Debutante Detective Corps
1996 OVA, 30 minutes
Production: Toho/Head Room/Marcus
Genres: Comedy, Mystery
Well, my next two reviews are covering
some other OVAs directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. For those of you not in
the know, Akiyuki Shinbo is my personal favorite director for anime
TV series. Since joining Studio Shaft in 2004, he has helmed quite a
lot of shows that I like, such as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Negima!?
(remake not a second season), Pani Poni Dash, Arakawa Under the
Bridge, and Madoka Magica. Whether or not you like their shows, one
thing you can't fault them is not being entertaining. Shinbo, through
use of visual and textual references and slapstick comedy, along with
the ability to deconstruct/reinvent common genres (like Madoka as
reinvented Mahou Shoujo), makes most of their stuff very fun to watch.
Though, before 2004, Shinbo had a
rather patchy career directing OVAs from various other studios. I
have covered some of them here: The Galaxy Fraulien Yuna OVAs and
Detatako Princess OVA back in 2011, and Tenamonya Voyagers last year.
Those have their moments of inspired genius, but they suffer a bit
from not being like Shinbou's later works. Not surprising as he
hadn't yet to develop his own style yet, thus making the OVAs he did
work on rather generic and not unlike other shows of the time. This
fact is apparent with today's show of review, "Debutante
Detective Corps", a DVD I picked at last November's Atlanta
Anime Day for about 5$.
"Debuntate Detective Corps"
is a 30 minute OVA from 1996, the same year that the second Galaxy
Fraulein Yuna OVA came out. It tells the the adventures of five rich
and well-endowed high school girls as they contend with an escaped
convict who plans to kidnap them. I won't go into too much details on
the characters, as they are woefully one-note: Each girl has a
special talent, be it computer hacking or master of disguise powers.
That's all on the plot and characters. Wow, this review will be
fairly short. Yeah, this is a pilot for a TV series that never came
to be.
Well, I can still elaborate on the
animation and direction a bit. Animation is well standard for the
mid-90s; it probably looked good then, today it is merely passable.
The direction by Shinbou is a bit wacky, like how over the top the
entrances of each girl is or how ridiculous the story goes. Though, I
think that stuff was added in by Shinbo himself, as without them its
just a stock standard action piece with hot girls and explosions.
Lastly, the dub by ADV Films (who
seriously released this 30 min. OVA with the tagline "You Can't
Fight Fashion") is not very good. If I scrunched my ears up I'd
swear the cast of "Totally Spies" was voicing the
characters. Heh, wow am I old. Nevertheless, it is funny but too short to be enjoyable through extensive re-watching.
So, I can't really recommend this, if
only barely to fans of Akiyuki Shinbo. There just not a whole lot to
talk about with this one. However, my next review will be more
extensive.
Laters, The Eclectic Dude
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