Yuukoku no Moriarty 4u4p4t

Here it is! My favorite anime of 2020. It's been a rough year, but we finally got a genuinely good anime that's not Interspecies Reviewers! This is something I can actually recommend to my offline friends and they won't just laugh awkwardly and say, "Um...Really dude?".

Moriarty the Patriot is both a surprisingly faithful Sherlock Holmes adaptation and puts a new spin on familiar characters at the same time. Sherlock Holmes and Watson besides looking weirdly bishounen act exactly like they do in the books. A lot of dialogue is lifted directly from the source stories. All the minor ing cast from Ms. Hudson, Lestrade, ... the Baker Stree Irregulars, are all portrayed very accurately. As you could guess from the title, the character that they changed the most is Professor James Moriarty. In this series he is still a cold, calculating, master criminal. He's still a math professor by day who moonlights as a criminal consultant that orchestrates crimes from behind the scenes. However, his motivations are different. Moriarty grew up homeless and starving with a sick younger brother he had to care for. He holds a deep anger and resentment towards the British aristocracy and especially those that believe themselves above the law due to their social status. Moriarty wishes to help the poor and downtrodden gain revenge on nobles that have deeply wronged them but can't be punished because they own the courts. Moriarty's ultimate goal is to bring about radical, revolutionary change that will dismantle the strict caste system of Victorian England.

So basically this is an anime that combines the cat and mouse games of Death Note with the class struggle of Rose of Versailles, topped off with a generous helping of EDGE. This is a pretty damn violent and brutal anime, although it calms down a little after the first 4 episodes. At one point, Moriarty convinces a rich kid to murder his snobby little brother in cold blood, then kill his parents for being assholes towards the servants. In the beginning portion, Moriarty got to the brink of going full Elfen Lied, but the show wisely backed off a bit. I'm glad the director or whoever read the room and realized it's not 2004. I'm also glad that the show ed that Moriarty is still the villain despite ultimately good motives and also refrained from demonizing Holmes and Watson to try make us cheer for Moriarty easier.

People will quickly compare this version of Moriarty to Light Yagami, but I will actually go on record saying this Moriarty is vastly superior to his bishounen prototype Light. For one thing, Moriarty genuinely cares about his younger brother and isn't purely a selfish, evil asshole with a God complex. It also helps that Moriarty's worldview and goals make a LOT more sense than Light's.

Let's look at 1880s England when this story takes place. According to historians, over 25% of the population lived in dire poverty and this percentage was even higher in London. Over half the population was hungry and didn't have enough food to eat. The wealthy benefited from the blatantly exploitative East India Trading Company and British South Africa Company, but how much of this wealth trickled down to the average Briton? Not enough. From 1873 to 1896, Great Britain suffered from a 23 year Great Depression! Unemployment and crime were absolutely rampant. The wealthy lived in 3 story, 100 room manors in the countryside while the majority lived in squalid apartments dying of cholera and tuberculosis. If those 2 didn't kill you, the air pollution would certainly finish you off. There is a reason that Charles Dickens became the national author and voice of the people during this time. For the majority, living in England REALLY sucked in the 1800s. Moriarty's anger at this societal injustice makes perfect sense in context. Was he justified in murdering a small child who was only trying to copy his snooty mother? Of course not! James Moriarty is not a nice man. However, he's an interesting and compelling villain.

Now let's look at our boy Light. It's 2000s Japan and crime has never been lower. Japan is one of the most peaceful countries in the world. Wealth per capita isn't quite at America's level, but Japan is a genuinely great place to live. Light's crusade to establish a paradise by killing bad people makes very little sense. Even Moriarty realizes that just killing a few bad people won't fix England. Moriarty wants to expose the crimes these nobles committed after the police investigate the deaths and hope these exposed crimes lead to a social revolution among British voters. Light is an idiot's idea of a genius. Nobody with an IQ over 100 would ever believe that a magic book could solve the world's problems by killing a select few bad people. Let's look at a country that actually has problems such as Afghanistan. 20 percent of the people know how to read and only 5 percent can read an international language like English. Maybe 1 percent have computer savvy and can code. Overpopulation is putting immense strain on aging infrastructure. Corruption is a societal wide problem at every level. The leading job is making opium and having to grease the palms of violent warlords who want a large cut of your opium profits. Religious extremism has brewed to insane levels. Even if religion was removed entirely, the country's largest ethnic group, the Pashtun, want independence to establish their own state. They utterly despise every other ethnic group in the country, to the point that the majority are very happy to the Taliban so long as a Pashtun state will result. If you think Afghanistan could be made a paradise by killing 5 people, 50 people, 500 people, or even 5,000 people then you're a complete idiot. So in summary, Moriarty is a believable and interesting villain, unlike Light.

The animation is done by Production I.G. who also made Vinland Saga, my favorite anime from last year. Those guys are on a role! The animation and character art are honestly pretty damn great! I never found the CG distracting and most of the time I never even noticed it at all. It's depressingly quite rare when I can say that about an anime made in the last 5 years!

The OP is cheesy as hell, but the soundtrack largely does its job. It's not a standout, amazing OST but it also never distracts the audience away from the action. It's perfectly serviceable.

The series direction was handled by Kazuya Nomura, whom I previously have praised for his work on "Run with the Wind" just last year. This guy is a solid director and I will be looking forward to his future projects including of course the Moriarty sequel!

Overall, this is a really fun anime! If you're big fan of Sherlock Holmes, you absolutely can't afford to miss this one. Even if you don't like Sherlock Holmes, I would still probably check it out. I was very worried after the first few episodes. I thought this series was going to land right on its neck, but it surprised me and absolutely stuck the landing! Nearly everything about this series was well executed in addition to being highly amusing each and every week for the last 11 weeks! Anime of the Year. Check it out!

Moriarty the Patriot is an anime that focuses on the class disparity during the days of the British Empire. This show focuses on the antagonist of Sherlock Holmes and tells the story from his point of view. I liked this show because of the brilliant soundtrack, artful cinematography, creative characters, and use of juxtaposition to convey a flawed sense of justice.

This anime has an banger soundtrack. Both the OP and ED should not be skipped. The OSTs that play during tense moments really add to the creepy vibe, especially when William is about to do something terrible.

It is great that this show does ... not try to be politically correct and appeal to all audiences, but at the same time does not go overboard with the violence and gore. This show is not for everyone, and does not compromise on the violence, but knows exactly where the line must be drawn. The cinematography portrays William as a prophet trying to cleanse the evil, but the audience knows that the means William uses to achieve his goals are far from the works of a prophet. I can only describe the cinematography in this way without spoiling the show!

