Nanana’s Buried Treasure – Just A Start

• Titles: Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin, Nanana’s Buried Treasure
• Genre: Action, comedy, mystery, supernatural, haremish
• Episodes: 11
• Studio: A-1 Pictures

Juugo Yama is ready to start his new life in his new high school. He is putting the past behind and setting off for Nanae Island. He is even going to be living on his own for the first time. Which is good since his family can be a bit overbearing. Juugo is a resourceful guy so he should be fine. He did leave his apartment hunting a bit to the last minute but that’s o.k. Or it would have been IF he had remembered to check for ghosts before signing the lease. Now he’s stuck sharing a room with the beautiful but way too energetic ghost of a murdered girl. And if he ever wants any peace, he’s going to have to find the murderer. But beyond that, Nanana isn’t just any murdered girl. She is a legendary treasure hunter and discovering all the articles she had once assembled, could give someone immeasurable power. So where should Juugo start? And who are all these suspicious characters suddenly interested in him?

I once used this gif as a header for one of my posts.

I love this gif. And since then, I had been wondering where it was from. When I discovered it was from this 2014 anime I had never heard of before, I put it straight on my watch list. And here we are!

Pretty much the first thing I noticed about Nanana’s Buried Treasure is just how pretty it is. I really like this art. I particularly enjoyed the duochorme pupils most characters seem to have. Being a colour enthusiast, I won’t deny that the rich palette is what drew me in but the anime really is quite pretty if conventional-looking.

The character designs are nice, the backgrounds are decent and there is enough variety to give the impression of an actual world. There is some CG which is quite choppily integrated but considering the story, it could work. There’s an argument to be made that it’s not supposed to look as if it’s part of the universe. In any case, although I didn’t actually like the effect, it also didn’t bother me.

I will say that the art can get inconsistent at times. There was one episode in an arcade where I guess they had to subcontract for time because the characters were occasionally difficult to recognize. But on average it was a solid-looking show with good sound design and voice acting.

The story is a bit difficult to explain. Imagine Indiana Jones remade as a school-based comedy anime with some harem elements. Did you imagine it? Does your head hurt a bit? I’m sorry. It really is the best way I can find to describe it. There also is an organized crime story going on in the background but I think we better leave that out for now. You may run out of aspirin. Besides, that thread really isn’t developed enough to mention in any detail.

In general, Nanana’s Buried Treasure basically focuses on Juugo and best detective girl Tensai hunting down..hum… Nanana’s buried Treasures. Each treasure is protected by a chamber full of puzzles and booby traps they have to sole and avoid. There are also several other people competing for these treasures.

What seems to be the main plot in the first episodes, namely discovering Nanana’s killer and solving the mystery of her murder, isn’t even addressed. And that’s the issue in my opinion.

You see Nanana’s Buried Treasure has a rather unimpressive score. 69% on Anilist. It’s not completely awful but it’s hardly something to brag about either. This sort of puzzled me. As I said, the production is really solid. Better than a lot of airing anime. And the characters range from pleasant enough to a lot of fun. I enjoyed Nanana’s Buried Treasure quite a bit. So why didn’t anyone else?

I think that at least part of the problem is that Nanana’s Buried Treasure is a first season. As it is, it could be an only season. But it was written as a first season. Those pleasant characters are for the most part surface level. You get some hints about complicated backgrounds that never come to anything because I think they are supposed to be important later in the story.

Similarly, the characters remain superficially developed because with over a dozen relevant characters, there was never a chance to develop them in 11 action-packed episodes.

Of course, the biggest clue is the fact that Nanana’s murder is clearly set up as the central plot conflict and there isn’t even an attempt to resolve it. The episodes come together too well to think the writers would be inept enough to do that by accident. However, it’s something I would have done in season 1 of 4 for instance.

What I’m saying is that Nanana’s Buried Treasure isn’t so much bad as it is incomplete. And because of the setup, it feels like the entire season is just wasting time and never getting to the point. In my opinion, had this show had just one more season or two to tie up all the loose ends, it would have done much better with audiences. Cause really, at the end of the day you’re left with nothing but a tangle of loose ends.

This said, I still had fun with it. And if any of my screenshots make you think you might like to stare at this series for a while, I’m not going to discourage you!