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Holmes of Kyoto (TV)

Genres: mystery, romance, slice of life

Plot Summary: In an antique shop in Kyoto's Teramachi Sanjō shopping district, high school girl Aoi Mashiro unexpectedly runs into Kiyotaka Yagashira, the son of the shop's owner, and ends up working part-time at the shop. Kiyotaka is called the "Holmes at Teramachi Sanjō," and he and Aoi solve odd cases brought to them by various clients.

#1

Shoujo genre mystery work centred around antiquities? Sounds good, haven't had a mystery series in a while. No knowledge of the Japanese arts and crafts world outside what I've seen in museums past, but the story of Hakuin which the animators worked into this week was a very charming one and I like tales like those. Not sure if I've seen a work by this particular development studio, but I like the colours and the designs are easy on the eye.

No VA credits, but I'd be very surprised if "Holmes" isn't voiced by the same person who plays Ginji in Kakuriyo. It's a surprising coincidence that the heroines in both series are both named Aoi, but I suppose that's as far as the two series will go in similarities (besides the target audience).

Kiyotaka's ability to observe traits works a little differently from Conan Doyle's creation, but it's charming to watch and for viewers to work out for themselves why he comes to the conclusions he does. There are probably cultural nuances which help Kiyotaka out in his deductions, but more of the series would help in establishing his thought processes instead of the outcomes.

The final scene with the master counterfeiter suggests there might be a Moriarty in this adaptation, but it's still early days.

Another good start to one of these shows. I was afraid it would be too gimmicky with the Sherlock Holmes thing, that it was refreshing when they actually explained it and mentioned the character in universe. He was a pretty fun dude in this first episode, and Aoi was also an interesting character and not too much of an introverted character as I might fear, that she could possibly challenge him eventually, as a good Watson should.

Fun, but did they really have to have the tea and her crying and banging her head on the table right next to the priceless ancient artifacts? It's the only thing I could think of during that scene.

#2

Upbeat OP song, the animation seems typical for a shoujo work but the colours are vibrant and most if not all of the regular cast members make appearances in it.

No antiques in this episode, but Kiyotaka gets to show off his induction skills when confronted with a small mystery his grandfather introduces to him. I wonder if it's a hereditary gift or Kiyotaka just developed his skills through practice.

The gimmick about using newspaper cut outs to form the threatening words is definitely from one of Conan Doyle's works. Everything else used to work out the solution appears to be firmly based on local knowledge and sharp observation skills to fuel inductive reasoning.

The subplot about Mashiro Aoi not fitting in to her new home appears to be resolved as she meets more people when tagging along with Kiyotaka. She'll probably get over her previous angst over the relationship breakdown by getting acquainted with more locals. Kiyotaka seems happy enough to keep his new part-time worker by removing the big motivator that almost got her into trouble because of theft.

Interestingly enough, the animators employed a dialect coach to help some of the cast. Looks like they couldn't get enough VAs from Kansai to fill up all of the roles.

#3

The famous Kurama mountain and its connotations with the Tengu is the setting for this week's episode. The train Kiyotaka and Mashiro ride is the famous scenic train to Kurama station, but I don't know if the strap they highlighted is made up or something that's actually on some trains outside the anime. The father's restaurant reservation isn't to be taken lightly, the bill there would have set both of them back quite a bit.

This week's mystery only took up the second half of the episode, but solving it essentially requires a firm grasp of Japanese art history, history, mythology and knowledge of the significance of precious stones. The final tidbit from Holmes is something that's probably not widely known, but a useful tip when trying to gauge if a couple are related by blood or through marriage.

The mother isn't half bad herself. None of the three sons realised the true significance of the copies they were bequeathed, but she immediately realised the message her late husband tried to convey through the third painting. I don't think she was stumped on the significance of the first two paintings either. Regardless of what one thinks of the late writer, it's an unusual way (perhaps typical of a writer?) of letting on someone's true heritage without resorting to something crass like a DNA test.

