Futari Wa Milky Holmes

What in blazes is this???!!! What the hell is going on???!!! What happened???!!! Am I dreaming???!!! Because… WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO MAH MILKY HOMES???!!!Those bumbling, clumsy and incompetent disgraceful quartet of loli detectives have become competent and adept!!!! YES!!! You read that right!!! Milky Holmes is suddenly useful!!! Well, actually nothing wrong with that. It is just that we’ve been so used to the awkwardness of Milky Holmes that we have accepted this as the truth of reality so when they really become effective, it’s like they changed everything in the series. It’s like turning One Piece’s Luffy into a responsible and highly dependable leader. Not right, no? Alternative was ‘alright’ since we all were ‘informed’ that it was going to be different (although it proved Milky Holmes shouldn’t be some serious detective show) but this supposedly third season of the Milky Holmes series? Shocking? Where will we get our sadistic kicks of laughing at failing lolis then?

However, Milky Holmes isn’t going to be the main heroines of this third instalment (which takes place a few years later after the second season) because a new pair will be in focus in Futari Wa Milky Holmes. They will be the new team of friends-cum-detective that you will see in solving the crimes and catching phantom thieves in their quest to become the greatest detective as per their dream. So now our original Milky Holmes will be relegated to just side characters and making cameo appearances. Hmm… I wonder if that is a joke itself. Also, the third season’s duration time per episode is slashed in half. 12 minutes for each episode? I suppose they don’t want to bore us with serious detective work without any humorous jokes and gags along the way.

Episode 1
Kazumi Tokiwa meets up with her friend, Alice Myoujingawa for school. Along the way they talk about how cool it would be if they could enrol in Holmes Detective Academy. However Alice’s brother, Shion was dead against it. As long as it is other detective academy except this one. When they see a picture of Milky Holmes in the street, Alice fawns over them because they are her idol and she aspires to be like them. However Kazumi argues that in the eyes of commoners they are deem as legends due to the fact that phantom thieves have been laying low. So the lack of solving cases caused people to think they do not exist. Huh? Of course Kazumi wants to be like them too and thus the reason why they are working hard and aiming to become detectives. Alice praises her for such lofty goals since her parents are also detectives. However Kazumi says it has nothing to do with them. They live separate lives. Father is always busy working for overtime money while she doesn’t even know what mother does and is never home. It’s like they don’t care for her. Meanwhile Kokoro is bored and stuck in traffic enforcement. I guess it’s much better than her Genius 4 pals who are stuck in office doing desk jobs. She also has an apprentice under her wing, Keiko Totsugawa. Then the alert is sound. A phantom thief is sighted at the city museum. At last. Time for some action. However it is also reported that phantom thieves are hitting different parts of the city simultaneously. Kazumi and Alice see a shady guy run pass them. They think he is a phantom thieve and start chasing him. Kazumi uses her bow and arrow Toys but missed. The guy shoots back his beam but Alice’s Toys shields them from harm. This guy thinks he has gotten away but to his surprise is brought down by the real Milky Holmes! But he’s not out yet because his comrades help him escape. Then before the girls, a group of phantom thieves appears. The leader laments that detectives and phantom thieves have been making secret deals behind the scene and thus a shame to those phantom thieves who have ground away their fangs. He believes detectives and phantom thieves will always be the opposite side of justice and crime and never together. He declares a war against the world and those phantom thieves who have sullied their title. This group consisting 7 phantom thieves is called Coloured Phantom.

Episode 2
Although Alice is happy that they got to see Milky Holmes in action, this only makes Kazumi feel sad because she really wants to become like them and help catch phantom thieves. So how? Alice suggests going see them directly. And so a bunch of girls sneak into the academy just to see them. But they hear Milky Holmes somewhat arguing in their room. As they inch closer to eavesdrop, Milky Holmes slams open the door, knocking them out. When they come to, they are in their room and very much happy to see their idols. They’re the graceful and elegant detectives they know. When they mention about their intention to be like them, their reply is to just do it. Although they don’t have a licence yet, what is important is they pick a name for themselves, wear a detective’s uniform and do a Nike. Just do it! After they leave, Milky Holmes ‘crumbles’ from exhaustion because it was really hard trying to put up their graceful act. Tiring to keep up their public image, eh? As Alice’s grandma has made her a detective costume for making it into Holmes Detective Academy, she also requested one for Kazumi. Meanwhile a phantom thief contacts Violet Shadow, the leader of Coloured Phantom for permission to strike and have his revenge against Milky Holmes. He allows it but warns he is on his own and won’t help out. The rest deduces that this dude has outlived his usefulness. And so this shady guy, Red Lion leaves a warning letter as trap for Milky Holmes. However Kazumi and Alice spot him in the back alley in his suspicious activity and go to stop him. He is not convinced with these amateurs and easily overwhelms them. He thinks of using them as bait to lure Milky Holmes but Kazumi won’t be defeated. She gets back up and fires her arrows. Her will to become a great detective is so great that her arrow suddenly becomes a huge bright light. So powerful that it sends this guy flying crashing into the wall! Because feathers are floating down in the aftermath, Kazumi decides to call themselves as Feathers. Kokoro and the police are investigating the scene and baffled why this phantom thief is lying around. She notices a card on his sunglasses which states that Feathers were here. Who?

