Neuro: Supernatural Detective

ChrystalChameleon Jan 5, 2011

7

A while ago, I heard about the series "Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro", with Takehito Koyasu, one of my favourite seiyuu's, voicing the main character. I told myself I had to watch this series, even if it was bad - after all, I was still able to fangirl about his voice. Now I've finished the anime, I must admit, it was actually really fun and enjoyable.   STORY - 6 When Yako Katsuragi's father is found dead in his locked room, the police calls it a suicide, but Yako herself is convinced it was murder. When she meets Demon Detective Neuro, who came to the earth to solve and "eat" mysteries, she believes that he can help her solve the case of her dad. A Demon Detective who eats mystery? Isn't that a little far fetched? Hmm.... a little. But you'll get used to it. It takes a while before this plot really develops. The first, like, 15 episodes, all the episodes are typical detective episodes; a murder, serveral suspects, Neuro finds the culprit, the culprit turns into a monster (alright, that's a little different from the typical) and Neuro... eats the mystery . Although the most of these episodes are really predictable (just look at the suspects: the one who looks the strangest is pretty much always the culprit, after all, they turn into monsters at the end) it is kinda fun to watch. Probably because of the comedy. The story isn't one of the series greatest points, but if you like comedy and action, you will defenitely enjoy it. Don't watch it for the mystery though.   ANIMATION - 7 The animation of the series is fairly decent: the characters and background look good, and the movements are usually quite smooth. I did notice though that they often draw Neuro with 6 fingers instead of 5 (at first, I actually thought he had 6 fingers because he was a demon, but in the end I was mistaken: just animation-mistakes). Another something that bothered me, was that the characters sometimes look really weird during comedic moments; for example, the eye-popping and over-the-top expressions (watch the OP, you'll already notice some of it). This is not neccesarily a bad point though, a lot of people seem to find the look of it funny The animation of the battles with Sai really impressed me though. Wish there were more of them in the anime.   SOUND - 8 It doesn't happen often that I love both the OP and the ED. The opening single, called "Nightmare", is really catchy and got stuck in my head while I was only a few episodes into the series. The ending theme, "Kodoku no Hikari", I must admit, made me tear up when I listened to the full version after watching episode 10; a really beautiful but sad song, and even sadder when you know the "singer" is one of the characters. The voice acting was very good too; Neuro is voiced by Takehito Koyasu (like I said in the beginning), Yako by Kana Ueda (never heard from her before, but I really liked her voice) and Godai by Hiroyuki Yoshino (a.k.a. Kimblee from FMA Brotherhood and Ox Ford from Soul Eater. I had to look that up - his voice sounds really different in this one) There was one scene in the final episode of the anime *SPOILERS*, in which the voice-acting REALLY impressed me; the scene where Sai (voiced by Romi Park, a.k.a. Edward Elric) loses his memory again. There was so much emotion putted into it, it almost teared me up. CHARACTERS - 7.5 Although the characters aren't much developed, they have really charming personalities; I loved all the main characters. Neuro is sadistic and even though he's often very serious, he can be really funny at times, Yako is very cute and Godai cracked me up too. Didn't feel much for Sai, but I loved his voice.   OVERALL - 7 A predictable, but very enjoyable series; that's how I would describe Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro. Defenitely for people who love some good comedy.

