We’re getting down to the tail end of intro time – after BEM, only Try Knights (which isn’t hitting until July 30th for some reason) remains among the shows I previewed.  As I said in that preview post I don’t really know much about Youkai Ningen Bem, the old franchise upon which this reboot is based – in fact it was this which was my first exposure to it.  While not quite on the level of Gegege no Kitarou, this is a pretty well-known property here – this anime is a 50th anniversary project (the original actually premiered in 2018) and it’s already had an anime reboot and multiple live-action adaptations.

The premise here is that the three central characters – the youkai Bem (Konishi Katsuyuki), Bela (M.A.O.) and Bero (Ono Kenshou) live among humans and protect them from evil youkai.  That may sound a bit Kitarou-esque, but these youkai actually want to become human.  The rub is that they’re continually ostracized and vilified by the humans they protect.  Bem is clearly the leader here, Bela has quite a rose-colored view of humans, and Bero professes to think humans aren’t all that and that sono mama ii desu is fine with him.

Obviously, BEM has been modernized to appeal to a modern audience.  The characters have gotten a refresh by Range Murata, the setting is rather Gotham-like, and cell phones play a major role in the plot of the premiere.  Director Odaka Yoshinori and writer Tomioka Atsuhiro make an interesting choice in building the premiere around idealistic young cop Sonia Summers (Uchida Maaya), who’s just been demoted from the affluent “Upper” to the crime-ridden “Outside” across the bridge because she won’t follow orders and leave well enough alone.  In fact there’s relatively little Bem in the premiere of BEM – and almost no Bero or Bela.

On their own, all the pieces here are pretty solid.  The jazzy soundtrack by MICHIRU (who’s having a very busy season) fits, the backgrounds look good, and all the pieces seem to be in their proper places on the board.  Somehow, though, for me this all feels a little too pat.  Sonia is a template we’ve seen a thousand times before for starters, but that’s symptomatic of a larger issue for me – everything here seems to be a template.  The divided city, the crooked and cynical cop with the cigarettes, the mysterious cabal at the heart of power, the evil genius creating evil supervillains.  It’s all as it should be and the execution is good (the cinematography is especially stylish, though there’s a fair bit of CGI to deal with) but the whole seems like less than the sum of the parts.

I find that with these old chestnut reboot projects, the premiere often tries a little bit too hard to ingratiate itself to the audience – and there may be an element of that with BEM.  I’m hoping that eases off and there’s less of a focus on self-aware style points and more on the characters in the main trio as individuals.  There was a lot here I liked, and I’d like to like BEM as a whole more than I do, but it’ll need to find another level or two to make that happen.  And there’s enough talent on display here (and pedigree) to make that seem like a legit possibility.