Robot Detective - Episode 1 - "The Murderous Salesman of BAD"
Before I talk about the episode or go into my thoughts on how everything works as an introduction, I need to point out the opening. Before you even get the title card, The Joker - Detective K's gimmick vehicle - swings around in a wide circle, giving you a great view of the thing. He gets out of The Joker wearing quite possibly the goofiest Showa era costume I've ever seen, and stares valiantly forward as the title appears from his eye's light beams. Then the music kicks in, and oh my god is it catchy. The percussion, the "waa waa waa" synth sound, the grand violins. It all builds into a wonderful crescendo. Meanwhile the footage in the background is so dim that you can barely make out what's going on.
This is why I love Showa era stuff. This blend of grandiose superhero bullshit and (in the nicest way possible) cinematic incompetence makes these shows feel so earnest.
The actual episode begins with a bit of a slow burn. We see a man named Kuroda exit a prison, wonder where his old accomplices are, before hopping into a car that pulls up in front of him. Inside, a mysterious figure tells him that his accomplices from a previous heist - Okazaki and Date - have given up on him. The two are gonna split the fortune they stole, a grand total of one billion yen (roughly $20,000,000 USD in 2025), and leave Kuroda out of the deal. The man in the car offers Kuroda a new deal - if Kuroda forms a "murder contract" with him, he'll kill Kuroda's accomplices and the two of them can split the money instead. He hands Kuroda a contract with a skull on it, and Kuroda accepts (the eyes and nose of the skull spelling out "BAD" is a really cute touch).
We cut to Okazaki pacing in his apartment. It's a minute to midnight - the moment he was told he would die - and Kuroda is threatening him over the phone. Okazaki refuses to tell him where the treasure is, and says that if he's gonna do something, to do it now.
Outside, we find two police officers listening in on the phone call; Detective Shiba and Officer Shinjo. Shinjo decides to sneak closer to the apartment and keep watch on the only entrance while Shiba waits in the squad car for further info. We cut back to Okazaki having a freak out in his apartment. He grabs a gun from under the table, and waves it around while laughing about how he's alive and well. The phone rings, and Okazaki runs to pick it up. He starts shouting at Kuroda, taunting him over his failed assassination. All while little silver discs slide into his room from a vent above his bed.
I do feel like it's worth mentioning that this show is really dark at times. The murder is supposed to take place at midnight, and so every shot of the police in the car is actually filmed at night with nothing but dim front lighting. And every shot of Okazaki pacing around in his room has him lit harshly from the back. I can't even get any good screenshots of the guy to put in this article, because every frame is either too dark to see him or too crushed by the 480p copy of the show I'm watching. And this is going to be a constant issue throughout this first episode. Anything shot outdoors during the day is going to be fine, but most night and interior shots feel really crushed by shadows. It's likely an intentional choice - "Robot Detective" has a darker noir-lite theming to it - but it really doesn't work in the show's favor.
But immediately following this we get introduced to the main villain of the episode, Wakkaman! And god does he make a really good first impression.
Wakkaman's big gimmick is that he's a pile of...magnets? I don't think they actually explain what he is. But he's made of a bunch of thin silver discs stacked together with a single big spike on his hand. And he can fuse and separate his discs at will, slipping into a bedroom through a vent one disc at a time, or disassembling and reassembling himself in the middle of a fight. I've gotta admit, I was blown away by this guy. With most of my Showa era tokusatsu experience being the first two years of Kamen Rider 1971, I'm used to most monsters-of-the-week being solely "guy who punches really good." You'd get the occasional snake arm or flashing light now and again, but most of the Shocker cyborgs feels pretty same-y.
Compared to them, Wakkaman sticks out like a diamond in the rough. And while we've yet to see Detective K, the two of them do an excellent job at establishing "Robot Detective's" tone right off the bat.
Oh yeah, Okazaki. Uh, he's not doing too great.
Okazaki fires off a few shots of his pistol before Wakkaman kills him (off-screen, unfortunately). Officer Shinjo hears the commotion and runs to the front door, knocking for Okazaki to open it up. Busting it open (with Detective Shiba somehow there too?) the two find Okazaki dead and the apartment empty. The window leads to a fifteen meter drop, and every entryway is shut tight. It's a locked room murder. For the characters, anyways. Officer Shinjo says he's going to contact the forensics department, before a mysterious shadow in the doorway tells him that won't be necessary.
Detective Shiba holds the figure at gunpoint while Shinjo pats him down, remarking on his sturdy body. Shinjo finds a police ID, and the two apologize for the hold-up. They invite him in. And as he steps into the dim apartment light, we get our first look at the one and only Detective K!
