Review, Fugou Keiji Balance Unlimited (2020)

What happens when you pair a detective with a high sense of humanity with another detective of filthy rich origins, who would do anything and especially solve problems with money to complete his objectives? You get Fugou Keiji: Balance Unlimited!

As mentioned above, Katou Haru, a simple, normal and empathetic detective gets paired with Ono Daisuke, a damn rich detective and naturally, their personalities crash, like mixing oil and water together – they don’t mix. Haru can’t seem to stand Daisuke’s methods of solving everything with money. But despite this, they have to overcome their differences and ultimately work together to complete objectives together, and the anime portrays a story of the two detectives’ daily life.

Just by reading the outline, simplicity might be the first thing that pops up in our head – and it definitely is. The plot is not that complicated, it’s really straightforward and really-really easy to follow through. Not to mention there is a slight spice of comedy within it and it eases the suspense without completely removing it – which would be fatal in a crime genre anime. This would definitely be an anime to recommend to someone who would like to start watching a crime anime due to all the reasons mentioned above.

And pstt, don’t tell them, despite the simple plot, there’s still a great plot twist waiting to be discovered and it’s definitely not something viewers might even suspect! Absolutely mind-blowing and unsuspecting fits the description perfectly.

Plot aside, the graphics here is undoubted. What more needs to be said? It’s CloverWorks. They nailed the animation as well as visuals as usual – smooth and it screams classic CloverWorks. However, when compared to the likes of Wonder Egg priority, Wonder Egg Priority is ahead when it comes to visual effects and is more eye-catching as the action scenes are mostly beautifully choreographed fight scenes yet with lots of fantasy and explosiveness within it, whereas Fugou Keiji: Balance Unlimited, realistic hand-to-hand and intense gun-to-gun fights – no amount of magic can be found here!

Great visuals are acompanied with classy, high class Hollywood Crime Movies kind of soundtrack. It definitely suits the anime as it brings it to another level and gives more depth to the anime. Especially in crucial action scenes where everything heats up, the “expensive” and rich vibes kind of music really brings everything together nicely. And once again, while they’re not as flashy as Wonder Egg Priority, the visuals combined with the “high class” soundtrack offers a really immersive visual and audio experience for the viewers.

Overall, everything here when mixed altogether makes for a simple, amazing crime anime. Great character persona (even side characters too), interesting character interactions and a very-very simple and digestable plot yet with its fair share of plot twist and a touch of comedy makes for a great crime anime.

So far, crime and mystery anime genres are not really popular. Probably the most well-known crime and mystery anime to date is Detective Conan. Balance Unlimited, when compared to Detective Conan is really short. The show gets the job done in a quick fashion whereas Conan has lots of trilogies to it, contrast to Balance Unlimited . Definitely an anime to recommend for first time crime and investigation anime viewers before diving into longer and more complex crime and mystery animes.