Category: Ayatsuri Sakon

And I’ve finally caught up with the subs. This really was one of the better episodes of Ayatsuri Sakon. I really think that this series would’ve been better off as a 13-episode one, as it’s formula is starting to get a bit repetitive. Still, Isshiki was great to see this episode.

During the previous episodes he always was so incredibly calm, sarcastic and full of himself. Then this episode comes, and his alibi is suddenly shattered. Talk about a personality switch. I loved how all of the clues he dropped over the course of the episodes have been unmentioned till now, and Sakon just dishes out one after another at a certain point. That really was the best moment of the episode, in my opinion.

This also was the first arc with unexplained events. For example, the exact reason why Takahashi died. Also, my memory isn’t that clear yet on the exact role of the contact lens.

This episode wasn’t like the other episodes. So far, the episodes have been like “who did it?”. This time, it’s different. It’s quite obvious who did it. Isshiki just acts way too suspicious. This episode was more like, “how can we find proof that he did it?”. Isshiki ha been quite cleverly hiding his evidence, and somehow, he’s quite confident that he won’t get caught.

Still, he made one mistake. In order to create his alibi, he messed up the phone, which he predicted that Kisaragi would use, so that it would call Takahashi’s apartment instead. As Takahashi lives very close to the museum, it would’ve been easy for him to run towards that place after killing the director. Quite easy, quite simple. Except for the fact that he forgot to erase this piece of evidence. Sakon should have it solved easily by the next episode.

But there’s something that irks me. Sakon found the solution, his twenty-four hours have run out, he runs to the chamber with Kisaragi and the police and states that he’s found the solution. Five more minutes and the case is solved. What do I say? If they’d hurry, the creators can even solve this in one minute. How do they plan to use the next nineteen minutes? Some background information? But Takahashi is dead, so she can’t really offer any extra thoughts or anything similar.

Still, she does have some background left to be explained. Isshiki was her boyfriend. Apparently, their relationship was secret, as nobody seemed to even mention it. I think this started when the two of them worked together at their previous job. Also, remember that rumours are floating around that Yuuki stole Takahashi’s boyfriend away? If that is true, than it means that this boyfriend could have been Isshiki himself. I think Isshiki used this in order to blackmail Takahashi in order to cooperate with her, as we see her in doubts of the person she loves, right before she gets killed. But still, that isn’t enough to fill an entire episode. Something else has to happen. I just know it.

Hmm, this appears to be a case with just one murder. A bloodbath as heavy as in the first arc has yet to appear. This episode as more like an intermezzo between the first and third episode of this arc. It didn’t provide any clues, just a lot of background info and a few theories. Furthermore, we see Isshiki Seiji along with Takahashi and Hamada. If I had to guess, one of these three was the murderer. I don’t think Isshiki did it, though he did play a huge role in the murder.

I liked the use of background music this episode. Isshiki seems to have some kind of love for classical music, especially one specific track. When he’s listening to that track, and the scene changes to another person, it has a nice effect. I also like the way that Kisaragi has a lot of different sides.

Seriously, I’ve seen a lot of dead bodies on Ayatsuri Sakon already, but the director in this one must have been the bloodiest so far. Okay, perhaps along with the beheading of the first episode. But that’s what you get when you stab a person with an Egyptian sword and hang her upside down.

Anyway, the actors:

Yuuki Mari. She’s the director of a museum with lots of Egyptian artefacts. She got killed at the beginning of the episode. It seems that she made a lot of enemies when she was still alive, which could give anyone a motive. An exciting murder. The current arc promises to be great. 🙂

Isshiki Seiji. He’s the assistant director. At one time, he was Yuuki Mari’s boss, but that changed when she became director of the museum. He likes to annoy and scare others, though despite his confidence, he makes a lot of errors. Sakon, of course, discovers these errors (for example, him confusing the Egyptian Sphinx with the Greek one, the Egyptian is just a huge stone statue, the Greek was the one who had a nice dinner whenever his victims couldn’t solve his riddles). The murder was committed at 8:00. At 8:45, he got phoned because Yuuki didn’t show up. To get from his house to the museum, you need one hour and 30 minutes, but he was the only one, except for Yuuki herself, who holds the key to the room in which she was killed. That means that either he did it, went somewhere apart from his house, received the call on his cell phone and planned to arrive 90 minutes after he was phoned, or someone found a creative way to lock the door.

