Follow TV Tropes

Following

Web Video / Anime Crimes Division

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/animecrimesdivision.jpg

"In Neo Otaku City, there are two kinds of people. The kind that can recite the Sailor Moon theme song from memory in the original Japanese, and the kind who don't belong here."

Anime Crimes Division is a 2017 web series by Rocket Jump, in conjunction with Crunchyroll.

The Anime Crimes Division handles all anime and manga-related crimes in Neo Otaku City. SungWon Cho stars as Detective Furuya, a hard-boiled and experienced member of the division. He and his new partner, rookie Detective Diesel (Riley Rose Critchlow), proceed to fight crime.

The first episode was released on November 16, 2017. Watch it here. The first episode of the second season was released on September 7, 2018.


Anime Crimes Division provides examples of:

  • Chekhov's Gun: Throughout Season 2, Furuya has a gadget that shocks him whenever he regains his love for anime to remind him of the dark side of its fandom and stop loving it. When the blood drive is destroyed by him under mind control, the resurgence in his love for anime thanks to Mama Sasuke's disk causes the gadget to generate enough electricity to destroy the limiter with a lighting bolt.
  • Chekhov's Gunman:
    • "ACD_AMV.wmv" introduces Mama Sasuke, who's got a case of terminal malware in an attempt to bootleg the next season of Attack on Titan through the dark web. Because of this, her blood is the only thing that can short out the limiter in "Blood: The Last Hard Drive" later on. Not only that, but she also gave a disk shortly after her blood donation that showed Furuya why he would be in love with anime in the first place. When the drive containing her blood was destroyed in the season finale, the disk snapped him out of the brainwashing and restored his love for anime.
    • The girl who is a fan of Furuya in "Silence of the Fireflies". She helps make Joe do the final push to breach his love for anime to go beyond 100% in the season finale, allowing him to enter his Super Mode to destroy the limiter.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Nancy orders her men to take the captured Furuya to the "binge chamber" instead of killing him. In-Universe, it's considered a Fate Worse than Death if Furuya's reaction is anything to go by.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Mocked in "Blood: The Last Hard Drive" by a minor character who says one of the things he misses about anime is the characters staring into the open while having an internal monologue to save on animation.
  • Creator Cameo: Darnell Murphy and Freddie Wong appear as fellow ACD cops in Season 2. They're Officer Wong and Officer Murphy respectively.
  • Darker and Edgier: Season 1 starts out parodying otaku culture and is treated as Serious Business. Outside of a boy being banished to the Shadow Realm, no one dies or get hurt. In Season 2, real people start dying left and right from an actual evil conspiracy replicating the saddest anime deaths in history. Even its trailer shows police officer casualties brought about by exploding Saibaman bombs.
  • Dawson Casting: One of the discs in the Binge Chamber is labeled "Twenty-Somethings Playing Teenagers", referencing the trope In-Universe.
  • Disconnected by Death: Discussed and invoked. The "normal" cop realizes that the murder is anime-related when he realizes the victim was shot in an old-style phone booth holding a photograph of his friend. The murderer was imitating such a death from Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • Drunk on Milk: Furuya chows down on Pocky in lieu of smoking and drinks marble soda instead of alcohol.
    Furuya: I'm quitting.
  • Expy: Chief bears an uncanny resemblance to Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, complete with hat and greying beard.
  • Expo Label: Furuya's second, otherwise identical gun: THIS ONE FIRES REAL BULLETS
  • Eye Scream: Since Furuya only has a cosplay gun, he takes down a perp by shooting a BB into his eye.
  • Failed Attempt at Drama:
    • When Drowning His Sorrows, Furuya wrestles a bottle of marble soda away from the bartender and dramatically tries to open it, but he fails.
    • "Blood: The Last Hard Drive" has Diesel attempting to sabotage TOXIC's limiter on the fiber connection by plugging Mama Sasuke's malware-contaminated blood into a computer's USB port. She has some issues actually plugging in the USB, however.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Furuya has an airsoft pistol. Subverted in that the rest of the force has actual guns, it's just that Furuya was banned from them after a bit of Reckless Gun Usage.
  • Faux Horrific: Having to pretend Dragon Ball Evolution was better than the source material makes Joe physically ill.
  • Fingore: Furuya breaks each of his pinky fingers after Hideki and Officer Vink are murdered in succession out of anger and frustration upon realizing that he just roped himself into a situation beyond his control and thought could never happen.
