Detective Series

[Apollo the Just]

As most of you know, I had a detective series phase in high school. Or rather, my detective series phase began in high school and is ongoing.

Detective Conan is one of my favorites, mostly because it's a shoujo masquerating as a shounen with murders on the side. I love playing the "try to figure out how it happened" because when you have LITERAL HUNDREDS of different locked room mysteries, they get to the ridiculous stupid no-one-would-ever-guess-that-ever territory. In one episode some monk flooded a room and rode a floaty to hang another monk from the ceiling and then drained it after???

Also, the plot is so full of WHAT THE HELL EVEN plot twists, and it's even more out of nowhere considering the show only HAS plot approximately once every fifty episodes.

In other words, it's great.

The Professor Layton movie also totally counts, and is fantastic.

Also, in more recent news, I am finally getting to the recent chapters of the Pokemon Special manga and the Black/White chapter is a part-time terrible detective manga FEATURING POKEMON, and it's the greatest thing ever.

I love terrible detective series. I love the fact that it is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to figure out what's going on because of how ridiculous and cartoon-physics-y everything is. But then every now and then they'll be like "THAT couldn't have happened, that's IMPOSSIBLE" despite the fact that something equally ridiculous legit happened in the previous episode.

Has anyone else sunk as much time into terrible detective anime or is it just me? Because everyone should.

[ScottyMcGee]

Would Lupin count as detective anime? I guess - not really. More like if you crossed Bugs Bunny antics with Mission Impossible heists.

I never actually watched detective animes now that I think about it, but I do love detective stories. I watched the American version of Broadchurch - Gracepoint - last year. I still need to get into Poirot but I've read other Christie novels. I'm also watching Twin Peaks. . .although that's just more bizarre and surreal.

[Apollo the Just]

OH MY GOD I LOVE LUPIN IT TOTALLY COUNTS

((it counts because i want it to))

doesn't have the same tropes though. still great

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Death Note definitely is a detective anime but it isn't horrible by any means.

I actually am interested in seeing a list of detective anime myself.

[Booyakasha]

Well, I watched 'Ghost Talker's Daydream' and 'RIN', but those were both more paranormal investigation things. 'Dirty Pair' had some detectivey episodes. Nothing else really springs to mind.

Now, if we're talking live-action detective shows, I'm on much more solid ground. Used to watch tons of them, to the point where I kind of burned out on them. Still, I'll watch 'Rockford Files' if it's on. Or, like, 'Dragnet', or 'Law & Order'. Ooh, or 'Monk'. Great show.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Columbo is a really great detective show if we're straying from anime.

[Booyakasha]

You know what I like? I like 'Matlock'. It has this weird reputation as a show solely for old people, but dammit, Andy Griffith was a great, charismatic actor. Like who the hell can't relate to cool-guy Ben Matlock.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

That one is right behind Columbo but it definitely has a more old person feel, somehow.

[Booyakasha]

Well, Matlock was an old guy. Maybe old people would relate to him better? Like how 'Murder, She Wrote' starred matronly Angela Lansbury, so old ladies would naturally relate to the character better than to Thomas Magnum or Horatio Caine.

[Deku Tree]

I don't really watch a lot of anime, though I did check out Death Note. Otherwise, first half of the Dexter tv series was good stuff, and the books are pretty solid. They have some detective elements to them.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

^^ Maybe but I don't know if that's it, for me anyway. Matlock just seemed dry. Dry is good sometimes though. I like it.

[Booyakasha]

Storytelling was itself a lot drier fifty years-odd back. (Like, 'Star Wars' kind of really changed everything--------by and large, I think storytelling is more emotional today.) So, like, maybe 'Matlock' being dry appeals to moldy oldies, as well.

Hard to say what will appeal to anyone. People don't really fit into models.

(EDIT: You know, I was never super into 'Baretta' when I was younger, and now I like it even less, like, by association, because its star (Robert Blake) murdered his wife and got away with it. But, hey, credit where credit is due----------awesome theme song. They got Sammy Davis Jr for it, and it's really cool.

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[EDIT2: I wouldn't mind relating to a young Angela Lansbury, so to speak. She was hot stuff back in the fifties. (Anyone ever see that Danny Kaye flick 'The Court Jester'? Lansbury played the princess Gwendolyn, and man but wotta bilt. Classic beauty, off-the-shoulder garb, stacked to the nines. Lansbury's signature silvery voice. Glynis Johns was lovely, but a touch willowy and slight------I like a healthy, rosy-cheeked woman. Angela Lansbury had meat on her bones.) (Heck, I'm attracted to seventies 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' Lansbury, come to that. Even in her middle years she looked like a million bucks.)

[Apollo the Just]

oh yeah i forgot this isn't just the anime and cartoons forum anymore

IN THAT CASE. I was also super into the Sherlock TV series until the 3rd season when they had clearly run out of ideas but decided to resuscitate a horse's corpse to get more money. The fandom also killed that one for me a little, but I stand by it as being a fantastic Sherlock Holmes adaptation.