Tantei Opera Milky Holmes Half-Season Review

The best show you’re not watching this season.

But I wouldn’t blame you for not being terribly aware of it – for all intents and purposes, the thing looked like some truly uninspired moe-bait when it was first announced and even as its promos started airing. I would actually go so far as to question the promos that I saw for not highlighting the fact that Milky Holmes is anything but throwaway moe tripe. Because the two words that come most readily to mind when I think of Milky Holmes are ‘weird’ and ‘subversive’.

Its hard to exactly describe Milky Holmes without it just sounding silly – in some parallel world, it is the Golden Age of Detectives… and Gentlemen Thieves (who are of both sexes). Some people have these superhuman abilities known as ‘Toys’, which has brought about this era. In the middle of all of this is a group of four girls known as Milky Holmes, who attend an academy which trains young people to be detectives. Milky Holmes are the stars of the school, but are quickly brought low, as their Toys disappear mysteriously in the first episode. They then begin their quest to re-find their Toys… sort of. And then they are made to move into the attic of the school and threatened with expulsion.

This sounds pretty dull. But it fails to capture the sheer absurdity of the whole thing. The girls are Milky Holmes are the most braindead characters you will ever meet – and, no, its not played for cuteness, either. Their stupidity gets them into crappy situations and causes both themselves and others harm. Even their damn cat is smarter than they are.

Probably the best indicator of how strange this show sometimes gets is in the antics of one of the villains, Twenty (pictured above), who moonlights as one of the teachers at the detective academy, Nijuuri-sensei. His nipples get hard. He never wears a shirt with his suit when he teaches. He’s interrupted while on a date with a dakikamura… of himself. He refers to himself as ‘beautiful me’. If he graces the screen, its a fair assumption that things are about to get funnier and more demented, fast.

…y’know, actually, I think the above screen-shot kind of says it all, doesn’t it? For further context: that is Twenty being attacked by two other villains, Mary and Kate (yes, really) (and they happen to be Haruka and Michiru look-alikes), whose special powers are apparently… turning people on and getting them off so they can’t counter-attack.

Moving along: Honestly, though, no one, myself included, can put it as well as Landon already has. At the same time, though, it is also very much possible to watch this as a disposable comedy, and you certainly won’t feel as though you’ve wasted your time in doing so.

Quite frankly, I’m even willing to go out on a limb and say that Milky Holmes is one of the best shows this season. This season has actually had several pretty solid shows thus far, so this is really saying something. I’d even go so far as to say its better than Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Milky Holmes is much more subtle than P&S w/G, and much funnier, in large part as a result. P&S w/G definitely trounces Milky Holmes when it comes to animation and artistry, and I consider it one of the better shows this season as well, but Milky Holmes is much more unexpected, its satire harder hitting.

So, if you haven’t checked it out yet, I strongly recommend giving at least the first two or three episodes a go. Its streaming on Crunchyroll, and if you’re willing to be a week behind on the episodes, its free.