First Episode Impression: Holmes at Kyoto Teramachi Sanjo

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.

The Good

Out of everything that could stand out with a first episode, from the characters to the story; it is the way that it presents its theme that stands out. You would think with the theme being about antiques, it would be more of a background element. Instead, the anime managed to incorporate it in a way that helped in the formation of the characters. Rather than a bucket of information being dumped on the viewer, the episode just gave enough to both be relevant to the theme while creating a solid tone to the episode.

With the characters, they both have their interesting points. Aoi seemed to start off as a typical demure character but as the episode progressed, there was a decent amount of potential to her for future episodes. As for Kiyotaka, he does have elements of the typical male character in the shoujo genre, but the element of him having a “Holmes” quality does add something interesting to him and presents a good amount of potential for him.

The Bad

In the beginning of the whole monologue by Aoi, it was easy to discern the cliche points that she would have. The only thing that redeemed her was how she was handled towards the end of the episode. The real issue with the episode was the type of conflict that it presented. Sure, it has a connection to the theme of the series, but it was rather easy to see where things were going the moment the characters began talking about a contraband issue. What’s more, it got a little too dramatic in the end and seemed to shift from the general tone that the episode had initially set up.

Conclusion

For a series that features antiques, it held well in terms of forming the series’ story and characters. While at the start, the characters seem rather typical, as the episode developed, there was some solid potential shown with them. So far the biggest issues that were shown was that it shifted towards a dramatic tone in the end which shifted from the general flow that the episode had initially introduced. Overall, the series gave an interesting concept and shows a good amount of potential in terms of story and characters.

Rating: 7.5/10