Kami-sama no Memo-chou – Episode 2

It doesn’t seem as though R-15 is going to air uncensored after all, and it’s been pretty universally panned across the internet.  I figure I won’t even bother, at this point.  That way I have more time to watch shows like Kami-sama no Memo-chou!  I wanna see a painfully self-conscious girl detective solve mysteries with the help of a cast of wacky characters and make trenchant commentary on the state of Japanese society, so let’s watch Kami-sama no Memo-chou episode 2.

…thirty minutes pass…

I'd like to believe I wouldn't.

This show actually has more of an excuse for the standard anime spineless male lead than most shows.  The mystery genre needs its Watsons, people to stand around asking dumb questions like “duhhhh, what’s a ‘chue-len'” so that the brilliant detective can explain things to the audience and reinforce her brilliance.  But Alice is no Sherlock Holmes.  Her brilliant deduction about the client: “you must be from Thailand!” “how on earth did you know?”  “I heard you speaking Thai”.  Also Sherlock Holmes left his room sometimes, and didn’t cry when people made him take a bath.  Actually I don’t recall anyone ever putting that last to the test, maybe he would have if they did.

I feel like the mystery aspect of this show is going to be a loss.  They aren’t setting things up so that the viewer can work out the solution in advance via brilliant deduction.  There’s a cellphone in the money sack, and a million dollars gone missing, but I feel no compulsion to try to figure out what it all means, because I don’t have any faith that there is a reasonable explanation I could figure out with the facts I’ve been given.  To the extent that I can enjoy this show, it will have to be as a drama, about a guy who is exposed to the dark side of Japan while assisting a girl who won’t leave her room.  On that level, I think it might be decent.  Alice behaves cutely and shares in the intellectual experience that is Dr Pepper.  Their pet yakuza family is in awe at the protagonist’s basic competence with computers.  The guy who seduces women seduces women.  The military geek forms strategies and salutes his commanding officer.  The show has characters, the characters have traits, a few of them have even shown a little depth.  So long as they keep developing, I think the show can keep my interest.