Forum - View topicWoodpecker Detective's Office (TV)
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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It is the end of the Meiji Era. The genius poet Ishikawa Takuboku, who's struggling financially, starts a detective business out of his lodging in response to a certain murder case. He calls it the Woodpecker Detective's Office. "The ghosts of the Twelve-Story Tower in Asakusa," "the man-eating figure who wanders the streets on snowy nights"... Takuboku involves himself in one bizarre case after another with his hometown acquaintance, Kindaichi Kyousuke, as his assistant. Other literary men such as Nomura Kodo, Yoshii Isamu, Hagiwara Sakutaro, and Wakayama Bokusui are also dragged into Takuboku's exploits as he races all around Tokyo at the height of Westernization! [Source: Crunchyroll] #1 This is the season's period mystery series, featuring a genius poet with excellent observational skills and his more mundane hometown friend who has more common sense and better housekeeping skills. First duo that comes to mind is Sherlock Holmes and Watson, but that's where the similarities end. The first scene already makes it clear the poet dies long before his friend and that the story is a reminiscence of the cases encountered by the detective office. The mystery for this week is a murder in the brothel, however it looks like the denouement will come next week if the trailer is any indication. The poet Ishikawa has a way with getting people to fall in with his line of reasoning, even if it means being underhanded at getting what he wants. He may be broke, but he's surprisingly well connected with one of his literary circle being a member of the influential Japanese military. The reasoning so far is solid, as expected from a mystery novel in the old school. As observed elsewhere there's little for the viewer to work with as far as the solution is concerned, but I'm hoping it gets better as the pilot episode has world building to cover in addition to the mystery of the week. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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#2
If last week's episode was setting the stage, this week's episode turns it upside down. Ishikawa is broke because he frequents brothels, so is frequently out of pocket. He challenges Kindaichi who has no experience with ladies to visiting a brothel with him, which the teacher is a sucker for. And it's here that the next mystery arc begins, one surprisingly pitting the two friends against each other. Circumstantial evidence points overwhelmingly to Kindaichi's guilt, but there's no motive for the mild-mannered teacher to kill a prostitute he has just met. Similarly, there's no reason for Ishikawa to lose his temper with the prostitute and kill her. Neither one is telling the whole story, because neither knows everything which happened. I'm inclined to believe Kindaichi is telling the truth regarding his encounter with Otaki up to a point. Similarly, Ishikawa was telling the truth when he said Kindaichi was sitting over Otaki's corpse in shock since the first scene bears this out. Ishikawa seems happy to see Kindaichi arrested as he firmly believes he is guilty, but his poet circle friends are challenging this narrative which should see next week give a different picture as to what really happened. Clues I've found notable: 1. The jacket was found at the scene. 2. The notebook belongs to Ishikawa, but he said he lost it before going to the brothel. The last time he had it was in the restaurant where he slipped the coins in. 3. Otaki suffers from a cold or early-stage tuberculosis. 4. Someone was in the restaurant and trailed the pair to the brothel. 5. The madame of the brothel is either telling the truth or is lying. If she's not lying, then there has to be an explanation why Kindaichi said there was a third person in the brothel if he was not lying about that to Ishikawa. Last week's murder mystery merely proved the initial murder suspect was really innocent, but there was no denouement on who actually did the deed. Will the same happen next week? |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15545 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 3
Maybe I am a little confused over exactly what the conclusion was, but the good guy detective was kind of distant to the woman that loved him, which led to her committing suicide over it. Due to things he probably could have seen coming bringing the guy that would not touch her, and then out of anger of seeing the guy treat her kindly he pretty much lied to police blame him from murder. And the detective is still the good guy? |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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Interesting conclusion, the student's revelation about Otaki's visit to the rental accommodation turns out to be the deciding factor in figuring out what really happened. The student lodger effectively steals this week's show by figuring almost everything out through sharp observation, a bit of inference and being in the right place and the right time.
