Cop Craft (Review)
Despite a Lot of Showmanship, Cop Craft is Only Smoke and Mirrors
Cop Craft is one of those obnoxious 12-episode anime that ends before it’s said everything that it has to, or at least everything that I wanted it to. That’s probably because I have a soft spot for urban-fantasy in general. Seeing fantasy elements like elves and magic in a modern setting with all the chaos that would come with it is just fascinating to me, especially since there’s usually an underworld element to it as well. Cop Craft does exactly that and even tosses in the mismatched buddy cop element as well. The series was brimming with so much potential that I found myself annoyed as the final episode wrapped up. Still, not all aspects of Cop Craft managed to live up to the potential they had in this short-lived series.
A strange portal to another world opens off the coast of a bustling city, allowing all sorts of magic and beings to pass into the human world. With them comes the problem of interspecies relationships and cross-cultural differences and a Vice squad is set up to deal with them. The best cop on this squad is Kei Matoba (David Matranga), a natural slacker gifted in navigating this strange new world. He’s got it all figured out until he’s forced to partner with an elven knight from the other side of the gate named Tilarna Exedilica (Felecia Angelle). Despite butting heads at first, they prove to be quite the team. At least when Kei isn’t busy keeping her out of trouble.
What bugged me the most about Cop Craft is that it feels like a snapshot of something grander. Even as much as I liked the characters (they grow on you pretty quickly), they never got the chance to be fully fleshed out. I suppose that’s a sign of good storytelling; that I was greedy to know more at the end of the series. However, that means that Cop Craft never manages to fully flesh out its characters or the world they live in. This causes it to be a bit too episodic for just a single story arch and the main villains don’t manage to make the kind of impact needed to provide the heroes a worthy quest. There are some multi-episode arcs that set up some potential bigger baddies, but they never get the time to fully mature. Shoji Gatoh (writer) and Shin Itagaki (director) definitely make the most of the time they get, but still Cop Craft doesn’t feel like it ever fully develops.
Millepensee Inc is a relatively new animation studio, but they do a solid job with Cop Craft (probably because Shin Itagaki formerly worked at Madhouse). The style is very vibrant and light, making it easy on the eyes. There aren’t a lot of really intense action sequences in Cop Craft but I wasn’t disappointed by them, especially once the guns were traded for swords. The character designs were a bit underwhelming though. Sure, Tilarna has a cool fantasy-inspired design to her, but few of the other characters are really memorable (except for Kei). In fact, a few of the minor characters really blurred together to the point where I had to remember if I’d seen them before or not. This is such a shame because with urban-fantasy the possibilities are endless. Like the rest of Cop Craft, the animation is never bad but lacks creativity and feels more restrained than it should be.
One thing that I found interesting about Cop Craft is that it was unafraid of tackling the issue of racism in the world it exists in. A lot of humans and beings from the other side of the gate don’t get along (though the human world certainly offers a lot of technology that the elves simply adore). I found this especially fascinating given the issues that America is facing right now in race relations. Of course, most of the elves and fairies are white, but that’s to be expected in anime. However, the police chief in the series is black and a hilariously cliched hardass who backs his cops to the bitter end. This is an issue that’s addressed several times in Cop Craft, especially in the relationship between Kei and Tilarna, which is pretty rough at first. It’s an interesting adult concept that never feels forced but speaks volumes about what Cop Craft could have been.
Despite being a bit on the underwhelming side at times, Cop Craft is a solid series. It never really becomes what I wished it would be, but my expectations are hardly the show’s fault. True, it doesn’t stack up to some other urban-fantasies like Tokyo Ghoul or Noragami (though it is on par with Tokyo ESP), but it’s far from a bad anime. Perhaps with a second season, it could have really come into its own, but for the most part, it’s an easy watch filled with plenty of enjoyable moments (including a pretty fun body-switching episode). Casual anime fans might not get quite as much of a kick out of Cop Craft as more experienced watchers looking for something new to try out. It’s definitely worth checking out.
