Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

Ayatsuri Sakon – 13 – The Case is Solved

by psgels, posted in Ayatsuri Sakon

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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?

xxxHolic – 23 – Awesomeness

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic

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I think we may have caught our first real Tsubasa Chronicle-reference. At least, if you ignore Fye’s staff who keeps showing up at random places. Remember last episode, in which Yuuko was away for a long trip? This episode shows a small shot of her, while on a boat, heading for a strange, rocky island, wearing her Tsubasa Chronicle-dress. This probably means that somewhere in the future of Tsubasa Chronicle, Yuuko and black Mokona will be coming in action, to help Syaoran and Sakura. I can’t wait for it. ^^

Anyway, about the real meat of the episode. I’m very delighted to say that this was the best xxxHolic episode yet! The previous episode has been building up for this perfectly. It’s just so sad. I think the creators saved so much time for this on purpose, and it works out awesomely. I really thought that Watanuki would listen to Yuuko, and stop seeing the woman. Instead, it gets even better. Watanuki feels so much for the woman that he actually goes to meet her, even when he knows that he’s going to die if he keeps seeing her! Talk about awesomeness!

Maru and Moro also were exceptionally cute when it seemed that even though they were soulless bodies, they id feel sympathy for Watanuki. They actually tried to take care of him, and at the end of the episode, when Watanuki was resting, they actually tried to be very quiet, in order to not wake him up. This episode also was meant in order to bring Watanuki and Doumeki closer together. After all, when Domeki shot the woman, he did it on his own. Yuuko didn’t tell him anything that time.

This also was one of the few times in which Yuuko decided not to explain certain events to Watanuki. It also happened with the snowball fight, though that was because of different reasons than during this episode. I’ve actually got a small, totally speculated theory about the identity of the woman. What if she was Watanuki’s mother, who took on a different form in order to meet him, and somehow swore not to give away her identity? Still, I’ll say it again: this is just something that came up in my head for some strange reason.

Now that this, and most other series I’m watching are coming to an end, I can’t help but wonder how this series will end. I wonder whether xxxHolic’s ending will be able to stand out in some kind of way. I think that there are two possible options: Watanuki stays with Yuuko, or Watanuki gets cured and cuts ties with Yuuko. Regarding Himawari and Doumeki, I don’t think that their relationship towards Watanuki will change much. They likely continue to be friends. The Vestal Sprite could go all kinds of directions, though. That’s why I think that she’ll be a major actor in the actual ending.

Night Head Genesis – 09 – How Far Will This Anime Go?

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis

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Hmm, the current arc isn’t really that good. Not enough pain and suffering. Except for the vision with the little girl. That one was great. It seems that the main plot is something else than the dangerous disease which spread, and if things all go well, the woman who attacked Naoya will be killing Kurahashi and end up in jail. With that, things are solved. I hope that the creators can bring some kind of twist to this, and I’m secretly hoping that the virus will be escaping in the end.

You could wonder whether the things Kamiya Tsukasa did are good or evil. From his point of view, he saw numerous of things, and I think that he couldn’t bear just telling nobody about them. But because of this, he does have influence on people. If he never spoke of anything he saw, then the woman who attacked Naoya would have never attacked him. I think he does realize this, but keeps telling himself that it doesn’t matter that much.

Even though this episode was rather bad, I do have hope for this show. Lots of times, we see a small reference to a future arc, which is afterwards never mentioned again. We already know that Night Head Genesis is great with toying with these things, so I’m looking forward to the episode in which the doll girl, the woman with the umbrella, Shouko and many others return. The next episode will also be a good chance to find out about the nature of the events foreseen. Shows tend to use them in two ways. The first way is show a vision of the future in which bad things happen. The one who saw the vision then rushes to prevent the bad thing and everyone’s happy again. The second one I like more. A vision is shown, and no matter what, it does happen. It’s like destined to happen.

Ayatsuri Sakon – 12 – So, why did he do it?

by psgels, posted in Ayatsuri Sakon


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?

Ergo Proxy – 21 – Let The Finale Begin

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy


And we’re finally back in Romdeau, in which Ergo Proxy has three episodes in order to conclude its story. So far, strange things have happened, interesting things have happened, twisted things have happened, but these things haven’t been anything amazing yet. Let’s hope that the final two episodes will be able to deliver.

