Woodpecker Detective's Office

Episode 10

If there's one thing that has been hanging over this series more than Ishikawa's short life, it's the fact that, according to the show's depiction of him, he's not a very nice man. In fact, for some viewers, I suspect that watching him get punched in the smug, sneering face was a moment a long time coming, and sick or not, it's hard to argue that he didn't deserve it. That, and his clearly worsening illness, brings up a question that is central to the show's final quarter: why should we even bother being sad if he dies in the final episode when he's been such an unrepentant jerk for the rest of them?

In some ways, the answer to that question is the same as the one Ishikawa asks Kindaichi at the end of this week, essentially “why do you even bother?” Kindaichi's response is basically “because I care about you,” and that's what the real tragedy of Ishikawa's passing will be as well – not that he died, but that Kindaichi lost him. While it might have more impact if we understood why Kindaichi is so attached to him, doing it this way encourages us to look at it in a way that Ishikawa is largely incapable of: by showing empathy to someone else.

That makes the other characters take on the role of the viewers of the show, both in general and more specifically this week when they start to get really fed up with Ishikawa. While it's true that he hasn't told any of them how sick he is (and Kindaichi doesn't appear to have, either, though he's definitely aware of the fact), his physical appearance is a major hint that there's something going on with him beyond “depressed because the woman he liked died.” Ishikawa does seem to have taken Tamaki's death as a sort of symbol of his declining life force, giving up almost entirely because he's lost her, but even without the added fear of death (and the simultaneous yearning for it), it's the sort of dramatic gesture we might expect of him, particularly since he's having a major wallow in his sadder emotions. On the one hand, we (and they) understand that he's in a bad place and most of his actions scream depression; on the other, dying or not, he has no call to take advantage of the one person who has consistently genuinely sought his happiness. That's a bit hard to swallow, especially with what we know now about abusive relationships, but it also makes for a real statement about how much Kindaichi really does care.

It almost feels like the point of this episode – showing how no matter what Ishikawa does, Kindaichi will always be his friend. When he walks in on Ishikawa cutting himself, when he watches him almost drop a flowerpot on Kayo's head (a flower Kindaichi cares about no less), when he stops him from jumping to his death… everything Kindaichi does says that he cares, and he's not so naïve as to think that Ishikawa really used the money he borrowed to travel. Kindaichi knows him and likes him anyway, and like he saved the dying flower by watering it, he'll do what he can to keep Ishikawa going as long as he can. The pansy in the pot is almost definitely symbolic of Ishikawa for Kindaichi, and he'll just keep replanting him as much as he needs to, whether we agree with him or not.

Either way, it doesn't look as if Ishikawa is going to make it to the end of the series, or much beyond it. He is looking healthier in the preview for next week and like he's back on the (a) case, which may be a little more palatable in general than some of this week's content. But April of 1912 is coming – and two days before the Titanic sinks, the curtain will close on Ishikawa Takuboku. The real tragedy isn't his, though – it will belong to Kindaichi.

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Woodpecker Detective's Office is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.