First off, let me confirm – yes, I know the “first” episode of Babylon was actually three episodes.  And I do plan to watch and cover all three, which is your clue as to how I felt about the first one.  Covering only the premiere ep is a concession to time, plain and simple – there was no chance I had room in my schedule for three episodes right now.  This is an Amazon Prime exclusive so I imagine the release schedule could continue to be weird, but if Babylon is worth the hassle I’ll deal with that in due course.

I was a little surprised Babylon finished as high (5th, in a highly competitive season) as it did in the LiA preview poll.  The director is best known for two disastrous sequels to much-admired originals, the writer for an interesting mess that totally lost its way about halfway through its run, and the studio is a relative newbie with a sparse resume.  It’s an interesting premise and an interesting look, but gritty crime mysteries aren’t exactly rare as hen’s teeth in modern anime.  So what was it about Babylon that caught so many readers’ eye?

Whatever it was, the first episode was certainly a good one.  As with Kado, it involved a good deal of misdirection.  Of course in that instance I ended up wishing that the false premise of the premiere had been the real premise – I hope that’s not the case here (it was a different sort of fake-out this time).   Babylon – adapted by Nozaki Mado from his own novels – is the story of Seizaki Zen (Nakamura Yuuichi), a public prosecutor who specializes in the pharmaceutical industry.  At first it looks like a classic buddy cop premise, as Seizaki is paired with youngster Fumio Atsuhiko (Ono Kenshou) but that’s where the misdirection comes in…

It remains to be seen whether there’s going to be a supernatural element at play here, but Seizaki finding a blood-stained secret letter with hair and fingernails embedded in it in the spoils from a corporate raid certainly suggests the occult.  Whether there is or not, corporate and political corruption seems to be the main theme here and lord knows, there’s plenty of grist for the mill there in modern Japan.  Whether it be crooked big pharma or the crooked pols in the Liberal Democratic Justice Party that they pay off to do their bidding in the Diet, this target is pretty much a sitting duck.

The first major case, in fact, seems not to involve the pharma directly but rather a politician running for mayor who’s had dealings with one of the company’s outside consultants, an anaesthesiologist.  Soon enough he turns up dead from an apparent suicide (it was certainly a memorable crime scene to walk in on) and as the pair of prosecutors dig deeper into the secrets the politician and his secretary are hiding, Fumio turns up dead by “suicide” too.  Another interesting element here is the existence of Shiniki, a new autonomous zone west of central Tokyo, where the crooked pol is the frontrunner in the upcoming mayoral election.

It’s clear from the premiere that Babylon isn’t going to be the sort of show that pulls punches.  This is dark material (visually too), and there’s plenty of ugliness out there for it to revel in.  I’m definitely invested – the first ep was outstanding – but I’d be lying if I said the key staff don’t worry me a bit.  Hopefully the next two episodes (which I’ll try and squeeze in as a pair sometime in the next several days) which give me a better idea of how stable my footing with this series is.