Forum - View topicCase File nº221: Kabukicho (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Case File nº221: Kabukicho (TV) Genres: Mystery, Comedy, Drama Themes: Plot Summary:
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#1
This may be an original work, but it's borrowed names and character traits from the original series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1. Watson is a doctor and is completely ordinary with common sense like the character he's based on. 2. Sherlock has the same keen sense of smell, inductive reasoning, smoking habit and terrible eating habits as his model. Everything else about him is off-the-wall and very much Production I.G's work. 3. Lestrade works for Tokyo's Metropolitan police department, but that's as far as the similarity goes with his fictional counterpart. An original work in line with the times, plenty of motifs associated with the LGBT community. Not sure what to think about those, but the core mystery isn't half bad even if some aspects of the presentation are at the extreme end of the weird scale. Unlike the other series debuting this season about detectives, this original work appears to be a mismash of the original literary characters which inspired the name. It's Production I.G. though, so anyone who's a fan of their work should give this a chance for the first few episodes to see if there's anything worth sticking around for. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#2
Simply put, this episode is a homage to "The Red Headed League", with a cameo reference to "The Adventure of the Speckled Band". If you know about the former, then there's no mystery to it. The explanation behind the "Detectives Row" commission is helpful after that first episode. I'm not sure what the Madam gets out of doing this, although from the first episode it's clear the police do rely on the commission system if the case is beyond their abilities. The sibling pair of detectives get their turn in the spotlight, but this pair plays dirty and prefers to snatch the reward without really doing much investigative work of their own. Sherlock is wise to them, but the new arrival Watson is the easy mark Moriarty says he is. This show has a habit of fooling the audience regarding appearances, and this episode is no exception with that revelation at the end. Speaking of Moriarty, if he's going to turn out the way his literary inspiration is it's a wonder Sherlock lets him into his apartment in the first place. Furthermore, he figured out the case very quickly and sent Watson to the florist as backup at the specified time to save Sherlock before he was shot. One to watch, especially if he's the one holding command over the Kabukicho irregulars. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I don't know a lot about Sherlock lore, but I was wondering about any purpose to James Moriarty having a student handbook, and I think Moriarty is often shown to be a professor or something.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#4
This series has always been had a soft spot for the surreal, which is highlighted in this week's episode. Putting aside the fact that over a third of the episode takes place in a sauna (with two characters suddenly keeling over when they would be in hospital for heat stroke long before that) and that the guest characters this week keep their masks on all the time in a public bathhouse, Watson's absolute ignorance of the rules for public bathhouses despite being a Japanese national almost borders on ludicrous. The mystery is original, with the only throwback to Conan Doyle's source material being the bathhouse angle (although it was a Turkish bath in that story, and a minor reference at that). This week's mystery is the first one for this series which isn't a formal commission for the detectives, but it's not bad in the sense that it leaves enough seemingly irrelevant clues throughout the episode before explaining the whole situation nicely at Sherlock's usual Rakugo routine. Although the episode seems like a pointless diversion, I get the feeling Moriarty is sizing Watson up for some unknown purpose. The boy genius has a nasty edge about him if last week's final scene is any indication, so if he is responsible for the Jack the Ripper murders it will be interesting to see how Sherlock Holmes tracks him down through the rest of the series. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#5
Although the episode is really a spotlight for the sibling detectives, it does a decent job of fleshing out the lives of the inhabitants. Kabukicho having a run-down sumo team is hard to believe, but they constitute the core of this episode's mystery. The mystery itself isn't fair as it relies too much on prior knowledge of the anaesthetic used as well as the personality and skill level of the culprit. The siblings' background is interesting, they're really from Aomori which is stereotypically rural. They've dropped the accents they had when they were younger and are living the best they can in Kabukicho. Considering how quickly Lucy figured out the answer part-way through Holmes' performance, she's probably the smarter of the siblings since her younger sister can use her looks to play the honey trap role effectively. The local Yakuza boss surprisingly helped Watson move from the West Side to the East Side, so he's probably one to watch for future episodes. If the title for next episode is anything to go by, the next one to take the stage is going to be the ex-Yakuza detective of the six. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I've run out of patience with this show. It's all just too silly. Also there's little mystery in the "mysteries" they present.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I honestly don't know what to think of the show. On one hand it feels like it includes a bunch of interesting themes, such as trans or gender ambiguous people, but on the other I am not sure if it is doing a really nice job at it. And not sure if it is really going anyway..
