The Spring 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Killed Again, Mr. Detective?

Sakuya Otsuki is the son of a legendary detective, following in his father's footsteps with his assistant, Lilithea. However, something's different about this high-school sleuth. Wherever he goes, he always manages to get himself entangled in his cases—as a murder victim. When Sakuya is tasked to infiltrate a luxury cruise ship, he finds himself killed once again. But every time he reopens his eyes, Lilithea is there by his side, ready to help him get to the bottom of the mystery…

Killed Again, Mr. Detective? is based on the light novel series by author Teniwoha and illustrator Riichu. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

I need you all to understand something very important about me: I love detectives. To me, the detective is the archetypal equivalent of pure, Colombian-grade cocaine, and my brain is a deranged addict that will do anything for the next fix. I count Sherlock Holmes, Benoit Blanc, Columbo, Aya the Severed Head from Undead Murder Farce, every Danganronpa protagonist, and the Sexy Bird Prince from Yatagarasu as personal friends and inspirations. I am explaining all of this partially as a means of establishing my credentials, but mostly as a confession. My love for detectives runs so deep as to be impervious to any critical mores regarding bias or objectivity. If you put the word “Detective” in the title of your anime, I will automatically like it more. If you tell me that a character is a detective in either profession or spirit, I will have no choice but to forgive all of their transgressions and failures. My spirit is weak, and my craving for esoteric freaks who deduce the everloving bejeezus out of various crimes and mysteries is so, so strong.

Now that you know this about me, reader, you can see why I am awarding Killed Again, Mr. Detective? the score that you see right up there by the screenshot. Am I going to pretend that this anime is anything close to high art? Goodness, no. I will fully admit that, from a presentational level, nothing especially noteworthy is going on in this premiere, and the story isn't trying to change lives or move mountains, either. The show looks fine, mind you, and there's nothing offensive in the script when it comes to the characters or the plot, but I'm not so blinded by my detective fixation that I can't recognize a distinct lack of ambition when I see it.

And yet, the whole detective shtick really does make this one more enjoyable, you know? Sakuya isn't the most interesting hero around, but his position as a sleuth in the middle of some truly bizarre circumstances automatically makes him a more compelling lead than if he were just wandering around some generic fantasy setting collecting skill points. Likewise, Lilithea serves as a fun partner who is capable of being very helpful and observant, even when she's having too much fun cracking dumb jokes. A cruise ship is an excellent setting for a decent mystery, since it forces a bunch of weirdos with bizarre personality defects to be stuck together and isolated until interesting crimes start going down. Sure, Sakuya spends a decent amount of this runtime looking for a missing cat, but that's obviously just a pretense to get us to the murdering.

Then there's the whole gimmick of the series, which is that Sayaka has his own “Save/Reload” function that allows him to cheat death. These days, it seems like every gumshoe has to have a gimmick, but functional immortality isn't a bad power to have when you're hunting for clues. While I won't try to convince anyone that Killed Again, Mr. Detective? is going to be the must-watch blockbuster of the season, it's shaping up to be a good deal of silly, capering fun. Count me in.

I suppose it's a sign of a faithful adaptation when the exact same things annoyed me about this episode as in the manga. (Which is itself an adaptation; the original source material is a series of light novels.) The primary culprit is Lilithea, who, while not a terrible character on her own, is absolutely not shown putting her best foot forward. There's just something remarkably off-putting about introducing a character by having her gleefully sniff the protagonist's jacket and then tell him precisely who he's been interacting with. On the one hand, this is a mystery series, and Lilithea seems to be a good detective. On the other, surely there was a less obnoxious way to introduce this fact, particularly since this episode drops references to both John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie.

That's the major issue with this episode: it wants to be an homage to classic detective fiction with the twist that its detective can come back to life every time he's killed, but it isn't quite going about it the right way. Tatsuya Outsuki is the son of a great detective with the same ability, but unlike his thrill-chasing father, he's content to do little investigations about cheating spouses and lost cats. He gets to do both in this case – when he follows a potential cheater onboard a cruise ship, he also ends up asked to find a lost kitty named Lulu. The two are related, in that the cat belongs to the maybe-cheater, and the connection between the two is the most intriguing piece of the puzzle, not the least because it made me wonder who takes their cats on a cruise ship. There's also a killer pierrot (not a clown; the distinction may be important) and a cop on vacation, so the pieces are relatively solid.

Honestly, if the series could write better female characters, it would probably be better. Lilithea, although sincerely devoted to her work as Tatsuya's assistant, is too quirky for her own good, and Yuriu, an actress involved in the cat case, is similarly “adorable” in her mannerism. Yuriu has the excuse of putting on a public-facing persona, but it's not a great sign when neither heroine reads as actually human. Visuals are also an issue, with proportions feeling very off and hands just looking the wrong size for bodies in general.

If you're looking for an old school mystery, this isn't likely to fit the bill, although it clearly is trying. But if you like light mysteries, it might do the trick, assuming you don't find the women as annoying as I do.