Category: Suteki Tantei Labyrinth

Well, that was a disaster…

I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. In fact, this episode was hilarious, but it also remains a total trainwreck. Suteki Tantei Labyrinth has a really weird sense of humour, and anyone who even dares to disagree should see the opening of this episode. I’m not sure who in their right mind thought of it, but the people responsible should be locked up.

The animation… was pretty terrible as well. There’s no sign of the huge budget of episode fourteen. Usually, this wouldn’t be such a problem, but this time, the animators didn’t even bother to check for inconsistencies. A part of this episode is about a special statue. Legends say that if you put an item dear to you, and have your loved one pick it up, it’ll bring you together, or something similar. The statue has been rigged so, that if it rains, it’s got one hand open and one closed, and when the sun shines, they change into the opposite. It’s a bit crazy, but I can live with it.

Here’s the thing, though: pay close attention to both hands. At one point, Yaya puts in the bear, strapped to her phone on one hand, hoping to score with Mayuki and all. She then leaves, and it starts raining. It’s here where the animators forgot to keep track of which hand was supposed to be open. ^^; All the faces, throughout the entire episode also look horribly distorted.

Thankfully, this episode did introduce two new major characters: Seiran’s brother and his female assistant, who seems to have a crush on Seiran. I really like the way in which this was revealed: the guy acts like a total idiot for the entire episode, and only after that we learn that he’s more than just a random bad guy who came in to confuse Mayuki.

Really, I remember how, at the beginning of this series, I really wanted to like Mayuki’s four classmates. Little did I know that once the introduction was over, every episode that featured them turned into a total disaster. Okay, I laughed, but you do not want to watch these episodes with a straight face. 😛

Someone, shoot me. I’m actually beginning to like this series. I’m not sure what it is with the cheese of this anime, with both the male and female fanservice and its rather eccentric script-writers, but I really liked this episode and its twists.

There was lots of character-development in this episode, as Mayuki tries to return to the house in which he was born, and Byakko goes off on her own. There’s still no sign whatsoever of Mayuki’s father, but it seems that Seiran grew up as a servant to a wealthy family, and he was quite close to Mayuki’s mother. The latter died when Mayuki was barely a year old, and the head of the family (who knew about the Hyugake Gentoushu) entrusted Mayuki to Seiran to take care of. Ever since, Seiran has been taking care of Mayuki (too cute, by the way), though we’ve now reached the point where Mayuki is old enough to think on his own and enters the wondrous world of “puberty”.

I’m also glad that Byakko finally became something more than just “that woman who screws up Mayuki’s investigations”. She always striked me as the impatient type, and this doesn’t work quite well with her master. I’m glad to see that she’s finally showing a mind of her own.

But seriously, scriptwriters:
Do NOT make her end up becoming one of the good guys.

Really, I see these guys crazy enough to attempt such a twist. Still, I’m surprised at how small the part of Mayuki’s classmates has become. They hardly appear at any important moment. That’s something you wouldn’t suspect after watching the first few episodes.

And on an side-note: am I the only one who wondered about the point of those five very suspicious looking characters, who sat in the backseat of the bus? When I saw it for the first time, I was certain that it was one of Seiju’s tricks again, but after that they never showed up again. I mean, the ENTIRE bus was empty, except for these guys! It’s getting funnier the more I think about it.

Speaking of funny… the ending cracked me up majorly. ^^;

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!

Don’t get me wrong. This episode was really good; probably the best of the entire series. The plot finally got pushed forward a lot and the production-values were just better than they’ve ever been. But at one point, a brainwashed Sanae carries away an unconscious Mayuki… you guessed it. She gets changed back by his love. Seriously, the romance is really going to ruin this series unless it gets developed very fast.

Thankfully, the rest of the episode made up for it. We finally know a bit more about Mayuki’s strange power. A number of years ago, a strange thing called “Hyugake Gentoushu” (yes, I have no idea what that means) struck down earth, and hit the young Mayuki, just after he was born. Because of this, he can see with his “mind’s eye”, in other words, he when he does into Hyugake Gentoushu-mode, he doesn’t see regular things, he sees truth, hence why he was so easily able to solve the different mysteries. This episode also showed that there’s more to this, though: a strange low-voice appeared from out of nowhere and somehow a dragon-like thing manifested for a second. We still don’t know what’s up with them, and Mayuki’s mother also has some kind of connection to everything…

One thing that I must praise this episode for, though, is the fight-scenes: they were really well-done, and kept me at the edge of my seat, and it seems like the budget went all out on them. Also, I had to find Seiran’s combat-outfit amusing. ^^;

Now that this series has entered its second half, it really needs to pay attention to properly develop the different characters. I want to be able to see a change with the first half in the second half, and I want to see the characters evolve, just like in El Cazador. The creators will really need put in effort and move this show into an interesting direction, in order to make up for all the humps and bumps we’ve seen up till now. This episode was good, but can they keep it up?

