Psychic Detective Yakumo

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Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-13 05:49

[Image: http://ani-culture.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Psychic.Detective.Yakumo.431693.jpg]

What is this, a Death Note Code Geass cossover?

Watched the first two episodes and I couldn't stop thinking how cliche this series is. It was totally Death Note and Code Geass, cept not nearly as amazing.

The story is about a college student, Yakumo Saitou who was born with different eye colors. His red left eye gave him a special ability to see ghosts and spirits. He believes ghosts and spirits are bound to earth because of a certain 'cause' and simply by eliminating that 'cause' will those spirits rest in peace. Being asked for help by Haruka Ozawa, together they began the investigation.
Tatsu wrote on 2010-10-13 06:03

Eh? I like it quite a bit. And hopefully, you meant the art style and the atmosphere of the series? Since it's nothing like Code Geass except for a special eye.

Not amazing, but it's pretty pleasant. Though, I am tired of stories where the protagonist can see the dead/spirits, and solves incidents with the aid of their eyes.

Yakumo needs to snark more though, I think.
Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-13 06:15

It feels like death note in that

1. The main character is some shoddy figure with a very similar design
2. Does detective work

It reminded me of Code Geass in that

1. Special eye, which is supposed to be rare
2. Some random enemy who happens to be nearby having the same eyes

Finished the 2nd episode just now. TBH, its a really third rate plot. The 2nd episode also contradicted the first. The hell is the point of the red eye if normal people can see ghosts? How could the main character claim ghosts can't have any physical connections to the real world when they were clearly killing that girl in the first episode?

Yakumo is a dick, but not really dick enough to justify his character. His personality is half baked. A series like this wouldn't work if he wasn't a jerk, but the way he "mehs" his way through everything is boring.

The girl is just an attention hoe. She's chasing him around, but she's not playing her role properly and shows no emotion. The only chance to add some satirical humor by playing a straight-man type of character to Yakumo's retorts, but she just takes it with no response. Potential ruined.

Whats with her sister too? She just appeared out of nowhere and told Yakumo where she was kidnapped. And whats with Yakumo showing her visions of her sister? He can't just go and do that. His eyes see ghosts, not projects them into peoples minds.

Why did the villain in the first episode kill the first three girls? Could've really played on the "detective" side of things a bit more if they explored the case some. And really, fingerprint? What a boring way to solve a crime.

Maybe I've been spoiled by the more well-plotted detective mangas that came before, but if you want to run a detective manga you should try to keep up with the mind blowing, not use ghosts as crutches. And the ghosts were used poorly anyways.

Series dropped.
BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2010-10-13 06:22

there needs to be better male protagonists in mangas.
Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-13 06:39

I was so frustrated by how poorly executed the anime was that I decided to go read the first chapter of the manga, and I found out that the manga actually did everything properly, exactly as I said the anime SHOULD'VE been.

Yakumo is a huge dickbag, like I said he should be.

The female IS a straight-man type of character that makes big reactions to everything Yakumo says. The female's ghost sister is explained more to avoid plot holes.

They go far more into detail on the case. Additionally, the plot is actually slightly different. There is only one ghost, and instead of him talking to her directly, he talks to the hospitalized girl, who is possessed. They do some research on the dead girl. They look up student information. They talk with the teacher about a missing girl. They talk to the janitor who reveals the old building will be demolished soon, etc. The events that occur are different. The sister ghost incident is resolved properly and differently, without some bs "vision transfer". The reason why the girl becomes attached to Yakumo is also shown far better with her emotions being shown in first person throughout the entire manga.

Overall, theres a lot more information that actually fills all the nonsense holes that were in the anime.

The anime just blows. I'd be terrified if I was the mangaka, because his work just got slaughtered.

Also, the girl's hair is brown in the manga. Its pink in the anime.

In a realistic Japanese setting about ghost and detective work, a pink haired character is just plain out of place.
Tatsu wrote on 2010-10-13 06:43

Quote from Cucurbita;183122:

Finished the 2nd episode just now. TBH, its a really third rate plot. The 2nd episode also contradicted the first. The hell is the point of the red eye if normal people can see ghosts? How could the main character claim ghosts can't have any physical connections to the real world when they were clearly killing that girl in the first episode?

The red eye allows people to see ghosts all the time. But for normal people to see the ghosts, certain conditions must exist. It seems that the certain conditions are the common ones, such as the dead and the living character had a personal relationship, one of them has regrets, on a 'heavy spiritual ground' a la shrines, etc etc.

Physical connections as in the ghost story hoax found in the second episode. They can't really do that. Possessions are a bit different.

Whats with her sister too? She just appeared out of nowhere and told Yakumo where she was kidnapped. And whats with Yakumo showing her visions of her sister? He can't just go and do that. His eyes see ghosts, not projects them into peoples minds.

Her sister was mentioned earlier on in the first episode, and it was obvious that Haruka 'killed' her. As mentioned before, Haruka had a regret about her sister, and thus her sister was still bound to the Earth and presumably watched over her.

Yakumo showing visions is... no idea. Hell, for all we know, it might've actually been a representation and Haruka's sister possessed Yakumo.

