Shoushimin Series

Shoshimin is one of several pleasant surprises I got this season. As someone who hasn’t seen Hyouka(crazy, I know), I wasn’t familiar with the author’s writing style or how his series are structured so I went into this blind and from episode 1 I was immediately hooked. Despite it being an extremely dialogue heavy story and slow paced detective style story, these episodes went by in the blink of an eye and were consistently engaging. It was almost like we were playing a game alongside the two leads in terms of solving the cases and more often than not I found myself thoroughly surprised bythe twists the author includes. This is a must watch for any mystery fan or if you just want a new cute waifu, because Osanai was definitely one of the best this season. After watching the first episode I kept thinking to myself how similar this felt to another detective mystery series from recently that I loved, undead girl murder farce. The character interactions, the way mundane episodes passed by in a blink because of the direction.. and wouldn’t you know it, it’s the same studio. Loved every single minute of this one. Whether it’s a kidnapping or found out who ate a desert(yes that’s a real case, in fact multiple), there’s not a dull moment in this series. The cases are actually very interesting and it’s easy to get lost in them trying to figure out who the culprit is or how something happened. What’s more is that they are genuinely surprising. Just like Undead Girl, this show has a tendency of throwing you for a loop and misdirecting you before coming up with a twist at the end. Often times the answer is right in front of you, but the way the author reveals it is so satisfying. In addition to the mystery cases, the other big draw here is the relationship between Kobato and Osanai. They have such a fun and muted dynamic. The characters talk relatively realistically, their banter is fun and I love seeing Kobato get roped into Osanai’s absurd desert eating schemes or just missions around town. They’re truly a blast to watch. There’s definitely romantic undertones between them, but the show doesn’t go too far in that direction. You can feel that they like each other but they’re not swooning after one another like your average high school anime. I think this being a novel series rather than a light novel series adds a degree of maturity and depth to the story that light novels frankly tend to lack. It feels like it was aimed at a more mature audience who don’t need everything spelled out for them or fanservice to keep their attention and I love that. To bring another comparison to undead girl murder farce, undead girl is also a novel and had a lot of those same themes, so I’m starting to just see that as a connection among novel adaptations as opposed to light novels which are marketed towards young adults. I think Shoshimin is one of the best shows of the season and I’ve been high on it since episode 1, even including it in my new anime to watch for Summer video. Two months later and it’s not fallen in my standings. Brilliant show with a great cast of characters, some cool mystery cases and a grounded storytelling and directorial method. Very good watch that I can’t recommend enough! Here’s to hoping the author sits down and writes some more. Shoshimin gets 9, out of 10.

This show was a good-to-fine experience. It’s actually at its most enjoyable during its early stages where we know little about these characters and are just exploring minor mysteries through their inquisitive lenses. Visually, it’s also excellent, doing a great job portraying how the characters are thinking through these mysteries and jumping between settings. It definitely sets itself apart in that regard. The story eventually had to include things like character development and a continuous plot, which are both just fine. I don’t think we explored either of the leads enough to invest me in their stories - their backgrounds are largely given as hints andboth characters are too stoic to sell meaningful moments in the present - and the larger plots of the story just didn’t land for me. Osanai’s plot feels both largely warranted and needlessly convoluted to the point that it roped in basically everyone, so you can understand why she did it and also be kinda mad that she had to bring so many others into her scheme without telling them. Kobato just feels like he’s playing detective most of the time, though his unnecessary rescue of Osanai at least gave him a moment to shine. I found Dojima more interesting than either of them, both in his character and his aims. I’d say the biggest problem with this series is the lack of focus on the title. Why do they want to become ordinary? Osanai seems to desire to do so to step away from a dangerous past, which would be better if we got more peeks into her history. We get more insight into Kobato, but his whole thing seems to just be a desire not to stand out, which isn’t a strong motivation. I think the story would have been facilitated by giving us an idea of how they met and came to decide that ordinary was what they wanted to be. Why does Kobato care about how others see him when it seems like he’s driven by curiosity? Osanai seems like she only wants to become unusual in a different way, so why ordinary? Maybe the point is that they’re just running away from other problems and found common cause with another person in the same pursuit, coming to an accord with them to pursue something that was always beyond their reach but finding something more valuable in the process. Maybe that’s just me reading too deeply into something that’s never fully explicated or explored. Overall, while I can’t say this had many high highs, it also didn’t have low points, it was just pretty good for much of its run with an opportunity to get better as it explores these characters in distinct contexts with other people. I think the point at which it left us could lead to interesting future episodes, so I’ll stick around for S2, even though I feel somewhat mixed on this season.

