Edit: When I watched this episode, only the first half was online. I’ll watch the second half and write about it tomorrow or something.

This episode damn near talked my ears off. Still, there’s something very familiar about the premise: a petite shut-in of a detective relies on a dorky shounen for “man”power. There’s something very familiar indeed; I could go sick thinking about this, so I’m going to stop.

We open with a flurry of text messages being exchanged between a pervy salaryman and a high school girl. Again, enjo kosai rears its head in Japanese pop culture. We soon meet Narumi, the male protagonist of the show. Like many male protagonists in anime, Narumi is a transfer student. He has also been described as someone so completely lacking of presence that he is nothing more than an unnoticeable dot in the universe. We see later in the same episode that his own sister hardly listens to a word he has to say. Not exactly an inspiring or auspicious start for our young hero.

For such a self-proclaimed inconspicuous dot, Narumi nevertheless sees a unique event not privileged to the average person: a half-dressed girl falls practically falls out of the sky and into his lap. This begins his involvement with a strange crowd of youths known as the NEET Detective Team, but despite this, it won’t be until he befriends Ayaka, a classmate in the gardening club, that he finally has a real conversation with said team. This doesn’t occur until the second half of the episode, and even then, it isn’t until the 16 min. mark that Narumi finally meets Alice. Needless to say, I was almost ready to quit the anime when our heroine still hadn’t appeared.

A tiny problem for part A is that it doesn’t feel like it really gets started until Narumi meets Alice. Yes, even in their encounter, the two are still just talking, but at least their banter is somewhat interesting. From the moment the girl at the start of the anime falls onto a pile of trash to the moment we meet Alice, the first half of the anime’s premiere episode feels like a whole lot of idle chatter and cliched voiceovers.

When we do meet Alice, we find out that she resides in a dim room filled with flatscreen monitors and stuffed animals. She has an unusual amount of knowledge of Narumi, a fact she attributes to the poor security systems of schools. Considering the fact that she appears to be a huge computer nerd, Alice is probably a crack hacker or something. Alice has no food in her place besides a fridge jammed full with soda; it’s a complete wonder how she can keep a slim figure. Most of all, she waxes poetic about the nature of her profession, if you can call it that, and the world. Anyway, although it is a convention of anime, it’s a bit puzzling as to why Alice even takes an interest in and requests help from someone so unassuming and lacking-of-presence as Narumi.

At the moment, I see three potential pitfalls for this anime (what are the cool kids calling it — KamiMemo?):

(1) No matter who or what you attach to the premise, Alice is a self-proclaimed detective. Part of being a detective means she’s going to have to solve mysteries. Don’t be like some recent anime that just ended — y’know, the one with mysteries so poor, Agatha Christie was spinning in her grave. A missing girl at least seems like a decent start unlike some stupid ghost boat having a hand in the fate of a world war, but we’ll see.

(2) Alice’s fragile existence can also cause problems much like the anime that I shall not name. Good, she’s smart, but I hope that doesn’t mean everything else about her ends up being regressive. Let’s not begin with the ridiculous biotruths like how girls are weak and need male protection so this is why Narumi has to be her faithful assistant, blah blah blah… Unfortunately, the way Alice struggled with her chopsticks doesn’t bode well for the rest of the anime.

(3) Finally, a NEET detective? NEET isn’t supposed to be a positive descriptor. I get the uneasy feeling, however, that the story will personify NEET behavior as an ostensibly cool and non-ugly girl onto which viewers can project both themselves and… well, other urges.

Stray observations:

• Isn’t it a bit peculiar for Narumi to ask his sister why they moved after the fact? I know it’s just the anime’s way to provide some exposition, but it comes across as a bit silly.

• Shadows are very well executed so far in this anime, especially the way they shift across the characters moving through a scene:

Who knows if JC Staff can keep this up, but it’s a refreshing change of pace for TV anime.

• How on earth does Alice afford all of the hardware currently housed in her apartment? How does the NEET Detective Team set up their vast array of hidden cameras and microphones? How is that guy (his name escapes me at the moment) toting around a gun and in Japan no less? Guess I’ll have to watch more episodes to find out.

Continuing reading my impressions of the first episode here.