Takahashi Yoshie was Yuuki’s former secretary, and she now still works in that same spot. Rumours are floating around that Yuuki took away her boyfriend, though they’re just rumours made up by people, scared to become the major suspect.

Kisaragi is the manager of the museum. He had a lot of arguments with Yuuki, as she had a nasty tendency to remove all valuable objects which didn’t get any attention from the display. Kisaragi also used to be a teacher of Sakon. When Sakon was young, he used to get bullied often. In a way, that’s logical as he’s a boy who’s carrying around puppets. You’d wonder why he changed from being a teacher to being the manager of a museum.

Hamada is one of the few staff members who managed to escape Yuuki’s enthusiastic firing policy. He may have lost a few good friends because of this.

Tadokoro is the security Chief. He got injured when Yuuki tried to move a heavy artefact in a rather aggressive way. Still, he says that he’s still loyal to her, as she agreed to cover all expenses of the accident.

One thing I dislike about Ayatsuri Sakon is the silhouette of the murderer which is shown before the arcs start. If I recall correctly, the first three arcs didn’t have this, but both arc four and arc five had this. It’s too bad, as they sortof ruin the fun a bit. I’ll try to ignore them for now. So far, I’m loving this arc. I’m really interested in how it’ll continue.

It’s great to see that even though the criminal is known, it doesn’t automatically end the case. Like Sakon said, you need solid proof. And that’s what this episode was about: getting the proof out of the culprit: Oki. Ayatsuri Sakon really knows how to play with human emotions and feelings. Sakon knew that if he mimicked the dead, and made them act the way he thought they would, Oki would suspect that they were onto him, and he would try to move the body as soon as he thought that everyone’s gone. This also played a major part in the first arc.

The reason for murder was a simple one: Oki was simply obsessed with Byakko. He wanted to have the sword, no matter what, and he killed Kyouichi when it appeared that the sword was going to be sold. He killed Akazuki because there had to be a time in which he had to find out that the sword didn’t end up on the black market. Though that reason confuses me a bit. After all, didn’t everyone think that Kyouichi took the blade and kept it as his own? If that’s the case, how would it end up in the black market of all places?

That was a great episode. It’s another arc split in three parts. The first episode served to introduce the problem, the second to solve the problem and the third to explain the problem. Sakon has solved the problem, all that’s left now is to explain it. A quick rundown:

– Someone used red paint to paint all sorts of scribbles on the walls of the study-room.
– Nobody walked up to the scene of the crime at the night of the murder, except for Sakon and the others and a certain policeman.
– Someone killed Akazuki, then brought him to the scene where he was found.
– Something which can influence pH was or is buried under the hydrangea, growing behind the Byakko Shrine.
– A statue was stolen, about as large as a child, but very heavy. It was returned to the police station, all muddy, though.
– Sakon reckons that the murderer used this in order to test out how the body would fall.

I loved the different characters in this arc. Especially the way that each of them has a unique role to play, and that some of them even assisted Sakon in his research. It’s great when you have more minds, seriously thinking on one case. One person may see something the other didn’t, and opposite. The sister’s worries about their father also worked out in a great way. They all react differently, but it all comes down to the fact that they’re sad that their father’s gone.

I have to admit. When the episode ended, I still had no idea what went on. I was still struggling between the police officer and Oki. During the previous episode, both he and the officer were acting suspicious. The fact that a certain police officer drove up to the road also confused me a bit. It could be any of these two, but I wasn’t really sure how the body ended up where it ended up in the first place.

