English Dub Review: Case File nº221: Kabukicho “Lots of Animals”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Moriarty rides his new wave of support and fame all the way to the bank, helping his dad’s election campaign a whole bunch but potentially interfering with his fellow detectives’ work, so he decides to spread the job love around. One job includes reports that zoo animals are being killed, but investigating the matter just gets them humiliated online. Still, Sherlock sees a connection between the animals poisoned and The Momotaros, the band whose lead was killed and found out during one of Sherlock’s cases. Only it turns out that the surviving members aren’t involved, so who could it be? Well, those claiming to be the now defunct band put on a surprise “show” later on, but are revealed to be upset female fans who blame Sherlock for their favorite group breaking up, even going so far as to murder the woman who took care of those zoo animals. The three girls make a break for it, but are cornered by Moriarty. Like with Saizo last week, the three suddenly kill themselves after he says their names, though not without saying the same numbers again.

Meanwhile, an anonymous tip gives reporter Tony Shigeru a scoop on Mayor Moran’s connection to Jack the Ripper.

OUR TAKE

This week sees our next entry in this unnamed arc involving escapees committing suicide, although while it might seem like a more minor entry, it actually throws a bit of a wrench into some of the patterns one might have had in mind. Last episode looked like it was setting us up to follow how each of these escaped prisoners would be similarly caught, possibly kill themselves and repeat the same line of numbers, and slowly but surely figure out how Moriarty was connected due to him being in the same prison as them. But now we have this sort of a sequel to a previous episode where the culprits AREN’T escapees from Tokyo Seventh, just crazed fans (with just kind of crummy lives if their flashbacks are to be believed) but they still kill themselves when Moriarty says their names and repeat those numbers. This now places the x factor for these series of suicides more on Moriarty but turns out to be separate from being connected to that prison.

What does this mean for our old pal Morty, exactly? His he deliberately having criminals kill themselves with some sort of odd hypnotism in order to boost his fame? His father’s fame maybe? But then we’ve seen this sort of technique used outside of him too with the one running that pyramid scheme, so maybe he’s not the culprit after all? That’s the odd thing about a mystery show like this, because it’s hard to tell (at least initially) whether or not something is meant to tell you one thing directly or misdirect you or even misdirect you about misdirecting you. But what seems to be happening are apparent signs of Moriarty’s turn to the dark side (which is easy to believe given his character’s history), but it makes me wonder if that wasn’t used as a way to lead us away from the real truth.

Either way, we seem to be closing in some big revelations as we enter the final quarter of the season. We’ve got a handful of prisoners left to capture/see kill themselves, among them being Albert Trevor who will no doubt be the subject of Moriarty’s revenge for how horrible he was in prison, though he feels at least a ways off. With six episodes left, we probably have a couple more light hearted tales left before things begin making their way towards a gruesome and hopefully satisfying climax.