The Case Files of Jeweler Richard

Starra Jan 24, 2023

8.5

I'm absolutely loving this so far. The character dynamics are amazing and the characters themselves are super fun, the story itself is pretty engaging and overall it's a great read. I usually don't particularly care about characters of the week, which this series does, but the cases here have legitimately made me cry multiple times. Particularly the old man with his engagement ring and the little boy with the cat. Some hit harder than others, but I feel like the emotions are genuine here and the characters seem human. I'm hoping the series dives into Richard's past at some point because I'm eager to learn more about him. He's such a well-written, fascinating character, even though he's not a particularly original one (but that's okay). I love his sense of humour and his wit, along with his very slight tsundere behaviour at points. Though he's totally justified in getting annoyed at Seigi tbh. Also, I don't feel like Tanimoto (the girl Seigi likes) was a forced female character like they sometimes do in series with two male leads. Yeah, it makes sense that Seigi has a crush on someone like her, especially since he knew her before he met Richard. She actually seems like she has some character depth to her too beyond just being the token cute girl, which I appreciate. Lastly, I was pleasantly surprised to see proper LGBT+ depictions* in this series. The second story (in volume 1) deals with lesbians, and one of them has gotten engaged to a man because, well, societal expectations. I won't spoil anything, but it felt like a believable situation to me (disclaimer: I am not a lesbian nor am I Japanese). If you're looking for a series that's ultimately a comedy but has actually a pretty emotional punch to it, I highly recommend this. It's also somewhat gay. Like, canonically. (God dammit Seigi, stop being an idiot!) PS Richard is autistic, thanks for listening. *Note: Most BL & GL aren't strictly trying to be representation (though obviously there are several exceptions!), they're just telling love/sexual stories with same-sex couples. Here, the lesbians are dealing with the reality of being LGBT+ in a society that still isn't all that accepting. That's not to say BL/GL are all bad or wrong, just that they serve a different purpose on the whole than what this series tries to do with its characters of the week.