(L) Cop Craft

[Yu Ominae]

Loving the OP. Very catchy.

I'm assuming that Kariaena (Saw it on Kei's badge) is somehow an island nation that's like Singapore or something. Don't know where to read the LNs though.

[Tenzen12]

Wow, just wow. If there is no major screw up, this will be easily AoS if not of year. Great characters, mood, action and opening that just blew my mind.

It incredibly suck no one is translating novel though. I so wanna get ahead.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I wonder how important that fairy is. Important enough, it seems, that they'd send a knight to recover her, but not important enough for them to send an experienced one?

I would assume there is very few "experienced" knights when it come to human underworld at this point. For what we know Tilarna might be best on her own turf and she certainly have combat proves to boot.

[Yu Ominae]

Saw the sponsors in the credits.

Not surprised about Tokyo Marui. I was darn surprised about Shooting Bar EA.

The OP rocks. A bit on the fence for the ED.

[nojay]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

I would assume there is very few "experienced" knights when it come to human underworld at this point.

My own guess is that higher-ups on her side want the mission to fail for some reason so they sent the entitled (literally, her long name is her title) but naive and inexperienced knight to mess up the investigation. They can blame the human "bolicemen" after she fails and/or gets killed. The politics of the other side will get explored in future episodes, I expect -- this sort of plot really requires a change of scene to the other side of the curtain at some point, the hard-boiled detective as a fish-out-of-water in Elven Fantasyland.

Cop pokes at odd-looking magic pattern on altar. Knight says "Don't touch that."

Really, as you say, this looks to be a solid Anime of the Season candidate just on the first episode. The OP and general feel of the art and story is making me think of a cross between "Cowboy Bebop" and "Ghost in the Shell". That's a big set of shoes to fill for any anime. Let's see if it can walk the walk.

[Tenzen12]

She was very cool headed and quick to react when they run into controlled criminal in the end. I think she is used to fighting fellow otherworlders at least.

Cop pokes at odd-looking magic pattern on altar. Knight says "Don't touch that."

I can totally see that happens and I will laugh my ass once something like that happens

[Kanon]

Tila didn't come across as inexperienced to me either. Completely ignorant of Earth's culture, sure, which is why they had her team up with an Earthling in the first place, but great at what she does.

[Magewolf]

Who in their right mind calls his partner's widow to tell her he had just died? That is something you do in person. Apart from that it is off to a great start.

It reminds me of www.theyfightcrime.org. She is a rookie mage-knight with a title. He is a former soldier turned cop with a foot in the darkside. They fight crime.

[nojay]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Tila didn't come across as inexperienced to me either. Completely ignorant of Earth's culture, sure, which is why they had her team up with an Earthling in the first place, but great at what she does.

It's stated in the second PV (at 0:35) that she's young and an apprentice knight. She speaks good Japanese which is perhaps why she was chosen for this important mission but surely if it's so critical that the fairy VIP is found and recovered the powers-that-be on the other side of the curtain would have sent a higher-ranking and more experienced knight.

We'll find out, I suppose.

[Cosmic Eagle]

That was good, plot and production quality-wise. Urban fantasy is always welcome

[wuhugm]

Found best girl of the season
And also probably best anime this season

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Tila didn't come across as inexperienced to me either. Completely ignorant of Earth's culture, sure, which is why they had her team up with an Earthling in the first place, but great at what she does.

She's a good fighter, but - aside from being fluent in Japanese - that's all. She seems almost completely unfamiliar with police work in general. Unless things are very, very different where she come from in that regard. More different than, say, modern police work and medieval police work.

And she seems to be unfamiliar with unfamiliarity.

Originally Posted by nojay

My own guess is that higher-ups on her side want the mission to fail for some reason so they sent the entitled (literally, her long name is her title) but naive and inexperienced knight to mess up the investigation. They can blame the human "bolicemen" after she fails and/or gets killed.

That'd be my guess too. Unless it really is some kind of personnel shortage.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

She's a good fighter, but - aside from being fluent in Japanese - that's all. She seems almost completely unfamiliar with police work in general. Unless things are very, very different where she come from in that regard. More different than, say, modern police work and medieval police work.

She's a knight from what appears to be a medieval fantasy world, so she might be more used to a more rigid, black and white, simplified kind of law enforcement compared to modern policework. It's why she didn't understand Kei's "justice."

[Nivek von Beldo]

The first chaper was very rough, very but very rought, i agree the premise is very durarara, black lagoon esque but the execution was awful, the over stoic protagonist is more a liability than an asset with kei, in general a mediocre episode saved by an interesing premise and setting, hope it got better, as the first chapter very mediocre

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Okay, I'l swallow my pride and ask: what FMP reference?

It's not really much of one. The bar they went to was named the 'Lady Chapel', which was also the name of a restricted area in the Tuatha De Danaan in FMP.

Originally Posted by Magewolf

Who in their right mind calls his partner's widow to tell her he had just died? That is something you do in person. Apart from that it is off to a great start.

