Cop Craft is the adaptation of a popular visual novel series by Gatou Shoji (Author of Full Metal Panic). Cop Craft is a buddy cop series but what makes it unique is that it is combined with fantasy. There many buddy cop TV shows and movies that you may have watched like Bad Boys, Starskey and Hutch, Law and Order, Rush Hour, Jake and the Fat Man and many more, but Cop Craft has the same concept with the touch of creativity. In Cop Craft a normal Human cop makes a team with a teenage female knight from a different world. Fifteen years ago, a portal opened to another dimension over a California Coast and the people from that dimension called Semanians, entered the human start living with them. Some have their own motive like Tony Montana from Scarface who wants a vengeance and that’s when our Buddy Cop Kei and Tilarna comes in action and prove to be best cops of San Teresa.
If we see all tropes of Cop Craft then it can be said that it is not original and it is a good thing. There are many buddy cop series, there are several fantasy shows as well, there are also many reverse isekai with the concept of Portal. The anime based on supernatural creatures in American setting. But Cop Craft has creatively taken all these tropes and created something distinctive. The mixture of theses tropes has brought a combination of drama, comedy, action and fantasy in a unique way.
The voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda has done great job with his performance. He is the reason why the character of Kei works. His unique deep and nasal voice has made his character classic hard-boil detective. He seems to take his job very seriously but at the same time need some rest from it, but he loves his job. His voice adds reality to his humor and sarcasm. Finally his chemistry with the other cast members, particularly with Mayu Yoshioka (Tilarna’s voice actor) is notable.
Although Cop Craft consists of 12 episodes, but every arc of the series is well organized which makes it kind of episodic. Even if you don’t start watching it from the beginning you can catch up with the series in an episode. In the first arc starts with the introduction of cast and San Teresa in an excellent way where we also get some clues about Semanians and the other dimension. Being kind of episode the relationship between Kei and Tirarna develops in a perfect way.
What Cop Craft depicted towards the end of the series is quite relatable to the modern day political context particularly in US and Europe. Although the novel got published years before Trump was elected, so it can’t be said that the part of anti-immigration in the series is referred to him, but it can make viewers believe that how things has been portrayed are criticism of Trump. However, a candidate in the election held in the last arc largely portrays Trump’s stance against immigration.
We witness Semanians migrating from the other dimension over the California Coast to live the life as Americans but we don’t get to see the dimension or the world they comes from. We do get the idea of what kind of world that would be considering the kind of creatures that resembles elves, vampires and fairies came from there but we don’t see them or humans living there what now has changed into Los Angeles. Although we do get to see Tilrana frequently speaking her native language but their culture has not been shown in the series.
The novel series has still not been completed and some installments are yet to come. The series has a lot to offer in the future as this season has great potential. Combining some clichéd themes it has made a unique show. There are some authentic references from old United States which sometimes also makes it quite funny. Hopefully we get to see the other dimension and more about their world in the future.
