Is the detective already dead finished?

Sep 19, 2021

SingleH

Not Recommended

*spoilers*

This show is totally fucking with us.
The main girl is named Siesta. “Siesta” is Spanish for “nap.”
And this show does nothing but put you to sleep.

But that’s only if you’re lucky, because staying awake is torture. I know “The Detective is Already Dead” may sound like an enticing title, but don’t be fooled. This is a battle harem. It may not be set in an academy, and there may not be an arena for waifu fights, but the essential elements are there, and the show isn’t ashamed of this at all. In fact, it’s the only selling point. Why is a show about a ... middle school loser becoming Discount James Bond, traveling the world fighting international counterintelligence and terror organizations, but also aliens, mind controllers, werewolves, and superhuman androids enjoyed by anyone? Because he does so with a cute detective waifu at his side constantly trying to fall on his dick. I don’t know if it’s a spoiler to say this, but as the title suggests, the detective is, indeed, already dead, so everything I just described only takes place in flashbacks, and everything happening in present day consists of new, different girls trying to fall on his dick. This is actually genius when you think about it, because now you and the self-insert protagonist don’t have to choose a best girl, and can instead just fuck them both, one in the past, and another in the present. But I didn’t mean to so quickly sweep all that dumb shit under the rug. To say this show contains aliens, mind control, werewolves, and superhuman androids is not a spoiler, because they aren’t treated as mysteries nor presented as reveals. I know this may seem odd considering nothing about the premise or promotional material would suggest this show gets that ridiculous, but that’s just it. This show makes no attempt to build the world or make the setting feel distinctive. Everything will look and feel totally banal, and then suddenly you’re watching this indescribable Frankenstein’s Monster of disparate genres and ideas which don’t mix together at all. This may be a weird thing to say, but nothing in this show feels like it was done in the right order. Yes, the pacing is incompetent, but that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s hard to put this into words, but scenes are just so poorly considered and end up feeling awkward or like there’re taking place in the wrong context. The lifeless directing and ultra-generic art style don’t help either, because a weird and out-of-place character or concept will be introduced, and the music will change to try and switch the tone, but NOTHING changes visually, so the whole sequence just feels deadpan—like the building blocks making up the scene were ordered wrong or internally misplaced.

With all that said, the real reason this show is such a boring piece of shit is plain and simple: it just has awful writing. Siesta’s motto as a detective is, “A first-rate detective gets a handle on a case before the incident occurs,” and this motto is the central gimmick of the series. We and our self-insert protagonist are the fish out of water, and Siesta is the seemingly clairvoyant, Holmesian mastermind who already holds all the relevant knowledge beforehand. We, the audience, are supposed to marvel at her intelligence, but what the author doesn’t understand is that this does not make for an interesting story. It is well-established that what makes detective stories engaging is the audience’s desire to solve the mystery with the clues and foreshadowing provided by the author, but if you know the author isn’t going to provide you with ANY clues or ANY foreshadowing, and is instead going to constantly pull random shit out of thin air and expect you to applaud his creativity, then you’ll immediately lose interest. However, what makes this show in particular its own special brand of retarded, is that explanatory information is withheld even during scenes which have nothing to do with mystery.

This show is amazingly forthright with how contrived it is.
Why does our teenage waifu decide to move in with our teenage protagonist half a day after they meet?
Just because.
Why does our middle school aged protagonist with no credentials get an international license to carry by an intelligence syndicate?
Just because.
Why does Waifu #2 get a heart transplant that magically imbues her with the thoughts and emotions of the heart’s original owner?
Just because.
Why can our normal human waifu safely jump out of a building wearing a dress, high heels, and carrying our protagonist in her arms?
Just because.
Why does Waifu #3 stop some random asshole on the street who she’s never met before and assume he’s a legendary detective?
Just because.
Why does our waifu’s blood turn into bullets, and why do those bullets magically revoke a person’s free will?
Just because.
Why does our protagonist scream “It’s time for My Teen Romantic Comedy™!” despite rejecting our waifu’s romanic advances?
Just for the memes.

