Kabukichou Sherlock – 03

You know an episode is pretty mediocre if Seki Tomokazu can’t save it.

It’s really striking to me that Kabukichou Sherlock isn’t a better series than it is.  Frankly it’s just not very good, and that’s a surprise given the studio and talent involved.  It’s trying way too hard to be edgy and clever and hilarious, and the result has mostly seems tired and even rather pathetic at times.  The second episode was better, but it’s been sandwiched in-between two flat-out whiffs – and with that kind of batting average, I’m probably about done.  Out of respect for Kishimoto Taku’s track record I’ll watch one more episode, but it’s pretty rare for a series to start off misfiring this badly and ever right the ship.

While the biggest problem is the crappy dialogue and the relentless sense of trying too hard, the plotting has been lousy too.  Even the “good” mystery in Episode 2 was a pretty easy puzzle to solve, and the other two have been a washout.  Then only potentially interesting factor here is Moriarty, but that’s not much to pin any hopes on with all the cards seemingly stacked against it.

Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy – 04

While Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy is probably a victim of scheduling reality, I’m certainly enjoying it.  It’s fun, good-natured and reasonably well-produced.  I just can’t quite find enough reason to blog it with everything else airing Friday-Sunday.

This is as good a time as any to step away, what with the last member of the Hero Club solidly in place.  Green turns out to be Mikuriya Futaba, a quarter-American transfer student who speaks Engrish when the moment strikes him and is Rei’s cousin.  Haughtiness runs in the blood, and these two are clearly too much alike to really get along.  Noda once again proves the main plot driver, inadvertently destroying Futaba’s scotch eggs with his ostrich-egg cake during home economics class and then leading a mission to secure Futaba’s favorite strawberry jelly as an apology/club-joining incentive.

What would help take Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy to the next level?  Just a bit of an edge, maybe, or a touch of introspection about the nature of chuunibyou and how society should feel about it.  But I just don’t think that’s in this series’ nature and that’s just fine – it’s perfectly good as is, if not especially compelling.  It looks like another one for the watch-only list, but as always I’ll leave the door open in case it does something to change my mind.

Shin Chuuka Ichiban! – 03

Shin Chuuka Ichiban! has been quite the surprise for me.  If you’d told me before the season it was the most likely among these three series to make the cut, I wouldn’t have believed you.  But that’s where we are now – I’m still on the fence, but I can’t deny I’m enjoying this show a whole lot, and certainly more than I expected.  It has, like Billy Mumphrey, unbridled enthusiasm.

This week finds Mao, along with Chou Yu and Mei Li, invited to a mysterious dinner at a Western mansion in the forest (does this mean Ruoh is actually going to cook that night?).  Everything is delicious and all seems spiffy until the main dish of dove arrives.  This is no dove – it’s the poisonous brown frog, whose meat is easily mistaken for dove (surely everyone knows that).  Only Chou Yu and Mao have sharp-enough palates to detect the ruse, and the others – including Mei Li – are paralyzed from the poison.  My question here – why were the other chefs needed in the first place?  To make Chou Yu lower his guard, I suppose…

The masked chef behind all this an old rival of Chou Yu out for revenge, and he makes administration of the antidote contingent on Chou Yu beating him in a three-part contest cooking lóngxiā, or spiny lobster.  He then cheats by sneaking a scorpion into the ingredient pile for his opponent (the first round is blindfolded) but the interesting thing here is his charge that Chou Yu cheated to defeat him in their earlier contest.  Could all be BS I suppose, but I suspect there’s more to it than that.  Naturally Mao ends up challenging the masked chef in the place of his fallen master (does the antidote work for scorpion venom too?  Venom and poison are too different things…) and GAR culinary exploits ensue.

This is pretty silly, but it’s a blast and a half to watch.  Little touches like Mao not recognizing Western cutlery are an amusing addition, and the serious cooking elements are very well-presented (that yuba trick was insanely clever).  All in all it’s totally working for me in a low-maintenance sort of way, though as I said I haven’t made a final decision about blogging it yet as weekends are really tough this season.