Author’s note: If you didn’t believe I was out of it, I never meant to publish this without images (or proofreading). Anyway, y’ll got a sneak preview…
First, apologies for the lateness of this post (and probably the next few). In addition to traveling I’m not at my best physically – pushed myself too hard yesterday hiking in the heat and probably gave myself a bit of sunstroke. That leaves me with a lot of catching up to do (I was in no shape to watch anything, never mind write about it) and I’m still a bit logy, but I’ll take it at a measured pace and get there eventually.
The journey starts with Undead Girl Murder Farce, which certainly employed the “go big or go home” strategy with this arc. First of all, Miki Shichirou as Sherlock Holmes pretty much seals the deal on its own – talk about fanservice. We get the requisite Holmes satellites like Watson (Aikawa Masaki), Moriarty (Yokojima Wataru), and Lestrade (Kusnoki Taiten). We get the tangentially related Arsene Lupin (Miyano Mamoru) – Maurice Leblanc did an unauthorized Holmes crossover – but he’s recruited the Phantom of the Opera (Shimono Hiro) to assist in his next big job. And could that illusionist magician be a young Harry Houdini?
But that’s just the jumping off point. In Moriarty’s retinue is Frankenstein’s monster (Yamamoto Itaru), and a woman whose identity I can’t guess at yet. Then we dive into the world of Jules Verne, as Lupin’s plan is to steal the “Penultimate Night” 80-carat diamond from the mansion of Phileas Fogg (Tezuka Hideaki), ably assisted as always by Passepartout (Ugaki Hidenari). There are also two members of the mysterious “Rhodes Insurance Company” (an original creation AFAIK), a. silver safe, and an inscription on the Diamond suggesting it’s the work of a race of dwarves wiped out by werewolves, as their revenge from beyond the grave. Fogg has hired Holmes and the Cage User to try and foil the master thief, but all may not be as straightforward here as it seems…
I’m exhausted just typing that, and it’s not because of the sunstroke. That may be the most seiyuu credits I’ve ever done in an episodic anime post, and there are some pretty big names here too. The banter between Holmes and Aya is rather fun of course – Holmes doesn’t seem too alarmed to see a talking head, but he’s skeptical of how useful she can be. Aya in fact already has an idea on how to foil Lupin – the hint is “Ishikawa Goemon”, the famous Japanese ninja who was a sort of Japanese Robin Hood eventually boiled alive with his entire family for trying to assassinate Hideyoshi. That’s also the name of a character in Lupin III (the 13th-generation descendant), so the literary snake is really swallowing its tail here.
Just watching this kitchen sink of Victorian fictional characters dance the tango with the cage trio would be entertainment enough (especially with Miki as Holmes). But I get the sense there’s a lot more to this case than meets the eye. At the very least Moriarty is certain to get involved – having his thunder stolen by Lupin obviously pisses him off – but how? Does he try to steal Penultimate Night from Fogg himself, or help his “old friends” capture Lupin? And when he crosses paths with Aya and Tsugaru, that should certainly get very interesting indeed.
leongsh
August 4, 2023 at 11:15 pmThe kitchen sink must be somewhere amongst the many fictional characters of the Victorian era thrown in there…
sweejen
August 4, 2023 at 11:17 pmSit back and take care of yourself! I live in the desert and heat-related illness is serious indeed.
Nicc
August 5, 2023 at 2:51 pmFirst, I hope that you’ll get better soon. Sunstroke is no joke and the month of July has been historically hot. Our part of the world has somehow been spared from the oppressive heat, but our summers are considerably hotter compared to 30 years ago. Try to stay cool and take plenty of fluids.
Yep, this was a cracking episode. You know it’s a good one when it felt it was like 3 minutes long and then I wonder where the rest of the episode is. It looks like everybody has made their way to London now. As it stands, there are three distinct groups there will be butting heads soon. We’ve got Lupin, who has recruited the Phantom of the Opera for a jewelry heist. Then, there’s Moriarty’s group, who also has his own designs for the jewel that Lupin wants to steal. Then, we’ve got the detectives which includes Holmes and Watson along with our main group.
And, then we throw in Phileas Fogg who hired those detectives as Lupin has declared his intent to steal a huge diamond (80 days, 80 carats, how fitting) that he owns. I thought it was interesting that it was mentioned it was a synthetic diamond. I wonder if that may be worth noting. The same can be said with how Aya and her group meet up with Holmes and Watson. They’re in a store for canes, apparently trying to find any records of Moriarty. They abscond with the papers, but are caught by Holmes. It looks like Holmes is about to break out some baritsu to stop them, but the police show up first and then all of them get comfortable in a paddy wagon. The papers they took from the store are probably unrelated to the their current case, but maybe not?
Once the police figure out their identities, said paddy wagon takes a detour to Fogg’s mansion. That’s quite the entrance. From there, more characters show up, including some agents from an insurance company. They’re apparently formidable and Lupin is familiar with them. Apparently, one of them has pursued him too, someone Asian. I wonder if it’s an older gentleman that Lupin may call as “tottsan”… Then, Fogg gives the detective a tour of his security measures and along with the history of the diamond and the case it’s in. It’s rather elaborate set-up which seems to cover all of the bases. Indeed, Aya herself brings up how she may not be that helpful with this case as she specializes with monsters instead of humans, but it sounds like she still has a plan. Yep, Goemon is name-dropped and I have no idea what’s going to happen when all of the groups start crossing paths with each other.
Ronbb
August 5, 2023 at 4:16 pmI was thinking about you…wishing you a speedy recovery!
Yes, I was pretty excited to the voice Miki-san…he really can breathe life to any character that you can imagine.
Guardian Enzo
August 5, 2023 at 4:25 pmThank you. He’s the best of the best or darn close, and Holmes is a role he was born to voice.
Raikou
August 5, 2023 at 5:28 pmNever expected Sherlock Holmes to be voiced by Miki Shinichirou.
And that makes him the best incarnation of Sherlock Holmes in anime! Now let’s see what’s his role in the series..
The plot seems to be going full throttle.
Yukie
August 6, 2023 at 12:14 amGreat casting overall, except maybe casting Shimono Hiro as a tenor xD
Guardian Enzo
August 6, 2023 at 9:34 amYeah, agree there. His sweet spot is pretty narrow for me (which is a nice way of saying I dislike his work about 80% of the time), and that’s not the direction I’d have chosen.