Detective K has such a striking design. I originally thought he looked endearingly goofy, but the more I look at him, the more I think he's just genuinely well designed. The bright yellow beret and the blinding red jacket are so cartoonish and strange that it ends up adding to this otherworldly, alien quality of his. It's an outfit only a robot would think of wearing. And the robot itself looks great, not only do the cool blue tones of his skin compliment the rest of his outfit, but they make the limited detailing on his face really pop. The crimson nose and eye marks, paired with the angular yellow eyes give his face a wonderful sense of focus. And the eye slots, tucked between his eyes and nose, are fairly well hidden. Easily obscured by shadow or outshined by the rest of his features. Gone are the days of the huge eye gashes like those on Kamen Rider Ichigo.
His mannerisms also set him apart. Detective K carries himself with a formal stiffness. In conversations, he looms in the background. His movements feel stiff and unnatural (likely a quirk of needing to act in a mask and jacket on dim sets, but one that adds to the performance). He's blunt and a little naive, but projects intelligence and honesty in equal measure. He feels more restrained than Takeshi Hongo or Hayato Ichimonji. And while I'll discuss his stunts later, it does add a bit of narrative weight to the henshin sequence when those restraints come off.
But getting back to the episode recap, both Shiba and Shinjo are mildly surprised that he's a robot. Quite honestly, less surprised than you might expect. Detective K introduces himself, provides a letter proving that he's there on business, and claims a room search is unnecessary because his eyes contain "inspectrological" equipment that tells him there's not a single fingerprint in the apartment. I'm getting flashbacks to Takeshi Hongo's 600 IQ claim...
Detective K tries to contribute to the investigation, but things quickly take a "Detroit: Become Human" turn when Shiba repeatedly dismisses K as being a piece of junk, and Shinjo tries to pick a fight with him over being slighted. I'm never really a fan of this specific plot point in shows with robots. Sure it's allegorical and I understand why it's here, but "shut up robot, we humans don't need you" always feels as cliche as they come.
After the brief argument between the three, Detective K inspects Okazaki's body and looks up at the vent above his bed. Shiba tells him off, stating only a ghost could get into the room through there. But Detective K hears something, and races out of the room to find the culprit on the roof. Shinjo goes to chase after him, but Shiba says don't bother.
Detective K sprints out onto the roof, turning on the high-powered flashlights in his eyes. But it's too late, he only sees the culprit's car pull out in the parking lot below. Not discouraged, he hops from the roof of the apartment complex down to the parking lot, and gets to his car in time to chase down Wakkaman. We get our first peaks at The Joker, Detective K's obligatory "Kamen Rider was a huge hit so our guy needs a vehicle too" car. He chases after Wakkaman - who quite frankly looks too ridiculous to be driving a car - and nearly gets to him before a truck pulls out in front of Detective K. It's a set-up. Not to worry though, Detective K flips a switch, and The Joker flies off into the air, rocket boosters glowing with a blue light.
He lands in - where else - an abandoned construction site. Tracking down Wakkaman, Detective K announces that he's under arrest for the murder of Okazaki. Wakkaman turns to face him. Detective K reels, "You're a robot!" And Wakkaman replies "So, you're a robot too, eh?" The two brawl it out for ten entire seconds, before Wakkaman separates into a bunch of little wafers and flies away into the night sky. And sorry, can we circle back to that exchange?
While "Robot Detective" manages to set the tone immediately, the actual state of the world is far less intelligible.
At the risk of drawing too many allusions to "Kamen Rider (1971)," from the get-go it's established that Shocker is an evil organization of nazi-remnants who don't have substantial control over Japan just yet. They operate out of hidden bunkers, often struggle to make more than one or two of any given cyborg, and can only field a couple dozen grunts at once. They're dangerous and powerful, especially in territories they've conquered, but they're still rather weak here in Japan.
"Robot Detective," meanwhile, doesn't establish anything about the villains (or even Detective K) at all. We know BAD is an evil organization. What does it do? Well...I mean Wakkaman acts as a hitman. And that's it, we don't know anything else. Are these robots in an "assembled" sense or are they cyborgs? What's the state of technology in this version of Japan? Why are Shiba and Shinjo so okay about robots that they can be nonchalant about Detective K's existence, while so unfamiliar with the concept that they don't even consider that a robot might have killed Okazaki? Is BAD known about by anyone, or are they completely secret? And for that matter, what about Detective K? We get a hint as to his origin later on in the episode, but why is he a cop? Did he make The Joker or did someone else, and if the latter, then who did?
