Cop Craft (2019)

[コップクラフト]

Director: Shin Itagaki
Studio: Millepensee
Starring: Kenjiro Tsuda, Mayu Yoshioka, Fumiko Orikasa
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
On an island where an interdimensional portal connects Earth and an alien world, a human detective is paired with a young Semanian knight to investigate the illegal trade of fairies.

Impressions:
So this is basically a Japanese version of Alien Nation playing up the tropes of American buddy cop films to the hilt, all from the brain of the man who gave us Full Metal Panic. (Original author Shouji Gatoh even acts as screenwriter for the series.) Oh, and the original character art is by Range Murata, though it only really shows in the adaptation with Tilarna. The premise drew me in right away. I was actually thinking to myself how it'd be nice to have a reverse isekai and that's what we get. I really like the dynamic between Kei and Tilarna, which is the main thing that kept me going. I wasn't expecting the more episodic nature of the story, though it all ties in to the overarching storyline. The biggest ding is that the budget was heavily front-loaded in the first couple episodes and the production values drop significantly after that. However, this is from the same studio that gave us the execrable 2016 version of Berserk, so I guess we should be happy it's not as bad as that. If the characters and story click with you, you can overlook the dip in the visuals. I enjoyed this quite a bit and readily encourage you to give it a watch.

Rating:
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