Episode 3
Kokoro is being interviewed on scene and it’s not so much about Red Lion taken into custody. It’s about who Feathers are and how they apprehended him. She wants them to come down to the station to give a statement. Of course our Feathers duo are ecstatic watching it back at their home. Shion knows Alice is watching this news instead of sleeping. He sighs he should have objected her enrolment into the academy because he views her as a gentle girl and shouldn’t be doing something so vulgar. Even in school, Feathers become a much talked topic among the students. Happy, Kazumi? But the teacher cautions them to get their licence first instead of causing trouble like those fakes who aren’t even nationally accredited detectives. Of course this upsets Kazumi but there’s nothing she can do about it since Feathers are still pretty much a secret. Kazumi has dinner at Alice’s home and while watching the talk show, the people are divided. Some are sceptical that this happened since Milky Holmes didn’t do anything about it. But super sleuth, Ryouko Komatsu vouches her support for Feathers. Suddenly the station receives a video from a Coloured Phantom, Yellow Black Hole. She challenges Ryouko to join Feathers to protect them and will be targeting her detective’s licence that she values more than her life. Shion turns off the TV believing nice young girls like them shouldn’t be watching such violent shows. So the Feathers duo feel somewhat responsible because they got Ryouko involved. They’re going to solve this one. After this little transformation scene that could almost rival a magical girl, they sneak out of the house. Meanwhile Shion is looking through the comments made by other Coloured Phantom about Red Lion’s capture. Oh no… Could it be… Say it isn’t… Okay, it is. Looks like he is that leader of Coloured Phantom. Feathers heard Ryouko’s scream and it seems her licence got stolen. They find her licence outside a warehouse but find it suspicious that the phantom thief would drop it. As they head inside, Yellow Black Hole casts a trapdoor on Alice and causes Feathers to be separated. Kazumi is all alone and faced off with Blue Hunter. However his Toys is replication so Kazumi’s arrows cannot hit his clones. Once she is surrounded, she is overcome with fear and loses her ability to use Toys.

Episode 4
Blue Hunter senses Milky Holmes coming so he abandons the scene. Alice is safely returned. When Milky Holmes arrive, no phantom thief or Feathers around. Kazumi felt frustrated that they had to be saved by them again. They creep back into Alice’s home and it seems Alice’s parents know about it but choose to keep quiet (heck, they left a big trail of curtain hanging out of their window). They don’t want to let Shion know about this too. Depressed Kazumi thinks of seeing Milky Holmes for advice but she sees a never-seen-before stairs. It leads her to a secret library and a forbidden door that she believes contains Milky Holmes records. She learns that Milky Holmes once lost their Toys too and then it hit her that everyone can only have 1 Toys. Elsewhere Alice is at the warehouse scene to investigate. She notices no real trapdoor so it must have been a work of a Toys. However she is made to leave by Kokoro. Ryouko closes her detective agency since she doesn’t have her licence. But it’s in Alice’s hand, right? She won’t give it back yet as there is something she wants to investigate. They follow Ryouko and see her suspiciously trying to trigger something with her PDA. Then Feathers reveal themselves. Ryouko wonders how they escaped the trap. Alice knows the licence is the trigger for the trapdoor and tricked Ryouko by using a bird fly around with it. Birds don’t fall through a trapdoor, right? Because everyone can only have 1 Toys, it wouldn’t make sense that Blue Hunter will have this trapdoor Toys. Ryouko admits she is Yellow Black Hole. Feathers are appalled a phantom thief is disguised as a detective. Kazumi is about to fight her but Blue Hunter arrives to assist his comrade. As he charges, they get into formation when Kazumi’s arrow again grows, blasting away Blue Hunter’s mask, revealing him to be one of the detective talk show’s host. Yellow Black Hole tries to convince Feathers to join them as their Toys are very much suited for phantom thieves. Rejected. She then explains she was once a detective and admired them. But then she realized a mystery that could never be solved. She leaves them hanging with that and escapes with Blue Hunter. Later, Kazumi deduces that it was Alice’s shield that amplified her arrow. I suppose whenever they combine their Toys, this is what happens. Alice wants to be more than somebody who protects Kazumi. She wants to catch phantom thieves with her. Kazumi agrees.

