Trickster

Episode 12

Halfway through the show, I've accepted that Trickster's disjointed parts will not magically fall into place in a big, satisfying narrative epiphany moment. Instead, I've settled for seeing each episode as an opportunity to find a few nice moments or, in lucky weeks, well-crafted scenes that offer some meat to discuss buried under so many overcooked potatoes. These moments have been harder to appreciate lately due to the sheer amount of gravy the show's writing slips and falls on with predictable accuracy, but while episode 12 didn't offer much in terms of rewarding scenes, at least there were still some good (albeit brief) moments. Hanasaki's father continuing to send money to Haruhiko while still leaving room for doubt in his motivations was refreshing, (Did he really still care or was he just seeking a way to prevent his adopted offspring from rotting in public?) as was seeing him and the butler running to Hanasaki's side once the smoke had cleared. Kobayashi now seems to value Hanasaki's friendship enough that his emotions caused another crack in his perfect barrier, making him a lot more human and vulnerable. All boy detectives not named Hanasaki get a few moments of badassery. There's a lovely instrumental version of the theme song, and the way all noise got swallowed by the initial tension except for the sound of a beating heart was engrossing.

Apart from these moments and some really bad animation (Katsuda pushing Inoue's wheelchair around the 4-minute mark looked particularly horrendous), Trickster still sucks so hard at physics that it's amusing, be it the impossible inclination of the moving staircase, Kobayashi accelerating his fall to (not) catch Hanasaki, or Hanasaki punching the ground (made of glass so that it can shatter) with his bare fist, opening the floodgates while somehow not affecting the platform's structural stability one bit. Dialogue-wise, there were enough platitudes to outshine any adolescent fanfiction, mostly courtesy of Twenty Faces (“all the actors are finally in place”), with Akechi not far behind (some generic line about him being the one the bad guy really wants). I'm able to overlook animation slip-ups in favor of great storytelling, and I'm willing to turn a blind eye to bad lines if the substance underneath is compelling enough. The problem with Trickster is that, no matter how many cliched promises Twenty Faces spouts about things getting interesting, I'm still waiting for that moment to happen, as set-ups keep falling apart without reaping any emotional payoff.

I had argued the show's problem wasn't that it didn't have anything to say, but that it was incapable of making its point in a way that moved me to anything beyond mild amusement at the sight of its more outlandish shenanigans. I tried to see beneath the cheese and cheap metaphors, but now that we're halfway through the series, I'm afraid we might not be looking at a rough diamond so much as a piece of charcoal coated in pretentiousness. A manipulative bad guy standing on an elevated platform trying to force someone to shoot a gun against their will in order to teach them a lesson about motive, agency, and responsibility in the (slightly more distant) future can be a jaw-dropping moment, as in shows like Psycho-Pass, but how much of the status quo actually changed in this big confrontation that featured way too much standing around and shouting to feel emotionally significant? What did the characters learn, how did they grow - or even fail so miserably to make a different point instead?

No matter how much glass was shattered on the way to this climax, there was no feeling of impact or real resolution. While Hanasaki's realization of how hard he screwed up makes his return to full genki mode unlikely, there was no real price to pay for his actions post-Haruhiko. Noro still hasn't managed to turn into a character in 12 episodes, and Inoue's return to rehab doesn't seem to have moved beyond that one time on the roof, so there goes the impact of that cathartic scene in episode 5. We already knew Twenty Faces was in love with Akechi, leaving his confession yet again devoid of any emotional impact and just as unnecessary as him showing off his bullet hole nipple again. The mastermind bad guy being prepared for every eventuality and having a post-robots backup plan up his pretty sleeves isn't exactly knocking my socks off either.

With Twenty Faces trying to get Akechi to revert back to his old self so that the both of them can live together in darkness happily ever after, and Hanasaki's sudden whirlpool of emotions irritating Kobayashi to no end, the healthiest relationship in this cold and empty world seems to be the one rekindled between Inoue and Katsuda. Where Twenty Faces is convinced of the weakening powers of friendship, we've already seen how running off alone cost Inoue a leg, whereas trust and confidence in a friend turns him into a badass action hero, wheelchair be damned.

Sadly, when it feels like I'm making a bigger effort to find meaning and depth in a show as a viewer than the show actually has to offer, and when my biggest question is why a ticket for The Kunoichi Sex Appeal Chronicles is important enough to deserve two close-ups, I can't really say I'm eagerly waiting for Trickster's next act to begin, even with such a cliffhanger ending.

Rating: D+

Trickster is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.