Grospoliner Feb 18, 2014

0.1

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro is supposed to be a sort of horror/comedy/detective show, where a demon from hell decides to come to Earth to gain sustinance from solving mysteries. He immediately "befriends" (for a lack of better term) a human girl who's father had recently been murdered under mysterious circumstances. The show was interesting for some of the episodes as the duo solved murders which used a variety of interesting ways to commit said crimes, though they invariably solved them via even shakier inductive reasoning than even Sherlock Holmes puts forth. Then I got to episode 14 and Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro showed its true colors. Not satisfied with being a mystery show with a little gore and magical horror in it, the series decided it needed to introduce some heavy handed racism. That's right kids, this show is made by a racist.  You should stop here if you want to avoid spoilers. You see, the particular episode involves the duo solving a crime at a hot springs (as is obligatory in any 20+ episode series). In this particular case the murderer is an American who just happened to be studying abroad and decided he liked Japan enough to stay. Not satisfied with the killer simply being a foreigner and a white guy, the author/director/whoever was in charge of character design decided to portray the killer (in the victims fear induced state of mind) like this. Yes, that is a big nosed, knife wielding commando, with an American flag bandada and a hotdog bandolier. Very subtle racism as you can see. Not content with that however, the series decided to go one step further. When accused, the murderer immediately launched into a rant about international power and that he would sue for deformation of character. But wait... there's more. When confronted with the evidence against him, his nose grows an extra foot, he strips off his robe and pulls out a giant revolver ala Dirty Harry, from his pants (insert anti-gun rhetoric about penises and gun owners here). He says things like "I can't sleep without this" and "I was raised to not have a heart" and "If there are resources I have to take them for myself" parroting the typical international view of an ethnocentric, consumerist, United States. The show even went so far as to place the murderers justification in his killing as "She hurt my pride so killing her was self-defense". After beating the murderer, the show goes so far as to have the demon Neuro rub natto in his face (as the killer previously stated that he hated natto) proverbially kicking the guy when he was down. I wish I was making this up. End of spoilers You know, when it comes to making reviews, a person is supposed to be objective in their criticisms. That's because we're supposed to expect professionalism out of those who produce film, literature, and art. But there are right and wrong ways to handle subject matter and that is what differentiates exploring a subject such as racism, and comitting racism. When handled properly, the subject matter is presented in such a way that makes you think about it, forces you to analyse the reasons behind it. That's the intent of examining something. That intent is absolutely absent in this case and instead presents nothing but a dispicable characture that robs the series of any value it might have otherwise put forward. It is offensive, not as a US citizen, but as a human being. I wouldn't stand for any other nation or race being mocked in such a manner and to see it done here and in such a way, is nothing more than contemptable. If you wish to watch this show, I reccomend against it. 

PorcupineHead Mar 1, 2015

6

This anime is not really easy to describe. At first you might think that it's just poor man's detective Conan, but I would describe it as a mix of Conan and Soul Eater.I started watching this anime by an accident, because i really liked the opening by Nightmare, the ending is boring though. The soundtrack is full of great and memorable tracks, but voice acting doesn't stand out except Neuro's. Now the animation seems weird and out of place at times, it's above average.Yako Katsuragi is a generic and useless main character and the only interesting thing about her is her appetite which puts Luffy, Lina Inverse and Chouji to shame.Now Neuro, that's some really awesome character, I already mentioned his voice and laughs, (he has the same VA as Excalibur!) but the best thing is that he's a sadistic psycho demon who eats people's souls full of mysteries and has over 777 awesome demonic weapons. Seriously, he's just a badass and rises my overall score by at least 2 points. Shinobu Godai is just an assistant who gets angry very quckly and drinks lot of beer. And Akane-chan? That's the weirdest anime character I've ever seen, she's just a ponytail!Eishi Sasazuka is a slightly apathetic but really cool and smart character and his assistant Jun Ishigaki is like a dumber copy of Matsuda from Death Note and then there's Yuuya Higuchi, a genius hacker who plays more important role in one later story arc.And the main villain is the "Phantom Thief" Sai who in fact, DOESN'T steal, but murders people and puts them in a red box, he's a fairly decent villain, but he'is nothing compared to Neuro.Other than them, most characters don't appear for longer than one episode or Arc, so I won't bother with describing them.The bad parts are the story. The story is weak and episodic and is set into mysteries where the culprit is alway obvious from the beginning. But because of simplicity there are a few plot holes. The first episodes may be a pain to watch, so if you take this as a mystery show it sucks (go watch Conan or even CSI instead), BUT as a shounen, it easily stands out among other fighting anime because it tries to be different and when it gets less episodic in the end it even becomes slightly exciting, even though the conclusion is open. There are also some really funny slapstick moments. Overall it is fun if you don't care about bad mysteries and don't take it too seriously.So should you watch it? Only if you're into shounen with some mysteries, otherwise you'll get bored.