I was directed toward this series by Tom Mcllroy's fantastic review over on the UK Anime Network, and so I fired up the show to see if I might concur. I do love a good con show, and this has all the hallmarks of a great one - but would you know it from the first episode? As ever, let's watch episode one and see if it can pull us in.
It's clear early on that the show has a very distinctive style - we open on a jauntily angled Hollywood sign in pastel greens, with a hapless young man hanging by the ankles from the "Y". Flashback to Japan and we witness a simple con involving water filters - again, the backgrounds are surreal, with an unfinished look that puts me in mind of Bakemonogatari. After successfully conning his mark, a smug Edamura celebrates with a gashapon toy before the titles roll. The show is, if nothing else, distinctive.
The opening titles are a mix of Mad Men, Cowboy Bebop and The Pink Panther played to a lively jazz riff, which is exactly as awesome as it sounds. As someone who used to visit Ronnie Scotts in London, it's mana for me.
Back to Japan and Edamura tries another con, this time on a tourist, returning a wallet full of cash he claims he saw dropped. Unfortunately it seems that you can't con a con-man, and it isn't long before the tables are turned, the police are on his tail and he ends up in the US, now learning from his supposed mark, Laurent, how to be a REAL con-man in the city of angels.
I won't give away any more of the plot, but suffice to say the episode is a blast - it pitches itself perfectly, giving notes to the audience, setting up our characters as likeable rogues and showing that they'll take on even the largest players to make a quick buck.
There's more than just the air of Cowboy Bebop at play here, with a crew of underdogs undertaking missions to survive in a dog-eat-dog world, and that's to the show's credit. The first episode crams so much in it feels like a film rather a 24 minute episode. To end on a Queen song is just the icing on the cake - Freddie Mercury's unmistakable voice (with back-up vocals animated by cats) is utterly joyous.
Back to Tom's review, he suggests that there's a great deal more depth here than just a string of con jobs, so I'm absolutely in for more of this. If you haven't found this yet (and Netflix failed to recommend it despite my having watched fellow +Ultra shows BEASTARS and Carole & Tuesday) then get the search page up and track this down. Ironically The Great Pretender is the real thing in spades.
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