But then, as I was typing this, it suddenly hit me, and I suddenly understood how the culprit did it. After looking at Yoshida’s bike, I suddenly realized that it would never be able to carry a body such as Akazuki’s. Oki is the murderer after all. He killed Akazuki, and stuffed him inside his van. He parked the two cars tightly next to each other, in order to make sure that nobody would be able to look at the back of the car, where the body was hidden. He then rushed inside the house, and played his little act, directing the people to the way he wanted to. Somehow, he set it up that the phone went off. He probably grabbed a second telephone in the house and called while everyone was looking the other way. He then rushed in, and pretended he had a conversation with Kyouichi and hang up. Although he was told that Akazuki was in his study room, he as so focused at the plan he made, that he forgot about it, and that´s where he made the mistake. Anyway, the three sisters went in their car and headed off, while Oki, Sakon an Fujita left afterwards. Oki made sure that both of them didn´t get a chance to look at the back of the car. He then kept a reasonable distance from the sister’s car, and then he crashed, right above the scene of the crime. The back of the car wasn’t entirely shut, so it flipped open and dropped the body at its designated place while Oki blamed the fact that he didn’t know the road too well. A couple of days before, he also experimented a bit with dropping the statue, in order to know the right angle at which he should crash his car in order to make the body drop at the right place. I think he chose that location in order to try and fool everyone. I think he wanted to have a crime scene in which he wouldn’t be thought as suspect. He worked very fastly, and he actually rushed to come to Akazuki’s house as fast as possible, so that his alibi would get as little doubts as possible.

Nice one. Very nice one. Now the question remains, am I right? But more importantly, why did he do it? What’s Yoshida’s role in this? Why were the previous murders nessecary? And what happened to Kyouichi?

I now realize that most people don’t really know how to obtain this series. The easiest way is through the link below, in which the Ayatsuri Sakon Project has provided downloads for episodes 1-10 and fifteen. Episodes 11-14 can be downloaded through regular bittorrent.

http://asp.dryfire.org

Anyway, about the episode. It promises to be a great arc once more. This time, it’s about a man with a mask, who’s been killing random villagers with a cursed blade. Sakon’s visiting the family who plays a major part in this murder drama. Let’s get on with the characters:

Sakon. He’s been rather cute at the beginning of the episode, when he got so much appraisal by the different members of the family. He remained a bit in the background this episode, in order to let the problem fully explain itself.

Shiho plays the role for the important side-character this time. She’s innocent in any case. Why am I so sure of this? Because she appears in the OP, alongside all of the other important side-characters. She’s the only one who believes in her brother’s innocence. I think this is because he used to play with her very often. She’s got a typical big-brother complex. She’s a bit rude to Sakon in the beginning, though this changes when she sees Ukon in action.

Kyouichi is the eldest brother of the four children of the family. He stole the sword, Byakko, crafted by the famous Muramasa, from his father and ran off with it. Afterwards, three murders on random villagers occurred and he never even returned. It’s indeed easy to label him as the main suspect, but I doubt that he actually was the one. It’ll be very interesting to see his back-story, though.

Akizuki Soushirou is the father of the family. What happened to the mother, we never know. He’s an old man with an obsession for swords, old weaponry and puppets. Around the middle of the episode, the message gets in that yet another villager has been killed. He then secretly leaves the house, rather nervously, to meet up with Kyouichi. This ends up with him getting killed by the killer. At the end of the episode, we find his body at a place, other than where he was killed. Why would the killer go through so much trouble to move a body?

Miho is the third daughter of Akizuki. She’s the one who suspects her older brother with the most enthusiasm. It seems that it’s been quite a shock when she found out what she did, and somehow, she convinced herself that her brother did it, and couldn’t be trusted.

Futaba is the second daughter of Akizuki. She also believes that Kyouichi was the murderer, but she does manage to stay a bit calm when she talks about him, unlike her sisters.

Kikuchi is Futaba’s fiancé. He’s the typical innocent guy who got caught up in events, and now is scared to death. I think he decided to at least find out what’s going on, so that he doesn’t actually get killed because of his ignorance.

Fujita Zenkichi is a reporter. Probably for a local tv-station. He’s got an overall laid-back attitude. An interesting fact is that he was supposed to show up at a performance of Sakon, at the beginning of the episode, but for some reason, he couldn’t find it. During the end of the episode, when everyone travels to Akizuki’s corpse, he also somehow forgot to take his camera along with him. That isn’t really professional behaviour, is it?

We’ve also got an unnamed maid, working for Akazuki. She picks up the phone, every time a mysterious person, thought to be Kyouichi, gives a call. Apart from that, she didn’t really have a big role.

