Author: psgels

.Hack//Roots – 20 – Meet Haseo

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



Seriously… this is the first anime in which I feel that a deaths or disappearance of a character was a huge mistake to do. Apart from Wolf’s Rain, perhaps. Goad, B-Set and Sakisaka really could have been able to contribute to the horrible mess which was episode 20.

Tabby still doesn’t do anything, Phyllo still stands at the same spot, Ovan and Shino are still missing and Haseo is still going berserk. This time, however, not to get stronger, but to find Tri-Edge. He seems to have turned into an all-devouring zombie. Tri-Edge meanwhile has been kidnapped by god-knows-what and Yata and Pai are planning to test Haseo’s power with a strong opponent. Oh, and Pai seems to have awakened just as Haseo did.

Still, there is hope! Touta finally does something useful, ever since his comeback, by trying to get through to Haseo. If the following episodes will feature Haseo, getting back to earth, I’ll be happy. If that’s the case, then this anime won’t be a total waste either. It seems that during the next episode, Haseo’ll also be defeated by some stranger, so who knows.

Phyllo also made an interesting analogy about Haseo. Even if you try to force open a shellfish, it’ll shut itself close instead. But seagulls have an interesting method of opening these: by dropping the shellfish on a rock. Will that have the same effect on Haseo, I wonder? What happens if you just break him. Will he open?

Still, what is this awakening? Why is it so important? And why is Yata after someone who awakened when he can just use his subordinate? And why does it just happen to certain people? And what causes it? What is the connection between Haseo and Pai’s awakening? After all, Pai awakened in a normal field. It also seems that different people react differently when being awakened. Pai seemed to be in pain, though Haseo began to look even more as an undead zombie.

Haru no Ashioto The Movie – Ourin Dakkan Review – 66/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



A while ago, when I was browsing through AniDB, I ran into a this anime: Haru no Ashioto The Movie – Ourin Dakkan. It was supposed to air at March 31, but absolutely nobody talked about it. It made me curious. Judging by the artwork, you’d think that people would want to see this. After all, it looked very cute. Still, nobody even mentioned a bit of it. I became interested in it, and after a bit of searching, I found an online raw version. A long time of downloading later (very sloooow torrent), I finally got the chance to find out whether this anime deserved this much neglect.

First of all, let’s face it, this movie isn’t going to win any contests. The low budget really becomes clear after the first minute watching, especially when you look at the character designs. The story isn’t very special either: the setting is an all-girls middle-school. One of the teachers, along with some other students have taken over the school, and beaten up the principal. This movie follows three schoolgirls, trying to free the school. Basically, it’s just a couple of cute girls, fighting each other.

Still, I have to admit. It was actually kindof fun watching this. The girls are surprisingly cute, especially in their antics. The movie also featured some pretty funny moments, because of the fact that either the girls keep either screwing up, get distracted or act just plain random. The fight scenes also were very creative. The creators somehow had to find a way to display fight scenes on a small budget. Somehow, they solved this in a very interesting and amusing way.

Overall, this anime needs to get subbed. The characters are interesting to see. Especially in their cute and funny moments. It’s perfect if you’re in the mood for a light watch.

Ergo Proxy – 18 – Okay… that was interesting…

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy



Honestly… there aren’t few anime who would let their characters make a long journey to some distant place, only in order to discover that the key to solving their problem lies in the place it all began. But for some reason, Ergo Proxy is one of them. And actually, there’s nothing wrong with such a plot twist. It keeps the characters busy, in any case.

But now that I’m looking back, this twist had to come. After all, it was the only way to bring Real, Vincent and Pino back to Raul, Daedalus and Monad. After all, Monad did for a large part of the story but at the same time she was still in Romdeau.

In any case, the episode focuses around Real and Vincent realizing that they have to go back to Romdeau. Remember the rocket from the previous episode? Well, apparently, it hit Moscow. Now nothing’s left of it. While Real and Pino explore the ruins, Vincent seems to be bothered by a nasty headache. In there he has a strange dream. He’s in Proxy-form, somewhere in Moscow. He uses his pendant as a key, to go inside a door, in which an autorave is waiting for him. It seems to be the autorave he left in charge with his lost memories. Apparently, Proxy One let this autorave copy all of the memories he was planning to give to Monad.

