Review of Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-

Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru is a slice-of-life mystery show based off of a light novel by the same name. It is an episodic series showcasing individual smaller mysteries that eventually led into one bigger mystery, sort of. With all of the hype that I initially heard about the light novel, I had high hopes for this show and was unfortunately disappointed. Story: 5/10 I was really looking for this show to be next great mystery anime but at the end, I found myself feeling let down. The story starts off with Sakurako-san an Osteologist whose job and life passion is findingand reassembling the bones of diseased animals and yes, humans. Each show follows a similar pattern. Sakurako and her young assistant Shoutaoru, find themselves in a circumstance where they find bones of the diseased which then opens up a mystery that Sakurako must solve. The whole show carries on this way with each episode, sometimes two episodes, focusing on a single mystery which is then resolved. Wash, rinse, repeat. For those who have seen the anime "Gosick" it follows a similar pattern to that show. I was really hoping that this show would delve into one major mystery the would develop over the course of the show and it didn't. If you're looking for a mystery that's going to keep you at the edge of your seat, this isn't it. The mysteries were mediocre at best, they never really went anywhere and they weren't all that exciting. The first 3 episodes were promising, but things went downhill from there. Towards the end of the show the overlying mystery that connects all the smaller ones together finally comes into play, but it's rushed and never really comes to a full conclusion. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that overall the story was relatively underwhelming. There wasn't anything that made the show exceptionally good, but there wasn't anything that made it exceptionally bad either. It stands on middle ground. If anything I'm hoping for a second season to tie up the loose ends and questions that this show left me with.

Art & Animation: 8/10
The animation in this show was the only factor that in my opinion that really stood out and was above average. The first thing I noticed upon watching the first episode was the beautiful use of color and general art style. So it was a solid job well done in that aspect.

Sound: 5/10
The soundtrack was just average. Not much to say about it, there was nothing outstanding about it but it wasn't bad by any means.

Characters: 5/10
Ugh the characters were one of the biggest disappointments. Sakurako herself had the potential to be extremely interesting. I mean, her hobby is digging up bones and figuring out mysteries for heavens sake! But we never really learn that much about her. We get a tiny info dump towards the end about her past and how she met Shoutarou but never enough for me to say, "I know this character." Speaking of Shoutarou he fell into the category of being the protagonist that was absolutely useless. We get practically no character development with him. He doesn't even really serve a purpose to the plot. And quite frankly, 9 times out of 10 he's kind of just in the way. Everything is solved by Sakurako and he just kind of hangs there along for the ride. He does have his own little shining moment at the end but for a main character, he should have had more of an important roll than he did. As for the rest of the characters, none of them were important enough for me to even talk about them. They were all one dimensional and never went anywhere. It really was a shame too because they had some good material but didn't really use it well.

Enjoyment 6/10
Did I enjoy this anime? Yes, and no. As a whole I found the show entertaining enough to keep me engaged in the show. Some were better than others and some were pretty darn boring. But it kept my attention enough that made me want to at least see it through to the end.

So overall I give this show a 6/10. It was overall just an average run of the mill show. It wasn't bad or good. It was kind of just there. I think the show had great bones that the creators simply failed to use properly and to their full extent. The ending was left wide open for a second season and if they did make one I'd probably give it another chance. Definitely give this show a try. It's average but it still has a little something that does keep it interesting enough to watch.