Category: Subete ga F ni Naru

I feel as if a spell has been broken over me, for the things I found interesting in the first episode suddenly annoy me. If I had to guess I would say that having seen what the show has to offer I have come to find it lacking and now the philosophical aspect comes across as deeply pretentious. In reality this episode wasn’t even necessary as it didn’t really tie up anything. Briefly it looked like Magata had given herself up the authorities but as it turns out she tricked Souhei into thinking so for, dramatic reasons I suppose? I mean I doubt Souhei would call the cops on her but if he was the type then chances are he would at least check to see whether the news would show her arrested. Even then by the time the cops arrive, Magata would be far out of their hands. Meanwhile Souhei and Moe’s relationship has not changed in the slightest. All that was resolved was a misunderstanding that Moe could have easily resolved by asking questions instead of coming to her own conclusions.

Magata visits Souhei again and as if to try and counter my previous claim by explaining her motives. But sadly she only confirms everything I thought. Magata is indeed an idiot. A particular conclusion of hers that I just shake my head at is her deduction that if death didn’t have suffering then it wouldn’t be feared. Oh you silly child, suffering is only part of why death is feared. True, none wish for a painful death but when taking into account why people fear it, it is not the primary reason. What truly makes people fear it is uncertainty. There are no guarantees that there is a form of afterlife, or reincarnation. No matter how much you believe in heaven, there is always a question of it’s existence. What people fear about death is the distinct possibility that beyond it, lies nothing. We always avoid thinking about it but if you consider that everything that makes you what you are just disappears with nothing left behind, that is scary. Between eternal damnation and Oblivion, Oblivion is far more terrifying. And I am sure that if your child had killed you and you lay in a pool of your own blood, you would come to know the same fear. So as for her main reason behind all of this, she simply wanted to die but was too proud to do herself in. Well Magata there are plenty of ways to get that, pop onto the internet. I am sure you won’t have trouble finding someone who is willing. You likely won’t even have to pay them. Just get them to sit down and listen to your childish drivel for an hour or two and I am sure they would be ready to shut you up.

The end of the episode has her doing the very same to her child and the greatest folly to her logic is that she is attempting to explain human behavior by narrowing it down to a single factor. This is the same logic as when people break things into two categories even when something can not fall easily into either category. Such as in the way a anime can sometimes be neither bad nor good, just mediocre.There are a number of biological, subconscious and conscious reasons as to why humans can be kind. Taking this into account, you logic becomes broken.If humans know everything then they would attempt nothing? Wrong, for knowing something and attempting something are two different experiences. You yourself have broken this in this episode. For you know the effects of smoking and all it entails, yet you still attempted smoking did you not? With this being the end I must say that Subete is not a visually impressive show and nothing speaks that clearer than it’s final minutes. There is a certain desperation in how the animators just want to shove something on screen regardless of how it makes the scene look. For example, Moe and Souhei had a conversation and during that conversation they switched locations numerous times.The only way to really look at this is that while these two were talking, they would both stop, move to a new location and then resume talking again. There positions don’t make sense either as they went to a church and for some reason Souhei sat on one row with Moe sitting on a row on the other side of the room. If you were talking to someone then why would you sit as far away as possible?

Have you ever had a time when you were watching someone play a video game and the obvious thing to do is right in front of them? Yet despite all your hints they fail to see it and continue to wander around wasting time, so much so that you just want to rip the controller out of their hands and just show them? Well that’s this episode in a nutshell, with Moe being our clueless dolt. This episode was basically a reveal of all the details of the mystery and as more of it is revealed the more disappointed I become. For you see in a mystery series it’s never really fun to be right. Sure, there’s the smug self satisfaction of guessing the mystery before it happens but being surprised when it turns your expectations on its head is all the more enthralling. So to have the the characters reveal revelations long figured out as if they were incredible feats of cognitive reasoning, just leaves me feeling annoyed. There’s quite a lot of logical leaps here with characters making assumptions like it’s hard fact when alternative assumptions could be made. But let’s examine just why this is so unimpressive.

