Ranpo Kitan Episode 9: Terrifying Mistake - Bobble Reviews

well i no DIS ANIME waz 1ne 'terrifying mistake"..............................xD


Actually, before I begin, let me get my earnest compliments out of the way. There is a looooot a lot a lot a lot of artsy pretense in this show. There's themes of stages and crimes as one big show, and people as dolls and cutouts and whatever. I appreciate that boldness, but it rarely wows me (although that opening is  g r e a t). But here THIS episode comes, and the visual execution

HAS

NEVER

BEEN

BETTER.

So the episode's effective! Slightly.

Can we see the formula? Can we see the formula? Can we see the formula? Can we see the formula? Can we see the

STOP SEEING THE FORMULA

Mr. Akechi, Adolescent Ace Detective, is still picking apart the ultimate formula, which tells you what will happen anytime and anywhere. He and his cohorts Kobayashi (a.k.a. blubber baby face) and Purple Hair (thus far amazingly unimportant) are using it to try and beat the recent copycat murder skull-mask vigilante craze.

You'd...think it wouldn't necessarily take a new mathematical theorem to do that?

Or that!?

Kobebryantayashi is happy to help! Purple Hair is also contributing.

To a hostile work environment.

Maybe the 'net will give us answers.

Yeah, well, I never make a website without adding a little "Twenty Faces" by the profile settings.

And I always make skull avatars a default. Come on. You shouldn't be excluded on the basis of skin.

But Purple Hair is so worried because Korn Kobb isn't studying! It's not as if he's never had any interest in school and shows a natural aptitude for crime-solving which could possibly net him a job! Also, it's not as if anybody has parents who care. He looks at the Equation of Everything and goes...

Kid, your presence has never been more vital.

"I don't know about YOU guys, but I have to get ready for prom, get Becky to quit smoking
AND stop the principal from replacing the PLAYGROUND with an OIL RIG!"
*studio laff trak*

The problem so far (I do mean the actual problem) has been with the formula. In order to use it to predict future Twenty Faces murders, Akechi Perfective the No-School Detective has to fill out several unknowns with some kind of mystery data. D-don't ask too much, it doesn't make sense and that's the whole point (which I don't really like; I think the lack of detail inherent with this mysterious mystery formula makes the whole situation feel too artificial, like the show has too strong a grip on the plot).

"Hey Akechi Sandiego," Kobe chimes, "you forgot ONE VARIABLE.....YOURSELF!!"

The orchestral score cranks up.

dun DUN dun DUN dun DUN

That's him entering into SUPER TYPER CODE-HACKER MODE.

Aww man, typing is so cool suddenly!

And thus Akechi Bluth, Super Sleuth, learned the horrible truth: that the next thing to happen between him and Twenty Faces is...is...!

DUNUN!! Wow, that was only half the episode.

We cut to more enthralling time spent between Kobayashi and Purple Purpsteen. Apparently the show is about as enthralled as I am, because Purple becomes, for a brief and wonderful moment, a flat paper cutout person! He's become...unimportant!

It's not even important to give him color coordination.

Afterward comes the episodic meat to the first half's potatoes: this neurology conference or something. With famous speakers!

Oh yeah. That's a good guy!

His speech is interrupted by a threat from another branch of the Twenty Faces crime phenom (what!? But I thought that even weird-looking men in this show could be upright and honest*!?!? )! They project an arthouse film about how this boy died because he did bum surgery on him (well I mean he committed suicide when he learned the surgery gave him a new condition thanks to the bum job, hey, same diff).

But can you guess whodunit? Can you guess which person has been very recently and lamely foreshadowed starting from this very episode!?!??!

* Don't you tell me that the froggy old cop who's always hugging his stummick qualifies — I said "upright" for a reason.

Gee. I never would have guessed. Because I never really cared to guess. Because the general tone and rhythm of this show are not, to me, very conducive of guessing. For a show that's all about the "game" of solving murders, it isn't at all interested in giving the viewers pieces. Is it a message? I think it's weak. It turns curveballs like this into a little "oh."

*voice of Fairly Oddparents' Vicky*

But here's Akechi and the Cops, and they're here to say...they stopped Vicky's crimes in a major way! Boy, and here I thought math would never be good for anything!

Thanks, numbers!

He used the equation to stop the crime!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and he ignored the other crime that just started across town, presumably because he looked at one part of his results and leaped outta his chair right then, ignoring quite an important Part Two.

This guy from the past is alive, and he's some kind of evil skullfacemask vigilante. Also, the corrupt surgeon dies anyway. Hooraaaaaaaay!

See that under there, kids? .....That's a corpse!