I’m still very much of the opinion that Episode 10 should have been the finale of Housekishou Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei.  Not only would that have been the perfect note to end on, even if Shuka had wanted to include this subplot there’s really no reason they couldn’t have inserted it before the London arc.  But be that as it may that’s not the direction Iwasaki Tarou decided to go, and to a certain extent the anime was able to make a silk’s purse out of a sow’s ear.  Or at least a cotton purse.

The father subplot was pretty good on the whole, even if it did more or less come out of left field.  If we’d received any indication that Seigi had such a troubled family history I don’t remember it.  Given what we know now of course, it’s easy to see why he was so freaked out when his old man turned up.  Not only a deadbeat, but abusive too.  These kinds of storylines tend to be overdramatized in anime, but guys like him do exist – and he was certainly persistent.  It was a good reminder that while he sometimes think of people Seigi’s age as adults, emotionally speaking they’re really still children – especially where their parents are concerned.

Now, Seigi should have done one of two things when Shimeno showed up.  He could have told his step-father (whose existence I don’t recall ever being mentioned before) of course.  He could also have told Richard, who’s been nothing if not a mentor to him.  While this subplot could have appeared before the London incident the fact is, it didn’t – so Seigi has in fact just interfered unasked in Richard’s life in a rather dramatic way.  But Seigi is a bit of a boob, to be honest (that makes him charming – to a point), and he decides to deal with things on his own.  And about as badly as you can want.

Fortunately Richard is much smarter than Seigi, figures out something is wrong (it doesn’t take a genius), and acts on it.  I must admit the whole stabbing in the park bit faked me out for a few seconds, but once we saw that was a dream it was pretty clear where things were headed.  Heck, even Saul gets involved (it’s nice to see Seigi at least built a connection with him in Richard’s absence).  As much of a dolt as Seigi can be, it’s rather tragic to hear him say if he could be reborn it would be as “anyone but myself”.  I could definitely see where having the blood of the man who abused your mother could make a young man question his own worth.

If we were hoping for something more than a re-affirmation of Richard and Seigi’s friendship, we didn’t get it.  Re-affirmation we certainly did (though I would say less eloquently than in Episode 10), and Richard even told Seigi he loved him.  That was a better conclusion than poor Shouko got – the last we saw of her was Seigi storming away from her without giving her any reason why.  But whatever there is between Richard and Seigi remains very much in the realm of conjecture, which is squarely where I expected things to land when all was said and done.

That pretty much sums up the whole Housekishou experience for me – sasuga.  The series didn’t surprise me too often, but it filled its more or less pre-determined slot in the schedule admirably.  It’s always nice to get a character-driven, low-key series that doesn’t heavily trade in anime tropes, and Housekishou – like Mayonaka, Kawaramachi Sanjou no Holmes et al – certainly was that.  I suspect (and certainly hope) that anime will continue to produce a few of these shows every year, as commercial expectations are so low for them that they’re an afterthought under the production committee system – not worth the trouble to stamp out.  In today’s anime climate, I’ll take what I can get.