Hello ladies and gentlemen to the first, and last, post of Fugou Keiji! It breaks my heart to say it this early, but we have news that this series is being indefinitely postponed. Due to the Coronavirus, after this week it’s going to be awhile until we get more snarky millionaire detectives. Until then though, we just have to make the best of it. So let’s jump in!
Right off the bat I have to say… I was a bit disappointed. This second episode wasn’t nearly as good as the first, for obvious reasons. It would seem that Fugou Keiji wants to be an actual, legitimate crime thriller, with a dusting of absurdity. From the start, this episode played it straight. Introducing us to a crime, scoping it and working it out, then busting it at the end. Meanwhile the first episode was 2 kids robbing a chocolate shop they thought was a jewelry store. All the while Kambe reroutes traffic and drives through the middle of a street without a care in the world. The energy between these two episode couldn’t have been more different. I still enjoyed some of the absurdity we got of course, Kambe is still fun. But it’s like Fugou Keiji was more subdued this week and that’s just a bit dull.
To get into specifics now that we are past the break, we see a lot of this in their methods. How Fugou Keiji is comparing and contrasting both of our leads, Kato and Dambe’s, approaches. Kato’s “real cop” methods, using emotions and wordplay, to interrogate someone. Meanwhile Kambe just uses technology and throws money at the person. And while in the end both get the same answer, Kambe’s segments just lacked the level of absurdity necessary to make them fun. I couldn’t decide if Fugou Keiji wanted to legitimately contrast the two, or if it was poking fun. And that hesitation ended up ruining whatever comedic effect they could have had for me. It’s necessary in a way of course, we have to set up our Straight Man act between the two. But I had hoped that was established last week and we could have skipped all this.
Maybe this will turn into something good later on though. As right now Kato and Dambe are stepping on each others toes, getting in each others way. Or at least Kambe is getting in Kato’s way, since Kambe seems nonplussed by the whole thing. But if Fugou Keiji wants to be a full on crime thriller, inevitably they will have to go up against someone they can’t beat alone. Whether it be someone smarter than Kato or richer than Kambe. If it wants to be a serious show, it’s going to need serious challenges for the leads. My main concern here is as I said before though, how the absurdity will fit into it all. Because my favorite part of Fugou Keiji was the absurdity, the balls-to-the-wall madness of solving problems with money. I wanted more Kambe smirking as Kato fell of a bridge. Not this.
That isn’t to say it was all bad, we did get some madness out of it. For instance we learn that Kambe has both a batcave and a hot sister/wife, whichever she is. Near the end of the episode we also saw more of Kambe’s “throw money at it” approach. Such as paying the reporter to be in the dog suit, rather than Kambe himself. Or buying the entire building so that he can basically ruin it, with no one to complain. Even just getting reservations at restaurants near stake out points so he could eat gourmet food. Those were good, those were fun. I just wish we got more of those, rather than Fugou Keiji turning into… japanese batman. If I wanted that I would have just watched Ninja Batman from a few years ago.
Finally, I want to talk about some actual narrative issues I had this week. With the big one being Kato’s reveal at the end, that he can’t fire a gun. This is fine, this makes sense for his character, that’s good. I wish however that this had been built up over the course of the episode. Make it, something involving a gun, a throughline for the episodes plot. That way when it’s revealed at the end it ties into everything, rather than just being Kambe dropping character information out of nowhere with no real reason. Because that scene felt like “Hey, did you know this characters flaw was X?” and is the epitome of “telling” rather than “showing”. Once again, if Fugou Keiji stayed a comedy series, I wouldn’t much care. But if you try to be a crime thriller, I will judge you as a crime thriller.
So all in all, how was this 2nd episode of Fugou Keiji? Well, as one to leave on considering the postponement, it wasn’t great. There were a lot of issues, both narratively and tonnaly, throughout. And while some of the comedy was good, there wasn’t near as much as I would have liked. The first episode was packed to the brim with madness, so this second just feels… empty. I want to say I hope it can improve as we go, but considering this is the last episode for awhile… Who knows where Fugou Keiji will end up. All I can really say is that when it returns, I will be here waiting. Let’s just hope this plane to Hong Kong doesn’t end up like Berserk’s boat.
I’m still not sure if I’m going to stick with this show, but it seems I’ve got enough time to decide, with the postponement and all.
Honestly I’m having trouble immersing myself into this show, as it apparently aims to be both over the top (with Kambe) as well as grounded & serious with Kato, like you already said. I hope it soon decides on one path, since combining both doesn’t seem to be working that well at the moment. Personally I’d like it to be more focussed on Kato since he seems to be the more interesting character at the moment (thx to that glorious info dump at the end by Kambe).
Also I’m having trouble to enjoy certain scenes, as they seem to be out of place even in a semi serious police show like this. The bridge scene in episode 1 for example kept annoying me simply because a police officer wouldn’t do that, even if he’s of the same kind as Kambe (I mean Kato could have died!).
If the show choose to be entirely over the top ridiculous, I would have believed it way more easily. Yet with some sense of realism contrasting Kambes outlandish behaviour it achieved the opposite effect for me.
Hopefully the break will positively impact the future development of the story.