Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Great Pretender’ on Netflix, an Aesthetically Unusual Anime About Weaselly Scam Artists

An anime based on nothing but its own restless creativity, Great Pretender hits Netflix internationally, having built some hype with its Japanese debut a couple months earlier. The crime-comedy series is a product of WIT Studio, which produced the wildly popular sci-fi franchise Attack on Titan. But Great Pretender is a wholly different endeavor.

GREAT PRETENDER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A POV shot of an eye opening on an upside-down landscape.

The Gist: Edamura (voice of Alan Lee) is inverted, and finally conscious. He dangles by his feet from the iconic Hollywood sign looming over Los Angeles, and does what anyone might do in this less-than-ideal situation: “HELLLLLLPP,” he bleats.

Flashback: Tokyo. Edamura and his partner Kudo (Mike Pollock) run a successful scam targeting the elderly — one poses as an obviously phony rep from the waterworks bureau, and then the other swoops in as the “real” rep, selling their victim a water filter for way more than it’s worth. They’re very good at this type of petty bilkery, or so they think. They team up on an English-speaking, French-accented tourist to do a you-dropped-your-wallet switcheroo, but when they get home, they realize THEY ended up with the wallet full of news clippings instead of cash. The bilkers have become the bilkees.

Then, the cops arrive at the apartment. They split up, and Edamura bolts out the window, over the neighbors’ balcony patios, through a clothesline, to the ground, then darts into a cab that happens to be occupied by that very same English-speaking, French-accented tourist, whose name is Laurent (Aaron Phillips). Edamura follows the guy to the airport, then on a plane that lands in Los Angeles. What the hell, it was probably a good idea for him to skip town anyway.

Laurent, of course, is a bilkmaster too, and likely a much better one than Johnny Smalltime here. That doesn’t stop him from recruiting Edamura to be his partner in a scheme involving the sale of “Japanese candy,” and an overconfident Edamura says he can get twice as much money for it, in a situation he knows bubkus about at this point. Whatta fool, right? The gig requires them to buy crisp new suits and visit a mansion guarded by thick heavies who lead them to a big-time movie producer who just got out of the clink on a million bucks bail because he’s also a gangster; his name is Eddie Cassano (Fred Tatasciore).

Considering what happens next, Laurent clearly aims to hook bigger fish than Edamura has ever landed. The candy ends up being some type of drug, given to test subject Abby (Kausar Mohammed), characterized by Eddie as a stereotypically dimbulbed actress wannabe who lounges around his pool in a bikini. She flips out, impressing Eddie with the drug’s potency. Laurent then force-feeds one of the candies to Edamura, who also flips out, grabs a pistol, fires a round, then escapes over the gate. He ends up in an alleyway next to trash cans, where Laurent and Abby track him down. Oh, by the way, Abby is his partner. She knocks out Edamura with a kick, and when he wakes up, he’s hanging upside down from the Hollywood sign. This is what you might call a predicament.

Our Take: I’m not entirely sure Great Pretender sets its hook deep enough with the first episode, which hinges heavily on the dumb coincidence (or maybe Laurent’s improbable scheme?) of the reunion in the taxi, and reaches a dramatic climax — Edamura’s wild snit — that unfolds with a lack of narrative sense that hopefully will be clarified in the next episode. The series’ opening 24 minutes establishes colorful characters whose actions and motivations are too obtuse for such brevity.

Whether you keep watching probably isn’t in question; plenty of reasons exist to let the autoplay do its thing. E.g.: A throwback big-band jazz opening theme (instead of the usual anime glossy, overproduced, chirpy guitar rock). Scratchy-watercolor background animation that’s gorgeous, detailed and distinctive. A lineup of episodes divided into three arcs set in L.A., Singapore and London. And an end-credits sequence in which three cats sing backup to Freddie Mercury’s version of The Great Pretender, which makes no sense, but is nonetheless terrific. The series boasts a slightly kitschy ’60s spy-movie vibe that has me picturing James Coburn and his delightfully untrustworthy smile playing Laurent. Yes, that’s a high compliment.

Sex and Skin: None so far.

Parting Shot: Abby and Laurent look up at Edamura as he dangles from the Y. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU ANYWAY?” Edamura yells. “I’m a confidence man!” is Laurent’s reply.

Sleeper Star: At this point, Abby’s ability to perform a Karate Kid crane kick affords her this honor.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m Japan’s best scam artist,” Edamura declares, which is the kind of ridiculous boast that demands a lesson in humility.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The pilot episode isn’t flawless, but Great Pretender is on point in its tone and aesthetic, and holds tremendous promise.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Great Pretender on Netflix