I still don't get why this show has such a following. Probably because the author is known. Well, I never saw Hyouka so I went into the show without any prejudice and all I can say is that it's boring and predictable. The show starts out in a somewhat interesting way. Yes, the mysterys themselves are pretty boring, but that's not the issue, because obviously this is about the characters, right? I mean, they tell you in the first episode that both of them want to become normal people, so you are wondering: What is it that makes them "not normal"? Well, here is the firstreveal for you, the one thing you immediately think of is true for both of them. I won't spoil the exact "solution", but the problem is that the characters want to appear deep, but they are really shallow, beacause they both have exactly two quirks that define them. And once you understood these two quirks, nothing can surprise you anymore. And here is the thing, if the show didn't think of itself as some deep masterpiece, this wouldn't be an issue. It would just be two somewhat weird people that try to appear normal who are thrown into different scenarios. That could be an okay show. But for both characters, the anime takes its time to "reveal" their secrets and both times, I was just like: "Wait, that was not supposed to be obvious?" This ultimately lead to the final arc of the show where suddenly things turn serious, but again, it's immediately clear what is going on here. However, we spend 3 episodes trying to build up suspense just to have one of the characters tell us all this obvious stuff in the final episode in an exposition scene that makes Sword Art Online exposition scenes look fancy. No seriously, the finale of the show is a boring exposition scene about things that you probably already realized and didn't even think they were supposed to be a mystery. So in summary: This show is one that wants to appear deep, but once you look behind the curtain, you realize it has nothing really to offer. In terms of mystery, it is just weak as the mysterys revolve around the characters and they are just not thought out enough to surprise you. But it seemingly thinks that it has such deep characters that it can feel pretentious.

Pretty sleepy. Lots of sitting and talking and eating. Slow for a 10-episode series. The episodic mysteries are low-stakes. Looks pretty good for a novel adaptation, even for one sold by a pretty-girl character. The animation is not as innovative as Hyouka and without the studio brand name, but it is much more consistent in tone with the story and subject matter. The biggest mysteries are the characters, and the main characters in particular. Why Jogoro and Osanai want to be "Shoushimin"/Petit Bourgeousie/Civilians is only implied or teased for almost the entire season. Rather than main character Jogoro or even deuteragonist Osanai being the only one ortwo genius detective characters with a clue about what's going on, the cast is much more broadly competent, which opens up the possibilities for the story and solutions, and the story is more fun to follow along with even in the drier episodes. Yonezawa's writing has a way of lulling the audience to sleep, and then surprising with a gentle twist ending that colors the characters and relationships from the rising action. The most satisfying part of his writing is that the twist usually leans *into* what is more realistic or practical for the setting than *away* from it. The ep 10 falling-action "twist" away from genre convention and toward development of the main characters is one of the best examples of this I've ever seen. I would even count the nature of the rising-action mystery in the final arc as a "twist" given the mood of most of the stories up to that point. If you're bored to tears after ep 1, you could skip ahead to 6, but this is probably not worth your time. If you're still interested at all after you realize what you're getting into end of the painful "Hot Chocolate Mystery" ep 2, this season will probably reward your attention more than you would expect.

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