Anime Series of the Genre: “Mystery”

Zetsuen no Tempest – Anime Review

Monday, 21 January, 2013

zetsuen no tempest screenshots

When Yoshino visits his friend’s family grave, he is suddenly confronted by an armed woman who wants to know the whereabouts of his friend. His friend Mahiro left a month ago in a vain attempt to investigate the triple murder incident his parents and sister fell victim to. Since then he was seen at various locations that are now under quarantine. His sudden reappearance here is as unexpected as the magical powers he uses to save Yoshino. Mahiro’s powers are borrowed from talismans that belong to a trapped sorceress princess he made contact with through the help of a wooden doll. In exchange for his help she promised to use magic to solve the triple murder case Mahiro is so obsessed with. She claims the quarantine is due an epidemic curse that turns living things into metal, which is a side effect of the Kusaribe clan’s plan to revive the Tree of Zetsuen and the reason they trapped her. Yoshino decides to help them, but has his own reasons for doing so.

Zetsuen no Tempest is based on a manga of the same name. It is the dark and mysterious story of two friends who try to reveal secrets that are beyond their understanding. Many open questions and interesting and credible character designs leave viewers hooked to this original story line. The brilliant animation quality underlines its role as an adequate and noteworthy adaptation.
Rating: 9/10

Mirai Nikki – Anime Review

Wednesday, 30 November, 2011

mirai nikki anime

Yukiteru is a silent boy who doesn’t take part in any of his classmate’s activities and doesn’t have any friends at all. The only two things that bring him joy in life is writing banal notes about his surroundings into his cell phone diary and talking to his imaginary friend Deus Ex Machina. As it turns out Deus Ex Machina is in fact very real and Yukiteru is drawn into a secret survival game, where each contestant is given a cell phone diary that contains notes about the future, yet each according to different rules. Armed with his Future Diary Yukiteru has a hard time surviving the numerous attacks of the other contestants. To his Luck the contestant Yuno, who had a secret crush on him, uses her strength to protect him and defeat his enemies.

Mirai Nikki is based on a manga of the same name. The good animation quality and the absence of censored blood or violence make it into an adequate adaptation of an original story. Fans of thrilling mystery animes like Death Note, should also give this one a try.
Rating:
9/10

Death Note – Anime Review

Wednesday, 27 October, 2010


Review: Light Yagami is an outstanding student and genius. His father is a high ranked police man and Yagami often helps him solve difficult cases, but still he is bored all the time. One day he finds the Death Note a shinigami (Death God) has dropped by accident. He can kill people by knowing their face and writing their real names into the Death Note. Just few days later lots of criminals in Japan and all over the world die from heart attacks. Yagami intends to make this world a better place by killing hardcore criminals and making people afraid of committing crimes this way. Soon it becomes obvious that all those mysterious deaths can not come by coincidence and there must be someone behind it. Society is split between those who support Yagami’s idea and those who think he is a sick murderer. The police of course have to find and stop him, but many officers are afraid of getting killed if they investigate Kira (Yagami’s new nickname). They hire a world-known detective who is known as “L” to catch Kira. Will Yagami be able to find out L’s real name to kill him before L finds out that Yagami is Kira?

Death Note is an unique story revolving around 2 unique and very intelligent characters with lots of unexpected and interesting plot twists. It is based on a manga bestseller that even has a successful live-action movie adaptation. While the manga already is a masterpiece, I could not find many scenes where the anime lacks behind the manga, so you can have equally high expectations of the anime.
Rating: 10/10

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – Anime Review

Tuesday, 26 October, 2010


Review: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is based on a popular amateur-made mystery computer game of the same name.
Keiichi just recently moved to the small rural village Hinamizawa and already made some good friends in the small school he started to attend. But the peaceful days gets interrupted when suddenly a murder case happens during a local festival. As Keiichi gets involved in the investigation he learns more and more about the mysteries of this murder. There were a project of building a dam 5 years ago, which would unfortunately flood this town. Of course the locals were against leaving their homes and it was a heated situation. One day, somehow the project was dropped and since then always on the day of the festival a person went missing and a person died. The victims always are somehow connected to the dam-project. Nobody of his friends told Keiichi about this, but everyone knew. The locals are convinced it is a curse and as Keiichi tries to find out the truth, he gets more involved in the mysteries of this case than he’d like.

This is a different type of mystery anime. This anime’s episodes are divided into different arcs. All of these arcs start the same way with the same characters, but focus on different aspects and have different outcomes. It is like different small stories based on the same settings. With each arc come new questions and mysteries, but also new answers. Will we be able to see the truth of this puzzle after watching all the arcs?
Rating: 8/10