English Dub Review: ID – Invaded “Circled”

On the midnight train going anywhere.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Knowing the game is up, Inami gives Hondomachi and Matsuoka incriminating evidence of being the Gravedigger, though it’s as a distraction so Kazuta can attack them. He fails but hides again, forcing Hondomachi to lure him out by threatening Inami’s life. When he takes the bait, she fires at him, though the bullet goes straight through the hole in his head, so she stabs and kills him. She then kisses him to force Inami to give off Cognition Particles.

Within Kazuta’s Id Well, the version of Kazuta (cut to just his upper half because of John Walker) clings to a rock and asks the Inami to step outside to talk to her, but she refuses out of pride. Sakaido offers to help him, though he refuses too, confusing the brilliant detective. With the real Kazuta dead, Sakaido is pulled out and the team reflect on John Walker at the funeral for the recently killed agents, who has now made his appearance in six Id Wells. His MO is turning these people into murderers by somehow influencing their behavior, possibly with the same tech and may even be amongst their team.

Because John Walker was in Kazuta’s well, he might also be in Inami’s, so Sakaido is sent into her’s next. This manifests as an empty train, save for the manifestations of Kazuta, Inami, and the victims of the Gravedigger murders (who also appear alive outside the train). The train itself is actually the one Inami was on when her mother committed suicide by jumping in front of. Kaeru’s corpse has left bloody footprints leading all around the train, indicating the train is in a loop. Just like in Kazuta’s well, the two won’t speak or acknowledge each other. And also like in Kazuta’s well, John Walker is there.

In the real world, Inami tells the police where the rest of the bodies are buried, but wonders if Kazuta’s head hole is connected to Hondomachi. Speaking of, Hondomachi has been promoted to being a brilliant detective through Matsuoka’s recommendation, though he regrets that she has the aptitude for it, hinting that she might be losing her humanity. And in checking Fukuda’s place for evidence, they find a link to The Challenger, the killer who murdered Narihisago’s daughter.

OUR TAKE
Some things certainly look to be brewing in this week’s episode as we conclude this surprise three episode arc. Much like in the first two episodes, we get to see two Id Wells side by side, likely for comparison. Previously, this had been between a killer (Fukuda) and his prospective victim (Hondomachi), with the latter clearly being a reaction to the former’s actions. In this new case between Kazuta and Inami, they seem to be building off each other, with both versions of themselves and the other within those wells acting with the same shyness and awkwardness as their middle school days, likely because that period of ambiguity and potential was such an exciting spark for both of them. How that turned into burying people alive…well, that seems to be another story, tied to both Fukuda’s hole frenzy and John Walker’s mysterious methods in creating serial killers. Even with Kazuta dead and Inami apprehended, we might not be done with these two quite yet.

Also worth mentioning is that Hondomachi’s recent brush with the dark side has now landed her a job she once praised, being a brilliant detective like Sakaido. Matsuoka’s disparaging of the job and Narihisago looks to be pointing us towards feeling concerned for her well being, most notably with how she seemed to have enjoyed the killing Kazuta AND the foreshadowed problems with visiting one’s on Id Well. But hey, at least it’ll be fulfilling one of the things I’ve been personally looking forward to, that being getting to see more people as detectives in the well.

Although unfortunately, ID Invaded still seems to have some issues developing the rest of its cast, as the talk about John Walker (while interesting) only made me more aware of how little I know about most of the Kura team. I’m still plenty intrigued as to what this Walker mystery is leading to (and have my own theories on it based on what we know), but we’re just about halfway through this show’s thirteen episodes and most of the principal characters still look to be pretty flat. Heck I don’t think I could name most of them if you put a gun to my head. But besides that glaring mark, I think I’m coming around to ID Invaded bit by bit. I don’t think we’ll be getting to mending that entirely by the end, but I’ll be content if we can focus on the plot at hand, at least for now. Seven episodes left, so let’s see what they plan on doing with it.