Hello guys and I'm finally back. Just a quick announcement before I start discussing the topic at hand, I just want to go ahead and tell you that I'll be officially (!?) moving to Wordpress starting next spring season which is really close. The reasons are stated on my very first post there (which is already published by the way). Don't worry though, I'm not literally moving away from this blogging platform though because I'll still continue writing on my personal blog here. I'm just moving my anime blog to a different platform. That said, I am not gonna export all my posts here to there and I'll let them stay here as a memento. It's really weird though because just when I was about to celebrate my first year anniversary as an anime blogger here did I decide to move lol oh well that's life. I will be keeping you guys updated when I'll officially start blogging on Wordpress.

So that's it for the short introduction, I'll then proceed with the actual quick review for the anime!

Edogawa Ranpo is one of Japan's most famous writers/novelist in the mystery genre. He is so well-known that it isn't a bit surprising to see anime shows adapted based from, or at least inspired, by his works. A few of these shows are Detective Conan, The Files of Young Kindaichi, Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace (aired in 2015) and now, Trickster.

Edogawa Ranpo is so famous that he even has a main character named after him. *cough* Bungo Stray Dogs *cough*.

Trickster is based on 2 of Edogawa Ranpo's novels namely the "Boys' Detectives Club" and "The Fiend with Twenty Faces".

TAKE NOTE: This will be a SPOILER-FREE review so take it easy for I won't spill out the beans.

Background:

Trickster is a fall 2016 anime that went on for 24 episodes and ended just yesterday, March 28 2017. It wasn't originally a part of my fall 2016 watchlist but I had the urge to start watching it after seeing a few screencaps of it in my Twitter timeline.
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Thoughts/Opinions:

STORY

First let's start off by discussing the story.

Story-wise, the premise sets up a very interesting environment for the story. I’m a huge sucker for all things mystery so it didn’t take me too long to get into Trickster’s world.



At first, we were met up with the episodic structure of the show, wherein the protagonists solve different cases per episode which will definitely remind you of Detective Conan. However it doesn’t, for me, because it actually reminds me of Totally Spies, you know that Disney Show back when I was a kid. Nevertheless, I do enjoy that.

As the show went on, it started taking a different turn and started to go straight into the real underlying plot of the story - something to do between the main detective of the Boys’ Detectives Club, Akechi Kogorou against the supposed antagonist, the Fiend with the Twenty Faces, which is actually a very long name to address in this review frequently so let’s just call him Twenty Faces.

It also showed us that a potential character for the plot to move is obviously, the main character Hanasaki as well as this very interesting fella with a very interesting perspective on life, Kobayashi. Oh and that includes their relationships with each other as well.

As the show went on midway, several puzzle pieces of the story is slowly, but surely, getting fixed one by one which is very nice to see because you can clearly see the development in a non-rushed way but one thing I noticed is that as soon as the first piece of the small puzzle is finished, another random puzzle suddenly appears.

Because of this, the story gets messed up and tangled in a web and is very different from what you think the real goal of the show was in the first place.

The show delves itself into several random problems and conflicts that the characters go through and will make you think that it’s something really useful in the long run but sooner or later, you began to question if those conflicts were even necessary because in the end, little of those said things aren’t showing up in the next episodes and though some of it may be talked about, it was taken lightly as if it was not really a big deal which is really ironic because the show TOOK it's time to solve those.


That’s actually a minus-side to the show as the overall plot is getting mixed and mashed hoping that it’d be interesting, and it actually IS, but ends up failing as nothing is produced properly. The anime even left ALOT of plot holes.



ART

Upon initial watch of the first episode, you will be greeted with a city-like feel for it's setting and this show's use of high contrast colors give a proper urban feeling to the said city. It's clearly doing well for the setting.



As for the designs of the characters, they weren't really special. They do however helped in making the characters more distinct as the designs were very unique with all of the characters. But again, if you were to look at it as a whole, who needs an over-designed character when the setting is in an urban-area and you're dealing with mysteries in the city here. I think it was good enough considering the physical location of the story.



















Background designs were average as well in terms of the city but like what I said earlier, it was just right considering the whole vibe of the show.

I would have given this show a slightly above average rating for the art aspect if it wasn't for this factor...

Even though the studio probably knew the restrictions placed upon them when they were designing the art styles of the characters and the sceneries of the urban place, they were brilliantly creative enough to think of something else to go a little more with the design and that is the sceneries of the sky. The view of the sky at night was creatively done and will leave you a feeling elegance with how they designed it. They were so creative with the color palletes and that helped compose beautiful imagery.

Just look at this! This screencap isn't even HD, what more will you get if you watch the real thing in 1080/720p!? Oh and I didn't take the screenshot by the way.

SOUND

Sound wise, the OST was not bad but I wouldn't say it's something special. It did do well with the action scenes as well as those scenes whose aim is to produce a feeling of suspense.

Voice actors did their job well, they really poured out the desired emotions needed at all of the lines. They really knew how to act their character well.

Now let's go to my favorite part of this topic: the theme songs!

Okay, there was no need for that short build-up, I'm gonna dive straight into it. I'm not exaggerating when I say that all of the show's OP and ED themes were very brilliant!

First opening of Trickster is "Kimi dake no Boku de Iru kara" and is sung by GACKT. It ran from episode 1 thru 12.

This song definitely sets up the mood of the show. I'm not good with actually picturing what vibe this music gives me but it definietely matched the urban/mystery feel of the show. It sounds a bit throwback-ish as well. The visuals upon first watch is very average. Although the last few seconds turned my whole first impression of it upside-down as the OP theme left me a heartwarming feeling as that part was surprisingly well put-together. That bit literally caught me by surprise.

