Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace 2 wraps up the nice chair arc and makes me wonder what they’re going to do next.
I gather there’s going to be more murders at the school, so I wonder if Kobayashi will continue to be a suspect. That’s rather a nice idea for a mystery series, where the same guy becomes a suspect each time and has to solve the mystery to save his butt. It’s probably been done, too. But getting back to the story … It simply unfolds, with Kobayashi talking about the crime with his interrogators like he was another detective and not the suspect, tossing together theories as fact, with one bit of deception used to reveal the killer (and wouldn’t she have thought that Hanabashi would have turned in that cell phone?), and a teary confession.
Routine. I’m no good at solving mysteries so I’ll take their word for it. But what gets me again about this episode is Kobayashi’s perky attitude toward everything, corpse pictures, being taken in … nothing fazes him. Even the cops are impressed. This made the killer’s line about their murderous homeroom teacher the best of the show: the serial killer fell for Kobayashi because he felt a kindred spirit. I don’t find his attitude unpleasant, though. I rather enjoy it. What I enjoyed even more was the concept that women fell for him and wanted to become chairs to remain close to him. There was so much of this “He wouldn’t make me a chair!” talk that I nearly giggled.
Joukamachi no Dandelion 2 has two separate stories. The first one is rather pointless since it’s more Akane walking to school in terror of the security cameras, though technically it’s her sister Kanade’s story. There’s more talk about the elections. Kanade wants to win it. So does Akane because she can get rid of the cameras, but since she’ll be in the public eye more as king, something Kanade points out that Akane should have thought of. Anyway, pretty pointless, since we know the situation already.
The second story is better. We meet Hana (actually, since there are so many royal siblings I thought it was one of them for a moment, such is the impact they’re making on me), Sakurada’s childhood friend who has developed a crush on him. This means several minutes of watching her making an idiot of herself at school. But then they do a nice thing. Caught following Sakurada and Akane, she actually confesses! What’s more, Sakurada isn’t against the idea of dating her. Wow, several episodes of high school romcom are suddenly cleared out and free for other stories! I wanted to cheer. Still don’t know if I’ll watch this show for long, but it’s a light and breezy watch for now.
Meanwhile, Gate 2 keeps my interest. As they hinted at last week, we learn that the magic world didn’t really know what they were in for when they tried to invade Tokyo. We start with them throwing a few attacks at the self-defense forces and getting destroyed in the attempt. We also learn that this was what Emperor Molt (heh) had in mind. He didn’t commit his own forces and now there’s no kingdom around that can pose a threat. Furthermore, he orders these other kingdoms to get their earth scorched, so to speak, to make sure. Meanwhile, in our world, the American president has got some nasty plans of his own brewing. Looks like neither side can trust their rulers.
Meanwhile, Youji is ordered to go out and try to make friends with the locals to learn more about this world and why on earth they would send medieval fantasy troops against a modern-day army with guns and rockets. He succeeds in making friends with a local village, but we’re not privy to any conversations, which is a shame. I’m very interested in seeing some actual dialogue about how this kingdom works. But along the way they witness some literal scorched-earth stuff going on, Molt’s leveling of his opposition. I wonder if it would have been better if we didn’t know Molt’s plans as it would have added some mystery to our viewing, but at least it’s still a mystery to Youji and his recon team. So is the unconscious elf-girl they find in a well. Hopefully the army grunts and the magical civilians will have a more meaningful meeting next week.
Another stretch of work awaits me, so my look at Classroom Crisis 2 will brief. Nagisa goes around being the asshole he made himself out to be in the first episode, and his plan is to eliminate A-TEC in six months. He aims to be CEO, but his brother also wants it, and keeps sending Nagisa to shitty, dangerous places, where Nagisa excels anyway. So now he’s trying to get Nagisa killed. Meanwhile, the only person to shake him up is Mizuka, who correctly perceives that the boy is somehow interested in Iris. This is mixed in with a documentary feature about A-TEC which shows it to be the modern, innovative classroom experience that any talented student would want to join, which also serves to introduce us to the other kids, badly, as there are too many of them. Kirishima Corp looks to be like any small, ambitious startup that got huge and, er, corporate, and is now betraying the spirit of innovation which made it in the first place. Plenty to chew on in this series. I just hope they turn Nagisa quickly. He gets on my nerves.
Too Old for Anime 
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