Ryoko Yakushiji is a graduate of Tokyo University and a police investigator who looks into supernatural cases that can’t be explained by normal science.

Episode Summary

Junichiro Izumida is a lieutenant in the Tokyo Metropolitan police who keeps waking up from strange nightmares. He works underneath Ryoko Yakushiji, a career-minded police Superintendent with an odd personality. Today he has to accompany her out shopping to carry her bags. While they’re out, a man collapses on their car and literally dissolves into a skeletal corpse. It turns out that supernatural instances like this tend to follow Ryoko around. They chase a suspect into an alleyway and he runs into a building, which another bureaucrat gives them trouble about investigating. Izumida recovers a ring from the alley before they enter. While “searching” the building (Ryoko uses it as an excuse to shop), they discuss the matter of this case, and Izumida decides that it might be a criminal case involving some kind of drug to prematurely age and mummify the body.

After Ryoko has a swim a police assistant brings over a report about the ring that Izumida found. It belongs to a cult that believes in a moon goddess, Tsukuyomi. They go to visit a doctor who is also interested in paranormal cases. The autopsies he performed indicate that all the victims ate poison-tainted food which lead to their deaths. Ryoko suggests that the other bureaucrat from earlier might be responsible, considering that he’s the Minister of Health and Welfare and is thus responsible for quarantine of imported food. Ryoko wishes to use the evidence for her own means. Outside they meet one of Ryoko’s old law school rivals, Muromachi Yukiko who is also a Superintendent, and they find out about a party which might help them find the culprit. While waiting in the bar, Izumida gets a message from Muromachi who wants to meet Izumida in secret. It turns out to be a setup, where Izumida is forced to fight corrupt police and Ryoko is left alone in the bar with a barkeep who appears to want her dead.

Thoughts

Hmm, it seems a little unusual to me to start things off on a two-parter, but I can’t say I’m disappointed. I was initially put-off by Ryoko. When I was reading descriptions of the show, I was excited to learn that the main character was a female police investigator who seemed like some sort of genius. But shopping and swimming in a pool during work hours? She began to seem like more of an eccentric, lazy oddity. Luckily by the end of the episode it seemed more like she just employs some unorthodox methods to get the job done, and the preview for episode two made it clear that she’s not just a pretty face out to cause headaches and get her subordinate in trouble. Now I’m kind of interested to see where this goes. This might end up being this season’s Himitsu – The Revelation, in that it’s a decent police drama with some unusual an interesting plot lines, but we’ll see.

It’s funny, knowing that this series deals with supernatural occurrences, I can’t help but compare it to The X Files, since they seem to go out of their way to come up with perfectly logical, scientific reasons to explain the weird stuff that’s going on. Not that I mind it, of course; I frankly think it’s much better to go that route, because then the genuinely weird stuff that can’t be explained is all the more special and creepy. I’m wondering if there’ll be some twist ending to the story that’ll throw the theories about tainted food out of whack.

I thought that the animation in this episode was fairly respectable, though so far there hasn’t been a whole lot of action to deal with. It seems like next episode might be a bit more action-oriented, so I suppose the real judgment will have to come at that point. So far the character designs are nice and have kind of a classic nineties aesthetic to them, while still looking modern and clean. It’s also nice to see a more mature woman in a starring role. I have to admit that I find most female anime characters shallow and annoying, simply because they’re not often the focus and tend to be not written as well as the men. So even if this show doesn’t turn out to be anything I want to finish, at the very least the main character is something special. I’ll definitely at least watch the conclusion of the two-parter to see how things end up.

Pros

• Mature female star who intrigues with her unorthodox methods
• The show has supernatural elements without getting too silly with them

Cons

• First episode is part of a two-parter, so it’s difficult to judge right off

By Jessi – 09/01/08