Short Synopsis: It’s back to the regular arcs as Ran, Rui, Rin and Midori help one of Rin’s classmates find out what happened to her brother who disappeared.
Highlights: Interesting premise so far.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Well, the past few light-hearted episodes did make me hungry for the serious arcs again, so even though they were fun to watch, I’m glad to see that this series has switched back to mystery. It seems that the brother of one of Rin’s classmates’ went after some strange rumours about an old guy, after which the old guy attacked him with an axe.
There seems to be much more to the story than just that, though. Said classmate (Reika) gets kidnapped at the end of the episode, supposedly because she reminds the old guy (Shimotsuki) about his daughter whom he lost decades ago. But then again, who wants to kidnap a girl, just because she resembles someone from your past? There are also these telepathic abilities of Shimotsuki, along with the strange telepathic abilities of Reika’s brother. Reika’s brother also made a note about how Shimotsuki is related to his roots. I’m not sure if I picked this up correctly, but I suspect this Shimotsuki to have some major influence on Reiko’s parents’ death.
In terms of characters, the past few episodes have put a really high emphasis on putting Ran and Midori together. That really became apparent in this episode where they split up, and the two of them ended up in the same group, but also their bickering at the table. It’s interesting, because their characters often shine (when not counting their banter, of course) when they’re apart from each other. There’s this interesting rivalry going on between the two of them: when they’re together, they form a perfect team that complements each other’s weaknesses, and when they’re apart they get fired up to be the most helpful to solve the case.
