Psychic Detective Yakumo

Alternate Titles: Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Original Japanese Release Date: October 3rd, 2010

Episode Length/Run-time: 13

Summary:
A high school student Yakumo has one special skill.  He has the ability to see the spirits of the dead.  Yakumo works with a female companion Haruka and police detective Gotou to solve crimes that are influenced by the supernatural.  Little does Yakumo know that a certain case will force him to confont his past.

Review:

Psychic Detective Yakumo suffers from the same syndrome that many newer anime have.  It takes too damn long to get started.  This series actually has a reasonably good story but many probably won’t get to see it.  Many viewers will give up on the series before the 8th episode.  That’s right, it takes about 7 or 8 episodes to really get around to what this series it about.  Oh, and by the way, the show is only 13 episodes long.  The first set of episodes are spent on one or two shot story arcs that really have no baring on the overall story.

The characters in the show are pretty much unenjoyable.  The only player that gets any kind of focus is Yakumo, which is generally fine because the show revolves around him, but it would have been nice to learn a bit more about the rest of the cast.  The show itself only has a handful of characters so there would have been enough time to flesh out the backstories a little better.  Gotou gets literaly no backstory to speak of and Haruka’s is minimal as well.

The storyline of the series overall is good ones it gets going.  It moves fast and is engaging.  It’s a supernatural crime drama that has a good balance of suspense and action. I would also suggest that viewers skip halfway through the show to make their viewing experience a little better.  However, you’ll need those first few episodes to get familiarized with the characters and the to learn about Yakumo’s powers, etc… Still, even so, the this series doesn’t even do a very good job of doing that.

All in all, you can probably skip this one if there are other anime available for you to watch.  If you crave supernatural stories, go watch Ghost Hunt or something.

[starrater]