I mentioned this in my Shadows House review but I’m not sure how many of you will read both so here we go again. I did a poll on Twitter asking people if I should review Shadows House, Pretty Boy Detective Club or both. And Pretty Boy Detective Club won in a landslide. Which was surprising to me and says something about the people who follow me on Twitter. That they all have excellent taste for one!
I ended up watching Shadows House and really loving it so I settled on two short reviews instead of just picking a single show. And right now, just minutes after having finished the first episode of Pretty Boy Detective Club, I’m very happy with my choice. In fact, the only problem I am anticipating is that I’m going to have a very tough time limiting my screencaps. You see the words are just there to fill up the space between the pictures.
First thing I noticed about Pretty Boys Detective Club is that it looked peculiar but also quite good. It’s only afterwards that I saw that it’s being made by Shaft. Shaft does interesting looking anime in general and so far, Pretty Boy Detective Club is no exception. I’m writing that tittle a lot. I just really like it.
This show has a tagline. Actually it was part f the dialogue in this first episode, and it was delivered all serious. Very fight club like. There are only three things you absolutely need to be a member of the pretty boy detective club: 1- you need to be pretty; 2- you need to be a boy and 3 – you need to be a detective. This should tell you what you need to know about this show.
To me, this first episode was very reminiscent of Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, the first season, just more stylish and a with a little more bite. What I mean by this is that Pretty Boy Detective Club is a silly title that’s suppose to be silly. This show is entirely a parody. And a pretty fun one even if it occasionally strays into less than lovely poking fun. There’s a bit of bite to it and the show knows exactly what it’s doing.
This said, I still enjoyed it. I like sarcasm and I like a bit of an edge to my comedy. And it never got so mean as to make me feel bad for enjoying the shows it was parodying. So I guess you could say that so far, Pretty Boy Detective Club strikes the right balance. Episode 1 had the pretty boys in questions proclaiming their own beauty and accepting a job to find a star. Love it!
I do see some potential pitfalls with the show. First of all, like all parodies it’s got a somewhat limited range. I honestly don’t know how it would play to someone not familiar with the tropes and genres it’s making fun of. Or if someone was actually taking the experience at face value. That might be loads of fun too. But I also don’t know if the joke can sustain itself over an entire season. But I hope so because I had a great time with this first episode.
Have you guys watched Pretty Boy Detective Club? Did you like it?
I really liked the first episode. First of all, it’s really pretty. It pushed close to my photo-sensitivity limit at times, but it never reached it. I’m going to be careful none-the-less. I didn’t know it was Shaft, so I looked it up on ANN. Turns out it’s written by Nsio Ishin (of Monogatari fame). Now it all makes sense. The guy ploughs through all the genres he can find with a scalpel. Some work better for me than others. So far I really like this one though. For example, I liked the way the girl straight up said she doesn’t like how she feels they’re using her for quest for self-satifiction. Now that I know it’s Ishin writing this, it falls into place. I wasn’t expecting much from this, but it turns out it’s more entertaining than the hilariously awful Fairy Ranmaru (worth a look, even though it’s definitely not good).
Sometimes a good awful anime is just what you need. There’s a lot of potential here. It could go both ways though. In a way, I can see PBDC alienating more or less everyone…
Rin-chan, is this your first Isin work?
No
I have watched Monogatari andbits of Zodiac War but I want to go back to it. I have read the first novel this anime is based on as well as Another HOLiC and Zaregoto.
Ah, okay! Couldn’t remember seeing you post a review for any of his work, so I was wondering whether to recommend Katanagatari — Isin’s signature style being something of an acquired taste, what with his roundabout storytelling, wordy dialogue & meta musings.
For my money though, Katanagatari is the most thematically focused work of his I’ve ever seen. I highly recommend!
Something to take your mind off these silly protests downtown, perhaps XD
I have actually been trying to find a legal way to watch Katanagatari for a very long time now. Has any service picked it up? Last time I checked was maybe 6 months ago
Not on the anime-focused streaming sites, according to because[dot]moe — but Google tells me it was on France’s Netflix a few years back, so hopefully you can find it there?
facebook[dot]com/netflixfranco/posts/1843507869241444
Well Paris is nice this time of year and I bet there way less tourists too..
Hey, if VPNs are a no-go, that might still be cheaper than getting the Blu-Rays XD
yeah one look and that goes on the queue 😀 but I may wait to binge.
Good call
ARGH I was tempted into a peek. OMG that is one pretty anime! Now I gotta watch…
It’s super fun!
Damn! You keep making my viewing list longer.
I can’t be the only one to suffer….