Pretty Boy Detective Club ep10 – Ugly

Cards on the table, this was kind of a weird episode of Pretty Boy Detective Club. Saying that an episode of Pretty Boy Detective Club is weird seems like a waste of time. But it was. Potentially because in many ways, this might be the most down-to-earth episode so far.

I liked it! I say that a lot about anime. I guess I’m just a liker of things.

The premise of the present arc is surprisingly straightforward and even sensical. Pretty Boy president is about to graduate so there are elections for the next president. He had endorsed his vice president and all was going smoothly when she was a victim of a hit and run. Even though she’s o.k., she has to drop out of the race and the boys think it may not have been a coincidence.

See, how logical it all is. It makes sense, it flows. They would be motivated to find out exactly what happened with the hit and run and police would be an impractical option. After all, even if they haven’t already filed it away as an accident, they wouldn’t be likely to share any of their findings with a bunch of school kids. Already the fact that the premise is so clear and seemingly simple…is weird.

The first thing that hit me as the episode started playing was that Dojima, both in her narrator role and in character, is becoming more and more like Manabu with each passing episode. I figured that it might be one of the reasons we don’t really see the two together that much. They have redundant archetypes now. But that wasn’t always the case.

And then as I was getting into the swing of things, enjoying the idea that out of all the boys Hyouta was the natural choice for a bodyguard (and he has been filling that role in the series so far). The episode ended. And I was like, really? Sheesh, these episode fly by, it’s amazing. They do generally pass quickly so… but no, the ED was a fake out.

Pretty Boy Detective Club cycles through a few different EDs, basically through a bunch of different stills and this week was no different. It was one of the 3 EDs we’ve seen. But after the credits, the episode just continued. As if absolutely nothing happened. There didn’t seem to be any narrative or thematic reason to put the ED that early and the show has never done that before…how weird.

And then, the entire last arc contrasted Dojima and Manabu. At first with other members of the club and then in a direct one-on-one scene. You see, I could have sworn that Dojima had become so much more like Manabu. Because she was acting silly, and overzealous. Her logic was skewed and non-sequitur and her priorities kind of odd. She fit in with the rest of the club as the energetic one, fully espousing the principles of the club. And I thought that was Manabu.

But it wasn’t. The boy we saw in the closing act was calm and almost a little withdrawn. He was gentle and careful. He hadn’t considered some possibilities and was impressed and surprised by the notion. There was something strangely wistful and still about him. He seemed fragile and lonely. And you see, I thought that was Dojima but it’s obviously not….weird.

Previous Posts

• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep1 – Upon a Star
• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep2 – Twinkle
• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep3 – New Rule
• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep4 – High Roller
• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep5 – Thin Air
• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep6 – Masterpiece
• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep7 – Constellation
• Pretty Boy Detective Club ep8 – Zashiki-warashi