Repost from April of last year.

There are three rules for this detective agency.

  • Be pretty
  • Be a boy
  • Be a detective

After the first episode, I can say they are definitely pretty! I’m pretty darn sure they are boys. But are they detectives?

Now after the second episode, yup, they are detectives of a sort. I think I’m falling in love with this show.

Dramatis Personae:

Hey there, you with the stars in your eyes!


Mayumi Dojima is our protagonist. Her vision is extremely good. As a child, she saw a star that nobody else could see and was entranced by it. Ever since she has dreamed of being an astronaut and has spent her nights looking for it but it is gone without a record. Her parents belittle this dream and tell her she must drop this obsession by her 14th birthday.

She is on the rooftop watching the stars when suddenly she is surprised and accidentally falls off. The mysterious person who surprised her saves her. And so begins her association with the Pretty Boys Detective Club.

Mayumi is a stunning beauty and her most beautiful feature is her eyes, eyes that see what nobody else can.

Manabu Sotoin is the president of the club. He is “Manabu the aesthete,” the one who sees the beauty in others and brings it out. When he solves a case, he wants to do it in an aesthetically beautiful way. He also makes a very pretty girl when he needs a disguise.

Nagahiro Sakiguchi is the vice president of the club. He’s called “Nagahiro the orator” because of his beautiful voice which professional voice actors and politicians envy. He’s also president of the student council.

Michiru Fukuroi has a reputation as a delinquent. He grew up on the hard side of life and had to scavenge for food. He’s now “Michiru the Epicure,” and uses that drive to produce food that is godly in flavor.

Hyota Ashikaga is the top runner on the school track team. His magnificent legs got him the nickname of “Hyota, the Adonis.” Because of the beauty of his legs he only wears shorts.

Well… if you’ve got ’em, might as well flaunt ’em! 🙂

…Sosaku Yubiwa is “Sosaku the artiste.” At 12 he is the genius chairman of the foundation that funds the extremely wealthy private school our characters attend but his real joy is making perfect copies of great art.

Mayumi has a problem. The star she saw 10 years earlier when she was 4 disappeared and no one has any record of its existence. It inspired her dream of becoming an astronaut, a dream her parents have commanded her to drop on her 14th birthday. Whether she abandons her dream hinges in her mind on whether she really saw it or if it was just the imagination of a little girl. Manabu is taken by the beauty in her eyes and accepts the case.

A dream is a beautiful thing. Abandoning a dream can be a beautiful thing too, as long as you abandon it of your own free will.

You’re looking for something, aren’t you?

The immediate cut from what I thought was a typo in the English sub to the nude statuary was too perfect for it not to be intentional. I have no idea of how this would have worked in Japanese. So clever!

And we’re off to a crazy story involving military secrets, double cross-dressing as a disguise and a shadowy government agent. The boys insist that they stay boys and keep that inner child alive, a lesson not lost on Mayumi. The visuals are gorgeous with saturated colors The characters are among the prettiest I have seen. Her dream of being an astronaut hooked me from the start and reminded me of myself at that age, gazing at the stars and wanting to explore the universe.

I could get lost in those eyes forever!

The real plot of the story? it is about Manabu’s reluctance to grow up and abandon the interesting and idealistic in favor of the mundane and necessary – and his friend’s willingness to help him delay that just a few more years.