Skip to content
Skip to SEARCH-2
Skip to PAGES-3
Skip to CATEGORIES-2
Skip to ARCHIVES-2
Skip to META-2
Skip to TEXT-3
Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

Various Thoughts

Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

← Older posts
  • Tag Archives Mystery
  • I PARRY EVERYTHING & The Holy Grail of Eris

    Posted on March 16, 2023 2:30 pm by Offkorn Comment

    The Ore wa Subete o “Parry” suru: Gyaku Kanchigai no Sekai Saikyou wa Boukensha ni Naritai series reminds me a bit of One Punch Man, featuring as it does a protagonist who became ludicrously strong after having trained too hard. That’s the only real similarity though; their personalities are completely different and the comedic focus here is on a cavalcade of misunderstandings and poor communication skills rather than parodying battle shounen tropes.

    Eris no Seihai meanwhile starts off with a compounded version of that standard ‘girl gets framed by the person stealing her fiancé’ trope: The classic variety which happened in the past (and resulted in the production of the ghost half of the protagonist duo) and a modified version that serves as a spark for the main heroine. The problem with this novel is that it’s extraordinarily scattershot… it has no idea what it wants to be. A romance? A comedy? A thriller? A mystery? All sorts of elements clash against one another here in a particularly unpleasant manner.

    Related posts:

    1. Fierce Heart, War Bound, & My Happy Marriage Tara Grayce‘s first two Elven Alliance books (Fierce Heart &...
    2. I PARRY EVERYTHING #2 & Dahlia in Bloom #7 The second Ore wa Subete o Parry suru book completes...
    3. My Magical Career at Court & Full Clearing Another World #9 The first Black Madougushi Guild o Tsuihou sareta Watashi, Oukyuu...
    4. Death’s DAUGHTER #5 & Full Clearing Another World #8 This fifth Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo book is the weakest...
    5. The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects & The BEGINNING AFTER the END #1-2 Another book with an age-gap romance, Ryoumin 0-nin Start no...

    Powered by YARPP.


    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Eris no Seihai Fantasy Kujira Tokiwa Mystery NABESHIKI Ore wa Subete o Parry suru Young Adult Novel
  • Fushi no Kami #7 & The Apothecary Diaries

    Posted on February 4, 2023 3:33 pm by Offkorn Comment

    To my great surprise, the seventh Fushi no Kami novel turned out to be the series’ conclusion.

    This was surprising mainly because half is devoted to talking in circles, a quarter is devoted to creating a hamfisted solution to the love triangle issue, and then the actual conclusion is handled by two abrupt 2-year time skips. Like… nothing gets resolved. The only potential silver-lining (if it can even be called that) is that I definitely would’ve dropped it here. Meaning I now don’t have to worry about missing anything or it potentially getting better.

    Kusuriya no Hitorigoto starts out with what could be seen as a self-contained novel. It’s got an established beginning, end, and plenty of development in-between. Sure it sometimes comes across more like a collection of short stories, but that’s not necessarily a negative. Honestly, it’s everything I had hoped the Koukyuu no Karasu Anime would’ve been like.

    That said… I’m conflicted on whether or not to continue. I enjoyed it, yet honestly can’t see it ending up anywhere good if the additional volume summaries are to be believed. Guess I’ll take a ‘wait and see’ approach.

    Related posts:

    1. Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts with a Village #1-6 On the surface, Fushi no Kami is your standard ‘person...
    2. Disillusioned Adventurers #3 & Rebuild World II The third Ningen Fushin novel unsurprisingly has a bit of...
    3. So I’m a Spider, So What? #15-16 The last two Kumodesuga books were originally released a mere...
    4. Relatively Recent Books Been procrastinating with adding these because it’s a pain. May...
    5. 86: Darkest Before the Dawn & Mist The follow-up to the fifth 86 novel, Darkest Before the...

    Powered by YARPP.


    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Fushi no Kami History Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Mizuumi Amakawa Mystery Natsu Hyuuga Romance Science Fiction Young Adult Novel
  • Munou na Nana & Yuukoku no Moriarty

    Posted on February 7, 2021 7:04 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

    Taking the standard murder mystery setup and flipping it on its head, Munou na Nana introduces you to the killer in the first scene and revolves its (early) mystery elements around wondering how she’ll get away with it. As it progresses and more is revealed about the protagonist the focus shifts to a broader conspiracy-minded framework without losing any momentum whatsoever.

