Tantei Gakuen Q

Tantei Gakuen Q is pretty much just another detective show with fairly interesting mysteries for all the detective addicts to get high on. Based on the manga by Seimaru Amagi and Fumiya Satou, Tantei Gakuen Q is about the young Kyuu, who is talented at deduction and reasoning. He eventually enrolls into the famed Dan Detective School, a specialist school that train students into detectives. He befriends a number of the other students in the school, each with their own specific talents. Together their group tackles a number of mysteries and crimes that occur.

Tantei Gakuen Q is episodic, with each episode mostly focusing on different ... crimes that occur around Kyuu and his friends. There are a number of multi-episode mysteries in the show, which in my opinion are much more interesting, witty and detailed compared to the one-shot mysteries. Majority of the mysteries are fun to watch, with some crimes containing tricks that are incredibly complicated. Occasionally the story may drift to cheesiness, and certain parts may be quite predictable. A plotline runs throughout the entire series, although the main focus of the show is still on the specific crimes in each case. The ending of the anime, unfortunately, is rather unsatisfying, with the previously mentioned main plotline finishing off rather unresolved.

The animation is rather plain, and contains nothing special. Occasionally, characters may appear disfigured, but with the focus of the viewer on the mysteries occurring in the show, animation is most likely the last thing on everyone’s minds. Character designs are simple and more or less unappealing. It is a wonder with the logical nature of this show why the main character has green and white hair (even as a child).

For the sound, voice acting is satisfying. No character really stands out with an incredible voice actor although you may find one or two characters with a VA that you would rather not have to listen to. The background music is rather enjoyable to listen to, if not overused in the show. You’ll most likely not complain if you like it enough that you wouldn’t mind the same piece to be played over and over again. The openings and endings are rather unmemorable. Especially with the cliffhanger endings in the show, a lot of people would probably rather skip through the opening if they could. With that said, the openings and endings are not bad per se, and I find the first opening to be excellent.

Characters are not really the strongest point in the show. Character development is near non-existent, from the beginning to the very end; characters more or less still act the same (with an exception of a few individuals). Each of the main characters have their own specific traits and talents, and help out in each of the cases using these traits. The teachers in the show are hardly ever seen, and are pretty much forgettable. The criminals are rather generic, with their weak revenge driven hearts, anger, greed, selfishness or tragic upbringings or events that lead them to do their crimes.

As for why I like Tantei Gakuen Q, the tricks used in the show were fascinating. I did not really care much for any other aspect of the show; the mystery was pretty much the only thing I found really going for it. The drama in the show was frankly rather annoying and cheesy to watch most of the time. I also wish the show wasn’t aimed at kids.

Overall, Tantei Gakuen Q is pretty much an anime that the mystery and detective lovers would probably like the most. It doesn’t have much else going for it except for the specific stories in each of the cases. If you would like to give your deduction skills a try, go ahead and watch Tantei Gakuen Q. All hints are always given and fully explained in the show. Be warned though, some of the tricks are complicated and not exactly the sort of thing an average person is going to suddenly think up.

If you're a mystery maniac or just looking for an entertaining series to watch, you can't go wrong with this one. Although the age of the characters belies the depth of each case, its a good plot for anyone who once and still wishes to be like sherlock holmes, nancy drew, etc. Imagine a school that actually develops one's deduction skills at a very young age. The graphics could use a bit more improvement, but nevertheless the cases are varied -- ranging from light to crimes that leaves you feeling regret and pity for the characters involved. There are plenty of funny scenes, and suspense ... especially when the good detectives meets with the antagonists. The ending's a bit lacking, since there are no final results on the crime group that the detective school are fighting against, and there's no closure either on one of the character's story. All in all, the main attraction for this anime is the interesting cases the students solves, and how they came up with the results behind it.

A vary generic detective anime series, this doesn't mean it's a bad series it just isn't in the same level as more prolific and popular series like Meitantei Conan.
The story has its highlights sometimes mainly when explaining the mysteries of the crimes.
But what gets down pretty fast the series is that is manly made of clichés and stereotypes and abuses of them making both the story and characters not believable enough and very predictable.
Taking into account this it means that there's only the character introduction and almost no development or evolution of them sticking to their stereotypes.
The only thing that keeps interesting the stories in ... each episode are the mystery solving itself, when they're well thought, because there are some cases where the crimes are so predictable that end up being very obvious and some are so complicated that end up being unrealistic to be possible to be made by the culprit.
At some point one could end up predicting each episode evolution and character reactions almost like expecting them to do their thing at some given moment and that becomes irritating sometimes because one ends up annoyed by some sequences that repeat each episode.

Yhe sound and music are adequate for the series using the common stock sounds in general for anime series, the songs are fine but not good enough remember them.

The animation is well made with fine character designs but nothing that could stand out or make different this series from many others of the time maybe a little too colorful for a detective series.

The characters are the weakest point in this series ranging from the female characters that end up only supporting the male protagonists passing through the genius nerd kid, the athletic and impulsive guy to the smart protagonists that lack a lot of personality and aren't likeable enough.

As conclusion the series isn't bad but mainly recommended more for kids and persons that had never seen detective series before because for people that have watched a lot of anime and detective series this will end up being a tedious series.