REVIEW: ‘Pretty Boy Detective Club,’ Episode 10 — “The Pretty Boy on D. Hill (Part 1)”

Last time with the Pretty Boys, we wrapped up the mystery of the massive oshie-hagoita left in the club. Viewers also learned a bit about Nagahiro’s fiance Kodaki Kawaike. Additionally, we also got a good amount of insight into her past, and why she’s Nagahiro’s fiance despite their age difference. It culminated in another mystery solved, though I had sore feelings towards Kodaki in the end. Now, in Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 10, we’re kicking off a new, and potentially final, arc for the show. 

Episode 10, “The Pretty Boy on D. Hill Part 1,” is an episode largely centered around a student election. Namely, the election for the next student council president at Yubiwa Academy. However, the election is basically rigged. The current vice-president, Wana Naganawa, is basically a shoe-in for the role. There’s no chance anyone else could take it from him… or is there? Well, there is, and it’s our best boy protagonist, Mayumi. But more on that later, I suspect, especially with the juicy plot nuggets dropped in the cold open.

Post-OP, we learn a bit more about those plot nuggets. Primarily, viewers learn about Wana Naganawa, student council VP and a girl known as the “Snow Queen”. Prior to this episode beginning, she was in a car accident, though she’s not in critical work. Still, she’s bedbound in the hospital for the next month, which means that the student council must withdraw her candidacy.

This also means that there will be a change in the student council regime, which means an upheaval of power. It’s a dangerous thing in a school as prestigious as Yubiwa. Plus, former class president Nagahiro doesn’t want to see the student who worked so hard beneath him miss her chance at power.

However. However, however, however.

It turns out that Wana’s car accident might have been more than just an accident. It might have been intentional, or it might have just been a simple hit-and-run at D Hill, which is a hill located near Yubiwa. And like, what did you expect? This is the Pretty Boy Detective Club. Of course, there’s be more layers than just a simple hit-and-run! Thankfully, the boys of the Pretty Boy Detective Club are on the case. Will they solve it in time for the election? Most likely, but honestly, part of the enjoyment of Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 10 is wondering how they’ll figure things out. 

And, oh yeah, Mayumi’s gonna have to possibly endure a hit-and-run of her own to figure out who’s doing them. Just club things, you know?

Quickly, it becomes apparent that this case isn’t going to be straightforward. Then again, have any of the mysteries? Even the last arc’s mystery had plenty of twists and turns, straightforward as the case was. Yet that’s what I find so delightful about this series. It leans into making everything as Sherlockian as possible while having a gorgeously animated blast.

In the end, Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 10 is utterly, delightfully, decadently dramatic. It plays with animation a lot and almost feels theatric. At times, it’s super-duper extra AF. At other times, there’s lulls that set up gags and foibles on behalf of Mayumi. All of it blends together for one of the best episodes in the series. It also provides an excellent set-up for the finale in a few weeks.

Once again, Pretty Boy Detective Club brings loads of twists and turns to this episode. Mayumi is on her a-game, frequently breaking the fourth wall to monologue at the viewer and the club members alike. When we first met Mayumi in the premier, she was a bit of a wallflower. In Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 10, she’s delightfully dramatic, and fully showing that she’s plenty boy enough to roll with the over-the-top club members. Naturally, that’s incredibly helpful in getting this arc off the ground as Mayumi works hard to figure out the mystery for this time around.

All in all, it’s another satisfying episode that definitely hints at a dynamic end to the series. I genuinely hope that the last two episodes in this series are just as satisfying as Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 10 was!

Pretty Boy Detective Club is now streaming on Funimation.