Debutante Detective Corps Episode 1 Commentary
For obvious reasons, sometimes when I buy DVDs from ADV Films, they could include an extra DVD, a volume one DVD. It’s obvious that they want to entice me to buy a series I might not have otherwise known about. I’ve received three DVDs this way: two volume one DVDs for Ghost Stories, which is probably rated 13+, and one copy of volume one of Debutante Detective Corps. I wrote about the latter some time back, as it was a series I had been planning on checking out. Debutante Detective Corps, on the other hand, I had never heard of. Judging by the bust sizes on the front cover of the DVD case, and the “Suggested 13+” rating, I determined that this was not my kind of anime, and I set it aside for over a year.
Recently, I’ve been trying out anime that I normally wouldn’t watch. It began with Neon Genesis Evangelion, and will continue along from there. Maybe I’ll find a treasure outside of the magical girl genre, but I rejected Debutante Detective Corps without giving it a fair chance simply by the cover artwork and the description on the back of the DVD case. The description reads are follows:
They’re sweet, petite, elite–and caught in the crosshairs of a manic escaped convict. Why would anyone want to kill the five richest girls in Japan? Especially when they’re all so utterly fantastic? The cops aren’t finding answers fast enough, so the girls take maters into their own hands. Using their skills in electronics, disguises, martial arts, advanced weaponry and power-flirting, they prove that they bank isn’t the only place they’re endowed. Buyer beware, it’s a non-stop whirlwind of C-4 and D-cups as the evil plot is exposed. They’re the Debutante Detective Corps and no one puts a hit on these misses!
I had to look up both “C-4″ and “D-cup” to know what these mean, and neither fits into something I’d watch, genre or choice or not. But, I have one DVD with one episode (only one?) of a type of anime that I always pass up whenever I’m near it. Knowing I wouldn’t be interested in it, there’d be no harm in checking out a single episode, right? (Did I mention I was buying G-rated, child-friendly anime when this DVD was added in as a freebie?)
Episode 1
I decided I’d go with Japanese dialogue and English subtitles. Prejudging that I wouldn’t be watching the episode a second time, I figured I might as well get the original Japanese audio experience.
The episode begins with a new high school year at an all-girls school. A new year speech in the auditorium is interrupted as the main characters one by one crash into the auditorium, with Engrish-style profiles appearing to introduce each girl to the viewing audience. This includes lines of information such as “It is raised by grandparents the cause of the Chinese Mafia tightened from the childish time,” giving back story to the Chinese girl, Reika. I still haven’t deciphered what it means about Reika by, “… it has the bad habit which dose in fant regression.”
Characters
Miyuki is presented as the type of girl who will motorcycle through the window into the auditorium, and not know what’s wrong with it. She “fights easily in straight for wardness.”
Reika wears a Chinese-style outfit, and greets with a Chinese “ni hao”, even though she’s in a Japanese school. She, as well, enters forcefully into the auditorium by riding her bike right through the door.
Youko, a quarter German whose mother is “rumored with the illegitimate illegitimate child of Adolf Hitler descended” is driven to school in a limousine, and tells her chauffeur to drive through the hole in the doorway left by Reika. Youko likes “the period drama which punishes advice evil.”
These girls seem to have in common a low “luck” stat and mostly a low “intellectual power” on their information screens, instead making up for it by a combination of “power”, “speed”, and “physical strength”.
By exploding helicopter, the Russian Nina parachutes and sky dives down to school. Similar as Youko to Hitler, Nina is “the descendant of Russian descended exile noble Romanov dynasty”. “She herself is military mania of the ultimate.”
Rounding off the five is Kimiko, “the successor daughter of the financial combine an old peer descended.” Although intelligent, “it is cold it is cold when it is cut off unusual character.” She apparently abuses taxpayer dollars by being escorted by every police office in Japan (including Okinawa) and probably parts of South Korea, by the looks of the size of the force.
Youko and Kimiko get by with “luck” and “intellectual power” stats very high, and the other stats almost completely low.
Story
After introducing the five, the first order of business appears to be showing an image of the five in bathing suits at the beach, giving a chance to focus on the bust size of each girl.
The stage is set simply: someone is out to get the five main characters, all daughters of the richest family in Japan. From what I gather, someone doesn’t like how they just slack off and spend money while the rest of Japan actually has to work for a living.
A shower scene follows. With no point to it, I imagine the tone for the series is being quickly established.
From there, the core of the story begins to set in, as the girls ditch the detective assigned to watch after them. As they flee the school with plans on hiding out in a ritzy hotel instead, gunshots and explosives drive the five back.
Follow up with a dual fight scene with both physical strength and psychic powers to combat the villains with, and that’s the episode. The girls will now be the members of their own detective club at school, to ensure their safety from criminals who target their lives.
Thoughts
After the shower scene part, the episode became somewhat watchable for me. The characters have individual personalities which will probably be expanded on during the series, but there wasn’t anything there to attract my attention. Nothing to suggest this would be a series worth watching. The premise of five rich girls each with a specialty, such as mechanics, fighting, or otherwise, being targeted by a criminal simply doesn’t pique my interest.
There are too many jarring things for me to suspend belief in this episode. Whether it being Youko being disguised as the detective one moment, then completely out of the disguise the next, or the door to the room with the bomb instantly being boarded and chained, there were too many of these, and the flowed one after another.
I did notice Sakura Tange’s name appear as a song vocal in the credits.
DVD Previews
The DVD previews include Princess Tutu and Petite Princess Yucie. I’ll never understand why DVD previews include series from drastically different genre than the purchased material. Sure, they want to advertise their recent and new releases, but still…
I’m out of any other thoughts, so I’ll cut this entry off here. There’s no reason for me to buy the series, as there’s no interest in watching it further.
