Kabukicho Sherlock – Episode 3

Sherlock’s new case this week is neither related to Jack the Reaper nor is it Watson’s case (yet?). The episode start with Moriarty’s 16th birthday. He’s a total cutie! Soon enough, this guy named Pu crashes the party and asks to be hidden from the police. He’s the main suspect in the murder of a hotel’s owner. The owner turns out to be his uncle, Cosmos, who invited him over to drink and draft a will. After they got drunk, Pu wakes up and finds a dead body and the room engulfed in flames.

Mrs. Hudson decides Pu is super handsome and he can’t be convicted since he must be innocent, so she requests the help of the detectives in solving this case. They set out to prove Pu’s innocence and solve the case. Fuyuto has a bit of a personal stake in this case since he’s a big fan of Uchida B-zou, the face of the hotel ad campaign and one of the witnesses in the case.

First, Fuyuto and Sherlock are the two detectives to actually make it to the hotel. It’s more obvious by now that there’s incredible class divide between one side of the district and the other. They start investigating different places, too. Fuyuto goes to the crime scene right away and is able to meet his idol. It’s obvious soon enough, when his speech pattern changes, that he’s been quite influenced by B-zou. It’s very funny how they end up speaking very similarly and they use English words very liberally in their speech for a while. I must say when Fuyuto said ‘brother kyodai’ I lost it!

Sherlock, on the other hand, goes to Pu’s house to investigate for a motive. They meet Pu’s mom there and the woman is shocked by the whole situation. She says she can’t imagine Pu killing anyone with a knife since he can’t really stand blood. this is why he became a lawyer and not a doctor. Sherlock examines the house and finds a clue that will be the key for him to solve the whole case.

Fuyuto thinks he has solved the case and he calls everyone to present his solution. He accuses Pu of having a motive to kill his uncle and he does this by calling Pu’s mother and having her admit over the phone that they were in terrible debt just because Cosmos had brought Pu and Pu’s father gambling. He smugly waits for Sherlock to give up and admit defeat, but Sherlock has other plans.

In the end, I honestly thought it was B-zou, although I did find it suspicious that at some point in the data given, they said the charred body was believed to be the owner, but then it meant it could be someone else, and, it was! It turns out that the dead body is Pu’s father and his uncle Cosmos is alive and hiding inside the room trying to convict him. It’s a terrible thing to do for family! B-zou was even an accomplice in the whole thing, which disappoints and saddens Fuyuto. The other key to Sherlock’s success was being suspicious of the fact there was way too much evidence in the crime scene that pointed to Pu. Sherlock couldn’t believe someone intelligent could make those kind of mistakes covering up their tracks. I bet to differ with Sherlock, generally speaking, but in this case it was true.

The rakugo presentation wasn’t as involved or as much of the focus this time around, but it was interesting to see both how it’s presented to the viewer and how the in-show characters actally see it. I also felt quite intrigued by John’s narration at the end where he talks about the case he’d like Sherlock to solve. I suppose at some point his case will become pretty relevant in the bigger scheme if things and then Sherlock won’t have a reason to keep turning him down.

All in all this week’s episode felt a bit fast-paced, but it was still fun, interesting and enjoyable to watch. The quirkiness of the characters is what makes this show for me and Fuyuto really delivered this time around. I’m looking forward to the next case!