Ranmaru: The Man with the God Tongue

A TV series with strong roots in anime culture finds its way onto the big screen. Director Tsutsumi Yukihiko sounded like a perfect fit, especially since the material isn't unlike the Trick series, but as the focus lies on comedy I think someone like Yuichi Fukuda could've done a better job.

Ranmaru is a detective who solves cases with his tongue. By licking things, he can deconstruct the materials and what happened to them, discovering clues that will ultimately lead him to solve any puzzle. When he arrives in a small mountain village that's suffering from strange phenomena, Ranmara is asked by the villagers to help them solve the mystery.

Performances are well over the top (some fine, not all) and Yukihiko's direction remains close to the film's anime roots (even enlarging people's head from time to time), but the comedy's a bit hit-and-miss. While the premise is fun enough, the film does start to drag during the second half as there's way too much dialog explaining all the clues. Quite fun, but I've seen this type of material handled better.