    I’m particularly fond of the ending, though most will probably be more pissed off about the show wrapping on an arc’s climax with no sign of a continuation in sight.

    Also told from an antagonist’s point of view, though one more morally ambiguous than Nana‘s, Yuukoku no Moriarty tells the story of Sherlock Holmes through the lens of his greatest rival. It’s less a mystery series and more an almost episodic revenge drama, one populated by surprisingly likable characters and consistent thematic framing.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2021 - Spring Anime Related and tagged Action Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Drama Finished Funimation Incomplete Source Mystery School Life Series Televised Thriller Urban Fantasy
  • Dorohedoro & Kabukichou Sherlock

    Posted on September 3, 2020 8:44 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

    The gory CGI action-comedy Dorohedoro appears to have been the inspiration behind Kekkai Sensen, as they have a remarkable number of similarities between them in terms of atmosphere and character behavior. So I’m not really sure why I ended up so ambivalent about it. There are the obvious problems of course, such as the brain-damaged ecchi child, Hakata Ramen-esque baseball episode, cringey late-series mind-control developments, and both Nikaidou and Noi bearing a curious resemblance to Goku… but in the end I think it may have just been that the style of CGI animation they used disagreed with me.

    Kabukichou Sherlock is another comedy series which would have been better off named ‘Rakugo Sherlock‘. I hate rakugo. While I’ll grant that making Sherlock a rakugo addict rather than a drug addict goes a long way toward making him even more eccentric, I’m not sure there are all that many people out there who can stand that level of eccentricity. Especially when almost every other character in the series besides Watson is neurotic in some manner. And that’s ultimately all this series has going for it; neurosis. If you don’t enjoy laughing at outcasts there won’t really be anything for you here.

    If you happen to be in the mood for a cute parenting-themed traveling show however, you can instead check out Somali to Mori no Kamisama without fear of it developing romantic elements.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Comic Adaptation Dramatic Support Dropped Finished Funimation Incomplete Source Mystery Netflix Series Televised Urban Fantasy
  • I⊃:INVΛ⊃≡⊃ & Inception

    Posted on August 26, 2020 10:21 am by Offkorn Comment

    ID: Invaded is a series in the vein of Psycho-Pass if Psycho-Pass readings resembled Inception‘s dream-diving. It’s far more of a mystery-thriller than an action series however and unfortunately gets weird in a manner similar to King of Thorn toward the end (the Akane stand-in being made even smaller is another oddity).

    Speaking of Inception, that happens to be a movie I’ve referenced a time or two in the past in relation to newer works… yet, I never actually saw the whole thing. I had only seen the trailer and read the Wikipedia summary.

    Having now watched it, it doesn’t appear I was missing much. It’s not as mind-bendy as you would think (Doctor Strange gets weirder than it does) and in effect just ends up a variation on the standard heist movie formula popularized by movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job. Which doesn’t make it not worth watching… just that the description evokes something more innovative than the reality.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2020 - Winter Anime Related Movie & TV Related and tagged Anime Original Funimation Movie Mystery Romance Science Fiction Series Televised Thriller Workplace
  • Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note & Maou-sama, Retry!

    Posted on August 25, 2020 9:06 am by Offkorn Comment

    The Lord El-Melloi II Case Files series turned out to be a direct sequel to Fate/Zero that ends shortly before the beginning of Fate/Stay Night. Making it a perfect choice to watch between the two. Even better, it features two notable characters from Fate/Apocrypha and Prisma Illya (making it easier to watch those series afterward).

    Content-wise it’s something like a detective mystery series infused with some standard Fate/-style action and occasional comic relief. The first episode is not representative of the series as a whole (the stand-alone episode 0 serves that role far better), to the point that if the backstory revealed within weren’t somewhat necessary I’d suggest skipping it entirely, while the rest of the episodes are split between an early episodic focus and a plot-driven remainder. There’s also a bit of a subfocus on philosophy, which would’ve probably ended up as boring as Zero‘s couch scenes had they not decided to keep the camera moving here. Even the most dialog-heavy sequences always have something to look at.

