Synopsis
Located within Kyoto’s Teramachi Sanjou shopping district is an antique shop. It is there that high school girl Mashiro Aoi meets Yagashira Kiyotaka, the son of the shop’s owner. Though she had intended to sell some antiques, she ends up working part-time at the shop. Now with Kiyotaka who is nicknamed “Holmes at Teramachi Sanjou,” Aoi and he solve a variety of odd cases from different clients.
Initial Impression
While the concept of the series takes on mystery and antiques, it wasn’t expected that the antique aspect would shine all that much. Surprisingly, the series not only did the latter help in the formation of the characters, but it had just enough information revealed without dumping too much on the viewer. With the characters, they do have their interesting points. Aoi did come off as rather typical from the start, but the way her character was established throughout the rest of the episode and showed potential with her dynamic with Kiyotaka. However, there are still typical points to be found with the episode, mostly with the conflict. Given the way that the episode was set up, it was easy to see where it would go.
Final Thoughts
Given that the series takes focus on a concept involving the characters solving cases, it makes sense that this would be the highlight of the series. They held a good amount of mystery and in some episodes, there was a good feature on different antiques. It also helped with how Kiyotaka’s personality and skills were presented in connection to the cases. Having a highly intuitive character like Kiyotaka is always fun when it comes to this kind of series.
On Aoi’s side of things, she does have a good amount of development. However, while both characters had good presentations and development, the dynamic that was built between the two of them didn’t seem to amount to much in the end. The same can be said for the side characters and the villain, there a potential, but in the end, didn’t really leave an impact.
Conclusion
This is a series that was strong in presenting its concept but not so much on its characters. Antiques and other aspects related to it doesn’t seem like something that would catch a viewer’s attention, but the way that the series dealt with it gave a unique point for the series. However, that is the only real thing that stood out with the episode. Even with the characters having interesting aspects to them, there didn’t seem to be enough given on them.
Rating: 6/10