All characters are great and the show expands on the main cast well from what has ben shown so far. One problem that I had was that it showed some characters as purely pigs that prey on the lower class, and it felt like the only thing these characters did was be pigs. While it is hard to make all the characters developed and unique, it still felt weird that most nobles were openly classist and the few nobles that weren't were in the minority. Who knows, maybe this is how people actually were in that time. However, for a show that is episodic in plot, this show still has a overarching story that ties everything together. It is great to watch weekly and binge.

The antagonists are also really charismatic and charming. I love Holmes' and Watsons' chemistry. It makes it really hard to choose who to side with.

The way William solves other peoples' problems is really satisfying, as I love a good antihero. I highly recommend this show to everyone, as it seems this show is underrated this season.

Overall: 5/10
A mediocre score for a mediocre series. Moriarty is like a lost child, some wannabe but not quite version of Death Note that ends up falling short on being thematically acclaimed and being a bit too deep for casual binging (at least by my standards); this identity crisis leaves viewers feeling confused at times. While it's categorized as mystery and psychological, I can tell you right off the bat neither of those is present enough to warrant their inclusion as genres.

TLDR, good art and sound aren't enough to make up for the flaws in Moriarty; maybe Moriarty should clean up their own room before ... trying to fix the world as Jordan Peterson would put it.

Story: 5/10
Some anti-hero/dark-hero figure fights to solve the world using gruesome and unethical methods. A noble and 2 pseudo-nobles fighting back against rampant classism. The story isn't anything special; it's pretty braindead for an anime that tries to be somewhat deep. Hard to judge the story when there really hasn't been any so far, especially since this series appears to follow an episodic format. And generally speaking, episodic format series lose their charm after a while.

There are no mysteries being solved, and there is no depth given at all to their investigations or conclusions (the first episode was really the only one that explored the investigation aspect).

Art: 7/10
I don't know what audience the animators were hoping to appeal to, since the style of all the main characters (who are all guys btw) are super shojo-stylized, like the men from Fruits Basket. Yet, they classify the show as "shounen". Interesting move. The cinematography and animation style is good though, I'll give it that.

Sound: 8/10
OP and ED are pretty good, and there's good use of OSTs and sound effects throughout the episodes so far.

Character: 4/10
The characters feel really 2-dimensional, especially since I'd assume most of the character development for the 3 brothers is completed (given the 2-episode flashback we had). And I've got to say, that's some pretty shitty character development if they leave it off at that. My biggest issue is with William.

William is more or less Light Yagami. Except horribly adapted. I'm not saying Light was a great character, but he was set up and developed very well. An intelligent but not crazy smart, well-intentioned boy who stumbles upon a god-like power. Manifests Machiavellianism and a god-complex as a result of him trying to cleanse the world of evil. I think most importantly, part of him realizes what he does is futile or won't work even if he pulls it off.

William, on the other hand, is basically Senku from Dr. Stone. Except Senku isn't meant to be taken seriously; he serves to showcase the possibilities of science in a way, and how the cumulation of hundreds of years of humans' work can overcome any challenge. William is just smart so he can deus-ex machina any evil noble out the world. Unlike Light, we never see William truly outplaying people. Maybe that's because he's only been matched up against idiots so far.

But my biggest issue with William is the flaw in his ideology. You kill all the evils nobles. Great. Power vacuum manifests. Poor people stop directing their hate to those above them and start getting envious of each other. This is actually really similar to what the US did to Afghanistan, and we all know how well that turned out. Now is this actually an intentional juxtaposition designed to make you realize how flawed that ideology is? Maybe. But it's a god damn awful way to do it, since you're now watching a show predicated on characters you know are flawed and dislike. Was Death Note the same? Sure. But the appeal from Death Note didn't come from watching Light be a bad guy per say, but the thrill of seeing how he would outplay those around him psychologically to stay alive. You'd tune in to see what crazy trick Light would pull off, or what advancements L would make; it was never about Light's ideology. We don't have those same brain games going on here in Moriarty, since William just deus-ex machinas every noble, and just dons his plot armor after since nobody ever seems to suspect how every noble involved with his family just dies. At least in Death Note, we had Light lose a few times or barely elude the authorities.

Enjoyment: 5/10
I mean. It's watchable. Just not that great. Moriarty's identity crisis in trying to be Death Note-esque but not really just kinda shits all over any potential it had of being enjoyable. Torn between trying to be too many things, Moriarty comes up short in everything, just like me irl :(

Forgiveness is overrated. You have the big bad villain that killed the whole town, wanted the world turn into darkness and fucked the protagonists wife and the protagonist doesn't kill villain because "that would make him just as bad as him". And everyone is fine after it all and go on to get some mcdonalds or something. It is boring to see a peaceful end to everything. That's why I am happy Yuukoku no Moriarty exists.

The anime is an adaptation of the classic Sherlock Holmes story we all know, but this time it focuses on the antagonist. James Moriarty is a professor in good ol' ... victorian england, also being a crime consultant as a side-job. In this world there is a clear divide between the rich class and everyone else. Due to the rich class being so priviliged they began discriminating agianst the poor. James Moriarty not being able to live in this disgusting world, he takes matters into his own hands: Trying to take down the rich class and helping out the poor.

The series is episodic so far, each episode deticated to a mystery/problem the protagonist James has to solve. In this way it follows the Sherlock Holmes style closely, but where it differs is in the resolution of each mystery. While Sherlock is on the side of law, James follows his sense of "Justice", which in this case is helping out the poor, even if that means helping others to steal from banks or even helping to kill aristocrats that are commiting crimes. So Sherlock is more about solving crimes, James is more about revenge.

The story and message this anime goes for meshes well with the tone. The anime is incredibly dramatic. Heavy shadows, red-black filters, epic music, dramatic one liners, it has it all. Even if you don't agree with the message this anime is trying to say, it is impossible to not be swayed by its excellent use of tone.

The rest of the anime is what you would expect. The artstyle is clean and nice, the animation is clean and smooth, the characters are interesting, the music, like i mentioned, is epic, it is all just good stuff.

So in short: If you want to watch a myster anime about batman sherlock holmes, I can't recommend this anime enough.

Anyone who is familiar with mystery and detective stories probably heard of the name ‘Sherlock Holmes’. However, how many are familiar with his future nemesis, William James Moriarty. An anti-hero. A mischievous mastermind. A cunning strategist. A living psychological weapon. Those are just a few ways to describe such a person.