I have a message for the creators of this series:

FOR GOD’S SAKE, PLEASE CUT IT OUT WITH THE ROMANCE IN THIS SERIES AND FOCUS ON THE MYSTERY INSTEAD. Geez. The dinner-party this episode was just too painful to watch.

The mysteries are what are really interesting about this series. Even though some of them are quite ridiculous (with the apex of course being the murder on top of the huge radio-tower), the case for this episode yet again caught my interest, and it was developed quite well, and I liked the characters a lot. If only it wasn’t for the fact that every freaking female falls in love with Mayuki. The guy is what? Ten years old? Romance SO doesn’t belong in this series. Let it just stick with friendship instead.

Anyway, about the episode, I’m surprised that nobody recognized Byakko, but if I’m not mistaken, then Seiran and the transformed Sanae and Hatsumi were the only ones who ever saw her clearly. I can imagine how Seiga would want to keep this a secret from Mayuki, and messed with Hatsumi and Sanae’s memory a bit. If he can make them transform, then messing with memory shouldn’t be difficult either.

I’m also happy that the main bad guy finally decided to make contact with Mayuki. This is what I’ve been waiting for. The next episode should become interesting.

Oh for Christ’s sake! Episode twelve is, for most 26-episode series, the designated time to work towards their first minor climax. So what does Suteki Tantei Labyrinth bring us? A freaking pool episode. The most annoying thing is that I’m just unable to say anything bad about it. Heck, it was hilarious, and even Mayuki got himself a bit of development. There was a lot of foreshadowing in this episode and for once, Byakko did actually nothing. Really, the only bad thing was the excessive fanservice, but I would be lying if I didn’t laugh at the pool-pervert who dressed himself up as a Santa-Clause. Everything was just so silly and exaggerated that it gave a nice contrast with the rest of the series. Really, I still have no idea where this series is getting at, but the second half of this series is about to start. Perhaps that will shed some light on this rather peculiar series.]]>

Okay, it’s time for me to catch up with all the series I’ve missed for the past two weeks. Obviously, my posts are going to be a bit shorter than usual until I manage to catch up with everything I missed. First up: Suteki Tantei Labyrinth. Thankfully, this episode was much better than the last one. It was a surprisingly quiet one, and nothing much happened. If I had to guess, then the story of the manga was a tad too long for two episodes, so it had to be stretched. Still, the result turns out quite nicely. There were no annoying moments, no abuses of tea. And for once, Byakko’s interference didn’t make me want to punch a hole in the wall. So, it seems that there was an accomplice: the chief of police, who assigned the two detectives to the case. He too is manipulated by Byakko and the bad guy, and at the end of the episode, he too gets silenced. Really, I’m getting quite curious as to why Byakko would go through such extreme lengths. It’s obvious now that she’s provoking Mayuki, with the violin-music and all, but who in her right mind would go around and kill people in the process, just for this?]]>

Just when you think a show can’t get any stranger, it surpasses itself. Get this: today’s mystery is about a guy who’s been spiked on top of a huge radio-tower. Yeah. The explanation that the show puts behind it is also the most ridiculous of the entire series: the culprit was a fireman, and he used a super-powered hose with liquid nitrogen in the middle of the rain to create a path of ice to the top of the tower, climbed it and placed the corpse on top of it. Okay, I can imagine how he got the idea, being a fireman and all, but wouldn’t the ice-tower break through the sheer pressure, being hundreds of meters TALL and all? Also, wasn’t there a fence around the tower? How could he have gotten a fire-truck there? And seriously… why think of such a huge plan when you can just dump the body somewhere in the ruins of the city, and it would have been hidden for a long while. Why go through the trouble of such a risky plan? Obviously, the evil Byakko is the source of the trouble again. Interestingly enough, she ends up killing the culprit at the end of the episode, and I’m curious as to what the creators had in mind for the next episode. This series really continues to baffle me… the creativity is there, it’s just used at the wrong places, but I do have to admit that I’m intrigued about what tricks the creators will pull with the next instalment.]]>

