Whoa, talk about a sudden increase in quality. This episode was much, much better than the previous ones of this series, strangely enough. While the previous episode with the director was kindof cute and interesting, it was also a bit too silly and unbelievable whenever the word “tea” was mentioned. The storytelling in this episode was quite effective and the climax right before the eye-catch worked really well for me.
But really, someone needs to replace Mayuki with a paper bag. While it would be a bit strange for Hatsumi to be in love with a paper bag, it would solve about 75% of the issues I have with this series. The only thing I can hope for is that he’ll develop into someone more interesting in the second half of this series, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
I was also surprised how Hatsumi actually got some major development for this episode. She indeed is just a high-school girl, just like Sanae, and she isn’t just working full-time as Mayuki’s maid. If I had to guess, then she came to live with Mayuki and Seiran after her parents died(?). Apparently, Mayuki was so cute that she quickly became attached to him. It was probably after this that Seiran transformed her into her uber-form.
The case for this episode, I admit, started off a bit mundane. We have a classmate of Hatsumi who is in love with her teacher, but this teacher was just using the girl to get money. Then everything changed when the music-teacher suddenly appeared and killed him with a bunch of scissors. I admit that I laughed, but the timing for this was exactly right, same with how Hatsumi arrived afterwards and got labelled as the #1 suspect.
The next episode should delve into why exactly the music-teacher became crazy enough to kill the guy. All we know is that she was the one who taught the teacher to play the violin, and he’s become quite good at it. Strangely enough, there’s no Byakko in this episode either… perhaps that’s why it was so interesting as well. At the moment, I just see her and her boss as annoying plot-devices to involve Mayuki in exciting cases.]]>
Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – 08
