#215: Debutante Detective Corps (1996)

 

Director: Akiyuki Simbo

Screenplay: Juzo Mutsuki

Voice Cast: Natsumi Yanase as Yoko Ryuuzaki; Rumi Kasahara as Nina Kirov; Sakura Tange as Reika Shuu; Shiho Niiyama as Kimiko Ayanokouji; Yuko Nagashima as Miyuki Ayanokouji; Toru Furuya as Nomura Keiji

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

[Some Major Spoilers Throughout]

Among the many obscure straight-to-video titles I have encountered in anime, many I stumble on feel like pilots for programmes that never came to be, here digging into the obscure VHS era of ADV Films too, who would start releasing titles in the United Kingdom on tape in the nineties as much as the USA. This has the added touch that it also had a video game, for the PC-FX, a 32-bit home video game console developed by NEC and Hudson Soft. It was released in 1994 and discontinued in February 1998, the game for this anime a maze puzzle game where, with this anime's leads those you need to avoid, you play a thief trying to steal valuable objects¹.

This OVA however has a bigger twist to it, that this marks an early title of Akiyuki Simbo in the director's seat. Long before he cemented himself, he worked on titles like this or Twilight of the Dark Master (1997). By the time he gains greater recognition for his distinct auteur touches, he hit it out of the part with Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011), the bleaker subversion of the magical girl genre which many after have tried to replicate afterwards, and the long and prolific Monogatari series (2009–2018), one between one-offs to series which feels like a dimension and a fandom in itself.

By itself, Debutante would have been a fascinating slapstick work by itself, starting with the introduction of the leads, almost all crashing through the doors (and walls) of their school campus on the introduction day. Miyuki Ayanokouji, a mechanical expert, on a motorbike; Yoko Ryuuzaki, a master of disguise; Nina Kirov, a Russian born figure, dropping in by her own attack helicopter, and letting it crash when she ejects in the air; Reika Shuu, a Chinese martial arts expert; and Kimiko Ayanokouji, more gracefully but frivolous in hiring the entire police force to take her to school, the sister of Miyuki who claims to be a powerful psychic. They all come from rich and powerful families - one dubious touch, merely a minor detail which did not need to be included, is that Yoko Ryuuzaki has Adolf Hitler as an ancestor - all of which is documented in text which the ADV Film's video release subtitled.  

It is ultimately revealed, as an oblivious goofball, that Kimiko has hired men to help bond them as a detective squad in a "fake" threat on their lives, but these women can handle themselves. Debutante.... is a goofy action comedy, where logic can be thrown out of the window for a gag, one where you have a simple premise for one episode which could have been a whole series. The archetypes, following a trend of all female groups who became central to anime titles, is that everyone expresses a stereotype, and in mind that some of the best can flesh these characters out fully over a length, this even as a silly comedy had enough to work with.

Miyuki as the most grounded, dumbfounded by her sister's oblivious hubris, someone with real psychic power but, with a promo shot of her bending spoons, is a prat. Yuko is literally chameleonic, a meek bespectacled young woman able to change her voice and, with equipment, can even become a middle aged and larger male policeman. Add to this the stoic Nina and Reika, as the clumsy fighter who yet becomes super powered when she takes the arm weights she has on off, and the work is pretty standard but a worthy beginning. Almost any story can be stretched into something special, and this sets up what type of premise this could have taken, with three mercenaries sent after them. Helping this as well in tone is that there is also the loose reality at play, as one of those mercenaries is able to grow into a towering fighting monolith the size of a building. The slippery logic of physicality, deliberate, does work well.

You cannot really say this shows Akiyuki Simbo's directorial style for the future, except for the future knowledge that, known for his idiosyncratic compositions of scenes and art styles, OVAs like this would have let him hone this visual side in a variety of different genres. With character designs by Miyabi Kizaki and Shinji Ochi, this looks of a different time, with really big eyes and exaggerated colour choices which feel exaggerated as well to a virtue. Beyond this, there is not a lot else to add, as at thirty minutes, this is just longer than a traditional first episode. Nothing is particularly adult - a shower scene comes with nothing but a very weird cut, for a weird moment, of a faked murder scene with gore as a warning to the leads. Considering Kimiko is the one behind this, it makes sense, but alongside Yoko's ability to literally change gender and shape with her disguises, able to "break" her vocal cords to the right tone, and you have with Debutante Detective Corps a premise with its surreal tone you could work with. That it did not adds to the curiosity, a forgotten piece where, ironically, it is less the director who stands out but the general production altogether.

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1) This is referred to from One Controller Port, with Ojousama Sousamou – PC-FX English Guide, an introduction from September 15th 2021 to help anyone who cannot speak Japanese if they fancied playing that video game adaptation.