minor spoilers So I just finished Arne no Jikenbo Casebook of Arne and to put it bluntly it wasnt really good. I got excited because I love a detective mystery series and was keen to check it out when I saw it in my recommended. It just wasnt fun to watch for most of the episodes. Obviously the premise had some good material to work off of Im keen to check out the game but it just didnt do anything really good with it. Please note review is ONLY based on the anime. I plan to play the game which I hope explains some of the details better. CONCEPT A big issue this series has is that it doesnt know what it wants to be. It wants to be serious mystery but it also wants to be a comedy but it also wants to have some kind of sexy romance vibe sometimes. It could be extremely jarring and it was honestly annoying. It wasnt moments either it would just switch between being haha funny and then wait were seriously solving a crime then haha Lynns so stupid and now Arnes drinking Lynns blood in a sexy way. Concept: 17/100 Consistency with Concept: 12/100 Themes: 23/100 STORYTELLING The first episode was actually pretty good. The protagonist bait and switch got me and the vibes in the first episode were relatively consistent. I liked following Louis. Its too bad we dont follow Louis for the rest of the series because I hated following Lynn. They cannot let Lynn be serious for more than 1 minute before they insist on having a stupid comedy moment break the mood. Im not joking every single time shes on screen being serious the story writers have her do something stupid. Also a lot of details are just not explained well. Lynn has special blood that stops her from turning into a vampire why? Arne has a child form that he is usually in why? Lynn awakens Arne and then suddenly hes a renown detective with an agency huh? Which would be FINE if the anime didnt try to be serious about that. Have them solve stupid crimes if you want to be funny about details but theyre solving SERIOUS crimes and their designs arent stupid enough to be a funny contrast to how serious the crimes are. The other biggest problem with the storytelling is the understanding of the characters relationship with each other. The relationships felt rushed or they were established off screen which means it was hard to care why each character is doing what with one another. Whenever we delve into the overarching story of the series I found it difficult to understand why anyone is helping each other. Even when there are moments where they briefly explain why they care about the others it didnt feel believable. All that being said I did at least understand the overall story it was telling even if it was annoying to follow. I didnt really LIKE the overall story but I could follow it. To add I want to say that the side stories were genuinely good. Im gonna classify them as filler because they didnt add to the overall story but they were honestly the best part of the show. I believe this is because they do well at establishing the motivation behind these 12 episode characters which they dont do for the main cast as well. The cat demon story the mermaid/human love story and the fairy/human love story were all genuinely really fun to watch. Storytelling: 35/100 Main Story: 21/100 Cohesive: 40/100 Watchability: 7/100 Filler Story: 73/100 RECURRING CAST CHARACTERS Lynn: 17/100 Lynn as a character I genuinely didnt enjoy 90 of the time. Like I said earlier they cant let her be serious for longer than a minute. Shes FUN as in she has fun qualities but shes not balanced at all. She will have moments where she seems to be emotionally intelligent but then they make her really stupid all of the sudden which completely dulls the previous moment. I did not understand a lot of her motivation throughout the series other than shes a fangirl of Arne or rather the concept of Arne. While I understood her relationship to Arne from her perspective it came across very shallow a lot of the time yet it was treated as some deep rooted trust she had for him. I did enjoy her fascination with all the different types of characters that appear throughout the series. Its always refreshing to have a character with that childlike innocence in these kinds of stories. She was a breath of fresh air in the moments where they didnt heavily dumb her down. Arne: 57/100 Arne as a character is fine I dont have any notes about his characterisation. Hes stereotypical but hes interesting to watch. I liked him as a character. There are a few characterisations of his I did not fully understand such as him preferring a childlike form as mentioned earlier but it didnt impact my impression of him I did not fully understand his motivation on staying with Lynn especially initially. Their development throughout the series also comes across as very shallow and impossible to understand. Amy: 70/100 Amy is honestly my saving grace of this show I loved her a lot. She genuinely made me laugh a few times. Beautiful deadpan humour. Only note is I wish they explained better why she likes Lynn so much. Its treated as an established truth that they dont show. She just kind of appears and thinks of Lynn as if shes the best thing since sliced bread. Why shes even there in the first place is not very well established either. Its another one where its all done off screen which is distracting. Zisye: 65/100 I also really liked Zisye. He was fun to follow and I liked the role he had. His relationship with the characters wasnt anything close to perfect but I felt like I understood him a little better than the others. Phantom Thief: 7/100 Phantom Thief hated her. She was annoying. Get her out of here. Every time she appeared she annoyed me. Not gonna lie she almost ruined the fairy/human side story for me. Maybe Im being too harsh which is a fair critique of me I just didnt like her. Her relationship with the others is definitely the most janky but that can be brushed off as a comedic trait I suppose. Nachzehrer: 57/100 Nachzehrer is not my favourite type of character but hes done fine for the role that he plays. Hes funny and entertaining to watch. Just not really my thing personally. He suffers from another established off screen relationship with the other characters after his mini arc. I had a very difficult time understanding his role change in the series and it felt like the series just wanted to move on from him as quickly as possible. Characters: 25/100 Recurring Cast: 45/100 Relationships: 20/100 Development: 10/100 OP/ED Opening: Q.E.D. Sou Genuinely such a fun opening. Love it. This could be added to my playlist for sure. Its not iconic but it is fun to listen to. The animation in it really hones in on the comedy of the show which is fine I enjoy it. Also theres a fun detail where a character who appears in the first episode opening changes by the second episode opening due to the events that occur in the first episode. I must admit I love details like this. Ending: Ningyou no Machi Watashi Kobayashi Another bop. Good aesthetic of the song and I like seeing Lynn dressed up as a detective its cute. No really major notes I just think it was enjoyable. Soundtrack: 79/100 OP: 82/100 ED: 76/100 IMPACT In 5 years time Im definitely going to forget everything about this anime. I just finished episode 12 and I already forgot a lot of stuff that happened earlier in the season. I almost forgot how much I liked the side stories until I was writing this review. Theres nothing really special about it. It doesnt do anything amazing it wasnt especially fun or enjoyable to watch and the main story wasnt especially unique. The side stories I think definitely redeem it in a lot of ways. I dont think Id recommend this anime to people personally but its also not the worst thing Ive ever seen. Disappointing would be a better way to describe it. It has moments that I think are honestly worth considering. I can see myself talking about the mermaid/human love story to a friend. Did it make me think: No Was it fun to watch: Sometimes Was it engaging: No Is it memorable: No