Great Pretender – 18-20 [Wizard of Far East]

There were, by my count, seven false deaths in these three episodes. Shootings, stabbings, car explosions, you name it – Great Pretender is down to fake it. Watching a show that treats human life as a tool to trick its audience can be fun, but the obvious consequence is ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’ syndrome. There’s a legitimate, climactic death in episode 20 here, but I could only respond by rolling my eyes, given the show’s penchant for handing out death scenes like candy on Halloween. As a matter of fact, I’m not convinced that the murder in question ended in the character’s death (I’m omitting their name for now to keep spoilers beyond the ‘Continue Reading’ link). And even if it did, that doesn’t redeem the half dozen false fatalities that preceded it, some of which were direct transplants from the show’s first arc.

And yet, these episodes flew by in what seemed like a matter of minutes to me. Sure, the story may have gone to some outlandish places while following its passion for twists, but the extended flashback it delivered this week was just what the blogger ordered. At last we understand Laurent’s origin story, his reason for living as a confidence man, his connection to Edamura, and so much more (BBW Shi Won, anyone?). Yuusuke Takeda’s art direction continues to be one of 2020 anime’s most noteworthy accomplishments, too, as he and his team construct picturesque locales from stripes and splotches of contradictory colors. Wrap these positive elements in Great Pretender’s typically fun and fast-moving style, and you’ve got a series that somehow makes up for its regular lapses in judgment. Now if only I could access the timeline where the show didn’t play so fast and loose with its characters’ well-being…

While it’s true that the show’s regular trips to Stupid Town don’t bring the fun to a halt, episode 18 was the one where they came the closest. My notes for that installment are peppered with WTFs, beginning with the boat scene where Oz shot and “killed” Cynthia and Abby, then Edamura did the same to his dad (who was revealed to be alive six minutes later). This development was far too similar to Laurent and Abby’s fake shooting deaths from Los Angeles Connection, which left me feeling ripped off. It still does, actually, since they haven’t been confirmed alive yet – the show launched into a multi-episode flashback shortly after the boat scene, so there wasn’t time for them to reappear. Am I supposed to be on the edge of my seat with worry for them? The show played their murders straight, but I can’t imagine anyone – save for the most delusional Abby/Cynthia shipper on planet Earth – believing them to be dead.

The silly developments continued in the aftermath of the boat shootings as Edamura, documented Worst Actor Alive, weaseled his way into the Suzaku Association with ease. The Chairman made it really easy for him, too, since her soft spot for Makoto stems from losing a son whose personality was quite similar to his. It feels like this detail was written into the script solely to explain her fascination with her new employee, which isn’t an uncharacteristic stumble for this show. When you combine that convenience with the soup-feeding scene around the 7 minute mark, though, it goes from stumble to faceplant. First she roughly grabs Edamura’s mouth and pries it open so he’ll be forced to eat, and ten seconds later she’s rubbing his back, encouraging him to go at his own pace. Oh, and this crystal clear dynamic leads us into a two month timeskip, during which time he’s promoted to Suzaku’s third-in-command, acting as a slave auctioneer and giving his boss cat-themed hairpins that remind him of his mother.

What am I supposed to believe about all this? I know that he’s playing a part, biding his time until Laurent feeds him the next piece of the puzzle, but this is Makoto Edamura we’re talking about. He’s a do-gooder extraordinaire who handles pressure about as well as Chernobyl, and now he’s selling children to rich assholes by describing their physical traits and temperaments in broken Engrish? It’s not the first time he’s conned the big bad of an arc into loving him (remember Eddie Cassano?), but that was a concentrated, strategic effort – we’re not seeing anything remotely like that here. Now that he’s reunited with his still-living father, that next piece of the puzzle is just around the corner, but given how wacky the present day plot has become, I’m much more interested in the events that led to this mess. Thankfully, that’s exactly what the rest of these three episodes had in store for us.

Laurent’s backstory is suitably tragic for such a sly, smart-mouthed character – an operational mode he’s adopted to protect himself from further pain, no doubt. Dead mom, absent dad, and frequent target of jealous thugs in his pre-con man days. His dream of becoming a diplomat got lost in the shuffle of his adolescence, and morphed into a career as a poker player. But his gambling days nearly ended after Fake Death #4: his stabbing of Dorothy, who has finally arrived as a full-fledged character. The idea that she willingly took a knife aimed for another man in order to con him is kind of farfetched, since she wouldn’t have known precisely where Laurent was aiming, but who cares! Dorothy is here, and it turns out she’s a proto-Cynthia – a master actress who cons (but never kills) her marks with 100% success. Sadamoto gave her a highly alluring design, with butterfly eyelashes, full lips, and a Cleopatra hairdo. It’s easy to imagine a materialist like Laurent falling for a woman like Dorothy – and fall for her he does, which paves the way for the events of episodes 19 and 20.

I won’t go into all the intricacies of the One Last Job that Dorothy demands to pull before her marriage to Laurent, as you’ll have seen the episodes before reading this. You know the order of events that lead to her death, and you know about the job’s close resemblance to Laurent’s scheme from the previous three episodes: sell an exotic-looking co-conspirator to a human trafficking organization, then bust her out and enjoy your massive payday. We saw it happen with Abby first, but chronologically speaking, Dorothy was the OG Ethiopian princess, and she paid the ultimate price for it. Why is Laurent repeating history, I wonder? Putting his con artist buddies in mortal peril isn’t anything new for him, but you’d think the death of his fiancé would put him off replicating the stunt in the present day. Maybe he’s trying to send a message to both Suzaku and their Shanghai offshoot (who were responsible for Dorothy’s killing), saying that he’s coming for them both, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

There’s been a lot of glossy summary in these last couple paragraphs (in contrast to my earlier nitpicking of Edamura’s character) because that’s how I experienced these episodes. 18 was an unrelenting barrage of WTF moments, whereas everything to do with Dorothy’s introduction and Laurent’s backstory passed in a blissful flash. The one disappointment of the latter story, though, was the anticlimax of her death. I’m not talking about the in-universe circumstances of the murder – that was an effective way of villainizing Liu, who killed her simply for mouthing off. No, I’m referring to Dorothy’s likely status as Fake Death #8. It’s tough to believe that, in an anime where people do not die when they are killed, Laurent’s lover is actually gone forever. And that makes his self-imposed isolation after her death feel like a formality on the show’s part, which is a hollow experience to follow as a viewer. Learning of Shi Won and Ozaki’s affiliation with Dorothy, and witnessing their first meeting with Laurent, was a treat. Watching Laurent mourn the death of his still-breathing fiancé? Not so much.

Speaking of Oz, my hunch about his motives for working with Liu and Shanghai was on the money. He’s the Laurent of Dorothy’s former gang – the chess master who’s been plotting all this time to destroy the trafficking group that ruined his life. If dedicating himself to a life of crime is what it takes to achieve that destruction, then that’s what he’ll do. Come to think of it, his situation now parallels Makoto’s, since dad and son now work for different branches of the Suzaku Association. It’s a lot easier to swallow Oz in the role than it is Makoto, but it’s possible that the last three episodes will mold the younger man into a more credible mirror of his father. I’ve given his character a lot of crap over the course of my Great Pretender posts, but a clutch performance as a double agent within Suzaku could help him turn the corner. It’s all about Laurent and Ozaki’s revenge now, and Edamura is perfectly placed to help them achieve it. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for his success – and hey, if he somehow ends up dead, it’ll only be a temporary condition.