Mouryou no Hako – 13





Short Synopsis: It’s finally time to reveal who is the real culprit behind this series.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10 (Fantastic)
What an awesome way to close off 2008! I must say, this episode was absolutely incredible. It was the best episode of Mouryou no Hako yet, it had some of the best visuals of all the series I watched in 2008, it’s the second-most disturbing episode of 2008 and it has without a doubt the best ending of 2008, and in fact one of the best endings I’ve ever seen. Oh my god, how everything came together in the end!

So in the end, the culprit was Amemiya. I’m pretty surprised that I forgot this myself, but amongst all the clues that were thrown around, two of them pointed at the real culprit really clearly: the time when Kiba saw him outside of the research institute: he was trying to get Kanako’s limbs back, though didn’t take into account that Kiba would be there. Then, later as we saw Kanako lying in bed, it was indeed he who was watching her from the peek in the door. He then met Suzaki, who just smuggled Kanako’s head outside and killed him, taking away her head. It then seems that he met Kubo in the train, and showed him Kanako’s head, JUST LIKE IN THE STORY. It turns out that the story from Sekiguchi was from Kubo! Kubo then became jealous and wanted to create something like that too, not realizing that it took some advanced science to keep her alive in that state and… ah, forget the bloody summary, Hayase does a much better job at it.
And I must say that this is one disturbing story! Mimasaka slept with his actress daughter and got her freaking pregnant! People chopping up girls’ bodies, keeping them alive and distributing their limbs all over the country.

I must say, that of the past fall season, Mouryou no Hako has definitely been the best series of all airing shows. I already was convinced of that after the previous episode, and then it came with this episode. Even though Casshern Sins, Michiko to Hatchin and Bonen no Xamdou are already amazing, they’re going to have to be really good in order to be able to top this one. I realize how much of a hassle this series is to translate, but it would be such a shame if this gem would remain unsubbed.

My only question left is: what happened to Amemiya and Kanako’s body? Were they found? Did they disappear?

12 thoughts on “Mouryou no Hako – 13

  1. My Japanese is pretty limited. What I don’t understand is, how did Kyougokudou figure it all out? Was that ever explained?

  2. I don’t think an explanation is really given, but I suspect that that’s what all the talk about psychics in the middle of the series was about: he used both his insight, “psychic powers” and what he heard from Sekiguchi and the others.

  3. I must say I too don’t understand much,maybe it is explained in anime but my understanding is too low,almost everything is revealed,what we can guess Amemiya is travelling by train over the country with Kanako head in the end,which is a bit unfair he should be dead like Yoriko who possibly started this whole incident.
    We can assume Kanako is dead by now or maybe she is in vegetable state when her mind is dead but her body is somehow kept alive showing some symptoms like in poeple with coma,some reactions,which Kubo saw as head being alive when she was taken from that hospital,but maybe even if she died she is with Amemiya forever as he wanted,also I really doubt that in 50’s there was a technology which could keep head with part of body alive for so long.I rather think that Amemiya has now part of Kanako’s corpse in box which is decaying,well other thing is if her body was some kind of balsamed/prooperly prepared,removing all organs leaving only lungs with heart so it could substain body and basic brain functions alive.
    Like we see in manga in first chapter girl in box is cuted just below lungs.
    Damn it,for me ending is such unsatisfactional,Amemiya should be killed,at least I prefer to think that Kanako is dead,she didn’t deserved what happened to her.

  4. I haven’t finished this yet but I was hoping that Amemiya wouldn’t be the culprit since that would make it awfully predictable. Hope the subs come out soon though. This sounds very exciting.

  5. The translation on 13’s taking an oddly long time to be released. Is it already licensed (with the show) for NBC airing as Law & Order: SVU Movie Night (while the actors go get counseling?) Also, this BD-RW baaaarely fits the RAWs.

  6. NO TRANSLATION ON THE LAST MOST IMPORTANT EPPISODE :(((((((((((((
    One whole year…

    very unfair 🙁

    pls if you have a link with some translation,post it !

  7. There was a part at the end when Amemiya continued to journey and show people what’s inside the box (supposedly with Kanako’s head): it said “makkuro himono”. My Japanese is limited but does that translate to “very black dried flesh” or something? That’s got to be eww. Anyway, I watched everything subbed except for the last episode and is still reeling from the experience.

  8. The sub of this episode is out. AKI is correct about what has happened to Kanako. The person who visits the group at the end explains that he saw a man whispering to something in the box and when he asked the man to open it, he saw something that looks like dried meat.

  9. finally a sub!!!!!….*sigh, I admit that the anime is great, but the subs just ruins it…the very LONG WAITS made me forget what the anime was all about…

    loved the way chuuzenji explains things, it makes me feel dumb TT

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