hi Judgement this is my anime review contest entry for winter 2020
GREAT PRETENDER
WARNING: Parts of this review contain spoilers for the Great Pretender Anime
Synopsis
Japanese swindler Edamura Makoto ("Edamame") prides himself on his prowess as the best swindler in Japan. However, when he bumps into an unwitting tourist in the street, he realises there's more to the world of scamming than he thought. The show follows Edamame's adventures as a "confidence man". Is this the life he dreamed of, or will he find himself dissatisfied?
Characters
Some of Great Pretender's most outstanding work comes from the use of its small, but incredibly well fleshed-out cast. Including Edamame, we have a cast of four characters that make up the main group. There's Abigail, the "tough girl" of the group who excels at anything athletic or physical, Cynthia, the "femme fatale" whose good looks, foxy charm and acting ability allow her to manipulate even the coldest of people, and Laurent, the charming leader of the group who seems to always be one step ahead somehow. Each of these characters has an incredibly deep, well thought-out backstory that explains the way that they act and react in every situation, and we see them confront and overcome the more painful aspects of their past through their work. They're all more experienced and competent than Edamame, and remind him of constantly, almost treating him as the baby of the group. Despite the group's constant bickering and teasing, they all care deeply for each other. There's a "dysfunctional family" dynamic to this group that's reminiscent of other more "mature" anime - I personally got very big Cowboy Bebop vibes from the group's chemistry.
The supporting cast members and flashback characters all serve to complement the group's dynamic, supporting the main four both in their wild schemes and in being more "stable" in comparison to their dysfunctional chaos. The antagonists also have compelling tales of their own, and even though we're rooting against them heavily because they're most definitely terrible people, we do gain a lot of insight into who they are and why they act the way they do. All in all, the cast is well developed and likeable, with no noticeably "weak" characters.
Plot
Great Pretender revolves around four main schemes (referred to as cases). Cases 1-3 are all 4-5 episodes long, with Case 4 being 8 episodes. Whilst the details, location and characters involved in each scheme vary greatly, the actual "structure" of each case is very much the same.
> Laurent ropes Edamame into a scheme
> Edamame relucantly plays along when he finds out the mark is a douche
> Scheme (with twists, turns and character backstory included)
The cases being structurally similar isn't a complaint at all - it's a commonly used thing in anime/manga storytelling (look at how One Piece tends to set up its arcs, for example) and in this case, it works. Each case becomes more grandiose and complex than the one before, with some incredibly elaborate and clever plans being concieved and executed over the course of the series. One of the fun parts about each of the cases is that rather than being generic plans, each plan makes the best use of each team member's skills at each phase. They also feel very co-ordinated - whilst one character is doing their part, you know that the others are putting their pieces in place as well. Overall, they're very cohesively written and entertaining to watch from start to finish.
However, the best storytelling comes from the characters' backstories. Abigail, Cynthia and Laurent all recieve lengthly flashbacks that show what they used to be before they became con(wo)men. Each backstory is filled with emotional moments, and their stories are incredibly reflective of the person we see in the "present". Great Pretender explores universal themes such as love, loss and disappointment in very meaningful ways, and manages to present them from a different angle for each character. This is where I think the show goes from being about fun schemes and such to a story about four broken individuals who find a home with one another.
I do have one criticism of the plot as a whole, but it's going to be VERY spoiler heavy so please do not open this next spoiler tag unless you've finished the anime.
The biggest issue I have with Great Pretender is that, even as the stakes raise and the audacity of each plan increases, the tension decreases with each case, and it's especially noticeable in the last case when we finish getting Laurent and Seiji's backstory. By the end, it turns out literally every part of this anime was part of a long con, which is impressive, but it takes a lot of sting out of the final moments and the attempted "twist", where Edamame seemingly goes rogue. When it's all a con, the attempted twist doesn't work at all. Especially when you end the first case with Laurent and Abbie supposedly "dying", it's very difficult to recreate that suspense.
Basically, it's all a con and part of me feels like I've been conned as well in the end. This is the sole criticism I have of this show, but unfortunately it took a lot of enjoyment out of the show for me.
PS - if you want to discuss this in the thread, please put it in spoiler tags too. Thanks!
Art, Animation, Music and Voice Acting
Let me just say this very quickly: Great Pretender is incredibly #aesthetic. The use of more pastel-y colours (similar to Promare in places, if you've ever watched that) and more "cartoony" character models gives it a very loose, fun feel from an artistic standpoint - and that complements the overall tone of the story very well. Even though the show gets heavy in places, it's meant to be fun and quirky, and the art reflects that. Similarly, the animation also reflects this style - with character facial expressions being very lively and animated. The other thing that I think is very impressive is the authenticity to each of the locations used for the major schemes - L.A., Singapore, London and Japan. Whilst I can't comment as much on L.A. and Japan, I can comment on London (being a British fella) and Singapore (I have been there, albeit a long time ago) being very authentic and true to the real place. I would assume the same can be said for the other places based on that.
The soundtrack is also very fun, with a lot of jazzy numbers. From the brash confidence of the horns in the main theme, to some of the more sentimental piano-led ballads, it feels very grand and "Hollywood", which fits the nature and tone of the show perfectly. Again using Cowboy Bebop as a point of reference, it's like Cowboy Bebop without the broodiness. A comment on an OST video on YouTube likens it to Lupin III, but I haven't watched that or listened to the soundtrack so I can't comment. If you like playful jazz, you'll like this soundtrack.
When I review shows I don't usually talk about the voice acting, because I rarely find it noticeably excellent or bad, but for this show I have to say it's very impressive because of how the show treats its "global" aspect. Each of these characters is from a different place - Edamame is Japanese, Laurent is Belgian (seemingly the French speaking region), Cynthia is English and Abigail is (I believe) Iraqi. Because of the international nature of the group, they use English as their common language. Great Pretender emphasises this at multiple points - the first half of Episode 1 is mostly in English (with a handy note on screen saying that all dialogue is being translated to Japanese), and the group constantly mock Edamame's heavy accent when he speaks English (and Edamame references this on several occasions). However, during certain character interactions during location changes, we hear a lot of English being used, and we also hear bits of French and Mandarin Chinese being spoken.
The way this show uses language is incredibly unique from an anime, and from what I can tell from my decent knowledge of French and rudimentary knowledge of Mandarin, all the languages are being spoken very well (not just the English). The clarification of what language is being used at each point combined with the show's confidence in its voice actors to deliver strong performances in multiple languages adds a lot of richness to the show in my opinion. Compared to another globe-trotting anime I've watched, JoJo's Stardust Crusaders part, where they don't really discuss what languages the very international main cast use when speaking to each other and just speak in Japanese without any real clarification, this fearlessness with using different languages makes a much more satisfying watch.
Do I Recommend?
To put it bluntly, yes.
If you generally enjoy shows about people working outside the law, anime or otherwise, and you like your adventure stories to have a more mature edge to them, then Great Pretender is definitely the show for you. It offers a lot of very fun, quirky charm, and the experience I got from watching it was very unique out of the dozens of anime I've watched over the years. If I could describe it in the context of other anime, it's like Cowboy Bebop's character work, mixed with Kakegurui's love for high stakes, mixed with the vibe I imagine Lupin III has, based off its synopsis (and the fact it's about a thief, lol).
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