He wasn't in his right mind. He was likely too ashamed to face her. An assholish thing to do, certainly, but I can understand why he did it.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

That was good, plot and production quality-wise. Urban fantasy is always welcome

Amen to this.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

She's a good fighter, but - aside from being fluent in Japanese - that's all. She seems almost completely unfamiliar with police work in general. Unless things are very, very different where she come from in that regard. More different than, say, modern police work and medieval police work.

She's a knight, not a policeman. I doubt she has much familiarity with investigating crimes.

And she seems to be unfamiliar with unfamiliarity.

It is a different world for her.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Endscape

He wasn't in his right mind. He was likely too ashamed to face her. An assholish thing to do, certainly, but I can understand why he did it.

It seems like he was struggling just to be able to call her, which was why he did it after beating up those thugs because he felt ashamed he could do that much but not have the guts to contact her.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

I'm still on the fence after this first episode, but I generally like the premise, story & characters. I mostly give this one a chance because it's from the author of Full Metal Panic!. Still, this show has good enough personality that I think I'll enjoy it going forward.

So....I heard in some forums people said that Shoji Gatoh originally wanted the female partner to be a woman in her twenties and more of a veteran like Kei, but then his editor (& publisher?) were against the idea and kinda forced him to change the character into this loli(-ish?) girl that we have now for marketing reasons? Can anybody confirm this? If it's true then the LN industry is truly messed up as it discourages some authors to tell their true vision and forces them to compromise the writing for sales, including shoving lolis wherever & whenever possible.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

That was good, plot and production quality-wise.

I actually think the production values are just a bit lacking. Some shots don't look great, some movements are stiffs & things look rather less sharp than needed. IMO it's still in the realm of "good" but definitely could've been a lot better than what we got. The track record of the director of this show (Shin Itagaki) is rather mixed & questionable for me and I'm not sold on him yet. Let's hope the show remain good if not improving by the episode. Fingers crossed.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

So....I heard in some forums people said that Shoji Gatoh originally wanted the female partner to be a woman in her twenties and more of a veteran like Kei, but then his editor (& publisher?) were against the idea and kinda forced him to change the character into this loli(-ish?) girl that we have now for marketing reasons? Can anybody confirm this? If it's true then the LN industry is truly messed up as it discourages some authors to tell their true vision and forces them to compromise the writing for sales, including shoving lolis wherever & whenever possible.

I think the premise works better with the change, if only because there's now more of a contrast and the idea behind the series seems clearer then it would have been otherwise.

But that's just me .

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

So....I heard in some forums people said that Shoji Gatoh originally wanted the female partner to be a woman in her twenties and more of a veteran like Kei, but then his editor (& publisher?) were against the idea and kinda forced him to change the character into this loli(-ish?) girl that we have now for marketing reasons? Can anybody confirm this? If it's true then the LN industry is truly messed up as it discourages some authors to tell their true vision and forces them to compromise the writing for sales, including shoving lolis wherever & whenever possible.

As Rinvelt mentioned earlier in the thread , the series was originally published in a another imprint under the name of Dragnet Mirage.

It was cancelled when that imprint went under. Gatoh got the opportunity to redo it with Gagaga. I've heard it was Murata that pushed for the change to the main heroine.

I don't know about Gatoh being against it, but having seen the original main heroine, I think the change was a good idea. Tirana looks much more distinctive.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Endscape

I don't know about Gatoh being against it, but having seen the original main heroine, I think the change was a good idea. Tirana looks much more distinctive.

And much more petit & loli-ish? Perfect for a slew of LN readers/consumers who like the "grizzled/senior male MC & loli/young/petit anime gal"-pair tradition.

I mean, I understand changing a character's design to be more appealing when your book is given a second chance but why not retain the "girl in twenties"-look for Tirana? Why the loli-look? Are we at a point where Japanese authors need to make/turn their female MCs into lolis just so that their stories can sell well? If true, what a sad state the industry has become.

[orion]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

So....I heard in some forums people said that Shoji Gatoh originally wanted the female partner to be a woman in her twenties and more of a veteran like Kei, but then his editor (& publisher?) were against the idea and kinda forced him to change the character into this loli(-ish?) girl that we have now for marketing reasons? Can anybody confirm this? If it's true then the LN industry is truly messed up as it discourages some authors to tell their true vision and forces them to compromise the writing for sales, including shoving lolis wherever & whenever possible.
<snip>

The female knight is channeling Lafiel (Crest of the Stars) which is not a bad move imo. The contrast between the 2 works. "Young" idealized partner and hardboiled police officer teaming up on a challenging case (Waiting for the inevitable reveal that she is older than him due to elf lifespan. Then, I will have my Crest of the Stars couple set up.) Besides, the industry is more into young girls so why not give them what they want and make sure your title sells.

Besides with the elf girl in the mix, you get people who were watching Goblin Slayer for Archer to tune in.