Forum - View topicTrickster: Edogawa Rampo 'Shounen Tantei-dan' Yori (TV).
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Hmm, not sure what to make of the green beetle. It didn't seem to get destroyed flying into Kobayashi's field, though it did seem to get knocked back for a second. But it could still crawl on him.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2834 |
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#8
If last week's episode was about fleshing out Akechi Kogorou and 20-faces, then this week is all about Hanasaki and how he ended up with the skills and personality he has at the start of the show. Although his personal circumstances do deserve a modicum of empathy, in some ways the episode shows him up to be really shallow and emphasises how much he lives for the moment after all he's lost to date. If 20-faces is anything to go by, Hanasaki probably took after Kogorou in his compulsion for thrill-seeking. Kobayashi is out of luck since he got picked on by someone who simply wanted something to keep him interested and as far away from his dead and lifeless household as possible. Leaving aside how a small community aspiring for autarky managed to acquire the resources and technology both to barricade themselves and establish lethal self-defence measures, I have to say geniuses going for the most outlandish and idealistic dreams out there isn't the most original trope, but if it's based on the novels then there's only so much leeway one can get before straying from the source. I wouldn't be surprised if Detective Nao's crush turns out to be the target everyone's been chasing all this time. No clear depiction of the face, but the physique and hair colour bear a mighty resemblance to a certain someone. Akechi must have been contracted by the foster father to look out for Hanasaki shortly after Haruhiko did a bunk. Timing of his intervention too convenient to be attributed to chance. What is significant is 20-faces knowing about the background, hence the pointed use of the robot coin bank to deliver the message. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2834 |
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#9
In some ways, I like this episode since it shows Hanasaki up for what he is and any merits he might have had are now going to be put to good use by 20-faces. The preemptive announcement about the old toy getting destroyed ended up right on the money since he knows the personalities of Hanasaki Kensuke and Akechi Kogorou well enough to manipulate the outcome of the coup to his best advantage. The only constant throughout this series appears to be Kobayashi, he still looks for a way to die and is happy to obey orders so long as one of the dangerous jobs taken on by the detective agency does do him in eventually. Interpersonal relationships don't matter a jot to him, which also shows up the reluctance of everyone else in the agency in interacting with him since someone would have gathered an inkling of this rather than be constrained by the norms and conventions of regular humans and think Kobayashi is happy with fame and achievement. The old lady playing everything for her own personal gain ended up being a cliche in the end, it might have been more interesting if she was in it for something other than personal greed. The misguided idealist that is Hanasaki Haruhiko is just as emotional as his brother and can't handle betrayal well despite his intellectual gifts. Getting close to the endgame now and 20-faces still holds all the cards. I don't know how the producers will resolve the twin plotlines of Kobayashi's death and 20-faces arrest in a satisfactory manner, or if they have any intention of doing so given the source material. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2834 |
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#10
Well it didn't take 20 faces long to break Hanasaki to his will. Very cleverly stage-managed and he wouldn't have pulled it off without truly understanding why Akechi was willing to let Hanasaki stew on his own and then carefully editing what was shown to Hanasaki. How a live video feed was established is beyond me (possibly the client this week) but the surreal nature of the video clips and audio transmissions did cause some confusion for me. Considering Akechi actually saved 20 faces from bullies, I have to wonder what drove him to shoot at the person he once saved and treated as a friend. Not too difficult to imagine considering how twisted 20 faces is in his obsession with his former saviour. The series might end up with a cliched ending with Hanasaki returning to the club and Kobayashi either dying or giving up on his death wish; but I'm wondering if the animators have any inclination of going a full-on dark route with Hanasaki dying and hating Akechi for everything with his dying breath. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2834 |
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#11
This episode was probably the most predictable of the entire series. A shame Hanasaki is going to survive the whole experience and get away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, seeing him get killed or imprisoned for his numerous follies would have been personally satisfying. He didn't realise he was being played as a toy by both parties, even after the great rocket tantrum. For an ex-soldier, Akechi still has it if he can still complain about being old and out-of-shape despite destroying the security drones single-handedly whilst making a mess out of the new department store. Now that Kobayashi is fed up and is going to intervene possibly, how good is 20-faces at dealing with unexpected developments? If the trend shown during the whole series is any indication, Kobayashi will fulfil his death wish protecting Hanasaki from a security drone. If he stays alive, Hanasaki might well have achieved his original intention (prior to hysterical fit) of getting Kobayashi to give up trying to kill himself. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2834 |