So the series has focused heavily on the phase “Everything becomes F” which is revealed to be a timer for when Red Magic temporarily shuts down the system. Truthfully the use of Hexadecimals was quite clever but here’s the problem. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a malfunction that happened right before a murder takes place was fully intended. So all the complex reasoning was to figure out something that a little logical thinking could easily accomplish. As Rider from Fate/zero said “Using a simple method to accomplish something impressive, far outshines using a complex method to achieve the same thing.” Then we have Moe constantly making the assumption that they are talking to Magata’s daughter despite things pointing to otherwise. But the reasoning behind why the daughter died behind this is just utterly ridiculous. Basically because of one question from Moe, this caused Magata’s daughter to question her existence and decide to kill herself. So in fifteen years Magata’s daughter never once questioned her role? Are you telling me that Magata brainwashed that kid so well that she never once thought for herself and that brainwashing was undone by one single question? That is just utterly absurd. Then cones the reveal of Magata’s sister being Magata herself which even Souhei didn’t figure out until it was too late. But this does bring up what maybe be a plot hole if I am remembering correctly. I believe we saw Magata’s sister step off the helicopter and arrive on the island with the director’s wife. So then at what point after the murder did the director pick up Magata, fly away and then return to the facility? All while keeping his wife from getting suspicious? Or was his wife in on it as well? But I can’t think of any logical reason as to why she would help Magata. I honestly wonder how Magata’s thought she was going to get away with this. I mean she didn’t wear gloves when killing the director and she left the knife and while she cut of the limbs off her daughter so she wouldn’t be identified by fingerprints but that doesn’t stop people from identifying her through dental. On that regard wouldn’t the police have a file on her detailing that she does not have siblings? This whole murder is just very poorly conceived. Highly dependent on factors which were random such as if Magata’s daughter did not resemble her then her plan would be completely moot. If anyone spotted her while slipping out during that one minute blackout then that would have been 15 years of planning down the drain.

With all the philosophical hogwash that was trying to be portrayed as enlightening, this episode has brought me to a conclusion. As Magata made her getaway and left Souhei and Moe with her final message I believe I have come to understand her true character. For you see Magata is not a prodigy or a genius. It’s simple really, she’s a complete idiot. After all what person decides to build a robot whose purpose is to unlock a door when any average Joe would have just removed the door lock? What kind of person decides the best method to get rid of her parents would be to outright stab them? What kind of moron conceives a plan to spend 15 years in a facility, conceive a child, brainwash it for what seems to be the sole reason of making some philosophical metaphor? The answer quite simply is an idiot who believes they are a genius. When Magata puts forward her thoughts to Souhei what we see is nothing more that Juvenile philosophical fluff any egotistical teenager with a functional brain can come up with. Makes sense when you think about it, Magata was incarcerated and isolated from the world so while others of similar mindset would eventually realize that their thoughts were no more special than anyone else’s, Magata kept herself in a box and became convinced that her idiotic drivel was some kind of masterpiece logic. Without anyone to give her a good slap in the face and tell her to grow up, she remained an idiot.

Subete, I am not even angry. Just disappointed. When you started you promised something intelligent and I thought this might be that murder mystery I have been waiting for. But you have let me down and now that you have revealed your full hand, I see that a majority of the series has been fluff. How someone got into the room has been figured out mainly because we the audience have seen her past where Souhei seems to have made a huge assumption to reach that conclusion. Meanwhile figuring out how the murderer left was just completely impossible. No one could have figured out about the time difference using the info they gave us and most importantly the nature of a computer replacing a file of the same name is incorrect. A computer will never overwrite a file without being told to, in the case of a duplicate file it would likely create a file with something added on to the name to differentiate it. Sure the explanation for this would be a that Magata programmed it to overwrite files automatically but that’s something the viewer has never been made aware of. You may think that a Unix programmer might be able to figure it out but I do work with Unix systems and I didn’t have a clue. In the first place the timestamp issue only came up when Souhei used a script to extract the files. This is just cheating on the animes part. The addition of a new character at this stage is pointless and to make matters worse she’s downright obnoxious and completely unrelated to the story.

