So, the bad news is that only just now has it occurred to me that season 1 of this show was one of the ones I somehow didn’t get around to reviewing from summer 2024. Uh, whoops. The good news is season 2 has given me plenty more to write about and all of it was excellent. Just think of these unfortunate multi-season combo reviews as part of the journey here on this illustrious reviewing website. When the time comes were I’m not bundling things together to make up for my past mistakes you’ll know I’ve finally made it in this world. Or you’ll at least know that I’ve gotten my act together a bit more.
Shoshimin is a mystery show disguised as a slice of life show. It presents itself as a story about two troubled high school students trying their best to be normal but, in its bones, it knows what it’s trying to do. While the show is broken up into a few arcs that represent different mysteries being solved, they all start at the same point of normal, everyday life. Then first few episodes of an arc are, as advertised, ordinary. The dialogue is a bit dull and seemingly directionless at times. Characters drift through their lives and watching the show is a casual experience of just observing the characters and seeing what they are up to. It walks right up to that point where it starts to get boring and only then does it start to twist. Things start failing to add up, characters start acting suspicious. If we’re talking about the first arc of the second season, the main character actually shows up for the first time. The show builds upon itself as it layers details for the viewer to understand with fake outs and red herrings and asks you to solve the mystery first before the characters make it there themselves. Like any good mystery show should, really.
As it goes and without fail, our main character, Kobato, who amusingly is trying to become ordinary by resisting the urge to be an ace detective, appears at the end of the arc to solve the mystery. He lays out not just the truth but the layers of details that were shown throughout the slice of life portions of the show that lead to the conclusions. The part I really appreciated about Shoshimin is how well they built these small details into conversations and ordinary actions that play out in a part of the show that you aren’t expecting anything to come from. It’s one of those shows where after I watch the last episode I want to go back and rewatch the earlier ones to pick up on the things I missed and appreciate them.
Granted some of those things I just praised it for do come back to bite it. The show is actually very slow at the start of arcs and that toeing the line between boredom and excitement is just as likely to turn someone off from the show cause it missed their mark. Despite that I’d still go out of my way to recommend this to anyone who expressed a vague interest in mystery shows. I, at least, am happy to keep patient if the payoff is good enough and the devilishly tricky endings to these mysteries easily sated my appetite.