Beautiful Bones – Sakurako’s Investigation: Season 1/ Episode 1 “The First Bone – The Princess Who Loves Bones” [Series Premiere] – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

A strange anime dealing with a bone-obsessed young woman, and a young man who acts as her voice of reason for her obsession often leads to insensitive comments and misunderstood actions.

Characters & Story (with Commentary)

Shotaro is a young man, of school age who, while having friends his own age, seems to spend a good amount of his time with a young woman named Sakurajo. Someone who is of prominent birth, and is well educated, but what she has as strengths on paper she lacks in human decency. Which isn’t to imply she is disgusting, in the way which first comes to mind, but more so her social skills are atrocious.

For example, her bone obsession has taken her for someone who simply is a collector to an osteologist. Which, while a bit odd, isn’t where her lack of human decency comes in. What makes it so it seems she doesn’t understand social norms, nor cares for them, is when Shotaro finds a human skull on the beach and Sakurajo is more worried about keeping the skull, as some prized specimen, versus letting the cops do their job and investigate why a skull was found on a public beach.

It doesn’t end there though. After Shotaro calls the cops, and they are on the way to the police station, upon hearing of a double suicide, and coming close to where the bodies are found, Sakurajo not only demands the officer pull over, but she also walks right into the crime scene and investigates the bodies. All the while, she insults the investigators on the scene and, due to embarrassment, Shotaro has to apologize for her and explain her methods and actions.

But, despite not being one for social niceties, it seems there is some sort of bond Sakurajo values between herself and Shotaro. For while they aren’t in a romantic relationship, for she is engaged, nor are they friends, you can tell she values his companionship, as do the people who care for her. Making for the start of a rather odd anime which I expect will feature a lot of murder cases Sakurajo will solve using her unique perspective as well as her educational background.

Highlights

Sakurajo I find to be a very compelling character. Granted, her prominent lifestyle, and personality, does make her seem slightly generic, and with her being the type to snap from weird, to sophisticated genius, she does seem familiar, I must say her quirks line up in such a way which makes it so you wonder what she may say, do, or discover next.

I quite loved the art style. It made me believe I was watching an OVA vs. a regular series.

Being that there is a bit of mystery in terms of us not meeting Sakurajo’s fiancée, and seeing that part of her, much less trying to understand why a person like her would wish to be around someone like Shotaro, there is quite a bit to explore as the season goes forward.

With the mention that Sakurajo’s uncle was a prominent forensic professor, who helps the cops a lot, and Shotaro mentioning that often he and Sakurajo would find corpses, it does setup what could be an interesting series about murder mysteries with Sakurajo being a female Sherlock Holmes.

Low Points

Honestly, being that Shakurajo is already portrayed as weird, I could have done without the hinting that perhaps she has some sort of powers which helps her figure out how people died.

On The Fence

With how interesting Shakurajo is, I must admit that I’m unsure if, as we get to know Shotaro, and see how he lives life when he isn’t around her, whether the intrigue may drop or not.