When you watch enough anime, the special ones stand out all the more. Great Pretender looked like a high-octane energy trip from the initial trailer, but now, with the series' first half three arcs streaming internationally on Netflix (the fourth arc has yet to premiere in Japan), it's clear this con artist adventure is one of the most exciting and entertaining anime of 2020. Great Pretender is a masterful integration of tension and comedic timing that you cannot afford to miss.

Makoto Edamura is a Japanese con artist who turns to crime after being unsuccessfully dragged down by his boss who committed fraud. After being conned by the international con-man Laurent, Edamura is drafted into many of Laurent's cons, starting with conning a drug kingpin in Los Angeles into buying a fake drug, and following up with jobs in London and Singapore.

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Almost immediately, Edamura finds himself in over his head. As the lies around him unravel, he has to desperately work to fill in the blanks, all while trying to stay one step ahead of his partners-in-crime, Abigail and Laurent, while the police are (possibly) aiming to take Laurent down. Edamura has dreams of going from a humble farmer to being in-charge of the whole system, like Toyotomi Hideyoshi. If he wants to do that, he's going to have to trick a whole lot of people without them wising up to his schemes. Or, perhaps, put his faith in a larger-than-life con man and his associates who may or may not be everywhere.

Great Pretender succeeds at creating an atmosphere of dramatic irony. Edamura will lie to people's faces, only for those lies to unravel, or be forced into lying thanks to the deceptions of those around them. He rapidly tries to patch up his lies before things explode in his face. Scenes play out twice from different perspectives throughout the series, showing the cons from both ends. The core tension -- and comedy -- comes from knowing all these characters are lying to everyone's face and wondering what will happen as they pick at the lies.

There is never a dull moment or wasted scene in the series, with the three major cons so far being relatively short, concise narratives without any filler. The character-driven narrative is consistently entertaining and exciting. When the characters' choices and actions push the story on, every single scene carries with it greater weight, both in terms of excitement and comedic potential.

Part of the reason why these thrills hit so hard is that the characters are so likable. The show has a knack for making viewers like a cast of con-artists, criminals and liars. Edamura is a particularly lovable crook. He's vulnerable and energetic, but also surprisingly clever. While he's always out of his league, he's also surprisingly competent. While it might not seem like it initially, there's a great deal of heart throughout the series. Several emotional scenes that hit harder than you'd expect, in part because, when sandwiched between laughs and thrills, they come as a shock to the system.

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A lot of discussion surrounding Great Pretender is centered around the involvement of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the character designer behind Neon Genesis Evangelion. The character designs in Great Pretender are, without variation, some of his best ones yet. The characters all look distinct, speaking volumes about their personality with posture, facial expressions, and the like.

However, the style of Great Pretender is less reminiscent of Evangelion than it is of Cowboy Bebop. For fans of Cowboy Bebop, this stylistic, hard-hitting anime might feel like a welcome return to form. It has an irreverence for society and law that makes crime just seem so much fun -- or, at least, crime where bad people are consistently ripped off.

It's hard to argue that Great Pretender, with its quick successions of build-ups, misdirections and climaxes one after the next is anything short of an absolute joy to watch. Also, the ending credits play over a Queen song. It's hard to argue that this is anything short of excellence.

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