Episode 5
Feathers are handing out flyers to look out for activities that may need their detective skills. However Alice notices a lonely old woman frequenting the bar after alighting the same bus alone and never touches her drink and always seating in the same seat. Kazumi deduces she is a phantom thief. Of course she was just over thinking. So for 5 days they tail her since she got on the bus but nothing suspicious so far. Then one day she didn’t take the usual route and got off early. They tail her to a park where she reveals herself as Yoshie Kawashima, a national spy! Just kidding! She knows they are detectives in training and had been tailing her so she got off early just to surprise them. Of course being detectives, she isn’t going to give a straight answer and they have to figure it out themselves. She only hints that she gets on the bus to see someone. As for why she never touched her drink, she started frequented the bar a month ago and loved some cocktail. However recently the bar master changed the formula and though she tried to talk to her about it, she remained stubborn. So she comes every day to test if the taste would return back to original. Sadly not today. One day, they see her talking to the bar master. She’s acting strangely like she’s never seen her for so long. They tail her to the back alley and confront them. Yoshie reveals this person whom she gets on the bus to talk to is her son (the bus driver) whom she has never seen for a long time (she put him up for adoption when he was young). As they leave to talk, Kazumi tells them to hold their horses. She saw Toys activated when the son introduced himself. He deceived people that way, the reason why the drink’s recipe changed was because he took over the bar master’s place. With the cat out of the bag, the phantom thief reverts to her true form and reveals she was trying to get granny’s fortune. She makes a run for it and tries to throw her boomerang at them. Alice’s barrier deflects it and cuts the rope she was climbing. Left hanging on a pipe, Kazumi finishes her off with their big combo. Boom! Once again, the day is saved thanks to Feathers. In the end, the real bus driver actually turns out to be her son. She never said anything initially because she was preparing herself mentally for it. And now that she is, she finally goes talk to him.

Episode 6
Yellow Black Hole is about to steal some golden panda artefact but was intercepted by the legendary phantom thief of their time, Visconte. He was believed to have disappeared after a great heist 10 years ago. Alice walks Kazumi home after the former had dinner at her place. Kazumi’s dad is worried she came back so late and didn’t call or anything since phantom thieves are getting bolder and more violent lately. Kazumi is not impressed. He’s always at work and they hardly spend time together. Besides, Milky Holmes and Feathers will keep this place safe. Father thinks Feathers are amateurs. Kazumi doesn’t take this insult well so she vows to become a great detective and catch all the phantom thieves. Later that night, Alice calls Kazumi that on the news, Visconte has left a challenge letter that he will steal a diamond that commemorates this city’s founding at midnight. A bunch of police and even Milky Holmes are at the scene. This means Feathers can’t let this chance go. Kazumi sneaks out of the house but don’t think father doesn’t know… Outside the museum is crowded and Feathers can’t get through so they decide to go up the nearest tall building. As the clock strikes midnight, Kokoro starts laughing like a maniac that she wins. That’s what you call counting your chickens. She didn’t think the phantom thief would be a few seconds late, didn’t she? After a couple of policemen drop unconscious, here is Visconte with the diamond in hand. How did he? Ciao, baby. Kokoro orders Keiko to get the chopper to go after him but the apprentice is nowhere to be found. Feathers see Visconte gliding in a glider. They use their combo move to shoot him out of the sky. Visconte spots it in time and avoids. Feathers chase after him but it seems he has already abandoned his glider. He even left the diamond there! A note says that he was so impressed by their Toys that in respect of their courage, he returned the stolen gem! Of course this only serves to piss off Kokoro even more. Damn those Feathers again. But Milky Holmes is singing all praises about their Toys and think they will become great detectives. If you have been wondering that familiar feeling about Visconte, wonder no more because true enough as I suspect, he goes home to his loving wife and they turn out to be Alice’s parents… All in the family?