  • Felony Misdemeanor: Played with in Season 1. None of the "crimes" that take place in this show are even remotely serious and are at worst fandom grievances, but they are nonetheless treated with grave importance. Only the main crime in "Playing for Keeps" could even be considered an actual crime, considering how limited exclusive and one-of-a-kind TGC cards actually do fetch a very hefty sum and would actually be grounds for a case due to value.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In Season 2 the serial killer carries out his murders using the saddest deaths in anime as a reference. Officer Vink's death mirrors Yamcha's, which was treated as a joke. He was actually Faking the Dead.
    • In Season 2, the new Chief has a police tape X between him and what appears to be an upside-down image of Lady Justice. Turns out he's corrupt. Also, Joe's background is vertically and color inverted. He gets brainwashed to hate anime and love prestige TV, when his normal preferences are the reverse.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In Season 2, Diesel, a noted fan of Digimon Adventure, is wearing a replica necklace from the show - the Crest (which each protagonist in the show had) within it seems to be reflective of her feelings in any particular scene. In the first two episodes, while trying to reconnect with Joe and bring him back to the ACD, she's often seen wearing the Crest of Friendship. She's briefly seen wearing the Crest of Hope at the end of "Silence of the Fireflies" when they're back on speaking terms. In "The Beach Episode", however, the Crest keeps changing - sometimes it's Friendship, and other times it's Love. However, this isn't a continuity error, but an effect of the location the episode is taking place in. Prestige TV City, being a location run on live-action tropes, is applying a Will They or Won't They? bent to Diesel and Joe's interactions, something they're both aware of and resisting. Later on when Diesel and Joe spy on the villains' meeting, it's very briefly the Crest of Knowledge as they discover the depth of the conspiracy. In "Blood: The Last Hard Drive", her tag changes to Hope when she discovers that Mama Sasuke's malware-infected blood can short out the limiter and it becomes Courage when storming through the server room.
  • Genre Savvy: Everyone is well-aware of anime and manga tropes, frequently lampshading, discussing, or conversing them.
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop: During Sasuke's interrogation, Furuya is the Bad Cop (yelling, punching the table, and threatening) while Diesel is the Good Cop (doubting the interrogation since they don't have evidence and stopping Furuya when his threats go too far).
  • Hallway Fight: Joe fights a squadron of prestige TV mooks in a hallway.
  • Hannibal Lecture: In Season 2. When Diesel goes to the prison to get information from the previous chief as to who the serial killer is in an obvious homage to Silence of the Lambs, the former does this in an attempt to break her, almost copying the Trope Namer. But it fails and in the process it is accidentally revealed that Joe is the next target for the killer.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Joe sacrifices himself to let Diesel escape in "The Beach Episode".
    • In "Blood: The Last Hard Drive", Mama Sasuke offers Diesel her malware-infected blood in order to destroy the limiter on the fiber connection and dies as a result of the draining process as the amount required is enough to make her to die of blood loss.
  • Hong Kong Dub: Parodied. The dubber gang, naturally, have their lines poorly dubbed over the actors moving their mouths randomly.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Diesel's primary motivation. She left her privileged upbringing in Prestige TV City for Neo Otaku City, and hoped that by joining the ACD she would gain acceptance in this community.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison:
    • Sasuke reveals he knows about Hideki's anime murder even though it wasn't yet revealed to the public.
    • This is also how Diesel figures out that Joe is the next victim of the serial killer as the previous chief mid-Hannibal Lecture tells her that she will never see Joe again to break her spirit.
  • In-Universe Factoid Failure: The Gundam Killer features several Gundam-related errors:
    • Furuya's Dom model was explicitly called an "MS-09R" from Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. However, the MS-09R was the Rick Dom, which never appeared in said OVA.
    • The first victim of the Gundam Killer was an MS-06 Zaku II said to be from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. However, the Zaku model shown was the standard Zaku II, rather than the Zaku II Kai from the OVA.
    • Diesel says nothing connects the first two victims, even though the Zaku II was seen holding the beam rifle of the second victim, Zephyranthes. The beam rifle was even given its own photo on the evidence board.
    • Most glaringly, Gunpla is referred to as "Gundam" multiple times, even though two out of the three Gunplas shown in the episode aren't Gundams.
  • Jack the Ripoff: Parodied. The premise of season two involves a serial killer recreating iconic anime deaths in real life.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence:
    • Sasuke dies of a heart attack while saying a name.
