This Week in Anime

Is Moriarty the Hero We Deserve?

Steve
Nick, today of all days, in our particular country, I think we could really use something light and fluffy to take our minds off of everything else. I know sometimes we like to really dig into complicated stuff (last week's Eiken column notwithstanding), but I don't believe that's the energy we need right now. Let's have fun with this one! Let's talk about something kooky. Let's—


Ah crap I'm gonna holler about class again.

I mean the manga was almost certainly written in response to the Occupy movement and the increasingly, blindingly obvious stratification of wealth and power throughout the world, but yes, it really couldn't have picked a better year to get that anime adaptation bump. It is 2020 and boy howdy are we Fed Up.

Yeah, personally speaking, I know I've never been as cool with crime as I am at this exact moment in time. So who better to make the star of your story than the Napoleon of Crime himself!

Only we made him hot this time. This is anime, after all.

We are definitely living in a sexy Moriarty renaissance. I'll confess a preference for FGO's silver fox version, but I can certainly get down with the blond bishonen we have here.

He's got his work cut out for him, that's for sure! This is Victorian England we're talking about. But lucky for him, he's not alone in this canon, joined by two other Moriarty brothers who have also devoted their lives to the proverbial devouring of the not-proverbial rich.

Oh yeah, I love this shot from the premiere, with the exclusive noble club building looking practically gilded, but also looming menacingly above the dirty and drab slums.

Moriarty the Patriot never forgets that the opulence of the nobility only comes at the price of a poor and oppressed class. Hence why Moriarty's first "case" is a nobleman who secretly kidnaps, abuses, and murders young boys from the lower classes. It ain't subtle! But neither, sadly, is reality!

It's pretty much classic Holmes material, but that stuff is harder to write well than a lot of authors apparently think.

I just hope we don't get anything resembling Moffat-Vision here:

Just gotta hold out hope there. But those hopes are certainly buoyed by the consistency of its surprisingly savvy political messaging. I even mentioned in our Most Anticipated column that, while optimistic, I couldn't help but also imagine the myriad ways this show could fumble its aspirations. However, instead it's been pretty methodical about dissolving those worries. Like, my biggest worry was the potentially muddled message of a "good" nobleman punishing the "bad" ones. Because, spoilers: all nobility is bad.

I knew I was following the right people on Twitter when I saw that scene get plastered and retweeted everywhere after it aired. This is what good praxis looks like, kids.

And how! Because however much Albert is cognizant of and disgusted with the excesses of the class system, he's also benefited from it and lived a comfortable, sheltered life thanks to it. Having good, "woke" politics is one thing, but being able to practice them in a meaningful way that helps other people is entirely different.

And I loved seeing the show also explicitly call out the shallow narcissism of charity handed down by the ruling class.

Finally, an anime that understands my fuming frustration every time there's a glowing media profile of Jeff Bezos' latest donation that accounts for exactly 0.00002% of his net worth.

Ultimately, the wealthy can't donate their way into good politics, because even with the most "noble" intentions (which are rarely there to begin with), they're still exercising a concentration of authority and power that should not belong to them. Excess wealth is poison. Likewise, Albert could have adopted and financially supported the orphan brothers' radical ambitions all he'd like, but it wouldn't mean anything if that's all he did. He's gotta get his own hands dirty. He has to "atone" for his birthright.

In other words, he has to personally stab his complete toad of a brother.

Again, he's kind of laughably evil, but I cannot find it in myself to criticize that when I can point to any number of headlines from the past few years about just how craven the one percent consistently proves themselves to be. Real life just has very bad writing! Can't do much about that.

At the same time, I can't deny a certain amount of satisfaction that the show's answer to a complex, ingrained, and systemic issue is still, nevertheless, "destroy and devour all rich people." I mean, it couldn't hurt.

A high-stakes underground heist is definitely a lot more feasible than getting sensible tax rates passed on the wealthy, so I can't argue with his logic. But really, it's in the nobility's best interests to consider wealth redistribution, and Moriarty the Patriot can be instructive in that regard by showing them what the alternative is.

You can get taxed a bit more, or a genius orphan duo can organize the murder of your entire family and usurpation of your name and wealth for the purposes of their radical ideals. It's your call.

Oh I had to give the most grimly unsatisfying guffaw at this perfect encapsulation of the American healthcare establishment.

Buddy, you better hope your heart medicine doesn't have any adverse reactions with something else that grows in your exotic garden built on the back of hardworking laborers.

Ah, well, nevertheless.

Oh yeah, that's the other big thing I really appreciate about Moriarty the Patriot. A lesser, more cowardly show might have aimed for more nuanced conclusions, with Moriarty's clients haunted by their deeds. But nope! So far everyone Moriarty has helped has left the show better than they entered it.

Indeed! Every step of the way, the series assures us that these noblemen deserved what was coming to them. Because in the end, the act of accumulating and hoarding unfathomable amounts of power and wealth does more harm than any single act of violence can hope to achieve. There's no "both sides" to oppression.

Yep, it's proper bloody wish fulfillment, but it's proven to be a lot smarter and more satisfying than I could have hoped. And while it might prove too bitter for some audiences, I know I'm pouring myself a big ol' glass of Moriarty's special rich people murder juice. He's the antihero we need right now.