In today’s world of obfuscating anime titles, the straightforward Butt Detective is a puff of fresh air.

I’m as excited as any anime fan when a new Japanese television season rolls around, because it means a fresh batch of shows to watch and enjoy. But if I’m being completely honest, thanks to the titles of otaku-oriented franchises so often having obtuse pronunciations, gobs of fictional terminology, or being exhaustingly long, it’s sometimes incredibly hard to remember the names of those new shows.

So instead, I often think of them by description instead. For example, this spring I’m looking forward to, as I call them, “Shoji Kawamori Show with Bump of Chicken Theme Songs” (which, Google tells me, is actually titled Heavy Divine Unit Pandora) and “The Japan Air-Self Defense Force has a Dragon in Gifu” (Hisone and Miso-tan).

Oh, and Butt Detective looks intriguing too.

Now before you accuse me of coming up with a needlessly crude mnemonic, please be aware that the title of upcoming TV anime Oshiri Tantei literally translates to Butt Detective, and that’s even the official English title that producer Toei Animation uses for it. As the name implies, the protagonist is a Butt Detective, humanoid life form who looks like a normal person from shoulders down, but has a gigantic posterior in place of a head.

▼ A close-up of the rosy-(butt) cheeked hero.

Butt Detective is already the star of a series of juvenile (in all senses of the word) literature books, and also a web animation series from last year. Next month, though, he’ll be making his television debut, and on public broadcaster NHK’s E Tele station, which is ostensibly for educational programming.

▼ Butt Detective’s adversaries include a criminal clad in a crap coil mask, and if his name is anything other than “Shit Head,” the producers totally dropped the ball.

Mysteriously, the butt crack at the center of Butt Detective’s face operates like a mouth, as it’s where he sticks food he’s eating, bafflingly blurring the line between snacking and sodomy. It’s also where he pours his beverages, including piping hot tea.

▼ Although he’s also shown sitting on a toilet, which suggests that he has a second butthole located where normal human beings have their one and only.

Butt Detective also lives in a world of anthropomorphic dogs, all of whom, ironically, wear pants, which makes his exposed ass all the more surreal.

▼ Between the poop and dogs, this seems like a ripe opportunity for a crossover with Tokyo’s living dog turd mascot character.

Butt Detective premiers on May 3 at 9 a.m., which means late risers who don’t want to miss it may want to adjust the schedule of their morning constitutional. The remaining episodes will air on the following two days, with the TV anime wrapping up on May 5.

Source: YouTube/東映アニメーション公式YouTubeチャンネル via Anime News Network/Jennifer Sherman
Images: YouTube/東映アニメーション公式YouTubeチャンネル

Follow Casey on Twitter, where personally he would have gone with “Inspector Butt” for the series’ official title.