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#12
A few unexplained issues with this episode, possibly plot holes unless I rewatch it again to make sense of the gaps. Although the outcome was something which I expected, the process in which the episode got there can probably be described as "entertaining", no more and no less. A couple of silly scenes such as Noro's eventual success hacking the system and the drone scene with Ootomo but other than that the producers tried to keep a straight face with the drama et al. It won't win any new fans to this series (which appears to be this website's designated figure of fun for the quarter for its lack of quality) but those who are still willing to watch it might get their wish if the rumours of a two quarter series prove true. Hanasaki survived as I thought he would, but I wonder how mentally broken he is to feature in any future episodes. Kobayashi certainly thinks he'll recover sufficiently to fulfil the promise to find a way to kill him, so he'll probably make an appearance in the future. If there's one figure I've yet to fathom it's Kobayashi himself. I think he realises the more he involves himself with the detective agency the more likely he is to get killed since his omnipotent shield stops working at crucial junctures in his emotional state. He's still the same asocial tramp he started the series as which is one constant I've come to like. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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No more episode reviews, so let's bring the main discussion over here. Quoting my post from last week, ep 13:
Ep 14: cute, fillery fluff this week as Yamane learns to whistle and officially joins the club, and we learn more about Noro-chin--namely, that she's a genius who doesn't (or at least claims not to) have a psychological problem or a tragic past, she just likes to stay inside all the time, mostly lounging around in lingerie (including those weird, toe-less pink thigh highs). She also has exercise video games (that fight game looked awesome) and her what? part-time job hacking for the Boy's Detective Club? How on earth does that pay for her apartment, let alone her equipment? Her character wasn't well thought out. Also this episode: a Kobayashi-->Hanasaki chase straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Also, we see Akechi make a phonecall, and he's smiling, so either he went on vacation and/or he finally got some quality alone time with 20 Faces. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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^ Or that was 20 Faces.
And Kobayashi remains the only character in this I actually like. The editing was baffling this time. Why break up the shocking scene of what Yamane saw from the doorway with more of the K-H chase scene? There was nothing dramatic there anyway, so intercutting between half-assed chases didn't change that. 
Just because Noro-chin has no visible means of support doesn't mean she has none. Maybe she made weapons-grade stock investments while she was in school. I rather liked her attitude on the whole thing. You don't need a tragic backstory to not like being around other people. I should know. As long as you're not bothering anyone else, live how you want. Of course, this doesn't mean this series won't give her one...
Heh, between this and amazon's blundering (I hate you amazon.com), I've been using the icon more in the last few days than I have in the last few years.
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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[quote="Gina Szanboti"]^ Or that was 20 Faces.
And Kobayashi remains the only character in this I actually like. [quote] He's fun to watch (I like how he eats tomatoes), and he has the most mysterious origins. Maybe if his colleagues treated him more like a peer and less like an annoying puppy, he'd be less inclined to die. He's also right that Hanasaki backed out on him, but in Hanasaki's defense, he was kicked off the team.
On the one hand, I found it refreshing, but also wholly unsatisfying. It's not just avoiding people in person (and only in person--she interacts plenty via owl drone, phone and tech), she avoids going outside altogether. Most people don't take the extreme of staying in one room ad nauseum unless they're forced to by circumstance. As for support, she said she's a tax payer, implying that she's not a dependent.
Don't we all? 
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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The latest episode gave us a few glimpses at Kobayashi's flashbacks, making it the most interesting episode of the series thus far. It's too bad the only person who cares enough about Kobayashi to try to help him remember his past is a murderous psychiatrist.
Is it weird that I cheered when the bullet actually hit and hurt Kobayashi? It's a sign of his progress emotionally! Although if it turns out that Kobayashi's superpowers are merely physical manifestations of psychological defense mechanisms, as Dr. Murderer suggested, I call BS. There has to be a scifi and/or metaphysical explanation of his powers. If psychological defense mechanisms gave people actual superpowers, the world would have been filled with superheroes centuries ago. Heck, I'd be a superhero! 