Thus the murderer is revealed to be none other than…Magata Shiki! Well of course it’s Magata, how can it be anyone other than Magata? That spotlight hasn’t budged an inch away from her for the entire series and no other character has enough exposure to possibly be a satisfying reveal. I guess I was hoping for her to be a red herring and for someone else to be the murderer but as it turns out, it’s that simple. That bugs me because I feel like I have been listening to someone who felt like they had something smart to say only for them to declare the obvious as if it was great wisdom.  So with the murder mystery turning out to be a waste I have to ask just what has this anime brought to the table. The sad thing is that when the mystery is gone there really isn’t anything left. The only notable characters are Souhei, Magata and Moe. The majority of the dialogue not related to the mystery was basically coming down to Moe getting sulky because Souhei doesn’t notice her affection or her getting jealous over Souhei. Souhei on the other hand is usually debating the philosophical or smoking. Magata is too enigmatic and alien to possibly relate to and I really do hope she has some reasonable motivation for this ridiculously convoluted plan. I mean if the goal was to remove her parents so she could give birth to the directors child then they are far better alternatives to consider than this. A tragically timed accident for example. If this was truly the only way Magata thought of on how to do this then I truly question if she even deserves the title of genius. In all honestly in the material presented feels like half a series stretched out to a full cour.

At this point the theory of Magata being pregnant before she was locked down on the Island is looking very likely as during Souhei’s revelation of the answer to everything, we get a brief glimpse of a pregnant woman. But lord only knows what the Ostriches are supposed to symbolize. What I really wonder is just how Souhei came to any conclusion at all with the lacking amount of information he was given. In particular if he does come to the conclusion that Magata was pregnant going in then I just have to question how he could possibly know that when her relationship to the director was made privy only to us, the viewers. Naturally however Souhei doesn’t share his miraculous insight as Moe cuts him off saying she will figure it out on her own. We do have three more episodes to go after all.

While Moe says she will figure it out I feel her earlier words captured my feelings on this mystery. Namely when she said, “I stopped caring about the case” and that is my exact mindset. I don’t like giving up on a puzzle but I feel the show is not handing us all the pieces needed to solve it. Two murders have happened, one inside a locked room and another on the rooftop. However we have no idea on the layout of the faculty, or the character of the facility personnel or the timeframe of the murders. The how of this mystery is missing far too much information to come to any conclusions about what happened, whereas the Who of this mystery seems blatantly obvious. I truly cannot see anyone else other than Magata being the murderer for no one else had screentime significant enough to make being the culprit justifiable. Some are saying Magata’s kid is the culprit but I find that lacking when it comes to motive and the big question of how she is able to move about the facility like a ninja despite spending her entire life in a locked small area.

No, my suspect remains Magata and from what this episode is suggesting, Magatas older sister is Magata herself. The two big hints to this is Magata comparing herself to the loneliness of seven and her sister being featured in Souhei’s revelation. What adds to this is that she is not present in any of Magata’s flashbacks and the camera’s reluctance to show Magata’s face when in the sealed area. So my current theory is this, Magata had a child in the sealed area secretly and raised her up to take on her role and impersonate her. Then under the guise of being “Magata’s older Sister” she left the island with the director. Hence why Magata has always retained a youthful appearance. The director killed the child and when he brought Magata to the island she killed him. There are numerous holes in this theory such as how did she get the things need. To raise a child without tipping off the guards or what would have happened if she had a boy or if her daughter didn’t look like her? And namely just how did the director manage to kill the girl inside a locked room? But like I said, I have past the point of caring. Subete has been a rather big disappointment and while its reveal might save it somewhat, the series would remain a slow show that plays its cards too early and then drags its feet to the finish.

