While murder mysteries might not be regarded as family-friendly, Oriental Light and Magic’s Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple is a surprisingly able adaptation. While aimed at children, the anime still accurately depicts Christie’s most famous novels without becoming too grisly. For mystery fans who want a soft touch when introducing the titular great detectives to a younger audience, OLM surprisingly has it handled.
In 39 episodes, OLM’s 2004 anime jumps between Poirot and Marple’s best cases, such as The ABC Murders and 4:50 from Paddington. While OLM takes a few creative liberties, especially in the use of a new child character to tie together the leads, it still remains the only anime adaptation of Christie’s novels. As such, it inhabits a unique niche in the anime landscape that makes it worth at least checking out, especially for those with family.
Poirot and Marple Remain Mystery Stars Regardless Of Medium
Created by OLM, based on the original novels by Agatha Christie
While Christie’s detectives are more frequently found in live-action shows, most notably portrayed by David Suchet and Joan Hickson, OLM provides a fairly comprehensive take of their own. While the anime’s art style hews more to the simplistic, it shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the show waters down the material or changes the crimes involved. In fact, the studio has been able to take advantage of the long runtime anime of the early 2000s often had: many of the longest novels are translated into multipart sagas, allowing Christie’s stories to fully run their course without any trimming.
The main sticking point would likely be OLM’s one original addition to Christie’s tales – Mabel West. While she serves as a POV character that lets audiences jump between the novels by visiting her grand-aunt Marple, or investigating as one of Poirot’s assistants, she often feels like set dressing since the writers wanted to leave the novels intact where possible. Her animal companion is also clearly just around to have a cute mascot for children. One wonders if the anthology could have existed just fine without either, though 4:50 From Paddington finds use for her by letting her go undercover.
Poirot and Marple has gone under the radar in the years since, which is a loss for fans. Besides being the only anime depicting these internationally famous works, it has a special pedigree in how both the studio and its director Naohito Takahashi were also responsible for the beloved 1997 Berserk anime. If nothing else, that proves that OLM knows better to be sloppy or disrespectful of the source material, even if it has been made approachable for children. Anyone in need of a good sitting room mystery ought to check out Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple.