I have twelve episodes worth of this bullshit to chose from, so trust me when I say I could do this all day. Any principle fixture of the plot or character chemistry is totally preposterous, and it’s not even in service of anything interesting. Remember, this show is just a battle harem, yet in its attempts to stand out, it just embarrasses itself when it probably would’ve been better off relying on more standard concepts. The show still would’ve been a boring piece of shit, but at least it wouldn’t be so confusing and dumb.

This show is also amazingly forthright with how trashy it is. It may rattle off endless dialogue in an attempt to feel intelligent, if only on a kindergarten level, but its fanservice is flagrant. Don’t get me wrong. There is certainly diegetic fanservice—like whenever one of the girls squats or bends over right in front of the main guy’s crotch like a porn actress, we’re treated to a nice shot of her exposed lower-back and ass—but there will also be totally lecherous and nonsensical shots of girls’ bodies apropos of nothing. This isn’t even mentioning all the ridiculous shit the characters do in service of pandering which totally shatterers your suspension of disbelief. Waifu #2 is literally introduced by walking up to the main guy, shoving her hand down his throat, fingering his tongue, removing her hand covered in drool, talking down to him like a dominatrix, and then smothering his face in her tits. Seriously, is this a new fetish or something? What that fuck is this?

It is genuinely challenging for me to describe the characters in this show without describing other characters from other anime. Siesta tells the main guy he’s perfect for covert detective work because his face is so unexceptional, anyone who sees it will quickly forget about it. This is funny not simply because I can say the exact same thing about this show in its entirety, but because I can also say the same thing about her and every other one-dimensional, cardboard character from within it.

Watch Re:Starting Life in Another World From Zero™.
Take Emilia. Cut her hair into an even bob, leave her ribbon on the right side, remove the flower, and make her eyes blue instead of purple.
Take Rem’s obsequious, unconditional love, but also Ram’s wry cleverness, and combine them into one girl.
Congratulations. You’ve crafted Siesta from scratch. Now you have a sexy waifu to leer at, but one who you can also appreciate as an intellectual equal despite your apprehension toward women.

Watch NISIOISIN’s Monogatari Series™.
Take Araragi. Replace his disheveled hair with something more generic and refined, and widen his eyes a little too.
Take his relatable cynicism, but remove all the character complexity and past experience which makes his personality believable.
Congratulations. You’ve crafted the main guy from scratch. Now you can self-insert without having to be reminded of your social flaws which make this kind of escapist fantasy attractive to you in the first place.

The main character’s real name is Kimihiko Kimizuka. In light of this, Siesta decides to nickname him “Kimi.” This makes sense considering his name, but what the show attempts to lampshade is the fact “kimi” is the Japanese word for “you.” If you’ve never seen one of these self-insert harem shows, this may seem meaningless, but if you’re familiar with the way these shows work, you probably see why this is so unbelievably shameless. The dialogue scenes in these shows often use a Shot/Reverse Shot directing style, so when the waifu on screen is talking to the main guy stood across from her, she is effectively just talking directly into the camera. In other words, she’s looking at and speaking to the audience. This is prefect for self-insert escapism, and there are even shows like One Room which consist exclusively of a girl talking to the camera and pretending to be your girlfriend, but this show has found a way to have its cake and eat it too. Unlike One Room, it has a real cast of characters, but in practice, it almost nullifies this fact by having the waifu refer to the main character as “you” instead of his actual name, so you can just jerk off and not have to worry about hearing another man’s name ruining the fantasy, because as far as you’re concerned, she’s talking to you. If not so morally contemptible, this manipulation would be hilarious.

