The release of loli detective series Kamisama no Memo-chou’s first episode (pre-aired) was divided into 2 parts – A and B – compiled by many into a single part running for almost an hour.
In case anybody is curious about the story compared to the light novel, you’ll find it to be similar to that of the anime, likewise as is the manga, however, the order of the story on both media are different – inn case of the anime itself, it follows the light novel order.
The story is about Narumi, who after witnessing a strange event and was helplessly dragged into joining a Gardening Club by his classmate, he became Alice’s assistant. Alice was a self-proclaimed shut-in NEET (No Education, Employment or Training) detective and was solving cases by the means of internet and computer hacking.
Kamisama no Memochou’s light novel is quite a personal favorite by Sugii Hikaru, right next to “Sayonara, Piano Sonata” – perhaps only because I discovered Kami Memo recently. Of course however, you maye want to stop reading the novel for now, as am I, and resume after the anime has ended – to avoid spoilers.
The case in this episode focuses on a girl engaged into compensation dating, i.e. prostitution, and was later on revealed that she was searching for her sempai who went missing for several months. With the help of Tetsu, a pro-pachinko player, Major, a college student and also apparently a gigolo? Hiro, and Yondaime, and Narumi’s little participation, with Alice’s detective skills, allowed them to easily solve the case smoothly.
A lot of features from this anime are reminiscent to GOSICK (The Key Animator for OP sequence Hironori Tanaka in this series also did GOSICK’s OP sequence) – the female protagonist was likewise a shut-in solving crimes whist the incompetent male lead serves as her assistant, varying only in that GOSICK was during a time-period around the 1920′s.
Out of these two animes, Kami Memo for the most part boasts superiority in terms of character development and crime. Alice was not as coldhearted as Victorique, and Narumi was not as nonsensical as Kujo. This is all speaking in relation to their anime counterparts of course – not the novel, since Victorique and Kujo’s development in the light novels greatly differs from the anime.
The animation was subtle and nice, reminding us of Shigofumi (another J.C. Staff creation). Notice that the school set-up (especially the rooftop) alongside the uniforms were very similar to that of those featured in Shigofumi.
Hopefully the next episode will be as interesting as this one.
