Now, are you telling me that there’s an anime television series based on Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple? Now, you’re saying that they’re all direct adaptations of Christie’s original stories? Except that the iconic detectives are assisted by anime girl Mabel and her pet duck, Oliver? And they’re all set in the thirties, but have a J-pop soundtrack with a theme that involves falling in love with Mabel, the “One-in-a-million Girl?” Okay, let’s circle back to the duck. You know what, nevermind; I’m in.
So, yeah, this is exactly what I described above and it’s . . . different. Mabel West encounters Hercule Poirot and his assistant Hasting when they’re both a swanky party at the Grand Metropolitan and there’s a jewel robbery. This episode is based on The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan, by the way. I should note that I’m using the IMDB’s title for my reviews (yes, I said “reviewS”) because that’s what I typically do. For whatever reason, IMDB translates the show’s main title into English, but the episode titles are still in Japanese, so I’m using those, but I’ll point out what story each episode is based on. This isn’t one of Christie’s best stories, but it’s best to start with a simple one since they have to introduce Mabel and Oliver; presumably everybody watching knows who Poirot is, right? So, after seeing Poirot solve the crime, Mabel decides to follow him to London and become his assistant. How old is Mabel? I have this problem with anime girls. Is she five? Ten? Twelve? Fifteen? Seventeen? Not twenty, certainly. Well, she’s off to London anyway with duck Oliver ensconsed in a picnic basket with her on the train. Hope the picnic basket isn’t foreshadowing. Anyway, this is bizarre and different and I’m going to keep watching. 2 ½ stars.
tl;dr – Agatha Christie & anime aren’t the most natural fit in the world and you can tell it, but I’m curious to see where this series goes. 2 ½ stars.
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