Oh those poor seiyūs that had to act in today’s episode. I can only imagine the horror when a Japanese speaking seiyū is told they need to have an entire conversation in English in a fairly dialogue heavy show. Japanese and English happen to be two of the hardest languages to learn so if they managed to find one seiyū who could fluently act well in both that would have been a miracle. To give credit they did work on producing it as best they could preventing it from being unintentionally hilarious but to do so they needed to sacrifice acting out any emotion in the scene. As a result you have a scene which looks like it was acted out by Microsoft Sam. What I find odd is how these two’s impressions of Magata counter my own. I was under the impression that Magata was something whom disliked the idea of being held down by anything, yet these two claim that’s exactly what she desired.

My attention on this show happens to be slipping and the reason for that I believe is in just how little information is learned in the last few episodes. In today’s episode we learned…that outside attack is impossible, that Magata was weird even to her sister, that when Moe’s parents died Souhei was with her and that Magata knew this was going to happen 15 years ago. Most of the information is worthless as it does not give new light to motives or how this happened. Moe’s revelation about realising Souhei was with her when her parents died doesn’t really add anything, rather it renders the strange connection Magata and Moe share to be rather superficial. We are more than halfway through the series and not even close to a solution here. As the series is drawing to a close I find my brainstorming getting walled off and boxed in. There are too many uncertainties, a lack of suspects and not enough information to work with.

At this point I can’t see anyone else other than Magata being the murderer and as to why that is, because out of the only characters with significant development she’s the only one that makes sense. The rest of the cast is far too underdeveloped to make a good murderer and our two main characters are the detectives is it wouldn’t make much sense for either one to remain to try and solve a murder they committed. That leaves Magata and the director, who are both presumably dead. The more we see of Magata, the more suspicious she becomes. It’s pretty clear that she knew that this would happen fifteen years ago and the only ways she could possibly know that would be if she was a precog or planned it. Moe’s dream sequence seems to hint that Magata in some way might have transferred her existence to a digital form which I think would be a bit too supernatural for this series. I will accept some truly outrageous technology(Even if it is essentially a high tech version of a sensory deprivation tank(AKA Isolation Tank).) But I think when we reach the levels of AI then things get a bit too fantasy for my liking.

I can’t say I enjoyed this episode of Subete too much, mainly because there was less investigating and more character building. That wouldn’t be a problem if the character building wasn’t so focused on our main leads. The leads are fine, what we need is to expand on the other characters present on the island otherwise who can we point our fingers at and say “There! They did it!” Out of our entire cast, four of them are rounded enough to be considered suspects. Two of those are the detectives and the other two are presumably dead. We still have a host of workers and support characters who have as much depth as a cardboard cutout and if this series does decide that one of these people is the murderer then it’s going to have to make it much more justifiable with its second half. I was rather frustrated to see this episode focus on our two lead arguing over leaving the island, explaining everything we already know to some people who seem irrelevant to the case and the going back to the facility. Admittedly it does establish a reason why this teacher would be given the authority to act as an investigator but it feels that’s all this episode really did. The conflict seemed just like unnecessary filler seeing as it all was pushed aside so easily.

What new information we did learn was minor. One is that when the body of Magata was exiting her room on the robot trolley, the elevator was called to the roof suggesting that someone was there during the time of the incident. The other was that Magata did indeed stab and kill her parents which has me confused. If she intended to do the deed herself then why did she present the knife to the director? Why kill them openly in front of the director and his wife? Her actions make it seem that she wanted to get caught which counter her desires to be unchained. Why did she tell Moe that a “doll” killed her parents? I guess just like our main characters, we just know far too little on these matters to make a judgement. It’s possible that now is when the real investigation starts but if that is the case then I hope we work in some red herrings and side character development. For if this series focuses far too much on the “how did it happen” then the reveal of “why it happened” could come off as cheap and lacking impact.

The more I hear about Magata’s DID, the more suspect it becomes. According to this episode, Magata didn’t conceive DID out of trauma or accident but instead intentionally crafted alternate personalities so well to the point that it became DID. I personally find the mechanics of this rather fantastical as I don’t think anyone can intentionally create a mental disorder. I see this more like a child creating an imaginary friend that’s been blown out of proportion. I really liked Souhei’s explanation on how Magata was pure regardless that I disagree with it. It is a amusing hypothesis that children are born with multiple personalities fighting for dominance and as we grow into adults that personality is chained down to one. It’s the kind of philosophy that I like to indulge in a lot despite it having no real factual basis. Still to determine that purity just seems wrong as in Magata’s case she doesn’t really account for the value of human life. I don’t consider someone who can take a life without thinking about it pure, rather ignorant or emotionally stunted. In either case Magata is most certainly not pure, she’s far too calculating to be so.

