Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo. An anime adaptation of my favorite manga series of all time, and certainly a very underrated one. While the sequel, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns is being broadcast currently, allow me to convince you why you should watch this well-written mystery anime series.

The original manga series is known in Japan as one of the earliest manga series of the mystery genre. Its more kid-friendly, well-known counterpart Detective Conan (aka Case Closed) only began serialization 2 years after this one. In the early days, Kindaichi was better received in Japan than the latter, as shown by its sales numbers. Much of its ... fans loved it for its whodunit mysteries, which I would explain below. In the late 90s, due to Detective Conan pandering to a wider audience, Kindaichi's popularity slowly plummeted, and now even though it is still considered a classic mystery series, it could no longer regain its former glory.

Onto the anime adaptation, it is definitely a pity that this anime series did not receive any release in the western world by any distributors. Online fansubs are also rumored to be rather terrible, with the first 20 or so episodes being watchable only. I would say that the series deserves a larger audience, because of the reasons that I would explain now.

Story: 9

The anime series of Kindaichi does not have an actual continuous story unlike Detective Conan. Each individual murder case takes up about 3-4 or even 5 episodes to resolve, usually involving a murder of about 3 people, 4 if longer, but rarely does it elevate to 5 or more (though there do exist such cases). One could argue that with the introduction of the criminal mastermind Takato Youichi in the 3rd season of the anime, the story became continuous, but I would argue that one could still watch each case individually or in a non-linear fashion, and would still not be confused.

Dissecting into the structure of each case, a Kindaichi whodunit mystery follows the same formula: Kindaichi goes to a place, meets a few murders, solves them, end of story. However, each case does not simply become boring because of this. Kindaichi's cases are well-known for their unique tricks used by the murderers in each case. The tricks may appear simple, but still have their own elements of surprise.

Furthermore, I would also recommend the murder cases to people who enjoy tragic, sad backstories. The murderers in Kindaichi's cases all usually have a well-justified reason why they want to kill their victims. And while you would probably not agree with their way of resolving things by murder, you would probably feel a sense of sympathy for them after you listen to their backstories.

Art: 6

As a 90's production, the art definitely leaves room to be desired. The animation does not flow well occasionally, and some characters may appear deformed in certain episodes. Nevertheless, the art should not bother you if you watch Kindaichi for the story.

Sound: 9

Kouji Wada does a great job at composing the soundtrack for Kindaichi. Each scene, whether be it conveying sadness, anxiety, happiness, has a well-composed piece to it. The two tracks that are particularly memorable are the one usually played when a body is found called "Jicchan no Nami Kakete!", and the one played during a heart-beating, nervous scene called "Nazo wa Subete Toketa!".

Character: 8

The main character, Kindaichi Hajime, is an IQ 180 genius who acts goofy all the time, but when needed can show a sense of justice. Along with him are his childhood friend Nanase Miyuki and the police officer Kenmochi Keibu. The series, being composed of standalone cases, do not show much character development for its main cast, but the characters interact well with excellent chemistry in each case.

Along with the main cast are a number of characters (the victims, suspects and the murderer) in each case. Like any other whodunit series, the characters need to be unique, well-fleshed out for an audience to truly enjoy the cases. Luckily, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo does that well, providing enough screentime for each character before his/her ultimate fate.

Conclusion: 9

The series is not perfect, but I would still recommend it if you are a hardcore detective fan who loves long, well-planned murder cases with intriguing tricks and sad (sometimes tragic) endings. I would say it certainly deserves a lot more popularity and I wish that a distributor would meet up with this piece of gem and release it.


*Side-note: A list of my personal recommendations if you are too lazy to watch through all of the 148 episodes:

The Murders of the Fudou High School Seven Mysteries (Episode 1-3)
The Murders of the Gentleman Thief (Episode 10-12)
The Murders of the Trickery House (Episode 18-20)
Kindaichi the Murderer (Episode 24-27)
The Murders of the Magical Express (Episode 33-36)
The Murders of the Snow Demon (Episode 37-39)
The Murders of Reika's Kidnapping (Episode 47-50)
The Murders of the Computer Lodge (Episode 74-77)
The Murders at Snow Village (Episode 111-114)
The Murders of the Russian Dolls (Episode 139-143)