    Maou-sama, Retry! unfortunately doesn’t compliment anything. It’s nothing but a pale imitation of Overlord with a worse protagonist and more gratuitous ecchi. Just ignore it.

    Continue reading → Post ID 10392

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Adventure Comedy Comic Relief Drama Dropped Ecchi Fantasy Fate/ Finished Funimation Harem Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Mystery Partial Adaptation Urban Fantasy
  • LEGIⓧN & THE ALIENIST

    Posted on August 21, 2020 11:35 am by Offkorn Comment

    Based off of a Marvel Comics’ character, the 3-season television series Legion is a study in high-concept insanity. It takes guts to make something so deliberately incoherent, to essentially thread together one concept episode after another until you have a consistently inconsistent schizophrenic tapestry… that I can’t deny. Doesn’t mean it’s worth watching though.

    The Alienist is something quite a bit different. A Victorian era thriller with police procedural elements set in New York City, its first season mainly busies itself with highlighting police corruption and reminding people that prostitution is a gender-neutral profession. I’m not at all surprised that it had a middling reception (though I liked the first half or so), especially since the narrative basically falls apart once the focus shifts to ‘the west’.

    The second season, subtitled Angel of Darkness, puts a greater focus on Sara and women’s suffrage in general with the murder victims being babies this time rather than adolescents. The corruption elements here come across as excessive/overwhelming and the work as a whole almost feels less like a thriller and more like soapbox preaching. Meaning I can’t really recommend watching this series either.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Comic Adaptation Drama History Marvel Comics Mystery Novel Adaptation Paranormal Romance Romance Series Televised Thriller Urban Fantasy
  • WITCHBLADE & HOMELAND

    Posted on August 6, 2020 1:42 pm by Offkorn Comment

    The turn of the century TV adaptation of the comicbook series Witchblade begins with a movie. Being almost entirely an action-drama (there’s some supernatural mystery in there as well), it suffers rather severely from the fact that the action scenes are mostly ridiculous. More than anything they bring to mind a super sentai series… making it prohibitively difficult to take the drama seriously.

    Homeland is also a TV series, one which thankfully doesn’t appear to suffer from unintentional comedy (just frontloaded gratuitous nudity). The first season is a combination of thriller and familial drama which comes across something like “Hex: The Early Years”. On the face of things that shouldn’t have been much of a problem, but the early ‘fuck people’s privacy!’ theme is taken to Stalker-ish extremes and almost ends up a deal-killer.

    The second season is a continuation of the first, following a timeskip, which slows things down with more of a focus on secret-agenty behavior and personal trauma. The third picks up shortly after and amps up the personal drama quite a bit. At this juncture the re-occurring psychiatric issues subplot (and accompanying mental institution committals) becomes actively aggravating. It also happens to be the point the series starts focusing a hell of a lot more on Saul than Carrie.

    Season 4 is something of a soft reboot which makes the odd choice to replace the adultery-related drama with childcare drama only to almost immediately drop the topic completely, while also going well out of its way to shoehorn in more psychiatric issues. Seriously… what the fuck? And if that weren’t bad enough, the 5th season (picking up two years after S4’s conclusion) goes completely off the rails.

    It’s strange… the show makes so many odd choices and sends so many conflicting signals that it’s tough to get a read on it. The early seasons are both good and bad. Regardless, if you do decide to give it a chance, you should definitely stop watching at the end of S4 (if you can make it that far). Maybe go watch Jormungand after for the Hex/Bookman parallels.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Comic Adaptation Drama Movie Mystery Romance Series Televised Thriller Urban Fantasy Workplace
  • PSYCHO-PASS | Sinners of the System & Season 3

    Posted on August 3, 2020 12:55 am by Offkorn Comment

    The three Sinners of the System movies are a mixed bag. Being theoretically set a few months after the first Psycho-Pass movie, in practice only the third actually functions like a sequel.

    The first is a side-story that completely overhauls Mika’s personality (for the better) and feels like it should be a prequel to the second season. It’s also not very good. The second is mostly a prequel flashback to the first season (framed by a few ‘modern day’ scenes set before the previous movie) focused on one of the S2 enforcers. This movie is quite good. And then there’s the 3rd movie, which…. Well, it’s sort of required watching if you plan to follow-up with Season 3, yet it comes across nothing like a Psycho-Pass work.

