(CR) Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note

[SamCurt]

Episode 12: The Backyard Knows, Part 4

This concludes The Backyard Knows, in an episode that cleanly divides the case and personal sections of the arc.

• The case: The case went a bit more mundane than I expected, although not as mundane as Aya thought two episodes ago; I thought about the possibility of a nefarious use of the poison rather than a case of the thief being poisoned by the booty himself. Wakatake is still the expert in egging people on (remember episode 1?), and he has any reason to be smug, since Takane nearly got away with it.
• Personal issues: Aya tells Kuroki and Kozuka the truth behind Uesugi, and the eye-quivering spreads. On the next day Kuroki approaches Uesugi, and does what he's supposed to do--the team's therapist. We have an Uesugi who is acting less stoic than what we usually see, and actually needs Kuroki to encourge him to operate. Bromance occurs. Also note: the author actually wrote an entire book about the question "what happened to Uesugi when he was in Switzerland?"--i.e. The Angel Knows I mentioned previously.

The next arc will be The Valentine Knows, the 12th novel. I expect an arc that's even more Sunahara-heavy, like the 16th (The Red Mask Knows) or 18th (Tanabata-hime Knows). But ending at 12th has its advantage: they don't need to introduce a new character (13th novel) who's yet another potential love interest for Aya. As if Sunahara isn't bish enough, that guy is officially recognized as bish.

Other observations:

• Literally everyone got their dose of shock when they heard about what's going on with Uesugi. I wonder what would be Wakatake's response?
• In the last episode Uesugi says he can still see scenery, which I take to mean he can still walk around unassisted. So what's with the way he grabs the wall this episode...
• As for how Kuroki knows where Uesugi is... I personally think it's not from his "network," but a bit of background info that the anime never gets to say. Uesugi's parents are both doctors; his father is a sugeron and his mother is an ophthalmologist.
• Since I get to the issue of occupations... Aya's father seems to be a relatively high-level salaryman, and that explains her mother's slightly Education Mama attitude. (Aya still has bright spots in her profile. How's she going to handle Nako, which by US terminology can be said as "Doubly Exceptional"...?)
• I badly need some Kozuka tease.

[mergele]

Just discovered this series, currently at episode 3.
Really enyoing it so far.
The moment when you realize that this little unkown series has better german than 80% of the "normal" sized anime series.

[SamCurt]

Episode 13: The Valantine Knows, Part 1

(For this episode I don't split the review like the previous arc. Looks like when Sunahara is involved, the case becomes really personal--not to mention the case hasn't really start yet) Also, from this episode on I'm using the following acronyms to avoid confusions: STKZ: Soccer Team KZ; DTKZ: Detective Team KZ.

While the STKZ are such perannial chick magnets that they're forbidden by Shumei to receive chocolates (and girls have to put their honmeis into mail-boxes instead), Aya was reminded she's still crushless. Despite what we think, she still thinks she's just friends with DTKZ (and Sunahara), and was unpleasantly surprised when her ditzy second-grade sis Nako does have a crush.

At the same time there has been reports about delinquents around Shumei extorting other kids, so the rest of DTKZ wants to walk Aya home (despite the jealousy of the other girls). After a strange discussion about vectors and Wakatake's plan on chocolates, they found they did get followed by those delinquents. Wakatake devised a way to confuse the delinquents, with Uesugi bringing Aya away while the latter trying to avoid being carried by Uesugi.

And then the next day the bombshell is dropped. Eyes are obviously quivered; after all Aya sees Sunahara as more of a knight in shining armour...

Other observations:

• I personally don't think seventh graders should worry about not having a crush. It's a bit early to think about such things.
• I wonder if the case would involve these Valantine mailboxes, but that would imply some girls may put thing other than chocolate in it?
• Looks like the girls also squees over Kozuka as well. He's sweet and all, but he looks more like the adorkable type to me.
• The way the DTKZ persuaded Aya to walk home with them pretty much shows their personalities. Wakatake is loud and direct, Kuroki is the smooth spy, Uesugi is the cold analytic glasses guy, and Kozuka is the sweet next-door boy.
• I know there aren't many people shipping WakatakeXAya, but don't they look like two dense people bickering? Not to mention the way Aya pharsed it sounds like she wouldn't mind chocolating Wakatake if she can be sure she's not just a statistic.
• I personally doubt if Uesugi uses the word "vector" correctly, but the authors aren't science majors, from what I know.
• Now three of the four DTKZ guys have walked Aya home on their own (Kuroki in Ep 2, Wakatake in Ep 10, Uesugi here).
• Aya has a strange way of thinking how would she be carried. Can't she think about princess carry?
• Well, I have been kept at the cram school till pretty late, but keeping seventh graders till 9pm is a different story.
• Now I remember this: how often do cram schools have cafeterias?