Yoshida is a police-officer. He drops by in order to deliver the message that yet another villager has been killed, in the same way as a year ago. If that’s the only part in this story he has to fulfill, I’ll eat my hat. Especially if you consider what happened in the first arc.

Our main suspect, however, is Oki Katsumi. When you look at the silhouette of the murderer, he is one of the few who could be able to meet it. We also saw Akazuki getting killed. Afterwards, Oki barged in the room. When the phone rang for the second time, Oki was the one to grab it out of the maid’s hands. It’s never certain that he actually talked with Kyouichi in the first place. He also made a small mistake. He was so keen on guiding everyone to Akazuki’s body, that he forgot that nobody knew that he went to do something other than studying. He seems too focused at carrying out his plan that it’s obvious.

Another theory is that Oki and Yoshida are working together. After all, when Oki drove to the place of Akazuki’s body, he drove so fast and missed a turn. Someone who knew the area wouldn’t have done. This could suggest that Yoshida killed the guy and dragged it to the riverbank, while Oki distracted everyone. After all, someone had to be the one to make the phone calls.

And what was up with the guy with car trouble? Anyway, overall, this arc has started very promising. I really like the different characters it features.

This episode clearly shows how incredibly observing Sakon can be. To think that he’d be able to figure things out by right and left-handed. It was a small and simple arc this time, not unlike the previous one with its huge amount of characters and alibis. This time, we had just a small number of characters involved.

In the end, my first feeling was right. Aoki was the culprit. His reasons for acting the way he did, however, remained a pleasant and very entertaining surprise. Remember his band-aids? It seems that he’s been wearing these for ten years. He got these scars in the same fire he lost his daughter. He and his wife had a fight, because she cheated on him. In the end, a couple of candles were knocked over, setting the house aflame. The wife fled to man she cheated with while Aoki rushed to save his daughter. In the end, this fire burned his face and killed her. This wife was none other than Keiko. The other man was none other than Hayami.

Ever since, Aoki has been longing for revenge. He tracked Keiko down and started working at the same place she did. He waited a couple of years before taking his chance. He wanted to kill her loved ones, before he killed her. When he finally got the chance to do the latter, he couldn’t. Sakon then adviced him to turn himself in.

This arc was rather predictable, unfortunately. Last episode, we saw someone with brown trousers enter Hayami’s room. It was either Aoki or Kishikawa. But Kishikawa couldn’t have done it, because it was just too obvious. So it has to mean that Aoki was the culprit. He quickly changed into a suit afterwards. That’s why I like mysteries with lots of characters. It’s much harder to guess who did it.

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.

I’m going to blog this arc a bit more systematic than I did with the previous ones. After all, this show deserves some kind of character analysis. This is an interesting arc, in which Sakon actually is without Ukon. To make things even better, Ukon’s actually missing, with a possibility of being in the fire. Of course, we know he isn’t really gone, as it would make for a bit of a crappy second half of the series, but still.

Sakon still remains the main character in this anime, but, like I said, this time, it’s with a few twists: he’s without Ukon, and he has personal interest in the murder. The first is the most interesting, as Sakon’s suddenly lost all of the confidence and level-headedness he used to have in the previous two arcs. He’s turned unsure, he doesn’t know when to speak and when to keep silent, he’s become inpatient, and you can actually read emotions off his face. Something he was quite cleverly hiding in the previous two arcs. This also is shown when Hayami’s building caught fire. If this would have been a normal case, he would have attempted to calm everyone, ask the elder about Ukon and then start to search for him. But because the bond between the two is too big, all he can do is sit in a corner in foetus-pose.

Ukon either was hidden in Hayami’s building, in a place the fire couldn’t reach, or he’s somewhere in the main building. The fact remains that nobody talked about his location, even when Sakon asked. This means that something must have happened, and that there are more things going on than the ones we got to see during this episode. I’m also starting to thing that the guy really has a soul, despite being a puppet. When Sakon was performing with him, at the beginning of the episode, he moved very slowly, almost unnatural, though then he actually felt pain when some of his parts weren’t connected smoothly. Then he fell out of his role and became the old Ukon again, acting very natural. It’s no wonder that Sakon has been considering him as a very good friend. I’m so much reminded of the persocon-dilemma.

