Steam Detectives #1 ADV 125 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles Released: 10/21/2003 Reviewed: 02/14/2006

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You know the kind of problems I have with listening to the opinions of anime fans on the internet (or anywhere, really). Generally they're wrong, and when they're not wrong they're often still pretty misguided. Example: we all know quite well that I voraciously enjoy Bubblegum Crisis 2040. Unsurprisingly, a lot of other people on the internet also enjoy this show. However, the real reason you should like this show has relatively little (or nothing) to do with: OMG NENE-CHAN KAWAIIII DESU NE?!?! In cases like these I don't know what's more disheartening, genius not being recognized, or genius being recognized for the entirely wrong reasons. Steam Detectives is another show that enjoyed some widely renown on the internet in a time before basically everything you could want to see was available on DVD, but its legend is far greater than something like the humble 2040. Never having been licensed in these United States, the rumors of Steam Detective's greatness became a hydra that the fansub community simply could not control.

Or so I imagine it did. I know it got a lot of talk on the internet, probably even before I knew exactly what the internet was. Probably on BBSes and Compuserve message boards and weird things like that. Point is: a lot of people knew about it and a lot of people said it was really great. I think 'recalcitrant' is a good word to describe my feelings on giving Steam Detectives the benefit of the doubt. I brought these biases with me when I came into the show, which featured goofy nurse-maid characters and ridiculous costumes whose ridiculousness is only surpassed by the ridiculousness of the buttons said costumes contain. The robots that populate the show (oh yes, there are robots) are similarly inane in their character design. Sort of an even more lo-tek Mitsuseru Yokoyama-type deal (think Giant Robo). There are fight scenes with these robots, but they are not the kind of fight scenes you would expect. Nothing surprising when you look at them. They're big, bulky robots aaaand... they sort of just push each other until one falls over. It's fun to watch... in a defeatist sort way.

 

I guess something like this could technically be considered steampunk, at least as much as the original Bubblegum Crisis is "cyberpunk" (i.e.: Not at all), but it's hard to apply that sort of name to something as goofy as Steam Detectives is wont to be. Basically there's a whole bunch of cops that protect the city against a whole bunch of supervillains (with the standard garish costume design) and sometimes the sixteen year old detective's super-powered robot bursts in and saves the day. Not exactly a piss poor setup, right, but definitely not the cream of the crop either. Problem is that basically anything with robots already has me in a sleeperhold from the start. I'm powerless to resist! But Steam Detectives falters as much as it succeeds. There's a lot of goofy stumbling around and a few inconsistencies -- a robot's weakness is revealed to be water, when two episodes prior he was swimming in a canal -- and something just perennially feels "off" with the show. I knew that I sort of liked it, sort of wanted to see more of it, but I had all these niggling doubts.

And that's when I discovered my critical viewing flaw... the problem was with me. Steam Detectives is not made to be watched in a serious way, not even a semiserious way like 2040. So when the giant, clunky, steam-powered robots waddle around on their way to a fight that's how it's supposed to be. And it's okay that the freak scientist in the metal mask can disguise himself as a reporter, get away with it, and then fall in love with his arch nemesis (the robot). What's more, you can watch a freak prance around in latex and it can be kind of cool... it worked for Batman! This show treads a fine line between being too goofy and being just goofy enough, but it does it with a fair amount of aplomb. If you're sympathetic to the Japanese robot genre, and not a whole heck of a lot of people are these days, then there's a lot of ways you can find Steam Detectives charming. I always say I like my robot shows super-serious (like Gasaraki) or super-riduclous (like Getter Robo). Well I should've realized that there isn't just one way for a show to be ridiculous. I can't remember the reasons why the internet fandom community likes this show, it's probably better that I don't, but this is one of the rare occasions when we agree. I'm not gonna pin a medal on this show, but there are worse ways to spend two hours.