8.3 C
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Advertisement

Beautiful Bones: Sakurako’s Investigation — Complete Collection (TheaterByte Blu-ray Review)

Beatiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation -- Complete Collection Blu-ray PackshotBeautiful Bones: Sakurako’s Investigation is a 2015 anime adaptation of what is up to this point a nine-volume continuing series of Japanese mystery novels by Ōta Shiori. This anime series was directed by Katō Makoto who has storyboarded for Btoom! and been assistant director on Re:CREATORS.

I found the premise of this series to be oddly similar to the American TV crime procedural Bones, wherein a preternaturally gifted (an not unattractive) forensic anthropologist helps the FBI solve murders using the bones of murder victims. In Beautiful Bones: Sakurako’s Investigation, we get the beautiful, but highly eccentric Kujō Sakurako, a woman in her mid-twenties who is obsessed with the study of bones. She doesn’t much get long with people, but she does like hanging out with her new assistant, the high school boy Tatewaki Shōtarō. And when the two of them are out and about, they have an uncanny ability for stumbling across dead bodies and the skeletons of dead humans.

The series follows their efforts helping the local police in the city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido on several murder investigations, and helping to uncover the mysteries of friends, such as Shōtarō’s schoolmate Kōgami Yuriko, who, by sheer coincidence, becomes tangled up in the pairs investigations and eventually asks Sakurako for help determining which of her late grandmother’s paintings she wanted to leave to her as a present before she died

The series doesn’t quite have a strong through line from start to finish, having mostly self-contained mysteries that stretch two or three episodes each, the best one being a mystery involving a supposedly cursed dog whose owners all die. There is a subplot about Sakurako’s younger brother that helps to explain why she feels drawn to Shōtarō, but I won’t spoil that for anyone here.

In all, this is a decent series, but nothing that could be classified as groundbreaking or edgy. It deals in the macabre, and many may like that and the obvious allusions to Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Again, I would note, these things are not original in anyway, especially given we currently have at least two running Sherlock Homes live-action series on Television (Sherlock & Elementary) and the aforementioned Bones, though not a direct Holmes descendant, is quite similar in pattern and plot to this series.

The animation is good with no major flaws or inconsistencies, but also nothing that really jumps out as particularly eye-catching or innovative. The character designs are solidly done, especially Sakurako who is certainly drawn as the typical traditional beautiful Japanese woman and drawn well. If you’re looking for a decent mystery/thriller and a little change of pace, this one would do nicely.

[envira-album id=”97206″]

The Video

Apart from what seems to be the ubiquitous hints of banding in most anime releases on Blu-ray, the digital animation for Beautiful Bones looks strong with no major flaws like stairstepping, compression errors or oversaturation. It arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC 1080p encodement from Sentai Filmworks.

The Audio

Beautiful Bones: Sakurako’s Investigation comes with the original Japanese-language voice mix in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo. It’s a solid mix with good stereo effects and dynamic range for the material, which is basically dialogue-driven. The dialogue is clear and the cast put in solid voice performances.

The Supplements

Clean opening and closing animation & Sentai Filmworks trailers are all that are included with this collection.

The Final Assessment

A solid mystery /thriller series that despite its TV-MA (V) rating from Sentai Filmworks is neither too gruesome nor excessively violent. The story is a bit unoriginal, fitting into the usual crime procedural genre that only have hints of the fantastical due to being in the animated realm.

[amazon_auto_links id=”97203″]

3.2 / 5 TheaterByte Rating
{{ reviewsOverall }} / 5 User Rating (0 votes)
TV-MA (V)TV Rating
TroycaAnimation Studio
Sentai FilmworksDistributor
Katō MakotoDirector
Ikami TakayoWriter
300 Mins.Run Time
10 Jan. 2017Release Date
$42.99MSRP
1.78:1Aspect Ratio
AVC 1080pVideo
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 StereoAudio
EnglishSubtitles
The Animation
The Story
The Video
The Audio
The Supplements
Summary
Beautiful Bones is a satisfying if not wholly originally murder mystery anime series that bares similarities to Bones and Sherlock Holmes, deals in the macabre without excessive gore or violence and looks more than acceptable on this barebones 2-disc Blu-ray set.
What people say... Login to rate
Order by:

Be the first to leave a review.

User Avatar User Avatar
Verified
{{{ review.rating_title }}}
{{{review.rating_comment | nl2br}}}

This review has no replies yet.

Avatar
Show more
Show more
{{ pageNumber+1 }}

 

 

Advertisement

Related Articles

Join the Discussion on TheaterByte!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Stay Connected

301FansLike
0FollowersFollow
184FollowersFollow
1,710FollowersFollow
- Advertisement -

Notice of Compliance with FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 16 CFR Part 255

In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR part 255 guidelines, this website hereby states that it receives free discs and other theatrical or home entertainment "screeners" and access to screening links from studios and/or PR firms, and is provided with consumer electronics devices on loan from hardware manufacturers and/or PR firms respectively for the purposes of evaluating the products and its content for editorial reviews. We receive no compensation from these companies for our opinions or for the writing of reviews or editorials.
Permission is sometimes granted to companies to quote our work and editorial reviews free of charge. Our website may contain affiliate marketing links, which means we may get paid commission on sales of those products or the services we write about. Our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Latest Articles