English Dub Review: Case File nº221: Kabukicho “Michel and Dopey”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

On his way back from a case, Michel runs into a hostess who turns out to be his daughter, Erika. However, due to him vowing to stay out of her life because of how dangerous his detective life (and gambling addiction) can be, he can’t tell her who he is. He does, however, notice that her boyfriend is kind of a douche, so it’s not exactly a shock that he ends up dead the next day. What IS a shock is that Erika is the one blamed for the murder, forcing him to search for the real killer before the police can force a confession out of her, so Sherlock decides to help. They notice odd markings on his hand and the back of his neck, likely do to a stun gun. Sherlock believes a rich socialite known as Dopey is the killer due the hand markings being the same as those on his one of a kind ring.

Michel sneaks into Dopey’s house to retrieve the ring as evidence, having to sneak past a museum dedicated to Dopey’s late grandmother, only to get captured. But when all seems lost, the one who comes Michel’s rescue is…the granny herself, who gets Dopey to confess to luring criminals to him with the ring so that he can kill them. Granny actually turns out to be Sherlock in disguise, who gets the whole confession on tape, getting Dopey arrested and Erika released.

Also, ten months later, the mayoral race starts heating up and the prison Moriarty is at has a prison break, with Moriarty showing up at the row-house soon after.

OUR TAKE

Hey, this time we finally get a Michel focus episode! I think that covers just about every detective getting some time in the limelight and we picked an interesting one to end on. Michel has always seemed like the most normal of the group, being the straight man amongst a bunch of weirdos. But then that begs the question of why he would be spending so much time with them when he seems like he would fit in best with the police. Well, this week we learn that reason, making him kind of similar to Watson in that he used to have a pretty normal life himself before tragedy from the dark side struck, mostly self-inflicted. His story is certainly an interesting one, but it doesn’t quite relate to much else going on, so this is a good spot to place it if they were going to do it at all.

As for the case itself, it’s pretty compelling on its own merits, what with it showing how far Michel will do to prove his daughter’s innocence while also hiding his identity. It’s a story that’s very easily sympathetic, but it doesn’t hurt that the antagonist stands out pretty well. Dopey’s not the brightest bulb in a stun gun, but he does well enough at being unsettling, which I believe may have been the point. He’s one remote hotel away from being Norman Bates with all the grandmother worship, even being so deranged that he doesn’t bat an eye when she mysteriously shows up alive and well. His plan to lure bad people with his ring just to fulfill her lesson of beating (killing) bad guys is also pretty disturbing in its own recognizable way, making his defeat that much more satisfying and his suicide in prison showing just how black and white his thinking was.

But hey, enough about that! Moriarty’s back after an (in-universe) ten month absence! But those guys that were bullying him also got out, likely meaning they did this together. With Moran going to the streets to build his campaign and the prison escapees being a hot button issue, I have no doubt that he’ll use his own son a tool to rise in the polls since he’s shown to just be that bad a father (which is a nice comparison point to Michel and his method of fatherhood in this episode) but we’ll have to see that for sure some time in the next episode.