I am dropping any theories on the director’s wife being behind the killings as it would be a boring development and having seen the character in this episode I just don’t think she looks to be the type. Instead I have found myself a new prime suspect, one whom I feel has the perfect motive and skills necessary to pull this off. That person being, Dr. Magata herself. At this point I highly doubt that Magata is actually dead seeing as the only person to confirm it was the island’s Doctor. She’s the only one who can program the facility to have a bug at that exact moment and her dead body was the only thing to exit the room.As put forward in this episode, Magata hated being tied down and I have no doubt that being held on this island is completly agonising for her. This entire situation may be an elaborate escape attempt but it seems that something has gone wrong. The director’s death seems to signify that he was going to be the one to fly her off the island but he either said something she didn’t quite like or he got cold feet. One particular detail which I think cements Magata as the directors killer happens to be something that was revealed in this episode. We see a flashback where Magata went to a shop and bought a knife, this same knife was then given as a present to the director at the end of the episode. This is hinting that it was the director who killed Magata’s parents because she desired it but one thing that really catches my eye is the design of the knife. I am willing to bet that this knife is the exact same knife that is currently stabbed into the back of the directors neck.

When regarding Magata as the killer a lot of things start to make sense. On that note I must admit that another outlandish theory has occured to me. Is it possible that Moe Nishinosono and Shiki Magata are one in the same? The reason I have been having this thought is because Magata seems to have a large connection to Moe despite not actually knowing her. Magata make presumptions as to how Moe’s parents died and one detail that really spurs this on is that when Magata questions her on what she was wearing when they died, a flashback Moe has shows a girl in a purple dress with black hair. The biggest torn to this theory is that Moe’s family seems to be a fairly famous name and when it comes to murder mystery in general, the detective being the killer is generally disapproved of. I still would like more information on the other characters but I am very much ready for more Subete, it’s such a pity I need to wait a week to get it.

The plot thickens as we are given a little more insight into Dr Magatas room. In this episode we learn quite a few things. That in Magata’s room she has a robot called Michiru which seems to be built with the sole purpose of imitating Magatas voice and to lock the door, and that Dr Magata suffered from DID.(Dissociative Identity Disorder) However I find myself wondering if her case of multiple personalities is genuine as she seems to be far too much in control of it. If anything it looks more like she invented her other personalities as a means of dealing with loneliness. This episode makes clear that none of Magatas other personalities were involved with her parents murder and states that the only one who could kill them was her core personality. However she claims that a doll killed her parents which according to the main characters could suggest that Magata did kill her parents but was forced to by someone else. Other interesting facts was Magatas messages on her computer which suggest that she knew that she was going to die. In murder mystery, usually everything introduced is in someway related to the murder and this one certainly makes it hard to connect the dots. But allow me to speculate a little. There is heavy focus on the director’s relationship with Dr Magata so it’s clear that is related to all this.

The easy explanation would be that the director killed Magata and that would clear up some issues. After all the director has the most access to the facility and from Magata knowing she was going to be killed, she would be more willing to accept it if it was someone she loved that was ending her life. Her interview with Moe would also factor into this as maybe she felt a connection to someone who was also in love with an older man. But if the Director killed Magata, then who killed the Director? Again, a easy assumption but it could have been his wife. Having learned about there relationship she might not have taken to kindly to it and killed the Director. There is a certain disconnect between the two murders. The first was clearly very calculated, and yet the second looked more like a impulse murder with a simple stabbing. But the directors wife lacks the screen time to consider her major factor. But another question is on my mind, is Magata truly dead? The show itself seems reluctant to have the characters examine her body as Moe was interrupted by Souhei before she could get a close look. The first to pronounce her dead, the doctor, did it rather suddenly. He was strangely not put off by the situation and straight away when to check her Pulse. It’s potentially possible that he was told to lie. Who knows, maybe Dr Magata is actually hiding inside the Robot, pretending to be an AI? Well alright, that’s rather ridiculous.

