Zankyou no Terror episode three is a lot more character based then any of the previous episodes. If I had to call it something in particular I’d say it’s a Shibazaki episode, though we get some really good insight into Nine and Lisa as well. It was a much needed episode after the first two episodes doing nothing but raising more and more questions.
We learn that Shibazaki used to be a accomplished and well respected member of the first division before being carted off to archives. As for why he was removed from the first division we learn later in the episode is that he had a different view then everyone else on a case, a high profile case, while they tried to brush it aside as a suicide. He kept investigating it and angered the higher ups, well, he had a family to support so he had no choice but to take the demotion he was offered if he didn’t want to get fired. It’s a generally common trope, the cop who couldn’t give up on a case so he got ‘fired/demoted/placed on watch by other cops’ idea I’ll be interested to see if they do anything to lampshade that trope.
Nine and Twelve discuss that perhaps the last riddle was a little too hard, though Nine seems to suspect that someone is onto what they are after. Comparatively to the previous two episodes, we see almost none of these two this episode. They do pop up from time to time but most of the episode is focused around Shibazaki and Lisa.
Shibazaki and another one of the cops discuss Nine’s fake identity when he was working for the plutonium plant for a bit and then it leads into some explanation on Shibazaki’s backstory. When he was a kid he grew up in Hiroshima, he’s a second-generation atomic bomb victim. I can really see why he’d get involved with this case now. He’s the kind of person who can’t accept people who would play around with weapons like that.
As for Lisa’s part in this episode, we see there is more bullying going on then just trying to throw her into the pool like we saw in episode 1. Her shoes had been discarded into the pool by the other girls, on top of her home troubles. In this episode we see her packing up to run away from home. As to where she plans to go? I think she’s trying to call Twelve and Nine, while they’ve made it painfully clear she’s an accomplice but she’s not one of them I feel as if she considers them her only friends in a messed up sort of way. There is no clear answer in this episode as to where she’s going to go, but my bet is that she will end up officially joining with Twelve and Nine. She’s the sort of lonely girl who hates the world around her who I believe would honestly have no real qualms about what they’re doing.
While the police are having a meeting about the first bombing at the Government tower, Sphinx puts out another youtube video. Once again with a riddle. “What’s the building next to the house of the god who solved the riddle?”
Because this show has a severe fascination with Oedipus obviously we start with him, the god who solved the riddle. Of course, it’s not as simple as listening just to the riddle but the follow up dialogue about “Walking yourself lame” I won’t spoil the entire process of solving the riddle but to make a long story short, Shibazaki solves the riddle and sends in the bomb squad to dismantle it. While over a video streaming sight, showing his face and issuing almost a challenge to Twelve and Nine. They both seem quiet pleased that someone has figured out their riddles and they also seem rather pleased to note the hazmat suits on the sight of the dismantling. What are they honestly after? What is their true purpose?
What kind of institution was that in Nine’s flashback? Abandoned children, being given names, nobody to love them. They were solving a milk puzzle, they’re trying to train super smart children. I can tell that much but what was it’s purpose, why was it burned down? This episode leaves me with less questions then the previous ones but still adds a fair amount more to the list of things I want to know. This was a really good character episode for Shibazaki and I hope next week focuses a little more on Lisa and what her next move is going to be.
~Midnight