    That third season begins after a multi-year timeskip, and quite a number of things have changed: Mika underwent another personality overhaul, Japan has relaxed its isolationist stance, Sibyl is gearing up to reveal its presence to the masses, Akane is off the team, and there are three new enforcers and two new inspectors. The old team is still around, just in a notably different role. It’s surprisingly good (clearly meant to be a return to Season 1 sensibilities) but suffers both from a number of unexplained developments and having Arata be so ludicrously overpowered. It also ends on a cliffhanger…

    …resolved by a ‘movie’ follow-up. This bloated conclusion takes the concept of “homage” far too far. It apparently wanted to recapture the magic of the mid-series Season 1 climax, but instead stumbles time and again with both questionable action scenes and by just flat-out dragging things out for too long.

    In the end it’s tough to recommend watching any of these besides the 2nd SS movie: The first is a pointless sidestory, the third lacks any Psycho-Pass sensibility, S3 requires having seen that third SS movie, and First Inspector is just plain tedious.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Winter 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Amazon Prime Anime Original Drama Finished Movie Mystery Science Fiction Series Televised Workplace
  • TRUE DETECTIVE

    Posted on July 30, 2020 10:50 am by Offkorn Comment

    I’ve heard quite a number of good things about True Detective‘s premiere season, and the first 4.5 episodes absolutely live up to the hype. However… once it abandons the past narrative to focus on a current day case, alluded to by the interview framing device, it deteriorates quite quickly. Genre-wise it’s a mix of thrillerish dramatic elements combined with familial/relationship drama and a bit of action here and there, all of which fit together remarkably well.

    The second season switches up the cast, location, and structure; no framing gimmicks here (though there is a time skip). The genre composition remains more or less the same while the character personalities/goals are quite different and it has more of an ensemble cast sort of thing going on. Overall I’d say this season ends up significantly better than the first. Oh sure it starts out shaky and a bit difficult to follow, which can be damning if compared directly to the first season’s beginning, but the connection between the pre- and post-timeskip plotlines is far stronger and the work as a whole is noticeably more consistent.

    The third season goes back to the style and structure of the first in pretty much every way (no, adding a second interview timeline does not count as an innovation), even directly referencing it. Why? Why would you retread old ground like this? Was all the criticism of the second season really so influential or did the creator simply run out of ideas? Just re-watch the first season rather than bother with this pointless rehash.

    In summary: The first is good, the second is great, and the third is a waste of time (unless you like shows featuring alzheimer’s sufferers I guess).

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Drama Mystery Romance Series Televised Workplace

Posts pagination

1 2 3 Next

  • Tag Groups

    Genre

    Action Action RPG Adventure Battle Shounen Board Game Card Game Comedy Comic Relief Coming of Age Cyberpunk Dating Sim Drama Dramatic Support Dystopia Ecchi Educational Exploration Fantasy FPS Harem History Hobby Horror Idol Magical Girl MMORPG Music Mystery Paranormal Romance Parody Puzzle Game Roguelike Romance RPG School Life Science Fiction Simulation Slice of Life Sports Steampunk Strategy Tactical RPG Thriller Urban Fantasy Virtual World Western Workplace

    Meta

    Alternative Version Amazon Prime Anime Original Comic Adaptation Crunchyroll Daisuki Dropped Finished First Person Perspective Funimation Game Adaptation HiDive Hulu Incomplete Source Literary Adaptation Live Action Adaptation LN Adaptation Mixed Media Project Movie Netflix Novel Adaptation Novella OVA Partial Adaptation Series Short Anime Televised Third Person Perspective VN Adaptation Web Novel Young Adult Novel
  • Pages

    • Anime Overviews
      • Disliked Anime
      • Preferred Anime
      • Skipped Anime
      • Miku Hatsune Concerts
    • Final Fantasy XIV
      • FFXIV Combat Macros
    • Game Guides
    • Game Mods
      • Subtitle Mods
    • MP3 Player Playlist
    • MTGO Draft & Event Decks
    • VtM oWoD Vampiric NPC Listing
  • Categories

