Fugou Keiji – 4 [Nothing makes a man so adventurous as an empty pocket]

Fugou Keiji is a ridiculous show, there is no getting around that. Yet this week surprised me by stripping away all of its crazy, ok most of its crazy, and giving us something… wholesome. So lets dive in and talk about what is Fugou Keiji’s most sincere episode yet.

As I said, this was a very calm and wholesome episode of Fugou Keiji. There was nothing overt or over the top about it. No money-based gags or super serious story lines, though it tease one at the end. It was just a focused character drama, a day in the life of our leads, and you know what? I think it worked. I think Fugou Keiji did some good stuff with Daisuke here. The growth isn’t huge, no sweeping changes were made, but it is the start of something. With this episode Fugou Keiji made the promise that Daisuke would grow as a character. That he wouldn’t sit statically just to be a gag for the show. And if the series can live up to that promise, can give us tangible growth for his character, I think it could be great.

The whole conceit of the episode, abandoning him in the city without his AI or money, is great. It strips Daisuke of everything that made him special, that made him entertaining as a character. Without it Fugou Keiji had to find something else for him to do. Otherwise he would have been a non-entity the entire episode, revealing he was nothing without the gag. Yes, I do think that the reason he left the house throws a poor light on it all. Showing that he is so spoiled that he runs away over natto or his shoes does nothing good for his character. However because of how the episode ties it back into Shiro the dog, I think that is actually the point. Daisuke isn’t a character we should look up to, he isn’t someone we should think is “cool”. We just like his money, and now he has none.

Contrast that to our other lead Kato who is entirely self-sufficient, making due with the bare minimum in funds. Showing us how he isn’t just a good cop but a good person. Someone who thinks about other people with every action, even the small ones like buying milk. Getting milk that will expire soon so it isn’t wasted since he will drink it all in 2 days anyways. Stopping to help a kid look for his dog, then calling in favors to keep that promise the next day. Fugou Keiji is showing us, rather than telling us, how good a person he is both in and out of uniform. I think his simple honest lifestyle is a good contrast to Daisuke’s practical cynicism and that over this episode both characters learned to appreciate the other a little more.

Getting back to Daisuke, it was also just cute seeing him experience cheap food or wear clothing that wasn’t tailored. It reminds me old videos where Bill Gates guessed the prices of everyday groceries and thought a bag of Totino’s was 22$. It was an opportunity to see him with his hair down, literally in some cases. To get him outside of his comfort zone. Scenes like him and Kato enjoying the simple cooking, Kato’s pride and Daisuke’s surprised enjoyment, were fun. That he ended the episode learning how to cook it himself, taking are of his own cuts himself, was a great step for him. Hopefully in the future we can see him start to do things without the use of money or his AI. Of course I don’t want those to go away entirely, they are great fun. But I would enjoy seeing Daisuke open up more.

Meanwhile the side-story with the dog surprised me, I wasn’t expecting Fugou Keiji to use it like that. I figured it would just humanize Daisuke, show him how much these things mean to… well normal people. Instead though Fugou Keiji turned it into a whole question of “harsh truth” or “comforting lie”, is the kid better off not knowing his dog died, that sort of thing. And while its a bit amusing to poke fun at Daisuke since he was often compared to the dog, it was a poignant ending. Having him realize his family doesn’t know where he is, will he be okay, they can’t just “replace” him like he did the dog. It was a very Daisuke thing to do, solving it with money, but in an unexpectedly empathetic way, Suffice to say I wasn’t expecting it at all and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

All in all, this was an unexpectedly good episode of Fugou Keiji. The show abandoned its core gag of “My superpower is money” and instead gave us small scale character focused piece. I don’t think it was perfect of course. Fugou Keiji is at its core an absurd show and the heavy implications of the ending might be a tad to serious for it. However I do think it went a long way towards turning Daisuke into an actual character rather than a walking bag of money. So yeah, it was a good episode. What did you think? Was this a nice departure from the absurdity? Or do you wish Fugou Keiji had stuck with the comedy and left off the serious stuff? Let me know below and I will see you next week!