I honestly can't remember if there's a Holmes story which inspired this week's vignette. The mechanics behind the mystery are typical of Holmes who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of everything relating to crime-solving though.

#4

The famous Gion Festival serves as the backdrop for an episode that is long overdue: the titular pair getting over their emotional traumas and moving on for the rest of the show. Mashiro had her heartbreak recovery vacation taken care of in the previous week and now she has to face the direct cause of her part-time work. By chance, viewers get to see who Kiyotaka was dating when he was younger and how he handles the same situation.

With friends like that, who needs enemies? No wonder Mashiro isn't too keen on building new relationships in Kyoto despite how much time has past. If the ED animation is any hint, she'll probably get over this inbuilt distrust as she solves more cases together with Holmes.

This week's cultural focus is less on Japanese art history (Royal Copenhagen plates aside) and more on Tanka and the Hundred Poems. Not a fan of Chihayafuru so less familiarity with the pairs of poems Kiyotaka had to handle, but his reply is as always a very classy way of handling extremely awkward situations. Maybe getting dumped wasn't the worst thing to have happened after all.

The series' equivalent to Moriarty should be making a proper appearance next week. Now to see if the two of them match wits over pottery.

While I've only seen the first episode (I'm trying to finish everything from SPRING first lol)

I do like this quite a bit. Well, I am a sucker for genius characters who are like "Allow me to analyze everything that happened in your life with one single glance." I absolutely love that trope and I love mysteries as well.

#5

It's taken a while, but the series antagonist finally takes the stage for a proper introduction. Like the Oxford Mathematics professor turned master of crime he's probably based on, Ensho is fiendishly good at his counterfeiting craft yet was able to maintain his cover as a monk until Holmes unmasked him. To be honest, of all the treasures being shown to Kiyotaka in this episode only the calligraphy scroll could have been faked: the others were too heavy or in places impossible to take down in a short space of time for copying. Not to mention the narcissistic letter deliberately indicating which of the treasures had been stolen probably gave it away long before the solution was presented.

Interestingly enough Mashiro takes a back seat this episode and it is the second son of the Kajiwara family from episode three who tags along with Kiyotaka on this trip. His role in this series is more or less set now, but his interaction with Kiyotaka at the aqueduct brought quite a few laughs along the way to the main mystery.

Although Ensho is probably going to best Kiyotaka in a physical brawl, the latter is no slouch either if someone tried to ambush him unawares. The original Holmes (and Moriarty) were both capable of close-quarters fighting, so it's perhaps unsurprising both of their counterparts in this series reflect this. It's a stretch to think Kiyotaka would have been called upon to fight when on overseas trips, but the shop he mans doesn't just stock Japanese fine art so it's not a complete stretch of the imagination.

With the main plot now underway, it looks like next week will resume a pattern of Kiyotaka and Mashiro working together to solve art-based mysteries. Only now the former has to work extra hard to unmask anything Ensho might be involved in.

#6

This week's episode is more of a vehicle to introduce Rikyu and his mother Yurie than on working on a crafty mystery. A bit of character exposition for Yagashira Seiji thrown in for good measure. Rikyu is featured prominently in the OP, so it's about time he was given a formal introduction. Aside from the relationship of his mother to Kiyotaka's grandfather, I'm not sure if she's really prominent as a recurring cast member. I didn't know France was known for its judo schools, but he's obviously well trained. One open question is who Rikyu's father is and whether or not he's still alive.

The other main theme is on the ability to appraise and how heavy a responsibility it is on those who can see what others can't. It's clear Kiyotaka's grandfather impressed upon his grandson how important it is to work on the technique and to never compromise when encountering fakes. That's both of the driving forces behind Kiyotaka's motivation as an apprentice appraiser sorted: last week covered the hatred against counterfeiters while this week covers his pride in his talents and techniques. The latter is more or less the same as what drives Ensho, so I wouldn't be too surprised if future episodes proved Kiyotaka's hypothesis on Ensho's background to be accurate.

