Have you ever seen some really cool artwork for an anime and decided to check it out? Don't lie, I know you have. Has that artwork ever misled you on what the anime was about? Well that anime for me was Trickster. I saw an image from the anime and I thought "wow that's gratuitous violence that I like." Then you watch it and that's not what you get? I've fallen for that.
Here's the thing about Trickster, when it gets dark it gets dark really fast and it gets really dark. I had just settled into bubbly buddy cop series. Then people are being kidnapped, murdered, tortured, exploded and everything else. I finally got my violence and it was not glorious. I mean it looked cool but I had already gotten too attached to the characters to enjoy it. Now I was sad when their minds and bodies were broken.
The plot revolves around Akechi's Boy Detective Club (which isn't only boys or only detectives) tangling with Twenty Faces. Throughout the series it's revealed Twenty Faces is just trying to screw with Akechi. The biggest plot point is Kobayashi who happens to be a seemingly immortal 14 year old who wants to die. He's befriended by Kensuke who promises to kill him one day. He never does, he doesn't even try. He just wants to make Kobayashi enjoy life. Eventually Kobayashi does start to enjoy life when he's with Kensuke and that's the only way he can get injured. It's like a kid following his big brother. Along the way they get help from actual police, tangle with family they thought were missing and help Kobayashi remember his past.
I think I either love or hate all the characters. I feel for Kensuke. He tries to be the best he can be for everyone but as we see in flashbacks he gets his world shattered to pieces way too often. Sometimes I forget that Koba is a kid and when he does childish things like his tongue click, crying because he can't follow Kensuke everywhere. Then I remember he's immortal but he's still only 14 and spent majority of his life alone or with someone trying to kill him. Then I say "poor kid, he just misses his only friend." I hate Inoue because he's kind of a smug asshole but he screws up just as much as everyone else and will never admit it. There's Noro who is a shut in and not well adjusted to society but constantly reads everyone else like a book. I take back what I said about Inoue, the only one I really hate is Otomo.
It's a mystery anime, but it's not really super deep. It's sort of a turn your brain off and just watch kind of thing. The plot is straight forward from the jump. There's going to be a few plot twists along the way but even if you go back and watch previous episodes you will never see it coming. There's just no clues for it. You're still going to enjoy it.
You should buy Darrell's Book, watch him on the Blerds Online YouTube Channel or The CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts.
I honestly can't say I enjoyed it. It tried to be something that it just wasn't and there really never was an explanation to what the anime wanted to achieve. The ending was the worst thing about it. The characters were rather static which not one of them being close to likable even though they should've been. I'm not sure how the book its based on is, but the anime feels like the Young Adult book to movie adaptions of Hollywood, where little is explained because the success of the movie is supposed to ride on the fans having a pre-existing knowledge of where the characters and world comes from. It's lazy, it's poor execution, and overall a waste of time in a world where you're far too spoilt for choice and don't have the time to waste. The only reason I'd recommend this anime is because Gackt is in it.
ReplyDelete