Originally Posted by mergele

Just discovered this series, currently at episode 3.
Really enjoying it so far.
The moment when you realize that this little unknown series has better german than 80% of the "normal" sized anime series.

It's unknown, because it's intended for tweens, specifically tween girls, which are hardly the kind of people who frequent here. And being a children's novel, one can't put too much artistic license into things.

[LKK]

Open letter to Aya-chan:

Aya-chan, I approve that you're working on taking the initiative during these investigations rather than just sitting back and letting the boys do all decision-making. But, dear, you really need to remember that there are times when being cautious is a good idea. Like when you decide to approach the territory of a gang of delinquents alone. Not such a good idea, that one. You could have gotten into serious trouble.

[SamCurt]

Originally Posted by LKK

Like when you decide to approach the territory of a gang of delinquents alone. Not such a good idea, that one. You could have gotten into serious trouble.

She'd want to give Sunahara her honmei-choco anyway. To her credit, she wasn't expecting it's that dangerous; the biggest "risk" she has on mind was the jealousy coming from the rest of DTKZ.

[ginger02]

Man I do love Suahara, so it's great to see him more often. Was worried he might have just got written out earlier.

I wonder why he is involved. At least Aya got a name of the gang member while she was there.

[LKK]

Originally Posted by SamCurt

the biggest "risk" she has on mind was the jealousy coming from the rest of DTKZ.

Do you think Aya's aware of the team members' growing interest in her? I don't. She seems rather clueless on that issue to me.

[SamCurt]

Originally Posted by ginger02

Was worried he might have just got written out earlier.

This just followed how the novels went. It took two years (in our time) and 8 novels later for Sunahara to re-appear, so 10 weeks isn't really that long of a wait.

Originally Posted by LKK

Do you think Aya's aware of the team members' growing interest in her? I don't. She seems rather clueless on that issue to me.

I have to admit I made a mistake when I say "the biggest 'risk' she has on mind was the jealousy coming from the rest of DTKZ." Aya occationally has feelings towards them, but doesn't really recognize they have feelings for her. But then I'm not any better than she does, before this episode I only get Uesugi's.

----

A lot has been discussed on Sunahara, so I'd just talk a bit about the part of episode that is discussed the least--the part when Aya prepares for Sunahara's gift. I actually found Aya's monologue over this part the closest to the little bit of the novels (first ~20 pages) that I can read without paying--she acts like a girl of her age, alright, but she's also very meticulous as details go.

[SamCurt]

Episode 15: The Valentine Knows, Part 3

This episode is drama, shoujo-style.

Aya was severely crushed when she found her Valentine's note posted at the train station, especially when it was Sunahara who did it. She just got somehow better after Wakatake deduced it's unlikely to be Sunahara's free will while Kozuka, noticing the strange tear, does the forensics. Aya appreciates the power of friendship (but I hope that doesn't mean she's friendzoning them).

Further investigation indicates the possibility of an anti-DTKZ in the works, possibly led by an ex-STKZ and having another ex-STKZ (Sunahara) involved. The Valentine note thing is likely something that Sunahara is forced to do to show his loyalty; at least he is chivalrous enough to bite off Aya's name to protect her honour.

Aya calls Sunahara again and while Sunahara says he has an "embarrassing" liking of her, he has to say farewell. Then Uesugi warned an upcoming meeting of the gang and Sunahara may get past the point of no return.

Next episode is the last.

Personal notes:

• I start to wonder if Sunahara is, like Kuroki once did, trying to be a mole, considering the people he's living with fell into a scam and Kuroki lists scamming as one of its activities.
• Now I think Aya is pretty much Sunahara-sexual and the two have positively communicated their affection. Yet, she and Wakatake have mutual jealousy...
• DTKZ doesn't have a good opinion on Sunahara in Egg Hamburg Steak, but seems to treat him as "our side" this time. Why the change?

[ginger02]

Originally Posted by SamCurt

This just followed how the novels went. It took two years (in our time) and 8 novels later for Sunahara to re-appear, so 10 weeks isn't really that long of a wait.

Ahh so it wasn't just a little while later for him to appear. He was gone from the show for a month, but in the novels, it was over a year in real-time?

Anyway, enjoying the episodes, mainly because of Sunahara. I wonder if he's trying to get money or trying to work out that scam. He's obviously a good guy, but his reasons are unclear.

I admit the team's attitude shift towards him is odd. I like it when they didn't like him, but they like Aya, but she likes him. Just cuz, you know, it's funny.

