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Yet wherever I go this series has a rather good if not high rating, and it’s also very different from the works I talked about so far. The shows based on western properties I watched weren’t based on classic literature and the World Masterpieces Theater is highly regarded so why not giving this one a chance? The series set on London that I watched was a reverse harem with an amnesiac protagonist and silly supernatural elements thrown in just because while this one is a crime mystery with sociopolitical overtones. I didn’t watch Sherlock Hound but this one has humans and it is not focused and the action as the movies from the last decade.
So I watched the first two episodes and my suspicions were confirmed. To begin with something positive, the artwork is pretty well done and it practically has no quality drops, is very consistent in this regard. The backgrounds are beautiful to look at and resemble the time and place it takes place in pretty well.
The rest, however, is not as polished, the character designs are very generic and everyone is a bishounen which gave me serious fujoshi bait vibes. And boy does the series attempt to make everyone look young and attractive, just look at Holmes’ companions for Pete’s sake. Motions are serviceable for this type of story, nothing really wrong nor bad there. The effects are not bad but when a crime happens, the series uses a filter with this same combination of brown and red ever present in edgy anime nowadays when it tries to be thriller or horror and it fails miserably at it because there’s nothing scary nor much tension in it.
I don’t have much to say about the sound department, the music and sound effects do their work just fine and fit the setting, the voice acting is ok but nothing special.
Now, despite being promoted as a crime mystery, the series is not that, for there is no culprit to find and murder to resolve, you are explicitly shown who the responsibles are and how they kill their victims. It’s closer to a psychological thriller, where we see Moriarty taking advantage of people’s hatred towards evil nobles that constantly mess with their lives if they didn’t ruin them yet, and leads them to killing those bastards, that’s it. Moriarty is basically like Johan from Monster but since I didn’t watch that show, what reminded me of was the antagonist from Babylon and that made me want to drop the show before I even began the second episode.
Also, for a series attempting to tap into discrimination based on social status, the handling of such topic is completely ridiculous. Every noble we see on screen is the worst scum of the Earth, we’re talking about Akame ga Kill! level of characterization here, if one whole side out of two in a conflict is presented as complete garbage then the theme exploration is reduced to a simple good vs. bad type of story with clear sides because one of them is completely demonized while the other is always victimized, which is the most simplistic and silliest way of dealing with sociopolitical topics.
The only exception as of now is the oldest brother and only because he killed his whole family. It’s very hard to accept this killing for a greater good excuse of the protagonists when they sadistically plan ahead how to drive both the nobles and their killers mad and anticípate the deaths of the formers.
And don’t get me started on their backgrounds, completely ridiculous, victimizing and preachy. Aside from that, Moriarty is a Gary Stu, for he’s good at eveything, outsmarts everyone and plays with them however he wants, does absolutely everything he wants, and the police somehow don’t notice how many nobles are being killed or disappear so close to each other, nor do they search for clues and weapons used in the murders. If the protagonist has no competition whatsoever then there’s no tension at all.
I dropped the show on its second episode but picked it up again later on and I can summarize the first half of the series like this, simple exploration of a serious topic with a huge scale, horrible characterization, and tensionless episodic cases. Holmes appears in the sixth episode to make things a little more interesting, but the case on the cruise was easily the worst and most ridiculous of the bunch and even he couldn’t save it. The culprit wasn’t even doing anything until Moriarty started to drive him mad, like Freddy Quimby in The Simpsons, he was a horrible but innocent person, until he snaps and kills in an over the top way and gets exposed and killed rather stupidily.
Thankfully, the last 4 episodes are way better not only because they adapt A Study in Scarlet and some other case but also because they focus on the cat and mouse game Moriarty and Holmes play with each other, it is not Light and L but still alright to the most part, and they focus on how Holmes is slowly getting corrupted by Moriarty’s schemes while showing how ruthless the latter can be, if I can give credit to the show for something, is being consistent with this character so far, showing his manipulations and preparations in detail and how he never doubts when playing with the lives of people at his will, he’s basically a blonde Shogo Makishima. Also, finally some detective work.
Honestly, this dynamic between Holmes and Moriarty and the similarities to Death Note is what made me want to watch the second season when it comes out the next year, if the whole series was like that, I would have given it a higher rating, but when you spend 7 out of 11 episodes reminding me of series such as Akame ga Kill! and Babylon, then you leave me no choice. Oh, and it was still better than Talentless Nana, because it has a far more consistent tone. But that is a story for another time.
