Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace was a very unique horror-mystery series to me; though I haven't read or watched many horror-mystery esque works, so I may not have stumbled upon something like this before. This series was based off of several works from Edogawa Rampo(known as the Edgar Allen Poe of Japan), and many episodes were taken from different novels or short stories(most notably, "The Human Chair", "The Fiend With Twenty Faces", and "Strange Tales of Panorama Island"), yet the writers were able to weave them together very well.

Story- The basic premise of this series is that a thirteen year old boy and his fourteen year old friend join forces with a seventeen year old genius detective to solve the mass cases of the Twenty Faces persona. The story, while not sounding very exciting at first glance, was extremely intriguing and surprisingly dark. There was an immense amount of symbolism throughout the series that doesn't make sense during the beginning, but once the series hits midway the symbolism becomes tragic and emotional when you discover the truth behind it. The plot was extremely creative and flowed very well. There were not filler episodes, each and every episode was there for a reason and helped explain more and more about what was really going on; while there may have been some confusing parts, they were all explained eventually. And while some aspects of the plot are unrealistic, such as the formula created to determine events and accidents before they happen that is the catalyst to the entire story, they're executed in such a way that makes you believe they could actually happen.

Pacing- As this was based off multiple novels and short stories and adapted into only eleven episodes, the pacing can seem a bit strange at times. The episodes vary from having slow starts to exciting ends to exciting starts and slow endings, and the last couple of episodes give a feeling of being rushed but also being just the right speed. There were times when one crime spanned two episodes and others where a crime only lasted half an episode. And while the events after the big reveal near the end seem a little rushed I very much enjoyed the results.

Sound- To be honest, I could not stand the opening song when I first began this series. To me, the singer's voice was too scratchy and the music was jarring; however, I now find myself listening to it often. Unlike the opening song, I fell in love with the ending song from the very first episode. The singer's voice is beautiful and melancholic, and it really adds to the atmosphere of the series. Meanwhile, the soundtrack is great in some places yet less than mediocre in others; the suspenseful and melancholic music were composed wonderfully. There's a song often played in the background(which gains deeper meaning as the series progresses) that is very emotional and nostalgic. The background music always added wonderfully to the overall feel of the story.
The voice acting for this series was hands down amazing. The voices fit their respective characters almost perfectly. The voice actors did an amazing job expressing the characters joy, grief, desperation, insanity; the cast was perfect in my opinion.

Art- The art for this series was incredibly gorgeous, from the characters eyes to the horrifying mannequins littering  Panorama Island. The terrifying things were so much more torturous to watch because of all the details put into the scenes; likewise, certain scenes were so emotional due to the incredible emotions each character was animated with. None of the characters were animated or drawn awkwardly and the scenes flowed very smoothly. One of the most unique and interesting thing about the art is how the background characters and scenery is drawn depending on which character is being focused on. There were scenes with bright colour that added to the atmosphere and scenes where the colour was dark and dreary when something was wrong. There was so much symbolism in the art as well. Overall the art was incredibly beautiful and enjoyable.

Characters- The characters were all unique and terrifying in their own ways. From major to minor they each had their own little quirks and were very well developed. Hardly any characters remained static throughout the series. The characters were almost always easy to get emotionally attached to, and even though most of them committed horrendous crimes, the writers made it extremely hard to hate them. I cried multiple times for the "villains" because they had so many raw emotions, and their motives were so understandable and I felt as though if stuck in those circumstances even I might do the things they did. It was hard to decide who to root for in the end.

Enjoyment- This series was very enjoyable; I laughed, I sobbed, I ranted to the tv in anger, then I sobbed some more... There were certain episodes I would rewatch over and over and they would never fail to stir my emotions no matter how many times I watched them. It's even more enjoyable the second time watching it, because you notice things in the crimes that you hadn't noticed before, and you understand all the symbolism. I really did enjoy this series.

Overall- This series was an emotional rollercoaster, and I loved it. It was simply an amazing series. I would give it a 10/10