[mergele]

What were they doing with that letter for Sunahara BITING it off beeing unsuspicous?

[ginger02]

Originally Posted by mergele

What were they doing with that letter for Sunahara BITING it off beeing unsuspicous?

hmm? I think they just wanted him to post it or they were going to, but he bit off the part with Aya's name so no one would know it was her.

[SamCurt]

Earlier this thread I mentioned the KZ universe was inspired by a very old light novel titled KZ Shonen Shoujo Seminar; now Kodansha published a novel titled KZ'Deep File: The Blue Pearl Knows by no other than Hitomi Fujiomoto, which I suspect to be a book of this original series?

Originally Posted by ginger02

Ahh so it wasn't just a little while later for him to appear. He was gone from the show for a month, but in the novels, it was over a year in real-time?

I admit the team's attitude shift towards him is odd. I like it when they didn't like him, but they like Aya, but she likes him. Just cuz, you know, it's funny.

Well, The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows was released on November 2011, while The Valentine Knows was released on December 2013, so the novel readers waited for 25 months for Sunahara to appear for a second time.

Speaking in-universe time... Egg Hamburg Steak was about when Aya first entered middle school, and Valentine, well, is around Valentine's Day, so the difference in in-universe time is about 7-9 months. But then a whole 16 novels (and ongoing) have been written when the cast are seventh graders...

As for the attitude change, maybe they overheard what Sunahara told Aaya in episode 8.

Originally Posted by mergele

What were they doing with that letter for Sunahara BITING it off beeing unsuspicous?

Originally Posted by ginger02

hmm? I think they just wanted him to post it or they were going to, but he bit off the part with Aya's name so no one would know it was her.

The letter was passed along other delinquents, and he was forced to put that on the train station's bulletin board, but he bit off Aya's name to maintain her honour.

[BWTraveller]

New episode out and I have to say Sunahara did is implied to have done one particularly stupid thing: keeping no backup. If you have something as valuable as evidence against a criminal, you don't just keep it all on your phone, you take the time to copy all the evidence to your computer every evening. Then you don't have to worry about being thwarted just because a jerk trashes your phone or throws it in a lake, and you also have a bit more leverage against them since thrashing you and destroying your phone won't stop them from being caught. It's an easy but stupid mistake to make, and one I've seen happen many times.
Anyway, I hope the guy will eventually be able to join up with the group, or at least get closer to Aaya. For the moment at least he seems to be the best pairing for her.

[Kamieichi]

This is the first time I post in this thread, but I've been enjoying this since the first episode. I want to see more of these characters and their story.
Btw

Spoiler:

This is the final episode.

[Stark700]

Yeah, I heard episode 16 is the finale. Feels kinda odd :/

[Ulin]

well, it was either this or 20 so... (although I hoped for 24 to end the season in the right time...)

[SamCurt]

As a backgrounder for one of the replies here, turns out the first novel (The Missing Bike Knows, Episodes 1-4) was adopted into a manga by Mega Sakura and serialized in Nakayoshi. This also solved an older question about whether this series is shoujo: yes it is.

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

Anyway, I hope the guy will eventually be able to join up with the group, or at least get closer to Aaya. For the moment at least he seems to be the best pairing for her.

Without spoiling too far, you wish has been granted in the novels. No more details allowed on Animesuki.

Originally Posted by Ulin

well, it was either this or 20 so... (although I hoped for 24 to end the season in the right time...)

I would have preferred if they they make every arc a bit longer; please consider each 200-300-page long novel is compressed into 28 minutes of anime. Take an example: I was never quite sure why Kuroki calls Aya "the language expert" in episode 1, after she introduced herself in front of the future DTKZ, as her introduction doesn't sound like any language-skill showoff. The aforementioned manga's trial pages revealed the anime pretty much trimmed her Japanese showoff; originally she was putting in four-character idioms liberally--and correctly-- in her introduction:

Images

Manga Chapter 1 Trial Pages. Other than the 4 idioms, everything is in the anime.

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

I will write my usual review when I watch this episode back home. I plan to write a separate review on the characters as well, but I'm not completely sure.

[SamCurt]

Episode 16: The Valentine Knows, Part 4

Just as I predicted last week, Sunahara is in the Delinquent group for the Ueharas' case, and like any gang leaders worth their salt, Onozuka have something to blackmail Sunahara for loyalty. Just as BWTraveller said, though... Sunahara seems to forget the thing called backup.

Spoiler for As an aside:

Sunahara would eventually be heavily associated with the smartphone in the novels.

