All The Right Notes But Still Not Singing
Cop Craft Episode 1
Buddy cop story between a veteran and an alien fairy? Well I don’t mind the standard cop story and odd-couples usually work quite well for casual entertainment so I guess we’ll give this one a whirl and see what happens. The first episode is pretty standard set up though I’m wondering how we’ll get a whole season out of it unless we’re going for a more episodic approach given it feels like this story should run its course in about three or four episodes at most.
The opening sequence telegraphed where it was going from the start. The cops were too smug and self-assured, not to mention having read the synopsis we knew one of them would be teaming up with a new non-human partner so it stood to reason tragedy was about to strike in one form or another. The shot lingering on the twisted neck of the guy was a little much.
And actually, that’s probably the problem all the way through this episode. All the elements of this type of story are presented with a lack of nuance. The superior who forces the partnership together, the veteran griping at having to take on a new partner, even the lament over how to tell the wife of the dead guy all just felt overdone.
Of course, that doesn’t stop this from being an intriguing set up with a kidnapped fairy in a bottle, a dead police man and the partner out to find the ones responsible with his new fairy/knight/alien partner. Hopefully it will end up being pretty enjoyable though it hasn’t done much overly amazing yet.
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Karandi James
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Images from: Cop Craft. Dir. S Itagaki. Millepensee. 2019.
I mainly started watching this show because I’m a fan of the artist/character designer. The writing in this first episode felt pretty rushed, and it did feel like a very standard buddy cop drama setup, but I have hopes that it will pick up now that all the background is established. I’m hoping the show does something different with the fantasy/sci-fi element to mix things up.
Agreed. It would be nice to see it really use the mashed up genres for something interesting.
“All the elements of this type of story are presented with a lack of nuance.”
Felt to me like it was ticking off the boxes rather perfunctorily… Maybe it will get better now that all that is out of the way?
I’m kind of hoping it will get better. It has all the right ingredients, it is just a matter of whether it does anything good with them.
It was definitely a little too on the nose, especially the part where she got mad at him for dealing with the thief. No doubt she’ll find some point in the future where she has to do something similar. There are a lot of interesting elements and the premise is excellent and topical, but it didn’t really come to life in my view.
I’m hoping this one finds its feet because it is certainly an interesting idea and a little different from all the isekai anime this season so I wouldn’t mind this kind of story.