Mythical Detective Loki isn't a bad series, but it's not a great one either.  The fifth volume of the series is a good example of why this is: for every good episode, there's a couple that are not so hot.  While the volume starts off on a high note with a funny parody of The Iron Chef, some of the other episodes are a bit silly, and the overall plot isn't advanced at all.  With this show well into its second half, it is going to be interesting to see how it all wraps up.

Series synopsis:

The Norse god Loki has been kicked out of Asgard and exiled to Midgard (Earth.)  To make matters worse, he's been trapped inside the body of a young boy.  What is a displaced god going to do?  Why open up a detective agency of course!  He starts the Enjaku Detective Agency with his companion Yamino, but since his offices are in a residential neighborhood, he doesn't get any business.  That is until a young girl named Mayura Daidoji stops by in the first episode.  She's always been fascinated by detectives and sort of forces her way into the agency.  Together the three of them take on some pretty strange cases.

Mysteries aren't the only thing they have to worry about though.  Loki made a few enemies before Odin kicked him out of Asgard, and some of them aren't satisfied with mere exile...they've come to kill him.  Foremost among these is the god Heimdall, who can't defeat Loki by attacking him head on, so he comes up with some elaborate schemes to destroy his foe.  There are also the Norns, the three sisters of fate whom Odin has ordered in Midgard to kill Loki.

The comic relief of the series comes in the form of the god Thor.  He's using the name Narugami (why?  Loki uses his real name) and is just trying to make ends meet here on Earth.  In addition to going to school (again, why?) he works a series of part time jobs, most of them with disastrous results.

Other Norse gods pop up as the series goes on.  Freya, the Norse goddess of love, has been trapped in the body of a little girl and has forgotten her godly origins.  She's living with Loki now, and occasionally changes back to her natural form and tries to seduce the god of mischief.

This volume:

We're treated to a parody of the popular Japanese show The Iron Chef at the beginning of this disc when Yamino is chosen to appear on a cooking game show.  His opponent?  Why Heimdall naturally.  Add a giant polka-dotted squid, swords as a cooking implement, and the Norns contributing some poisoned spices and you have one of the funniest episodes of the series.

After that enjoyable episode there's a pretty lame one.  The Norns once again try to get the upper hand on Loki, this time by casting a unique spell on him.  This incantation causes the diminutive god to take on the personality of whomever he comes in contact with.  As luck would have it, he runs through the town meeting all of the characters in the series, and then absorbing their traits.  The humor just doesn't work in this one, and it's more silly than funny. The Norns plots are getting more and more idiotic as the series progresses.
 
To stop that trend, the evil sisters actually come up with a pretty good plan.  When one of them notices that Narugami has a crush on the female mascot to a fast food chain, they bring the doll to life and have it seduce the god of thunder.  The girl then puts Narugami under a spell and has convinces him that he must defeat Loki in battle to prove that he's the strongest warrior.  A good plan, that nearly works.

The volume wraps up with not one, but two plots against Loki by the Norns.  First one of the sisters sends Freya some enchanted red boots that come to life and cause her to attack Loki when they meet up.  When that fails, the youngest sister tries attacking Loki head on.  Though she may best him in combat though, it'll take more than that to defeat the god of mischief.

The Norns are quickly becoming a tired plot device.  They attack Loki in convoluted and sometimes idiotic ways and there's really not much suspense or feeling of danger when they do.  With only six episodes remaining after this volume concludes, the story better shift into high gear if there's going to be a satisfactory conclusion.

This volume presents episodes 17-20 on a single sided DVD that comes in a clear keepcase with a two-sided cover.
 
Audio:

This disc offers a choice between the original Japanese stereo soundtrack and a 5.1 English dub.  I alternated between tracks, switching every episode, and preferred the original language though the English dub is fine.  Both tracks were clear and sounded very good.  There were no dropouts or other defects worth noting.

Video:

This show is presented in full frame, and the image quality looks pretty good.  There was some minor aliasing, but the lines were tight and the image was clean.  A solid looking show.

Extras:

This disc contains the standard clean opening and closing, a character art gallery, as well as a nice overview on Norse Mythology.  There is also the first part of the interview with the Japanese voice actors Rika Komatsu (Reiya) and Yui Horie (Mayura.)

Final Thoughts:

With the humor being hit of miss, and the animation to the battle scenes being almost nonexistant, this show leaves something to be desired.  While there are some very good episodes, like the one that starts off this disc, there are more than its share of duds.  This would make a good rental.