Some anime have the odd habit of alternating episodes.  i.e., a good-bad pattern or at least somewhere on that spectrum.  It’s too early at four eps (I was going to say “weeks” but that doesn’t work in this case) to say if Fugou Keiji: Balance:Unlimited is falling into that category, but I’ve certainly liked the evens a lot better than the odds.  None of the episodes have been bad, but it’s with #2 and 4 that The Millionaire Detective has really shown off what it might be capable of.  First as a cop thriller, and this time as a comedy.

With a show as outlandish as this one it’s important that it not take itself too seriously, and that’s been pretty much a constant.  But we hadn’t seen Fugou Keiji play up its absurdity to comic effect as it did this week.  I quite robustly disliked Daisuke right out of the gate but he’s grown on me – largely because he’s had the air taken out of him a few times.  Basically he’s just a socially dysfunctional man-child with too much money (and probably intellect) and not enough sense or life experience.  But I’m starting to think that one of the reasons he’s chosen to pursue this cop lark is because he genuinely wants to make some sort of positive impact and not just be bored all day.

The whole initial sequence of Daisuke abandoning the mansion in a natto spat and winding up helping Katou find a schoolboy’s lost dog at the park worked mainly, I think, because of the earnestly dramatic music used to accompany it.  Once it was revealed that Daisuke had left his phone in the car (and wallet in the mansion) it was clear what the main source of humor was going to be, and he’s every bit as helpless without his unlimited balance as you’d expect.  But Suzue also played a role in that.  Revealed to indeed be a relative (what kind is undisclosed) rather than wife, she goes into panic mode at the idea of Daisuke trying to survive on his own.

He’s not of course – he has Katou to look after him, as Grandma (who seems not worried at all) points out.  The dog bit is rather odd from the beginning, though the payoff is a good one as Daisuke spends Katou’s money to spare the boy the harsh truth about what’s happened to Shiro.  Most of the mileage comes from Katou and Daisuke’s Felix and Oscar bit.  There’s a trip to the supermarket (where Daisuke is puzzled why Katou doesn’t have one of his people do his shopping for him), preparing dinner (ouch), and getting drunk afterwards.  In the end Daisuke sleeps in the tub and Katou actually gets him to eat natto for breakfast (I’m with Daisuke here – it’s the devil’s vomit).

If a series can work as a comedy, there’s a good chance it can work period, because comedy is harder to execute than just about any narrative form.  And we pretty much know from Episode 2 that Fugou Keiji can be a good cop show.  That means the potential for it to succeed as a series is a given because it’s already been demonstrated – it all comes down to execution.  But if the rest of the series is a goofily charming as this week’s ep was, that shouldn’t be a major problem.