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Reviewed by Michael Aronson “So you want to run your own detective agency, eh? Take it from Hisago, the manager of the Suehiro Detective Agency: it’s not easy. With no clientele there really isn’t much left to do. Watch how much trouble these guys get into as they deal with Shimeki’s strange affection for his dog, unsolved romantic bitterness and offering counseling to future would-be clients. This witty comedy takes the idea of cool detectives and turns it on its ear.” There isn’t much to a situational comedy if the situation isn’t interesting, and a detective agency is nothing new, but with strong yet wacky characters and offbeat mysteries to solve, 888 invents an amusing new spin on the formula. First off: these three “detectives” – Shimeki, Hisago and Nagi – just bicker around their office until some twist of fate brings a mystery to their door, which it usually doesn’t, in which case they’re resigned to fabricating their own. The solutions usually involve absurdly hilarious contrivances and unlikely coincidences of a melodramatic nature, such as Shimeki being held hostage by his ex-wife, or Hisago’s dad trying to set him up for a blind date. It all sounds trivial, but in the contest, the trivial becomes significant enough. It’s the characters and their running jokes that are the stars of the book. Nagi fantasizes about overly dramatic romantic situations interrupting her life, and when they finally do, she’s very much unprepared to deal with her fantasies. Shimeki is hopeless attached to the tiny dog he carries with him everywhere and asserts with a straight face that they two are soul mates. The humor is all well-timed and hardly gets old, and just when the formula gets a little tired, and new twist in thrown into the mix. Fans of Seinfeld know that a situational comedy about nothing can still be hilarious, and 888 often is. Plot and progression are nowhere to be found, but the humor more than compensates for them. Comment on this review of 888 v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
7 May 2008
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