Before we dive into the present time (that’s present continuous kids, since it’s still going on. If it were a habit or a fact it would be the present simple. How many times am I going to have to explain this?)
I’m sorry, my inner teacher leaked out, it’s been a very busy start to the week. I even had to cancel Dungeons & Dragons because I felt like crap. I’m doing a bit better now, well enough to quickly recap what has happened in the story so far before starting on what I presume is the next big arc.
Fukuzawa has left his murderous past behind. We don’t know much about this, but what we do know is that he met Ranpo at some point early on. The two solved a mystery together that involved the organization called V, or Five, as a guy on a nearby rooftop explained. He had a nice hat, remember hat guy from last week? I think I need sleep. Either way, we jump back to the present time after finishing this arc and as I expected, the opening visuals reflect that. No more gray tones of Ranpo and Fukuzawa, but instead the full color of the cast we’ve come to know and love. I’m excited! The song is also definitely growing on me. Music does that a lot, I rarely like a song the first time I listen to it. We see five guys standing in the background over some abstract landscape. I’m putting an early bet on the fact that they’re five. Some of them even have hats, so that checks out.
Let’s add some early predictions for this upcoming arc. For starters, there are a ton of characters that I probably should recognize but I won’t. We’ll see more of Fukuzawa’s past and the guy with the mustache in the opening, that we briefly saw in the first few episodes, is a big villain. He might be the leader of this Five organization. I’m talking a lot before the episode starts but it’s good to get some early guesses in. We have about ten episodes to go including this one so a lot can happen.
I was about to ask why Kunikida is in jail but the show was good enough to remind me what happened. I remember what happened but I didn’t remember that the death of the young girl had made Kunikida a suspect. Ranpo agrees that he shouldn’t have been in jail. I was hesitant to mention the name Fyodor earlier on in this post, but that is the hat guy from last episode. Presumably he is one of the members of Five. After not breaking out Kunikida, Ranpo goes on to bully Poe. I’m kind of debating rewatching the early seasons since there’s a lot of depth to this show but I think I remember the most important things.
Ranpo still being a child at heart is always great to watch. He is impatient to a fault and very childish. They talk about a murder mystery but those conversations are rarely fun with Ranpo since he always knows the answer. Except not quite always. The evidence destroyer being thrown off of the roof of Tokyo Tower was definitely a surprise. Then again, it doesn’t take him long to figure out the elaborative plot set by the actual evidence destroyer. I know a lot of these stories have mysteries that get elaborate because they’re stories, but I did find myself chuckling at the absurdity of this one. It’s extremely far-fetched and relies on Ranpo being smart enough to figure out where to look at the right time yet not smart enough to figure out the trick behind it. It’s great that he still relies on his glasses that activate his gifted abilities. The ones he definitely has and isn’t a lie that Fukuzawa told him.
Oh no, our guy has a powerful ability that counters out any proof of crime. He leaves Ranpo unable to solve the mystery.
After the episode card in the middle, we jump back two months to the start of this plot. Here we get a quick explanation as to why this man was working with Fyodor.
Opal Kaharis 