Anyway, we start the episode in the Usagi. It seems that Vincent left first, after he didn’t return after a while, Real went out in order to check up on him. That was Thirty thousand two hundred thirty three Usagis ago. Pino then gets sick of waiting and goes out on her own. It seems crisis struck ever since Raul launched the rocket, and more and more autoraves have been infected with Cogito. It seems that the citizens of Romdeau are fiercely battling against the infected autoraves. For some reason, the autoraves are now referred to as “entourages”.

Back to Real, she’s been wandering around in Romdeau, meeting different people At times, she saw glimpses of Vincent, though he was in Proxy-one-mode at that time. Even after the episode ended we still have no idea why this happened. Anyway, she first meets up with the Autorave Control Department, otherwise known as the department where Vincent started working at the beginning of the series. Next up she meets some kind of government official, who acts a little strange. He just sits behind an empty desk, thinking that it’s full of paperwork, a computer and a keyboard, and he actually moves like he would move if they were actually there. In any case, he mentions the ADW-project.

Next up, she meets with Daedalus. He’s been getting weirder ever since. Meanwhile, Pino is seen, running through the streets and we switch to Vincent. Not as Ergo Proxy, but as Proxy One, mentioned above. He finally arrives at Monad Proxy. He finds the things Donov has done to her horrible, even though he was the one who killed her. He then realizes she has a name tag: Proxy #13. And it indeed seems that every Proxy has its own number. Ergo is #1, Monad is #13. And now that I think of it, remember the late Kazkiz Proxy? He mentioned that each Proxy is some kind of emissary. Ever since that episode, I never saw any traces of those emissaries again. What’s up with them?

In any case, it also seems that every Proxy has a pendant, with its number engraved on it. That explains why last episode’s Proxy had one. Then, the fake Real runs into him. For some reason, she isn’t scared of him at all. Proxy One does show that he still knows Real, when he’s surprised when the girl has the same name as she does. The fake Real then suddenly claims that she also loved Monad Proxy. And she suddenly runs away. I think it was because she was about to lose confidence.

Back to Real and Daedalus. Real apologizes to him that she couldn’t do anything that she set out to do. Strangely enough, Daedalus has really convinced himself that the fake Real has become the real Real, and he sees the real real Real as a traitor. Daedalus then reveals that a mysterious thing called the Eumesis was destroyed. No idea what that might be, but Vincent seems to be behind it. Because of that, the “Aus Der Wickel”-project was started, the human restructuring project. It was bound to fail, and I didn’t really get this explanation. Anyway, the light Raul sent at episode 17 appears to be “Rapture”.

We then switch to Vincent, who plans to invades the city council room. For some reason, the statues refer to him as “The Creator” in a rather cryptic near-monologue. Could it be that Proxy One has created Romdeau in the first place? Anyway, some references to Descartes later, and Proxy One attempts to strangle Donov. Probably in order to get revenge on Monad. Meanwhile, we see Pino arrive at the house where she used to live, hearing someone play piano. Nothing is shown about her afterwards, but when you consider some events that happen at the end of this episode with Pino’s original master, before she got infected with Cogito, things shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.

Anyway, Real has also arrived in the same room, and she sees Vincent, attempting to kill Donov. She tries to shoot her, though she can’t save her grandfather. She’s also very hesitant to shoot him. Vincent then turns to her. Then, Raul comes from out of nowhere and shoots from yet another Proxy-killing pistol. While Vincent is slowly dying, Raul begins to laugh maniacally.

So they did turn him into the main antagonist after all. I wonder what they’re planning to do with the final two episodes. Without a doubt, some huge revelations are about to come. After all, this story has so many unanswered questions left that I won’t even bother to try and list them. But what about Vincent? Surely, the dying process can’t take two whole episodes, or can it? Will he really die, or will he be saved miraculously?

xxxHolic – 22 – Temptation

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


Another Watanuki-centred episode. And a quite touching one as well. I love the theme they used for this episode. The case is like this: Yuuko is away on some mission, leaving Watanuki alone. He then runs into a strange woman, and the two become friends. Very soon, they find out about each other that Watanuki lost his parents while the woman lost her son. It’s easy to figure that both start caring for each other. Every time his school finishes, Watanuki meets up with the woman.

