Anime Review: The Casefiles of Jeweller Richard Episode 1

The Casefiles of Jeweller Richard

Studio: Shuka

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Streaming: Crunchyroll

“The history of jewels is one of fraud and theft.”

For Nakata Seiji, helping others has always come naturally to him – his name ‘Seiji’ even means ‘hero of justice’. Therefore when he sees a young foreigner being harassed in the street he runs to his aid – this person turns out to be called the rather ridiculous name of Richard Ranashinha de Vulian and he reveals himself to be a jewel appraiser. It isn’t long after this meeting that Seiji seeks out Richard again for his help in revealing the history behind a pink sapphire ring which has haunted his family for decades and together the two uncover it’s past.

The Casefiles of Jeweller Richard is more of a thoughtful drama so far in this first episode then it is a mystery. Whilst the story was stand-alone and points towards a more episode nature for this anime, it was surprisingly deep and complex. This first episode, however, suffers from slow pacing and indeed feels more like an episode about the characters than an actual mystery. The characters introduced so far have been interesting but the most depth has been shown so far in Seiji and his grandmother – Richard himself, remains something of a blank slate at current. This is an anime originally based on a series of novels and perhaps this is where the slow pacing comes from – in a novel there is much more scope for the rumination of the character’s thoughts but this seems to be only touched on briefly in the episode.

The character designs are fairly attractive but the rest of the animation is rather standard, particularly within the opening and ending sequences which feature a jarring overload of flying gemstones. This is more of an introspective, quiet anime than the others this season and may fall under the radar for the casual watcher – still, what story there is so far is told well and the mystery concerning the ring and Seiji’s grandmother is quite original. Despite this, however, it feels like an anime that would be easy to forget about once watched – there’s nothing particularly striking or memorable so far which is a bad sign in a season stacked with so many other series.

However, if you’re someone that likes character dramas and a series a little different from the mainstream, then it would be worth checking this one out.