“The novel is better.”
This statement is a fallacy. While it’s true most anime are just advertisements for the source material, especially those produced by companies like Kadokawa, shilling the source material to your fellow anime fans is assuming they actually give a shit about reading it, but I don’t. I’m trying to find good anime, not good manga, and certainly not good light novels. Given the absurd amount of monotonous dialogue packed into this show, it’s effectively a novel in and of itself, so if it’s any consolation, this show is still a piece of shit even if you’re only viewing it as an advertisement for the novel. After all, it gives me no reason to assume the novel which it’s advertising is any less shitty, and even if the novel isn’t shitty, that fact wouldn’t somehow make the anime less shitty. If you ever see someone throwing around the word “secondary” as an insult, you know the point they’re making is wrongheaded. Attempting to discredit someone’s opinion on an anime because they haven’t read the source material is a flawed line of thinking, because it’s attempting to force a conflation between adaptations and supplemental materials, when in reality, an adaptation is its own work which should be criticized on its own merits. These people may be correct, and the source material may be better, but it doesn’t defend the anime, and that’s what we’re talking about here.

I almost forgot to mention how ugly this show is. I think it goes without saying it’s artistically soulless, but even on a technical level, it’s just poorly produced. The first episode isn’t mind-boggling or anything, but it’s serviceable, and it has a few cuts of cool animation. However, this premier is unapologetic bait on which all efforts were expended and all good animators were invited, and everything afterward looks progressively worse. The background quality drops to the point it can be painful to watch, and the animation is never too far behind. This is often the case with light novel adaptations, but this show has a particularly bad case of shitty character designs. Light novel cover art is extremely detailed, so it’s rare for an animation studio to adapt these designs faithfully into an anime, but any character designer worth his or her salt shouldn’t have a hard time simplifying the designs for a proper adaptation. However, if the character designer is a hack or if the studio just doesn’t have the talent, and if this ineptitude is then combined with shitty animation, that’s how you end up with shows like Overlord, Youjo Senki, 86, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, or this fucking trainwreck. I think I’m going to give this show a One, but I honestly believe it deserves a Two. It wasn’t downright offensive, and its only real crime was waterboarding me with boredom, so in all fairness, it probably deserves a Two, but it simply has no redeeming qualities. If you put a gun to my head, I still wouldn’t be able to say anything unconditionally nice about it. I mean, frankly, if you put a gun to my head, so long as it allowed me to stop watching this trash, I’d pull the fucking trigger for you.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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Sep 19, 2021

Stark700

Not Recommended

The Detective is Already Dead gives off an ambigious feeling of uncertainity. And by that, I do mean how potential viewers should expect from the show altogether. Let's face it, the English title should also fire some questions into your head. You may be asking yourself why the detective is 'already dead' or who really dies in the show. In what seems like a thematically intriguing premise quickly turns sour when we realize just how mediocre this actually turned out to be.

Taking a step back, I didn't want to be judgmental at first glance. In fact, I was actually impressed by some of the promotional ... material it showed off, especially a gun wielding girl fighting what seemingly taking place on board an aircraft. It's very confrontational from the start and leaves little room to breath for the first episode. To further its experience, the show decided to air the action style pilot at double the standard length, as a way to give us a taste of what to expect. Does the first episode make or break the chance to enjoy the anime? Let's find out.

For starters, we do meet two prominent characters - Siesta and Kimihiko as they get caught in the middle of a plane hijacking. To make matters worse, the hijacker has supernatural abilities that can threaten everyone aboard the plane. Siesta's request to Kimihiko to become her assistant is replied with ambigiouity although he has little choice than to team up if they both want to survive. It sets forth the core of the show as the duo begin their adventures together. Fast forward and later, they are thrown into a high school setting and for some reason, the anime decided to add in a wedding dress for Siesta. I'll leave that to your imagination but let's just say that such a transition is a massive direction in setting. But you may still be asking yourself: just who exactly is Siesta?

With Kimihiko's rotten luck, you'd expect him to be the last person on Earth to meet a stunning girl like Siesta. Even more so, he becomes her partner after displaying his innate skills in a complicated situation. Watching the two work together at first seemed as mysterious as the main premise itself. They have nothing in common but are seemingly bound by fate. It's not soon after when the story transits into meaning of the anime's title and we find out who the dead detective is. However, it would also appear that Kimihiko isn't fully ready to move on with his life and this draws him to other girls such as Nagisa. From here, his life gets perhaps even more complicated than ever before.

