QuickThoughts: Beautiful Bones (And Why I Dropped It)

Before I begin, I’d like to say a few things about this review. Firstly, I have only seen eight episodes of this show. I do not recommend reviewing an anime after only watching some of it, especially if you value accuracy in your writing. I am breaking my own rule because of reasons that will be explained further into the review.

Secondly, this is the only time I will break that rule. I am usually against creating a final review without watching an entire show, as the anime can still surprise you with how good or terrible it ends up being. The main reason I’m talking about it here is because I had scheduled to review this show in advance, and I don’t have time to completely reformat my plan for this February Special to fit around not reviewing it.

Thirdly, I believe I have enough of another relevant reason to talk about this show even without watching it in full. It adds an element I was looking to discuss in Figure it Out February, before I decided to completely drop the project itself, anyway: what makes a good mystery, and what elements have to be put in place to keep my interest.

Now, with all that baggage out of the way, sit back, relax, and read on as I talk about the first eight episodes of Beautiful Bones: Sakurako’s Investigation.

The characters from left to right: Shoutarou, Yuriko, and Sakurako

The Premise:

Beautiful Bones follows Shoutarou, a boy in high school (big shock), and Sakurako, a woman who loves bones. The two basically spend their time solving mysteries that mostly involve bones. It’s a very simple but attractive premise, sold mainly by the promise of mystery. It could just be me, but whenever I see the genre tag, I immediately become interested in that story just to see where it takes me. Shows like ERASED and Hyouka are able to draw me in not just by their premises, but because they promise an element of the unknown, something that adds suspense, and seem to feature interesting characters that can carry the story along. Whether those shows succeeded or not doesn't matter; the idea is that there is a promise of something good. I didn’t expect anything fantastic out of Sakurako, but I did expect something along those lines: a show that makes me question what’s going on, become interested, and solve the puzzle with intelligent characters. Needless to say, Sakurako failed to keep my interest after eight episodes, but let’s start off by describing the good aspects first.

Sakurako, and a human skull. She and Shoutarou (not shown) solve mysteries.

The Good:

Sakurako looks beautiful, and I don’t mean just the character. The presentation of this anime went far beyond what it should be. If TROYCA, known only for their work on Aldnoah.Zero, wanted to prove they could produce a good-looking show without the help of A-1 Pictures, they get an A+ no contest. The backgrounds are gorgeous-looking, with immense detail and beautiful coloring that gives off a feeling of warmth and comfort. The movement is almost always immaculate, with fluid animation and characters that don’t just stand around doing nothing while another person is talking. The CGI also isn’t an eyesore, so kudos for that. The only aspect that disappoints me about the animation is the character designs. They’re serviceable, but they look like the typical anime characters you’d find from any random show, especially those made by A-1 Pictures.

This is only some of the beautiful animation this show has to offer

The music is also quite fitting. I can’t judge it fully, mainly because I can’t find it anywhere so I can listen to it on its own, but I remember it being nice enough. It built tension and created a calming atmosphere when needed. I liked the pianos when they were used. The opening was okay, though very well-animated, as to be expected of the rest of the show. The ending song barely caught my attention while I was watching the show, but listening to it on its own, it’s actually quite a nice song. I recommend listening to it. Voice acting is fine, nothing too outstanding but fits the show.

Opening:

Ending:

And, well, that’s really it. Onto the bad!

The Bad:

The main problem with Sakurako isn’t that it’s badly written. In fact, there is actually some good writing thrown in at some points. For example, the dialogue between Sakurako and Shoutaro feels natural, and you get the feeling the two knew each other for a very long time. Few anime are smart enough to easily establish a relationship like this, and it works in the anime’s favor. There are also some clever bits in the first episode that characterize Sakurako well, creating an interesting but still mysterious character. In fact, the anime is mostly serviceable. There’s nothing so wrong with it that it deserves to be condemned to the darkest depths of anime hell.

What’s wrong with this Beautiful Bones is that it’s only serviceable, and refuses to go anywhere with its interesting premise. It’s like coming across a person who’s naturally talented at basketball, but doesn’t play basketball because they’re lazy and decides to take the easy way out. You can respect his or her decision, but you also can’t help but feel like a lot of potential was lost. Sakurako has the makings of a solid mystery; its main detective character Sakurako is interesting and enjoyable to watch, the individual mysteries could have been interesting on their own, and again, the animation is great. However, in the end, all it does is meander into completely irrelevant and hollow side stories that don’t develop the important characters, establish any story beats, or are even all that interesting as stand-alone stories.

Sakurako and Shoutarou solving a mystery

Episodic anime are not automatically a bad thing in my eyes. If the setting and characters are good enough to utilize in various anecdotes, then I’m all for it. Take Kekkai Sensen, for instance: all the characters are fun, interesting, and well characterized. The side stories the show develops may not always be incredibly relevant story-wise, but they are character and setting-wise. For example, in episode 6 of Kekkai Sensen, it is established that racism against supernatural creatures exists. Leonardo Watch is also further characterized, as the episode shows how he can easily establish relationships with other loners, and truly cares about those he forms connections with. It’s not relevant to the main story, but it helps you understand the characters and the surrounding world.

