English Dub Review: The Dinner Table Detective “Welcome to the murderous party File 2 / Here’s a message from the dead File 1”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Reiko gets some unexpected help in the case from a man named Kageyama, who insists on becoming her butler. Later, Reiko is put on a murder case of an old woman.

OUR TAKE

Man, I really didn’t know how good I had it with Ameku MD. Well, turns out the initial mystery from the first episode was too big for a single episode but not big enough for two, as we pretty much wrap it up by the halfway point. And in a bit of an odd move, it’s not even Reiko who really solves it, but the character she met at the end of the the previous episode, the enigmatic self-appointed butler Kageyama, who gives her a hint as to the true culprit’s means of hiding from suspicion. Turns out it was the short girl who did it, and apparently because the victim was marrying her father, which…yeah, I know is pretty hard to deal with especially when it’s a peer marrying your much older father, but attacking her because of it is a bit drastic. As for the consequences, we aren’t really told, since it will depend on the victim pressing charges, which I don’t see much reason why she wouldn’t, though I suppose we’ll never really know. But that wraps up the first case of the show, and considering there’s only five books worth of source material, I guess they really need to stretch it all out to fit the dozen or so episodes anime seasons usually have.

We then move onto the next case, with Reiko already getting used to Kageyama and his services pretty quickly, considering he just kinda showed up and started butlering her. Anyway, this time is no mere assault, but a full blown murder, this time of an heiress to a massive company and fortune killed by someone hucking a trophy at her. There are immediately a ton of suspects in her family, including one who outright grumbled he was going to kill her after a particularly intense argument, but that seems like a red herring. Still, we do know that at least this one will end with someone getting put in jail if it turns out this was a deliberate murder and not just a homicide. Though if the first mystery was only an episode and a half long and finished halfway through this one, does that mean we’ll get all of next episode to finish this one? These are the kinds of questions I find myself asking because this show is starting out dull as hell and the performances by the dub actors remain completely terrible. Ah well, see ya next week.