LiLilToadie
October 11, 2020
Not Recommended
I have never felt so compelled to write a review about an anime until I watched the end of Great Pretender. To sum it up, I loved this show until the last arc. I genuinely thought that it would go down as one of my favorites of all time. The art is fantastic--every scene looks like it could be a convincing computer wallpaper, the animation is super fluid, the music and sound design is exceptional. And, until that last arc, the character development and plot seemed just as good. I felt attached to the main cast, invested in their backstories and growth as they workedtogether in elaborate con jobs. The dialogue and pacing was great as well--it struck a delicate balance between funny moments and handling serious topics very well. There seemed to be strong foundations for a fantastic ending to this show.
That's what I thought, at least, until I actually watched that last arc.
I don't think there's really a way to address the problems I have with Great Pretender unless I spoil some things, simply because I truly thought it was amazing up until that last arc. So, if you still are interested in watching it and don't want to read on, a spoiler-free analysis of the show would be that it almost felt like the first 3 arcs and the last arc were from 2 completely different shows. In the last arc characters acted in complete opposite ways as they were built up, plotlines weren't fully developed and, at times, did not seem to make coherent sense, pacing was extremely rushed, and all of the accomplishments and character growth established in the plot of the first 3 arcs seemed to be erased--especially in the last episode.
So, I would recommend to just watch the first 14 episodes, because they're really fantastic. If you do feel some compulsion to continue watching after that (and, if you really like the show, you probably will, since episode 14 doesn't really offer a satisfying conclusion), I would say go ahead, but just keep in mind that you're setting yourself up for disappointment and confusion.
SPOILER REVIEW BEGINS HERE:
I'm going to review the easily most consistently good parts of the show first--briefly, since I don't really think there's much to say other than that they're really good.
ART: 10/10
EASY 10. As I said before, every shot looks like it could be screencapped and used as a photo or computer wallpaper. Animation is very clean, character designs are polished, and the color pallete is bright and creative. I am in love with the art style and direction, as both were inventive and made the anime really stand out.
SOUND: 9/10
I think all of it was great in terms of music--there was a variety of different music styles and variations of the theme that I loved to here recur throughout the show. The ED is fantastic because of course, it's Freddie Mercury, and the OP is really fun and poppy big band, which fits the show perfectly. The only thing I took issue with was the fact that there were often many different languages being spoken in a scene, and it wasn't clear what language people were speaking at times. This was mostly due to the fact that Japanese was established as being the substitute for English in the first episode to make it easier for VAs to actually voice act instead of speaking a foreign language. That distinction began to get muddled when scenarios started happening in Japan, where it became unclear as to who was speaking English vs Japanese since they all audibly were speaking Japanese in the show. It even got more unclear when one of the main characters actually started speaking English audibly, but the rest of the cast continued to speak Japanese while calling it English...it sounds confusing because it is. Overall though, it didn't really interfere with the story, except for in that last arc...but there are definitely bigger problems with that last arc than just weird translations.
And now, for the parts that I feel extremely conflicted about--STORY and CHARACTER. I'm addressing them both at the same time because I feel like it would be impossible to address one without having discussed the other.
STORY and CHARACTER...I have no idea what to rate them. N/A?
I genuinely cannot decide on a number to give the STORY and CHARACTER sections of this show. If I were just discussing the first 3 arcs, my ranking would probably fall within the 9-10 range--again, I really believe it was great. I think the only arguable detriment of that first arc would be the "predictability" of the cons. I personally don't believe that the twists were super predictable, moreso that the predicability came from audience always knew the outcome was always going to be in favor of the main characters, or else it wouldn't feel satisfying. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing though--many shows thrive in the fact that you always know plots will resolve in a satisfying way. The interesting thing about Great Pretender's first 3 cases was not how the case would end, but how the con was handled, and how the plot would change one of the main characters and increase our knowledge of and empathy for them.
Speaking of characters, all were likable and relatable in the first 3 cases. We got to see the backstories and growth from 3 out of the 4 main characters--Edamura, Abbie, and Cynthia. Each of the cases focused on something from their past that drew them to becoming conmen, and how that history related to the con at hand in the current case. Personally, I liked the first case (Edamura's case) the best just because the novelty of the main cast and certain twists in the case, such as Abbie and Laurent "dying" and Cynthia being a conwoman the whole time, were well-executed (however the initial shock of these "deaths" and reveals for the audience is what made them great...boy, it would be a shame to have the writers recycle these plot details again in the last arc...). Each character's traits and personalities are also explored well through the con--Edamura is kind-hearted and honest who is always kept in the dark about details of the con (acting as a lens for the audience to view the plot through), Abbie is rebellious and, to put it simply, a badass, and Cythia is the flirty, quick-witted and quick-tempered woman of the team (she reminded me a lot of Faye from Cowboy Bebop in ways). The only main character who isn't explored is Laurent, the smooth-talking classic conman who recruits Edamura and acts as the de-facto leader of the group. He's still good enough of a character to be likable while also remaining mysterious through these first 3 cases, which says a good deal about the talent of the writers up until episode 15.
