This week the ‘humorous’ shot up like crazy in Kabukicho Sherlock. The show displayed quite a bit of humor on the premiere last week, but this time around, the situation seemed even crazier to me, maybe because no one died, maybe because it was centered around flowers and idols or maybe because we meett another couple of detectives that were shown before, but not introduced. Either way, this isn’t a complaint! It was a pretty fun episode and a couple of the situations were pretty entertaining.
The case this time around comes from a florist who seems to have been scammed. She was convinced by her shop’s assistant to enter an idol audition and after getting the part, she spends time away from the shop daily to practice singing and dancing. Eventually she finds out that the event she was preparing for is not taking place. It turns out that one of the detectives is infatuated with this woman and he vows to help her. One of the detectives drops out early because the case seems too cheap for him. He regrets it later on, though.
At the beginning of the episode we are shown a news show where the mention some gold being at large. In the best spirit of traditional mystery, this is related to the case, of course. This time around we meet Mary and her brother, who turns out to actually be a sister. I suspected this because of the VA, but I was still on the fence for a while. Mary is cute and Watson seems weak to this characteristic, so she’s quick to take advantage of this in the name of the investigation.
Sherlock has a pretty cool disguise this episode and his demeanor when visiting the flower shop makes him very much the Sherlock we know and love. He’s pretty rude, but he gets information. It turns out that the helpful assistant who wants to help the florist become an idol is actually half of a couple of thieves and the location of the shop back to back with a pawn shop helps her steal the gold. So much for a well-intended assistant. Anyway, Watson’s naive nature ends up becoming a liability in the case and Sherlock throws him out of his room and his life. Watson ends up depressed and almost becoming prey to the criminal kids again. Those kids are pretty scary.
The sisters are sent a quick distraction while Sherlock catches the actual criminals and once again we are delivered the process of how he found out the truth in a fun and colorful rakugo session. I must say this really is a great way to present the detective’s reasoning, since it sort of fits the original series, I’m impressed the creators came up with that and I enjoy this part of the episode a lot.
In the end Watson comes back just as Sherlock is in a pinch and he ends up saving Sherlock’s life. Maybe now Sherlock will agree to take up his case? I frankly doubt it’ll happen soon, but who knows, I could be wrong. Either way, it was a fun episode and I’m looking forward to what’s in store next!
This episode is a play on an original Sherlock Holmes story, The Red-Headed League.
In the original, a male pawnbroker is told his hair is the exact perfect shade of red to join the Red Headed League. When he joins he gets paid a lot of money to do nothing but hand copy an encyclopedia all day, until one day he finds a note on the door saying the league is dissolved.
Sherlock figures out that the man’s assistant and the supposed league leader were trying to keep him out of the pawn shop he runs in order to tunnel between the shop and the next door’s bank vaults so they can steal the gold stored there.