Episode 7
Alice notices her father’s back a little pain. Shion hints he ‘fell out from the sky’. After she leaves for school, the parents see Shion about his interference in the Beika Hall incident. They guess he is the leader of the Coloured Phantom and that phantom thieves should always conduct themselves with grace. Shion is not amused and is sick of this grace thingy. He asks them what they think of this place now because detectives and phantom thieves should be natural enemies. Father hopes he will understand one day what it truly means to be those. Yellow Black Hole proposes with Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution that her plan will make Violet Shadow happy. Alice shows Kazumi their team’s logo.  As they make way to the printing store, Yellow Black Hole spots them and sets off an explosion at the mall. The duo are then being told by Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution (in ordinary clothes) it was Yellow Black Hole’s doing. They took the bait and went after her. Meanwhile Shion enters Alice’s room and finds lots of crumpled paper in her wastepaper basket. Hmm… You’ll never know what you’ll find… Kazumi keeps finding small diamonds believed to be dropped by Yellow Black Hole. In a straight line? Obviously a trap! Kazumi goes after that phantom thief when she is in sight but Alice knows better that it’s a trap. She uses her shield to block Kazumi from falling into her trapdoor. However her amateur skill causes her to bump Kazumi away. Yellow Black Hole once again tries to coax Alice to join their side and ditch that clumsy oaf. Rejected. Then they combine their powers and zap her. Yeah. Wonder why she was making it so easy to let them zap her as she just stood there. Unknown to Feathers, their data is being collected by Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution. Shion arrives on the scene to see Yellow Black Hole being arrested by Kokoro. She winks at him, a hint that the plan is going well. Of course he didn’t approve of this but there’s nothing he can do now. Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution show Shion the data. Now they can defeat Feathers and begin their grand revolution. Shion didn’t know his little sister was part of Feathers, eh? Now he does.

Episode 8
Feathers are surprisingly invited to tea with Milky Holmes. Upon entering their room, they see Sherlock and Kokoro in a childish tussle over, Ellery Himeyuri. She is the director that took over Milky Holmes after Kobayashi. She was once a police but became a detective after learning about Toys. Currently she is on a journey to find her purpose and returned here to check things out. So the childish tussle was about whose place she should stay with. How to solve this problem? Himeyuri goes with Feathers. Problem solved. Sorry Sherlock. Sorry Kokoro. Meanwhile Shion has been acting strange since, locking himself up in his room. Truth too much to handle? He even deleted the data and video so Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution couldn’t do anything about it. This makes their fellow phantom thief, Pink Lovely Doom more interested in Feathers. Himeyuri could guess the duo are Feathers because Kazumi accidentally left their box of name cards on the table. Oops. She won’t tell their secret and wants to learn about their Toys when they get a distress call that another phantom thief has been spotted. Mush Miller from France is running away with his loot and fools Kokoro with his mirror image. He also tries the same thing when stopped by Feathers and Himeyuri. Not even their combo can stop him. Himeyuri wants Alice to use her Toys to trap him and has her maintain putting up some of her barriers. Then she borrows Alice’s Toys and has Kazumi come along with her. She has Kazumi fire her arrows at him as she manipulates the arrows to ring the crook in. Once they tie him up, Himeyuri reveals her Toys is Induction. She can use other people’s Toys and hopes they will forgive her selfishness of using their Toys. She also feels they have great potential in them. Meanwhile Keiko snaps a shot of them and looks up in the database. She is amazed to learn Alice and Shion are related. Well, what do you know? Because Keiko discards her police uniform and her true self is the Pink Lovely Doom! Why am I not surprised? Does this answer the question why she is always not around when Kokoro needs her? Although Alice is particularly happy about Himeyuri’s praise, but Kazumi isn’t because she didn’t acknowledge their strength as a team and was only acknowledging Alice’s strength.

