English Dub Review: Case File nº221: Kabukicho “Hello Detectives”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

John Watson arrives at the Pipe Cat, a hostess club run by the cross-dressing Mrs. Hudson, in order to find a detective. Among them are Inspector Gregory Lestrade of the Shinjuku Ward Police, Fuyuto Kyogoku, Michel Belmont, Toratarō Kobayashi, and Sherlock Holmes, all focused on finding the notorious killer of prostitutes Jack the Ripper. Sherlock seems to be the one that John needs help from, but also proves to be the most anti-social and eccentric. He also rooms with James Moriarty, who has a kid to pickpocket John.

The detectives investigate a body presumably killed by Jack, a girl named Sayuri Onoue, with the genitals removed and wings painted on the floor in the victim’s blood, though they determine that she and the killer had agreed to meet there. Suspiciously, Kyogoku deletes all of the messages on the Sayuri’s phone, but Sherlock uses her recent calls to trace her previous whereabouts to White Rose, finding out she was interviewed by the boss ultimately decided not to hire her. Sherlock then explains, using Japanese verbal entertainment known as Rakugo, that the killer is actually connected to White Rose, but isn’t the employer, Masaya. Instead, Masaya’s driver called Sayuri for a fake second interview but ended up accidentally killing her and attempted to blame it on Jack the Ripper. He’s promptly caught, but that still means Jack the Ripper is at large.

Though not before John accidentally runs Sherlock over in the pursuit and decides to stay at Pipe Cat to help out.

OUR TAKE
Case File nº221: Kabukicho, also known as Kabukicho Sherlock, is the latest in a long line of stories adapting Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective character. Of the versions I’ve seen, he definitely fits the usual traits: intelligent, brilliant, eccentric, etc. I do see some resemblance to the Benedict Cumberbatch version of the character with how anti-social and difficult to connect with he is, though I have no idea how much that detail shows up in other works. What is definitely unique to this version, besides it being an anime, is the addition of Rakugo in explaining the case. He seems to have two other personalities (or at least personas) which he uses as fake partners in his storytelling. Certainly, a different take on the usual Sherlock story, though hopefully there’s more to set this apart as a good story of its own.

Apart from that, there are some other notable departures from typical Sherlock lore. Watson seems virtually unscathed, but I certainly don’t remember Mrs. Hudson being a muscley crossdresser. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that in and of itself, but I do wonder if he (she?) will be mainly used as a joke rather than as a character. Also interesting is that James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ sworn archenemy, is now his much younger roommate who makes use of pickpockets. Again, I’m not SUPER well versed in versions of this character, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him be Sherlock’s ally right out of the gate unless this is setting him up to betray Sherlock down the line. But that seems unlikely since it wouldn’t exactly be much of a surprise. He does seem to be a brilliant mind like Sherlock, so we’ll probably see his chops on a case sooner or later.

Aside from the odd title name and questionable choices in adapting characters, I’d say we have a solid start with this series. The mysteries seem to be pretty fun to think about over the episode along with a satisfying payoff thus far, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the remaining episodes will work out as well. Maybe I’ll check out some more important portrayals of Sherlock Holmes for comparison purposes, but then maybe this should also stand on its own, regardless of whether or not it’s making use of a well-known character. Either way, I’m on board, for now, so let’s see where this investigation takes us.