Basically, I think the characters and story were pretty solid for the first three cases. I could go on about certain plot details, but what drove me to write this review was my feeling about episodes 15-23 (aka the last arc/case), so let's just get right into that.
The last case focuses on Laurent's past, which is certainly not a bad thing--his backstory is actually pretty interesting, and I thought the way they tied Laurent's connection to Edamura's dad was handled pretty well. I also think episode 15-middle of episode 18 isn't horrendous--Edamura is shown to have compassion for the kids that are being trafficked, and the narrative is showing the toll that being an undercover member of the trafficking company is having on his mental health. He begins smoking in every scene, and, when it comes down to it, forces the kids out of their imprisonment at gunpoint, this scene being harsh but necessary to expand the audience's perspective that Edamura spending a significant amount of time with bad people is wearing down on him, even though his intentions may be good. Judging by these actions, it seems like the plot is going in a direction of focusing on freeing those kids and absolutely destroying Suzaku (the human trafficking organization)...because human trafficking is WRONG. And anyone who participates in it is NOT GOOD. THAT IS THE PRECEDENT THEY ARE SETTING UP FOR THIS ARC. And, given what we know about Edamura so far and his actions in the past arcs, he seems to have a strong moral compass and will often do the right thing even in the face of adversity, even if it's rash or not completely thought-out. It's what makes you root for him, and the way others adapt to these actions during a con is what makes you root for them.
However, things take a turn in the middle of episode 18 that sets the precedent for the rest of the show to plummet into confusion and inconsistency. The part I'm specifically talking about is when Edamura's father appears to have ratted out Edamura, Abbie, and Cynthia to the Shanghai and Suzaku trading companies while they attempted to free the imprisoned trafficked children, and Edamura, Abbie, and Cynthia are all facing seemingly certain death, as they've been taken to a boat and are being held at gunpoint over open water. Before this point, there are some minor red flags that have happened, mainly concerning Edamura's father. In the span of about 1 episode, the audience's perspective of him has flipped from being on the human trafficking side, to him conning the human trafficking side, to him conning Edamura and ultimately working with the trafficking side. It is a lot of side-flipping, which makes it kind of confusing for the audience, but not inherently self-destructive in terms of guiding the show's plot. Another thing to mention is that the leader of the Suzaku company is portrayed as a stern and vicious old woman who has a soft spot for Edamura. This last aspect has not influenced Edamura's actions so far because, like all of the audience, he understands that she is a BAD PERSON. Because she literally buys and sells children. So there should be NO SYMPATHY for her.
What changes everything is when Edamura's father tells Edamura to kill Abbie and Cynthia to gain the respect of the Suzaku lady. When Edamura refuses, he "kills" them himself, which is a big no-no, because there are really only 2 options that this action creates for the audience to believe. The first option is that Cynthia and Abbie really have just died, which feels anticlimactic and disappointing, and, given that there are about 5 episodes left and so much work has been invested into their characters, probably not likely. The second, more believable (and yet somehow worse for the plot) option is that Cynthia and Abbie aren't really dead, and that Edamura's dad is actually working with THEM, not the trading companies (so...4 side flips within a single episode, at this point). This also feels unearned and does not bode well for the rest of the story because 1. they already used the "OMG someone just died!" trick during the first case, and 2. because of the frequent side-flipping, the audience starts to lose trust in the identities that have been established for characters.
It only gets worse from here, though.
The part that seals the deal (at least narratively for me, and seemingly for the rest of the case, given how everything proceeds from this point) is that as soon as Cynthia and Abbie "die," the narrative immediately begins to push this idea that the Suzaku lady (who SELLS CHILDREN) is kind and compassionate. She takes pity on Edamura seconds after the people who she was most likely going to kill were just "killed" by giving Edamura the freedom to decide what he wanted to do with his father, giving him a gun and expressing her sympathy. Everything can still be fixed, though. At this point, the authors could still make it believable that Edamura's father truly is a scumbag who just killed his friends, or they could go the other route (as they did) and make it turn out that he's part of the con, and actually on Edamura's side. All they really had to do was just make sure they represent that Edamura is still exhibiting his traits of compassion and kindheartedness by NOT KILLING HIS DAD, despite everything his dad seems to have done. It's a little cliche, but it would allow the writers to show that, despite everything that Edamura has gone through, he will still make the morally right decision. This is something that has been accentuated in EVERY. SINGLE. CASE.