Do you like Detective stories with good characters and really good storylines, also a Teen Detective in the making??
Well this is most definitely one you will like.
I could compare this to Detective Conan but this actually pre-dates that ( in the Manga ) by a few Years.
Kindaichi wants to follow in his Grandfathers footsteps by also becoming Japan's greatest Detective.
The best thing about Kindaichi is that it is more Adult themed as against DC's 6-7 Year Old's solving cases.
The characters are ( The best part ) very similar in both cases.
Miyuki is Kindaichi's best friend and potential Love interest ( Not yet though ) she ... accompanies Kindaichi in most of the crimes he solves, she is a really good sidekick.
Kenmochi is the Police Inspector who calls on Kindaichi quite a lot seeing as he knew his Grandfather and has seen first hand how good Kindaichi is.
There are many others including, Superintendent Akechi who is as good if not better than Kindaichi, they do help each other out at times.
Saki Ryuuji is Kindaichi's School friend who when called on follows him with his camera filming the crime scenes.
Kindaichi Fumi is Knidaichi' niece who sometimes finds herself being in on a investigation, she is the comedic type.
Then we have one who has a recurring role....
The Puppeteer From Hell who is actually a Murderer who Kindaichi promises he will put behind bars one day, he pops up regularly throughout the series as am Antagonist.
One of the best parts about Kindaichi are the longer episode arc's, some are 4-5 + which makes the cases more fleshed out.
Take the last 10 Episodes, we have a 5 and a 4 length cases.
The Russian Dolls is 5 Episodes which keeps you wondering all the way through, before the reveal.
Monster is 4 Episodes set in a Circus, again it will keep you guessing.
I only mentioned the last episodes as they were the last to be Subbed and were fresh in my mind.
The Subs by KL were fantastic all the way through, so thanks to them for taking the time to complete this Great series.
Overall in my opinion i find this just a bit better than DC as that we all know suffers from too much filler.
Less filler more thriller is what this offers to anyone willing to give this a chance.
I will finish off by saying Kindaichi is a bit of Pervert, always looking for a peak but not in a nasty way.
Miyuki keeps him under control when she sees this happening.
In Kindaichi' words....
"In the name of my Grandfather i will solve this Case"
After this watch "Kindaichi returns" which has better animation being quite recent.

Story is about a high schooler who's the grandson of a famous detective and he and his friend always end up at the epicenter of some crime with a murder or multiple murders and the protagonist solves them.

At first I thought it was really good and interesting, but later on it became a real drag to watch. For the 40 episodes I've watched, I took two breaks from the show because I had zero desire to watch it. In the end I gave up because I realized I was forcing myself to watch it and not having much fun.

Reason why I felt like this is ... because there doesn't seem to be an overarching plot or anything, the only way you can tell the show has progressed is that the main characters and some recurring characters are using new information based on events that took place in past episodes. Other than that, nothing really changes. Every case takes about 3-5 episodes and then the next one starts, I find it amazing that this has 148 episodes when at around 40 I thought I've seen all there is to see.

I find it very unrealistic how the two main characters who are 17 (but look like 14) are so calm and composed when they encounter death so often and seeing dead people literally every other day. It gets to the point where they don't pay any mind to them, aside from the first reaction of shock or screaming, after that they are totally fine, even the other characters that are just for the case are also calm and composed. It looks so fake and it destroys any immersion the show might have had.

It's not just Kindaichi, it's Miyuki as well. She can't have seen so much death in her life, yet she doesn't flinch after the first few seconds. And she is not even a persistent character, she is just a supporting deuteragonist to Kindaichi. She doesn't appear in other series, only this one and is then replaced by another girl.

The same goes for every other character, even the ones that are just for the specific case. It happens in every case and in every episode without exception.

People find a corpse, then some woman/girl screams, the rest gather around, look shocked for 1 second and then everyone is completely fine and OK. Since every case is a recycled copy/paste of every other case, it's always the murderer being among them all, and it's known to all and yet nobody seems at all nervous to be among the others, especially in situations where Kindaichi gathers them around to have some meeting with them or to try and trick the murderer of slipping up.

This is just a minor issue among the pile of issues with Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, at least this is the only Kindaichi anime I've seen (up to episode 40) and after that I have no desire to see the other. Every case becomes predictable after you've seen a few cases, very scarcely the crime committed has been really elaborate and well thought out, usually it's something very simplistic and even idiotic. In some occasions it even defies the laws of physics and nature, like showing someone traveling between rooms on the outside of a building walking on a ledge and then disappearing or something like that.

The author tried really hard to make everything look elaborate and milk it for as long as possible, but it just keeps getting more and more boring as there is no overarching plot, in 40 episodes I did not see anything happen that can be considered a main plot material. There was this case/arc where Kindaichi got framed for a murder he did not commit, at that point, I thought it might mean something, but this is quickly forgotten and never touched upon ever again. I even went through the trouble to watch the last episode, 148 I believe, just to see if something happens, well it doesn't. It ends like just another case and ends in some forced comedic manner like 90s/00s anime where Kindaichi is running chasing after a car where his friends are in the car laughing at him while he has a dumb face and is shouting something incomprehensible. Which is just insulting to me, because it means for 148 episodes nothing really happened. Maybe if people like this simplistic type of murder mystery that goes on and on and on until even the author gets bored and puts an end to it, it may be fine, for me it was a waste of time, the first 5-10 episodes were promising, but when I realized nothing else happens, I saw no reason to waste my time with it anymore.

The cases themselves quickly get old, some are predictable, others have really stupid solutions, there was one where the murderer was jumping from door to door so that he doesn't leave any footprints in the mud because it was rainy, the stupid thing was that each door had a concrete platform in front of it and they were close enough that anyone can jump from one platform to the other and the door thing is absolutely idiotic and pointless. It made me feel like the author is trying really hard to make everything look elaborate when it's in fact pretty stupid.

There is an anime called Tantei Gakuen Q, which was a bit more interesting and some cases were real head scratchers. I would advise anyone to watch that instead of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, it's a bit cliche, mostly the main character stereotypes, but the cases themselves are more interesting.

I think Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo can be best enjoyed if you are in the age group 7 - 14, after that it's hard to enjoy something so cheap and predictable that basically doesn't go anywhere. Another way I can describe it is "watch it only if you absolutely need to watch something and for some reason there isn't anything else to watch". It's not horrible, but it's not that good either, just mediocre and boring. The show is overrated and most of its praise is fake.