Un-Go literally and metaphorically launches with a sweet musical sound, a beautiful pair of OP and ED themes accompany an exquisite display of elegantly fitted shota gender bending crime solving.
Never before had a series been encountered which exceeds expectations within a single initial episode, and sets them 10 times higher than that previously anticipated. Un-Go shatters whatever you may have assumed the series to be about, and stylishly walks off in search of its own destiny. Coming from respected animation block noitaminA, hopes were as high as stars in the sky – now however, the series has already ascended well beyond them and into the heavens.
First impressions are always important, and upon being acquainted with the starting second of the series – it captures us as interesting. Why? Within the first running minute, a scene transpires in which a man lay contemplating amidst an the scene of an accident – and as another character implies, this man thoughtfully thinking to himself was supposed to be dead, though he clearly currently is not. We weren’t having an epiphany at this point, but sure enough, we soon will.
That scene caught our attention to a basic degree, it was engaging out of average curiosity – however Un-Go does not hold back, and the opening sequence is absolutely serene in sound, abstract in visual, and thought-provoking in outlook. As we’ve now met approximately three minutes of this freshly released series, a short obscure scene and an opening, we’ve been entranced.
The OP lures us out of the real world, and hypnotizes us for the remaining duration of the amazing animation about to mysteriously unfold through a subtle ambient theme and an abstract sight of abolished cityscape.
A bishoujo is in the process of prepping herself for a party of the elegant type – although a little irate, this bishoujo is attending the party as a proxy for her father, Kaishou, someone who we later find out to be a revered detective in public, yet nothing more than shrewd bastard behind it all living under a facade.
Neither of these two are our pair of main characters, yet worry not as our team does soon do show up, and they come exhibiting individuality at a level incomprehensible for mere second dimensional characters. Before that however, we continue to learn more of this costume party which is backed by a man accused of some sort of fraud. As the party gets underway, it’s noticeable he’s greatly respected amongst those in attendance, and believed to be innocent.
Enter “The Defeated Detective”, our seasoned private investigator who spearheads the role of main character – followed by our panda suit wearing shota who has a bit of a feminine charm, and as we soon find out, with good reason. Neither of the heroic characters in our crew of main characters have a valued reputation amongst any else at the party – the bishoujo proxy girl specifically states to dislike our so-called “Defeated Detective”, though she’s merely exercising a mild arrogance as result of ignorance behind the truth of the Detective.
Many wonder how these two possibly made it inside – oblivious to the fact they received an invitation from the host of the party himself, Kanou, the one whom fingers of fraud are pointing.
The Defeated Detective and his protege are visibly experienced in their trade, and prove it. The Detective mentions a heinous crime shall take place since someone went to the liberty of inviting them. Now as the party peacefully unravels, our panda suit wearing shota secondary protagonist begins staring vehemently at the ceiling. His eyes cloud up and seemingly spiral assorted monochromatic colors of purple within themselves, until he ultimately speaks – stating there to be another room above that of the party quarters. A security guard on hand is shocked as he’s correct.
It’s rather apparent this shouta character is quite clearly not of the generic human class at this point – little did we expect however his true form.
A criminal act does indeed take place as prophesied – murder of the first degree, right in the dark during a mild distraction of a power outage, Kanou was stabbed with a steak knife. This prompts proxy girl to play the role of a detective, and a few cops in the building try to put forth their best effort as well. Yet in the end, our pair of protagonists are the ones to shine. The key players aggregate within the personal quarters above the party room, and a “new” character is introduced.
Emerging from thin-air, a bishoujo boasting erotic mannerisms and dressed in a suitably provocative fashion – semi-surprisingly this enigmatically alluring female is the boss of our Detective, and none other than the shota temporarily transformed into a female. Using a sort of spell, she asks Kanou’s wife a question, and nothing but the truth is forcibly found. The Detective begins to break down the details of how Kanou was killed out of admiration and honor by his wife. And the tale of the “Defeated Detective” is exposed to be one of misleading spite.
The “shrewd bastard” we spoke of earlier, proxy girl’s father Kaishou, purposefully twists the tale which our Detective and his shouta bishoujo companion solved to a complete mess and releases it as the official story to receive full credit for a fable which he created based off of our hero’s effort. Our characters remain cool however, noting they’re exiled to the repeated “process of failing” as they casually stride off into a city of destroyed buildings whilst a spectacularly snazzy end theme commences.
This anime is simply something which emanates superiority – it breaks into innovative and unorthodox schemes heavily molded to work with one another in an uncanny, series exclusive manner unseen elsewhere in order to capitalize on a genre of mystery which hasn’t seen a half-decent spectacle in far too long, until today that is. Un-Go is a series which one could praise for over 900 words and still have much to say, though we must withhold our excitement as we anticipate the second episode.
Oct 14, 2011 @ 12:42 CDT
I have to say I dont quite get this one.She can just ask the question”whether you have killed the man”,and every case will be easily solved.
Oct 14, 2011 @ 13:24 CDT
The Detective mentions as they examined the dead body, “What’s important here may not be who did it, but why?”.
One of the crucial aspects of investigations are not merely solving who was responsible for what, but the reasoning and logic behind it. Not to mention, not every mystery will be a murder case.