    • Chief Brody gets gunned down by Diesel in the middle of a dramatic monologue.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the ACD detectives in the season 2 premiere mentions what went down with Furuya last season. He meant last spring, since it's now summer.
  • The Ludovico Technique: The Binge Chamber in Prestige TV City which Nancy subjects Joe to in an attempt to make him an agent of their side.
  • New Neo City: The show takes place in "Neo Otaku City."
  • Ninja Run: Given how shows like Naruto helped popularize this trope, it's only natural that chase scenes in an affectionate parody would be done this way, even when the characters doing so are cops and not ninjas.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: When the tropes of Prestige TV City start affecting Diesel and Furuya's relationship, she lampshades that in Neo Otaku City they would just be a couple of asexual cops because of anime rules.
  • No True Scotsman: TOXIC believes that any anime fan who doesn't conform to their standards is obviously a "fake fan."
  • Old Cop, Young Cop: Grizzled detective Furuya and idealistic rookie Diesel. In a reversal of the typical roles, the older one is the Cowboy Cop while the younger one is the By-the-Book Cop.
  • Out-of-Genre Experience: What Diesel and Joe go through in Prestige TV City, as they are forced to subject themselves to the dynamics of Live-Action TV.
  • Overly Long Scream: Due to parodying extended transformations and the accompanying kiais, Joe's Battle Cry goes on for nearly three minutes.
  • Painting the Medium: Members of the subbing gang speak in Japanese, with subtitles appearing below them and translator's notes appearing above them; members of the dubbing gang clearly have English dubbed over their mouth movements.
  • The Power of Friendship: Conversed. "Did you think your life would be like Fairy Tail — that friendship would save you in the end?"
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
    • Joe gets one, fittingly, in Prestige TV City.
      Joe: You know, I once watched the first episode of The Wire. It was boring. [cue Hallway Fight]
    • Diesel gives one to Chief Brody and his goons.
      Chief Brody: Did you think this was like Fairy Tail, that friendship would save you in the end?
      Diesel: No, I'm more a fan of Digimon, and in Digimon, you just fuck people up. [proceeds to shoot each of them one by one]
  • Previously on…: Lampshaded in "Blood: The Last Hard Drive", where a news report shows what TOXIC has been up to. Nancy turns it off and says that it's enough of a recap.
  • Product Placement: Pocky and Gundam, among others.
  • The Promise: Joe and Hideki pinky-promised that if one of them were murdered, the other would avenge him. Joe tries to get out of it by breaking his pinky, but it's too strong. Joe also made a similar promise to Officer Vink ("promise me you'll never let me die"). He breaks both pinkies when they die.
  • Reformed Criminal: Apparently Joe used to be an AMV creator, which in this world translates to something between a graffiti artist and a bootlegger.
  • Running Gag: In Season 2, Diesel and Joe are both shown to be confused when someone refers to 'last season' or 'third season', thinking they literally mean the time of year (which given the way this show works, they do).
  • Self-Deprecation: One of the shows used to torture people in the Binge Chamber is Rocket Jump's own Video Game High School.
  • Sequel Hook:
    • At the end of Season 1, Furuya leaves the force and the city after being broken by the Chief's betrayal, and there's someone who's set this all up.
    • At the end of Season 2, the limiter is destroyed. However, the season ends with Furuya getting shot the moment his Transformation Sequence is finished, a distraught Diesel trying to save him and TOXIC is still in control over the rest of Neo Otaku City.
  • Serial Killer:
    • Parodied. "The Gundam Killer" features a serial Gundam destroyer, but since all anime and manga related crimes are treated as Serious Business, he's treated as a serial killer.
    • Season 2 features one committing real murders using the saddest deaths in anime history as a playbook.
  • Serious Business: There are gang wars over subbing vs dubbing, Pocky is a drug, body pillows are part of the sex trade, a dismembered Gundam is treated like a murder, playing for keeps in Yu-Gi-Oh! is treated as unforgivable, and in "The Gundam Killer" the Chief creating a lazy kitbash out of stolen parts for his Gundam fanfiction is treated both like an earth-shattering revelation and a world-ending Evil Plan.
  • Shout-Out: Has its own page.
  • Slow-Paced Beginning: Referenced In-Universe in the motto of Prestige TV City: "Give it a chance! It gets better after the first two seasons!"
  • Spoiler Opening: The only person actually pointing a gun in the first season intro is a sinister bearded figure, pointing it at a vertically-inverted reflection. Look closer; it's Da Chief, and there's two of him because he's hiding his real agenda. You know, 'cause he's two-faced.
  • Spoiling Shout-Out:
  • Super Mode: Joe embracing his love of anime in "The Saddest Anime Death of All Time" makes him shoot lightning, cause a storm, raise a Pillar of Light, temporarily resurrect his friend Hideki, and scream for nearly 3 minutes straight.
  • SWAT Team: The division's SWAT team appears in the second season, in keeping with what's mentioned above in Darker and Edgier.
