Pretty Boy Detective Club

Pretty Boy Detective Club Review

We rarely come across an aesthetically pleasing anime. Pretty Boy Detective is one of those anime that is very pleasing to the eye because of its refreshing designs and colorful artwork. Though it's a mystery anime, it incorporates the elements of a “slice of life” anime.

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The anime is written by the writer of the famous “Monogatari” series, and we see some of the similarities between the two. Studio Shaft produced the anime and has also produced anime like The Monogatari Series, Nisekoi, and Magical Girl Madoka Magica. Now, all these anime are known for their bizarre stories, especially The Monogatari Series. Pretty Boy Detective Club is no different. There is more to the story than just pretty boys going around and solving mysteries. Let’s just get started with our review for the anime “Pretty Detective Club.”

Mayumi Dojima is a second-year student at the Yubiwa Academy Middle School. She promised her parents on her 14th birthday that she will give up on wanting to be an astronaut if she gets to see the star she saw long ago. She is overheard by one of the Pretty Boy Detective Club members of the Yubiwa Academy, who offers to help her find the star along with the other members of the club.

One thing about Mayumi Dojima that is unique from others is that she can see many things that are invisible to the eyes of others. She can see people approaching her from afar and even detect hidden traps that are otherwise not clear to anybody else. She’s able to see the tiniest details of things. The Pretty Boy Detective Club starts unveiling the mystery behind the hidden star, and what they come across during their investigation is far beyond their comprehension.

Okay, so right off the bat, the story is a bit complex but not too difficult not to be understandable. You must be thinking it’s about pretty 14-year-olds who love to solve mysteries. But there is something more to it than just solving mysteries. The plot feels ridiculous and out of place sometimes. We did not get the motive behind “Be pretty.” “Be a boy.” And be a detective” motto. The anime shouldn’t have been revolving around this simple motto, considering how complex the story is.

Mystery-solving anime are very hard to balance with other elements. Pretty Boy Detective Club tried to do that but failed miserably. The pacing of the show was also very unbalanced. The first three episodes felt like they were based on a single arc which makes it very rushed. We wonder how many volumes of the novel they tried to fit in each episode.

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the story is all of the place. The only part we liked about the anime was the first part when we get introduced to the characters, basically the first arc. Overall, the story is lacking in a lot of ways.

We were expecting some outstanding characters for this anime, considering the writer of the Monogatari series created them. However, we are greatly disappointed. Mayumi Dojima is our MC who’s supposed to keep radiating her spark throughout the anime. However, after the first arc, she ends up losing all of it. She doesn’t care about her dream of becoming an astronaut anymore. She can only be seen as “cross-dressing” most of the time. She chooses to hang out with the boys as one of them, going around and solving baseless mysteries.

Our boys from the Pretty Boy Detective Club do not feel like middle schoolers at all. They love acting like high schoolers though they are not, which feels very off throughout the anime. All the characters were one-dimensional with no depth in them. It would’ve been great if the writer told us some more about the boys and their reasoning behind why they joined the mystery-solving club. We didn’t even get to know about their personalities, and that’s somewhat disappointing. The characters would’ve been likable only then.

The characters for this anime had a lot of potential if they were explored some more. It was a massive opportunity that the creators missed.

The art and animation department is the only department for this anime that we have no complaints about; It is absolutely stunning. The character designs are wonderful. The boys are aesthetically pleasing, and we really want to keep looking at them. The lively designs for the characters made them stand out even more.

The colors used were very bright and refreshing, definitely in a good way. The way the characters blended with the background made them glow even more. Indeed, our boys from the Pretty

Boy Detective Club were indeed beautiful.

We love the opening and ending soundtracks for this anime. They are entertaining. Sumika, the band, created the opening for Pretty Boy Detective Club, and it’s an absolute banger. The way the characters sang the ending soundtrack was pretty cute. Other than that, the voice acting was okay. The voice actors didn’t get a chance to shine either. Voice acting sounded weird for some reason at some points of the anime. Overall, the sound quality was pretty decent, except that it sounds very cheap when the ending was cut off midway, and one of the character’s voices cuts out.

We would recommend this anime if you’re looking for something aesthetically pleasing to watch. However, do not expect much from the story or the characters. They are going to disappoint you. We would still like to give a massive shout-out to the animators for creating such a beautiful piece of art!