Kabukicho Sherlock – Episode 4

This week we get another simple, yet interesting case. The episode starts with two men who seem to be musicians having a fistfight and nothing is made obvious, but it’s easy to suspect the fight ended tragically. We don’t know yet who they are though. The episode continues on a cool note when Moriarty joins in. He seems like a really cool character to me, so I was really into the fact he was going to be more involved in the story this time around. He drops by to visit Sherlock and Watson and ends up bringing them along to a public bath house where there will be a rakugo performancel. This really gets Sherlock going!

This episode breaks the formula presented in the previous ones as the case this time around isn’t a detective competition through Mrs. Hudson’s cafe. This time around the case sort of drops onto their laps as they are relaxing in the bath house. The episode is quite funny, particularly because it’s Watson’s first time in a public bath house and he doesn’t know many of the rules that have become second nature to regular goers. He drinks the milk before the bath and he is clueless to the fact he has to be naked. In the end he starts to get the hang of it, also because of Moriarty’s explanations.

Watson notices something weird though. There are some men at the bath house who are wearing strange masks! Sherlock and Moriarty seem completely nonplussed and Moriarty explains they are the members of a local rock band. Soon enough though, they find out the vocalist has disappeared and Moriarty volunteers Sherlock to figure the whole thing out. They try to think of places where Momotaro can be, as he showed to the bath house but then his mask was found discarded and he was not around. Moriarty insists on getting more information about the whole thing and the band members explain that they actually didn’t come in together since Momotaro was running late, but they saw him inside the bath house and his clothes are still in the locker, so he should be in, too.

Sherlock listens quietly to the stories of the three men. One wears a monkey head, one wears a dog’s head and the third one wears a bird’s head. Mr. Bird admits he and Momotaro had gotten in a fight earlier that day, so he was kind of waiting on him to apologize. Mr. Dog received a text that Momotaro would be late, so Mr. Monkey and him went inside and Mr. Bird waited outside. When Momotaro arrived, he didn’t say anything to Mr. Bird’s apology and they just went inside. Sherlock had examined Mr. Bird’s hand and they were bruised from punching something. Mr. Bird explains that they fight he had with Momotaro was because he kept making changes to the music so he could keep royalties. He hit Momotaro, but he didn’t know what happened after he left.

Mr. Dog says he had seen some spilled coffee and had cleaned everything. This confused Mr. Bird but gave Sherlock the last clue he needed to solve the case. He accused Mr. Dog of posing as Momotaro inside the bath house, as he’s the one who wasn’t around whenever Momotaro was around. Right then Mr. Dog confesses he’s killed Momotaro! It’s all good until here, but then Mr. Bird also says he killed Momotaro. Watson is super  confused by the whole thing and then Sherlock gets into his rakugo-mode! I truly love the music in this bit, by the way. The whole change in aesthetics to introduce that mode is amazing.

It turns out that Mr. Bird killed Momotaro accidentally during the fist fight, but Mr. Dog was the one who found the body. Unable to bear the idea of his friend having his musical talent go to waste because of this crime, he decides to admit guilt to it. Watson is completely touched by the whole thing and the three men cry before the police is called. Too bad for the band, but the case was solved.

Later on we finally find out how Moriarty and Sherlock met. They seem to have known each other for quite some time since Moriarty looked at least 6 years younger in the flashback. We find out that Sherlock used to be a rakugo apprentice and this is why he now has the habit of presenting his solutions this way. I’m really curious to find out why his master gave up on him. He really seems like a promising rakugo performer, so it must have been something serious!

I’ll look forward to what’s in store for us next week. So far this show has been pretty entertaining, even if the cases can be a bit simple and predictable.