Welcome to a world where crime, corruption, and class system dominates the society. Watching Yuukoku no Moriarty feels like an old school mystery thriller with the good and bad folks. In their society, what separates from those that are drunk with power and those who seek to make the world a better place? It’s a ... tough question as this show tests the integrity of a complex society in this 19th century.

But make no mistake, when I first started watching this show, I already had a checklist of anticipated items on my mind. Among those includes the mystery and suspense as well as the character study of the main cast, particular Moriarty. His character profile is complex but one that we must understand him to get the best experience from this show. A show like this sets his character up as not a heroic protagonist but as an anti-hero. Throughout the story, we see his cunning mind at work when engineering scenarios to disrupt Great Britain’s class system. Taking place in this 19th century timeline, their land is dominated by nobles. Moriarty’s main purpose in life is to destroy such a system and seek to replace it with one that is justice. It all sounds complex and believe me, this show is not one that’s easily recommendable.

To understand Moriarty, you have to dissect his actions and understand his origins. Luckily, early episodes provides details about his family origins and his relationship with Albert and Louis. It’s an important trademark as the three individuals are intertwined in the story. From episode 2, we learn the grim details and identity of William. Watch it for yourself and realize that William’s role in the story is more than just rebuilding society. It’s about showing the world can change even if means resorting to the darker experimentations and underworld activities to accomplish it. And that’s the type of person William is. He would take any risk and involve any individual to accomplish his goal to make an equal society. He walks the path of not righteousness but one that is ruthless with consequences every step along the way. That is William James Moriarty.

Despite some of the controversial elements of the show, it’s actually not a complex story once you take a dive into its themes. Storytelling is sold with each arc consisting of cases and the machinations of the main characters’ actions. At the same time, we are exposed to the timeline of this era and realize how corrupt its class system really is. Nobility is a far cry from the meaning of justice and those who seek it will understand the immense difficult of challenging the system. However, we are talking about William James Moriarty here, the most infamous nemesis of the great Sherlock Holmes himself.

But is this a character driven story or one filled with a desire to show us the world of the 19th century and its corruption in England? Watching every episode told me it’s a crime thriller and showing the darker side of humanity. A show like this is geared towards those who wants to learn more its story than just what’s shown on the surface. With every case, there’s the hidden truths and secrets. As we go through these cases, we learn more about the characters. There’s no room for foolish humor as the anime maintains a suspenseful and thrilling atmosphere. To be quite honest, Sherlock Holmes and William Moriarty exposes everything about human personalities. Humans are among the most complex creatures on the planet and for this anime, it shows us why.

With such a sensational premise, studio Production I.G. wanted to portray the show for its thrilling mood. Capturing such world based on a real life setting isn’t easy but truth to be told, it looks and feels just right. Indeed, Great Britain feels alive with the lavish architectures, aristocratic style clothing, and overall, corrupt culture. Watching this show gave me the impression that the animators and producers did extensive research. Character designs also lives and breathes the style of a crime mystery. In particular, William, Albert, and Louis stands out above crowds with their trademark hair and masking their true personalities. There’s also room for violence in the show as some crimes can be quite gruesome. Make no mistake, this anime may not be a gorefest but it isn’t a walk in the park either.

Giving this show a chance will depend on if you feel like you’re the target audience. As a fan of crime fiction and mystery thrillers, I couldn’t be more excited when I heard about the anime adaptation news. This is also just the first half as the show will return in April 2021 for its second run. From what we’ve experienced from these 11 episodes, it’s safe to say that we will have at least one intriguing crime mystery thriller to talk about next year.

Moriarty the Patriot is a breath of fresh air and is truly a hidden gem.
Those of you who have read/watched Sherlock Holmes will be familiar with who Moriarty is and if you haven't then you will get to know about him while watching this show.
So what is Moriarty the Patriot about? Well it's about Moriarty and his "perfect crimes". From the first episode we are given a hint at Moriarty's character and true intentions and if I'm being honest Moriarty reminds me of Lelouch, the way he has been portrayed is very similar to that of Lelouch.
SPOILERS WILL START FROM HERE.
Story - 8
Moriarty till now ... this is a episodic show ( with 2 and 3 being one story ) and we follow Moriarty who is trying to make the world a better place by doing stuff like solving a murder mystery and letting one of the victims father kill the culprit, go into a new town as a math professor and help in killing the nobel there by using chemistry, we also see a flashback of him where he gets adopted and helps in killing the family that adopted him, I'm saying this as a joke but trust me this is super fun to watch. There is one thing common here tho, and that is that Moriarty helps in all this, he is never the one to directly do the action but is the brains behind it. The story till now hasn't opened up yet but I'm sure once Sherlock is introduced everything will be connected and we'll get one heck of a cat and mouse chase involving two geniuses.
Characters - 10
The characters are the strongest point of the show, in the first 3 eps you get to know so much about the three main characters, about what goes on in each individuals head, why they want to make the world a better place and what they have to do to accomplish this. It's really great to see the characters have a lot of personality in them instead of being 2D cardboard cutouts, and I'm really excited to see what they'll do with the other characters that are about to be introduced.
Animation and Sound - 8
Well this show doesn't heavily depend upon it's animation so the animation is as it needs to be, nothing to fancy or nothing to shabby. The OP and ED of this show are actually pretty good and the OST does suit the whole theme perfectly
Overall - 9
This show really is something and I was honestly not expecting it to be this good, so if you love your Mystery, Thriller genre this show is definitely for you.

Since most anime sways away from modern politics its often easy to forget that Japan is home to the largest non-ruling communist party in the world. Then a show like this comes out and you get to experience the fun of a completely partisan and highly politically charged anime. What fun. It's not like anime not being full of politics is why I watch it in the first place.

As a modern anime with professional production values it looks and sounds good. The voice acting is excellent and the colours are used effectively to create a great looking anime.

The real problem for me is how the ... anime is so unbelievably biased in how it looks at Britain's societal structure in the late 1800s. It's such a partisan view that, as someone who has studied that period extensively, it's almost impossible to ignore. For one it acts like Britain's class system was highly stratified so that only the nobility could ever really get ahead, this is false. Modern Britain is arguably more stratified than Britain in the 1860s and escaping poverty is significantly harder now than it was then for a large number of reasons that principally come down to the demand for industrial labour. The show also focuses on classism but ignores the fact that in Britain the upper class and the lower class have generally always had good relations with one another. The people in Britain who had extremely poor relations with the upper and lower class in Britain were the middle class. The idea of the sneering upper class spitting down upon the starving lower class simply wasn't a thing in Britain in the 1860s and it's a key part of why those aristocrats delivered massive majorities to the Liberal Party throughout the 1860s.