The autorave then thinks that Proxy One came back to get his memories. Proxy one, however, kills the autorave and starts crying out of happiness. Vincent then wakes up, back in the Usagi. Real and Pino have returned as well. They then too, somehow find the same room. Vincent then uses his pendant again to open the door. In there, they find the dead autorave, nearly dead. He keeps repeating one sentence, after which he starts uttering the word “Romdeau”. Then, he finally shuts down.

Now, the question remains, when did Proxy One kill the autorave? Was it before he came to Romdeau, or was it in Vincent’s dream? The fact that Real and Pino noticed him sleeping suggests the former, though the fact that the autorave looked just recently destroyed suggests the latter.

Raul, meanwhile, is given his title back. He then pays a visit to Daedalus, who seems to have forgotten about Real, and selected a new one as if nothing happened. This does suggest that Real is replaceable, and it explains why Daedalus said that Real would never betray him. Whenever she does, he’d just create a new one. Still, what do the old Real and the new Real have to do with Monad Proxy? (interesting note: when Raul finds the ball of yarn, he grabs the ball, while the new Real holds the end of the string. Then, she comes running to him, this string is gone and she takes it like nothing happened. Maybe I’m just thinking too much.)

Oh, and Raul still has visions, and has sworn to kill Vincent. It must be convenient for him to know that Vincent’s coming back, isn’t it? Also, who was this person at the beginning of the episode, right next to the explosion? And more importantly, when did it happen? Overall, it was an interesting episode, though it wasn’t extraordinary in any way.

Tsubasa Chronicle – 39 – And we’re halfway through the series

by psgels, posted in Tsubasa Chronicle



Well, that was rather cure, wasn’t it? This was probably one of the first really slow paced arcs of Tsubasa Chronicle. Clearly, the creators couldn’t manage to fit these two episodes into one, so they decided to stretch them a bit. The result is interestingly enjoyable. Still, a lot of strange things happened during this episode.

Remember when Syaoran planned to steal one of the bad guy’s motors during the previous episode? Well, somehow, this plan gets lost and he and Kurogane only manage to chase them away. Then, they board the bus again, as if nothing ever happened. ^^; The silent, long-haired woman also appears to be a former mechanic of the rail bus, now fleeing as well because of the usual things. She worked too hard, lost sight of the important things in her life, broke down and now attempts to take a break.

The true identities of the two eloping lovers? An idol and her manager. This gets found out when a news reporter conveniently mentions the fact that they’re missing. I have no idea why those bad guys are after them, by the way. It seems to be some kind of revenge, or something, but that’s never explained. In any case, the two of them are eloping because they believe that a relation between idol and manager is taboo.

Also, for some reason, either changing tires on a truck takes an awful lot of time, or the truck managed to catch up an interesting distance. Then the cute stuff begins, when Syaoran manages to land on the back of the truck and the bad guys arrive. All of the passengers on the rail bus are cheering for him, and Kurogane, Fye and even Sakura spend their time with attempting to shoot down the bad guys. For some reason, the bad guys keep their attention at Syaoran, and never even aim for the others. All of this is accompanied by an “interesting” background tune.

Despite the obvious flaws, the episode just remains very enjoyable. It’s like I’ve said before. You don’t need to think too much while watching Tsubasa Chronicle. It’s got a story it wants to tell, and it will tell this story no matter what, even if some parts don’t make any sense at all.

Eikyuu Kazoku/Eternal Family Review – 91/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Apart from the amazing Mahou Shoujotai, Studio 4C has produced much more material. The Animatrix, for example. And Eikyuu Kazoku. I just saw it, and it only proves the awesomeness of Studio 4C. This movie just is so incredibly nuts, it actually scares me.

Okay, the concept: take several people, mostly dumped by society, brainwash them and make them think they’re each other’s family. Broadcast their actions on TV, and make money. The members of the family range from a sadistic baby equipped with scissors (and who isn’t afraid to use them) to a daughter who gets obsessive over fire and from a silent girl who uses her puppet to speak for her to a son who likes to play with machine guns. There are also two pets, a chicken and a dog, who only become the victims of the sadistic ideas of each of the family members. They especially don’t like the baby. At the halfmark of the movie, the family actually escapes, and splits up. And even then the fun doesn’t stop.

