The Case Files of Jeweler Richard Archives | Page 2 of 2

Hello one and all. I spontaneous decided that I would start off our Jeweller Richard conversation this week so I’m hoping Karandi isn’t putting together a wonderful first draft as we speak! I have a feeling this show will be a bit of a miss with the average anime viewer but I have been wrong before. Wait where are my matters? Hi Karandi (now that we have an actual “K” as a friend I feel compelled to type the full name), how are you?

Hey Irina, glad you got the ball rolling – and that means I get to be bold this week. Yeah, Jeweller Richard isn’t going to appeal to a mass audience, though it definitely got more of my attention in this episode over last week. Though part of that was because midway through the episode I had to google whether people actually call it ‘heating’ when referring to rubies and sapphires. I’ve only ever heard them described as ‘cooked’ previously and it was kind of throwing me off a little.

I think the opening sequence of this episode was meant to show us just how cool and special Richard is but he ended coming off as a fussy killjoy more than anything else, and I’m kind of enjoying that. I mean if it wasn’t on purpose it’s a hilarious narrative fail and if it was, it’s a character type we really don’t see very often.

See, I really liked the opening sequence. In a few quick moments we got a more of a feel for the working relationship that is going to exist between Richard and Seigi than we did in the whole previous episode. Also, yes, Richard is a fussy killjoy but I don’t really mind that and given his profession it kind of makes perfect sense.

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So episode 2 just kept going in the same general direction as do 1. A random person wants a jewel valuated by Richard. There’s some faint air of mystery and eventually everything gets resolved before the end credits. Except the mystery in this case turned out to be a fairly mundane drama rather than anything criminal.

I say mundane but that’s the wrong word. I meant… ordinary maybe? Ok let me start again. There was a reveal that explained what was happening and I saw it coming from a mile away because it seemed like the natural progression not because it was bad. What did you think?

I think if I was watching this anime and wanting a mystery story, I’d be fairly disappointed. On the other hand, as a look at the human drama behind people who happen to want gem stones evaluated it isn’t doing too bad. And so far they’ve managed to avoid going into melodrama or pretending like an appraiser is actually going to be chasing down suspects or anything equally ridiculous.

And although I saw it coming, I was still surprised that the show actually went there and was so honest about it. No villains, non miraculous happy endings just a sad moment in a young couple’s lives. It was refreshing.

I must say, I realized that I’m probably never going to care about gemstones that much. I don’t hate all the mineralogy it’s just not my thing. Although if we get to see more of Akiko, I might change my mind on that!

Okay, I’m probably the opposite. I’ve grown up around people who work with sapphires and spent a lot of time looking at pretty, shiny stones. Also, Queensland has some truly great locations for finding them as well as a range of other pretty, shiny rocks (I did mention last week I have a thing for shiny objects). For me, the gem part is actually the most interesting so far, except that it is kind of like gem-stones for beginners, which makes sense given the likelihood of the audience knowing all that much.

Richard2g — *Karandi saw this and declared love at first sight.*

All in all The Case Files of Jeweller Richard remains true to itself. A slightly sleepy and slow paced character of the week study that’s likely to leave some viewer bored but is just the type of stuff I live for.

I think it works in Jeweller Richard’s favour that it is just doing what it wants to do. It isn’t terribly exciting but it is distinct from the crowd of other anime out this season, its fairly relaxing to watch, and the character study has been interesting enough so far. I’m probably not going to be recommending this one very loudly to people, but I’m also pretty happy with what it has delivered so far.

Thanks for Reading From
Irina and Karandi

Slow and Steady

After Irina suggested looking into this anime and doing a bit of reading about it, I was looking forward to this first episode. While it isn’t disappointing it also didn’t do a lot to sell itself in the first episode and while there’s plenty to build on there’s also the potential for this series to go nowhere fast. The episode begins with a flashback to Seigi finding a ring in his grandmother’s drawer and her shoving it away and then we jump to the present where Seigi comes across a man being harassed on the street and saves him by scaring off the attackers. And so Seigi meets Richard.

Richard1b — *Not his reaction when meeting Richard but still a good self-introduction.*

Seigi takes Richard’s card, realises that Richard can tell him about the ring his grandmother left behind and so hires him. Turns out Seigi knew the ring was stolen and wanted to return it. However there’s no real mystery here as Richard does any investigation off-screen, though it turns out he knows the family of the original owner so it doesn’t seem like a lot of investigation was really needed. What that leaves us with is the anime having a faint hope that these characters and the emotional outpouring after Seigi meets the original owner will carry the episode.

The problem so far is that every interaction is so formal we’re not really getting more than a vague sense of who each of these characters are. Seigi, whose name means justice, has a strong sense of justice. He’s a nice guy who has issues with his mother because of conflict between her and his grandmother. But that’s literally all we know about him from this first episode. We get less of an impression of Richard who facilitates the events but feels very removed from them.

Affiliate Link – Playmat

I do however appreciate the OP. Not the music so much as the visuals. The use of jewels throughout the sequence and some of the imagery was absolutely lovely. The song was fairly forgettable, but visually it was the strongest part of the episode and I really liked watching it. So much so I watched it twice. Then again, maybe I just really like shiny things.

Richard1e — What are they lighting that stone with and is it suspended in air by nothing?

I didn’t dislike this first episode but felt it took a lot of time to do very little and given it is tagged as a mystery there wasn’t much in this first episode that really felt like it was mysterious. Hopefully now that we’ve established the characters and contrived a reason for Richard to hire Seigi next episode gives us more of a sense of who they are. And in case it feels like I’m complaining about this one, I’m really not. It kind of had a relaxed air about it. However the first episode just doesn’t leave a strong impression either good or bad.