Yakumo is a dick, but not really dick enough to justify his character. His personality is half baked. A series like this wouldn't work if he wasn't a jerk, but the way he "mehs" his way through everything is boring.

He didn't 'meh' his way in the ending of episode 1, seeing as he clearly panicked when he realized something was wrong when it took Haruka so long in the bathroom. And when he was hit.

The girl is just an attention hoe. She's chasing him around, but she's not playing her role properly and shows no emotion. The only chance to add some satirical humor lied with her and she didn't play through.

Got nothing for this! She's a pretty standard heroine that's just there to act as a morality pet for the protagonist who doesn't seem to like anybody and slowly show character development at some point.

Also, people aren't allowed to randomly kill people for fun?
Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-13 07:02

Quote from Tatsu;183135:

Also, people aren't allowed to randomly kill people for fun?

He was being blackmailed by the student. Marital issues. She didn't die directly, but he hit her and he thought she died, so he locked her up in the basement.
She woke up, but she was locked inside, and she died slowly.

He heard that the building was going to be demolished soon, so he went back to dispose of the corpse, but accidentally ran into the students. They didn't notice him, but he was caught in a picture from one of the student's cameras. The student lost the camera in the building, but the teacher already revealed too much and ended up killing him too.

He doesn't reject the money because the hospitalized girl's father handed it to him, but because he's says its even since the girl's ghost sister saved him (and she did multiple times). He's showing a tsundere side.

They become friends when she asks him if she can talk to her sister though him again in the future.

The suspiciously shoddy case I mentioned with the fox ghost, doesn't even exist in the manga. Its a filler, and a terrible one at that, which contradicted the first episode.

In any case, the manga is worth reading. It undos all the criticisms I mentioned above about the anime. Yakumo is a tsun tsun, and the girl is a straight-man type character. The crimes aren't solved with plot devices like "finger prints", events don't contradict each other, and since the series is done in a first person view of the heroine you have a much better understanding of whats going on in the character's minds.

Seriously, this is one of the worst anime transitions I've seen ever. I already felt there was something odd about the series from the very start, when Yakumo suddenly points out that Haruka had a dead sister and she just accepted it so fast. And then I knew there was definitely some sort of problem when the "detective" showed up and started helping out with forensics. Such an easy plot device.

The anime industry seriously can't be complaining about piracy when their quality is always dropping. I haven't watched a single good anime since mid 2009.
Tatsu wrote on 2010-10-13 07:17

Quote from Cucurbita;183140:

The suspiciously shoddy case I mentioned with the fox ghost, doesn't even exist in the manga. Its a filler, and a terrible one at that, which contradicted the first episode.

Just to mention... there are two manga adaptations, and that the light novel is the source material so... you can't definitely say that. Unless by manga, you mean light novel, but I doubt that.

The anime industry seriously can't be complaining about piracy when their quality is always dropping. I haven't watched a single good anime since mid 2009.

Angel Beats was decent! And the UBW movie adaptation was actually pretty good for the fans! Can't mention anything else since I only watched three anime this year excluding Fall.
Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-13 07:43

Quote from Tatsu;183145:
Angel Beats was decent! And the UBW movie adaptation was actually pretty good for the fans! Can't mention anything else since I only watched three anime this year excluding Fall.

Well, I meant "GREAT" animes. Angel Beats was good, but it wasn't going to be like "ZOMG WTF MIND BLOWN WAHH" anime.

To Aru Majutsu No Index is a good anime, but it seems to be more or less holding 2010 up at the top, and thats a little disappointing because there have been series far better than the ones at the top ratings at the moment. Honestly, if "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute" is number one anime by twice as many votes as the 2nd ranked anime "Squid Girl", and that has twice as many votes as the 3rd ranked anime "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt", I'm a little disappointed (not to say these aren't good animes, but they aren't the best either).

2009 had Bakemonogatari. Shaft really did an amazing job (as always). They came through with Arakawa Under The Bridge this year, but its not nearly as good as some of their previous works.

2009 also had the FMA remake, but it is a delayed remake afterall. Quality series came late.

Well, I was gonna start making a big list of "great animes" going backward in time, but that ended up looking like too much work. In any case, if you go backward year by year, you'll see that there were more and more great and memorable series the further you go back.

Look at us now. Sitting around and waiting for an episode of Psychic Detective Yakumo, when we used to wait for something a bit more interesting like Chaos;Head or Higurashi.
Tatsu wrote on 2010-10-13 07:55

Look at us now. Sitting around and waiting for an episode of Psychic Detective Yakumo, when we used to wait for something a bit more interesting like Chaos;Head or Higurashi.

It's as if you're intentionally comparing one bad adaptation to two other bad adaptations!

Angel Beats still managed to make people cry and laugh, didn't it? It ended up doing exactly what it meant to do, which makes it decent. An anime doesn't need to be mind blowing in order to be decent or great.
Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-13 08:09

Indeed I did. They're both adaptations but by comparison the two were far better than this junk.
Athala wrote on 2011-01-05 04:31

XD some other animes with the char design idea
Rental Magica (Itsuki)
Kuro****suji (Ciel)
Code Geass (Lulu >///>)
and The legend of legendary heroes (Ryner)

Plus I am fond of Daisuke ono the one who voices Yakumo <3