The great thing is that there’s something fishy about this woman. After a while, she starts to give Watanuki a strange cold-like illness. It starts with a few innocent coughs, though very soon he faints while in PE, and the episode ends with him, phoning Yuuko, coughing up blood and collapsing. It must be really hard to believe that someone you care about actually is making you horribly sick. Especially in Watanuki’s case. He’s finally found someone who can understand him, though now it seems that he’ll have to cut ties with her. That was the great thing about this episode.

Watanuki and Himawari also spent a lot of time together during this episode. Without Domeki, for once, as he’s busy preparing for an archery tournament. It’s quite interesting to see. Especially seeing that Watanuki’s silly behaviour greatly entertains Himawari. So far, this is the second two-episode arc in xxxHolic, and I’m wondering what else will happen in order to be able to cover for another episode like this. It’ll definitely be interesting.

Night Head Genesis – 08 – Ah, So That’s Shouko’s Power

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis


An episode focused on the main plot of the anime, instead of an individual case. A bit less awesome than usual, though. There wasn’t enough pain and suffering, unfortunately.

In any case, a few things about Shouko become clear. It seems that she’s at a warp which connects the entire world. No time and no space exist where she is. This has showed her things she needs to know. Still, it also seems that she doesn’t know everything. She doesn’t know what the “Upheaval” means. it does seem that she left some messages for the two brothers in Miki’s care. Their memories about their parents aren’t false. And she shows them the strange scriptures she was reading in episode one.

Naoto and Naoya seem to have a very strange power. The power to change reality. Much details aren’t known yet, though it does seem that people will be trying to take advantage of them. At the end of the episode, we also get to see another psychic, who seems to have another vision-ability. I think he can see alternative futures, or something in that direction. In any case, he sees a future in which Naoto and Naoya have killed the entire world population. He’ll probably be coming after them soon.

A strange tattooed man also appeared during this episode. I’m not sure what his purpose was, or who sent him, though it did seem that he was trying to profit from the brothers’ sorrow. He makes Naoto and Naoya see that they seem to have more abilities than they thought they had. He wasn’t really interesting, though. Just an overconfident bastard.

xxxHolic – 21 – Watch Out For Giant Scissors

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


I’ve got one problem with this episode. The case this time is focused on Watanuki, instead of a customer. The episode is about superstitions. At one time, Watanuki’s clipping his toenails, after having heard that you can’t clip your toenails at night, because if you do, you won’t be with your parents when they die. His parents are dead, so he ignores this. Because of this, he gets attacked by a giant pair of scissors.

Well, the problem I have lies with Yuuko’s explanation. The people who came up with these superstitions were trying to prevent people from doing something. They knew you’d be attacked by a giant pair of scissors if you clipped your toenails at night, that’s why they subtly tried to warn others. But that doesn’t make any sense, as why is Japan the only country who believes in this? If this really were true, rumours and stories like these would appear over the entire world.

But now that I think about it… the scissors could also have been Yuuko, who tried to make Watanuki believe in superstitions.

Watanuki basically had it right: there is no such thing as superstitions. When you believe in things like these, you start paying attention to the details. For example, when you break a mirror. Every time you have bad luck, you notice it, and blame it on the mirror. Tons of good things may have happened, but you don’t even notice these. You just keep focusing too much on the bad parts that you loose your view of the overall picture. Most of the superstitions work like these, and that’s also the reason people are still believing in them.

I think that this episode was just one big attempt of Yuuko, trying to play with Watanuki’s mind. First of all, Watanuki never turned into a cow. His body just got heavy. I think indigestion problems can be blamed. His obsession with Himawari’s ribbon was just something psychological. He already was a bit ill, so he couldn’t concentrate on things properly. He then focused his eyes at Himawari (logical, as he has an eye on her), and concentrated on the most attention-catching aspect: her ribbons. His mind, meanwhile, told him that he was a cow, and for some reason, he began to think that cows chase after red, moving things. He probably was at the point at which he began confusing cows with bulls. And at the beginning of the episode, at which Watanuki tripped over his own shoelaces was also some good timing by Yuuko. She just made him forget about tying them, which can easily result in him tripping over them.

