This week’s Teramachi Sanjou no mode check:

Travelogue? ✔️

Romance? ✔️

Mystery? ✔️

Appraisals? X

It’s kind of a fun guessing game, figuring out which of its many personalities Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes is going to indulge in any given episode – sort of like trying to guess which way Chi is going to look at the end of the preview with Kuro.  It’s a show with a lot of weaponry to choose from, and it’s proving that week upon week.

Kitayama is an old upper crusty part of Kyoto, the historical center of the Kyoto literary community.  It is, as Holmes said in literal travelogue fashion, home of a well-known botanical garden.  Nowadays, though, it’s become best-known as a mecca of dessert culture – trendy sweets cafes, bakeries and such places are chock-a-block all over the neighborhood.  I didn’t happen to see an ikemen cafe of the sort Kiyotaka’s friend (have we met him already?) had opened when I visited Kitayama, but if one was to open such a cafe in Kyoto Kitayama is probably the best place to do so.

While the subjects of the cafe and Kiyotaka and Rikyu working there and Izumi and her new fiancee (that was fast) were the drivers of the episode, ultimately the matter of Holmes and Aoi is becoming more and more central to the narrative.  It’s getting harder and harder to explain away Holmes’ behafior as anything but romantic interest.  Especially when he says openly that he’s a fool when it comes to matters of romance, because where his feelings are concerned he loses the ability to be objective.  I think an objective analysis by someone of Kiyotaka’s intellect would tell him that a romantic relationship with Aoi is a bad idea for many reasons, but the heart wants what it wants.

On the other hand, Holmes does treat women with no little grandiose courtesy (even his ex) and that casts at least a little doubt on stuff like his offering to help Aoi study.  He and Rikyu prove to be every bit the draw at the cafe the owner hopes (they each fill a classic niche for such places, I suppose), but Izumi’s arrival soon sidetracks the story in her direction.  Setting aside the general doubts I have about Izumi after her last encounter with Holmes, there’s no question that her new fiancee (arranged marriage) is lying to her.  It’s rather an ugly situation actually, with his ex-girlfriend threatening him and him paying her off to keep her quiet, and then lying to Izumi about the whole thing.  But Kiyotaka clearly feels that Izumi should look past it in this case, and she seems to be headed in that direction.

I’m still trying to decide if Holmes dating Aoi would be creepy – he’s about 22 and she 17 I guess, so it’s right on the edge.  It was interesting to hear Aoi close the episode by saying she was “drawing a line”, with all that implies.  We still don’t know exactly where Kiyotaka is on all this, thanks to yet another untimely interruption (this time by Rikyu) but again, he seems to be falling for the idea of falling for Aoi at the very least.  And it’s Christmas, which in Japan is after all the biggest romance holiday of the year.  His gift (an annual pass to the botanic garden) could be seen as innocuous, but given his own avowed love for the place, maybe just as easily seen as significant.  It’s still a matter of speculation, but it may not be for much longer.