Who Killed Daigorô Tokuyama?

I'm ¾ of the way through this and all I can say is that, unless you're familiar with Japanese cinema, you will never have seen anything like this. (I am, so I'm grateful I found it) Essentially, this is a teenage show. The target audience is teen/YA (nb: I'm 48 and I'm having a ball with it) . The main characters are a bunch of - on the surface - silly 16 yo girls and a number of pervy older men, such as I remember well from my teenage years sadly. The tone is part comedy / part macabre, the humour is very black. Some acting reminds of Anime types.

The script is at the same time simplistic (young girls keep taking the wrong decisions, adults appear to act stereotypically - if you ever were a teenager, you will remember though that is how you thought the world worked at the time, plot twists might appear unbelievable to the scrupulously litteral), but on the other hand is very convoluted (lots and lots of things happen, most of which you weren't expecting at all and you will never be bored a minute) It's pretty dead-on with its analysis of human behaviour, especially the questionable; and is entirely Japanese in its view of death, humour, sex (no sex shown per se), and violence. It is a wonderful example of the Japanese fusion of silly and lighthearted with dark and intellectual. And since the mood changes every 3 minutes you're left on tenterhooks all the time. Without ever being once out of the classroom.

In short, and in the words of the original surrealists, you could call it an exquisite corpse. Enjoy the ride, but better have a dark sense of humour and a modicum of intelligence.