    • Anime Related
      • 1981 – Autumn
      • 1982 – Spring
      • 1982 – Winter
      • 1983 – Winter
      • 1984 – Spring
      • 1984 – Summer
      • 1985 – Autumn
      • 1985 – Summer
      • 1986 – Summer
      • 1987 – Autumn
      • 1987 – Spring
      • 1987 – Summer
      • 1987 – Winter
      • 1988 – Autumn
      • 1988 – Spring
      • 1988 – Summer
      • 1988 – Winter
      • 1989 – Autumn
      • 1989 – Spring
      • 1989 – Summer
      • 1990 – Autumn
      • 1990 – Spring
      • 1990 – Summer
      • 1990 – Winter
      • 1991 – Autumn
      • 1991 – Winter
      • 1992 – Autumn
      • 1992 – Spring
      • 1992 – Summer
      • 1992 – Winter
      • 1993 – Autumn
      • 1993 – Spring
      • 1993 – Summer
      • 1993 – Winter
      • 1994 – Autumn
      • 1994 – Spring
      • 1994 – Summer
      • 1994 – Winter
      • 1995 – Autumn
      • 1995 – Spring
      • 1995 – Summer
      • 1995 – Winter
      • 1996 – Autumn
      • 1996 – Spring
      • 1996 – Summer
      • 1996 – Winter
      • 1997 – Spring
      • 1997 – Summer
      • 1997 – Winter
      • 1998 – Autumn
      • 1998 – Winter
      • 1999 – Autumn
      • 1999 – Spring
      • 1999 – Summer
      • 1999 – Winter
      • 2000 – Spring
      • 2001 – Autumn
      • 2001 – Spring
      • 2001 – Summer
      • 2002 – Autumn
      • 2002 – Spring
      • 2002 – Summer
      • 2002 – Winter
      • 2003 – Autumn
      • 2003 – Spring
      • 2003 – Summer
      • 2003 – Winter
      • 2004 – Autumn
      • 2004 – Spring
      • 2004 – Summer
      • 2004 – Winter
      • 2005 – Autumn
      • 2005 – Spring
      • 2005 – Summer
      • 2005 – Winter
      • 2006 – Spring
      • 2006 – Winter
      • 2007 – Autumn
      • 2007 – Spring
      • 2007 – Summer
      • 2007 – Winter
      • 2008 – Autumn
      • 2008 – Spring
      • 2008 – Summer
      • 2008 – Winter
      • 2009 – Autumn
      • 2009 – Spring
      • 2009 – Summer
      • 2009 – Winter
      • 2010 – Autumn
      • 2010 – Spring
      • 2010 – Summer
      • 2010 – Winter
      • 2011 – Autumn
      • 2011 – Spring
      • 2011 – Summer
      • 2011 – Winter
      • 2012 – Autumn
      • 2012 – Spring
      • 2012 – Summer
      • 2012 – Winter
      • 2013 – Autumn
      • 2013 – Spring
      • 2013 – Summer
      • 2013 – Winter
      • 2014 – Autumn
      • 2014 – Spring
      • 2014 – Summer
      • 2014 – Winter
      • 2015 – Autumn
      • 2015 – Spring
      • 2015 – Summer
      • 2015 – Winter
      • 2016 – Autumn
      • 2016 – Spring
      • 2016 – Summer
      • 2016 – Winter
      • 2017 – Autumn
      • 2017 – Spring
      • 2017 – Summer
      • 2017 – Winter
      • 2018 – Autumn
      • 2018 – Spring
      • 2018 – Summer
      • 2018 – Winter
      • 2019 – Autumn
      • 2019 – Spring
      • 2019 – Summer
      • 2019 – Winter
      • 2020 – Autumn
      • 2020 – Spring
      • 2020 – Summer
      • 2020 – Winter
      • 2021 – Spring
      • 2021 – Summer
      • 2021 – Winter
      • 2023 – Winter
    • Book Related
    • Internet Related
    • Movie & TV Related
    • Music Related
    • Uncategorized
    • Video Game Related
      • DLC
      • Gamecube
      • GBA
      • Guides
      • Nintendo DS
      • Nintendo Switch
      • PC
        • Emulation
        • Modding
      • PS2
      • PS3
      • SNES
      • Wii
  • Archives

  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org

©2025 raindrops Entries RSS and Comments RSS Raindrops Theme