Now I want to be discret and warn that the anime's story can be a bit confusing at times. From what the anime adapted, some novels are out of order and it deepens the confusion. It's not that the anime is difficult to understand but that it doesn't follow a traditional chapter-by-chapter adaptation format. Watching this anime did show me the depth of Kimihiko's personality as he develops peculiar relationships among its cast. Unfortunately, most of these lacks the sort of concrete depth you should be expecting. For instance, Kimihiko's character relationship with Nagisa is bleak at best as the girl practically forces him to help her. Their confrontation can almost be described as brutal and replusive to the point where Kimihiko feels like a victim. That is to say, it's also hard to feel sorry for Kimihiko when we can't get fully invested into his character. We don't know much about his past except for his relationship with Siesta. In respect, I think it's dangerous for the anime to plant the story in this direction. We can only ask ourselves more and more questions about the past while almost being neglected to know about the present. Then again, this is a mystery anime, right?

In some aspects, I do appreciate at how the show handles its mystery in terms of revelations. While some story segments are easily predictable, others can be misguided and with red herrings. However, it's not a complicated storyteller where the show feels like a puzzle. What's unsettling about the storytelling is the way the anime depicts Siesta's overall character role. She goes from alive to dead in different episodes and sometimes, you have to ask yourself what exactly the author wants you to experience. Sorrow? Suspense? Ambiguity? In essence, I ask myself what the purpose of the premise really is. Yes, the detective is already dead but at the same time, she is also alive. I think from the beginning, killing a character like Siesta permantely would set off a massive red flag so the series avoids this by bringing her back in different ways. It's clever on some levels but also disappointing. Why? Let's just say that the more times she is on screen, the less appealing the mystery is. If it can even be called that...because honest to God, the 'mystery' of the show is more of an amateur detective fiction.

Holding the show further back is the reminder of the cast. Among them advertised from the key visuals include Yui, Charlotte, Alicia, and Nagisa. Yes, this anime may not be a harem but having Kimihiko pair up with them gives off a stench. Oh and did I almost forgot to mention the SPES? That's a mysterious organization who is deeply involved with Siesta. Unfortunately, the show does a poor job at making them look like a credible threat or at least one for fans to invest into. The more and I watched the anime, the less appealing it felt with each episode lacking the thrilling suspense I anticipated. The characters are underdeveloped and far too much emphasis is dedicated to Siesta, whether she's dead or alive. If I wanted to see a mystery anime, I could've picked up something more coherent. What we got here is nothing short of a jumble of incoherent mess.

But....I do want to praise the anime's visual quality. While the main story lacked a compelling plot, the artistic visuals speaks another language. The female cast such as Siesta, Charlotte, and Nagisa are characterized with alluring appeals that makes them stand out compared to almost anyone else. Furthermore, the consistency of colorful backgrounds is clear from the very first episode. It also falls no short in showing the action sequence and violence on occasions, when given the opportunity. Elsewhere, there's also some degrees of fan service such as the classy swimsuit episode or when Nagisa ruthlessly bullies Kimihiko with suggestive yet sexy behavior.

Yes, that's it. To call this show a deep complex mystery would be an illusion. What started as an appealing premiere ended up being one of the most underwhelming anime of the Summer 2021 season. That's not an exaggeration because after watching the anime, I felt almost betrayed. If you want better a mystery, watch something with an actual planned out plot and meaningful character cast. This ain't it folks.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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Sep 19, 2021

g1l

Not Recommended

Between the good anime and the enjoyably bad anime sit the ones that are unremarkable in every way, and you can’t help but wish you hadn’t wasted your time watching it. The Detective is Already Dead fits this role perfectly. With one-dimensional characters, an unengaging story, and plain awful visuals, there is next to no praise that can be given for the series. Don’t worry though, as it makes up for this by making sure there’s at least one cute girl in every scene.