Ishikawa's a poet, so it's not surprising to see him get so riled up when his benefactor's incredibly dense nature when it comes to romance indirectly leads to the death of a prostitute who would have been happy to spend the rest of his life with her. Telling Kindaichi the truth wouldn't have made a difference, so he chose to keep quiet about it until he was forced to show his hand. The episode has a few cameos from famous historical Japanese writers; Natsume refers to Natsume Souseki, Japan's equivalent to Shakespeare for the UK. The weird writer with the penchant for Buddhist metaphors is also well known in his own right. Next week should see a different mystery, something to do with a tower and an apparition. Hopefully Ishikawa will get over his sulk enough to work together with Kindaichi again. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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#4
One-episode arc, but a tragic one nonetheless. As infuriating as Ishikawa's whimsical nature and spendthrift habits are, there's no denying his skill as a poet makes him a keen observer of humans and their behaviour. For most of the episode, viewers are strung along thinking Yamaoka was the culprit. The twist at the end and the final conclusion wasn't something I expected, but it's something which Ishikawa likes since he can never live life the same way Yamaoka did. Kindaichi is a softie, but without someone like him by Ishikawa's side the poet would be long dead from hunger or indebtedness. The mystery itself is a period piece, since one cannot recreate it using today's technology. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15545 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I can't help but feel that the detective failed since his mystery reveal led to another person committing murder suicide with the killer. The detective is kind of shitty for how much damage he causes.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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#5
Nothing much happens in this episode, it looks like it's setting up for the next mystery but there's not enough focus. A lot of the episode is on poetry and trying to woo a certain waitress. On the plus side, it appears the murder mystery in episode one is part of a larger scheme which may or may not be addressed before the adaptation ends. Kindaichi Kyousuke is probably jumping the gun with his assumption. He may like Ishikawa for his poetry, but the prostitute killed two episodes ago was right when she said Kindaichi doesn't know Ishikawa at all. Ishikawa laments his inability to pay his own way, so he takes up jobs which he doesn't reveal the full details to no matter how lucrative they are. Last week's mystery did not end very well, so I wonder what next week has in store. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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#6
Last week was indeed the setup for this week's mystery. Short of reading the source material, I'll bet viewers would never have guessed that last scene last week was a man carrying a life-sized doll. The other thing I wouldn't have imagined was last week's tavern waitress being the centrepiece of this week's mystery. She's popular enough with the poets, but it turns out she has her own secrets and a relationship with someone so strong that it's absolutely unhealthy for both sides. Viewers are not told how she got her glass eye or why she's so proficient at self-defence, but Ishikawa is fortunate Kindaichi is a softie whose word is weaker than his concern for a poet with sharp observational prowess and little common sense. The mystery itself is actually one of the better ones this season. In hindsight, there's just enough for viewers to anticipate the twist that is telegraphed midway through. Unfortunately the series is so unconventional that viewers either dropped it after the first two episodes or will see this through to the end because of its peculiar setting and unusual cast of characters. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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#7
This is another week where there's a twist in the tale which viewers will not see coming. I like how the show took both viewers and Kindaichi for a ride, whereas the main focus of the show is getting the titular pair on speaking terms again and accelerating the pace of the main plot arc which has been frozen for the last two weeks. On top of that, it looks like there's a time limit as Ishikawa appears to have late-stage tuberculosis and will not last long. The "Gentleman Thief" has done what confidence artists all around the world have pulled off successfully over the years; gain the trust of the mark with a forged ID card and get them when they are most vulnerable. No idea if he's the same "Accuser X" the pair have identified, but I don't think his role in the adaptation is finished yet. Come to think of it, there has been no solution to any of the murders relating to the whistleblower letters. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15545 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Don't you love it when your "friend" trolls you into thinking that you managed to solve a mystery by yourself, only to reveal that the spoils are fake with instead having your image on them in a way that mocks you and makes you a target of jabs by your friend group. Especially after already not being on some friendly terms after a history of generally being pretty shitty. Like, he thought that he was getting a confidence boost, only to have it left implied that the one playing the prank went through a ridiculous amount of effort after having actually solved the case.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24012 |
