I have mentioned a few times in this blog that I am a really big fan of mysteries.n I love puzzles and I love piecing stories together. The genre does come with its fair share of pitfalls though and can be daunting to write so I find that many of the more modern mystery series tend to be a mix of genres. Like they’re mostly action with a bit of a mystery element or supernatural or a romance that happens to involve detectives doing some sleuthing in the background. I’m okay with that but it has left me hungry for a good old fashion crime to solve. This might be why I am so excited about this episode.
So after a couple of episodes, I assumed that Ron Komonohashi was going to be mostly a light comedy series with a mystery/crime-solving flavour to it. And you can’t really blame me for that, can you? The first crime was quite outlandish and not set up in a way where we could follow the investigation and come up with our own conclusions. The second was a tad better but still, the limitation of having to wrap up everything in about 25 minutes made it so that you had to assume a lot of things you had no proof of to come up with a conclusion. But this time… well let’s take it one step at a time.
The episode starts off with a cute little odd couple comedy bit that mostly serves as an excuse to land our two protagonists in the remote onsen that serves as our setting. Great! A remote and isolated location. Love it. And as far as a setup goes, I enjoyed it. It was a bit aggressive to suggest that the prize would be canceled if they didn’t go together but I am happy to stretch my disbelief there. It worked and was funny so yay!
Then we have our introduction to the purple hair guy, well not our introduction but his first meeting with Ron and Toto. (I looked it up, purple hair guy is called Spitz Feier! Fantastic name). He does that thing that all the Sherlock Holmes adaptations do and that really annoys me. He seemingly guesses something about our lead character accurately and then walks us through his deduction. And when shows present it that way it’s very easy to accept and you gp awww of course! Why didn’t I think of it! Because you already have a conclusion and now you see that all the clues fit neatly. But the thing is, without the conclusion, those clues son,t really tell you much. I was about to just gloss it over because all detective shows do that when to my delighted surprise, the show itself called it out.
Nice but scoffed shoes would indicate a profession where you both have to dress in a certain way but also walk around a lot. Police detective fits and as Ron pointed out so does reporter. I would say that any high-level assistant would also work, like a political aid, A waiter or host at a high end restaurant might fit the bill as might anyone who bought themselves a pair of nice shoes for occasions that need them and has been wearing them for years. Basically, it tells you very little. You could assume that in a vacation setting one would opt for comfortable shows instead of their dress shoes so that akes it more likely that these are everyday shoes for the wearer and so on but still, just assuming Toto is in the police was a hug leap and I’m glad Ron called it out. Let’s see if the show sticks to that!
I am not the most sociable person out there. I was a little disappointed when confinement laws were loosened. But if a stranger enthusiastically wanted me to play a board game in the middle of my vacation, I would be very eager to do so. Am I the only one? Ron being a boardgame fan just tickled me pink. I really like that little bit of characterization. And it does make sense. Although the game of life is not exactly what would have been my first choice. You should broaden your horizons, Ron!
I said I liked the setting already, I actually really like the entire setup of this mystery and I’m grateful they are giving it at least two episodes to play out. We’re going to have some time here. Already, there are a few suspects that seem realistic. No, I do not think it was Amamiya no matter how drunk she was. But her potential guilt is a nice catalyst for Toto to get involved. There is of course the husband. We already know there were some issues between the two although they didn’t seem severe enough for murder and he was generally good-humoured. There is also Spitz, who we, the audience, know is there to catch Ron doing investigative work. He seems a little off his rocker, could he have murdered someone just to bait Ron into solving that murder? And did it work?
But there are other possibilities. For now, we have an approximate time of death but we don’t yet have cause. It could have been an accident, either involving other people or just a slip and fall. It could have been suicide. There is another lone guest at this onsen, what’s her story. It’s good, right? There are already enough threads to put together a decent solution but also enough questions to make you want to watch the second part. Attentively!
I have been waiting for this. An anime that is mostly about the mystery. And now, I really want to get some answers!
I figure Ron thought something was odd about the lottery the moment he said, “Only once, huh?” And I think he brought the Game of Life to gather information, because he knew something would happen.
I do tend toward’s Merlin’s guess, and I’m put in mind of the kitty serial joke “Is it dead?” – “Only sleeping.”
I have a theory.
The woman is actually still alive.
1) This is obviously a trap set for Ron. His opponent may have deviated considerably from the instruction to have no direct contact whatsoever, to only observe and report back, but the entire point of targeting him is to prevent him from killing people. Thus, murdering a person, or knowingly allowing their murder, runs counter to the point of going after Ron in the first place.
2) Her head is still above the water. As long as that is true, she can still breathe. And we’ve already seen Ron demonstrate that there are known ways to make something like a dog look dead without it actually being so.
Oo, that’s a good theory! It could be that all the other guests are actually actors to entrap Ron! Because I can’t imaging the wife working alone to fake her own death, so her husband must be in on the scheme. But that would mean that the blonde lady was the only real guest of the inn, and doesn’t that sound kind of weird? So she must be in on it in some way too. So maybe the lottery was rigged, the inn looks like its been abandoned because it was an abandoned inn that was repurposed for this trap, and the murder is just an act to trap Ron into solving a crime. Considering that Amamiya ended up at the same in due to the same lottery, it’s kind of suspicious that she just happens to be the main suspect. I don’t think she’s in on the plot, but I do think she was selected to be the ideal falsely accused person.
In my review of this episode, I pointed out that Spitz is a way too obvious choice to be the murderer that he’s definitely not.
My choices ultimately go down to the blonde lady or the husband but I’m leaning towards the former due to her knowledge of the folk tale associated with the murder. I just cannot find a concrete reason for her motives.