on this anime. But if you enjoy things like Tokyo Ghoul and Death Note then this anime may be for you. Ranpo Kitan is very stylistic, and accordingly it has a lot of artistic symbolism and a beautiful soundtrack which perfectly fits the mood of the show. The core idea that Ranpo Kitan seems to be trying to portray is that reality seems absurd to us but that's just because we fail to account for the infinite factors influencing us. As a determinist and someone interested in the irrationality of human psychology I found the exploration of this premise very interesting. Since the show is trying to depict reality as something absurd you'll find a lot strange and eccentric characters whose quirks seems pointless. I don't think the quirks are pointless though- I think they are all there to contribute to the idea I outlined above. Why does the new teacher act like an 11 year old and dress like a lolita? You won't find an answer in the show, but that's kind of the point: if we are to believe that all of the past influences all of the future then it'd be silly to think we'd understand our present since we are not omniscient beings who know all of the past. Oh, plus there's an adorable trap as the main character. I understand many people don't like traps, which respect, so you can think of this as a warning if you're one of those people. But dang, I have weak spot for them.

I take this anime to be more of...an entertainingly unnerving experience. Its why I enjoy it so much. It doesn't quite heavily distinguish its humor and seriousness because of its attempts to blur that line and recreate that "unnerving" atmosphere that was in Edogawa Ranpo's works. Its jokes are actually kind of sick, when you get right down to it past all of the anime fluff that they fill it with; we have a show within a show about an anime girl revealing an autopsy on a conscious "dead" body. We have a trap protagonist who sympathizes and communes with those who would otherwise be taken as "abnormal"; both criminals and recluses alike, yet appears almost psychotically "innocent" about his predicaments. Yet that is all the more reason why I like this anime. Its a trip that makes you expect to having something inexplicably feel wrong in the back of your head. I wouldn't go as far as to say its disturbing, though that's probably because I think a lot of this audience is truthfully a little jaded to murder and that issue in anime; and because genuinely gore-focused anime exist out there. Its more subtle of a "disturbance" that fills you with a thrill knowing we're not too far off from the honest desires of the socially aberrant.

Hoo boy... this is going to hurt. So when starting this show, I saw some promise at points. This anime is based on the works of Edogawa Ranpo, who himself is influenced by Edgar Allan Poe. And that does intrigue me, seeing as I enjoy Poe well enough, especially the Telltale Heart. And boy does it fall flat. So let's start with this as a mystery. Mystery stories can work well in two ways. 1, giving the audience the clues to solve the mystery, or 2, having the story behind/of the mystery being incredibly engaging. The first just simply doesn't happen, so it tries for the second. But the big issue is that most of the criminal motivations episode per episode feel incredibly contrived and so far detached from human reason to be taken seriously. So one time characters are often horribly developed, and then the main characters are... better, I guess... but still not great. Most of them feel like they have their personality established at the beginning, and never really grow or gain depth. Main character, I am looking squarely at you. Beyond just the mystery, it tries to create a dark tone, and the animation does work really well for that. The animation is often full of deep colors that sets a tone that would make for the type of story it wants to tell, if only it ever actually utilized it. The tone can shift sporadically with many moments just being completely immersion breaking and again, detached from reality. That's really the underlying issue here, everything feels like it's detached from reality. Ending is not much better. I won't spoil it, but this is an ending that while not unfinished like so many anime that are out there, is just incredibly unsatisfying. Now to reprieve for a second, there are a couple of things that work. Episode 5 is actually very well done, easily being the best point in the series. Also, this has a really good soundtrack that fits well with the tone it's trying to establish. And I must mention this, the ending theme is one of the best ending themes I've ever heard. I'd honestly say it's worth it to check it out on it's own, since it's very well done. And the opening is also good, although not as much what I like. However, none of this is enough to save the show by any stretch. At best, it's a guide to what is worth checking out in this show, if anything. Overall, this is a show that just fails so hard so often. And while I can't say it has nothing worthwhile, you could have an ounce of gold in a pile of poo and I still wouldn't recommend digging through it.

The first half of this show was awesome -- hardcore murderers, creative mysterious, likeable characters, and light humor the take the edge off, too. Through and through, the art and music of this show were amazing, but unfortunately, out of nowhere, it went from being a nice gruesome mystery show, chock full of tasteful references to classic detective tropes, to an overly pretentious supernatural romance schlick that was trying way too hard... to be the next Steins;Gate? Death Note? who knows? and getting nothing accomplished. If you want to watch the first 4 eps, go ahead, but stop there. The flat characters, non-mysteries, and pretentious empty symbolism make for a weak combination.