It made me feel as if it's gonna make me cry when I watch the last episode knowing this character's different perspective on life.



First ending of Trickster is titled "1HOPE SNIPER" and is sung Azusa Tadokoro. And if you don't know, I just literally became a huge fan of Azusa Tadokoro this year with her catchy theme songs and her voice acting skills. Anyways, this ending theme was literally perfect for the first few episodes of the show because it'll leave you feeling badass after an episode's worth of solving mysteries and kicking the bad guys' butts. The visuals were A+


Of course, the audio in the video was altered/modified as to avoid copyright. 

The second opening theme of the show is titled "Unmei Dilemma" by Azusa Tadokoro and it ran from episode 13 thru the last episode, episode 24. Visuals wise, it was basically like the first opening theme's visuals, when the chorus hits however is when all these movements happen that is in sync with the beats of the song. I don't really know but Japanese people really know how to make movements in an anime theme song match well with the song itself. Song wise, it showcases Azusa Tadokoro's signature rock-style. I think it really matched well for the second half of the show because that half of the series is when everything starts getting serious.


And lastly, the second ending theme of Trickster is called "Tsumi no Keishou: Original Sin" and is sung by GACKT again. The song's feel will really remind you of the first opening. This ED theme's vibe will give you a feeling of eerieness which is perfect after an episode when the show will drop something for a cliffhanger. Visual wise, all I could say is that it was above average. Though there won't be much movement, it was still designed well. 

The ending visuals changes every after 3 episodes.


Just a short trivia, after noticing that Azusa and GACKT were just switching roles for the themes, at first I was just pleasantly surprised but as soon as the show went on to the latter episodes, I discovered something pretty interesting with it. But of course, I won't say it.



CHARACTER

Character wise, everyone in the supporting cast did it’s part. The main characters, however, were very disappointing. All of them developed (or did they?). I didn’t feel any real authentic development as it went on and it felt very weird to see it.

Let’s just say it was not properly timed? And it was quite instantaneous and awkward.

The main character is Hanasaki and he's supposed to be this very jumpy and happy-go-lucky character that’s always so cool as he goes on around kicking everyone’s butt. He was very interesting in the start because I knew that he’d be the one to give a comic relief to this show.

However, one thing changed midway through the series. Of course I won’t tell the episode nor the arc but these groups of episodes really made me feel mixed towards the way the show treated him as a character.

At first I was very happy when it started because I was relieved to see that we were finally getting some direction for this main character to grow. But as it went on, it was like the director of the show is playing with my feelings as to whether or not I should feel sympathetic for him, which I did feel in the beginning, or if I should feel irritated. They didn’t handle his character well in that arc which was very disappointing. What’s even more disappointing was how they “resolved” this chance for a character development. Like what I said, I felt that it was rushed and I didn't feel that anything was resolved properly.

Another bad thing is Akechi Kogorou’s character. I just don’t get him. I know that he’s the one getting the most spotlight because the show flashed us with a lot of his back stories but I just didn’t get to sympathize with him. It maybe be a personal reason exclusive for me but his personality is not likeable.

To be honest, this show could add a "psychological" tag to it's genre because I feel that this anime has that aspect.

Some supporting characters can get very irrational as well. For instance, this guy named Inoue. He’s supposed to be logical and stuff but in the same arc where I sympathized with Hanasaki, this guy totally went out of his character all of a sudden and it made me go like “wat”. He did however became a bit better in the latter episodes so I forgave that bit.

Another character that I didn't get was Nakamura. Her quick personality-change was very sudden too.

I don’t have problems with the rest:

1. Noro was very helpful to the team.

2. Ohtomo was very funny.

3. Katsuda did his part.

4. Yamane Tasuku, my favorite, underwent this precious character development that I adored.

5. Kobayashi was amazing.

Let’s talk about Kobayashi. Though his character’s history was not fully explored properly, he was one of the more interesting characters there. His different perspective on life gave the show a slightly unique taste. I really wished that we could’ve known more about him as he’s one of the characters that was done much more well above the others.


ENJOYMENT

Though it has alot of weaknesses and bad points, it doesn’t entirely mean it’s a very bad show as it also has it’s fair share of good points.

Remember that good characters or a good story isn't what's needed to enjoy a show. Personal enjoyment is something that's subjective and it should evoke from yourself. It doesn't require a good technical score review. Heck, I don't think that there even is a correct review because all reviews, including the ones I write, are based on the respective writer's personal thoughts.

I actually, believe it or not, for the most part enjoyed this show. 

I won’t be obsessed to recommend it to my friends but it’s not something I’d tell people to NOT watch either. It’s not very good but it’s not that bad! Check it out if you have the time.

If you're into mystery stories and just want something to watch to pass time? Give this a try.

Don't expect something legendary in it.



Well, that's it for this review. I was really surprised it turned out to be really long because I expected this to be really short. I hope you enjoyed reading and I'll see guys again, soon!





Author's Note

I still got a few posts due for this blog before I can completely transition to wordpress and these are the posts that you can expect from me before I move.

1. The Winter 2017 highlights. Yes, believe it, I DO have a winter 2017 anime that I want to share.
2. Top winter 2017 openings and endings. I'm almost done with them, just wait.
3. The BEST of The Metropolis Mind - A 1-year anniversary post special.
4. My LOOTCRATE! LOL I'm not sure if I'm still within the deadline (if there IS a deadline) but I couldn't find the time to properly sit down and list all of the items so whether or not my entry will still be a part or not, it won't matter and I'll do it just for fun!
5. Once all that is finished, I'll then write a pack-up post for my new blog!