What They Say:
Episode 6 – Crimson Resolve
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Last week I inferred that this week’s episode of The Perfect Insider might be especially climactic, considering its placement in the middle of the series. Up until the final minute or so of the episode I was pretty sure I had misread the story arc. It’s not until the last few seconds that we’re treated to some information that starts to crack the case open and gets our blood pumping.
Saikawa-Sensei insists that he wants nothing more than to leave the island, and after some haggling with Nishinosono the two of them walk back to the beach where the rest of the seminar students are waiting (some of them quite worried about their missing-in-action leaders). Nishinosono (getting drunk off of alcohol-free beer), recounts the things that have happened to that point, including the two murders and the clues that have been obtained thus far. Yamane, back at the lab, holds a video conference with what appear to be several hundred individuals regarding Magata’s death. Yamane approaches Saikawa-Sensei before he has a chance to leave, and asks a tremendous favor; because the lab is nearing the completion phase of a contract with NASA, they would like for Saikawa to keep the deaths a secret for a week until the details of the contract are finalized.
As much as he would have liked to leave this all behind, Saikawa Souhei eventually begins to realize that the allure of the murder mystery and his unresolved feelings surrounding Dr. Magata are causing him to have second thoughts about leaving. Nishinosono-san has her own set of questions, one of the largest surrounding her meeting with Magata Shiki. She feels that, if she can just solve the mystery, she can figure out why Magata was so intent on having her examine her parents’ death and her feelings surrounding it.
After warning the rest of the students, Nishinosono and Saikawa rejoin the lab. If they want him to keep a secret, Saikawa-Sensei insists, then they’ll have to let him use the week to try and solve the murder mystery once and for all. Upon reexamining some of the video footage from the night Shiki’s body was uncovered, Moe notices that the elevator light, which tells what floor the elevator has stopped, changes from “B2” to “R.” Someone was in there by the time the body was revealed, though where they came from and how they escaped is still a complete question mark. Saikawa-sensei also makes note of the fact that all the book series in the anteroom of Magata Shiki’s abode stop at volume fifteen. She’s been collecting them for fifteen years… it’s been 15 years since her parents’ murder… could the mysterious “F” left in the calendar on the late genius’ computer be referring to the number fifteen?
This episode leaves us with yet another few very interesting tidbits to chew on while we endure the agonizing wait until next Thursday. As I mentioned, this episode doesn’t exactly bring with it some crazy mid series climax, but in its own way it starts to set up the second half of the series in a way that will be fascinating to watch.
Of most interest to me, honestly, was the tug-of-war between our two main characters, as they wrestle with whether to stay put or leave things entirely up to the police. As she’s proven time and time again, Nishinosono Moe’s emotionally passionate decision making, which contrasts sharply with Sensei’s, is much more relatable and understandable, especially to someone like me who works to cultivate a sense of self-awareness, however good or ill that ends up leaving me. She’s concerned with two mysteries, that of the murder and, since she’s decided that it’s related, what Magata Shiki wanted with her and why she made it a point to meet with her prior to her death. Saikawa-Sensei scolds her for applying too much meaning to events which may end up being nothing but a horrific look into the past, but I really have to admire Moe’s convictions in this case. Considering the repeated flashback to the interview Moe had with Dr. Magata I would have to agree that their meeting carries a lot more significance than whatever minor press interviews Shiki may have given in the recent past.
Another of the show’s continuing motifs that appears again this time is the Dr.’s multiple personalities. The more the characters dwell on Magata Shiki’s various personalities, the more I start to believe that there is some significance to Magata’s robot, Michiru, and how similar some of the things it regurgitates following a simple line of questioning is to how Magata actually professed to have thought. When Nishinosono speaks to it and it begins speaking about loneliness and the number 7, the logical progression and the way it compares to things that Shiki actually said is a bit eerie.
I’m not really the type of person to try and make plot predictions, since I believe that stories are constructed deliberately and to constantly question plot revelations is tedious, but in this case I almost can’t help myself: If Magata Shiki’s mind was such that she could take on the various personalities of those who had died around her, what was stopping her from creating a man-made entity that could take on consciousnesses of its own? The only thing that gives me pause in this case is that Michiru’s interactions with Moe and Saikawa have been extremely rudimentary, lacking in complex conversational skills. If there really is some life inside this thing, it seems very unevolved (intellectually or otherwise).
The episode really takes its time to get back to the matter at hand and to examining the physical evidence that’s been collected so far – I feel like the “point” of the episode was more to get Saikawa and Nishinosono on the same page, so I didn’t find this frustrating at all… but it really is great to dive back into the mystery all the same.
Aside from the aforementioned video replay and the examination of her room, though, perhaps the more important item introduced in this episode occurs right at the end, where (as I was hoping), we see the murder scene fifteen years ago play out. I think my favorite part of watching Magata’s parents meet their ends (wow, that sounds a bit dark…) was how ambiguous the murder would have looked to someone (like, say, Yumiko) who walked into the aftermath. Shiki and Shindo hold the knife together as both Shiki’s mother and father are brutally stabbed with the gifted knife. I also appreciate that the focus is on the doll in much of the scene, her lifeless eyes staring through the blood that begins to cover the room. This really emphasizes Magata Shiki’s insistence that it was a doll who murdered her family. A doll in human skin.
In Summary:
I’m always kind of surprised when I finish watching an episode of this show and then begin to realize, after thinking “oh, not much happened this time” how much there is to latch onto and talk about. I continue to stress that this series doesn’t handle plot progression in a “typical” or simple way, and that’s really one of the reasons that I enjoy it so much. The characters are irritating in that way that makes them relatable, the mystery is scintillating without having any obvious answers and the connections between the characters and the mystery only serve to enrich it. Now that we are entering the back half of the story I expect the pace to pick up, but I imagine that the character elements that have made this show great thus far are here to stay.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Samsung Galaxy S5 running the Android Crunchyroll app at 1080p
