Fuuto Tantei 風都探偵
Synopsis
Fuuto PI is about Shoutarou Hidari, a hard-boiled private investigator from the Narumi Detective Agency, lives for the sake of protecting the peace in the city of Fuuto alongside his inquisitive partner, Philip. One fine night, Shoutarou encounters a mysterious woman named Tokime, who is soon linked to several cases of homicide and theft. Shoutarou’s investigation leads him to people using “Gaia Memories”—memory units similar to thumb drives holding vast amounts of data—to turn into formidable beasts called “Dopants.” While the majority of Gaia users were put down by the detective team in the past, a number of them still remain, posing a great threat to public safety.
Once more, Shoutarou and Philip, Gaia users on the side of justice, must fight as Kamen Rider W—the renowned hero safeguarding Fuuto—to eradicate the nest of villainous Dopants, all while uncovering Tokime’s true identity and confronting the long-forgotten past.
Review
Tokime Simping Simulator.
Before we get into the review I’d just like to clarify that although I know of Kamen Rider, I don’t know everything there is to know about the franchise, in fact I know very little. This is a review of someone who went into “Fuuto PI” blind.
“Fuuto PI” is the story of two private investigators protecting the city Fuuto from scum and villainy. On the service Shoutarou and his partner Philip are detectives, but when ‘Gaia Memories” are involved -a usb memory stick like devices that turn people into monsters called ‘Dopants’- they combine (literally) into the left and right halves of the cities hero, Kamen Rider W. Using the Gaia Memories for justice the two of them set out to rid the city of Dopants and uncover the mysteries behind “Shadow Fuuto” and the true identity of their smoking hot assistant and literal simp magnet, Tokime.
Now if you’re like me and went into the first episode without any prior knowledge or context of Kamen Rider W then you’ll probably spend most of your time being very confused. It feels like the show was made for those with prior knowledge in mind and it will not hold the hands of newcomers to help get them up to speed. That’s unfortunate, however once you start to get accustomed to the admittedly bizarre and sometimes confusing world building the show is strong enough to carry itself as it’s own wacky superhero thing.
This is thanks to it’s strong story direction, the loveably quirky cast of the Narumi Detective Agency, the fun side characters and deliciously over-the-top villains as well as it’s stunningly good looking art and animation. Studio Kai did a fantastic job capturing the L.A Noire mood of the city along with the amazing OST, and they brought the characters to life without compromising the manga’s original art style. The members of the Narumi Detective Agency are all odd in their own ways, but together they have great character chemistry and the great voice acting really helps brings out the shows great sense of humour.
The dopants designs are all very weird and unique with interest powers such as controlling bugs, becoming nuclear reactors and just literally the power of being drunk, and it’s fun to watch the team fight them whilst uncovering the cases around them.
I really enjoyed “Fuuto PI”. It’s unfortunate that the lack of context about it’s world building and characters will hamper some viewers enjoyment at the beginning, and their is a villain who shows off how evil he is by make Tokime take off her clothes which yes, only happens once, but it was very jarring and it is always a classless and tacky writing trick to create tension. However, the more you watch the more the context blanks get filled in and by episode 12 the story feels much more fulfilling. Also I don’t know any other show where a mans super power is to literally turn in a motor bike and thats awesome.
Also I 100% simp for Tokime and the animators clearly do too… and so will you after you’ve watched “Fuuto PI”.
