Category: Fugou Keiji: Balance: UNLIMITED

Holy crap, Fugou Keiji. You managed to stick the landing and somehow brought the entire show together in a single 20 minute episode. There are twists, there are turns and there are even a few jokes so lets dive right into this finale!

Right off the bat, lets talk about this ending, because I loved it. So much happened and the twist was both fitting yet surprising. Somehow throughout the entire season I never suspected what happened, which we will talk about after the break for spoilers, yet in hindsight it makes a lot of sense. So because the next few paragraphs are going to be spent with me gushing about the ending, lets talk about how the episode went right here at the top huh? All in all I think it did a great job of picking the ball up and running with it after the last few somewhat dropped it narratively. We got a 2nd round of character arc finales, a satisfying narrative finale and even nice callback all the way to episode one. I really enjoyed it and I think Fugou Keiji deserves props for that. Now for the details!

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 11 [All that glitters is not gold]” →

Welcome all to the penultimate episode of Fugou Keiji! Apologies for the wait, I had to catch a plane and those don’t really wait for anime blogged. On the up side though we have a lot to talk about this week as Daisuke and Kato catch the bad guys and the story starts to wrap up. Lets dive in!

Starting off I want to get some production concerns out of the way. Because for all that Fugou Keiji tried really hard this week, the production made it… awkward at times. With the entire episode taking place at night, on this secret ship, the lighting really should have been better. From Daisuke’s black hair and suit to the dark rooms and exterior, the lighting made it difficult to see what was happening. I understand that lighting a night scene is difficult, especially in anime of all things. How do you make things easily readable without sacrificing the dark and oppressive nature of well… darkness? However this is a solved issue for the most part, with the hardest part being the execution: Use moonlight! Frame the moon behind people, throw a slightly bloom filter, something! Just let me see Shigemaru’s arm clearly against a black background, please!

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 10 [Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills]” →

Another week, another episode of Fugou Keiji! This week we confront Shigemaru, Daisuke pulls a Christopher Nolan and Modern Crimes finally get their time to shine. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Once again I have to say that Fugou Keiji could have done so much more. Whether it be playing up the serious drama with HEUSC or taking away Daisuke’s money. Show us how he has grown since the series started, show us what he can do without his technology. Have him grow to be self-sufficient like Kato, etc. Yes this takes away from the “Batman” or rich boy power fantasy Fugou Keiji started as. But the series itself has already moved away from that when it became more of a serious crime drama. However I am not here to be a debby-downer, because regardless of what more it could have done, I really enjoyed Fugou Keiji this week. From the consistent Batman references to the Modern Crimes shenanigans, everything was just a lot of fun, and I won’t complain about what we got.

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 9 [A golden key can open any door]” →

Hello all and welcome to a rather late chat about Fugou Keiji! I blame Crusader Kings 3 personally, I was a bit busy conquering all of Europe. That aside, this week we get answers to a few mysteries only to have a few more introduced. Cho goes the way of all retired cops and Daisuke gets an unexpected reunion. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Overall, this was a pretty lackluster episode of Fugou Keiji for me. Everything about it felt rushed, felt like it needed more time. More time to expand on the mystery, more time to build up the characters or explore various parts of the setting. Iin this one episode Fugou Keiji introduced and resolved multiple different plots/mysteries, burning through its plot. Take for example the Third Laboratory which Cho introduces this week. We learn where Shigemaru was working, where he met his wife, where the gas from the Presidents assassination attempt was manufactured. However instead of getting an arc about discovering where it is, how to break in, why it was removed from the records etc, its all shoved into this one episode. Kato figures it out from a photo, we immediately drive over and bust in, only to discover something we already knew. It’s wasted potential.

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 8 [Money burns a hole in the pocket]” →

This week on Fugou Keiji we get flashbacks in flashbacks as Kiyomizu recounts the unsolved Kambe murder mystery! We have politics, intrigue, corruption and a dash of homicide. So without further ado, lets jump right in!

