The Detective Is Already Dead

Hello All.
I have just finished The Detective is Already Dead about 20 minutes go, and want to get my thoughts down. I should start by saying i had no prior knowledge of this shows plot and have not read anything about it, I am 100% anime only, so this will not be sending hate towards the LN.

I wanted to watch this Anime because it seemed cool, a mystery type show with a twist and the first episode lived up to expectations, a great mystery, action, a wider plot, fun comedic moments and ending on the twist we all were awaiting, so i was looking forward to the following episodes.

What I ended up getting was a jumble of episodes that didn't seem to know what they wanted to convey. The introduction of the new characters felt like it would be permanent and i expected a simple straight story from here that would lead to solving the mysterious death of the Detective's murder. Instead we end up learning some major points before going back in time for 6 or so episodes. Now to be fair, this time jump is actually probably the most enjoyable part of the series as Siesta and Kimi's interactions are incredibly hilarious and enjoyable with a constant "will they won't they" feel. All of their interactions i really enjoyed and the slight moments where they reveal a little too much such as Siesta going berserk trying to find Kimi and his fear for when she was in danger from Hel the first time. These interactions both serious and funny carry the show. The problem is everything around it was lackluster in my opinion.

The action moments were bland and came out of nowhere and never seemed to be actually intense as a fight scene should be. They were all simple hit for hit fights, nothing ever felt powerful and they never flowed. All the characters other than Kimi and Siesta were incredibly underwhelming, they are all just thrown into the mix with no prior explanation and few ever actually getting one, and throughout the series they don't really develop or offer much more than plot relevancy. They don't stick around to be enjoyed as a character, Fubi and Chara are never fully explained and literally are only in scenes when the plot needs to progress, no explanation as to why Chara calls Siesta "Mum" or Fubi's relation to them other than the Police woman. The Antagonists are much the same, with a simple motive and almost nothing to ever actually make you feel like they are a worthy antagonist, everything just was underwhelming.

The entire reveal of the truth about Siesta, Hel and Nagisa all was just so lacking. Siesta gets knocked down in a pitiful way and while i always expected her to have been killed saving Kimi, this was just a terrible portrayal of that, the idea was great, but this monster had 5 seconds of screen time, and there was no build up so it just was something that happened. In the end it felt like killing Siesta off was the sole point of the anime, the story was an after thought. They wanted a show where they killed off the MC and gave it to a side character, while this is a great idea, without the story and animation to back it up it falls flat. Every scene and part of this anime could have been great, maybe more episodes or seasons would have helped but nothing was ever built up or intense. The only enjoyable scenes were those between Kimi and Siesta as they felt natural and generally enjoyable.

The music and sound mixing all felt off to, nothing was ever LOUD and the music rarely reflected the scenes it was in and especially nothing ever felt like it affected my emotions, music is great for this, heightening an emotion in a scene. For example the scene where Kimi and Siesta talk one last time in the void i guess you could say, that was actually sad, but my emotions were never heightened with a building music. I acknowledged it was sad and maybe even sniffled slightly, but it didn't have me generally FEELING that emotion. This is the same all throughout the series, the lack of strong loud music in scenes means the show never brings about a strong emotion to connect with the characters.

I was excited for this show, but in the end it just felt like they killed off a character and winged it from there, while Siesta was the best character it still could have been successful had the rest been done correctly but alas it wasn't, the reveals were lackluster and never had any power to them and honestly mostly seemed there for plot relevancy. It just never hit any spot just right apart from a strong MC relation which is the sole reason this show gets a higher score.I do hope they can better this someday as i believe it could be amazing, if they were to continue animating the show. Is the LN better? Let me know what you think?