We're going to get answers to some of these questions eventually, I'm sure. But the lack of any foundation makes "Robot Detective" rather strange to watch at times. There's so many things that I'm curious about in this world - which is a compliment to how well the show draws you in - but the lack of any concrete answers in this first episode is frustrating. Even just a sentence or two explaining what BAD is or whether or not robots are normally a thing in this world would go a long way. Though I'll admit, there's a child-like glee to just running with whatever the episode tells you about.
The second half of this episode goes by much faster, so don't worry. After the ad break, we cut to the day after where Detective K is going to pick up Detective Shiba from his home. And it's actually quite a cute little scene. There's some comedy beats where Shiba's daughters are confused and scared by Detective K, and the whole sequence has a nice homey feel to it. They don't seem too confused about their dad working with a robot, so that's just going to be a running plot beat now. And after some bickering and threats from Detective Shiba, the two of them get into The Joker.
Speaking of, we actually get to see The Joker in plain daylight. And it looks pretty great.
Much like Detective K himself, The Joker leans pretty heavily into the "you will buy a toy of this" aesthetic. The bright colors, the strange silhouette, and the chunky fold-out doors make this look like a big playset come to life. Kamen Rider's Cyclone might be sleek and elegant, but I imagine as a toy it'd be rather frustrating, especially if it couldn't stand up on it's own. The Joker feels built from the ground up to be made of cheap plastic and filled with loose accessories and dolls. A vehicle you want to ram into your other toys. The ability to fly feels like a natural extension of that play factor; Something included because they knew kids would run around with it in their hand, pretending they were in a high speed chase.
That being said, it does add a little to the cheapness of the show. I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief and rolling with what a show says - I'd be a very annoying tokusatsu fan if I couldn't. But every time an actor needs to get in or out of the car, they're clearly struggling to open and close the doors. And when you notice that, you notice other things. The wrinkles in the chrome decals. The jagged cuts into the metal of the frame. The fact that they have to hold the door open because there's no supports to stop it from slamming shut. Though I'm nitpicking. I don't think these cheap little details hurt the show at all, if anything they endear it to me more.
I'm not sure how to mention this or if I even should, but there's a really bizarre scene that feels completely out of place. We cut to Shinjo back at Okazaki's murder scene. He says that the murderer always comes back to the scene of the crime. Then, a rope drops down in front of a window. Shinjo hides off to the side with his gun drawn, but a man swoops in, tackles him to the ground, and steals his gun. He holds Shinjo at gunpoint, before laughing. And then Shinjo realizes...that it's his brother? And he's just fucking with him? Huh??
The scene goes nowhere. Shinjo and his brother (who I don't believe is named yet?) talk about work, Shinjo's brother says that Shinjo's only half a professional, he hints that he thinks a robot killed Okazaki, and then he climbs back out the window. And that's it!
I want to mention this scene because it feels so pointless and strange, yet it's so pointless that I could skip over it and nothing would change about the episode recap. I'll forget the scene even happened, but then the second I glimpse it while I'm looking for screenshots I just go "Oh yeah...what?" The only possible reason I could imagine for this scene's existence is that Shinjo's brother is going to be revealed to be a villain somewhere down the road, but until I watch that far and see if it's true, it just sticks out in the midst of some otherwise normal police drama.
We're back at the police precinct. Detective Shiba is mad because he's been assigned to work with Detective K and he thinks that's a load of shit. An argument ensues that ends with him giving in, because that's how these plots always go. And after two minutes of bickering, we're in the special forensics division. Presumably our main base of operations going forward, though it looks like a dingy broom closet with a single overhead lamp.
We get introduced to a new character - and informant named Mimihei Jigoku, or "Hell's Ear" - and before Detective K has a chance to beat him up, he tips them off to the fact that Date - Kuroda's other accomplice, is next on the chopping block. The three of them race out of the building, and take The Joker down to the docks where Date's holed himself up.
Stuff progresses basically the same as last time. Date is barricaded inside a yacht out in a harbor, stumbling back and forth in a dimly lit boat hold, drinking alcohol and swinging a loaded shotgun around the place. If the killer tries to get to him, he'll blow them away with a single shot. Shinjo tries to radio Date, and asks him to let the police protect him. But Date refuses, as he doesn't want to end up like Okazaki (which isn't really a fair complaint, he didn't even know the cops were listening in to his phone call). And the exact same escalation happens. Wakkaman slinks in through a vent and asks Date where the treasure is hidden, Date unloads on him, and when that doesn't work, he tries to flee to the deck of the yacht.