And yet, they decide to have him just shoot his father in the chest. Which, of course, the audience is less likely to believe, because now we just got 3 sudden main character deaths, and we have the knowledge that they can fake dying.
I think this choice was to accentuate the fact that being in the human trafficking business has taken such a large toll on Edamura, but I think the cost of doing this definitely outweighs the benefits in terms of creating an interesting story. For one, Edamura genuinely believes he is killing his dad in that scene. I don't care if that's just a ruse and his dad is actually fine (which is exactly what happens)--the sentiment behind that action cannot be taken back. If you're going to make such a dramatic move like that, there should be no room for lighthearted reconciliation between Edamura and his dad when everything's said and done (which is exactly what happens).
What I also don't get is the real motive behind Edamura's dad's actions. He lies to his own son on the boat, "kills" Edamura's friends right in front of him (potentially causing trauma for his own son), and for what? Dorothy? While again I'll say I don't really have a problem with the Dorothy-Laurent backstory, I think it doesn't make sense that all the characters, which have been shown to be generally pretty reasonable, would go through so much to essentially just mess with Edamura while getting some kind of revenge for Dorothy. Seriously, why even bring Edamura into it at all if you genuinely want revenge for your dead friend, and why even go through all the trouble to deceive him and incite a possibly permanently broken relationship with your child? This is addressed a little in the end of the show when Edamura is yelling at his dad with the Suzaku katana to his dad's chest (which, by the way, ends in Edamura getting killed...but not really, because, you know, faking your death is a great plot point when you use it 5 times in a row, right?) but the ending seems to show that they were working in kahoots the entire time...so was that even a real argument? The back-and-forth shifting of what "side" Edamura's really on and who he's fighting against from episode 18 onward, undermines all of the character development that was established for him before and makes the narrative feel like it's aiming to be confusing for the sake of being confusing.
What's more frustrating is that the focus of human trafficking being bad is essentially thrown out the window after the "deaths" of Edamura's dad, Abbie, and Cynthia in episode 18. Edamura decides to throw out his conscience and LEGIT work for the Suzaku human trafficking business (which BUYS AND SELLS CHILDREN) because the Suzaku lady seems nice, and it's heavily implied he reminds her of her estranged son, and she reminds him of his mom...which is so messed up for so many reasons. I get that they're trying to humanize the villain, but this humanization is addressed so sloppily after setting this precedent that human trafficking is BAD and anyone who participates in it freely is a BAD PERSON (which is absolutely correct!). This, again, completely subverts the audience's belief that one of the sole aspects of the Edamura's character is that he's compassionate and kindhearted and the fact that he serves as a moral rock for the rest of the conman crew. And yet, the narrative still seems to want you to sympathize with him and the Suzaku lady. Which, not gonna lie, kind of feels like they're asking you to sympathize with human traffickers. I think a good story is capable of making you feel sympathy for anyone (take the Sopranos--the whole show is about making you feel sympathy for a mob boss that commits crimes and ruins lives on a daily basis), but completely changing the ideals of a main character to be sympathetic towards the head of a human trafficking company within the span a of a few episodes, after CLEARLY ESTABLISHING that this company is the ABSOLUTE WORST...that ain't it, chief. That ain't right.
Another thing to mention is that, when they introduced the Dorothy-Laurent plotline, they essentially shifted audience's perspective of the goal of the conmen from being noble (destroying a terrible company that BUYS AND SELLS CHILDREN) to being vengeful (getting revenge for Dorothy). That second goal wouldn't be so bad if it didn't completely overshadow the first, seeming to prioritize the importance of revenge over fighting against human trafficking. The children and the plotline the writers started about them feeling like they'll "never be wanted" is completely forgotten as soon as that Dorothy plotline is introduced--the fate of the children is thrown in as an afterthought in the final minutes of the show. The main conflict at the end of the con isn't about fighting THE BUYING AND SELLING OF ACTUAL CHILDREN--it's about being mad about a friend dying because wow I can't believe someone died while trying to infiltrate a company that BUYS AND SELLS CHILDREN AND HAS NO MORALS. The worst part about this is that it's revealed that Dorothy isn't even dead--she just lost her memories and is just chillin' with an old couple on the beach--which means that the "revenge" plotline holds less weight than it even did before. No, actually, scratch that--the worst part about this is that all they do to get "revenge" (and fight human trafficking, I guess) is put the leaders and a few of the members of the Shanghai and Suzaku trading companies on an island and let them just vibe there. Like BRO you're not even going to get them arrested?! They are either going to die on the island OR they're going to make it back to the mainland, the second option being more likely given that at least one of them probably has a phone and will be able to call for help at some point. Regardless of whether or not they make it back from the island alive, it's guaranteed that BOTH of those trafficking companies will be fine, unless they are so inept that they can't figure out a new leader and are so crippled by the financial sacrifice that both companies seemed pretty okay with making in that deal that was supposed to take place in the final episodes. I think the show doesn't make it clear enough that the company is "ruined," unlike the other cases, where each villain was shown to have lost everything due to the conmen by either getting thrown in jail, losing all their money, or a mix of both.
