History Anime / GreatPretender

A followup movie titled ''Great Pretender Razbliuto'' has been confirmed to release in 2024.

A second season titled ''Great Pretender Razbliuto'' has been confirmed to release in 2024.

A second season titled ''"Great Pretender Razbliuto"'' has been confirmed to release in 2024.

** A variety of real life actors get name dropped from ''Creator/LeonardoDicaprio'' to ''Creator/KenWatanabe''.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: A recurring theme with all of the show's villains ([[spoiler: with the exception of Suzaku]]) is that they're powerful men with a low opinion of everyone else. Eddie Cassano uses his power to drug and abuse vulnerable young women, Detective Andersen assumes anyone who isn't white doesn't understand English, Sam Ibrahim thinks that women are only meant to be the "muses" of men and that women over the age of 20 are worthless old hags, and James Coleman is a DirtyOldMan and racist who insults Makoto over his English and is constantly making passes at Abbie. [[spoiler: Clark Ibrahim, however, ends up being [[GoodAllAlong much nicer than his brother.]] While he initially seems to be cut from the same cloth, flirting with Abbie constantly while she doesn't show interest in him, he ends up being more oblivious than entitled. In addition, when his mechanic tells him that he (the mechanic) needs to leave the air races because he "left Dick all alone at home," Clark's first assumption is that Dick is his mechanic's boyfriend. The mechanic clarifies that Dick is actually his ''iguana,'' but it still suggests Clark's a lot more progressive than his brother.]]

* SequelHook: The final episode ends with a number of small hooks related to specific characters, such as [[spoiler: Kudo having a wife and daughter from whom he is estranged, and who he wants to find again,]] and [[spoiler: Cynthia adopting and raising one of the children being trafficked]]. But the biggest two are [[spoiler: Laurent, now working for the President of the United States, talking to Makoto on the phone and asking him [[AndTheAdventureContinues if he's bored]],]] and [[spoiler: Dorothy turning up, [[EasyAmnesia alive but amnesiac,]] in a small fishing village in Taiwan, after her adoptive father finds her old ring in a fish's stomach.]]

* SequelHook: The final episode ends with a number of small hooks related to specific characters, such as [[spoiler: Kudo having a wife and daughter from whom he is estranged, and who he wants to find again,]] and [[spoiler: Laurent having a sister who's been looking for him]]. But the biggest two are [[spoiler: Laurent, now working for the President of the United States, talking to Makoto on the phone and asking him [[AndTheAdventureContinues if he's bored]],]] and [[spoiler: Dorothy turning up, [[EasyAmnesia alive but amnesiac,]] in a small fishing village in Taiwan, after her adoptive father finds her old ring in a fish's stomach.]]

** Team Confidence's members used to include [[spoiler: [[Literature/TheWizardOfOz a wizard named Oz and a woman named Dorothy.]]]]

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Despite Laurent and Edamame speaking accented English, their grammar and pronunciations are correct, and they speak clear enough for the average English speaker to comprehend what they are saying. In the Japanese version, they have the English-speaking (but French) Stefano Paganini do Laurent's most fluent lines.

* WatchingTheSunset: In the fourth arc, Makoto and Laurent have a heartfelt conversation about their career together while watching the sunset. This is one of the last peaceful moments before the show [[CerebusSyndrome takes a darker turn]].

* HomoeroticSubtext: Laurent is rather affectionate towards Makoto, both in his manner of speech and his [[NoSenseOfPersonalSpace physicality,]] and the show stops just shy of stating whether it's something he does [[TheGadfly just to mess with the kid]], or if it's because he's genuinely trying to flirt with him. The closest it comes to a confirmation one way or another is when Laurent tries to flirt with Cynthia, and she responds that she "thought Edamame was [his] favorite." But it's left ambiguous as to whether she's just teasing him about his favoritism, or whether he's genuinely attracted to Makoto, keeping things as subtext.

** Sam Ibrahim uses "[[Music/DreamTheater Mike Portnoy]]" as a fake name at the underground casino in the Singapore Sky arc. Laurent even responds by asking him if he's "the one from that theater group".

* TranquilFury: After Sam insults Cynthia's wrinkles and calls her a "disgusting old cougar," she keeps a very tight-lipped smile turned toward him. SmashCut to her hotel room, and she's beating the literal stuffing out of a pillow while raging about how horrible he is.

* FriendshipTrinket: Makoto has a tendency to buy or give capsule toys to people when he likes them. He trades a samurai toy to Salazar's son Tom in exchange for his gangster toy, and he gives a UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi toy to Laurent. [[spoiler: Considering that Laurent holds onto it until the end of the series, even after chucking his TragicKeepsake, it clearly meant a lot to him.]]

* DirtyCop: In "Los Angeles Connection," the LAPD are shown to be incompetent at best, and racist scumbags being outright paid off by Eddie Cassano at worst.

* FriendshipTrinket: Makoto has a tendency to buy or give capsule toys to people when he likes them. He gets a cops-and-robbers themed capsule toy for Salazar's son, and he gives a UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi toy to Laurent. [[spoiler: Considering that Laurent holds onto it until the end of the series, even after chucking his TragicKeepsake, it clearly meant a lot to him.]]

* InsertSong: The show heavily uses insert songs, both licensed and original. It has a number of original songs that it uses in its most emotional scenes (such as its {{Award Bait Song}}s "Someday" and "Our Love"), but it also uses licensed hip-hop and R&B, often from American artists. The very first episode uses a Music/KidCudi song, for example.
* InterchangeableAsianCultures: Discussed in Snow of London; French people don't care to distinguish the minutiae between Asian cultures. This is why Makoto's Chinese bosses run a sushi restaurant (and later, a Thai restaurant).

** Halfway through the first arc, in episode 3, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Makoto and Laurent didn't meet by chance--Laurent was actively scouting Makoto with the help of Kudo]].

* ThePlace: Each arc's title is named after its central location: "'''Los Angeles''' Connection," "'''Singapore''' Sky," "Snow of '''London,'''" and "Wizard of '''Far East'''".

* TheReveal: Episode 5: Paula Dickens' [[spoiler:real name is Cynthia Moore and she & her FBI team were all members of Laurent's gang.]]

** The bad movie series Cassano produces is named the "[[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Razzie]]" series.
** During the Los Angeles Connection arc, when [[spoiler:Edamame is forced to actually cook Sakura Magic]], the FBI agent tells him to "act like [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]]."

* TitledAfterTheSong: "The Great Pretender" (most specifically the cover by none other than Music/FreddieMercury) plays in the end credits. The credits are even (mostly) a copy of Mercury's music video starting Mercury's cats.

* FairWeatherFriends: The "official" motto of the confidence team is, "We're not friends, and we're not family. Screw up, and we'll dump you." [[SubvertedTrope Circumstances, however, do not bear this out,]] as they readily rush to one another's aid when things go south.

* RageAgainstTheMentor: While Makoto is almost always at odds with Laurent, it comes to a head when [[spoiler: he discovers that Laurent has been using him throughout their entire career together as part of a LongCon to get revenge on the man who murdered his lover. Makoto outright punches Laurent in the face, in public, over it--and privately begins planning revenge of his own.]]

* StoryArc: The show is built around 4 story arcs that take place in different locations, in which Laurent and his team take aim at a [[TheMark certain mark]] as part of a [[TheCon long con]].