Migi to Dali aka Migi & Dali 6/10

 "Migi to Dali" is an absurd and fun anime, the smart and very stretchy identical twin brothers are its biggest strength, however, as soon as the story gets too serious, the charm is lost, and that's its undoing. As much as I enjoyed the first 8 episodes, the show didn't stick the landing.

Migi & Dali was created by Nami Sano, who was known for her dark sense of humor. The show starts with an elderly, rich couple, who want to adopt a boy from an orphanage, the twins overhear this and start making a plan. They will pretend that they are not twins, but only one person, the ideal child. This is how the character "Hitori" (which means "one person" in Japanese) is born. And seemingly it works, the parents believe they have adopted a perfect son, although there are two sons who alternately interact with the parents and the local people, which leads to one comedic episode after another.

I really like the brothers, they have blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale skin. Always wear the same pair of jeans and black sweater, and behave like very close twins tend to, but still have very distinct characteristics. The most impressive thing is how hard they try to hide their dark secret, while using interesting techniques, to say the least, and they always have a calm look on their faces no matter in what tricky situation they find themselves in. The manga/anime has certain gag vibes, which works well, since it helps to not take the impossibility of this situation so serious. Like, how do the parents not realize their child "Hitori" is changing every few minutes?

The serious part of the story begins, when Migi and Dali try to uncover the murder of their mother. This is kinda where the anime loses me. It just got too ridiculous, I'm talking soap opera dramatic levels. I don't want to give away too much, but the evil "stepmom" trope plays a part. The thriller element is just not why I fell for the story, I wanted the mystery to be solved as quickly as possible so we could get back to the comedy - but once the mystery was solved, the anime ends. The side characters could have been flashed out some more, especially Eiji and his insane mom, but like in most comedies, they are one dimensional, maybe that's also why the second half of the anime fell flat.