If you can stomach the bad history you might like it though.

It was a fun mystery/drama that managed to be rather light hearted despite its darker subject matter. Moriarty is a kind of Robin Hood character except instead of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, he helps the poor murder the rich; often in ever more increasingly elaborate ways.

It tries to tackle some interesting moral questions, but in my opinion doesn't delve very deep into them and thus is kind of shallow. "Rich people are terrible, the world would be better without them, so to bring about that better world let's kill them". Additionally, each "villain" is comically villainous to the point of seeming to ... lack any humanity or redeeming qualities, thus making it easy for the audience to sympathize with Moriarty's views without question. Holmes is the only one we really get to see grappling with the morality around killing someone, but even that isn't given much serious attention.

Additionally I felt some of the more "anime-esque" additions kind of took away from the "real world" settings they were placed in. i.e. characters leaping onto and off of multi-story buildings, some of the hand to hand combat techniques, wearing cloaks whenever engaging in shady business, etc.

Overall it was an enjoyable watch, nice to look at, rocking music for both the opening and ending, and had interesting enough stories to keep my attention, but it could have done more with its premise and wasn't spectacular, thought provoking, or particularly memorable.

I have never posted an anime review until now. But for this one, I feel obligated.

The Seiyuu are awesome, graphically it's beautiful. But that's all. The manga is slaughtered. The scenes are modified, clearly diminished, and above all we focus on unnecessary scenes instead of doing as in the manga: interested in people who come to ask the Moriartys for help.

The first few episodes made me wince, but I had some hope. But the 4th episode made it clear to me that this anime does not seek to convey a message with it. They just want to surf the "gore" and the "we follow a ... bad guy" side without giving any real motivation, without giving depth to investigations and missions.


I advise against the anime, and I advise people to go watch the manga.

(sorry for my spelling mistakes, I am French at the base)

Time and time again Sherlock Holmes has been re-imagined, re-invented, modernised and so on. But often times, when set in the particular historical period the original novel is set, people forget the effects of the time period small intricacies.
(as well as read and pay attention to the source material, but then again Sherlock name sells, seen by how much people venerate this anime lol)

Moriarty is a incredibly interesting character in the novels, however he was not given a lot of focus.

Here the anime had a chance to explore his character and...well choose to play the "Noble bad, poor good" card as his motivation. ... Which frankly for a character such as Moriarty is lacking(as in not strong enough for him to trouble himself).
He's a genius like Sherlock, so he must have an even stronger motivation to push him to be the 'Napoleon of Crime'. Even if he did want to change the situation of the lower classes, crime is the least favourable thing, as often it hurts more those of which that do not have the means to defend themselves.

The characters look great in the show, I do like their design but they lack strong motivators to follow Moriarty so blindly.
The villains are often so dumb and easy to control that Moriarty is just a genius because he is surrounded by idiots.

They butchered Sherlock's character too, I won't get into detail but it's worth seeing (he looks good but meh much too easily played by Moriarty).

Fandom for this is often only simping for the looks of the show rather than the content, people aren't thinking too much about how some of the 'logic' is often very questionable.

P.S. On Ep 8 - Police constables hats have Queen Elizabeth II's initials not Victoria's (and that's priceless aha)

I've watched and found it a very ok show, definitely not the best of the best but good when there wasn't anything else too thrilling to watch.

Even when you think that there’s nothing worth it during a season, you find animes like Yuukoku no Moriarty to contradict you.

Class differences. A concept that is old but that does not stop being an instaured matter nowadays; less harsher today, but still present. Despite this idea is a classic one, I really enjoy watching this controversial topic, and even more when is well managed. And what I like even more about Yuukoku no Moriarty is the way the main characters are not politically correct. They are not the perfect elite guys that sow justice and that fight for the poverty’s rights. No, they take ... justice by hand in order to change the corrupt world. That premise isn’t that original either, is it? That doesn’t matter, because I think is well handled in this episodic anime that is quite catchy and that gives it a profound view.

As I was saying, the topic that I mentioned, even if in the first episode is not displayed as such, is always there. The series starts with William Moriarty, the protagonist, living a rich life and behaving as some sort of Sherlock Holmes (I know, he’s his enemy, but that’s your first thought when you see this high class guy that, by reading a newspaper, can develop a serial killer’s case in the confort of this mansion). Conforming it advances, he investigates and, of course, effortless, he gets to a conclusion. And his only response to his resaults is to kidnap the guilty and to let the victim father’s take revenge. When I first watched this episode I thought it was going to be an anime with no depth nor development, just with the concept of this show being a serie of individual cases for each episode, but no, William becomes a crime counselor. and the next episodes give it the depth it deserved, decorating it with a pretty interesting background for the main cast, and a well managed detailed one, because it doesn’t just focus on William but also his two brothers’ ideals and surroundings; not perfect, but very very decent and gives the show other nuances. Some people can say this bg was longer than neccessary, but I personally loved that.

The world has, in my opinion, an excellent construction, because it’s what they focus the most. I mean, it is not like every shounen where you need an almost entirely new world and its scopes to clarify, since it’s England, but the context is very well settled. The world is rotten and so are the rich people, yes, we know, but I felt it very crude and realistic. And also, relatable. Is according to the epoch it takes place. Currently, in real life, a lot of situations shown in the anime, of course, doesn’t happen like that, but the escence and the perspective of the class gap is clear and adequate adapted. Retaking what I said earlier, it doesn’t matter that this is an episodic anime, because everything is carefully connected and, as it advances, the cases of each episode go more cruel, violent and realistic, and you get it clear: the important thing is not the case itself, but its impact and how the main concept of the breach is being pulished episode by episode, sometimes in a subtle way, and sometimes it hits you in the face.

The first case is a little bit exaggerated, consisting in a morbid man that chased after his servant’s children in order to torture them, just for fun, so my first impression was “this is just supposed to be a gore anime?”, but the air suddenly changed with the following cases, going from a woman who had his son dead because no doctor would attend him since they were poor, to a man who was separated from the woman he was in love because of social stratum. Yuukoku no Moriarty demonstrates then that can handle a very dark atmosphere and a tragic sad one at the same time.

