Okay, I may have to explain myself quite a bit for labelling this as one of the two non-sequels that I immediately found good enough to blog this season. I mean, this isn’t because I’m a Bee-Train fan: I’m a fan of Bee-Train because of Koichi Mashimo and he wasn’t involved here, and it’s also not like I have my criticisms about Shinrei Tantei Yakumo. Yet, while this may seem like a Ghost Hunt rip-off, it’s actually completely different.
I know that this is something very subjective, but out of all of the first episodes I watched this season so far, this series is the one that stuck to my mind the most, aside from perhaps Letter Bee. This show is strange, it advertises itself as a mystery-series, while it actually completely isn’t. It makes no attempt to build up it’s mystery: one moment it introduces things and only a minute later it has already revealed the main culprit. Still, the more I think about it, the more I realize how every moment of this series is meant to contribute to its characters: whether this is the main cast or the side-cast, it doesn’t matter: Yakumo has no wasted scenes whatsoever. I mean, I’m crazy if I’m not going to blog something like that.
This episode again: the genre it belongs to the most was freaking Iyashi-kei. I mean, what the heck? The entire episode went completely against the thriller-esque mood that this series built up, and instead told the story about two old guys and the relationship they had with a woman who died in their past. The story they told about themselves was short and to the point, and yet it worked somehow. And Yakumo… from a bishified detective he actually turned into a medium of all things: his purpose in this series revolves more around healing people’s deep scars by letting them meet their loved ones who died, rather than solving some cheesy mystery here.
I also love that this series is episodic: that’s really something that this series needs, considering that it’s only got 13 episodes. The past two episodes have been rushed, indeed. But they were also short and to the point. I really applaud the creators to put so much meaning into them in so little time. Especially considering how half this episode was focused on Yakumo himself, rather than those two old guys. That uncle of Yakumo succeeded in making Yakumo into more than just another stereotypical silent badass.
Yakumo doesn’t have the biggest budget, and at times the acting also feels a bit flat. But unlike Togainu no Chi, this series provided more than enough to keep my interests: it did a lot of stuff here, in just two episodes. I also love those parts at the end of each episode, which try to foreshadow the main plot and try to keep the different episodes together. They’ve got this really neat atmosphere, completely different from the episode that preceded them. It’s there where this series also doesn’t get afraid to get a little artsy, especially in the previous episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
…What the heck are you smoking? Are you implying that 13-episode series shouldn’t bother on plot? Because, I mean… “lol who cares about plot when there’s so little few episodes, am I right?”
That’s not what I meant at all. I was referring to series like Occult Academy or Sengoku Basara 2, which had points in which they wasted too much of their time on long arcs, despite being very short series. I personally consider 13 episodes to be really short, and being episodic prevents this series from dragging on. It has nothing to do with its plot. This episode contributed enough to both the plot and the characters.
I don’t know where exactly this episade came from, but in contrast to this one the 1st episode was and the next one will be a chapter from the first volume of the novel. We’ll see what they do with their given amount of episodes, maybe they’ll just pick out the most interesting or adaptable chapters and animate them. I just hope they get to the background story in time in case they will be unable to produce a second season.
13 episodes amount to a bit more than 4 hours. Movies take way less than that and are able to successfully deliver a story. I could mention lots of lots of 13-episode anime shows with decently told stories.
Also, “being episodic” “prevents” a show from “dragging on”? …Seriously?
Episodic shows are the very example of stuff that drags on and on (see monster-of-the-week shows, for example). I think you have a wrong idea of what “dragging on” truly means.
This is actually a clear indication of the show actually failing to deliver what it intended to show.
@Matthew:
I think what psgels wanted to imply is, that the fact that Yakumo is delivering an episodic plot each episode to develop the characters, actually keeps it interesting and ensures that there’s actually something happening.
13 episode series actually are kinda difficult to pull off. There are many series that managed to do so, like Môryô no Hako for example.
But Yakumo’s source material has an episodic structure too and I’m happy that they decided not to focus on just 2 or three cases, but actually shorten them enough to show as much as possible.
The first episode for example, was about 100 pages long in the novel (they even shortened it in both manga versions) and I think they did a good job with it.
And you know what this series intends to achieve?
The novels are described as ‘highspeed spiritual mystery’ next to their covers and since mystery is a very diverse term you can’t decide whether it fails to achieve what it promises.
I love othodox mysteries, but I would not watch this show to be treated with that subgenre since the whole spirits-premise almost makes this impossible a priori (even if good mystery novels who integrate supernatural aspects into their orthodox structure do exist out there).
@Matthew:
I think psgels means a different type of “episodic”. Not like those monster of the week shows that follow a repeated formula for each episode. Episodic as in “an standalone story by itself, but adds on to the plot as a whole as well.”
Examples of this would be like “Darker than Black” and “Natsume Yuujinchou”. You can watch any episode by itself and it still serves as an individual story, but it at the same time fleshes out the characters.
13 episodes is rather short. So if you’re going be telling one big story, you had better be on your toes and not waste time. This is something that Eden of the East and Occult Academy failed to do, since both series goofed off too much. Goofing off a bit for a 26 episode series; that’s okay. For a 13 episode one? No.
So if you aren’t going to be focusing on one story, you need to tell individual stand-alone stories that still add to the whole idea of the story.
This is why I love you. only 1 raw at this point in time and you already have the review up. Epic.
Great job psgels, glad you’ll be following this, looking forwards to your thoughts each week, can’t wait to see ep 2 for myself once we get a sub.
Yeah ShyBlue, that’s what I got out of what psgels meant too, I think that’s also why it was a pretty wordy description.
@mousoukyoku
Ah, nice sounds like there’s a nice amount of content to the story.
Im loving this so far, might as well be my favourite anime of fall season currently… For once there are no whiny teenagers or pointless fanservice etc
And it has this relaxing atmosphere that makes the whole thing really enjoyable… Good stuff
yakumo = neko bishie
Glad to know that know that you are enjoying this show. I am only troubled that they are fitting about 120 pages into 20 min. Last episode it resulted a mystery that lacked suspense and had a lot of lose ends. Hopefully next week’s case isn’t like that. It enjoyed reading it in the manga.
A note. Nordkohl, the only group who have released the english subs of episode 2 so far, is thinking of dropping this project. Might be last minute words of encouragement could help 🙂
link to msg:http://privatepaste.com/ac220c1c12
Well, the manga is episodic so it only makes sense that anime is as well.
But I seriously have a problem with this series being only 13 episodes long. There’s 8 volumes in the original novel. There’s 2 mangas, the original one tackling the first volume and the 2nd manga skipping it (except introduction arc) to do the remaining 7 volumes.
The anime being only 13 episodes long seems to me that it’ll be completely rushed. There’s 3 arcs in the first volume so I can’t help thinking this anime should be 26 episodes instead. By extrapolation, there should be 24 arcs for 8 volumes so 24-26 episodes sounds a lot better than only 13 episodes.
I finished seeing episode 2.
It was very good as expected 🙂
Yakumo has a cool personality and Haruka is sweet and cute ^_^
For me second episode was far better than the first. Loved this episode
Somehow this second episode felt really rushed to me.
I don’t know the manga or novel but in this episode it was all like “first this, then that and now go for the final”.
The meeting with Yakumo’s “family” also felt a bit forced…
I just watched the first 3 episodes and I think it is defintly going to be the sleeper of the season. I really, really like the characters.
cdk