Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru.

Kimihiko Kimizuka has found himself inadvertently entangled in various crimes more times than he can remember, referring to himself as a magnet for trouble. One day, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, a group of unknown men kidnaps him, forcing him to board a flight—where he also encounters a hijacking. Amid the resulting chaos, however, Kimizuka meets a stunning silver-haired beauty, going by the codename Siesta, who then saves the day.
Claiming to be a legendary detective, Siesta enlists Kimizuka to be her sidekick. Though Kimizuka refuses at first, with Siesta’s insistence, he eventually joins her—marking the start of a grand adventure spanning the entire world, preventing multiple threats that could spell doom for humanity along the way.
Unfortunately, after three years of their unpredictable yet enjoyable time together, Siesta abruptly passes away. Distraught, Kimizuka tries to leave all memories of her behind, but as he begins to meet more people, it seems that Siesta’s influence will never truly die.

I will admit, something about the synopsis really pulled me towards the anime. Not to mention that Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. was one of two anime to accomplish the following with the first episode: 40+ minute episode, providing a little bit of a backstory about the characters. Which is unheard of nowadays and since the Summer season delighted us with two anime who had great first episodes (the other being Bokutachi no Remake), it immediately hooked me. Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru‘s first episode was like no other. It had witty moments, a problem that had to be solved, a very likeable female protagonist, a fight scene that had great animation and we were presented with the antagonist in the organization code named, SPES.

What bothers me most about Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. was that after it’s amazing first episode, it’s been downhill ever since and I find that to be extremely disappointing. Let me tell you about the biggest negative about the anime, Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. The biggest negative about the anime was that there was so much dialogue, it was so text and conversation driven that there was little to no action. When you’re Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance. I think it’s expected that there would be a little more action that was shown over the course of the show. Any anime that is labeled as a mystery does have a few moments here and there where the characters are in an action sequence, or are solving a mystery that requires some movement. However, like I said, Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru, had little to no action and if there was anything, the characters spent more time talking during the action sequence than actually fighting; example Hel and Siesta.

Something else I would like to mention is that whenever there was a fight scene, it was very poorly animated. To the point where it was extremely frustrating to watch. It also didn’t help that the action scenes felt extremely static, I do not think there was much movement that happened and it’s a shame honestly. I actually think the best fight scene in terms of actual fighting, character involvement, enjoyment and animation was in the first episode when Siesta and Kimi fought ‘Bat’ on the plane. Everything since then has been subpar.

Furthermore, all the mysteries that Siesta and Kimi went on were bland and uninteresting. I am almost certain that the anime itself contained probably, three ‘mysteries’ that they (Siesta/Kimi/Nagisa) had to solve. Also, because of how the characters were made up, in particular, Kimi and Siesta. They already knew the outcome before it happened and that’s what bothered me a lot. What’s the point of throwing in mysteries if one of the two characters already knew the outcome? I think that spoils intrigue of the mystery itself because there is nothing to build towards. There is no suspense that builds because the mystery in question has already been solved.

Now, allow me to drive into what I thought about the characters. Who all feel very one dimensional. Let’s start with Kimihiko Kimizuka (Kimi), who is probably one of the more uninteresting male protagonists I’ve ever watched. Kimi is almost like a robot, hardly shows emotion, speaks very quietly and everything about him feels very static and stiff. Apart from being Siesta’s sidekick and being her love interest, I do not think Kimi adds anything of value to the overall story. In all honesty, this anime could have been called ‘Siesta, the Legendary Detective’. That’s how unimportant Kimi is to me in this story. Then we have Nagisa Natsunagi who is as irrelevant as it gets, not sure what her purpose actually was, other than being used as a pawn to transition towards Siesta and Kimi scenes again. Which by the way, the transition was the worst I’ve ever seen. One episode we see Nagisa, the next we see Siesta and Kimi and Nagisa is wiped from the anime, as if she was never there. Finally we have Siesta who is probably a more energetic and less robotic female version of Kimi, but with the ‘Legendary Detective’ heart and skill set. If it weren’t for Siesta, 100% this anime would have flopped because she had to drag the show to the finish line.

I’m not even going to mention how much of a mess the last episode was, it was definitely a poor ending to a porr series.

Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru., could have been one of those instances where the anime does not fully reflect the light novel. There could have been parts left out for the sake of time and I’ll never know. Whatever the case maybe, Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. feels like a very incomplete and rushed anime and it’s a shame because I believe that there was potential. I mean, the studio saw something in the original source to give it an adaption, I’m they saw something worth while. However, it could also be a case of Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. serves better as a light novel than an anime. Sometimes ideas don’t work as an anime and that’s okay. I definitely won’t be recommending Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. to anyone though, 5/10 C-.