The episode's definitely lost a little bit of steam by now. Both of the assassination attempts being so similar means there's not much tension the second go around. And with both the police station and the yacht interior being dimly lit, it means you're spending more time squinting and trying to make out the finer details than you are engaging with the story.
There's no time to lose! Detective K springs into action, and unceremoniously belly flops into the ocean. Add "robots are waterproof" to the lore I suppose.
We see Date scramble above deck, slipping and stumbling as he runs. Only for Wakkaman to reform in front of him with a bit of beautiful reversed footage on a wobbly toy boat. Wakkaman goes in for the kill, and Date screams for someone, anyone to save him.
Detective K clambers up the outer rigging just in time, and flips onto the deck between the two. He again states that Wakkaman is under arrest, now for multiple(?) charges of murder despite only one killing taking place (Actually, how would you even arrest a robot?). Wakkaman threatens to kill Detective K. And as a result, Detective K's eyes glow red. And we get maybe the silliest henshin sequence of all time, as Detective K tosses aside his signature beret, twirls his coat around in his hand, and reveals his full-body armor suit beneath it. And my god is it beautiful. Another bit of Showa era jank that's so underwhelming it wraps back around into being hype. There's no flashing lights, no graphics, no stinger. He just takes his jacket off, ready to duel. And I love it!
The full body suit is gorgeous. The yellow gloves and boots look a little silly, but they're a remnant of early Kamen Rider's designs so I'll give it a pass. The actual suit itself is wonderful. A flat grey-ish blue all around, decorated only with ridges and valleys of bright red. It's such a good look, especially from behind.
The fight is novel enough to be interesting - I don't remember seeing any Kamen Rider fights on yachts before this - though the setting means everyone's rather limited in what they can do. They're both crammed towards the bow of the ship for visibility, but it means neither of them wants to risk anything too crazy. Other than a neat little jump from the sail of the boat, most of the fight is grappling and punching. Still, Detective K's demeanor changes notably here. It could just be the music or the hype of a fun tokusatsu fight, but it feels like there's a real Clark Kent/Superman personality shift going on here, and I really like it.
Oh yeah, did I mention you get one of the best Showa visuals I've ever seen? And it's batshit to boot?"
A giant mecha materializes in the distance with no warning, and oh my god is it gorgeous! Maybe it's just the mecha fan in me talking, but I love this thing. Her name is just Mother, and the end of the episode insinuates that both she and Detective K appeared out of nowhere together one day. One of the only crumbs of backstory we get, but you know what? I don't care if it's a little lacking. I adore how Mother looks.
Both scenes of her have this dreamlike, mystical quality to them. Her model is this gorgeous metallic white color that feels so human and so artificial all at once. The sculpting on her face is beautiful. The headdress she wears looks great. The curls in her hair, the rivets on her outfit, and all the little touches create such a special atmosphere. And just the idea of this ornate and ancient-looking mech manifesting in the sky above, higher than the clouds, and simply watching Detective K is such an evocative image. I daresay it's genius.
Maybe I'm overhyping this, and maybe my Showa era tokusatsu inexperience is showing. But I've never seen anything like this, and I'd honestly recommend the first episode of "Robot Detective" off of this alone.
And, perhaps a little suddenly, we're at the end of the episode! Wakkaman unleashes a heretofore unseen flame breath attack (very reminiscent of the "Kamen Rider (1971)" pyrotechnics, close-up and tube and all), and the episode ends on a cliffhanger. Who's Mother? Where did she and Detective K come from? And what's Wakkaman's goal? Find out next time.
Final thoughts: "Robot Detective" makes a great first impression. The technical elements at times can feel a little lacking, with uncentered glamor shots, dim lighting and wobbly zoom-ins. But overall I feel like it more than makes up for it on aesthetics alone. Detective K is an instantly iconic design, Mother is an absolutely gorgeous prop, and Wakkaman is an excellent first antagonist with some killer practical effects at play. The human characters are a bit dull, and the story rather loose, but those are hardly issues unique to "Robot Detective." And for what it's worth, the episode is paced quickly enough that flaws like the strange scene with Shinjo or the repetitive second half only really come into play if you intentionally go back and linger on those scenes.
I'm excited to watch more "Robot Detective." I'm hoping the series just gets better from here on out. I see a lot of potential here, and if it can deliver on it in the next twenty-five episodes, I think "Robot Detective" has the potential to be relatively obscure tokusatsu gem.
8/10