Speaking of the outcomes of the villains from the last cases...the icing on the salt-filled cake that is the last case of Great Pretender is that it appears that all the people who were established as TERRIBLE people from the previous cases are in on the con. Edamura appears to just happen to have the contacts of all three of the antagonists from the last 3 cases, and he has them help him with the con for reasons that I believe are not fully explained. And these actual criminals, one who one of the main characters (Cynthia) has had a personal vendetta against for about 20 YEARS, are just chilling on the boat, explaining to the audience how they regained their status and were totally content. The main characters don't even seem perturbed by these villains being involved with the con--the most surprising non-reaction is from Cynthia, who I would assume would be livid about someone who took advantage of her and her ex-partner's lives for his own benefit just chilling and gambling on a yacht like nothing happened. This particular development seemed to just erase both the goals of the conmen, which were to bring down bad people (which they clearly failed at or didn't care about, given that the three antagonists they had supposedly "brought" down seemed perfectly happy and content with their lives) and all of the deplorable acts that these antagonists were shown to have engaged in in the previous cases.
In other words, it felt like the show almost betrayed everything that it said it stood for, in terms of dealing with serious topics and actual crime. Judging by the rest of the reviews I've seen submitted here for this show, I think some other people feel similarly to me about this.
That's not to say that all of the parts of this case were completely nonsensical and bad, however. If I am to say anything positive story-wise about case 4, I really thought Abbie was solid the whole way through, even though she had very little screentime. And, except for the last part where she just seems totally okay with that painter fraud guy just chilling on the yacht, I think Cynthia was fine as well--she provided some comic relief when her and the rest of the conmen gang were painting the fake Suzaku building...which I'm not even going to get into how stupid and convoluted that whole idea was, given that I've been writing this for approximately 2 hours straight and my exhaustion with just writing simple sentences is probably showing at this point.
ENJOYMENT (...no number again)
Once again, I don't really know how to rank this section either. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3 cases, I was utterly baffled and disappointed by the last case. I don't know how any of that would translate to a comprehensive score of enjoyment without being completely biased towards my feelings towards either the first three cases or the last case. I will say once again that it really does feel like cases 1-3 were from a completely different show with completely different characters than case 4, so I don't feel like it's appropriate to group them into one score.
OVERALL CONCLUSION (TLDR) (4/10)
4/10 doesn't feel like it's a low OR high enough score when addressing this show. There are so many aspects that I absolutely adored from the first 3 cases that were just obliterated in the last few episodes from a few odd narrative choices that completely subverted the tone and our understanding of key characters. I am astonished by how plotlines were started and then just immediately thrown out and characters were just changed on a whim for shock value, and am just kind of awash in disappointment right now, as I really thought this show was going to go down as one of my favorite anime.
It feels like the last case of Great Pretender was the big reveal of a giant con that ran through the entire show. The first 3 cases served as the deception that Great Pretender was truly going to be (and end) fantastically, with a solid cast of likable characters, a good sense of humor and dialogue, and a coherent plot that would make you wish you could just erase your memory and watch the show again for the first time. And that last case served to show all of us that, like any great con, things that you thought were undeniably true could easily be undermined. If someone were to tell me that I would be ranting about how much I was disappointed and infuriated by the the ending of Great Pretender about a month ago, when I was excitedly waiting for Case 4 to drop after bingeing all 3 of the cases within a few days, I would've laughed. I just wouldn't have expected a show that seemed to exhibit such sensitivity for establishing solid characters and understandable plots to completely throw everything out the window within the last few episodes of a show...and yet, here I am, ignoring the real-life work I should've done 2 hours ago, instead spending my time typing furiously at my keyboard, writing an overly long review that I'll be lucky if one person actually reads through, feeling like I've just been duped.