Sayoko plays the role the woman played in the first arc, and the police officer played in the second arc: supporting character. (Another reason I’m doing these character analysises, it gives me a good overview of the different characters, and their names. The previous arcs learned me that the names of the different characters are impossible to remember, unless you write them down somehow) It’s interesting to see how the relationship between Sakon and the supporting character keep changing with every arc. In the first arc, he protected the woman. In the second arc, he helped the police officer with her investigations. In the third arc, Sayoko helps Sakon, and actually tries to comfort him. She’s quite a strong girl, having lost her parents at a young age and all that. So far, I like her character, though we know that she’ll be surviving in the end. Ah well. You can’t have everything.

Hayami is the first victim. He dies because someone let all of the gas escape from a small camping-cooking-thingy (how did you call those again?). All Hayami had to do is light a lighter, attempting to smoke a cigaret, and the building catches fire. I don’t think he would’ve survived that treatment. Hayami is a master in puppet-making, though he thinks too high of himself. Add that to the fact that he likes getting drunk, and that this he starts insulting people very easily when drunk, and you can come to the conclusion that he’s made lots of enemies. One of these enemies probably let the chamber get filled with gas. He also was the one who fixed Ukon up, so Sakon immediately believes that Ukon was in the building as well, as it set aflame.

Main suspect #1 is Kishikawa. He also makes puppets, but he’s far from as skilled as Hayami. Hayami, in his turn, likes to brag in front of Kishikawa about his achievements, and Kishikawa himself has a very short temper. Naturally, Kishikawa’s come to hate Hayami because of this. One explanation for the murder could be that Kishikawa couldn’t take the pressure anymore, let his anger go out of control and thought of a way to kill the guy, which in the end succeeded. Still, I don’t think that that’s what happened. If he were to kill because of that reason, if he really let his anger get out of control, he would rather grab a pointy object and stab the guy to death. Also, when he realized that Hayami was dead, he didn’t give the reaction you would expect from a killer. It was rather an event which conveniently removed a major pest from his life.

Main suspect #2 is Yoshida. He’s in love with a woman named Keiko. Keiko, however, seems to be in love with Hayami, and thinks Yoshida as some kind of freak. Hence the dilemma. He’s so much in love with her that he’s become obsessed with her. He could have thought that if Hayami would be dead, he would be able to win Keiko over him. obsessed people are able to do strange things. He also had a suspicious smile on his face when he saw Keiko’s reaction when she found out about Hayami’s death. Still, I don’t think he did it. Simply because it’s too damn obvious. I know that the creators aren’t that stupid to drop the most important clue right at the beginning of the arc. He does play a role, though. But he’s not the one who did it.

Keiko’s reasons for loving Hayami remain unknown. She seems like the servant of the puppet-makers, so she would have a lot of contact with both Hayami and Yoshida, so perhaps something in the past happened to make the two of them being attracted to each other. In any case, she was devastated when she saw Hayami killed. Yoshida and Kishikawa didn’t really help to comfort her.

Aoki is the guy who has his head wrapped up in bandages. Either he has a strange sense of fashon, or he got in a nasty accident a while ago. In any case, we don’t see too much of him, though he does get to be the host for the guests who arrive at their house, and he seems to have a strong sense of honor, when he tried to prevent Kishikawa from getting out of control in front of a guest at all cost. Overall, he seems like a nice guy, which makes me think that he actually was the one who did it. I hope that Ayatsuri Sakon isn’t beginning to get formulaic.

I’m suspecting that the old guy is Fukami, though it’s never directly said. In any case, he’s an old master of puppet craftsmanship, and he’s the head of the mansion. He seems like a nice old guy, but the fact that he never said anything about Ukon’s location disturbs me. When Sakon arrived, wouldn’t the first thing be to hand him the puppet, instead of having a small chat. Even after Sakon asks what happened to him?

Ririsu, while I doubt that she has anything to do with the murder, you can’t be too careful these days. She’s a cat Sayoko picked up from somewhere, and she seems to like to run away towards adventures. I’m suspecting that she proved quite the support for Sayoko regarding her parents.

Overall, it was a nice first episode. This arc definitely seems intriguing. Especially Sayoko comforting Sakon at the end of the episode was too cute.