Still, Watanuki’s story about how the death of his parents made him stop believing in superstitions really was touching. He also reached a nice conclusion. It’s always nice to believe in them, as long as they’re fun. Overall, the episode was nice, but frankly, it dealt with a theme which has been a bit too much overused (that, or I just watched way too many American cartoons when I was young).

Night Head Genesis – 07 – Children’s Grudges

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis


Even though the coincidence is a bit too obvious, I still love the way Night Head Genesis introduces its cases. Every case Naoto and Naoya run into is somehow linked to its previous case. The killer woman was in the pub. The suicides all happened near the place Naoto and Naoya grew up. The culprit behind these suicides happens to be Shouko’s little brother. As so little anime are attempting this, the effect that this gives is great.

In any case, like I said, the culprit was Shouko’s little brother. He seems to have the power of mind control, which he used to kill off the bikers who killed his dog and ran away. Quite a shock for such a little boy. When such a thing happens to ordinary children, they start screaming and yelling. But what if a kid has potentially killing powers? Right. Then things get out of control. Still, it worked perfectly. The boy was so sad in this.

His mother also plays an interesting role in this. She knew about her son’s power, though she just let him do what he wanted. It’s indeed the depth of a mother’s love. Though I wonder why she hasn’t discovered Shouko’s power yet. It may be that because of Shouko’s disappearance, she allowed her son to kill off those students. She was too scared to lose him as well.

The teacher, coach and popular girl also were very nice. The teacher was on good terms with the students. When she realized that she was being used to kill them off, she got cornered. As she couldn’t do anything, I think the least she could do was put their pictures on her altar, as a means of paying them respect. The popular girl actually was in love with Megumi, the first girl who died. She probably kept chasing after the boys because she was scared of being found out. And the coach was uninvolved as well. He was just a horny coach. Nothing more.

Ergo Proxy – 20 – Two People in One Body

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy


This episode’s Proxy has the ability to delude someone’s mind. You could describe it as bringing its victim in a dream-world. In this dream world, The Usagi has arrived in Romdeau, after which Real turned Vincent in and hid Pino away. Afterwards, she was taken in by Daedalus and his assistant: Swan, in order to become a perfect citizen again. Vincent, meanwhile, turned into Ergo Proxy and was locked up. Real, meanwhile, felt bad for betraying Vincent, so she created an alternative Vincent in her subconscious mind.

The Real Vincent gets to be this alternative Vincent, while the Proxy gets to be Swan. Over the course of the episode, Swan tries to make him believe that he needs to kill Real. She tries to make him believe certain lies about his subconsciousness. I’m not sure what her goal was in doing this. I think that, if this continued on for much longer, Vincent’s mind would break, or something, allowing her to defeat him.

Swan also shows Vincent a bit of his past. In this, Real and Daedalus are brother and sister, Vincent works as the Chief of the Civil Guard with Raul as his subordinate and Vincent and Real who are about to marry. Obviously, this isn’t how it really went. But I wonder if there’s some sort of truth in this. After all, Vincent remembered a few details on his own, before this sequence started (the cup falling and Real cutting her finger on it). Of course, this could also have been the Proxy, trying to play with Vincent’s mind, creating the events so that in both cases, Vincent would naturally act the same way, thus creating a deja vú.

In order to confuse Vincent, Swan creates an illusion, within an illusion. But it makes you wonder what’ll happen once they actually reach Romdeau. The Proxy also made a few mistakes. Pino suddenly looked fancy again. Vincent didn’t know about the new Real, so there also was no new Real in the illusion. For some reason, Swan also gave herself and Vincent the two pendants. Proxy is able to move so fast, why can’t he dodge bullets like that? And why didn’t Real look for Monad? Still, it was a very nice attempt at fooling him.

While an interesting watch, this episode wasn’t really anything special. It was just another Proxy, playing mind games with Vincent. I think the bad thing was that this Proxy didn’t really have well-defined rules. Proxies like in episode 14, 15 and 19 all had certain rules they had to follow, which made these episodes very enjoyable.