“Please don’t drown in this river File 2”
What They Say:
Rich heiress Reiko Hosho lives a double life as a novice detective, fighting crime under Inspector Kazamatsuri, also from a wealthy family. After work, Reiko sheds her pantsuit to don a lovely dress for dinner each day. Difficult cases force her to confide in her butler Kageyama, who proceeds to savagely ridicule her inability to solve mysteries, all while brilliantly unraveling each case himself.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the novel of the same name, this anime adaptation is one that’s definitely an interesting one, with how it drops you into things, and you have to claw your way to understanding. But it does so in style, which makes it engaging. The show is directed by Mitsuyuki Masuhara, who has directed works from Paradise Kiss to Ace of Diamond as well as Chi’s Sweet Home. Mariko Kunisawa handled the series composition for this and has been crafting a lot of things fans like, including Ascendence of a Bookworm for all the seasons so far, as well as working on a lot of Orphen. Madhouse handling the animation production is a huge win, especially their outdoor backgrounds, but just the look of the designs, expressions, and the way the camera moves is fantastic.
The opening portion of this story in the previous episode is one that, admittedly, didn’t engage me too strongly because I’ve seen the “Drowned on dry land” thing far too many times for my taste. But the fun is in watching the two leads trying to figure things out, and the fantastic animation and design. With some potential killers with Satoshi and Shiho in the mix and alibis in place, figuring out who killed him has a lot of places it can go, but some twists show up along the way. The reveal of infidelity and blackmail being confirmed certainly paints a picture, but it’s also something that still can’t just be given as to a reason to murder someone. Especially in this particular way. Ishiguro threatening for thirty million yen at a time when Satoshi was in a position where he couldn’t refuse definitely makes it seem more likely, but there are so many things pointing to him not being in the right place at the right time for it all.
The complications do pile up and it’s amusing to watch as Kazamatsuri is all over the map with how he feels about how the investigation is going. The key piece that they have, which takes the most time to truly figure out is the piece of the spoon on the chain with Shio and Leo’s names on it with a date. That can open up to a lot of different possibilities but nothing definitive without dealing more with the alibis of those at the party where there may be some trickery afoot. Naturally, it’s Kageyama that talks out ideas with Reiko that helps to kind of solve things and put all the right pieces into place – in the elegance of her wealthy dining room as has been done before – and it’s a fun if predictable way to work through it all and how the acting side factored into the murder itself. That it comes together in a pretty good way at the end, highlighting who Shiho was truly protecting all this time, just adds to the tragedy of it all, even as beautifully presented as it is.
In Summary:
This series continues to do some pretty solid mysteries and has the characters work through them well, even if a lot of it is pretty standard in structure and presentation. The story behind this one definitely has tragedy all around it, with the lengths someone will go to in order to protect their own, and there’s just guilt all around for the primary players of it all. There’s justice at the end, but it’s also something that just leaves you feeling sad for so much of what happened. There’s a lot to like with it once again, but I really hope that someone can basically re-edit the show so that each of the mysteries is its own extended episode instead of this kind of breakdown they’re using.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Prime Video