Episode 9
There is some rule that police officers must not have Toys. So when Keiko’s reading goes off the charts, the higher ups want an explanation but she activates her Toys and makes them forget. Shion might be out of his room but he argues with father about letting Alice go to a detective academy. It was funny when sleepyhead Alice walk into the scene unaware of everything so Shion had to put up that perverted big brother act that his little sister is oh so cute to make her feel a little disgust and leave in a rush. Father says that if Alice wants to be a detective, there is nothing he can do about it. But Shion is not going to accept it since their family are phantom thieves. So can he bring himself to fight Alice since detectives and phantom thieves are eternal rivals. They realize too late that Keiko had heard everything. Now she knows their leader is the son of the legendary Visconte but she still needs him as their symbol for the new generation of phantom thieves. Shion is shocked to see Keiko is one of his comrades but nobody can do anything because Keiko unleashes her Toys. She gets away scot free. Kazumi is still reeling from Himeyuri’s words that she’s not focusing. Till the teacher had to tell her Toys reflects the strength of her heart and must believe in herself. Pink Lovely Doom lets the gang know that Feathers are not real detectives and can be dispose of anytime. Besides, they are ready to go ahead with Violet Shadow’s plan to take on Visconte. He himself doesn’t even know he had such plan. Kazumi continues to sulk… Thinking back how much Alice’s Toys is much better than her. WTF. Don’t you believe in your friend?

Suddenly there is a projection of Violet Shadow proclaiming he will steal Visconte’s precious treasure. Keiko is conveniently near Feathers just to tell them Violet Shadow’s location at the tower. All going according as planned. Visconte checks his treasure room and since everything is untouched, it could only mean one thing. His wife wants to join him. Feathers arrive at the tower and see Visconte and Madam Visconte. Alice couldn’t recognize her because she put on a little weight. Wait till you get an earful from mommy… Pink Lovely Doom is here too and notes they are going to take his precious treasure. Visconte warns not to lay hands on his daughter as he orders Madam Visconte to take them away. Kazumi is baffled they know their names. Pink Lovely Doom is not panicking yet and notes Milky Holmes is now on scene. They cut away their only balloon escape so Madam Visconte and Feathers are grounded. Now Violet Shadow comes in. He wants Alice to come with him because she belongs to him. Alice recognizes that voice. He takes off his masks and shocks them over his real identity. He wants Alice to become a phantom thief and promises no one will hurt her again. Pink Lovely Doom relishes everything is going as planned and they’ll gain a more powerful member on their side. But did she count on this? It is Kazumi who begs that she wants to become a phantom thief!

Episode 10
WTF?! Kazumi becomes part of Coloured Phantom?! She is so ‘eager’ to learn the ways of the phantom thief? Pink Lovely Doom thinks back what went wrong in the perfect plan. In that confusion when Kazumi wanted to become a phantom thief, Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution dropped a smoke screen for them to escape. She wonders what Kazumi is hiding, though Kazumi sheepishly says she may have always wanted to be a phantom thief. Unconvinced, Pink Lovely Doom will test her out. Meanwhile Alice is reeling from the shock alone in her home. Who wouldn’t if you find out your entire family is a phantom thief. The rest of her family members are ‘missing’. She stumbles upon a secret passageway to see many newspaper cuttings on the wall on Visconte. She thinks Kazumi must have figured she is the daughter of a phantom thief and thus cannot work with her anymore. Milky Holmes receives a letter of challenge from Kazumi. They reason she became a phantom thief as part of her training to become stronger. Pink Lovely Doom has Kazumi bust into the museum to steal the cap of Kobayashi to prove she is a true phantom thief. However moments before she could do it, she breaks down and couldn’t. Pink Lovely Doom deduces she just wanted to leave her friend. As she possessed a great Toys and helped her whenever she is in trouble, if she accepts that she’ll end up hating her. That’s why she left her and insisted in becoming a phantom thief. She doesn’t need her in her plan. When Milky Holmes arrive, Pink Lovely Doom uses her Toys to make them forget she was ever here. So now it’s Kazumi alone facing off with Milky Holmes. Thinking she is in training, they will not hold back and throw all they’ve got! However Kazumi is saved by Alice. She will become a phantom thief too as she was responsible in making Kazumi make that decision. She is relieved that Kazumi didn’t become one because of her family. However Alice will still be one. She wanted to be a detective only because she doesn’t want to be separated from her. She wants to be with her. Kazumi thinks Alice is innocent and pure and should be a detective. In order to protect that, Kazumi reverses her decision and decides to become a detective again. The friends rejoice and hug. Back a whole again. Milky Holmes leaves satisfied that this ‘training’ had come to a happy ending and notes Feathers have a very powerful bond.

