The Fall 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Season 2

The cruel and devious House of M has issued a direct challenge to Ron Kamonohashi. But their challenge comes with a bit of a body count. It's up to Ron to figure out what their scheme is before they kill even more people.

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Season 2 is based on the manga series by Akira Amano. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

The corny mystery boys are back! I'm so glad that this series got a second season. It's so cheesy; I just can't help myself from loving it. It's nothing terribly unique or groundbreaking—it's very generic—but I think that's a big part of what made the first season so fun. And this taste we got of season 2 looks like it's going to be much the same, albeit this time, we might get some semblance of an overarching story.

Season 2 isn't wasting time making the villainous House of M, which we learned about in the first season, relevant again. Whether or not they'll stay relevant is another question. All the same, I really like the idea of Ron having a group of arch-nemeses to go toe-to-toe (or would it be brain-to-brain?) with. I really liked the semi-episodic nature of the first season, though I don't think I'd mind an overarching story in this one—I just really hope that it's mixed in with at least some of the episodic stuff, not just because they were fun to watch, but also because I think it helped keep the series well-paced.

In any case, this was a solid first episode. The show seems to follow the same formula thus far of having Ron and Co. solve a mystery that'll probably last between 1-3 episodes. The mysteries themselves seem just interesting enough, too—what is the House of M trying to communicate? How was the second murder conducted? Is there a deeper reason why these hackers are being targeted? These are all questions that I feel invested enough in what's going on to want an answer to. My only substantial nitpick with this first episode was that it felt a bit rushed and didn't show much (hardly any, really) clue-collecting, let alone giving the audience time and resources to solve anything for themselves apart from the one about the location of the second murder.

That said, my favorite thing about the first season—which seems to have continued into the second, if this first episode indicates anything—was how cheesy and try-hard it was. If you've seen just about any detective show—anime or otherwise—then on a fundamental level, you've seen Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions before. And that'll inevitably bore some viewers. But as for me, I think the way this show leans into those clichés is really hammy. Combined with characters who feel like they're trying too hard to be quirky, you got a delicious ham and cheese sandwich in anime form. If you're looking for something new in the mystery genre, this probably isn't the show for you. But if you're like me and think that being generic can sometimes make a show entertaining if it goes about it in the right way, you'll probably get a kick out of this show.

Ron, darling. You're a great detective – if there are three hackers and two of them have been killed by an outside force, there's definitely going to be a third murder. Your shock at discovering a clue to the next killing stamped on the arrow that killed hacked number two is straining my credulity awfully. But then, that's been my persistent issue with this series, dating back to episode one of season one: it takes the window dressing of a classic Golden Age of Mystery fair play story and doesn't fulfill its promise.

That said, this is doing a decent job of working with the Moriarty playbook. (Which, yes, predates the Golden Age of Mystery by forty-odd years.) The House of M may have been behind cases in the previous season and be the reason Ron has his murderer-killing gift, but they haven't necessarily played their hand so clearly before. Now Milo and Master Winter are fully warmed up, and they're more than ready to play whatever game they can with the smartest man in the room – especially if it lets him know that he may not have a claim to that title anymore. They're certainly doing a good job of it right now, with Ron steps behind them in the race to find the killer. He may have figured out how the first hacker was killed (an assistant in his own murder, which is a nice twist) and where the second would take place, but even getting there in time doesn't mean that he can prevent it from happening. The House of M is rubbing Ron's failures in his face, and even if their goal isn't to destabilize him, that's almost certainly what they're doing.

The addition of a girl reporter (as the trope is known) may or may not help with this. Totomaru's eager-puppy antics have toned down just a bit, and his running off after the third hacker, who has an hour to live, according to the arrow, may prove that he's gained some skills since season one. But if Ron can't figure out where the triangle on the arrow signifies, it's unlikely to be much help since we know that Totomaru isn't necessarily capable of solving the crime alone – and also may not be able to take down the killer without Ron present. This is a part one, so the episode is primarily set up for what's to come, but Ron being so shaken at something he really ought to have known from the start is upping the ante significantly. It may not feel organic, but it is a decent hook, and it may have succeeded in pulling me in when I was determined not to be.