Maybe a more difficult mystery to solve next week? That's two in a row where the solution or culprits were telegraphed well in advance.

I've decided to view this show as a shoujo romance because the "mysteries" are not that compelling. I hope Aoi develops a bit more self-confidence. She could learn a bit from Kaori in that regard.

It does look like the previous assistant had the Watson thing down with being able to defend.

#7

It's been a while since the episode featured heavy elements of art appraisal, so it's a welcome change from the easy mysteries of the past two weeks. I'm not totally convinced Mashiro has the natural eye for appraisal Kiyotaka initially saw in her, but she's had enough practice working at the shop that she's a match for anyone who's not a professional. No way she could have worked out the Coates' painting on her own though, only experts in the field are qualified for that kind of test.

There are a lot of analogies and metaphors in this episode, not all of them readily apparent to casual viewers. The animators (and the original artist) do try to weave in as much of Kyoto's numerous temples and other tourist sites into the series in a manner relevant to the art history theme, so this week the windows of the temple in question are the main theme (and the title) for this week.

By Kiyotaka's usual high standards, I can see why he was so annoyed with himself at losing this round. Personally I don't think there's any shame in seeing through a counterfeit based on a priori knowledge and a gut instinct of the painting's characteristics, but Holmes was determined to see through Ensho's work based on more obvious tells like the brushwork etc. The fact that he couldn't was what annoyed him, but should he have been that hard on himself? Yanagihara's face darkened considerably when he was initially told it was a forgery, although he regained his composure sufficiently to explain the reason behind the party challenge. Viewers are not explicitly told, but if Yanagihara himself was also fooled by the quality of the work and didn't have warning that it was a forgery beforehand it means Ensho is already world-class at forging multiple genres of artworks (he's already done calligraphy, this week is oil painting by European painters. His vases probably aren't in quite the same league as his brushwork though).

Although Kiyotaka got Ensho's background mostly right two weeks ago, it's debatable if Ensho took the plunge into counterfeiting because his father egged him on. After all he says he eventually got bored with it all and wanted to enter the Buddhist priesthood until Kiyotaka stepped in and wounded his pride. The challenge is well and truly on, although I'm doubtful it'll be resolved by the end of this series. If this adaptation is based on an ongoing work, it's unlikely the duel between the pair will be settled so easily.

#8

The show doesn't forget it's still bound by the conventions of the Shoujo genre, so an episode like this one isn't really unexpected. Mashiro seems to have made up her mind on what relationship she wants with Kiyotaka, but the converse is not necessarily true. The passage of time within the series is used well both to show the city itself in its different settings and to draw out developing relationships. The sweets cafe hook felt a bit extraneous to be honest, probably a good excuse to show off the Kitayama district of Kyoto for this week.

Mashiro says she got lucky when she picked the only item in her grandfather's collection which would have sold for tons of money had she pulled it off, although it furthers proves Kiyotaka's conviction that she's really suited to working under him. If it happens between the two of them, her parents would be perfectly happy with the match given his social and academic status.

This week's mystery is hard to described as such, but it takes imagination, lateral thinking and old-fashioned legwork to come up with the theory that was eventually proved right after some resistance. Although having Mashiro present certainly helped drop the fiance's wariness, Kiyotaka has forgotten that the four around the table all shared the common experience of breaking up romantic relationships established over a length of time. Although Mashiro's intervention settled the matter, perhaps this is one of those occasions he speaks of when his emotions interfere with his objectivity and end up putting his part-time worker under unintentional emotional stress.

If the next episode at the Kiyotaka residence is another device to develop the interpersonal relationship aspect of the leading pair, then the duel with Ensho will only resume after that is developed to a certain point. Unless of course the grandfather knows about Ensho and wishes to test his grandson's capabilities for the challenges ahead.

When will we get to see them use the tickets Aoi won for the onsen trip? She won three as I recall. The writers will probably send Rikyuu with them for comedic purposes, but I think Aoi would be better served inviting Kaori.

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