Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu Episodes 1~3

I very much enjoyed Hamabe Minami in Pure, a new version of Trick made by NHK last year. Someone at TV Asahi must have thought the same and now we have Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu which is sort of like Trick and Pure and not.

Hamabe Minami is the girl who actually does the problem solving and Yasuda Ken is the useless detective who needs her help and takes all the credit. So far, sounds like Trick and Pure and there's something that is missing.

In Pure, Hamabe Minami is idoru who pretends to be Pure on the outside and mischievous and calculating on the inside. The comedy is in the fact that while she is good at solving cases, she sucks at her day job of being an idoru and both main characters need each other.

Hamabe Minami in Alibi Kuzushi is just a nice girl running a watch shop with no customers and too much time on her hands. There's no bickering between her and Yasuda Ken to make their relationship entertaining.

In fact, most of the bickering is between Yasuda Ken and Narita Ryo plays Junior, a policeman who's dad is a politician so everyone sucks up to him. Narita Ryo exists so that Hamabe Minami has an easy excuse to get involved in the investigations and play antagonist to Yasuda Ken.

I don't like Narita Ryo's character because he is just an annoying third wheel and Yasuda Ken should be bickering with Hamabe Minami instead.

I don't hate Alibi Kuzushi. I'm going to keep watching and hoping that it improves but it could have been so much more. Watch Pure if you haven't but otherwise meh.