Speaking of story, that’s the main aspect that separates Kekkai Sensen from Beautiful Bones: the former has an overarching theme and story that ties everything together in the final episode. This is what keeps it interesting on a more substantial level. As good as those individual episodes are, they can feel pointless in the long run without something tying it together. As stated earlier, Kekkai Sensen ties them together by developing either the characters or the setting, while weaving additional story elements together in the background. Beautiful Bones suffers from the exact opposite; all it does it meander, and nothing feels all that important.

Kekkai Sensen Episode 6, featuring Leonardo Watch and Nej

The show does have a bit of an overarching plot, or it was hinting at one at least, but aside from one episode I watched, nothing was developed. In other words, Beautiful Bones spends seven episodes out of eight dawdling around while barely acknowledging any kind of plot. The side stories it does present don’t develop the main characters or setting at all, making nearly all of them feel like a pointless waste of time. And, when something is a pointless waste of time, the result is an inordinately bored audience or people upset at negatively spending their time. On top of that, the anime decides to ignore what could’ve made these individual stories good by focusing on the wrong aspects within those stories.

For example, the show decided to give Shoutaro a quasi-girlfriend, named Yuriko. This wouldn’t be so bad, but the show kept on pushing that she is an important character because she’s literally involved somehow in the majority of the mysteries they solve. Some kid she looked after previously is in trouble. Her grandmother’s untimely death was discovered by Sakurako. Her grandfather’s paintings ending up in a victim’s house. She finds an envelope with someone’s wedding ring, and that mystery takes up an entire episode. I don’t know about any of you, but that is some contrived writing. Or, they live in a world of huge coincidences, but in an anime that tries to be realistic, I highly doubt that.

Now, having recurring characters, no matter how forced their recurrences are, isn’t a deal-breaker for me. If that character is interesting or contributes to the plot in any way, then I’m typically fine with it. Yuriko, on the other hand, is the definition of a generic and personality-less character. She doesn’t have any defining characteristics besides just being a “nice girl,” and crying for the camera every so often. It’s like she was written in because the show needed Shotaro to have a friend, not because she was integral to the non-existent plot. In simpler terms, she’s a useless plot device that creates filler so the show can continue to meander into stuff that has nothing to do with whatever story the show was trying to establish. Why is she focused on so much if Sakurako, an infinitely more interesting character, is basically left in the dust for the majority of the eight episodes I watched?

Yuriko

Sure, you could argue that Sakurako could get more focus in the episodes I didn’t watch, which is a valid complaint. I did read the plot synopses of the episodes I didn’t watch before writing this, though. I’m not about to make assumptions about a piece of media that I haven’t watched without at least learning what happens in the parts I haven’t seen. As it turns out, at least according to the episode descriptions, the only additional insight into Sakurako’s character is in the last episode, which depicts Sakurako and Shoutaro’s meeting. Again, not too bad, but it’s the last episode. Maybe it’s a fantastic episode that I’m stubbornly missing out on, but that still doesn’t change the fact that the show didn’t develop its main relationship further until the absolute last minute, and probably broke off whatever plot it was building up instead of actually going through with it.

I think what particularly puts the final nail in this anime’s coffin, though, is that there is no substance. I’m not talking about a show like Jojo, where even though it’s not deep it can still be enjoyed based on how over-the-top and insane it is. I’m more talking about a show that’s hollow, lacks personality, and feels like it was made in a factory. The creators seemed to only care about its presentation, but forgot to give the actual content a point. It’s like looking at a perfectly-done “color-by-numbers” drawing. Sure, it looks pretty and well-organized, but the creator didn’t think of coloring outside the boxes, or using colors other than the ones he or she was instructed to use. If they did, they’d have to use some more creative energy, which is not something that exists in Beautiful Bones.

Lately, I’ve been growing more and more sick of anime like The Asterisk War (easy target, I know) that lack any sort of human passion, and Beautiful Bones just further reinforces that disdain. It has its nicer moments, like the ending of episode 3, and anything that has to do with Hector the Dog is plain adorable. Despite that, I can’t say that anything exceptional was done to make it a good mystery, or even keep my interest beyond episode 8. What I did watch felt like a giant waste of my time, and as someone who really values her time, that’s the biggest insult an anime series can throw my way.

Conclusion:

In the end, Beautiful Bones is exactly like the bones it lovingly presents. It’s clean, polished, and looks beautifully crafted; but it is also cold, meatless, lifeless, and boring to look at after a couple minutes. I do not recommend watching this show, unless you want something extraordinarily but undeservingly pretty to look at.
Well, that's all from me. I'll see you guys later!