Crunchyroll’s ‘Anime Crimes Division’ is a Love Letter to Anime and Its Fandom

When you can tell a project was made with a “for us, by us” mentality, there’s something that separates it from the pack. Anime Crimes Division is a web series that feels like a product of that ideology. It’s one thing going the route of tongue in cheek humor for a specific / niche audience. When you commit to that absurdity as truth wholeheartedly? That’s when the magic happens. In the same vein as the mockumentary American Vandal, Anime Crimes Division is a web series that maneuvers not taking itself too seriously while remaining engaging and hilarious. Created by Rocket Jump, the show airs on Crunchy Roll (youtube as well). I tell you no lies, I was howling watching this series. Truth be told, I was hooked from the opening monologue: “In Neo Otaku City, there are two kinds of people. The kind that can recite the Sailor Moon theme song from memory in the original Japanese, and the kind who don’t belong here.” Dude, when they treated someone going around taking parts from Gundam models like a homicide case. I was screaming!

Crunchy Roll, you crazy for this one The lead protagonist is hard ass anime detective, Joe Furaya ,played by the master of skits, SungWon Cho (ProZD if you nasty). Furaya is the Rust Cohle of anime detectives and his Police chief (Kirk Graves) assigns him a new rookie partner, Detective Diesal (Riley Rose Critchlow). The way he checks her credentials tho,

I only caught this reference thanks to our own anime division specialists’ Yuri on Ice knowledge. A…