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Yeah, when he said, "It's not unusual for people to gain powers after a trauma" I was like, "Yes it is!" At least we're finally getting some movement on that front.
This was like the worst guard detail ever. Guy's standing at the railing while they're shooting at him and does anyone pull him back? I guess they realized he was as impervious to bullets as Akechi apparently is. I guess their past traumas gave them oddly specific bullet repelling fields similar to Kobayashi's. Man the animation really went to hell in everything that wasn't a closeup this time.  They even recycled that frame 3 times.
 And what the hell was going on with her ponytail? Why is it wagging straight out behind her while she's walking? 
Hanasaki's new friends were kinda fun. I wonder if we'll be seeing more of them. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Episode 17
I guess we will be seeing more of them. 
Watching this episode made me realize what's so off about this series. It's put together and animated with exactly the same cheap and sloppy craftmanship of an Emon Animation adaptation of a Tencent web comic, right down to the music. Everything is disjointed and just kind of thrown out there because someone thought it was time for it to appear, not because the story or direction or dialog made it flow toward that scene. Well, at least Kobayashi finally gave birth to a bouncy baby bullet. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Morale of the story: never cheat on Twenty-Faces!
Seriously, i enjoy this show a lot more when the focus is not on the brats, even though it's still ridiculous as hell...but it looks like next week, we finally might find out more about Kobayashi's superpower-inducing trauma |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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In the near future, Japanese mercenaries lounge around eating lunch using body bags as make shift furniture in the mountainous battlefields of...I wanna say Switzerland, because that's the most redonculous option, but I suppose it could be Russia, or anywhere really, even the terraformed moon colonies, for all we know. A man obsessed with his Nakama uses the mind controlling power of his kiss to force an innocent journalist to bomb her own transport vehicle because he's jealous of her relationship with said nakama and that nakama chose to leave the battlefield with her after he encouraged nakama to do so...Did I get the details of 20 Faces origin story right? What a petty, passive-aggressive and sadistic way to declare one's utter devotion to his comrade-in-arms! Why doesn't Akechi put his foot down and break up with 20 Faces once and for all?
"20 Faces, we had a thing on the battlefield. We collected bodybags on our campsite. It was fun! But it was just a fling. I'm just not that into you, man. Treasure the memories of killing insurgents and eating rations on their dead bodies! Remember the good times! I'm sure there is a dictator or warlord out there who could use your special set of skills more than I can. Bring some thrill into his life for a change. It's over between us. It's not you...wait, no, it is you." Meanwhile, Kobayashi's been unconscious on the couch for a whole week, and the others haven't even bothered to toss him a bottle of water, let alone get him a doctor's appointment. Or find out his origins or the secret behind his powers. They're supposed to be detectives for Heaven's (Hell's?) sake! Why aren't they detecting? "That's our pet kid. We let him sleep on the couch and sometimes leave out food that flies into his mouth through some magical, mystery force. Is that weird?" I love hatewatching this show! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Did they turn the animation over completely to Haoliners or something? They've clearly given up, not even bothering to stay on model for close shots now. I'm starting to think the only reason 20-Faces has twenty faces is because they can't draw him the same twice.
So journalist girlfriend got blown up with Akechi in the truck...but I guess they found her after all? Since she's survived to help him be a detective and blow some more stuff up. All that aside, truck blows up and 20F suggests looking for her in nearby cabins? Yeah, people get tossed by explosions, but c'mon. I guess that was so off-the-wall even Akechi figured out something was up. Did all this trauma give Akechi pyrokinetic powers? He just looks at 20F's pic and it goes up in flames, then the whole library behind him. I suppose that was supposed to be a metaphor (or VR? what was that about?), along with a lot of the other random stuff they kept throwing in, but it was awfully hard to tell. Yeah, lol at lunch on Body Bag Hill. I imagine they were going for a twist on the coroner-eats-lunch-during-autopsies trope, but, nope, not working. I feel like everyone from the writers to the inbetweeners are just phoning it in at this point, begging for it to be over. |
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