As far as the episode goes, it was rather weird. The whole first half was a flashback, complete with black bars and everything to make sure we knew. And while it was a good flashback, laying the groundwork for everything else, the 2nd half went off the rails a bit. We will talk about spoilers after the break but this is an example of Fugou Keiji’s identity issue rearing its head again. In the last few episodes it seemed that Fugou Keiji had decided what it wanted to be, a serious detective drama. However this episodes ending bit with the VR clashed with that. Except unlike previous instances of this, such as the old ladies and the boy-band, this one was actually used in a narratively important way. This wasn’t a throw-away absurd gag but rather a serious part of the narrative, and it broke it a little for me.

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 7 [Money is the root of all evil]” →

Come one, come all, to the week of Fugou Keiji’s metamorphosis! This week we have intrigue, mystery and a dash of murder. So without further ado, lets dive in.

Starting off, this week completes Fugou Keiji’s transformation from a comedic parody of rich superheroes to a legitimate detective series. Where once the money-based gags were front and center, they have since become the moments of levity between harrowing intrigue. And I am loving it. I said in prior posts that I preferred Fugou Keiji when it was a parody. At the time that was true. I wasn’t convinced at that point that the series could pull off a serious detective story. Daisuke was to ridiculous and the presentation to comedic. Which is I want to think its incredible just how well Fugou Keiji managed this slow tonal shift. Over the course of 3 episodes it toned down the comedy and dialed up the drama bit by bit. Until we got to where we are today, all without ever giving away the game until Daisuke blows up a car.

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 6 [Ill Got, Ill Spent]” →

Let’s cut right to the chase, because this was a big week for Fugou Keiji. Not because of any great narrative events, though we are seeing the beginning of something greater. Rather because Fugou Keiji seems to have decided what it wants to be. Until now it has been struggling with an identity crisis. Is it a comedic and ridiculous romp, riffing on rich superheroes like Tony Start and Bruce Wayne? Or is it a serious detective story with a touch of the fantastical in Daisuke? This week Fugou Keiji seems to have decided on the latter. There was very little levity and the series seems to be setting up some rather serious and impactful arcs to come. Some jokes were still there of course, but almost all of them were worked into the story. Were tinged with something more serious. So with that in mind, lets talk detective stories.

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 5 [If Money be not thy Servant, it will be thy Master]” →

Fugou Keiji is a ridiculous show, there is no getting around that. Yet this week surprised me by stripping away all of its crazy, ok most of its crazy, and giving us something… wholesome. So lets dive in and talk about what is Fugou Keiji’s most sincere episode yet.

As I said, this was a very calm and wholesome episode of Fugou Keiji. There was nothing overt or over the top about it. No money-based gags or super serious story lines, though it tease one at the end. It was just a focused character drama, a day in the life of our leads, and you know what? I think it worked. I think Fugou Keiji did some good stuff with Daisuke here. The growth isn’t huge, no sweeping changes were made, but it is the start of something. With this episode Fugou Keiji made the promise that Daisuke would grow as a character. That he wouldn’t sit statically just to be a gag for the show. And if the series can live up to that promise, can give us tangible growth for his character, I think it could be great.

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 4 [Nothing makes a man so adventurous as an empty pocket]” →

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, Fugou Keiji has returned! It’s been a few months since we got our last dose of “billionaire solving problems with money”, I’m glad its back. So without further ado lets dive in and talk Japanese Batman!

First up though, a recap of what exactly Fugou Keiji is all about for those that have forgotten. The story centers around Daisuke Kanbe, a multi-billionaire with more money than god. In his quest to play detective he solves any and every problem with money. Need a car to chase a crook? Buy some random civilians car for 3x its worth and go. Need to bust into the penthouse of a building for some espionage? Just buy the building and shoot a rocket launcher at it since its now your property. Doing his best to rein Daisuke in is Haru Katou, a compassionate and former First Investigation Division detective, now relegated to grunt work. Together, with their mix of street smarts and raw monetary power, they will solve a myriad of crimes. And yes, Daisuke has his own AI Alfred. Caught up? Good, its time to talk new episode.

Continue reading “Fugou Keiji – 3 [The Sinews of War Are Infinite Money]” →