Steam Detectives - The TV Animation Series

—by Maria M. Rider

"The streets here are continually enveloped in a white mist. Steam comes out of everywhere, covering the streets and buildings. Because coal was the only fuel available, this city developed an incredibly advanced steam technology. Unfortunately, villains take advantage of this white fog to commit countless crimes and continually baffle the police. At night, the white mist shrouds the darkness, intimidating everyone. People call this city enveloped in mist...Steam City." This opening quote introduces us to not only Asamiya Kia's manga, but also the new TV animation series, STEAM DETECTIVES.
The story centers around a young boy named Narutaki whose parents were killed by some villains long ago. Narutaki's father was a revered detective in Steam City; now Narutaki and his butler Kawakubo continue the family tradition to help the Steam City police solve crimes around the city.
Narutaki works closely with Inspector Yagami to solve crimes. With the aide of Ling-Ling, an able-bodied nurse and her megamaton Goriki, they make an unstoppable crime-fighting team. Goriki is a megamaton, or mechanical robot that runs on steam power, which contains the mind of Ling-Ling's father, Doctor Hsu. And despite their working relationship, Inspector Onigawara who always tries to upstage Narutaki in solving the crimes around Steam City, just ends up looking like a fool most of the time and is good comic relief.
Just like any detective action hero show, there always has to be an antagonist, and the television series does not falter in providing a large crop of villains. Lu Bread, a sort of evil Tuxedo Kamen, is also a boy himself and considers himself Narutaki's rival. Lu Bread's assistant, the equally charming, Lang-Lang is also a nurse and just happens to be Ling-Ling's older sister. The other major antagonist is Night of Phantom who looks much like Batman, but a more evil version. Phantom's exact agenda for Narutaki is a closely-guarded secret, but apparent he knows something about the death of Narutaki's parents.
There are other villains which try to destroy Steam City for their own evil agendas, like the evil Doctor Guilty who tries to build the better megamaton to defeat Goriki. Goriki was developed by Doctor Hsu, Ling-Ling's father and always seems to beat out the two incarnations of Shadow Bolt, Doctor Guilty's megamaton. In one of the TV episodes, Dr. Mayerd assists in rebuilding Shadow Bolt No. 1 which battles against the new Shadow Bolt No. 2 that wreaked havoc on the underground coal mines of Steam City. Doctor Mayerd was Doctor Hsu's assistant and continues to help out the Steam City Police Department.
One of the more interesting things in the show is the special gun that Narutaki uses. Not an ordinary gun, it uses several attachments to shoot different types of projectiles at enemies. Some of the gun's features are a Wire feature, which shoots a wire rope for scaling walls or apprehending criminals, and a Fire Extinguishing feature which puts out towering flames.
The series shows a lot of promise and the art style is in league with Asamiya's other titles, SILENT MÖBIUS and MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO. In fact, Xebec, the studio handling the animation, did NADESICO as well. The TV series seemed like a cross between the Dick Tracy movie and Batman with its bold solid colors, yet dark, foreboding backgrounds. The people of Steam City have a unique fashion of wearing trench coats and other clothing with large round buttons on them. The bright solid colors used with the coats and jackets of the Steam City natives is quite simple, yet stylish.
There is a lot of vocal music played in the background of this series. The music has a jazz theme to it with a sultry female voice singing to a jazz band. The singer, Elika, has a very strong, driving voice much like MIO, the famous anime singer who has done songs for shows such as AURA BATTLER DUNBINE and GUNDAM 0083.
While the series has yet to be released for sale in any format, when it is, the author will be sure to add it to her list of things to buy.

Currently on Japanese TV