Cop Craft is a Japanese light novel series, which was written by Shoji Gatoh (Amagi Brilliant Park)and illustrated by Range Murata (Last Exile). Six volumes have been published by Shogakukan so far since November 2009. An anime television series adaptation by Millepensee (Berserk, Teekyuu ) premiered on July 8, 2019. The final episode aired on September 30, 2019 and concluded 12 episodes series.
15 years ago, an unknown portal opened over the Pacific, leading to an alternative world, called Reto Semaani, to the world, where fairies and demons live. Because of that, San Teresa City is now flooded with immigrants from the parallel world. Of course,neither of the worlds is perfect, so crime starts to thrive with the new types of fraud, drugs, and weapons able to destroy a whole country that are so small that no security service will ever notice. San Teresa City is the place where you can get everything, or lose everything; this is the city of big dreams. The story of Cop Craft focuses on a rather unusual detectives' duo, trying to keep peace in the city: the detective Kei Matoba and the alternate-world knight Tirana. The two are so different that reaching an understanding is problematic sometimes. Nevertheless, they both have their own pride-- to eradicate the crime in the city of San Teresa.
For decades, a duo of cops, detectives, or simple civilians, trying to solve a case have been a tried and true formula not only in cinema, but also in literature. There are plenty titles in anime, too. Such titles as: Jin Rou, Psycho-Pass and Ghost in the Shell will, of course, ring a bell. However, the question is, can Cop Craft even be as good as the trio, or does it, at least, have something new to offer? And the answer to this question is that Cop Craft is worth your while, if you are a fan of the genre. It is does have fantasy and magic in its genres, but, at the same time, it looks somewhat realistic. Let us omit magic and the city of San Teresa looks like a reality that might happen one day. On top of that, Cop Craft focuses on a duo of Cops, who are absolutely different from each other: the language, the ideals, the way they fight, they gender, everything is different. Yet, there is one thing, one desire that makes them closer than anyone else-- they want to eradicate crime. And the way the story-line develops, the way it shows all the possible frustration of Tilarna's in a new world, she knows nothing about is quite enjoyable. One would argue, however, that the story-line does not pay enough attention to Kei's and Tilarna's backgrounds, which might have made it more interesting, or maybe boring. With that being said, the story-line of Cop Craft, while not perfect, manages to answer the needed questions and to offer enough development to understand the main conflict of the series.
Animation wise, it is fine. Although, in 2019 you would expect a better animation, and it is also somewhat obvious that Cop Craft sometimes makes a focus in animation on some scenes and pays little to no attention to others, it is still good. In addition to this, one would expect 'aliens' to look more unique. In Cop Craft, however, one of the main antiheroes, who is a human, looks more unique than any other aliens. Sound wise, it is simply great. Not only that both English and Japanese dubs are as enjoyable, but also Cop Craft has an OST composed by Taku Iwasaki, you must know the name. A genius, making pieces that amazingly fit any series, he is responsible for. Cop Craft is no exception, which gets a pretty enjoyable OST that helps to enjoy the series.
Character wise, the series focuses on the cop duo, consisting of: Tirana Exedirika and Matoba Kei. Tirana is a knight from a parallel world. She has little to no understanding about how the earth police work and that you actually cannot kill a criminal. She does not like Matoba, at first, but later starts to appreciate his dedication to work and his views. Kei Matoba used to be a soldier, now a detective sergeant for the San-Teresa Metropolitan Police and Tirana's partner. Important thing to mention is that Cop Craft characters offer enough development. The moment they duo starts working together, they, let us say, do not appreciate one another: they make fun of each other, try to act independently and just cannot stand each other. But as the series progresses, the duo, actually, understands that they both are trying to fight against the bad guys and it does not matter, where you are from and how your ears look like; they become just like Ray Tango and Gabriel Cash, ready to help one another, ready to risk one's life. And to look how they interact and care for each other is very enjoyable. My biggest regret, however, is that this show has no strong antihero, who would have made both the story-line and characters more interesting.
Enjoyment wise, I did enjoy Cop Craft. From everything it has to offer, it is nearly perfect cop series. However, one major 'but', I hated about this series is fan service. It is not that annoying and it does not appear that often for me to say that this series is ruined because of that, or something like that. But my problem is that you are trying to watch a serious series, or something that is trying to be such, Cop Craft fails in many ways, which you will see in the 8th episode. That is, of course, not that much of a problem, but it is an obvious mistake to make such sudden shift in the series' tone.
Overall, Cop Craft is still worth your while, because of its unusual look on cop duos. Definitely it will not be something you would call a mind-blowing experience, because of the fan-service (which is only in a few episodes) and some things, the story-line does not focus on (it is only a minor flaw), it is still enjoyable. For those who hate fan service, I highly recommend to quickly skip episode 8.
With episode 8: 7/10; Without episode 8: a very weak 8/10.