Eikyuu Kazoku consists out of a large number of small clips, all pasted after each other to form 30 minutes. Because these clips are incredibly small, the pacing in this series is enormous. So many things succeed each other in such a fast pacing. But then again, when there is a quiet moment, you really notice it. That’s one of the few bad parts of this anime.

Another major good part of this anime is that the creators can’t seem to run out of their incredible amount of creativity. So many original elements have been put in this series. The characters remain quirky throughout the entire movie, and new situations just kept amazing me. Also, despite its length, each character also got a healthy dose of character development.

The character art looks different from most anime. I can understand what people mean by the special style of Studio 4C. It reminded me of Mahou Shoujotai, which is always a good thing. The characters indeed look really interesting. The way they’re drawn really makes them unique. The animation also is very interesting, not to mention the choreography of the different action scenes.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this movie. It really confirmed that Studio 4C is my favourite anime studio. It had me laughing at so many times. Especially the characters were something else. If you manage to locate this movie, I certainly recommend you to watch it. It will be a very interesting watch.

Some quick first impressions: Kemono no Zume, Hanoka and Shoujo Yang Geum no Yume

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Aah, finally we get another good batch. It’s good to see that this season does actually have some good series. All of these anime feature something different from normal anime. One is co-produced with Koreans, another is entirely made with flash, while yet another has a very messy art style.

Kemono no Zume

Ah, this is what I’ve been waiting for. A monster hunter falls in love with a monster and vice versa. Quite an interesting premise, and I’m happy to say that the first episode left me with a good feeling. Our main character isn’t invincible after all, as he seems to have an indigestion problem when facing monsters, and our female protagonist/antagonist was actually introduced in quite a funny way. In fact, this anime succesfully managed to produce some very funny moments, while the serious moments were kept sortof light, though full of content. The art style is indeed something which immediately catches the eye. It’s incredibly messy, especially the animation. Still, in the end, it works. It really contributes to the overall style of the anime.

Hanoka

This anime is completely created in flash. While others may find it ugly, I kindof appreciate the fact that people are experimenting with different art styles. And indeed, this anime looks quite unique. With also five minutes per episode, in which 90 seconds of this are occupied by the OP, leaving only 3,5 minutes left, you also can’t say that this anime bores you. But that doesn’t nessecarily mean that it’s good. In this case, however, it does have potential. It’s an anime about a war, which is being fought. Our main characters has special powers, though she’s held captive, only to serve in the war. She was quite sad, and these emotions did surprisingly well. I have no idea what the rest of this anime will be about, though. It can go anywhere, from incredibly bad to incredibly good.

Shoujo Yang Geum no Yume

Okay, why did this show take so ridiculously long to get subbed? It’s quite good. In case you’ve never heard about this series, it aired during the spring season. Now, a massive five months later, it has its first episode subbed. It’s about a very energetic girl, who loves cooking. Her late mother inspired her for this, before she died. She used to say that seeing Yang Geum (our main character) eat her dinner would make her really happy. Yang Geum is now aiming for about the same thing. Meanwhile, a lot of interesting things are going on in the background. It seems that the prince of the country is rather inexperienced, and goes hunting with only one guard. Assasins take advantage of this and actually attack, while Yang Geum and her cousin happen to be near. They actually manage to scare away these assasins in a very creative way, and they also manage to see their faces, which immediately gives this story a good start. Our main characters also are very likable. They’ve got interesting personalities. Another interesting point is that this is one of the first, if not first Japanese-Korean co-productions, hence the Korean names. Overall, if there ever was an unpopular show which deserves way more attention, it’s this one.

Simoun – 21 – Some answers

by psgels, posted in Simoun



A story-driven episode for once, instead of the character-driven ones. I actually like the latter more. that’s really the department in which Simoun shines like no other. Still, that doesn’t mean that this episode wasn’t good. ^^

The most important part of the episode definitely is Onashia explaining the Emerald Ri Maajon. It’s used to travel from one time to another. We also see Dominüra and Limone back. This also gives us suspicions that Amuria is still alive as well, though in yet another time. I’m not sure whether Limone and Dominüra have landed in the future, or in the past. I personally think that they ended up in the past, as the village is filled with ancient Simoun. Still, they’re all overgrown with vines.

In any case, there was a civilization in the past which was much more advanced than the current ones. It’s interesting that Onashia speaks of “civilization” as singular, instead of plural. It’s said that the Simoun came from those days. In the end, countless wars eradicated the civilization, along with the true purpose of the Simoun. At one time, the Simoun just became useless.

