Detective Joe Furuya gets pulled back into the life of an Anime Crimes Division Detective when an old friend is found murdered...
"The Case Promised in Our Early Days" provides examples of:
- Black and Nerdy: Chief Brody was designed to be this, being a stickler for rules with a nasal voice and large glasses.
- Cold Turkeys Everywhere: Joe has renounced anime and has even willingly put on a Shock Collar (well, bracelet) that zaps him to keep him from liking it again. However, since he still lives in Neo Otaku City at the moment, anime fandom and cliches are everywhere.
- Exact Words: When they were kids, Joe made a promise to Hideki that he would never quit the police force (in the future, of-course), he would avenge his murder if he was ever murdered (which he was) and that he would never stop even after he would grow to despise anime (which he does).
- Hypocritical Humor: In the audition tape Joe films for Prestige TV City, he espouses how much he hates anime by using various offhand anime-references to describe it. After he agrees to help with the case, he does a Transformation Sequence right out of Sailor Moon.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: This little exchange.Wong: See, some of us can actually keep our partners around. Or did you forget what happened between you and Joe last season?
Diesel: You mean spring?
Wong: Yea. Spring. The season before this one.
Diesel: You could have just said spring. - Mundane Made Awesome: To get Joe to agree to help with the case, Diesel uses the tape she has on-hand for tape-squad to repair the broken golf club and then uses it to stop Nobu from getting away by putting it with a golf-ball, hitting him in the head.
- Pinky Swear: When they were kids, Joe promised Hideki that if he ever died, Joe would investigate his murder and bring in the perp. When Joe is told of his death, he breaks his pinky to try and get out of it.
- Police Are Useless: When Joe quit, the other cops in the ACD would not partner up with her because they act like it was her fault that he left and would bully her constantly while the new chief put her on Tape Squad - a job where she is only allowed to do police work if tape is involved somehow and squandering her skills, experience and training - for seemingly no reason. Murphy and Wong in particular are the worst, being the ones who pick on her and completely dismiss whatever observations she could have made.
- Rousing Speech: Discussed as a Sports Story trope — as a coach, Furuya's supposed to inspire his students at a climactic match moment with a speech about the sport. Furuya refuses to do so at first, but then gives one during his He's Back! moment."Golf is a metaphor...?"
- Satchel Switcheroo: Nobu accidentally steals Joe's envelope with the money for his audition fee, thinking its his love-confession to Sasaki.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Members in Tape Squad - the department Chief Brody transferred Diesel too - are barred from doing any detective work if it doesn't involve tape in some way.
- Transformation Sequence: Furuya gets one when he picks up his badge, ala Magical Girls like Sailor Moon.
- Troperiffic: When Hideki Jones is found murdered, regular cops are investigating until the Anime Crimes Division shows up to take over. It is not until Diesel tells them that he was an informant for the ACD and the regular cops recount the crime scene - a man found death in an old-timey phone-booth, having been on the phone with an old photo in his hand - do they realize that the entire thing is set up like a scene in an anime and they leave.
