Oh god, what’s in the box?!
— When we last left off, Wang was about to kill Ryuji when Kaname shows up and offers to make a deal. Look, we all know he’s bluffing. The only person who doesn’t know is Wang. As a result, I’ll just point out some stuff and then we’ll cut to the chase.
— I really hate bad guys that are comically over-the-top like Wang. Ooooh, he can’t just slice you up. He’s gotta do a Gene Simmons impersonation!
— I like how Kaname threatened to destroy the key by shooting it. Really? Reeeeeeally? At point blank range?
— So what’s Kaname’s brilliant plan? He’ll toss the key into the air, forcing Wang to go for it. While the baddie is distracted, our hero opens the storage box and solves the puzzle. That’s it. Kaname wins. The end. Once the event is over, you can no longer act (though talking is perfectly fine…). So as much as Wang would like to pickle Kaname’s balls, he can’t. Kinda anticlimactic, but whatever.
— In the gambler’s den, everyone is shocked over Kaname’s upset victory. Well, except this lady, who had apparently placed a bet on him. She’s probably a future waifu. No doubt about it. Like Wang, she’ll want his balls but for different reasons.
— Inside the storage box is another box. And inside that box is a phone. Kaname soon gets to talk to the Game Master, who claims he didn’t create the game, but he did work on the interface. Ah, another frontend developer. Tsk.
— For winning the event, Kaname and his buddies get a bunch of money. Our hero, however, also gets a “privilege.” It’s any wish you want… except you can’t quit. You can only quit the game by beating it or killing the Game Master. Welp, as long as they can continue milking this series, neither of these two outcomes are ever gonna happen.
— I guess you could argue that it’s more important to understand the purpose behind Darwin’s Game, but I don’t think we’ll learn this anytime soon either.
— So in the end, Kaname wishes for something that gets cutoff because it’s suspenseful this way!
— Time to wrap things up. We’ll go through the rounds and visit each of the main characters.
— First up is fanservice for no reason whatsoever. But also, Shuka is looking to secure a base of operations for the clan.
— That is one big ass bed.
— Rein makes sure that The Florist’s daughter gets the life insurance payout from his death. Okay, so the sick girl has money. She still needs a guardian, though. Even so, this is the only subplot within the entire series that somewhat manages to engage my emotions. Do I give two shits about any of the other characters? Not really. But seeing a poor girl lose her father is pretty sad.
— Ryuji magically gets his arm reattached all thanks to this blonde lady’s amazing healing sigil.
— Speaking of the blonde lady, she’s married to an idiot. When asked why he joined Darwin’s Game, he tells Ryuji that all serious martial artists want to prove themselves. They want to see if they can overcome anything. Yeah great, let’s put your life on the line for vanity’s sake.
— Finally, we come to Kaname, who has apparently spent the last two months training hard and putting in the groundwork to form his clan. Welp, our hero sure has changed since the start of the series. I’ll give credit where credit’s due, and Kaname has undergone a bit of character development. I won’t pretend to like this anime, though.
— Anyways, martial arts dude will only form an alliance with Kaname after testing him because that’s how meatheads think. So yeah, we can look forward to that.
— Last but not least, one of Kaname’s classmates run into trouble. So that’s a thing.
Kabukicho Sherlock Ep. 20
Apparently, Moriarty has always been broken. In this week’s episode, he confesses that his mother’s death was never an accident. He killed her without any remorse. He just wanted to see what it would look like. Essentially, Moriarty is your classic sociopath. Alex kept him at bay for a while, but he even admits that he would’ve eventually killed her. After all, she was “forcing” him to deny his true nature. He likens himself to a teapot with a hole in it. And no matter how much you try to fill the teapot with good things, it’ll eventually all leak out. Of course, while hearing him speak, I couldn’t help but think of kintsugi, the act of mending broken pottery and making them look even more beautiful than they were before. But can one do the same with a fractured human soul? Maybe… but it’s clear that Alex couldn’t do it alone. And being around his selfish father certainly didn’t help.
Even if Moriarty is a sociopath, he still wants a friend. More specifically, he wants Holmes and only Holmes. In last week’s episode, he likened Watson to Alex. He thinks that if he could do away with Watson, Holmes would become the shattered teapot just like him. But again, I think he’s got it all wrong. Holmes has never done anything immoral unless you think being rude is a crime. Holmes is an odd-looking teapot, but there aren’t any leaks in him. In any case, Moriarty mentions something about there being a better way, so maybe he has another target in mind. I wonder who… the first thought that comes to mind is Irene Adler, but even she’s not as close to Holmes as Watson. Oh well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Speaking of immoral acts, I’ve lost all sympathy for Mary. I know she wants to protect her sister, and I know people say that they would do anything for their family. Her sister is also the only family she has left (god only knows where their dad went). I also know that Watson told her to do it. Being the big, caring oaf that he is, he would totally sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Finally, I know that Watson’s probably gonna be just fine by the end of the series. Still, I can’t forgive Mary’s actions. Hurting someone else — killing someone else — just to save your sister is not right. It’s selfish. It’s akin to switching the train tracks so that one person will die over four. In this case, Mary is only trading one life for another, and since she’s closer to her sister, you might argue that it makes more sense for her to do so. But this is why I’ve never been a strict utilitarian. I’ve never liked the concept of moral mathematics. At the end of the day, you’re just trying to justify doing harm because someone else has done it first. “Gosh, I may as well benefit if the cards are down!” Nah, I can’t forgive that.
I’m not saying that I would wish any harm on Mary, but technically, Mary Morstan did die in the stories… just sayin’.