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#6
The ex-Yakuza detective's background gets fleshed out in this week's episode. Despite his previous occupation, his heart is in the right place. As Sherlock rightly pointed out, he's an idiot but is also too nice for his own good at times. His ex-brother from the Yakuza is another example of the series penchant for highlighting the surreal; if it's not the lame attempts at ad-hoc rapping it's the weird way of stealing rare memorabilia to sell for cash on online marketplaces (very 21st century and definitely not something "traditional" gangsters would do). Kaneko Financing is the updated "respectable front" for the Kaneko Yakuza, but the Head of the Family is more like the old-fashioned stereotype who has honour in doing things. Last week he bent over backwards to help the older sister, this time he's willing to bring his entire gang with him to save Kobayashi and get Sugimoto to pay the penalty. Being expelled from a Yakuza Family usually means the expelled have a hard time on the straight and narrow, but the Kaneko Head doesn't seem to hold a grudge against Kobayashi. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#7
It's been a while, but this week's episode has its origins in one of the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If anything, it's better than the fare from previous weeks because there are two twists in the tale. What I like best about the episode is how it ultimately stays true to the outcome of the original tale, where Adler gets the last laugh in the end. Mycroft Holmes and Irene Adler are very important to the original series, although the latter has increasing prominence in modern times compared to how often she was mentioned in the source material. Strangely enough Mycroft has much the same position in this series as he occupied in the source material, however the relationship between the two siblings is very different compared to its source. Adler as always is the formidable adversary Holmes never truly bests. Kyougaku's disguise which is seen through in this episode is a nod to the original material, but the way the drive is extracted is completely original to Production I.G. and requires a leap of logic as it implies Sherlock was in the house checking out the luggage without getting caught by the surveillance cameras. The doll-making absconding "husband" is a classic red herring, but it's still curious why everyone exposed to his "products" ends up with a terrible rash. Ultimately unimportant as far as the mystery goes, but does the final scene hint at something more or is it a conclusion which brings everything in line with its source material? |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#8
Last week's ending was a bridge into this week's episode. Looks like Irene Adler is a recurring guest character who will be making frequent appearances until the end of this series. In addition to the mayor's encrypted USB, she has trouble with the Ripper who seems to have taken a shine to her. For this week's episode, it's an adaptation of the Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton. Only three things this episode has in common with the source material are Milverton as a blackmailer, stealing something he has at the request of a client and Milverton's death at the hands of one of his victims. Irene Adler is too good for Sherlock, just a few clues and she interrupts his Rakugo routine which really irritates him. Like his literary inspiration, this Holmes is no good with women. Intimate proximity drives him to recite Buddhist verses, which is a tough one to voice for the VA. Next week's case means material from the source is adapted three weeks in a row. The name escapes me now, but one of the cases did feature a severed ear. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1499 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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The "Jugemu Jugemu" verse is actually a popular rakugo story, which is fitting for Sherlock's character. Personally, the best part of last episode was the "subplot you wouldn't even know is a subplot" of Kyogoku obtaining ownership of the photobook the background transvestites gifted to Moriarty back in episode 3, and then asking the cute chubby one to autograph it. (You can even see it in the post-credits sequence!) |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#9
Three episodes in and the main story is going along nicely. There's another reference to the original material, and it's even parodied by this episode. There's not much mystery in this since its a duel between Jack and Sherlock on who can get to Irene first. Jack wins this round, but is Irene really as dead as Sherlock says she is? It wouldn't surprise me if she popped up later because he asked the hospital to fake her death. Moriarty is almost certainly Jack, or at least is clever enough to hire a homeless person to kill Irene on his behalf. His penchant for crushing butterflies, fake phone calls involving the Kabukicho street brats and his knowledge of the hideout mark him out as the prime suspect. I'm increasingly interested in that egg USB drive, since if cracked it has some kind of damning footage that would identify Jack. The side-story featuring Kyogoku and his crush is an amusing one. For a detective, he's utterly dense when it comes to matters of the heart. Watson for all his shortcomings has more experience than Kyogoku, he has the added bonus of being accepted by his new neighbours who don't mark him for scams. Not sure if they'll pursue the Kyogoku romance arc further, not sure how much more the animators can put him down. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2841 |
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#10
So Irene is definitely a corpse. Too many independent parties verifying she's in a morgue, so she's definitely out of the picture. The episode overplayed the dying message part and Watson's haunting by her supposed spirit, but there's something to it which raises a few interesting questions going forward: 1. Watson has noticed the same clues given to the audience over the last few weeks, notably the lie told by Moriarty when offering the Rakugo tickets. Moriarty laughed it off, but he never answered why he was lying. Even if Sherlock trusts him, is he really the person he says he is? 2. Kyogoku didn't really feature in the Irene Adler hide-and-seek episode, so why is the trap being set specifically for him? 3. Isn't it a little convenient that Watson is the only one being haunted while Sherlock who was closer to Irene isn't at all bothered? He's easily manipulated, but if she really wanted justice from beyond she'd be better off trying to get through to Sherlock instead. Hopefully there's an answer to all of it in next week's episode. The episode title is appropriate enough. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I don't know, I still kind of suspect that Irene is still alive, and Holmes has managed to convince others to play it along to set up a trap or something. And includes that Holmes already suspects that Moriarty is Jack, and manipulated to make it look like Watson is an outlier who sees haunting messages set thanks to a still alive Irene. He needed Watson and Moriarty to believe she is dead, and make Moriarty believe that he is trusted, especially over Watson, as to let his guard down.
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