What a view | Great Pretender: a witty, stylish crime caper anime on Netflix worthy of the big league

Great Pretender is the sort of anime masterpiece that could put carbon-based actors out of work.

Created by Tokyo’s Wit Studio and paying sly homage to the chicanery of the smoothest fictional con artists, Great Pretender aspires to the ingenuity and, yes, wit of movie Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and even comes with opening titles descended directly from Catch Me if You Can.

Which is to say that its narrative twists, engaging humour and logic-defying yet credible animation have vaulted this 14-part first series, now streaming on Netflix, straight into the crime-caper big league.

Aiming for the world series himself is Makoto Edamura, self-anointed greatest swindler in Japan. But he discovers how crushingly little league he really is when duped by effortlessly suave gentleman thief Laurent Thierry. The pair wind up in Los Angeles, Edamura gradually realising he’s been sucked into a lucrative but perilous swindle targeting a Mafia drugs baron posing as a film producer.

The fast-paced tone and candy-coloured palette established, our charming charlatans carry on scamming, from Las Vegas to London to Singapore (with a starring role for Marina Bay and other landmarks), but always targeting bad guys exclusively as new adventures in deception, as well as new allies ready to join the gang, present themselves.