I rather liked Moe’s reaction to the dead bodies. Often in murder mystery the actual effect of death on people is played down so as to not let the drama effect the puzzle of the murder. Still here we have Moe attempting to brush off her shaken up nature and attempt to play detective. Yet her feelings are clear to everyone present. I still find the lack of character development on the others to be detrimental as I want to start pointing fingers but can’t really do that if the side characters have no characterization as of yet. There is also a issue with the shows rather bland presentation as while trying to find screenshots for this episode I found it difficult. While the shows substance is excellent and intriguing, I find that there doesn’t seem to be an effort to make it visually interesting. Counters to that claim would be that dream sequence at the end of this episode or some of the other more surreal moments. But other than these moments it just feels very…static. Though to the animators credit, there is only so much one can do with a story that has characters primarily talking in a room and not much else. But perhaps use of more visual metaphor could make things more dramatic though that runs the risk of ruining the mood of the scene. I may complain about that but I must admit to loving this series, nothing quite gets my brain working on all cylinders like a good murder mystery. Come up with a theory, watch it get shot down, come up with another one. That’s what makes these kinds of stories special.

Subete certainly isn’t rushing anywhere and that’s alright. The first two episodes looked to be setting up the closed circle and the third a closed room murder. What I like is that we are being clued in on the facts while the characters are so there aren’t any aspects like with Ranpo or Sako were the detective suddenly breaks the Knox commandments and presents evidence that was withheld from the viewer. We already have good ingredients here to ponder. We have two bodies, Dr Magata who had her legs and arms Amputated and was placed on a robot torolly. And the director who was murdered with a knife in the helicopter. Dr Magata was murdered in room that has only one entrance and exit. In the day she was murdered, no one entered or exited her room besides her corpse and The teacher confirmed that only the corpse exited the room and no one else slipped out during the confusion. The system had been programmed to mess up at that exact moment and that system was programmed by Dr Magata herself. Dr Magata herself was also in an adult relationship with the director despite being underage. On top of that there is a clear connection to the murder of Magatas parents 14 years ago which resulted in her getting detained here and this current murder. The pieces are fragmented but allow for speculation, this ladies and gents is true murder mystery. The difference between this and the quick fire no thought required mysteries of other shows is in just how much intelligent writing and misdirection is required to make it work. Because if at any point the author provides too much and gives away the payoff then the story is ruined. It requires a steady stream of information, never revealing the full hand. The big minus of these kind of stories however  is in how they can really only be experienced once as on a rewatch you know all the answers. Still as a great mystery writer Ryoukishi wrote “Tales can be enjoyed twice. First you love them. Then you tear out their guts.”

At the moment my issue with this show is that we haven’t been given much of an introduction to the side characters. Our mains have been given plenty of attention but without much detail on the others on the island it’s difficult to draw up suspects to the murders. I would like the next episodes to flesh out the motives and personalities of the others on the island. Particularly Dr Magatas sister who I currently think is integral to this entire mystery. Our main duo continues to have great chemistry and play off each other wonderfully. What I particularly like is how both of them are on the same level. There is no Watson in these two, both act as blacksmith’s tempering each other’s blades. Whenever one goes along the wrong line of thought the other counters and shows them how they are wrong. It’s a far more interesting power dynamic than having a Watson for Sherlock to explain his thoughts and show how brilliant a detective he is. The method in this show shows what the detectives are thinking while developing their characters and most importantly, showing that they are not all knowing gods of logic. What we have here is two very smart individuals trying to put together a fragmented puzzle and that’s just the way I like it. What is needed for the next episodes is clear, more information, more murders and more character development. Build on the foundation and at the right moment let it all come together in a giant payoff. The factor which will ultimately decide the final quality of Subete ga F ni Naru.