Then, from the sky, it seems that a Simoun from another world, or time in this case. It was being driven by children, sent from god. These girls introduced themselves as Simoun Sibylla. Then, they informed everyone of the Emerald Ri Maajon. The Chor Dextra, which was led by Aaeru’s grandfather, by the way, was created just for the completion of the Emerald Ri Maajon. Dominüra is the only living member of it.

Dominüra also reveals something interesting in her thoughts: the reason she freaked out so horribly in episode 14, when seeing the Simoun. Well, it seems that she was one of these children, sent from god, who originally came from the other world. It seems that she forgot this, and seeing the dismantled Simoun forced her to remember again. This is indeed extremely sad, as she was the one who started the entire war for the control of the Simoun.

However, this brings up so many questions. How old is Dominüra anyway? If Aaeru’s grandfather used to pilot a Simoun, then it must mean that that Dominüra arrived in her Simoun quite some years ago. Still, she looks extremely young. I have a theory, though. Nothing has ever been said about what happens to those who refuse to go to the spring for their entire life, right? The fact that nobody speaks about it must mean that every single person went to the shrine, no exceptions. What if Dominüra is this exception? What if she just didn’t go to the spring, which made her body refuse to age for years and years to follow?

Dominüra also starts singing in front of the people who live in the time they arrived in. I think that that’s one of their rituals, they do every day, in order to give these people hope. I have no idea what started it, though I think that the villagers managed to convince them. They’re indeed living very peaceful. Interesting note: the Simoun appear to make a buzzing sound when they’re inactive.

I also noticed that Limone’s hair grew. This really reminded me of a strange pattern I noticed a while ago and which all anime seem to follow. Most anime don’t even know about hair growth. Half a year passes, and each character still has the same length of hair. Nothing grows. There have been a number of anime, though, which do feature characters who grow their hair. The strange thing, however, is that every single one of these anime has only one of these characters. No more. Simoun has Limone. All of the other characters seem to be spending a lot of time at the barber. The Law of Ueki has Rinko and I’ve heard that Haruhi Suzumiya also had this. It’s a pity that so little characters have this, as I like spotting the differences in character design that way. (That’s why I also like characters who like to change hairstyles)

In any case, the fact that this was a story-driven episode doesn’t mean that we didn’t have any character-development. This time, it came from Yun, Limone, Dominüra, Onashia and a bit of Aaeru and Paraietta.

Notice how Paraietta was very determined when the Chor Tempest was scolded for going out unauthorized (eheh, so what? Aaeru used to do this lots of times. :P). Also, notice how Aaeru gets uncomfortable when Neviriru suddenly gets hope of Amuria being alive? I wonder what kind of reasons she has for this. Does she think that she’ll lose an important pair, or an important friend to Amuria?

Both Limone and Dominüra have changed. Limone has told herself never to say “I dunno” anymore. That’s why she tries to find a suitable answer for each question asked to her. Dominüra, on her turn, has become extremely relaxed, cheerful and optimistic. We also see a surprisingly weak side of Onashia. For some reason, she became extremely exhausted on the journey back to the ruins. When she arrived, however, this weakness was gone. She also shredded off some strange, sparkling substance when she walked.

The most interesting one, though was Yun. She goes along with Aaeru and Neviriru in their mission to escort Onashia back to the ruins, as she wants to ask Onashia about her fallen comrades. Onashia told Yun the previous episode that she could hear Mamiina’s voice, so Yun was hoping that this would be the same for her former friends. She wonders whether their souls have been set free. Yun gets a response she doesn’t like. The one who desires to be set free his Yun herself. Not only does this suggest that her comrades have yet to be set free, but it also means that Yun has indeed been keeping all of her feelings inside of her. Onashia reveals that Yun wants to escape to a place far away. She’s been fooling herself all along.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 20 – OMG Rika!

by psgels, posted in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni



I was fearing that this episode would be rather dull, and indeed, everything I predicted happens. We’ve got Shion phoning Keiichi. Then she holds a long, though pointless interrogation with the village elder after which she indeed threatens Rika. During this episode, not a lot of things happened, and the things that did happen were very stretched. When you combine this with the fact that I practically predicted everything which would happen, and the interrogation with the village chief was not only pointless, but featured Shion in her usual emo-mode about Satoshi, and it indeed makes the episode rather dull.

