Synopsis
Police in a Pod follows Mai Kawai, a police officer that has grown increasingly disgruntled and disappointed with her job. Kawai decides to throw in the towel and is about to turn in her resignation only a few months into her work when Seiko Fuji, a star member of the Criminal Affairs Division, enters their precinct and becomes her new mentor and partner.
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Review
Story
The premise and concept of Police in a Pod is extremely unique, and I believe is the strongest point of the show. It provides a glimpse into the lives of police offers and the various struggles that they face while serving the people. With the author having served 10 years in the police force as a female officer, Police in a Pod serves as her way of shining a light on the field.
Personally, I found this fascinating as you’re able to see the inner workings of what goes in behind the work of police officers. What I loved most are the serious and often heart-wrenching and heart-warming themes and topics that are tackled throughout each episode. For that alone, I really appreciated this show despite maybe having some episodes that do not measure up to the better episodes throughout the season.
Art & Sound
Police in a Pod boasts an old school and seemingly hand-drawn art style. I find it unique and definitely eye catching especially with the characters. The characters are well-designed with heavy focus on their eyes and I really liked their various expressions throughout the show.
It also has decent action sequences as expected from Madhouse. However, the art style stands out a bit too much for me. It includes heavy outlines on the characters and there are some frames that the contrast between the characters models and the background is just too noticeable that it makes it look as if the characters were cut from a magazine and pasted onto a canvas; something that I was not very fond of and grew extremely noticeable. The music is alright, I guess. Nothing really stood out to me too much.
Characters
The characters didn’t feel too special to me. What I liked most was the dynamic between Kawai and Fuji as mentor and mentee but also as friends. Supporting characters bring a nice added layer of development and interaction among the characters which was appreciated.
Overall, the characters are all very likeable, and it is nice seeing how they have certain specialties which is necessary for a successful team. One thing I felt could have been improved on was the pacing of Kawai’s growth as an officer. I felt that throughout the season there were limited moments where in she was able to exhibit her growth in competence as an officer.
Often she would just learn a thing or two by the end of the episode from her seniors, but isn’t really able to apply any of it until the final arc with the big special investigation. I would have liked to see her showcase her growth and development more gradually throughout the season to give us viewers something more to cheer for.
Enjoyment
Okay, listen, I want to like this show, I really do. From its unique premise and art style to its characters, I really wanted to. BUT, it can be very hard to watch and extremely boring at times. Police in a Pod has some great episodes and moments that can be extremely touching, sometimes eye-opening, and great comedic moments and those are the highest points when watching this show.
However, there are more times that it is just a slog to watch and is barely entertaining at all. Maybe it’s just me, but I found many parts quite boring. I actually stopped following it weekly after Episode 5 because it simply didn’t excite me and I had nothing to look forward to anymore. When all the episodes finished airing, I decided to finish it just for the sake of it, and it was still tough to get through at times.
Overall
Police in a Pod has an excellent and unique premise with how it looks to shine a light on the lives of police officers and specifically the challenges of female officers in the field. It has a unique art style that I do appreciate but is personally not for me, but I definitely see the appeal it may have for others.
The show tackles serious themes and has flashes of good comedic moments, but ultimately lacks excitement and enjoyability when watching it. Personally, I don’t know if this would be a show to recommend as it does get extremely boring, but it does have a great and meaningful premise with good moments sprinkled throughout the season.