UPDATE: From this point I talk about the second season, with some spoilers here and there
I already covered the first season so I won’t go over the basics again but I will compare the two for a bit to better stablish why I think the second season is slightly better, there are spoilers but who cares, everyone already watched this show.
In terms of visuals, the second season got rid of the stupid red and brown horror like filters and features more action scenes with ok enough motions. In terms of sound the opening and endings were better, albeit still pretty forgettable.
The best aspect of the second season was reducing a lot the amount of purely evil one dimensional nobles that ruined the first and focusing more on the cat and mouse game between Holmes and Moriarty with high stakes, even attempting to deal with the birth of the nation and a woman’s life at stake in a conspiranoical way…for about three episodes before going back to the same thing, and the woman changing gender thus being a transgender man in 1800’s London because I’m sure that was a thing back then.
A complaint I’ve seen from others that I agree with is that this season feels like it’s throwing references to iconic names just as fanservice, here is Jack the Ripper, here someone names himself James Bonde, Bond, without the e so it’s not too obvious, although not a major problem.
The bad things implemented in the second season that weren’t present in the first were more comical scenes and cool action. The former were supposed to add a bit of personality to the main characters and give them some scenes to interact between them in a relaxed way to make them more likable, but they clash a lot with the overall serious tone and approach of the series, not fitting into the whole thing, plus a character changed his personality completely between episodes and the fact that he can adapt different personalities and looks with ease does not let these moments feel genuine. The latter were supposed to make things more exciting but they are short, over the top and feel way too improbable within a more or less realistic setting in a show that takes itself seriously to the most part, kicking a coin at a ridiculous speed to make a bullet bounce? Come on now.
Anyways the show got rid of the one dimensional evil nobles to the most part, thank God (besides a completely absurd flashback episode) to focus more on the gang trolling them and getting important information of them while presenting more enemies and people with ideals similar to William’s along the way, thus becoming more political, which would have made things more interesting if they were handled properly. More seemingly capable enemies would have add more tension but since anyone’s still playing under William’s rules, that doesn’t happen. There are even fights among two gangs of assassins and you can barely see them.
No major complaints about the other guy, but he was too idealized and threw away his ideals way too easily, before becoming a tragic figure in a rather preachy manner and disappearing from the show completely in a couple of episodes.
Eventually the major issues within the show were, ironically, the elements that I expected to save it at the end of the first season, the interactions between Holmes and Moriarty and the conclusion, which was rushed and contradictory. Regarding the former, for a show that was supposed about these two geniuses going against each other, making one of them being completely fooled by the other was a major disappointment, but making them respect each other and even become friends with major fujoshi vibes ruined it completely, especially with the finale, which did the right thing of not being the exact same as the original, but it was too different, a very lukewarm alternative to it. I recently watched the 1995 “Heat” and the 2004 “Collateral” movies where, respectively, a cop and a criminal and an assasin and his hostage come to respect each other while trying to get rid of the other and they don’t become friends, because their very line of work and positions in the conflict make it impossible, and the finale of those movies were a lot better while still keeping the dynamic between them.
The second aspect was seriously bad for several reasons, first it tried to pull a Lelouch without comitting itself completely to it, second it resolved the major conflict very easily, all it took after all the killings was a two minutes preachy speech about the ways of the past and how the former nobles were different to resolve everything and last but not least, both Moriarty and the series desperately tries to paint him as some sort of villain and a necessary evil, yet almost every new character he encounters treats him as a tragic hero and one of them even says something like “you’re the man this country needs to change”. Excuse me, what? We’re talking about a mass murderer here. As much as I dislike the V for Vendetta and The Dark Knight movies for being too silly and too improbable and forced at points, they still did a good job when it comes to present both of their criminals as the villains who are clearly wrong, even if somehow they ended being supported by the majority of their audience.
Apparently the manga still goes on but what’s the point? The main character accomplished what he wanted, the main objective of the series and the themes already got a conclusion, sure, it was terrible, but it was there, going on with it is just stretching it at that point. That is why I won’t keep track of the franchise anymore, there’s no point for it to keep going and what I expected to raise its level was terribly handled. With Death Note, I guess Monster, Heat, Collateral and perhaps even The Dark Knight around, there’s no reason to watch this one.
4/10
