The Detective Is Already Dead

Episode 12

Alright, now that The Detective Is Already Dead is finally dead, we can all go home and think about what we learned from this. Apart from more relevant real-world realizations such as "Don't fast-track an anime adaptation when you've only got a couple of novel volumes to pull from" or "Make sure your production crew actually has an idea of how to interestingly present the source material", the Dead Detective anime has thrown together enough of a plot hot-pot that you'd think it ought to be able to pull some kind of compelling conclusion out of. I may disagree with the core concept of reviving Siesta's consciousness to finish this fight here at the end, but the series has mitigated some of its odder storytelling impulses before, and if nothing else I'll be happy to see Siesta and Kimihiko banter one last time. It's only fair to at least give the show one last chance after sticking with it to the finish line here.

To a first point of credit, Dead-tective does look decent here at the end. A lot of the bits of action around the fight with Chameleon show an appreciative amount of animation and energetic, dynamic direction. It's still not on the level of that famous first episode cut, but it is evocative of it. There are still plenty of issues littered throughout the episode, such as the flat backgrounds or the weirdly-balanced colors and compositing. But I think it works where it counts for a season finale. They even parlay the limitations into payoffs in a couple of interesting ways, like presenting Chameleon's initial, apparent defeat as extremely underwhelming, before he inevitably gets back up for another significantly more interesting and impressive round with Siesta and Kimihiko.

Far be it for the fighting to actually be a high point of Dead-tective for once, so having the aforementioned rapport between Siesta and Kimihiko back is pretty appreciable as well. Ambivalent as I was about Siesta being able to return, she thankfully confirms that this is (supposedly) a one-time thing, and that she won't actually be able to pop into Nagisa's body and help the crew out whenever. And seeing her and Kimihiko catch up after a year, seemingly picking up right where they left off, does well to remind us again of the inherent appeal in that relationship at the core of this series. I still love some of the glib barbs they get in on each other, even if I certainly could have done without that momentary digression into the pair's past pooping habits. On the opposite side, they do finally get to answering that most burning question the audience has had: Did Kimihiko and Siesta fuck? The answer turns out to be 'no', but Siesta totally would have, given another opportunity. Live (and die) and learn, I guess.

So with the key parts of Dead-tective's appeal seemingly finally firing in time for this finale, the whole thing should be a slam-dunk, right? Sadly, inevitably, of course not. Because the baggage of what brought this story to its head is still being carried around, there's just no way what was being laid out here could come to a clean, narratively satisfying resolution. I almost admire the series' boldness in directly confronting the seeming thematic contradiction of its last plot-twist here at the end, with Siesta pointing out to Nagisa that her returning to help everyone would mark a backwards step in the development her departure has otherwise spurred. However, the excuse out of that seems to simply be the caveat that Siesta's only going to do this the one time, once again running into the issue that pointing out the problems in your own story doesn't mitigate them. Instead, it all simply comes off like the author thought it would be cool to bring Siesta back one last time for the end of this arc, and quickly hashed out some thematic excuses to make it happen.

Similarly, there's the case of Nagisa herself. Reminding you as I must that she's now confirmed to contain the consciousnesses of no less than four people, Kimihiko and the current story status quo resolve to simply not let her in on that whole personality matryoshka for the time being. So where does that leave Nagisa's development for now? Honestly, there could have been some fascinating stuff to analyze with regards to Nagisa's actual life experience as a composite of the likes of Hel, Alicia, and their shared experiences with Kimihiko and Siesta. Heck, Nagisa being under the current impression that the body is all 'hers' naturally leads to contemplating some thorny issues of fantastical autonomy that I don't know I'm prepared to get into, but might have been interesting to see the show tackle rather than simply shrugging it off (which only results in more side-eye-worthy questions with the last-minute implication that Siesta's own lingering internal influence might be propelling Nagisa's nascent request to sleep with Kimihiko). But exploring the depths of all that would honestly have required digging into that establishment from the beginning, instead of saving it to be a 'shocking' plot twist for one particular moment. Instead, Nagisa ends up back to where Kimihiko had steeled her resolve a couple episodes ago, set to follow in Siesta's footsteps as a legendary detective because she just happens to embody that definition of said detective which we found out Siesta just made up an episode ago. That is, indeed, some kinda writing.

Those kinds of double-backs on characterization, compounded by Siesta's situational return, only flatten those genuinely strong personal analyses we were riding on just a couple episodes prior. The compelling idea of Kimihiko, Nagisa, Yui, and Char reaching their own conclusion as 'Siesta's legacy' and carrying on her mission has been weakened, since it's not really their own resolution anymore, but rather something Siesta has directly told them to do. Even if Nagisa's previous memories have been revealed as a sham (and thus she can't really allude to her backstory even out of story coherency anymore) she could have still continued forward with her desired detective career out of an understanding of doing so for her own self-fulfillment. But nope, we confirm here that Siesta totally gives her the go-ahead to serve as her direct successor. The idea of a departed character having an influence on the narrative is one I like, conceptually, in stories. But with this execution, Siesta's less an overarching conceptual influence and instead a direct arbiter of the actions and roles the remaining characters will be taking. That certainly speaks to the author's understanding that Siesta was the most interesting, entertaining part of this story. But if the result of that realization was to clunkily impose her upon things this way, maybe they would have done better to simply not have the Detective be already dead.

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The Detective Is Already Dead is currently streaming on Funimation.

Chris is a freelance writer who appreciates anime, action figures, and additional ancillary artistry. He can be found staying up way too late posting screencaps on his Twitter.