Overview:
Hiroshi Inaba is a part human and part wolf detective who can extract amazing amounts of information as well as develop certain powers from tasting hair (so yeah, hair fetish incoming). Anyway, together with his two assistants, Inaba works to foil Don Valentino’s schemes.
Review:
This show was not for me. I don’t even remember why I watched it though I suspect this was the result of a random draw on Crunchyroll and a lack of desire to make a decision so just went with it. The basic concept of genetically modified people with the characteristics of animals is kind of cool. Inaba could have been a great character and some of the different powers he gets from consuming different coloured hairs are pretty amazing. Unfortunately the show is determined to be a gag comedy and not actually develop any of its interesting points.
I’m going to keep this review fairly short because I haven’t really got much to say. There are some interesting cast members in this show and even the ones who end up one-note characters repeating the same joke episode after episode, had the potential to be interesting. However, the show insists on squandering characterisation and any potential growth you might see in a character is very quickly squashed.
Kei is the straight man of the group with his only real hang-up being his poverty and unfortunate attraction to cats given his allergies, but even then he is underused. At times he breaks the 4th wall to provide commentary but mostly this is also used as a gag and offers little actual insight that couldn’t have already been observed. His own comments throughout the episodes are mostly obvious and never quite go far enough for him to be particularly note worthy in any way shape or form.
The villainous goat, Don Valentino, could have been fantastic given how over the top he is but his schemes end up looking like something Wile E Coyote would give a pass on and the inevitable conclusion to most of them just makes it a bit tiresome after awhile.
Basically, this show is functional enough and it tries really hard to make you believe it is going to be zany fun but for me it was mostly a miss. I just wanted more from the characters and the story and this show just couldn’t deliver.
Have you seen Cuticle Detective Inaba? What were your thoughts?
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
I’ve heard this was among anime’s “Dark Plague” titles, shows that are bad enough to kill. I’m glad you managed to make it out alive.
I don’t think it was that bad. Certainly it had a lot of wasted potential and it wasn’t really my kind of thing, but I’ve certainly experienced worse.
When I first heard the title, I thought it was going to be about a manicurist who secretly works as a detective. Sounds like that idea would have been better.
That could have been fun to. I actually liked the whole super powers from eating hair thing but really that part of the story kind of got overshadowed by the everything else.
I had literally never heard of this anime, but it doesn’t look like my cup of tea. Good to know that it’s good to skip it.
I still don’t know why I watched it. I really am thinking it must have come up after hitting the random button on Crunchyroll because I can’t imagine why else I would have tried it.
That’s understandable. I’ve felt that way for some of the anime and movies I’ve reviewed.
Well…seeing as this is mostly a comedy series (which I usually hate anyway), I have very little reason to watch this one, especially after reading this review. Thanks for letting me skip another anime 😀
This one actually had quite a bit of potential but just didn’t do anything with it.
This series caught my eye because of the name. Cuticle detective? What even is that? Does he go around inspecting nails…?
Anyway, I do want to try this but looks like I shouldn’t expect much.
I’m pretty sure you have better things on your watch list.
Haha yes, I do.