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.
“Most of the information is worthless as it does not give new light to motives or how this happened”
Yeah pretty much. This series just keep dragggggin’ on with fillers.
The delicate balance of a murder mystery is a hard one to maintain. You got to keep a steady flow of information to keep the audience invested yet not give away too much that the reveal becomes obvious. In this case the story is dragging like you said. Hell we only had two murders. Pretty disappointing body count.
I am hoping they start giving us something more substantial or I simply won’t care anymore by the end of the series.
They say there are only two types of mystery story solving the riddle or enigma. And the police action novel.
Have you watched Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro. I’ve heard someone recommend it but tbh I don’t heard it mentioned that much. Despite that, it sounds interesting.
I only seen the first episode of the anime but I read the manga fully. The author is the same guy who did Assassination classroom. As a msytery it doesn’t really provide the tools to the reader on sloving it and its generally a waiting game of seeing when Neuro decides to pull evidence out of nowhere. It could also get really damn silly and over the top. It’s a fun read but not something I would consider too memorable. Still Neuro was a pretty great character.
Just curious. What was memorable for you?
I can’t think of one at the moment. Maybe it is that when you know the solution the buildup feels like filler in several cases. Also mood is important and I think that’s why Detective Conan might have that long of a run.
Higurashi and Umineko. I find mystery by Ryukishi to be quite masterful. Though I experienced Higurashi through the anime and Umineko through the visual novel. Actually I would put Kara no Shoujo as another visual novel with a very memorable mystery story, mainly because it does place you in the role of a detective and you can’t progress in the story unless you figure out who the murderer is using the clues presented. It even give you a notebook detailing everything in the investigation that you can look over.
As for good anime example I must admit there are very few. Gosick was a decent watch. Maybe Denpa Teki na Kanojo while not murder mystery was still a great mystery anime. Paranioa Agent would likely fit in that category as well. But I am stretching the genre to fit in those.
Sadly, Like Horror, Mystery isn’t a genre much explored by anime. Unless of course it’s bundled with another genre like supernatural battles or something.
I need to get this out of my system, theory that dawned on me in episode 6. The perfect insider is Magata Shiki’s child (girl most likely).
Magata Shiki went in the room at the age of 15,she was pregnant at the time with the director’s baby. She raised this girl within the confines of the room and also requested toys for her. Everything is 15 means when this girl turns 15 she will be freed as will Magata Shiki be freed from this world. The daughter killed her mother (whether Magata wanted that to happen or not I’m not sure but I’d say probably), propped her on the cart, severed her limbs and discarded them except for the right arm which was used to open the room door.
When the cart rolled out that night, it had two levels. The daughter was hiding on the bottom level of it under the dress, and clutching Magata’s arm which she’ll use to gain access around the facility. The daughter then silently escaped in the dark either before or after the cart wheeled into the corridor. And soon after, snuck into the helicopter and killed her father the director, essentially following in her mother’s footsteps of killing her parents.
She’s the perfect insider bc she is the one entity that never went into the room, she was born in there without anyone’s knowledge and came out thus no one would ever have a clue.
As of episode 8 the theory of Magata being pregnant when she locked herself away is very likely. Though I wonder just how she managed childbirth and caring for a baby without tipping off the security. She would need more than toys when caring for a baby.
But I doubt the child is the killer in that case. It’s hard to justify the reasons why a kid would kill people they don’t know and how the person is able to sneak around the facility without being seen despite living their entire live in a small area. I am willing to bet that the dead body is Magata’s child and she killed her in order to fake her death.
An AI wouldn’t be fantasy. It’s science fiction. Since there is already science fiction presented in this show from the start, then it makes sense within the fiction. Not a jump in logic to me.