English Dub Review: The Millionaire Detective – Balance: Unlimited “I Came, I Saw, I Sponsored”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Haru Kato, a detective in the Modern Crime Prevention Task Force of the Metropolitan Police Department. After receiving orders to back up the first division at the classic car festival he heads over there with a fellow detective, Kamai. Daisuke Kambe, a rich man, lands in Japan to acquire a position at the Metropolitan Police. Meanwhile, two thieves scout out places to rob as Haru catches a former coworker and asks about the brewing situation.

After being told that there’s a threat against the prince of the Abura Emirates who’s in the festival, they receive news of the culprit captured and a description of the vehicle with the bomb. Haru spots the white van as the robbers make their escape not before struggling against Kamai and getting in the van. Then Haru meets Daisuke who introduces himself as a new inspector before buying a classic car and driving off with Haru slipping into the backseat. Daisuke orders his butler to help keep the cops off the van’s trail and to isolate the van with the bomb. Soon after the unusual duo reaches the van and Daisuke pushes it into the river while Haru makes sure the robbers escape out of the van. In the end Daisuke is introduced as a new member of Haru’s division.

Our Take:

Money is the first thing you see in the episode, and it won’t be the last. Daisuke’s introduction screams the stereotype of a rich person from the private plane to the cigar that shows off his wealth. The audience can even tell from his voice that he’s bored of life with the lack of excitement in his voice. What’s interesting is that he could have chosen any other position in the police department, but he chose the second division for a reason. Perhaps with the stack of cold case files that audience sees Haru place on the desk? That little detail stuck out to me about Haru’s assigned section.

On the other hand, what sets Haru from the rest of the members in the task force is his sense of justice, which was implied to be the thing that kicked him out of the first division. Unlike his coworkers, he cares about his work while some of them are gambling or eating chips. In addition, he believes that money isn’t everything while Daisuke uses money like it’s everything from the car to the special bridge permit. Now it’s clear that he can’t let go of his sense of justice to the point where he sticks his head in the first division’s issue even after being booted from the team. Personally, it makes me wonder how he got kicked out and why.

While these two men are the exact opposite of one another, they get the job done at the end of the day. Furthermore, that slow-motion animation of their cars passing by each other is a good way to display how they come from different worlds and are at different speeds. Then when they finally meet face to face, sparks fly mainly from Haru who’s righteously pissed off at Daisuke for nearly crashing into a mother and her kid. It’s an exciting dynamic with Daisuke’s use of his money to steer the robbers to a remote location and get the cops out of the way while Haru’s sense of justice helps one of the robbers out of the van. In the end, Daisuke’s casual remark, “So how much?” would piss off people like Haru, who appears to be striding up to him to give him a good punch. There’s that moment where Haru realizes that Daisuke doesn’t care about the wellbeing of others, and that moment is glorious with the drums in the background. I look forward to seeing more of their dynamic in the next episode.

Also the robbers, at first I thought they were just going to be a small component to the bombing plot thread, but it was a fun surprise when they jumped into the white van with the bomb and sped away. Personally I thought they worked well in displaying a bumpy relationship that has Hiroshi relying on Yoko and it could even parallel Daisuke and Haru’s bumpy start to an extent since it’s Daisuke’s money that facilitated the bridge plan while Haru was just there on the ride. These two could have just been typical robbers in ski masks, but they weren’t and their personalities add to the episode’s cast of interesting characters.

This is an interesting first episode that blows expectations of the usual tropes in the crime genre like the police chase scene out of the water with Daisuke’s spending and his insane method to get the bomb away from civilians. However, it still keeps things to a sense of normalcy with Haru’s actions especially with him angrily shouting at Daisuke for his insane methods and when he helps one of the robbers get out of the van. In between Daisuke’s flamboyant use of his money to Haru’s heart of justice, the episode was wild and I’ll be coming back to watch more for sure.