William Moriarty is actually likeable. Math teacher by day and a criminal by night, he is a leader by nature, charismatic and humble. Is a smartass with an IQ of 3000, the typical main character that never looses an argument or a lead. However, what I really appreciate of him is how determined he is and how his ideals take a lot of place since the beginning, showing a man with a debatable moral that, without a Death Note, is resolute to construct a new world with no evil rich, giving the least benefited people the opportunity to accompany him with a steady hand, at the same time evaluating them and testing at what point are they going to go to achieve their vengeances or to actually change their situations. As I said earlier, this is not something new and I’m not saying he IS A HERO, I just state that, in my opinion, his ideology is clear and according to what he has shown. It’s like viewing the story from the villain’s point of view. That’s kinda interesting as well.

Anyway, even though his brothers started as a strong presence by his side, as it progresses, they begin to be even more secondary than they already are, and when Sherlock Holmes makes his entrance, they just vanish like disposable characters. By the end of the show, I just saw them as William’s dogs and nothing more.

On the other hand, we got the magnificent Sherlock Holmes. In my library I have a beautiful collection of Conan Doyle’s work, and I dare to say that I’m not a fan of Sherlock as a character himself, so when he first appeared I thought the show was going to decline, but it wasn’t the case. Even though I preferred the story told by Moriarty’s POV, the Sherlock that is shown in the anime is quite different from the literary one, since he’s more human and, in consequence, imperfect. I enjoyed that way of portraying him. Sherlock making mistakes, having moral messes, feeling defied by Moriarty, being a lazy, eccentric, frivolous man. That is good. Nevertheless, what’s even better about him is how they work on his rivalry with Moriarty, making every encounter between them something really bright and subtly tense. William likes to test him, and Sherlock respects him a lot, suspecting him since the first moment he witnessed a crime William masterminded. By the end of the anime, the real chess begins.

Speaking of animation, I can’t say much. Is pretty decent and the character’s design is also good. It’s a Production Ig’s work, so I don’t have much to claim about it. It was visually pleasurable to me; although, some times there were moments when I though the facial expressions didn’t make justice to the thrilling scene. However, something I didn’t like was the sound. Personally, I thought the OST wasn’t suitable for the story. In another kind of series this could have been interesting (Thinking, idk, in Akudama Drive, for example), but in this one, I really felt out of place when an electro music appeared. I mean, I can’t see a carriage and then bang my head with that modern techno. Besides that, the voice actors did a decent job. Nothing I would recall, but it was fine.

I had no faith on this since I didn’t like so much any of this season’s animes, but it turned out to be greater than what I was expecting. Not the best you’re gonna see, but certainly worth the shot. Personally, I am looking forward to seeing the second season.

4/10 Very shallow show. Fanfiction? More like a bleak shadow of the original...


Imagine Sherlock Holmes's original series but adapted for kids. This show is exactly this, a really dumbed down version so that even 5yo can get the point.

Story: 3/10
What you see on the screen is exactly what will happen, there is no mystery or any sort of guesswork that you need to do. Too predictable, mysteries are solved effortlessly, the main characters are too powerful for the challenges they face. I got a feeling that the original creator of the manga misinterpreted the original work (hope they actually read it) and no one ... fixed the deficiencies during the production...

Art: 8/10
The art and animation are of good quality. Lots of detailed backgrounds, textures, character design is fine too. You can tell the show was funded well, but that's the sad part. There are great story-driven shows out there that could not afford such excellent visuals, but somehow this garbage got them.

Sound: 8/10
Music in the opening/ending is ok. Throughout the show, the sound engineer(s) appropriately used environmental sounds to enhance the action.

Character: 2/10
Very flat, non developing characters, main traits taken from original Conan Doyle story, but mangafied a bit. Moriarty is a cheap version of Kira from Death Note. Sherlock, well, nothing outstanding.

Enjoyment: 4/10

Overall: 4/10
Please don't get your hopes up, I don't know why this shown has almost 8 score right now. Perhaps, most people rated when the first episode came out. If you haven't read the original Sherlock Holmes, I highly recommend it, unlike this show.

I went into this anime with high expectations, seeing as everyone was calling it the anime of 2020. I wanted to give this anime a 7 initially, but by the time I finished it, I felt like giving it a 5 would be too generous. So I settled for a 3.

It’s like buying a jelly/cream filled donut and finding air in the middle instead. You can’t even feel ripped off because the outside is so greasy, it’d probably give you a stomachache anyways.

The art was beautiful. I enjoyed the scenes aesthetically, and while there were moments where Moriarty looked like a big brain misshapen alien, ... it was still a beautifully drawn anime. Vaguely had Black Butler vibes to it.

Moriarty as a character was cold and flat. Nothing remarkable about him. The way he and his merry band of homicidal fanatics behaved, it looked like they were copy/pasted into scenes to save time and you couldn’t even tell the difference. Moriarty was meant to be a charismatic villain, I think? But he wasn’t even that. Heck, he wasn’t even really cold. Just completely flat and devoid of emotion. Like a puppet speaking lines. When they introduced Sherlock, it wasn’t even a big deal. What’s sad is that for how little Sherlock was in it, he looked more like a villainous playboy/deadbeat than a misanthropic genius. It wasn’t so much ‘Moriarty the Patriot’, but ‘Moriarty and Sherlock: Trying to find a personality’.

The one positive of this whole fiasco was the background music and sound effects. There is one scene in one of the episodes that was a glorious 10 or second ASMR clip.

Plot? What plot? Moriarty’s whole shtick was ‘Death to the Bad Nobles’, but he, Louis and Albert were bad nobles too? But I guess it’s okay since they’re the ‘right kind’ of bad noble. Honestly, it wasn’t about three nobles sticking it to society, it was about Moriarty forcing people to murder on his behalf with his fanatical followers. Sherlock was just along for the ride of be the paper foil to the second half of the plot and give some appearance of a ‘personality’ and failing.

Overall, I found this series to be a waste of time. Its only redeeming quality was the art and music. Moriarty the Patriot? More like Moriarty the Hypocrite and his murderous sycophants.

P.S. Shout out to that final scene, you the real Black Butler ripoff MVP.

If you're a fan of second degree watching and having a good laugh at a show, Yuukoku no Moriarty is this season's gem. After ing the first episodes, that are fairly good, the viewer will slowly descend into the dephts of stupidity.

