One day, Inaba Hiroshi's former partner from back when he was a police dog, Inspector Ogino, shows up at Inaba Detective Agency. His request is for Inaba to help him catch the Italian mafia boss, Don Valentino, who's been running a major counterfeiting business. Inaba and his team attempt to infiltrate Valentino's hideout, but aren't expecting what they find there... Right. Overnight reaction to this one on Twitter wasn't remotely good, so there was a certain sense of dread - and very low expectations - when I sat down to watch it. I can safely say that it beat expectation, but then that wouldn't have been hard. It's a frenetic comedy, with the emphasis on the physical and very fast pacing - definitely going to appeal to a niche audience, and the sort of show that generally isn't my thing. But I can't say I hated it, or that I didn't get an occasional giggle out of it - the idea of having a goat at the incompetent lead villain has some mileage to it, assassin Gabriella's sadistic streak is played in a way that tweaks my funny bone just right, and trap Yuuta's way of showing his/her displeasure at other people also appeals to me. Yes, I have a twisted sense of humour. Passing reference to a missing brother I take as a warning sign that a visit to the Chasm of Mistaken Seriousness is in store somewhere along the way (I didn't come up with that phrase, but dammit I'm going to use it, as it describes perfectly my hatred of comedies that grow unnecessary plots). I'm hoping to be proven wrong on that one, but we'll see. THE GOOD: Gabriella and Yuuta. A certain humorous level of cruelty. THE BAD: The pacing of Teekyu in a full-length show, and excessive levels of character stupidity. The biggest surprise for me is that I didn't drop it off the bat - it's done enough to earn the application of the three-episode rule. Let's see what it does with that chance... Cuticle Detective Inaba is streamed by Crunchyroll.
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