Episode 11
Pink Lovely Doom rues that her plan ended up strengthening their bond so she asks the boss what will be their next step. He wants everyone to gather. And looks like the police security is still lax because the captured Coloured Phantoms have somehow escaped. Once all the Coloured Phantoms gather, Violet Shadow drops the bomb shell that they will disband as they have served their purpose. Of course this doesn’t sit well with the rest especially Red Lion who is going to claw him up. He also reveals Violet Shadow doesn’t even have his own Toys. However he is knocked away by Darkside Revolution’s shadow claw. He will not allow anyone to hurt his big brother. Then Great White Fallen Angel wraps her Soul Binding chains around Violet Shadow and put him in dream land. They are going to get rid of a couple of feathers that are standing in the way of his ideals. A giant shadow monster, Gigantic Phantom destroys a huge building. Kazumi and Alice get a call from Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution that they are issuing them a formal challenge to settle this once and for all. They are acting on their own and nothing to do with Shion. As Feathers reach the ground floor of the tower, they are faced with Red Lion and Blue Hunter. However Kokoro and the rest of her Genius 4 gang are here to buy Feathers some time. Up the stairs they run, they run into Arsene and her gentlemen thieves! They give her a free speedy ride to the top. Why are they helping them? Arsene replies it is a detective’s duty to solve riddles. At the top floor, they see unconscious Shion tied to the chair. Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution consider Shion their true brother and disregards Alice’s true blood relationship with him. They reveal they were abandoned by their parents because their Toys were too powerful. But Shion took them in and treated them like family. For this, he shall always be their big brother. If Feathers are not around, he will not have to suffer so much and they’ll forever be together. Darkside Revolution unleashes his Gigantic Phantom to finish them. Suddenly… Milky Holmes makes their grand entrance via elevator and will challenge Coloured Phantom. Don’t take too long babbling because the elevator door is going to close…

Episode 12
Not only are those kids planning to destroy them, they will also destroy this city and make a new world where they and only their onii-chan can live. Grand plans. Can it work? Maybe this big dark orb can help them achieve it. As they shift their position to the rooftop, Milky Holmes wants Feathers to go after them to save Shion while they handle Gigantic Phantom. It’s going to be since it replicates. But they can get by with hard work and their trusty Toys. Great White Fallen Angel chains Kazumi in her Soul Binding to render her unconscious. When the dark orb has enough energy to be released, the duo get absorbed instead. All their Toys that were in effect are now stopped. Gigantic Phantom disappears and Soul Binding is gone. When Shion sees what is happening, he realizes their Toys are going berserk and at this rate they and the city will be destroyed. He wants to save them but can’t get near the out of control orb. Kazumi too wants to save them but feels unconfident that she lacks the power. Till Alice gives her that nod and Kazumi now has the confidence. Believe in yourself! They unleash their usual combo attack at the orb. The biggest ever! It neutralizes everything so safe to say, the day (or night, rather) is saved. When the kids pop out from the orb, Shion jumps to grab them but falls off the edge! OMG! Don’t let this end in a tragedy! Of course not. Here Shion comes flying back in his white angelic wings. What the hell? Is he a messenger of heaven? No. These wings are his Toys. Milky Holmes gets a pleasant surprise when Kobayashi makes his appearance and praises them. In the aftermath, the Coloured Phantom incident ended. Each member went their separate ways. Blue Hunter and Red Lion continued to be phantom thieves but risked getting caught. Yellow Black Hole quit being one and decided to make her way back up as a detective. Great White Fallen Angel and Darkside Revolution have found a new home. Keiko is still Kokoro’s apprentice although nobody is sure if she is still continuing her phantom thief ways. Shion still continues to care for Alice. I hope it won’t turn into a creepy siscon level… That painting of her may just suggest the start… As for Feathers, they are called to tea again with Milky Holmes. They are surprised to see how clumsy they are handling their tea. But Milky Holmes has good news. From now on, they will work together as detectives. Thus their new name: Milky Holmes Feathers! Though they still operate as a duo, they continue their ways as the mysterious detectives in the eyes of the public and showing no signs of slowing down. Only Kokoro is complaining. They’re stealing all the spotlight! Got a problem? The road is long but they vow to become the best detectives in the world.

Bring Back Mah Dummies!
Yeah well… It’s nice to see that things worked out for everything and everybody but even so it doesn’t feel satisfying because… I WANT MAH MILKY HOLMES’! Retarded version, that is. Although Milky Holmes has been very helpful and different from what we know them, at least there are signs that they are still the incompetent fools we are familiar off. At least behind closed doors. In those instant, fans of the idiotic Milky Holmes in seeing such scenes will be hoping that there will be full blown idiotic silliness and then we can burst into laughter in seeing such classic nostalgia. Hey, many of us never tire to see the antics of 3 Stooges or even Mr Bean, right? But they have kept their clumsiness well under control so in this sense they aren’t really the useless Milky Holmes they are from before. Good work girls but… We still prefer the clumsy you.