This series continues to baffle me like no other. There were some really good parts in this episode, and it’s basically one huge dialogue, portraying the bond between Mayuki and his music-teacher in an excellent way. You can see that the creators spent a lot of time to this dialogue, and it really works. But seriously… WHY the tea?! Why does tea form the solution to every single mystery that Mayuki runs across?! Also, where did the virtual reality come from? More importantly, these glasses look quite heavy. Don’t people realize that they’re wearing the glasses in the first place? This series really has the potential, but these utterly ridiculous plot-twists really hold it down so much. For the past few episodes, I’ve also been screaming for some development from Mayuki, and this episode finally listened to these requests, but not really in the way I expected. Mayuki was either incredibly serious or incredibly silly. While it felt a bit out of place, I do have to say that this was the first episode where he didn’t get on my nerves, so the guy is getting better. And then we have the ending of the episode… where I really have no idea what to say. Mayuki’s teacher has had enough development, and while I couldn’t understand most of the dialogue, I could see why she killed the teacher, and it was interesting to see how her friendship with Mayuki was actually genuine, instead of an act. When her plan is revealed by Mayuki, she clearly is in despair and reflects upon her actions… … only for Byakko, who suddenly appeared from out of nowhere to brainwash the woman with a violin and her red-glowing eyes so she goes berserk. Seiran then comes and his two assistants kill the teacher. Yes, kill her. This begs the question as to what exactly happened to her and why Seiran doesn’t get arrested… a murder is a murder, right? And really, where is this series trying to go? Right now, we’ve got some psychic kid and a homicidal bodyguard who have to stay out of the clutches of those who want to either abuse or eliminate the powers of said kid. While it is among the more original premises of the season, it still remains hard to swallow… Ah well, this series does win the award of “most eccentric series of the season” easily.]]>

Whoa, talk about a sudden increase in quality. This episode was much, much better than the previous ones of this series, strangely enough. While the previous episode with the director was kindof cute and interesting, it was also a bit too silly and unbelievable whenever the word “tea” was mentioned. The storytelling in this episode was quite effective and the climax right before the eye-catch worked really well for me. But really, someone needs to replace Mayuki with a paper bag. While it would be a bit strange for Hatsumi to be in love with a paper bag, it would solve about 75% of the issues I have with this series. The only thing I can hope for is that he’ll develop into someone more interesting in the second half of this series, but I’m not getting my hopes up. I was also surprised how Hatsumi actually got some major development for this episode. She indeed is just a high-school girl, just like Sanae, and she isn’t just working full-time as Mayuki’s maid. If I had to guess, then she came to live with Mayuki and Seiran after her parents died(?). Apparently, Mayuki was so cute that she quickly became attached to him. It was probably after this that Seiran transformed her into her uber-form. The case for this episode, I admit, started off a bit mundane. We have a classmate of Hatsumi who is in love with her teacher, but this teacher was just using the girl to get money. Then everything changed when the music-teacher suddenly appeared and killed him with a bunch of scissors. I admit that I laughed, but the timing for this was exactly right, same with how Hatsumi arrived afterwards and got labelled as the #1 suspect. The next episode should delve into why exactly the music-teacher became crazy enough to kill the guy. All we know is that she was the one who taught the teacher to play the violin, and he’s become quite good at it. Strangely enough, there’s no Byakko in this episode either… perhaps that’s why it was so interesting as well. At the moment, I just see her and her boss as annoying plot-devices to involve Mayuki in exciting cases.]]>

Really, I’m not sure what to think of this series… this episode kept hopping back and forth from interesting to “WTF!?”. In this episode, Mayuki’s favourite director gets influenced by Byakko so that he plants a terrorist attack in a tall building in which Mayuki happens to be. I liked that point, where he basically tried to use the explosions for inspirations for his final movie. He also put enough thoughts in his plan, so it was quite interesting to watch. But really, the way Mayuki tried to convince him to stop with a cup of tea was just a bit too ridiculous. This wasn’t a good episode for him anyway, where all he did was whine over and over. What I liked was how this episode didn’t feature his classmates, but Seiga and the two maids. It’s good for a bit of variation, though I facepalmed when Sanae started frisbeeing with a random camera. You’re on top of a building about to collapse, so the last thing you’d want to do is fool around. Also… where the heck did that giant robot come from! I think it’s safe to say that this is one of the strangest series of the season. It does have one of the more unique premises, despite being so far-fetched. The thing I’m interested in the most is what this series is going to do once it hits its halfway-mark (assuming it’s going to have 26 episodes). I wonder what’s going to happen when the characters are fleshed out enough. And Mayuki grows a spine or something similar.]]>