Great Pretender

A truly unique Netflix original with an abundance of style and excitement. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a heist anime! Great Pretender has a jazzy and classic vibe to it, very much like an anime Oceans Eleven. It has set itself apart from conventional anime in so many different ways: It's realistic with no complicated powers or other worlds, it is set in multiple different countries, it has an original English soundtrack (with one done by Freddie fricking Mercury) and its English dub is actually better than the Japanese subs! The cons and heists are smart, unpredictable, original and stirring. Great Pretender is a breath of fresh air personified, everything is novel right down to the animation style, you won't find any other anime similar to this. 

Because I don't want to give away the twists in any of the cons or capers, I'll stick to explaining the very basics of Great Pretender's story. Makoto Edamura is a con man living in Japan who makes a living off petty theft. He meets Laurent one day and in an attempt to rob him, realizes that he is a con man too. They eventually partner up and have a bet to see who can swindle more money from a target. Their journey takes them to different countries, makes them meet a variety of people and gets intensely exciting. I particularly love how this anime actually introduces new cultures and people of different ethnicity, you don't get to see this in most shows, let alone accurately done. Great Pretender has even nailed its plot twists, they are like Russian nesting dolls- there's always a new and unexpected one coming up.  

When you start watching the first episode of Great Pretender, expect crappy dialogue audio until the five minute mark. They are just trying to establish that the characters speak differently and have accents derived from their home countries. After the five minute mark, the dialogue audio will normalize and the real dubbing will begin. Don't stop watching early because of this.

   

My personal ratings are:

 Story: 5/5                                                                                                                                         Character Development: 5/5                                                                                                           Dialogue: 3/5                                                                                                                                       Music: 5/5 (Seriously an anime with a song by Freddie Mercury, like how)                             Enjoyment: 4/5 (Yes, this is a new metric I'll be adding from henceforth)  

Overall recommendation: One portion of steamed Edamame!

Since Great Pretender is a Netflix original, it should be on Netflix in all geographies.