Can be too predictable and repetitive

Written by Mooneh on February 21, 2012 at 9:04 AM

"Majin tantei Nougami Neuro" wasn't as mysteries as I thought a detective series would be. I'm not too familiar with the genre but this anime rarely held any secrets for me.

The problem starts with the main story. It doesn't really tie the episodes together. They're practically all just short crimes that are solved in one episode. You could even change their order without noticing much. In a few cases it did get interesting because they were spread out over more episodes and used cliffhangers to make you want to continue watching.

Although the tricks can be clever you can't really solve them while you watch because Neuro is so all knowing. He almost seems to pull them out of thin air. Another drawback is that they provide little really proof of the crime or the trick. The suspect admits before it is needed.

My main problem with the dialogue is the catchphrases. I don't mind recurring themes but using the exact same sentence in the exact same way is too repetitive.
"Majin tantei Nougami Neuro" did manage to make me laugh a few times and some scenes were almost scary.

The art style is good but I don't like the transformations of the criminals. In fact the only arcs I really liked are the ones in which the murderers are normal people.
Simply by the behavior of the suspects and the way the show focused on them I could usually figure out who the culprit was and what they would transform into.

It took me a relatively long time to finish "Majin tantei Nougami Neuro" and that's usually not a good sign. There were some good episodes so I kept hoping there would be more but after having seen it all I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.

What I liked:
- Interesting tricks that explain the crimes
- Neuro as a sadistic and funny character
- Great atmosphere when Sai is involved

What I didn't like:
- The catchphrases and how the pointing scene is copied every time
- Too obvious who the culprit is early in the episode
- The transformations of criminals.