  • Talk to the Fist: Combined with Killed Mid-Sentence, Diesel does this to Chief Brody while he's gloating to her about the extermination of fake anime fans.
  • Take That!:
    • In order to move to Prestige TV City, Furuya complains that he had to pretend to like and familiarize himself with Westworld.
    • Nancy proceeds to gush about Dragon Ball Evolution to see if Furuya is desensitized enough from anime or pretty much normal TV in general to not care about how bad it is. Poor guy was struggling not to fly into a rage throughout her gushing, and actually vomits on the beach in disgust shortly after the interview.
    • The Evil Plan in Season 2 is by TOXIC who are comprised of die-hard anime fanatics who wants to make Neo Otaku City cater only to the most hardcore of anime fans while teaming up with Prestige TV City to control the streaming market in Neo Otaku City so that normal fans would be stuck with nothing but bad-live action dramas and Family Guy.
    • Nancy says their live-action dramas have multi-long seasons that ultimately go nowhere.
    • Diesel complains that they miss being "two asexual cops in an anime town", no doubt poking fun at forced romantic subplots in general.
    • To make him know what real TV is, Nancy orders her men to take the captured Furuya to the "binge chamber".
    • What was the series that Nancy use to break Furuya in the "binge chamber"? Video Game High School. Counts as Self-Deprecation as it was made by the same people.
    • When the corrupt chief Brody goes into his villainous monologue, Diesel just shoots him instead of listening to him.
    • While brainwashed, Furuya says that anime is worse than the last season of Dexter and the Minions movie is a masterpiece.
    • As a jab at the widespread usage of the Anti-Villain trope, the bodyguards around Ms. Prestige start gushing about how "complicated and nuanced" their charge is when she says that she did all this to bring Diesel back to Prestige TV City. When Diesel smacks her with a pistol, the guards simply carry Ms. Prestige while gushing about how exquisite the family drama is, and don't try to stop Diesel until she outright orders them to.
  • Time Skip: Three months have passed between the events of Season 1 and 2.
  • Translation: "Yes": A long Japanese sentence spoken by the leader of the Subber gang is subbed as simply "No...!"
  • Unfortunate Item Swap: Joe's application for moving to Prestige Television City is swapped with his student's love letter when they bump into each other.
  • Viewer-Friendly Interface: Diesel's phone in "Blood: The Last Hard Drive" flashes "Error: No Connectivity" in red.
  • Vomiting Cop: First, Diesel gags on bubble tea when chief introduce her. Then she loses her lunch at the sight of a dismembered Gundam. In a flashback to a similar murder Furuya appears to be gagging.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Furuya throws up after being forced to agree that Dragon Ball Evolution was better than the source material.
  • We Can Rule Together: Nancy seems to be wanting to pull this on her daughter, Diesel, to get the latter to realize that leaving her home for Neo Otaku City was a mistake and that Nancy was right all along.
  • What's an X Like You Doing in a Y Like This?: When Diesel infiltrates an underground Yu-Gi-Oh! game: "What is a lovely card shark like yourself doing all alone in a place like this?"
  • Why Couldn't You Be Different?: How Nancy feels about Diesel with regards to her identifying with Otaku culture as opposed to live action TV culture.
  • Will They or Won't They?:
    • Lampshaded in "The Beach Episode". When Joe and Diesel are being interviewed by Nancy, she marks down their relationship status as such. It's also lampshaded by Diesel's crest necklace constantly switching between the Friendship and Love crests in the same episode.
    • Conversed; when Furuya questions if confessing their feelings would make all the tension go away, Diesel compares it to Friends.
    • Diesel states that this is an effect of Prestige TV City itself, and not reflective of their actual relationship in Neo Otaku City, meaning the use of this trope is the result of an in-universe Out-of-Genre Experience.
      Diesel: I hate what this city does to people. I miss being two asexual cops in an anime town.
      Joe: That's not the only thing I'll miss.
      Diesel: What- Who, will you miss?
      Joe: Goddammit. We're doing it again. Just go.
    • The effect seems to linger outside of Prestige TV City, since Diesel admits to a brainwashed Joe in "Blood: The Last Hard Drive" that she has the "will-they-won't-theys" for him.
  • World of Ham:
    • In Neo Otaku City, everyone is a die-hard Otaku and anything involving anime, manga and merchandise there-of is treated like Serious Business. Street gangs based on the "Subs or Dubs" rivalry roam the streets, the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game is treated as seriously as it is in the anime (including the bartering of souls), disassembling toy Gundams is treated as seriously as murder and there is an entire division of law enforcement centered around it.
    • Prestige Television City is similar to Neo Otaku City, only it applies to live-action American/British Dramas.

Top