Ranpo Kitan: Game Of Laplace: To start of this review I will give a quick description of the story which starts out with main character (Yoshio Kobayashi) being accused of a crime he doesn't commit, to which he then helps detective Kogorou Akechi solve the case to prove his innocence, to which after he then joins Akechi as an assistant solving various crimes with him as well as uncovering the mystery of mass murderer/ vigilantly Two Faces. Now from a viewer stand point this plot seems pretty good and you would think it would turn out pretty well, however it doesn't, in which one of the main reasons being it's too short, as having 11 episodes doesn't allow for much development and by the end of the series it felt rushed as well as having a really poor ending to boot. On the other hand however the story itself has all the correct ingredients, including a well though out and good filler, a though provoking next episode and then the whole Two face crime that interlinks into it as well as the rest of the story that is both though provoking and makes great material for a crime mystery show, so overall it could have been great but they went about it incorrectly and became nothing but a piece of wasted potential. The next topic I would like to talk about is the soundtrack which fits the tone of show very well, having lovely crafted music for each scene that make each episode feel more unique than each other. Similarly with the Opening and Ending songs; which both fit the tone of the show well with the opening song being something that sets up the tone of the show, using the soft sound of guitar and drums that slowly build creating a thrilling vibe similar to the main show ('Speed to Masatsu' by amazarashi). Next in regards to the ending song which while is not as good as the opening; fits the show well well but I feel that maybe a softer song would have worked better, that corresponds with the atmosphere ('Mikazuki' by Sayuri). Next up is the animation which can be summed up as decent and has a nice style to it, but shines most in the variety of ways the show presents it self to the viewers, standing out more than any of the more average animation in anime. Characters: And finally to conclude I'll talk about the characters and how there potential was wasted given the amazing amount of variety present in the show. To start of I'll speak out the main characters, the first being Yoshio Kobayashi the boy who finds real life boring till the point he is a suspect for a murder case. Now I must tell you that one of the flaws of the show is this character as he is boring, has no development, doesn't fit well into the story and due to his design it becomes difficult to tell which gender he is, which leads to him becoming a poor lead and running the show as a whole. The next two main characters should be the real leads of the show as they are far more interesting both in back story and personality; the first being Souji Hashiba who serves as Kobayashi's only friend, as well as his only anchor to normal life, now what makes him a good character is how he is used within the story, playing the role as Kobayashi's reason as well as keeping him alive. But as a character Souji is rather plain with the only distinguishing features being that he an heir to a large company as well as possibly seeing Kobayashi as more than a friend, however neither are never touched upon to a greater extend which is rather disappointing. Next is Kogorou Akechi who is the main detective that gets forced to have Kobayashi as an assistant; Akechi can be described as having an anti-social personality and being very serious at his job which fits well into the story and even more when some of his back story is presented, however just like the previous characters he doesn't get much development as the story progresses. And finally the supporting characters; which can range from quite boring, to interesting and creepy characters such as Minami the medical examiner who I wish had more screen time, as well as Kuro Tokage a criminal held in prison who is tied up as well as being infatuated Akechi and gives him advice on various cases, in which I really wish she would have got some development or at least we got to see backstory as she is mysterious and odd which makes her really interesting. Overall there are lots of interesting supporting characters within the show that could have made it into a diamond but alas; they get barely any screen time or development.

Ranpo Kitan in a Nutshell: Interesting show with a rather dark humor. Has some damn good artistic moments and expressions with some of the scenes that probably went under-appreciated to most viewers . The story is pretty shaky and is simple but doesn't invoke anything to "Wow" about. The story held it back pretty much. Should you watch?: Watch it when you're bored. Definitely not a great anime, but far from bad.

This is just a breakdown of my own opinion using cons and pros. - Weak to zero character development - Incoherent plot lines with more holes than Swiss cheese that leave one with many unanswered questions - Comical approach + bits of shounen-ai ? + weird characters (trap included) = can't be taken seriously - Jumps in plot (or what feels like missing information) leads to constant confusion - A lot of plot devices unexplained which makes me think Akechi and Kobayashi are more like fortune tellers than actual detectives + Impressive art style and animation + small touches (like silhouetting unrelated characters) + Lovely soundtrack; op and ed are both enjoyable and fit the atmosphere it is essentially a wacky, quirky anime that quickly distances itself from realistically possible scenarios. I can't deny that I had fun watching it, but often one just can not take it seriously (maybe the anime was made with that intention; I honestly do not know). If you were expecting a serious murder-mystery with mind-baffling cases and a coherent story, this will most likely severely disappoint. On a side note, I thought Ranpo Kitan gave out a similar vibe to Danganronpa from time to time, but that might just be me. I'll end with a warning, though, that it does have a good amount of gore and disturbing material so proceed at your own risk!

Story: 5(?)/10 This is the opposite of Death Note. It starts off mediocre but the end note is beautiful and philosophically accurate. People dislike this series because their expectations were that this was going to be a detective series where you are able to take part and guess the end result with the clues given. But this isn't like that, this is about philosophical theories which were executed. If you are familiar with theories such as Laplace's Demon/Superman, the Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect, then you will surely be satisfied with their execution in this anime. However, I am not so familiar with these theories, I only understand the basics and I do not have the time to delve into them. So, for me, it's a 7/10 in this department but it could just as easily been a 10/10 for someone who really understands it. Art: 8/10 The symbolic art used in this anime is pleasing. However, it gets a bit tiring to watch sometimes for people who don't know Japanese who have to keep up with both the art and the subs. Sound: 9/10 The Opening and Ending theme songs are both good, and are both relevant to the anime. Characters: 5/10 The characters leave something to be desired. However, this is to be expected from a short anime with such a complex story. Enjoyment: 7/10 This is the most important factor for me when watching an anime. I give it this rating because it is inducing and makes you fully focused on the anime. However, for reasons mentioned above, I didn't get the full experience when watching this anime, so the rating could be higher if I had more time to delve deeper into the story. Overall: 6/10 as a personal rating, but I believe that this anime still has potential and should be rated higher. Side-note: Rewatch value: 8/10 End Note: DO NOT watch this anime if you are looking for a light watch, or if you do not plan to spend time understanding the plot.