As the antagonists become more and more of a caricature ( hilariously so), the protagonists' plots to take them down become dumber and dumber, and the whole world goes down following the series' fall from a period piece to a very badly written but outstandingly funny battle of bishonens, flexing their intelligence with close ups and mysterious looks, while delivering absolutely idiotic lines with ... the most serious tone.

The show's pretense to be intelligent and edgy is, in a sense, quite adorable, and gives you the same feeling as a preschooler trying to teach you about social inequalities. The series may still recover from this fall, but I personnaly doubt it, and will continue watching it ironically.

If you like dark humour and a good psychological thriller, this may be your kind of anime

Coming to this series, I thought it would be another generic Sherlock Holmes knock off that would portray Professor Moriarty as another horrible villain and Sherlock Holmes as the all good, embodiment of god with an otherworldly intellect. When I did watch it I was happy to see the change in pace, portraying Moriarty as a sympathetic villain with a point of view most people would actually be for. The beginning is dark, gritty and perfectly sets the tone for the anime. The OP is amazingly animated and the ... music complements it amazingly. I suggest people who liked the Psycho- series to give this anime a try. It has an interesting story and compelling characters.

{From the perspective of someone who has never read the Holmes’ series}

“Catch me if you can Mr. Holmes” - William James Moriarty

Unless you’ve been asleep during English class as I have or just have been living under a rock (again like me), you’ve definitely heard of Sherlock Holmes. But in case you actually don’t know who or what Sherlock Holmes is, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle published in 1892 featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes trying to correct social injustices by offering a new, fairer sense of justice, all written in the first-person narrative ... by Holmes’ counterpart Dr. Watson. These stories were very well received and are known today as the staple of great detective fiction.

So what’s this anime series’ relation to the original Boyle's Sherlock Holmes?

“Yuukoku no Moriarty,” or its English counterpart name “Moriarty the Patriot,” is nothing short of a love poem to the original Sherlock Holmes series. But instead of taking an approach we see in other Holmes-related media by adapting different stories from the original books or making non-canon stories around Holmes, it takes an original take on the Holmes franchise by adapting an already pre-existing story by making the villain, more specifically, William James Moriarty, the protagonist of the story.

Professor William James Moriarty is a criminal mastermind behind many of the evil that happens in London. Unlike many other Sherlock Holmes villains, he goes undetected because he is never in direct with any of his accomplices. Holmes even acknowledges Moriarty as his equal, and to quote Holmes in the novels, “he is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them.”

Even though Conan Doyle, the author of the original Sherlock Holmes series, managed to create such a potentially great and compelling villain to the franchise, Moriarty was left underutilized and only appeared in two chapters of the canon. But even in those two chapters, Moriarty made his mark on the Holmes franchise by proving himself to be the most dangerous criminal Holmes has ever encountered for his intelligence and cunning nature that was rivaled by only Holmes himself.

Under these circumstances, what does any avid Sherlock Holmes fan do with some writing and drawing talent? This anime series is the perfect answer to that question.

The series starts by introducing us to corrupt London,where the rich stay on top while the poor get gutted and exploited by those same rich people, and our antihero protagonist William. We begin to see William’s cunning wit when he acts as a consultant to the poor and rich, even as a child. His soon-to-be brother, Albert James Moriarty, notices him and chooses for William to be his new adoptive brother after his father asked him to choose an adopted child to gain a better reputation within the first class (you see where this is going?)
And because of this class divide, William gets mistreated by his new “family” , but eventually gets his revenge by enlisting the help of, and essentially manipulating, the remaining Moriarty brothers to burn their house for the exploitation and mistreatment of the lower classes.

Even though William did a terrible deed by murdering his adoptive family in cold blood, was his motivations wrong? That’s the question that’s brought up multiple times through the anime as he continues fighting for justice for the lower class soon, the main driving force for the climax of the two-cour series.

Although I do not want to address anything more because this anime is truly spectacular and new watchers should go in without much of what goes on, Production I.G does a near-flawless job of both being a perfect complement to the original tale and a great stand alone series by outlying and highlighting James Moriarty’s origins, motivations, and builds up perfectly to the climax of the story we will get in the second season: the clash between the wits of Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty. The production value also heightens the tension with the great action animation and moving shots along with unforgettable facial expressions; the theme colors of the backgrounds and characters blend in the dark red colors of cunning evil and the dark green glum of London, setting the story's tone perfectly.

And as someone who has never experienced the Holmes series himself minus a few movies, I can confidently say this is all I've ever wanted from a series like this. I will be eagerly waiting for its continuation in the spring, hungry for more.

I tried really hard to get into this show because it looked really cool, and I haven't seen anything Bishounen in a long, long time. I thought this would be a great way to get back into that scene, but honestly this show is just...it's a boring show. I can't really say it's a *bad* show, because I definitely didn't hate the 5 episodes I dredged through, but it's definitely not good. And that's a shame because it has the potential to really be a decent watch.

Lets start off with the story, the set up is pretty good. We are introduced to our main ... protagonist in the first episode, told his motivation in the second, and explored his backstory in the third. The pacing isn't terrible, and neither is the general premise. The real issue lies in the characters.

The characters are really flat, they're there but I've seen like a thousand other characters in other anime who have filled their predictable roles far better. Our protagonist, James Moriarty is every bit the suave, cool, calm, and collected genius you'd expect to see in a Sherlock Holmes anime. He's a pretty boy with a lot of money who has a penchant for getting back at the rich assholes of victorian society. That being said, he's incredibly boring as there's nothing really interesting about him as a person outside of his "We should just kill all the rich people' mentality.

his brothers are the same way, seeming more like backdrops to prop up his character than actual characters themselves. It's quite telling how boring they are given the only things we really learn about them as people, is how they managed to agree with Moriarity on his whole 'eat the rich' idealogy. I never made it to see Sherlock, so i don't know if he's a good character or not. I'm gonna go ahead and say he was probably not all that interesting judging by the countless other characters we met along the way.

The Art for this show is mediocre, it's nothing to right home about. The character designs, while good, are also kind of generic. There's a scene in the 5th episode in fact where Moriarty and his brothers are all just...wearing the exact same suit and there's no variation in style or color.

The sound design and the soundtrack are horribly misplaced, by which I mean they sound as if they've been composed for an entirely different anime. especially the ending song. It's a preppy edm jpop song that doesn't really mesh well with the dark tone of the show. Episode 2 showcases this well when it plays immediately after an incredibly tense scene. It was enough to break my suspense of the episode entirely when I first heard it. The sound design in the anime is also pretty generic to the point where I think they just ripped assets from some app and placed them in the appropriate spots.