For our new pair of Feathers, as budding and up and coming detectives, they are a great pair as well as inseparable friends. There is nothing wrong that this season and series trying to tell us about close friendship and to believe in yourself and your friends but I feel that Milky Holmes series isn’t a good place to do it. We are after here for the silly laughs, am I right? Sometimes I find the duo a little boring since their combo Toys are the same. It’s like their only trump card. Kazumi fires arrow into Alice’s barrier to amplify it. It usually wins. End of story. Since no friendship is perfect, we are shown cracks in the relationship for a while when Kazumi starts thinking the unbelievable that her friend is better than her and loses confident in herself while Alice discovers she comes from a family of phantom thieves. Everything of course has to end well as expected because you don’t want your heart broken seeing Kazumi and Alice turn to the other side forever. The only thing that bugged me is their so called secret identity. To the few characters like Milky Holmes, their family and even Coloured Phantom, they are known. But to the public, they are ‘faceless’ and never seen before. Especially Kokoro who is so pissed every time she hears their name. So my point is, if they have been solving a lot of crimes and catching phantom thieves, won’t they be recognized? I mean, nobody is around when they usually solve things. But there is always a risk. Heck, it could have been easily solved if they just wear a mask and I won’t even raise this issue. All they did is just change their outfit and run around the city without anything to cover their face. Isn’t that how Keiko managed to connect the dots? That’s why it is a big mind boggling question that they are still a relatively big mystery to the public. I can imagine the shock when their faces are known especially to their friends.

Other characters for this season are pretty sufficient too but they lack making an impact. For instance, Coloured Phantom as the antagonist of this series failed to live up to whatever they are doing and I don’t even know what the heck is this new revolution thing that they want to bring.  The rest serves as just ‘pawns’ for Feathers to face off and capture. Although Shion was the leader of Coloured Phantom, I feel Pink Lovely Doom is the real mastermind and the one pulling strings from the shadow because of her Toys that makes others forget. Oh, it was going to be evident that the way the real identities of the Coloured Phantom are revealed, you can make a guess who that phantom thief is based on their voice and sometimes the way they act. Thanks to Violet Shadow AKA Shion getting the ball rolling, therefore it was no surprise who Yellow Black Hole, Visconte and even Pink Lovely Doom are in the end. I still can’t believe Shion’s Toys are his angelic wings because it felt like some sort of convenience for a happy ending. I personally thought it would have been more believable if Visconte and Madam Visconte dived into the scene with their glider and saved him but they had to showcase Shion unleashing his Toys instead. Maybe it’s all thanks to Pink Lovely Doom making him forget he even has Toys. Shion sometimes whenever he is in siscon mode, he is one funny dude because it gives off a feeling that he really fawns over his sister which is just creepy. Just the perfect disguise to not notice your brother is the leader of a phantom thief group. And now he is no longer one (not sure if he really quit being a phantom thief for good), it is going to get a lot worse with Alice always preoccupying his mind.

Although the gentlemen thieves do make their cameo appearances in a handful of episodes, they do not have any spoken dialogue until that penultimate episode with Arsene. Their cameos feel like to tease and make us viewers pinpoint in glee, “Hey! That is that nipple erecting joker beauty sicko! He is still around masquerading as a teacher!”. So why appear to help Feathers? Here is my theory to solve that riddle: Because there won’t be a place to have detective-phantom thief cat and mouse game fun if the city gets destroyed by a pair of selfish kids who only want their onii-chan. And since this is Feathers’ problem, they have to solve it themselves. They’re here just to give a little push and extra service to us viewers. Heck even the rest of Genius 4 make their stinking one scene appearance. Better than none, right? Yeah. There are some that never made their appearance in this third season such as Milky Holmes’ pet cat, Kamaboko, that mysterious is-she-a-good-guy-or-villain Mori Arty and uh huh, who could forget the Kokoro obsessed Irene. Speaking of Kokoro, she feels more responsible this time although there is an air of bratty-ness and you wished that every time she starts getting pissed off, you wished she’d become her joker self like in the past. Uh huh. She still doesn’t like Sherlock to call her “Kokoro-chan” but this time no golden mask to whack her as retort. She also doesn’t resort to her annoying bragging about her massive IQ. I know… This way it made her look ‘smarter’… So really, these original girls have matured? I want mah original Milky Holmes back, boo hoo! Himeyuri as the new character who only appeared in one lousy episode was because as I found out, she was the heroine players control in the second Milky Holmes PSP game (in the first, players helmed Kobayashi).