Except for one point!

Rika was amazing during this episode! She really is my favourite character of this anime, and with a good reason. First of all, when Shion threatens her, she claims that entering the shrine doesn’t necessarily mean death. People are kept away from it because of the torture-devices. That’s a different reaction than you’d expect when you take the council members of the previous episode into account. Rika also claims that she can hear Oyashiro-sama’s voice in her head.

Then the awesome thing: Shion never phoned Rika in the first place. Shion decided to use Rika as a means of finding out whether she really was connected to Oyashiro-sama. Rika then noticed that Shion was under influence of the disease. That’s why she came to the Sonozaki-residence. She pretended that she needed some soya, though in fact, she attempted to cure her with the syringe, in the same way Mion and Rena did in the first arc, and Irie in the third arc.

As this method has never worked, it also doesn’t here. Shion then injects the liquid in Rika, and she doesn’t look too good afterwards. She then grabs a knife, when she hears that Shion plans to torture her. Then, she decides to kill herself, to prevent her from being tortured and interrogated. Even though we saw that scene before at the second arc, it still remained so sad for her.

This indeed proves the theory that the syringe is meant to cure the paranoid actions of certain persons. Whether this is a disease or normal paranoia, it still remains unclear, though it isn’t as simple that there’s just a demon inside Shion’s body, as you need more than just a syringe in order to remove a demon. I think Rika was suffering from the nasty side-effects of this medicine. I can imagine that the feeling it gives isn’t pretty. She then begins to have the same delusions as the disease, though I think that that’s supposed to be temporarily. It’s long enough, though to make her conclude that she knows something that nobody else should know, and if Shion just tortures her before she kills her, she’d better put herself out of her misery immediately.

I think that Takano is our major suspect here, like Cos mentioned. She was supposed to be dead, even before the Watanagashi started, so she’s definitely hiding something. Irie, seems to be the one who has developed the antidote. Mion, Rena and Rika seem to have discovered this, and secretly told him that they’d help him.

I’m also wondering why the creators decided to make this episode so incredibly slow. It means that the next episode will have incredibly high pacing. After all, so many things still have to happen. Shion has to torture Mion, kill Satoko, go emo when Keiichi’s on the ladder, phone Keiichi, explain to Keiichi and Rena, take Keiichi to the underground prison, throw a rock on Keiichi, attempt to torture Keiichi, shock Keiichi, flee and kill herself. Still, I’m interested, as each of the arc’s endings revealed some kind of major plot twist. That also has to happen.

Overall, Rika was awesome, but apart from her, this episode was rather dull. Especially Shion and her endless whining about Satoshi.

The Animatrix – Detective’s Story

by psgels, posted in The Animatrix



Yet another style: a film noir. Like any proper film noir, everything’s in black and white. The art style is the most realistic one yet. It isn’t as overly pointy as in Matriculated, or as overexaggerated as in World Record. And certainly not as messy as in Kid’s Story. Everything also seems to have gotten a noise filter.

The story is about a detective who accepts a case to look for Trinity. He gathers a bit of information, and then realizes that there’ve been more detectives on the same case. One killed himself, one went missing and one went crazy. The latter keeps claiming that Trinity isn’t real. The detective then continues to search through chatrooms and cafes, frequented by hackers. At one point, he finds a certain Red Queen, who happens to be Trinity.

Trinity sends the message to him that in order to meet her, he’ll have to jump the first of six brooks. This appears to be a train. Inside the train, he sees Trinity. She reckons that he might be able to make it. The entire assignment seems to have been a test for him, to see whether he would make it. She then puts some kind of machine on him, and extracts something out of his eye. It’s the same thing they tried to poison Neo with in the movie, I think.

Then a couple of men in suits appear, and chase after them. However, the detective himself begins to change into one of these men. Trinity then shoots him. Then the two of them talk a bit, and Trinity escapes.

To be honest, I didn’t really like this one. It felt like a bit too fast, and the references were all lost on me. First of six brooks? He talks about a certain Alice who jumps the second brook to get her into the woods. Alice jumps the first brook and then she boards a train. Who the heck is this Alice, why does she jump brooks, why are a number of streets highlighted on the map? How does he know which train to catch? In fact… what is a brook anyway?

