Great Pretender

Great Pretender, a Netflix original anime series produced by Wit Studio, follows the multi-layered and often humorous adventures of an organised group of scam artists from around the world. The show is incredibly creative and cleverly structured, leaving the audience ever-surprised by the twists and turns of the plot throughout the first season. Upon watching a second time, the viewer will be able to find clues hidden in plain sight to several of the surprises in the plot – a credit to the writers’ attention to detail.

One of the main assets of the show is the strong characterisation and likeability of the four main characters. With season one unofficially divided into three parts with three different scams, each with varying periods of time separating them, the viewer’s desire to keep watching is largely driven by both curiosity of what creative surprises await in the next storyline, and in the sheer enjoyment of learning more about the characters. They are each well-crafted and developed, with three of the four’s engaging, complex, and emotive back stories revealed in turn as the season unfolds – leaving the audience hoping for the fourth in the second season. Great Pretender maintains a certain playfulness and fun about it, whilst still allowing room for more dark or sad moments to unfold, as it also touches on serious topics such as war, PTSD, sexism, racism, and grief in amongst the layered storylines and colourful, beautiful artwork.

I would recommend Great Pretender to any adult who enjoys animation.

Rating: 4.5/5