Some of the mystery can never be solved. In other words, certain things left me mind boggled like what was Ryouko’s mystery that she quit being a detective and turned into a phantom thief? Was there a loved one involved? I don’t know. Not that we really care. Then about Kazumi’s mom. All we see is her dad and it seems their relationship is strained. We didn’t see it resumed back to normal and after this series ended, I began to think back and thought… Hey, could Kazumi’s mom be a phantom thief as well? Hah. Not that we really care. Here is another trivial one that we might not care too. I remember Feathers facing off with Yellow Black Hole and Blue Hunter. The latter got injured and they escaped. So how did he end up getting captured by the police instead? Maybe it’s during one of those unseen missions not shown in any of the episodes. Yeah, who cares. Why the heck did I even notice this even though praying for Stupid Holmes to return was largely occupying my mind. And what does it mean to be a true detective and phantom thief? I don’t know. I am neither so I’m guessing it is this series’ cops and robbers. I figure there is some sort of romance when you play tag in the city. Catch me if you can! And why did Visconte even allow his daughter to become a detective? Don’t know. That because she wants to sounds like a flimsy excuse. I know it’s good to give your daughters freedom in what to do. Or if he is going to be a strict daddy, it will be closer to revealing his true identity? So by being such a flexible father, does this mean if Alice wants to be a slut, he’ll allow it? Just saying…

The art and drawing mainly remains the same. However I can’t help but notice that there is a very slight difference. Because when I first looked at Milky Holmes, they are less ‘prettier’ than they are in the previous 2 seasons. It is like as though their drawing have become somewhat simpler. It is not that obvious but obvious enough for viewers like me to tell the difference. Especially Cordelia, I thought she looked a little different than usual. Otherwise, the art style remains as good as before ranging from your typical cute girls with cute bright sparkly eyes to the background. Just like in previous Milky Holmes instalments, the end card features a chibi style drawing but this time it is mainly on the Feathers duo. Funny. Amusing.

All those returning characters in this series have their seiyuus retained and they still play their part well. The new ones also aren’t too bad especially with Ayasa Itou as Alice, this is her debut voice acting and so far her only anime role. Aimi Terakawa voices Kazumi (Emi in Hentai Ouji To Warawanai Neko, Roxanne in Freezing Vibration) though she played a minor role in the original Tantei Opera Milky Holmes. Other casts include Kazuyuki Okitsu as Shion/Violet Shadow (Madarame in Genshiken Nidaime), Hiroki Touchi as Visconte (Panther Lily in Fairy Tail), Sayaka Ohara as Madam Visconte (Alicia in Aria The Animation), Ikumi Nakagami as Keiko/Pink Lovely Doom (Yukari in Girls Und Panzer), Aya Hisakawa as Ryouko/Yellow Black Hole (Maya in Tenjou Tenge), Yuka Ootsubo as Great White Fallen Angel (Kyouko in YuruYuri), Yuka Takakura as Darkside Revolution (Mai in Hentai Ouji To Warawanai Neko) and Natsumi Takamori as Himeyuri (Misaki in Sakurasou No Pet Na Kanojo). The opening and ending themes are generic lively anime pop so there isn’t anything special that attracts me. Despite this season is about Feathers, it is the original Milky Holmes quartet who sings the opening theme, Glory Glowin’ Days. Milky Holmes Feathers takes the ending theme entitled Seishun Beginner.

In the end, this third season didn’t actually break any new ground because everything else felt the same. It is just that it gives us new characters but nothing that really impresses in the long run. Long-time fans of the anime series may consider this season as a fall from grace although I won’t put it to the point that it is utterly disappointing. It tells us that going back to basics is what is important. Maybe they want to redeem Milky Holmes’ pride of being respectable and useful detective lolis but to us all, they are best doing what we know them for: Making hilarious whimsical mistakes, bungling all over, messing things, screwing up everything and looking cute while doing that. So producers take note. If you’re going to make a fourth season for Milky Holmes, please BRING BACK MAH DUMMY DETECTIVE LOLIS!!! And then I wouldn’t mind seeing them spam us with super erected nipples.