Anime Review: Kamisama no Memo-chou Episode 2

Anime Review:
Kamisama no Memochou Episode 2

What this is about: Watching all of the anime shows so you don’t have to! For more information about me and my reviews, click here for details on what I am reviewing.

Series Premise: Kamisama no Memochou, or “Heaven’s Memo Pad”, is a 12-part weekly television series aired between July and September 2011, based on a light novel series by Hikaru Sugii. Narumi is the new kid in school, and soon finds himself caught up with a reclusive and diminutive detective named Alice and her coterie of assistants as they run a “NEET Detective Agency”.

Click on the thumbnails below to view the picture in full size in a new window:

Spoiler-free Episode Summary: A young girl, Meo, arrives at Alice’s NEET Detective Agency with a request to find her father; the only clue is the bag he entrusted to her, which turns out to contain 200 million yen. Alice, along with her new assistant Narumi, begin investigating and determine that he was a money launderer for the yakuza. Even though Narumi is warned off the case, he persists saying he is Alice’s assistant and that a promise is a promise. But as they dig deeper into the mystery, they may have bitten off more than they can chew.

My Impressions: After what I consider a truly impressive introductory episode (seriously, more shows should consider doing a double-length debut), things settle into the groove with what I assume is going to become the mystery-of-the-week format. Or, in this case, mystery-of-every-other-week, since this was just the first half of the current story arc.

Once again we have the laconic Alice secluded away in her woman-cave of stuffed animals and computer monitors, spouting off conjectures and deductions while sending her assistants out into the real world to do the dirty work. It seems like it is the newbie, Narumi, getting the brunt of the work, which is fine by me since the other guys are kinda one-dimensional stock characters as far as I can tell.

The mystery itself looks like it may be an honest-to-god actual mystery. A refreshing change from the other lauded “mystery” show of the year, Gosick, which is presented in such a way that it’s impossible to solve the case based on clues (or lack of them), and perhaps closer in tone to Psychic Detective Yakumo, which had actual mysteries but was somewhat lackluster in the end. I have higher hopes for Kamisama no Memochou, mostly because the characters themselves are more interesting to watch.

Back to the story at hand, it looks like Narumi may have really screwed up bad when he (incorrectly) told Meo that her father would probably not be returning. And also this ain’t a children’s game as they get tangled up with the yakuza, who come a-knockin’. Things could get very tricky very fast.

One thing I am trying to wrap my head around is the whole self-identified “NEET Detective” label. After all, “NEET” stands for “Not in Employment, Education or Training”, and yet by the mere fact they are all working as detectives means they are working, right? Plus one of the guys is in college, another studying in high school…seems like the NEET label was only applied as a gimmick, both by Alice herself to set herself apart from others, and by the anime producers to appeal to the fanboys? Yeah, I know it’s nit-picky, but there you go.

The verdict:

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For more information:

• Previews reviews:
  • Episode 1 (October 28)
• Info resources:
  • My Anime List
  • Anime News Network
  • AniDB
  • Wikipedia.
• If you like this, you might also like: Durarara or Death Note.

Sampling of Online Reviews:

• “For such episodic whodunits, this method of spreading things out should work well for several reasons. One is of course suspense. Leaving off before the mystery is solved allows for uncertainty and subsequent speculation from the viewer as to what will happen next – that’s a lot more exciting in my not-so-humble opinion. xD Another is that there is more time to properly develop the case. The cases are increasingly complex (and thus more intriguing) and the new characters more fleshed out.” – Metanorn
• “The one thing noticable about Kamimemo is how well the dialogue flows amongst the characters. It’s almost as if there’s a rhythm to the script, and the characters do fit their roles surprisingly well, the most notable out of the bunch being Alice and Narumi…What’s surprising about this series is that, while the mysteries aren’t exactly the best, they’re still very human tales at heart, with the modern setting only serving to cement the reality of the situations that unfold.” – Emory Anime Club
• “I’ve always enjoyed a good detective/mystery story. Kami-sama no Memo-chou seems to provide an average one in that department; I haven’t read the manga, but it looks like the format will revolve around a case-by-case basis, like Sherlock Holmes short stories.” – Random Curiosity
• “The dialogue, as expected, like the first episode, is one of the reasons why I enjoy watching the show. There’s a layer of complexity to a lot of the character conversations, and not just in a literal technobabble kind of way. The characters, Alice especially, sound very intelligent about what they talk about, and they also know how and when to splash a little bit of humour here and there to make things more entertaining.” – Glass Reflection
• “This show is so “slightly” better than average. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand Alice, which creates a bit of a problem as she’s probably going to be the fulcrum the entire show balances on. I just don’t like hearing her voice and the words that come out of it. I’m not really into NEET abuse, but when she says stuff like, “Information has killed more people than anything else,” I want to slap her.” – Moe Monster
• “My take-away is well summed up by a comment made by Guardian-Enzo: “Kamisama no Memo-chou is more Durarara! to me”. To me, what that means is that Kami-sama no Memo-chou is an ensemble piece, about the mysterious underside of city life. Like Durarara!!, Kami-Memo is not the story of one or two people, acting alone, but of many interesting characters, all contributing to the work.” – Abandoned Factory

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ROUND TWO RESULTS FOR SUMMER 2011 SHOWS:

Thumbs-up for Round Two: Mawaru Penguin Drum, Kamisama Dolls, No. 6, Dantalian no Shoka, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, Kamisama no Memo-chou

Thumbs-down for Round Two: Blood-C, Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%

Coming up next: Nurarihyon no Mago Second Season, Natsume Yuujinchou-san, Usagi Drop