...but then Wakatake isn't STKZ's genius striker for nothing. And while STKZ only accepts top 2% students academic-wise, their soccer are well-known with good reason, but not good enough to break a stalemate--remember Onozuka, for his build, was from STKZ, and this "elite group" is basically an anti-DTKZ? Eventually our less physically fit audiences broke it with a Chekhov's Gun and some luck.

So the closing.

As Sunahara goes: He likes Aya, but he sees himself a burden. Unlike the rain that ends The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows, though, this time they get to speak under a starry sky. Sunahara is still leaving, since his local reputation is pretty much destroyed for being arrested twice, and feels really bad for the past two episodes, he did accept Aya's chocolate and "love letter" and promise to meet again.

Spoiler for As I have said in here repeatedly...:

Of course they would

And as DTKZ goes, Wakatake still sulked about not being able in spotlight, but they did accept Sunahara is one of "us". So on Valentine's... there was no chocolating. Everyone makes a huge chocolate cake together and shares it. As the boys argue their approaches on chocolating, Aya recalls how the DTKZ changes her.

Some extra observations:

• The Ueharas were conned some 6 million yen. Using the rates at the time this book was published ($1=JPY80), that's some $75,000. It's not a small amount of money, sure, but "heavily in debt"?
• I found the reiteration that Sunahara did not commit any crime quite interesting, although I can understand--KZ in both media are for for children, and he can only become a villain if he did break the law (and hence can't be Aya's love interest).

General review tomorrow.

[SamCurt]

It was a complete surprise that a 30-something male eventually gets that hooked on a tween girl series that doesn't intend to pamper any other demographic. This is probably the first shoujo series I've ever watched in serious manner (elementary school experience with Sailor Moon doesn't count), although I consider KZ a "shoujo lite," owing to its younger intended demographic and some intention to edutain (remember Aya is a girl of uncertainities).

As a result, for its drama, it feels pretty 3D, especially when the cast acting actually like real schoolchildren of their age for me to actually emphasize (to an acceptable degree-- due to the story of my avatar I had been avoiding drama until 2012) and enjoy. It's a series that I'm considering purchasing the source material.

Some opinions on the cast follows.

• Aya: Can I say she's cute in a real life sixth-grader way? She reminds me of my wife, and she's the kind that I would like to be my real life daughter. On the other hand, given she's mildly introverted, being on "a different bandwidth work other kids," and good at Japanese, I wonder if it's a bit of Fujimoto's self-insert--that's kind of temperament for a future writer, I'd say! (BTW, I am now curious about how she's been with the girls. Her experience in Egg Hamburg Steak isn't great.)
• Wakatake: a lot of people hate him, I don't hate him as much. He's playing the role of the Shonen hero here, and The Valentine Knows shows his Leader cred, essentially brings the action to the series. Of course, this being shoujo, his shortcomings are magnified, but his relationship with Aya is very Takahashi-styled--they hate each other but are mutually jealous. By the way, he is definitively magnetic towards boys, even for people as different to him as Uesugi or Kozuka.
• Kuroki: Can I say he plays a Bond-like role, except being more chaste? Not yet, since he seems to work as the group's counselor as well. Also, in the first episode, Aya's first impression of him is being "mysterious." I originally find it hard to identify anything mysterious about him except his being very magnetic to girls. A few pages in the manga I actually found something genuinely mysterious about him: the reason he's in the Special Class is one of... poor attendance. I'm not complete sure if he's actually interested in Aya though.
• Uesugi: The cold analytical glasses archetype. Although he seems to soften a lot when Aya is concerned, as one can see during The Backyard Knows. Considers Aya's chocolate a "quality" one. He was associated with the word "face" a few times; could he be a male tsundere?
• Kozuka: The adorkable scientist who looks less dorky and more sweet. While the least visible of the cast, he seems to be the guy that Aya would actually speak with the most. The fifteenth novel The Blue Diamond Knows seems to show that was more stereotypically nerdy than he is now, with an actual communication deficit. My feeling is that Aya may actually be the first girl he can speak normally with, but just a hunch.
• Sunahara: The G-rated "bad boy" that everybody likes to ship, and with really good reasons: he's really handsome, nice and extremely chivalrous towards Aya (I was extremely impressed of his biting off Aya's name, for one thing), and the authors don't seem to give him a break (for now). But then I'm unsure the reason of his inclusion and prominence in this adaptation; he need not to appear at all. I wonder if the publisher is "selling" him, given he was actually given regular cast status in the novels half a year ago. I'm sure, though, he'll always be a top choice in shipping without stretching the Canon.

My choice in shipping? I'm not a shipper, and even if I were, I want to know more about the pretty boy Mikado before making a choice.

For me, the story hasn't ended yet.