I am going to be a total spoiled sport for this series, even though I have told many people about my opinion of the show after I watched this show. This is perhaps one of the most hilarious shows that I have watched for this fall season. However, this is not a good thing at all, simply because I am laughing at really strange things. When you are overly stressed due to work and cannot think straight to save your life.
Anyway, Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro is a supernatural mystery show, with Yako as the special high school girl who is a detective that managed to solve many crimes. However, she is not the true detective but it is her assistant (or more accurately her master), Neuro who is pulling all the strings.
Episode summary
From a different world, Neuro said he wanted to look to Earth for the memories he required. In Earth, Yako was eating with her friend and she had a lot of attention as she was a famous young detective. Yako soon was literally dragged through her mobile for a job offer. Neuro then dragged her for a job, leaving Godai with some dog food behind. They reached a restaurant, and met up with two officers. One of the officer, Eishi, wondered why Yako became a detective after a rather tragic incident seen from a flashback of the past. The four were introduced to the owner and the main chef of the restaurant, Tatao and the vice chef Uno.
Shiro then explained in his office that he was receiving threats. While chatting, Uno was found to be killed, with the hot tomato soup all over him. The mystery hence appeared, but Tato was acting suspicious. As Tato’s specially famous dish was laying on the table, the glutton Yako had a taste but felt that it did not make her happy even though the food tasted good. Tato was angered, and said Yako was being insolent. Yako told Neuro that food should give joy, but she felt that there was no love in the food.
Neuro then started to conjure his hell powers, and checked the food for its contents. After releasing his power, Yako’s hand determined the culprit and pointed to Tato. Neuro describes how Tato used the screen of smoke, and placed a tomato after killing Uno. Uno was the one sending the threats as Uno felt that Tato was doing something wrong with his cooking. Tato then killed him, hanging him and when the steam of the tomato melted, the rope went loose and his body fell. Tato started to turn silent and injected some of the steroid infused soup he prepared. As he tried to attack the group after transforming, Neuro simply batted him aside and consumed him. After that, Yako had a recollection of how she met Neuro after her father suicided.
Thoughts
I am not impressed. I find the whole solving of the mystery case to be underwhelming. I personally find that the start is not that interesting at all, even though the premise is in fact quite good. I do like the point in which they have something to do with monsterous powers of Neuro, the strong queer character of Yako, and the unknown character Godai. However, it just does not seem to work that well in this episode for me. For some reason, there is this strange cognitive dissonance that overwhelms me when I watched this.
I cannot explain it, but I guess there is just something missing with the catch of the show that does not hit me. There are definitely some signs why I do not really enjoy the show. Firstly, I find the sudden powers of Neuro, and his deus ex machina feel to be rather repulsive. In a way, he feels like he is a hack character with the powers to overwhelm anything that comes in his way. That is not the thing I like in a detective show, where the detective is omnipresent. It makes me feel I am watching a shounen detective show, and people who know me know my attitude toward shounen stuff.
Another thing that disturbs me is that the case is only 1 episode long. There is little time for any huge plot to deliver for a mystery series, and I hope that this is perhaps an one-off thing. I do not usually like it when mystery shows take too little time to unravel itself, and the mystery only gives like a few minutes. There is no time for true anticipation, and I am somewhat annoyed at the comical expressions during the serious moments. However, I think that it is perhaps my own high expectations of mystery shows, and the resounding success of Ghost Hunt that made me this way.
The graphics for this series is decent, and there is hardly anything to complain about it. The OP and ED are not exactly insanely great, but it is definitely ok for a series like this. I also liked Yako, with her supposedly airy character with a rather disturbing and painful past to couple with it. To be honest, I am not sure if I am going to hold on to this show just as yet, but I am still willing to give it a second episode before giving it up.
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8 Comments
I recall reading a quote once where the manga-ka of the original series said that this is basically “pure entertainment disguised as a mystery plot.” I other words, there’s no real point to the show, it just uses the “mysteries” to be entertaining in one way or another.
