Sorry for the wait and thank you for your patience! I’ll catch up really quickly, hopefully.
Episode 5
It seems Kabukicho Sherlock decided to take a closer look to the side cast and I’m happy they started out with Lucy! I’m curious about this character because she definitely is different from what she seems to be. Her and Mary’s backstory is quite sad even if a bit cliche, but it shows an interesting beginning in Kabukicho.
I must admit the size of Lucy’s siscon is quite shocking to me, but it’s admirable that she’s always wanted to protect her younger sister. She’s a seasoned victim of Mary’s whims, but she still goes the distance to fulfill her sister’s desires. And what desires!
So, this time around Mary decides she’d like to go to school. She shows Lucy the flyer and tells her she needs 2 million yen to sign up. Not having that kind of money, Lucy is forced to borrow from the leader of a local gang and he gracefully accepts, but warns her she’ll have to work for him if she can’t pay.
As Lucy is going home, she runs into a summor wrestler who is the apprentice of a professional wrestler she’s a huge fan of. She was shown in an earlier scene bringing him something to eat. The man is upset because he has lost some money that was a contribution from the supporters of the dojo and they were going to use the money for repairs. It’s exactly 2 million dollars. Lucy is worried this will affect her idol, so she gives him the money she has on her and she goes back to the boss to borrow more.
Later Oniyama comes to visit her and thank her for the money and he vows he will pay her back. She’s just happy to help so she brushes aside the offer. Benmaru, the assistant, mentions something that piques Sherlock’s interest and that ends up being the key to solve the mystery of why the money was stolen from Benmaru.
Lucy is quite busy working part-time job to make it to 4 million yen in a week, but in the end she only makes it to 2 million. Sherlock uncovers the fact that Oniyama is the one who stole the money and Lucy is furious! She runs and confronts him and asks why. She is very disappointed and we finally find out that she admires him because when she and Mary were young, he helped them and defended them from some thugs. She has grown older with his words from that day etched on her heart: “Stay on the straight and narrow,” and to find out he took the money to fix his match was a betrayal.
In the end she doesn’t accept the money back and she just pays 2 million, which means she will have to work for the boss. Mary finally finds out about Lucy’s sacrifice and she rushes to find her sister, but she finds out Lucy is working at the bar as a male host, not a hostess! The yakuza boss sure is forgiving! Well, I’d rather think he knows his business and he knows Lucy won’t ever be girly enough.
It also turns out Mary didn’t really want to study and she just wanted the money to get a fancy dress she saw in a store! What a unconsiderate sister! Lucy is super cute as a host though, so I can’t feel too bad for her.
Episode 6
Another episode that explores a side-character’s backstory! This time around we learn a bit more about Kobayashi, another one of the detectives. I totally thought before during the idol episode that he looked like a gangster, but I was a bit surprised to learn it was true! I mean, he’s a detective now! That’s quite a career switch.
He and the kids run into a suspicious guy and he turns out to be one of Kobayashi’s old gang’s members who was recently released from jail. The guy is weird and menacing-looking. I must admit the rap bit is kind of awesome and it goes nicely with the atmosphere of the show.
Later on, we have a cute scene with the children Moriarty is often hanging out with and all of them share what their dreams for the future are. Most of them are quite ambitious, but the second-in-command, Yoshio, admits he’d like to be the leader who protects the city in the future. His teammates make fun of him, but this makes him want to test himself, I assume.
During this conversation at the bar it is revealed that Kobayashi used to be in the Kaneko gang and everyone is as surprised as I was! From what I’ve seen in fiction it’s quite difficult for gang life to let you go, but Kaneko’s leader seem quite the understading guy.
After the bar scene ends, the children witness Sugimoto extorting a candy store owner and when they go to their secret base, Yoshio decides to stay behind and pickpocket Sugimoto, which is obviously a terrible idea, but children are fearless!
Sugimoto goes find Kobayashi at the bar and they take his cellphone. This way they get in touch with the kids and come to their secret base. Sherlock, Watson and Moriarty find Kobayashi tied up and very upset. They quickly try to come up with a plan to reach the base so Sugimoto won’t hurt the children. Once again it’s cool to see Sherlock ‘change’ into his kabuki voice, it shows this dialectic exercise helps him tremendously when it comes to uncovering ploys, but also generally expressing his logic.
Sugimoto and his croony are terrorizing the kids and Sugimoto decides to tell Kobayashi’s story and why he was kicked out of the gang. He betrayed them and this is why they call him Tama. He allowed someone with a debt to escape because he really admired the work Wakazo did as a mangaka.
Eventually Kobayashi arrives to the kids’ secret base and beats up Sugimoto really badly. Yoshio also fesses up and admits he’s the one who pickpocketed Sugimoto. He’s about to get seriously hurt, but in a inspired moment Kobayashi is able to get up and save him.
We get a really touching scene of Kobayashi and Wakazo becoming a bit close through spending time together and Kobayashi reading his manga. In a different scene, the one memory that ends up inspiring Kobayashi to get up, we see a manga magazine where Wakazo is being published and his main character has been heavily inspired by Kobayashi! This made me tear up a little bit because I’m weak to this kind of emotional development…
The whole situation is solved when the gang’s leader arrives with Sherlock, Watson and Moriarty, and Sugimoto is forced to give up. He sort of goes berserk aftet realizing he’s not getting what he wants and he runs out the building like crazy… through the window. It’s a bit unclear if Sugimoto was killed by the fall or not, after he jumps from the window, but I think it’s safe to say he died. Who knows though, anime has this pesky habit of bringing people back from the dead.