Special 7 Special Crime Investigation Unit (Review)
Special 7 Shows Promise, but Doesn’t Deliver.
Seems like I’ve stumbled into an accidental urban fantasy phase having reviewed Cop Craft only a few weeks ago and now Special 7 Special Crime Investigation Unit (the official translation of the title is Metropolitan Police Department Special Division Heinous Crime Task Force 7th Unit: Tokunana, but I’m just going to call it Special 7). The two series have a lot in common, but I found that Special 7 actually reminded me of a number of anime I’ve watched over the years. This proves to be both a double edge sword as it made a lot of the themes and story elements instantly recognizable but also cheapened them. By deconstructing and copying other anime, Special 7 ends up playing it too safe as it follows the simple formula it’s managed to reduce everything down to. At no point does it risk anything by trying to branch out and create something new and exciting, which I can’t help but feel disappointed in.
Of course, Special 7 takes place in Tokyo but a version of the country that’s made up of not only humans but several types of beings from the realm of fantasy and even horror. With these new residents come criminal acts that not every cop is prepared for, which is one reason why the “elite” unit of misfits called Special 7 was founded. The story is told through the perspective of a rookie human on the team named Seiji Nanatsuki (Matt Shipman), who has a strict personal code of ethics and morals that shows just how green he really is. This is made all the more apparent by his new squadmates who are mostly identified by their woefully uncreative call signs, “Charisma” (Brandon Potter), “Analyzer” (David Matranga), “Samurai” (Monica Rial), “Ninja” (Sarah Wiedenheft), “Sniper” (Chris Rager), and “Boss” (Eric Vale). I bet you’ll never guess what each of their roles on the team is. Anyways, they work together to keep the city safe from anyone who dares to disturb the peace. As the story unfolds, they soon find themselves in way over their heads.
I’ve stated a number of times that I love urban-fantasy as a sub-genre. That’s because it allows us to look at the world and twist it just enough to make the mundane new and exciting. Special 7 definitely includes a number of fantasy creatures from elves to vampires and pretty much everything in between. However, it doesn’t take the time to ask how the world might be different because of their existence alongside humans. Sure, they commit crimes, but there’s never a part where Special 7 really dives into the implications or consequences of their existence. It tosses in a fun fact here and there (dwarves are terrible liars, for example), but it never tries to treat the characters as anything more than humans by other names. After a while, Special 7 feels like it’s urban fantasy only in name, which is incredibly disappointing.
This lack of originality and willingness to push into unknown territory spills over into the characters as well. Clearly, Special 7 was inspired by Ghost in the Shell in how the team is composed of specialists. However, in Ghost in the Shell they were characters that had specialties, not specialists who were characters. Section 7 builds characters around what it needs to be able to do and then slaps some cliches on top of them to flesh them out. It’s formulaic in its composition as though following a checklist of every “character” they need. A grumpy older character that’s cool only in their disinterest in everything around them? We can do that for the sniper character. Even the villains seem underdeveloped, which undermines their menace and the heroic aspects of rising against them. Why are they like this? What do they want? How are they sympathetic in a way that makes them interesting? This is just another reflection of the lack of thought and detail that went into the world-building as a whole and makes many of the characters feel like they’re nothing more than props to be moved around.
Perhaps this lack of foresight is simply because Special 7 is an original anime by ANIMA&CO and not based on manga like so many others are. That might explain why there’s so little thought put into the world beyond what’s happening in that very moment on screen. The animation itself is a lot like the world it creates. There’s nothing really wrong with it, but there’s nothing thrilling or exciting about it. It’s a pretty generic style that we’ve seen dozens of times before and will probably see dozens of times again. The same can be said for the designs of the characters. Everything is so spot on to reflect what they do rather than who they are. Rookie wears a clean, pressed blue suit, which the more experiences human charisma is disheveled with a streak of white in his hair so that he can “be a wild card.” ANIMA&CO went for the low hanging fruit with almost all the characters in the series, and the ones that it did try to do something special with just looked goofy because of it.
At the same time, Special 7 isn’t really bad, just disappointing. It feels familiar because it tries to play it so safe. It’s quite simply more of the same, which is perfectly fine. Some people know what they like and want to see more of exactly that. Special 7 is made specifically for people who like fantasy ideas and police dramas, and don’t want a lot of other stuff “weighing those down.” I’m more of a fan of new and exciting than tried and true. Anime that take risks thrill me because they give birth to the new “tried and true.” I personally wasn’t thrilled with Special 7, but at the same time, it is competently executed.