Plus, it’s Koyasu Takehito as Neuro. Can’t beat that! *2nd favorite seiyuu*
Neuro isn’t a REAL mystery series; if you come into it looking for that then you’re going to be disappointed. Unlike other detective series that’re all about the mystery, Neuro is about everything BUT the mystery. The manga is generally pretty silly and isn’t meant to be taken too seriously.
Madhouse is also switching stuff around. They skipped most of the first volume here (including the actual beginning and Yako’s full backstory) for some reason. Maybe they’ll eventually flashback to it or something.
And as for disliking shounen series… well, it DOES run in Weekly Shounen Jump after all.
When i first saw the manga
i didn’t even bother to buy/rent it XP
I don’t like the character designs
i don’t like how neuro “eats”the mystery (look mom, its a bird! no dear thats a demon who just look like a parrot with horns)
However i will watch the anime
Because of koyasu LOL love how the voice switches back and forth
and also the fact that i like silliness in an anime haha…
God i wish i was the girl, eat like a pig yet stay like a bamboo
@L-chan: That’s sad for impzie then. I am hoping to have a true mystery plot story, one with sophiscated and complex red herrings. To me, that is entertainment and I am rather disappointed to hear that the manga-ka does the manga in that way. It is definitely not for me then, but I will just give it another chance for the fun of it.
Hehehe, ya, now that one is the only good thing about it currently
@Blank: Ya, it looks like it is supposed to be hilarious but I was not able to laugh that much since most of the jokes passed me by somewhat. I guess i was expecting to have a good think after an episode but came out rather short. Oh well.
Arr, so they did do some movement? I read somewhere that the current arc is the most boring one among others, and people are somewhat complaining about it being misrepresentative of the show. I will probably be more interested with the backdrop of Yako though.
@Neko79: I am half of a mind to agree with you. The character design is not the most attractive for me, but ya, the qualm i have is the bird thingy. I go like ~_~
I watched it yesterday as well, and well.. like you, Impz, I’m not exactly impressed. The biggest problem I have with the anime is the character design. Boy, I totally couldn’t stand Neuro’s appearance, which is… well… weird.
I can’t help it that I’m shallow.
And anyway, other than that, there just isn’t anything that caught my eye. It’s one of those rather generic (except with ugly hero) animes, IMO. I did like the design of Eishi and Yako though.
Since I only watched this raw and I don´t understand moonspeak I have little to say about the big storyline.
But it seems Neuro wanted to get the hell out of his own world, thus going to earth and finds someone who shares his true hobby, food. The girls likes to eat all different kinds of food, Neuro likes to eat well let´s say souls/bodyfluids or whatever…
the humour is what makes me want to watch this show.
@Briar: HAHAHAHA! you should know I am just as superficial as you when it comes to graphics, and this series goes into the “i don’t really like the main character’s design” folder.
I really do not like the story currently, but I hope to be proven wrong.
@Manga: Ya, that is supposedly the humor that will bring it, but most of the jokes fell flat on my round tummy simply because I did not find them funny at all. I guess it is the “i don’t get this humor” show. Oh wellz.
Yeah, don’t take the mysteries too seriously. The fans are mostly in it for the characters, the larger story arcs with X and HAL, and the Escher-art. It gets much more interesting later on when people with supernatural powers start challenging Neuro. It’s gruesome when limbs start flying and Neuro starts mindraping with weird instruments and stuff. In the first chapter of the manga, some dude vomits like a gallon of blood and guts all over a cafe table =_= And when Neuro kicks over Yako’s dad’s ashes and shoves his bladed fingers in her mouth, yeah…okay, maybe you need a sadistic streak to watch this series. Hopefully they won’t change it so that all he does is bite heads with the bird-beak of death. That would be lame.
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[...] out as one of the series that has impressed me greatly in this fall season. The other mystery (that monster thingy I reviewed earlier) series turned out to be a pseudo-mystery humor piece and I have to be honest to [...]