I actually completely forgot about this anime this week, which really goes to show how uninterested I am. Starting from the next episode, I'll only do batch posts when an arc is over. There's just nothing except questions otherwise.
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| That bear is especially well-loved. |
This episode continued the arc of Meo and her father, finishing it off. It started abruptly, had a lot of emotional talks in between and important rituals, and then finished abruptly. I still don't really understand what the point was. Moreover, information was thrown out without some kind of understanding of where it came from. I guess I'm supposed to assume that Alice was working hard the entire time and came up with everything. However, without seeing that happen, the unravelling of the "mystery" was pretty shallow.
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| That is kind of weird, yeah. |
The episode began with some random thugs coming to the Hanamaru to question Min. Apparently, Meo had made a call from the house telephone to a certain Mikawa, who had tracked the phone number down to an address. (How did she even have Mikawa's phone number, anyway?) Min deftly avoided a confrontation and the goons left, tailed by Hiro and Tetsu, while Narumi had a talk with her. It turned out that Min was actually a graduate of a confectionery school and had wanted to open an ice cream parlour, when her father ran away and left the ramen store to her. Despite initially wanting to close it, she had a lot of memories and attachment to the place, and so she kept it open. (Also, a part of her was hoping that her father would come back one day. Apparently, the great burden he had placed on her only left her caring for him more. Of course.)
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| Meo's just always being led around. |
It was the next morning that Narumi noticed that Meo was gone. In all actuality, the scene of her running away shown at the end of the previous episode actually took place at this time, since she had apparently only been gone for 30min when Narumi found out and Alice viewed the surveillance tapes. After his suggestion, Alice tracked her down (by hacking into the phone networks?), and Narumi ran off to find her...on his own. Seriously, as if it wasn't stupid enough that Meo would foolishly called Mikawa to make arrangements to meet her father, Narumi went off to "save her" despite knowing that there were lots of yakuza involved.
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| Gasp! Surprise! |
Luckily, Yondaime and his group showed up to help out just when things were getting bad (as in, Narumi was getting pretty beat-up), and rescued him. He apparently blacked out, waking up at the gang's home with Meo crying.
For some reason, he felt that he was weak and couldn't protect Meo (whatever gave him that impression?), and so he asked for Yondaime's help. What does that even mean? If he wanted Yondaime's help to protect Meo (seriously, I hope she's not a recurring character), then why did he need to ask for it specifically? Alice is there, who has much stronger ties to Yondaime, and who is actually the person that Meo came to. It was confusing, but Narumi selfishly asked for a pact of brotherhood. Strangely enough, he got it.
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| That's how newlyweds drink too, isn't it? |
I won't say much about the ceremony itself; although I didn't find it to have a "wow" factor, I'm happy enough if it pleased the participants (and the other yakuza members). The history of the Hirasaka Group was revealed: Hirasaka was a man who helped Yondaime round up the good-for-nothing thugs in the area, and they came under the umbrella of the yakuza group. I got the feeling that the group is less about being yakuza and more about keeping the neighbourhood's NEETs out of serious trouble. I question where Alice fits in, because she clearly was "needed" for the ceremony to take place, and I question why Yondaime is actually the "fourth" when he clearly seems like the original leader. Was he fourth in line or something? So confused...
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| There was no build-up. Just straight asking. |
So, the information turned out that Mikawa was the yakuza group's frontman, operating a "legit" company called Hello Corporation. Meo's father was in charge of laundering money, and Mikawa embezzled 300 million. Of that, he had already gotten his hands on 100 million, putting it into his own business, and Kusakabe (Meo's father) got away with 200 million. Mikawa had intended to frame the loss of the entire amount of Kusakabe, but the man tried to get away. After capturing him, it turned out that the money wasn't with him, and that's why they were trying to find Meo. Even by the end of the episode, I had no idea what the point of the cell phone was; she never made a single call with it, nor did her father even try to reach her.
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| Tip: paper not haphazardly thrown together fits better. |
The confusion continued. Narumi's brilliant idea was a little confusing. Basically, they would split the 200 million into smaller portions and deposit it into various accounts all belonging to Kusakabe. They then went to Mikawa and lied that, come Monday, all the money would be transferred to the accounts belonging to the yakuza group, thus leaving Mikawa empty-handed and probably caught. In order to stop the transfer, they would need to take Kusakabe to the bank, which is where they would be ambushed. It was a con because the money
can't be transferred without Kusakabe's consent, and even Alice doesn't have the ability to hack into a bank's network. What was confusing was how they deposited the money in the first place. Wouldn't they need a passbook or a card to use an ATM? Why was Hiro giving envelopes (containing money) to various girls? Were they going to deposit the money? Into whose account?
What the hell was going on?
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| I've always wondered how fighters in mass battles don't hit each other. |
The plan worked and the Hirasaka Group, as well as the NEETs under Alice's care, ambushed Mikawa outside of the bank. A fight ensued, although much of it was blocked and off-screen. The focus was Narumi's internal build-up process, wherein he got the courage to join in. Kusakabe, lifeless and sadface, was being returned to the van when Meo showed up, causing her father to find the strength to fight his captors and be reunited with his daughter. The episode ended on a "high note", with Narumi finding Meo and Ayaka subjecting Alice to lots of girl talk. (That makes me think that Meo will be re-occurring, dammit.)
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| To be fair, you kind of willingly went over. |
This episode wasn't really that fun, and I was just waiting for it to be over. I think too much happened with not enough explanations provided. I also feel as though the story is being told with the assumption that I care for the characters, which is wrong. Alice doesn't get enough screen-time and Narumi doesn't feel strong enough to be able to carry the series. I'm a little disappointed with this anime at this point, to be honest.
~Aaro
