Anime Review - Denpa-teki na Kanojo - Short But Sweet Thriller Stories

Thriller and mystery go hand in hand. When done right, masterpieces can be created, or at the very least, makes the audience completely engaged and itching to find out what will happen next. Denpa-teki na Kanojo attempted to do that, and I must say that it achieved that quite well. Despite being a OVA of two 42-minute episodes, it did well in engaging the audience in various mysteries.

Story (8/10):
Each episode had a main mystery, and I liked that. 39 minutes of actual anime was decent enough to solve a short story mystery. The first episode introduces the characters and it is quite funny to see the relationship between "master" Juu and Ame. We then plunge into these gruesome murders and the duo go straight into investigation. Despite being short, the twists were very well done. Denpa-teki na Kanojo utilised plot twists so well. Second episode is about the "happiness game", where people try to get happiness points, but the main message about this episode was "For one's happiness to be gained, another's happiness must be stolen.". The story is less mystery-oriented, but the idea is pretty messed up. The ending has a good "twist" but we kinda knew that the protagonist will not die like that. Too bad, this series is just way too short. I want more since it shows potential.

Characters (9/10):
The two main characters are very interesting too. You have Juusawa Juu, who looks like a delinquent but in reality, is just a normal, level-headed individual. Furthermore he is likable because he is confident and not weak to any forms of harassment or confrontations. You also have Ochibana Ame, who gives the Another Misaka vibe when she has her hair covering her eyes, but is cuter and way more bad-ass. We see this cute side when we see how she looks like (WOOOOO!!!). She is willing to protect Juusawa Juu with her life. With this duo, it seems any mystery can be resolved.

Even the side characters and antagonists are creepy in nature. Some of the culprits for the crime were unpredictable and I didn't find out who the culprit is until it is revealed. Much better compared to Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, where we find out the culprit 5 episodes into the anime. Furthermore, the antagonists have a valid backstory of why they are committing the crimes and some of them sympathize with the antagonists. If this anime had a full season, I can see Ochibana Ame being a prominent waifu.

Art (8/10):
The art is superb and we can see the studio put a lot of effort into this animation. The facial expressions are drawn to such realism and we feel a sense of uneasiness when it came to the situation. I think the best art were in Episode 2 of the OVAs where we see the dreaded and malicious expressions of Kanako (the glasses girl who we didn't predict to be also playing the "happiness game"). 

Sound (7/10):
The OP and ED are not that memorable, but the voice acting for characters are well done. Ochibana Ame has that Another Misaka vibe to it and the voice actor did well with the voice acting. Nothing much to add.

Enjoyment (9/10):
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this anime since it was only two 42-min episodes. The good thing about short anime is that they are usually almost no downtime, so we are always in the action, and this is incredibly important in a mystery anime.

Overall (8.5/10):
This is definitely an underrated mystery anime. I seen my fair share of good and bad mystery anime, and this is definitely way above average. The only reason I can think of, for the "low score on MAL"  is because the series was way too short and we didn't connect with the characters that well, as well if it was a 12-episode cour. Unfortunately, it looks like we may never get one for this series. If you are looking for a short mystery anime that is engaging with some plot twists and surprises, I would highly recommend this to you.