There is an abundance of poorly directed scenes that lack the intended impact that they were going for. The moments that are ... supposed to feel emotional will feel no different from every other scene. This is due to a number of reasons but ultimately comes down to the flat characters and their lackluster responses to anything that happens. The art and animation quality doesn’t help either when every character is awkwardly placed in a scene with a blank expression. As a viewer, you don’t know what you’re supposed to feel at a scene because it never gives you a good reason to feel a certain way. All it does is chuck in a couple of potentially sad scenes without using proper visual techniques to back it up.

You might’ve noticed a certain mystery tag on the show but don’t be fooled, there are essentially no mystery elements to be found. I’m not even sure if Mystery was supposed to be a major aspect of the plot, but when mysteries are present they are handled terribly. In most good mystery anime, you'll find that it engages you with foreshadowing, hints at a greater narrative, and an exciting sense of discovery. The best part of mysteries is when you feel as though you are figuring out the plot right along with the characters. This anime, however, makes no attempt at the aforementioned techniques. Instead of uncovering the plot with the characters, you will be stuck watching as the main character figures things on his own with no explanation to the viewer. Then, once the whole “mystery” is over he will explain it all in one big long scene of boring dialogue. The foreshadowing is atrocious, and the only purpose mystery serves is to make our main character look all clever by the end of it. I’m not kidding when I say one episode of Scooby-Doo would have better mysteries than what this show tries to do.

The characters were particularly frustrating throughout the show, including everyone’s beloved white-haired waifu, Siesta. I felt physical pain every time there was attempted humour in the dialogue. It’s obvious what they were going for with the main character’s deadpan reactions and Siesta’s typical kuudere bluntness, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a worse attempt at it. The dialogue aims to be clever but never achieves more than being flat and unfunny. While I can at least give credit for the attempts at fun dialogue for the main duo, the rest of the characters are simply boring. It amounts to nothing more than some basic personalities slapped onto a generic character design. I find it amazing that they can describe the main character as ‘forgettable’ throughout the show and not wonder if having a forgettable main character is actually a bad thing.

Of course, these major issues don’t matter when there are some cute girls in the show. While going about defeating the big bad organization the main character manages to get several cute girls on his side to help him fight his battles. In fact, he’s so good at attracting cute girls that there isn’t a single other male character that isn’t on the side of the antagonists. I feel like this would be a given at this point, but don’t expect any sort of character development. Even after a character's death, which is so major that they included it in the title, we don’t get to see any characters attempt to cope with it. Instead they just sort of go on about their lives and all is okay right after a time skip.

There are times where the writing in this series can feel even childish. Take the antagonistic force for example, it’s nothing more than a generic evil organization given the name ‘SPES.’ Things like the motives and ideologies of the organization aren’t clearly explained and the representatives of the organization are your average bad guys. It’s unable to challenge the views of the protagonist, only seeking to end the world. It would’ve been much better if it stuck to one clear villain that can properly conflict with the protagonist’s own motives and world views. The series thinks up one cool scenario, such as a plane hijacking for an opening episode, and never uses it to its advantage.

If you were hoping for visuals to make up for this prepare to be disappointed. Some people may view the quality to be acceptable, especially after an okay first episode, but you can easily see it drop right from the second episode. For starters, I couldn’t help but notice that most scenes would just leave out crowds from backgrounds making the whole show feel isolated. Movement is stiff and the fight scenes avoid movement as much as possible, just throwing in still shots of characters talking rather than fighting. The expressions fail to give a good impression of a character's feelings and are never more detailed than the average wide-eyes shocked face. As far as soundtracks go this one was unimpressive and forgettable. It never quite matched the scene and added little value to the show as a whole. I might just be nitpicking here, but there was a noticeable amount of sound effects missing that the show needed. Scenes felt quiet because of this and were unable to really stick out as something important.

The Detective is Already Dead is awful in every way possible. It calls itself a mystery yet fails to actually provide engaging mysteries. The characters are nothing new, though I can guarantee that people will watch this for the sole purpose of seeing more Siesta. On top of this, it doesn’t even have good visuals or soundtracks to back it up. It’s what happens when a studio has no sense of direction or time management, only seeking to capitalize on a popular light novel, and I would recommend staying clear of it if you value your time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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Will there be a detective is already dead season 2?

Is Siesta still alive?