I think that this film was a bit too short for its own good. I think it would be better if it borrowed some time from Matriculated. In the end, the case is interesting, though the other three films were thought-provoking. This one, however, wasn’t. I don’t seem to have any inspiration because of it.

Ayatsuri Sakon – 09 – Curiosity killed the Cat. Or in this case a guy with a ladder and a bit of cheese.

by psgels, posted in Ayatsuri Sakon



Okay, let’s review. What exactly happened?
– Fukami is busy with police interrogations, so he tells Sakon that he’ll speak with him later.
– The next day, Fukami finally gives Ukon back to Sakon. It seems that he really liked Ukon’s design, so he decided to work on it on his own at the final minute. Therefore, Ukon was kept safe for the flames.
– Sakon equips Ukon, and turns back to normal.
– Keiko lost her husband and daughter to a fire ten years ago.
– Ririsu died in the fire as well.
– Ririsu gets blamed for the murder, as a fireman reckons that it was he who snapped off the hose of the gas cooker.
– Ririsu hated Hayami.
– Ukon reckons that the hose was too firm for a cat to remove.
– Keiko behaves entirely different, and warns Sakon not to get involved.
– After Keiko brought Hayase to his building, nobody was there. Afterwards, the doors were locked.
– Inside the gas cooker, there’s a bit of cheese left.
– The windows of the building were very high so a cat couldn’t have climbed in on its own. They’re too small and equipped with bars to prevent humans from sneaking in.
– On the ground in front of the window, marks of a ladder or a chair are visible.
– Sakon reckons that the following must’ve happened: the culprit stuffed the open end with cheese, Ririsu’s favourite food. Then, when Hayase was asleep, Ririsu smelled the cheese, toyed with it and ate it, allowing the gas to escape. The murderer did this in order to make things look like an accident.
– Aoki seems to have lost his daughter in a fire as well. He also seems very friendly with Sayoko.
– Kishikawa is seen, burning Hayase’s paperwork.
– Kishikawa is seen talking to Yoshida. They both suspect each other.
– Hayase suggests to Keiko to leave the place. Keiko declines, as leaving would make other people think they’re weird.
– Hayase tells Aoki that he plans to quit. He also tells him that Aoki’s the only person he told it to.
– Hayase is packing. A person in diciple-clothes walks in, Hayase looks happy.
– Keiko enters Hayase’s room, sees his body hanging on a rope and screams.
– Sakon spots a note. “To resolve this wicked deed, requires this fateful body to become a wretched wisp of smoke.”
– Kishikawa reckons that this must mean that Hayase actually was the one who killed Hayami.

Okay, there are two possibilities:
– There’s one killer. This killer killed both Hayami and Hayase, though the killer used Hayase to make it look like the murder on Hayami was meant in order for him to repent. This, however, would make no sense at all, as the killer would still be the major suspect for the murder on Hayase.
– Hayase did kill Hayami. There’s someone who didn’t like this and went to the extreme measures to kill Hayase because of it.

There are two possible people who could have entered Hayase’s room:
– Aoki. Hayase smiles when he first sees him. However, Aoki is seen in a tuxedo when the murder is discovered.
– Kishikawa. Aoki is seen in a tuxedo when the murder is discovered, while the intruder wore brown pants. However, Hayase smiles when he first sees him, and the two hate each other.

If Aoki was the one, he quickly changed clothes afterwards. If Kishikawa was the one, the two of them were plotting something sinister. The fact that one of these two entered his room right before the murder also isn’t 100% guarantee that the murder happened afterwards. Something else could have happened, after which the person left and another person arrived and killed the guy. Also, why did a glass and a bottle lie on the floor at the scene of the crime?

I don’t think Keiko was the murderer. More like an important side-character. If you just murdered the guy you love, you won’t be telling other people to go away. Not only would this make sure that they’d do the exact opposite, though as a murderer, you’d be more like, scared instead of certain and cocky like she was. She’s got her own problems, definitely. And her warning to Sakon definitely had something to do with these problems.

If Aoki was the murderer, Sayoko probably involves the reason why he did it. I don’t think Kishikawa was the one, otherwise, he’d not be this confident. I do suspect that Fukumi knew what was going on. The fact remains that he’s very enthusiastic about Ukon. He knew that the storehouse would be in flames, which would mean that Ukon would also be destroyed if Hayami would work on him. His inner puppet-love eventually got the best of him, and he decided to save Ukon.