×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Review

by Chris Shepard,

Flint, The Time Detective (TV)

DVD 1 - Blast From The Past

Synopsis:
Flint DVD 1 - Blast From The Past
In the 25th century, time travel is so common that even criminals can visit any time period they choose. The answer to this is The Bureau of Time and Space Investigations! These elite agents solve crimes and right any damage done… including a missing artifact that keeps history itself together! Without this, the past, present, and future will come apart and take everyone with it!

Petra Fina is out to locate the first TimeShifter “Getalong”, which she had lost during a timetrip millions of years earlier. She didn't get it that time because two cavemen (Flint and Rocky) stopped her … and when it's rediscovered in the 25th century they're STILL guarding it! It looks like the reanimated Flint would make an excellent addition to the Time and Space Investigators, if he's willing!
Review:
With the success of Pokémon, several other children's anime shows have been released on U.S. television to help capitalize off its success. One of the less popular of the bunch, which seems to have come out of nowhere, would be Flint, The Time Detective. While definitely above other Saturday morning cartoon drivel, Flint is average quality at best.

Being a Saturday morning children's show, Flint is unfortunately dub only. However, being that this is aimed strictly at children, it isn't too bad. Besides, the dub is handled quite well; the voices fit and the acting is at par.

Way too many dark colors were used for the packaging on this DVD release. With the happy cartoony cast, you'd expect something a little more bright, more along the lines of the Pokémon releases. However, the case itself is black and the background on the backside is of pure dark colors. Happy children's shows should be nice and bright, not dark and moody like this.

Flint's DVD menu is extremely basic. At the opening menu with a picture of Flint standing in the background, you're given the choice of picking which of the three episodes you want to watch or if you want to watch the trailer. Nothing too great here and the trailer, which isn't really even that exciting, is the only extra available.

After the first episode, which sets the story up, Flint, The Time Detective becomes very formulaic. Flint along with his two normal buddies from the 25th century are called to go chasing after Petra Fina each episode to stop her from kidnapping the rare Pokémon-like timeshifters. During the episodes present on this disc the trio travels to both second century Japan as well as 16th century South America on their hunt for Petra Fina. The historical element is a plus and does keep things from getting too uninteresting.

Although the character designs do look good and many bright colors are used, the actual animation isn't topnotch. A low cel count is used and during some of the more complex scenes, the characters tend to look a lot like paper cut outs. It's what's expected from a children's show.

The comedy, although I can imagine it would work with children, is not always very funny. When a character says something is bologna, as in something being not true, lines like “It's not bologna, ham, or any other kind of meat product” are thrown it. It's the kind of humor that tries to be intelligent but doesn't completely hit with older audiences. Flint never takes itself too seriously and does try to make fun of a lot of things, which can be cute at times. Just don't expect this to be any kind of a riot if you're over the age of 10.

Flint, The Time Detective isn't a bad show, it's just a children's show. If you have young ones in the house and insist they have a DVD collection of their own, purchasing Flint wouldn't be too bad of an idea. If Pokémon is their thing, they'd probably enjoy this at least a little. However, I can't really recommend this show to anyone else.
Grade:
Overall (dub) : C
Animation : C
Art : C
Music : C

+ Cute anime that children should enjoy.
There's nothing very appealing to older audiences.

bookmark/share with: short url
Add this anime to
Add this DVD to
Production Info:
Series Director: Hiroshi Fukutomi
Script:
Ritsuko Hayasaka
Junko Okazaki
Fumihiko Shimo
Hideki Sonoda
Storyboard:
Hiroshi Fukutomi
Kazuyuki Honda
Masakatsu Iijima
Shigeru Kimiya
Yoshitaka Koyama
Kazunari Kume
Sōichi Masui
Makoto Moriwaki
Hiroaki Nakajima
Hideaki Oba
Seiji Okuda
Junichi Sakata
Kouichi Takada
Shinichi Tōkairin
Takashi Yamazaki
Music:
Toshio Masuda
Tadashi Namba
Original creator: Hideki Sonoda
Character Design: Sachiko Ōhashi
Art Director: Hitoshi Nagao
Animation Director:
Munekatsu Fujita
Jun Fujiwara
Ryōko Hata
Kazuya Hayashi
Kazuo Iimura
Chūji Nakajima
Takaharu Ōkuma
Nobuyoshi Souzaki
Masao Suwa
Akira Takeuchi
Takashi Yamazaki
Yūji Yanase
Yoshitaka Yasuda
Sound Director: Masafumi Mima
Director of Photography: Yasuyoshi Toyonaga
Executive producer:
Takaaki Nomura
Makoto Satō
Producer: Ikou Saito
Licensed by: The Right Stuf International

Full encyclopedia details about
Flint: The Time Detective (TV)

Release information about
Flint: The Time Detective - The Blast from the Past (Dub.DVD 1)

Review homepage / archives