Baziru the Otaku

Review of Detective School Q

Anime poses... Hmmph! (Center) Kyuu

Baziru the Otaku here, and I am going to review the anime Detective School Q (synonymously called Detective Academy Q, I guess say whichever rolls off the tongue better), Japanese name being Tantei Gakuen Kyuu.

I was originally going to review this anime into parts, since I wanted to go in-depth with the story, but there really isn't much of a story to go in depth with, so I just decided to make one complete review of the anime.

Dan

This anime is about a retired detective, named Dan Morihiko (who... is in... a wheelchair... after watching the whole series I still don't know why he is in a wheelchair), creates an academy, to teach children how to be detectives, and to carry on his legacy. This academy has so much power within the law that whenever they show up to a crime scene with their badges, the police basically hand the case over to them on a silver platter. One such talented student (the main hero of this tale) Kyuu, wants to be a detective to aspire to become the mystery detective man, who saved him from a kidnapping (which was hardly explained in the end of the series). His abilities consist of careful observation and abstract deductive reasoning. He gets enrolled into class Q, class made solely to carry on Dan Morihiko's legacy, with a group of other talented friends:

Megumi

Megumi, pink-haired pigtailed chick with photographic memory (ability to see stuff and remember it forever) who became a detective to use her abilities for the greater good. She is also the anime's excuse to make a vague, weak, and short-lived love triangle with Kyuu and another character I will get into, named Ryuu. This little love triangle I guess wasn't meant to be anymore than a "just friends" thing with a slight admiration, since story didn't even put any substantial backbone to it.

Ryuu

Ryuu, a purple-haired backwards mullet (party in the front, business in the back kinda guy) with same abilities as Kyuu. Shows up in a random point in the show, and proves his worth to the academy making his way into class Q. He has a very dark, and mysterious past, that gets shown at the end of the story, which has tons of plot-holes in it.

Kinta

Kinta, slanted eye individual (I am not being racist, he really is slant-eyed) who apparently has really good vision and smell, and people skills (like hitting on girls) which always get shot down. His dad is top dog of the police, so he just went ahead and decided to be a detective. His only skills consist of  instincts, luckily stumbling upon clues to cases, and he is pretty much the groups' weapon, as he is always the one to apprehend the suspects.

Kazuma

Lastly, we have Kazuma, an androgynous elementary school boy, who is pretty rich due to his computer programming skill... This is pretty much all there is to him (oh yeah! He wears a cap).

*Spoiler Alert*
This show is basically a 45 episode series, which is 45 episodes of fillers, 5-10 episodes in which are a poorly constructed arc of the vaguely described crime organization Pluto. This organization is central to the show's plot holes, and the poorly described kidnapping of Kyuu. Every villain in this organization has a name of a mythological creature, Dan had trouble with them in the past, and Ryuu is apparently supposed to be the successor to Pluto. They aren't paid to commit crimes, but they are paid to setup crime scenes in which the client can murder someone and get away with it. The only thing is Dan's Detective School (DDS) always ruins their plans. They are never explained, which is a shame because I would really love this anime's villains, if it weren't for the creator's lack of story telling. With their end and the show's final episode being Pluto committing suicide, and show ends on a stupid and brain-rotting note.
*Spoiler End*

Despite the show's flaw in the lack of a story and failed character development, I still kind of liked this show. I like this show, because the cases are just incredibly smart and mind-blowing. For example, the first episode (which I call the "hook" episode) is a story of a man who saved up tons of money to pay for his daughter's wedding, is shown jumping off a ledge plummeting to his death. This jumping is shown to be a suicide, but Kyuu and Megumi show up completely blowing everyone's mind, taking every abstract clue everyone would over look, displaying it to be a murder.

This show is basically fan-service to the fans of say detective shows, like Case Closed, who would watch it to take a break from that thousand and half episode series, and would watch this for mindless indulgence. This show is addictive, and although smart, does not require too much concentration or intelligence to enjoy. I wish I could explain more, but there isn't much more to explain (other than Kyuu's past which was another incoherent and inconsistent plot, which I would rather want the reader of this article to watch and laugh at, rather than me try to make sense of it).   

"There's no dinner. Good night."- Kyuu's Mother, episode 1

 





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