English Dub Review: ID – Invaded “Stormed”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Narihisago becomes fully aware of himself (and his pee soaked scarf) within his well while the Kura team work on figuring out how they and Momoki got tricked into this. Matsuoka checks the scene again, finding that someone took a picture from Narihisago’s cell and placed it within Momoki’s house in order for the particles to be detectable, but because they were older, so was the well.

Narihisago and Fukuda discuss how things reached this point, determining that this might have been a means for Fukuda to be killed by and enraged Narihisago in order to cover up evidence. Fukuda also explains that he’s basically the protagonist from Darren Aronovsky’s “Pi”, including the part where (spoilers) the guy drills his brain in order to stop thinking about numbers. Eventually they find Hondomachi, who is still stuck in Kiki Asukai’s well where Narihisago last saw her.

She’s continued her regular detective life of that time on top of furthering Narihisago’s investigations into John Walker. Luckily, because her well isn’t being observed, time is going a lot quicker for her and giving her more time to look into things. With that, she uncovers that each of the serial killers that had contact with John Walker got to seven victims before being caught. She continues this by arresting that well’s version of Fukuda on her own and questions him about John Walker, who he admits offered him the chance to torture Kiki like the other killers but turned it down. Somehow, Hondomachi is able to work this out to meaning that John Walker is none other than…Chief Hayasura, who runs the investigation. Just as she learns this, she’s taken out of the inner well and returned to Narihisago’s.

They’re able to inform the investigation team by returning to Kaeru and getting into the eye of the storm. But as soon as they’re extracted, Hayasura cuts the power and moves in, likely to eliminate them, but also to check in on the source of the Mizohaname, a still living Kiki Asukai.

OUR TAKE

Once again, this series overwhelms me with information and plot turns and twists that make properly analyzing it a rather Herculean task, but the important detail this time is that we’ve finally uncovered the long awaited identity of John Walker, and I gotta say that I…am kind of confused and let down. A large portion of this being that Hayasura, like a lot of the cast overall, barely qualifies as much of a character on his own, let alone as the mastermind behind the entire series’ greatest mystery. The most we know about him is that he runs this agency and…that’s about it, not a thing about his background or reasons for putting it together (assuming he did and wasn’t just appointed) or his goals for the Kura as an agency. And now with the confirmation that he is in fact the killer they’ve been searching for, the lack of information on him makes things even muddier, because now we have to hurry and fill in the giant blanks in his characterization when by now we should be putting together the existing pieces. With two episodes left, I highly doubt they’ll be able to come up with anything remotely satisfactory.

And then to add to the confusion, we still have the really odd mechanics of this well within the well business, which I guess is actually a time machine where people who remember the future can give spoilers and complete cases they couldn’t before. But even then, I still have no idea how Hondomachi put it together about Hayasura being John Walker anymore than how she figured out the true identity of the Gravedigger, and this time she didn’t have the hole in her head so I guess she’s ALWAYS been that smart? Honestly, it really does feel like this story’s logic is in a free fall and we are about to hit pavement, but at least we do get to understand where Kiki Asukai really went in the real world AND getting to see all three Great Detectives together at once, which is undoubtedly a cool visual. I doubt we’ll be seeing any more as we look to be coming to a pretty conclusive end once John Walker is captured, but then we’ll have to really reflect on some other issues that I’m putting off for now. But hey, in for a penny, in for a pound as we close in on the finale to ID Invaded.