Hello everyone,
Let's go ahead with another review, this time of a series I twitter-reviewed at the start of this blog almost three months ago with more focus. I'm talking about Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, an game/manga/anime series focused on parodying detective and other popular genres.
Let's start with a synopsis :
In the future world, people use ‘Toys’ that grant them superhuman abilities like ESP and telekinesis. This has led to a boom in both minor crimes and the need for Toy-using detectives to track down the offenders and bring them to justice. Milky Holmes is a team, staffed by four cheerful and energetic girls.
The premise is pretty good for a parody series and throw you inside a spiral of funny moments with our characters losing their powers right off the bat and having to study to recover them before being expelled from the academy they're in.
The series is highly episodic except for the final main arc related to the recovery of the girls power (temporary that is...
) , but most of the episodes are funny enough to get you to watch them in a speedy succession.
My favourite episode is likely the one in which the whole cast is trapped, trying to escape from the house of Baskerville filled with traps. (with the various fanservice moments that ensues in this situation)
The characters are all lovable in their way and you'll find yourself after a couple of episodes to care even for the thiefs/enemies (well, Henriette is too cute while normal and too obscene when in Arsene mode )
There is no major growth in the characters personality (actually they forget about the most important moment of the series due to amnesia), but that's what you expect from a parody series.
I have two favourites characters in this series. The first is Sherlock "Sheryl" Shellingford, our main heroine modeled after the famous Sherlock Holmes; her cute and naive personality is the main reason of my vote.
The second is Henriette Mistere with her incredible bad sense in clothes while in thief mode and incredible funny bouncing scenes while normal with most of the external cast recognizing her just for her rack and the way it bounces over them.
The graphical quality is top notch (I loved the characters design, especially of Henriette Mystere and Kokoro Akechi) and the animation is good enough to let you continue watching without too much annoyment.
The opening and ending animation are quite good with some good artistic moments and are reminiscent of old detective/thief series like Lupin the third.
The sound quality is pretty high and I liked most of the voices even if there are basically no famous seiyuu working on this series (proof that sometimes you don't need a big name to do a good work).
Loved both opening ("Seikai wa Hitotsu! Janai!!" by Milky Holmes) and ending ("Honnou no DOUBT" by Faylan) songs and I still hear them from time to time.
Concluding, this is a rather good parody series and I suggest this to anyone looking for a good comedy series with parody elements.
Don't be turned off by the seemingly children atmosphere, this is definitely not for childrens (for both content and fanservice quantity)
See you soon,
feal87