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Cop Craft

Genres: Action, Fantasy, Magic, Police, Sci-Fi
Themes:

Plot Summary:

Quote:

15 years ago, an unknown hyperspace gate opened over the Pacific. Beyond this gate lies Reto Semaani, a strange alternate world where fairies and demons live. San Teresa City — a city where over two million immigrants live from both worlds. As a result, there are the haves and the have-nots. Here is the world's newest "city of dreams." But in the shadow of the chaos, crime is rampant: drugs, prostitution, and weapon trafficking. The detectives who stand up to these heinous crimes are in the San Teresa City Police. When the detective Kei Matoba and the alternate-world knight Tirana — two individuals who differ in gender, personality, and even world of origin — meet, an incident erupts.

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Episode 1

For whatever reasons, the episode made me think of Rush Hour, except Chris Tucker is Asian (and not annoying) and Jackie Chan is a magic elf girl (alien apparently).

I think that I like it, but character development is probably going to be important with this one.

DuskyPredator wrote:

Episode 1

For whatever reasons, the episode made me think of Rush Hour, except Chris Tucker is Asian (and not annoying) and Jackie Chan is a magic elf girl (alien apparently).

... Hollywood would like to have a word with you; Not about Chris Tucker being annoying but Jackie Chan not being Asian by implication. But I get what you mean.

Episode 1
This is the kind of isekai story I can get behind, like GATE... really probably too much like GATE but it's at least tackling a different POV... but using its isekai plot to tell a multiverse Buddy cop film like Bright or MIB but with 100% less Will Smith.

The grizzled old cop is even called Kei/K using English name order so that can't be a coincidence. If its animation had a bit more budget behind it, it'd be great but by the looks of it, it'll have to depend on its characters, world and story.
Also, it needs a villain, someone both Kei and Tirana can hate for their own reasons.

And when Kei was going to give the news of his partner's death to the guy's wife, I thought he'd at least do it in person. So there's some backstory here to explore I hope? Or is the guy just scum?

I think he's just tactless
But you kind of wonder what was said.

-Oh hi Kei, Rick's not home."
--Yeah, Rick is late... as in "the late Rick," ha!
-What?
--Yeah, he's dead. Just saw his neck snapped in front of me. Say hi to the kids for me.... TTFN, Ta Ta For Now. Bye.
-*sob*

Episode 3

And there goes the animation budget which I thought would last at least until the usual episode 4. That was just painful to watch even if I did kind of get what I want, a villain for both of the leads to hate.

And the dub just started up for it so this may be a complete trainwreck in the making.

Yeah, the action was kind of weird with some of its jump cuts, where it seemed mostly done to minimize animation for high action moments.

OK the animation in the third episode was soso, but the pictures was very dynamic.
Episode 4 is more better.
I really love the atmosphere, the neon lights, it's VERY rare today.

Hi, everyone. ACxS here (pronounced as 'access'). I'm actually a reviewer from The Nihon Review (NHRV) which is now defunct, sans its somewhat desolate forum.

Think I'll drop by here once in a while here; it seems like a nice place. I'm following a few shows this season, including Cop Craft. Nice to meet you all! Very Happy

4:

I've explained how I think the show went south from episode 3 in NHRV, but I'll do so again here.

In short, I think the people behind the show were abruptly told at the end of episode 2 that this was going to be a 1-cour series instead of 2. Then all hell broke loose: Tilarna and Dennis squared off in an anticlimactic battle (I thought there was more to Dennis; in fact there was more to Dennis), and there was some history revelation between Zelada and Matoba (you can't just dump in a subplot out of nowhere). And dump some hasty editing in there, and I get an awkward viewing experience.

And then episode 4 came, which feels more like 2 episodes mashed together. It's even clear that the first half deserves its own full episode, and the second half deserving its own with the break in between cleanly severing the two apart.

I'm not sure what really happened; I actually like the series. It feels like a homage to the 80s cop drama with two incongruent partners that will gradually grow on each other. What a shame.

Episode 5 is even worse with cheap animation tricks all over the place: flash cuts, moving the camera, panning the camera, shaking the camera, anything to simulate movement other than animation.... and I'm only 1:15 into it. And I did notice that episode 4 somehow ended one light novel and began another to the detriment of both, a very foolish adaptation decision.

I may view it later just as a "how not to animate" production but as it is, it hurts me to watch it.

5:

Nothing remarkable happening here.

One thing's for sure: it's adopting the episodic Villain of the Week format, with Zelada as the main antagonist. The production values are substandard, but we've kinda seen that since at least 2 episodes ago.

The sad thing is, that they probably could have got her to back down. She was scared and confused, coming from a time of war where killing was something she really needed to do, likely suffering from a feeling of hunger that would be practically unimaginable, and not understanding where she might stand in the society she was in. If told that she could be taken into custody, and rather than executed be able to have her situation taken into consideration, treated fairly, and safe to others and herself, there looked like a good chance she would have taken it. But the wizard guy was clearly up to no good in how he used the body like a puppet and how he would probably use her, as probably inferred, and it seemed to stop her from being offered the chance of surrendering.

At least I feel this was what the episode was getting under the surface. Indeed the vampire was shown acting monstrous and such, but it also went a good way to show that bullets were not something she was simply shrugging off with no damage. Even if she was physically able to survive the bullets, the mental toll on her seemed pretty big. The feeling I got was something like she came from a society where being a monster was top of the food chain, and without ever having a choice she found herself inside it to survive, because of course all non vampires would want her dead by virtue of her being a monster. Just like how in the previous arc the chief wanted the war to continue because he thought cohabitation of the otherworlders would lead to humans being killed off. The same may have been thought of towards the vampires by the fantasy people, and did a self fulfilled prophecy of the vampires being monsters. The vampire kind of acting as a mirror to Tirana that she can be to the humans.