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Was the implication that Ishikawa figured out where the 5000 yen was hidden and thus collected the reward which he then used to finance the practical joke on Kindaichi? Or did he scrounge the 500 yen somehwere else instead of repaying his debts? I'm with you DP, this kind of friend I can do without.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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#8
The quality of the mysteries has been hit and miss so far, but this new mystery spanning multiple episodes looks like a hit. The identity of Whistleblower X is as obtuse as ever, but this week's guest character makes up for it. For the first time, Ishikawa has met his match. Not only did he fail to see through the identity of the client he rebuffed previously, she's even managed to control him in a way his friends and fellow poets cannot. I'm not ruling out the possibility she's stage managed the whole letter threat chain, but if she has I cannot understand why she would bother doing so and roping in a complete stranger to potentially ruin her plan. The husband is well connected and a nasty piece of work, but he will die in a gruesome manner if the threat is real and Ishikawa fails to stop it. Outside of his genius, Ishikawa is a real trial for those who know him. Perhaps that is why he is so smitten with her, because she can get him to behave when no one else can manage him even though they are concerned about his well being. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2938 |
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#9
It's unfortunate the solution proposed matched what I had initially suspected, but the idea of someone waiting at a window on the second floor to drag an unsuspecting person to his death in the waters below proved to be the final straw. Because it was so unlikely, the only other solution was an obvious one. After that it was a matter of connecting the dots, although it appears with this episode that the series of incriminating letters found at a series of murder scenes might not be connected to a single person after all. This is going to hit Ishikawa really hard. Looking at next week's trailer, his poor health combined with the emotional trauma from the final scene is going to be enough to get him killed before the end of the adaptation. Kindaichi has been a bystander over the last two episodes, which is curious since the whole premise of this series is him being the storyteller of the adventures of Ishikawa long after the other has passed on. Not sure how much he could tell from these events since he wasn't really witness to much of it over the last two episodes. Maybe Ishikawa wrote his experiences down in a book before passing on? |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15545 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Perhaps I was missing something. But was our asshole main character detective holding a main motive for solving the case and performing charity over his other obligations so that he could try and sleep with a married woman? And he may have set up to think that she murdered her husband so that she could have her confess to catch her and the lie so that he could protect her somehow, after figuring out that her motivation was because her husband was abusing her. It mostly feels like he was trying to manipulate her because he had the hots for her, deciding for himself that she would be safer getting arrested or something in being pushed to the edge to commit a crime, rather than talk to her so that it would not happen.
Or perhaps I misread something. The reason I have a dislike of Ishikawa is it feels continuously like he mostly thinks about his dick in how he relates to the feelings of a particular women, decides for himself how people feel, and feels no remorse for how he uses them for his own entertainment or convenience. And somehow the whole thing is meant to come across as charming and complicated person who is so deep, especially in how sick he is right now. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24012 |
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Ha ha, DP, I see our least favourite poet/detective continues to grate on you as he does me, but I do hold a more charitable view of him than you do with respect to the latest episode.
First, yes, I have no doubt he had amorous feelings for our cross-dressing would-be murderess (by the way, was the cross dressing ever explained? If it was, it blew past me, obviously) but I don't think getting laid was his primary motivation for his decisions. He obviously figured out her intentions and I have to assume he felt that merely talking to her about it wouldn't dissuade her from trying to carry out the murder. I think he genuinely did not want her to be guilty of murder both for the temporal consequences and what, as a Christian(?), it would mean for her soul (notwithstanding the mention that confession offered absolution). Rightly or wrongly, I think he calculated that getting arrested for attempted murder was the only way to ensure she not become an actual murderer. As for his scraping together cash to make a donation (by pawning things that aren't even his!), I actually think that was motivated more than just wanting to get in her (literal) pants. He knows he's dying and doesn't have much time left. He is (understandably) not happy with what he has accomplished so far in his life. I think making the donation was his way of attempting to create some meaning for his life (helping society) in the little time he has left. |
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