There's nothing clever about it, nothing that makes it stand out like in other anime. It's standard, boring sound design of scenery.

My general enjoyment of the show was pretty low, especially since each episode is pretty much the same episode. This isn't necessarily a problem, but it became incredibly problematic for me because the characters are so fucking boring to watch. Each episode all the way up until the 8th is just this basic template:

Flashback to something terrible happening to some poor people

Moriarty goes to the place the bad thing happened, and learns about it through gossip or someone wanting to consult with him.

Moriarity meets with the rich asshole who did the bad thing to the poor people at the beginning of the episode

Moriarty kills the rich dude in some elaborate ass way that involves the poor people the rich dude hurt

happy scene with the poor people thanking him and his brothers, boom, end of episode, roll credits.

And it doesn't get better after that, it stays the same boring show all the way up until that point. I couldn't make it to episode 8 where Sherlock is supposedly introduced, but frankly I don't think I missed out on anything important. Give this a try if you like mediorcre boring pretty boy anime with awful 'Gotcha" moments by the oh so smart protagonist, and his lack luster brothers.

The only saving grace is that the guys were hot, but there are hotter men in anime, so even thats not really a reason to jump into this.

PLS READ IF WILLING TO WATCH THIS OR JUST TO CONSIDER MY REVIEW! ✓✓✓ (SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD)

Firstly i just want to asseverate how much i adored this anime. It verily fulfilled my expectations and ended in a nice cliff-hanger. Now let us get to the details, EP 1 firmly opens up and gives us a worrying case where there might be a lunatic who is infatuated to torment little children, lurking around. This rumour spreads and we are introduced to the main characters, James Moriarty William and his brother. Right after his introduction, I immediately knew that Moriarty was someone of high status and prestige, ... and was also knowledgeable. This was evaluation was proven correct right after he took the murder case on and meticulously and systematically, revealed the psychopathic killer. But what particularly piqued my interest is how he dealt with the killer. Instead of throwing the killer into law's arms, he had different plans and let the victim deal with the killer at their own hands, and one can conclude what obviously happens next - The killer is killed.

After the ending on ep 1 , i came up with an a reason as why Moriarty would do something so lenient. As the era is set in the 19th century, Noblemen were able to bail out of prison after paying a large sum of money. Moriarty must of realized just how sleazy and shoddy the law system is and therefore he removed it from the equation, so justice or even better, the bittersweet feeling of vengeance could be quenched, by the victim.
This then leads to Moriarty becoming a private crime consultant to victims of unlawful crimes.

Which leads on to one of the reasons for the thrill I enjoyed from this show and that is the logical deduction and decision making Moriarty carries out. It just builds up a nice tensity for each EP and is truly soothing to watch.

For the first part of This show, it's pretty much Moriarty bringing justice to fallen victims of deaths caused by wrongful people, and each of the included episodes has its own mystery and climax, creating a bloody and riveting atmosphere. This kept me active and not fall victim to ennui. However for the second part, Perchance, Moriarty, fell sick of the undying cruelty towards the lower class and less prestigious people. Thus leading to his master plan to perfectly stage deaths caused by aristocrat's, and to provoke a feeling of loathing to the country's class system. Hopefully, leading to it being eradicated so that everyone is venerated.

What's striking, is that a new character is revealed, which is Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is actually a likeable character, and has a sense of humour, tho he lacks the ability to make jokes. While on the other hand, Moriarty is a charismatic individual who gives you a cathartic experience every time you see him on screen, so trust me, you'll love him.

Initially, Moriarty and his comrades perceived him as a threat to his master plan, but Moriarty took advantage of his intellect and highly irable detective skills and used him as a puppet if you will. Essentially, he solves all the Aristocrat's crimes Moriarty s comes up with, to not only reveal the killer but to also reveal the twisted and wicked lives of these noblemen. In doing so to also persuade the general public to regard the victim just as guilty and nefarious as the killer.

Finally, after all this rambling, let's talk about the last two episodes. These two last Episodes particularly exude a minuscule battle of wits between, Moriarty and Holmes. This only aroused due to Holmes, almost imploring, Moriarty to a challenge, to see who could solve the murder mystery which happened on the train they were travelling, first. This turned out to be a slightly challenging event for Moriarty due to Holmes aptitude for solving crime cases. However, Moriarty was able to predict pretty much every move, action and decision Holmes with carrying out. Enabling him to connive something that would guarantee victory. This was proven to be rewarding for Moriarty as it all went according to his plan, so at the denouement of solving the case, Holmes gathered up all potential people who might be guilty of the murder, and then a certain individual was picked out of the group and was proven guilty due to the same feet size and also having demonic bloodstains on his hands. Despite this, he pleaded that the stain came originally from his alleged cut on his palm. All hope was lost as Holmes couldn't conjecture any more evidence to incriminate him. Having said that, Moriarty enters the scene by clearly pointing out a bloodstain that was found on his classes, then, of course, you can guess what happened next, JUSTICE PREVAILED in the hands of Moriarty. This caused Holmes to realize that he is a worthy rival to himself.

The Last EP then ends with an uncanny scene where two new characters are presented; The queen and another person with the name Holmes. The queen gives Holmes the right to do anything to get back some sort of confidential documentation that was purloined. This those arouse thoughts of whether this could be Holmes's brother and whether these documents are connected with Moriarty.

Anyways, that sums up my Subjective review and your free to ask any questions regarding the review or the anime by commenting on my profile. Also to note, this is my first time ever going in detail and depth into an anime, so it may have some flaws. BTW, if you're considering to watch this, I insist you do so and to obviously watch it with no negative thoughts regarding the anime. So that you might enjoy it better. Before I forget to mention, if you're wondering how the visuals, voice acting and animations are, to simply put it, its incredible and definitely worthy of applause.

Thank you and have a glorious day.

“I am profoundly disappointed in you” - H. Watson

* CONTAIN SPOILERS * (How you analyze something without giving some spoilers?)


Hello anime fans of all around the globe, what a terrible year this was, I’m just impressed of how everything just went worst and worst and worst. But this is not the time to shit on how this year was a disappointment, is time to say how Yuukoku no Moriarty was a disappointment.

