Architectural design 101.
What They Say:
The Alchemist has already committed four murders, but Kindaichi is determined that there be no more. He also wants to prove Reika-chan’s innocence, since her fellow entertainers have seen fit to tie her up in the meantime. Can Kindaichi solve the twin mysteries of the locked room murder and the vanished sword?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With more of the bodies having fallen in the previous episode, the show has provided the requisite amount of death to really make it interesting. One dead body? That can lead to a decent story. Throw in several more and things start to perk up since there’s a lot more tension with who could drop next. This story also places some additional pressure on Kindaichi since people are accusing Reika of being the murderer due to the way events play out and that just can’t fly with him. But that extra intensity on his part of proving her innocence also makes Ran feel a bit less certain about things herself since she obviously knows that Reika is a rival and she really dislikes how intense Kindaichi gets when it comes to her.
Luckily for both of them, Kindaichi kind of comes clean a bit with Ran when the two are off on their own while Reika is being kept tied up by the others in order to make sure she doesn’t kill again. With Ran and Kindaichi both kind of okay with each other at this point in relation to Reika, that means it’s off to the races for them to work together to solve the mystery. Ran may not be a detective or have the same analytical skills as Kindaichi, but she often proves to be useful in making intuitive observations that sparks a new line of thought for him. With that, they begin to make their way through to most of those that are still alive and that leads to revealing small bits here and there about all of those left, both in what they say about themselves and some of the venom that’s carefully aimed at others, revealing rifts that weren’t exactly clear before.
Kindaichi also does his investigation into the Philosopher’s Stone and the connection to this place in its design as the two are pretty much mirrored in layout. This gives him the clues he needs and that launches us into a bit of a recap in a way of events up until this point as he lays out what’s happened to everyone while tying it into the house design, down to the door style and the numbers on the doors, which represent element numbers. That’s a neat little twist that changes your view of events in a fun way. It takes a rather interesting turn as well when Kindaichi starts showing some of the real applications of the door and its design which has allowed the locked room murders to happen, and provides a reason for how Reika could be in it and survive. It’s a bit elaborate – hell, it’s far too elaborate when you get down to it – but it works in the right way to explain things. It certainly doesn’t fit with Ockham’s razor though.
In Summary:
With the way this arc is working, we get a good bit of the explanations here to certain things, but not the whole story. It’s the kind of setup where we’re able to get a better handle on part of what’s going on, which in turn will frighten out the culprit who will then start making mistakes. And as is the case with a number of murder mysteries, there are some weird parts to it that just has it being more elaborate than it needs to be, but that’s admittedly a good part of the charm as well. The show has some good moments as the reveals come out, from the house design to the talk between Kindaichi and Ran, and that helps to keep things moving smoothly and changing it up a bit.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