This was after last week having the plot point where Tirana got chewed out on cutting a perk's arm (fingers) off, when she probably could have solved the situation without doing so. The new chief who berated her, who seems like a good guy, did have a point, and also kind of showed that it was not about her being an alien, but that he was going to treat her the same as everyone else. That is because a system that may have many different groups inside it, can work in harmony and without bias, when people are treated on agreed upon rules. The new chief not blaming Tirana on the vampire escaping and managing to kill, but she was able to save someone and allowed them to understand the situation faster than they would have otherwise.

With Tirana saying that she would have liked to take the vampire in if possible, I do think thematically it was showing that she was open to possibly show the same to the vampire, who Tirana said had no idea about the situation she found herself in. That the vampire would not have to be killed just because of what she is, that the people probably could find a way to feed her so she is not tortuously hungry, and there could be cohabitation because lives matter. Certainly unfortunate where that last part seemed spur Tirana into a rage, after seeing the "victim" that was a meat puppet controlled by a wizard who certainly had no good intentions and probably do bad things due to a want rather than a need.

The animation in action scenes was pretty terrible and confusing.

In light of what DuskyPredator have mentioned above, this is what I think is the main problem I have with the show: I don't think the story is going anywhere concerning the world of Semanians.

The main plot is going to be surrounding Zelada, but that's about it. What a waste; there's so many things the show can delve into other than just that. We still don't have a clue on what Tilarna's world is like, and any conjecture we have is inferred (or just hinted) only based on the interactions between her and Kei.

If only her world is explored more in depth, it would've made the show more enriching. Instead, the world of Semania is relegated to just 'not-Earth'. We don't know much about Tilarna's background (yet, hopefully) except for what Dennis uttered during their fight.

The sole saving grace of the show is just the dynamic between Tilarna and Kei, but it's not looking that entertaining. It was promising at first, but now Tilarna just reveals to be a tsundere. Even if Kei is not the usual doormat that so often accompanies a tsundere, I'm not sure if their partnership is going to develop that far.

To contrast, I don't think that we actually need to see the goings in on the other world like how we don't need to see what other places on Earth are like with the knowledge of a fantasy world. The far more interesting idea certainly is the boiling pot of this city that has the mixes of the city, and especially of interest to me in the blurb of the show about the city having rampant crime with "drugs, prostitution, and weapon trafficking". Anime itself has focused on things like this before, and their social elements with how it could be played with random human people and fantasy people, could be worth interest. The anime Gate also had some of these things, mostly within the fantasy world, and everything was boiled down to problems of a fantasy world where things like fairly open sex slaves with a noble could be a thing.

And especially with how the world is currently facing questions of possible decriminalizing certain recreational drugs that don't do any real harm, or the need to have social acceptance of sex workers as a means of preventing more illegal aspects like people smuggling and abuse. The show could be rife to put these in an interesting context of a gritty real world with a lot of complexity, and an idea of fantasy characters that may be more socially regressive. My attention bobbed down a bit when it started to become a bit more "let's do a cop show, but occasionally throw in something like a vampire". But I am hoping something better can be done if willing to take on topics like refugees, where they are shown so much as a dangerous other in that they are elves that don't play by modern society rules and super strong. Or are a blood drinking vampire that happened to just find themselves in the situation and think the only way to survive is to be a monster from a movie. The needing to be prepared for danger in needing to protect themselves and others, that a police officer has, but that society can be stronger and problems solved without violence if communication is used as tool. That is kind of super cool, and more so than a fantasy show about good guys killing bad guys.

I am hoping that it does better from here, where the powers of being a modern officer could solve a situation that a magic swordswoman could not.

Episode 6

I actually quite enjoyed his one, although it was also a more light hearted episode. The plot being that they were seemingly trying to catch people trying to steal porn. Wasn't anything illegal, just regular porn, which to the fantasy people is seem as extreme and a high market. Still, no one wanted to be porn on the porn case that Kei and Tilarna were forced onto after doing a ridiculous car chase, and having his car involved in accident. Did feel like Kei was laying on it a little thick about how sad he was so that the department would get him a replacement, and he did get a good one. Granted, he did not seem entirely mature with getting a beast, and Tilarna also did action movie chase and got it blown up again.

It was a funny episode, but did have some of exactly what I was looking for. That in seeing something like a reaction of fantasy people, including Tilarna, to the mundane porn, which no doubt would be seen as very obscene in their culture. It was not prostitution, but still sexuality that was creating a black market from the mix of cultures. Has to be funny that the theft should be completely unnecessary, although maybe it would have been the restrictions of needing to smuggle it that created a problem. The "moral" people would not like such things brought into their world, that could be picked up by more official transactions.

Tilarna also felt like the star of the episode, her wanting to drive, her bit at the end at apparently just deciding that Kei's place was now hers after she dressed it up. And also the whole sexuality thing, just standing there still as she is blushing looking through a porn magazine while saying how indecent it is, as well as understanding other parts of modern world, such as what an ex is, and whether she feels anything or not towards Kei. Although she seems more of wanting to be seen as an equal.

How flippant the episode was about sexuality was also fun. From Kei talking to the other officer, everything with Tony, and so on. The chief saying that it was only porn that could turn on a middle school kid. Laughing

6:

It feels like a filler episode, but it adds to the relationship between Tilarna and Kei so maybe not. Passable? Pretty much so. Pedestrian? Definitely.

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