First things first, this is NOT the first time someone’s re-imagined Moriarty as a hero (or more commonly, an antihero). Michael Kurland’s Professor Moriarty series of books comes to mind in the prose arena. ... For those who like a historical background, anime takes place in the late 19th century during the Victorian era, a time when parliamentarism provided an approximation between the social strata. Even so, the concentration of goods in the hands of a few, resulting in the oppression of workers. In this way, the anime deals with the huge economic and social inequality of English society, and that is where our protagonist, KIRA, I mean, Moriarty, comes in. Responsible for combating the injustices suffered by the "poor" while ing for the second son of an aristocratic family.

The first thing that strikes me is the anime's Moriarty compared to Doyle's Sherlock. The big difference between the two is due to the way they want to achieve their goals, Moriarty as said several times in the anime, will use whatever means are necessary (less to kill others himself, because he is a gentleman) while Sherlock despite having the same ideals, seeks justice "fairly". This difference could have been much more explored and valued especially after episode 9.

This is the second review I make for this anime, the first one, I had only watched the first 5 episodes, and until episode 8, it’s go the same way, Moriarty is fucking GOD and do the most brilliant crimes (without get his hands dirty), no one can resolve it and That’s it, The End, that’s Moriarty. For me that’s the first big problem with this, Sherlock just took to much time to make an appearance, and the cases that we should involve the telespectador, started to get boring, the same and the same thing over and over again, yes they change somethings but that’s it.

Episode 8 starts, everything changed, Sherlock gave this show everything, yes his is intelligent as Moriarty, but he’s a far better character than everyone in the show. Moriarty plays like the intelligent, cold blood and manipulator character (think everyone is just tired of this type of “person”), In contrast, Sherlock is extrovert and comic, in other words, his a human. Unfortunately, Sherlock was not enough to save this broken ship, a perfect example is the last case, how Moriarty “find the culprit” is fucking stupid.

I will continuing to follow the series with the second season and maybe give the manga a chance, but this first season is like Watson said “I am profoundly disappointed in you”, if you really want to get into Sherlock universe just read Doyle books, you will be impressed by the differences. This is quote, Another bad adaptation featuring the Sherlock universe, unquote.

tl;dr: A very strong premise that shows a lot of promise towards the beginning but is overall terrible executed.

*Note: This is a review of Part 1, Part 2, and the OVAs.*

Moriarty the Patriot is an anime that focuses on James Moriarty, the best known adversary of the renowned detective Sherlock Holmes. To be more precise, there’s a group of three brothers all of whom are James Moriarty and all of whom are focused on to a degree, but the deuteragonist is undoubtedly William James Moriarty. From the start, from the title even, it is clear that Moriarty won’t be portrayed as a villain, but rather ... as somewhat of an anti-hero who does what he does out of patriotism. More specifically, he wishes to improve Britain through eliminating the class divide and his plans to do so involve becoming the Lord of Crime infamous throughout London. As one would expect, this results in him getting into conflict with Holmes with the two becoming bitter rivals.

Except, that’s not really what it feels like at all. The writing seems to act like this has become the case at some point, but very little occurs to really establish as actually having happened. Sherlock Holmes and William James Moriarty having a complex relationship where Holmes wishes to discover the identity of the Lord of Crime while also having a begrudging respect for him, while also independently becoming friends with William I think is a fantastic set up. However, I feel the value in this set up isn’t in the destination but in the journey to get there. The writing in this seems to gloss over that completely with very little of the cat and mouse game I was expecting.

Based on what characters say, it can be assumed that there were likely many more mysteries involving the two that were never explicitly shown. However, skipping them feels like putting the cart before the horse. This was especially disastrous towards the final stretch of the second cour, wherein it seemed to be focused on hitting heavy emotional beats centered around the relationship between the two. But due to a lack of building up that relationship, these emotional beats, and the ending overall, simply doesn’t land at all.

Another area I feel the writing in this anime is surprisingly weak, is that for a story based on Sherlock Holmes there is a shocking lack of intelligence and wit. Most of Moriarty’s crimes aren’t all that intricate. The crimes that Holmes solves are somewhat better, though still not strong enough to hold up the show. The first cour is still pretty decent in this regard, but the second cour regresses significantly. Unfortunately, the second cour also has the cases that are much more significant, and thus the overall impression of the series feels much more rooted in the second cour than the first.

The primary example of that would be the finale of the second cour, wherein it finally gets to explaining what William’s plan is and why he needed to become the Lord of Crime. However, his plan is to put it simply completely and utterly juvenile. Speaking in vague so as to avoid spoilers, it basically comes down to nobles finding their conscious and becoming good people when faced with a major threat also facing the commoners. It is incredibly hard to believe that this happens to a degree significant to have an effect on the class divide. Especially as right up to that point, by which I mean literally right up to the preceding scene, nobles are portrayed as cartoon villains that see commoners as less human than themselves. Maybe if it was drawn out with better pacing than it could seem reasonable, but within the context that it occurs it felt laughably stupid.

I also felt that the writing had a very hard time with the source material it was using as it’s foundation. Of course no one should expect derivative works to stick to what they’re inspired by completely, as that would just be boring. However, I would still expect them to demonstrate a good understanding of the original work and to have deviations feel worthwhile. Here it felt more like it was only using broad and superficial elements of the stories of Sherlock Holmes, and thus I don’t think this anime has much value to those that are interested in it for it’s Sherlock Holmes related aspects. It’s portrayal of Victorian Britain was also off in a lot of regards so I don’t particularly think it has a lot of value for those interested in it for it’s historical setting either.

Still, it’s not like it’s all bad. The various cases may not be all that smart, but a lot of them are still pretty enjoyable. Seeing Moriarty take down spoiled nobles is pretty satisfying, and the stupider and more absurd it gets and more fun it is. The various other crazy stuff that happens during his plans such as shooting a coin to change the angle of the bullet, or using an automobile (in Victorian London) on what is supposed to be a covert mission, was hilarious. Sherlock is also a really amusing character, so that alone is enough to hold up a lot of the anime. The action was also pretty cool at times. The anime is at it’s best when it’s just doing it’s thing without caring at all about any overarching plot threads or character arcs. Though that unfortunately does mean that it’s highs aren’t all that high while it’s lows are really low.

The art is pretty good, especially the backgrounds, and animation is decent enough as well. The character designs I don’t really get though. They’re generally pretty boring. If they were historically accurate I would get it, but they don’t seem to be that strict on that regard. I feel there was definitely room for them to be more interesting. Both OPs were pretty great in of songs and visuals. I wasn’t all that fond of the visuals or songs of the EDs though. The soundtrack was decent enough but not particularly memorable.