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setraMaoh 5.
The reviews are getting rather overwhelming. This one focuses mostly on Naoto, emphasizing how much he's lost and his regret and anger at himself over the murders. It gives a much more mixed picture of Naruse, covering everything from moments of his cold-hearted manipulation to the fact that he's lost his whole family and even faked his own death. It makes a point to bring up the reporter a couple of times, both his threats to Naoto and his suspicion of Naruse... even though that was later explained to be less threatening than it sounded.
Leading us right back to where we were last episode. Naoto and Shiori having just found an envelope addressed to Naoto in a book at the library and Naruse visiting his 'sister'.
Naruse even apologizes for not visiting lately, and when she catches his hand she expresses concern that he's lost weight... he shrugs it off, asking instead about her.
Naoto's card is the Ace of Swords and his message 'LIVE = EVIL' seems pretty clear. His continuing to live after having taken the life of another is unacceptable. Shiori says that the card means 'A great power based in love or hate. It also suggests an unavoidable change that it coming.' (「愛や憎しみに於ける大きな力を意味します。それから、避けられない変化が起こることを暗示しています。」)
There's an awkward moment when Naruse's Nee-san asks him about a day in middle school when he swallowed a watermelon seed. Naruse looks lost for a second but picks up the conversation, saying that because of her teasing he was worried that the watermelon would grow in his stomach.
We get a flashback to young Naruse Ryo and Manaka Tomo (now Naruse), Ryo shares the story about the watermelon and they talk about Ryo's sister, who lost her sight quite a long time ago apparently.
Back at the hospital his sister jokes that he's easy to fool because he's such a good person. Naruse replies - a bit ironically - that it's just because she's good at fooling people.
Shiori scans the new card, getting a clear picture of Yamano picking the card up and then of some falling metal beams. She tells Naoto first about the poles and then hesitates before explaining that she saw Yamano too. Naoto of course, takes this as confirmation of his suspicions about Yamano.
Naruse has a meaningful moment with a photo of himself and Ryo, telling it that Nee-san was doing well. Reporter man takes photos of him doing this, but my guess is that he's probably too far away to have heard anything.
Meanwhile, Naoto and his partner stake out Yamano's office, following him when he leaves. Reporter stalks Naruse and they each observe oposite sides of a conversation that we aren't allowed to hear. Naoto sees Yamano approach a locker, and remembering what Shiori said he pounces on Yamano and grabs the large red envelope that he's removing from the locker. It looks to just be a hand-written manuscript of some kind and Yamano snatches it back, saying that he'll inform the police if Naoto does something like this again.
Naoto doesn't let it go, grabbing the other man and saying that this can't possibly a cooincidence. He accuses Yamano of playing with him and orders him to just kill him himself if he wants it so badly and not involve other people. Yamano says he's not a murderer like Naoto. Naoto, to his credit, looks stricken.
Meanwhile, the reporter continues to tail Naruse, though the only conversation we overhear is about investigating the precidents for some other case. Naruse turns up an alley and manages to lose reporter man. (Is it bad that I cheered and was proud when Naruse got away from him? I mean... knowing when you're being followed is such an important skill! Also, his look of 'well, /this/ is annoying' was brilliant.)
Yamano sits apparently alone in a park, and tells the darkness that Naoto is moving /exactly/ as predicted. Amusingly so, in fact.
Naruse (the darkness) replies that there's still much more to do, that they've only just begun to approach the gates of hell. (The literal prasing is more like 'We've barely scented the gates of hell', which is just poetic enough to make me squiggly.)
Yamano seems excited and asks what he should do next, but Naruse instructs him meerly to wait for his next command. Yamano wants to know more, saying that he's a friend, isn't he? Naruse's response is somewhat cryptic: Sometimes not knowing is a blessing. (Or 'sometimes you can be saved by not knowing.') And asks him "Do you still want to know?" Yamano retracts his request and Naruse departs.
In the park, we see Serizawa's father (Serizawa Eisaku) apparently having a heart irregularity. The reporter approaches him, saying that very recently he heard that the boy involved in 'that incident' was Seizawa-sensei's son. When Serizawa asks what his goal is, he says he just wanted to see that Sensei was healthy and well. (Translatey-note that despite him referring to Eisaku as Seizawa-sensei, it's meerly an honorific in this case and doesn't imply that they ever had any sort of teacher-student relationship.) His parting shot is that Eisaku must have a lot of anxiety about his son just now.
Serizawa Sr. calls his assistant (megane-who-isn't-Yamano) to have him check in on Naoto. Also tells him to contact someone else, but won't share details.
Drama ensues with The Mistress and Souda, etc.
Shiori calls Naruse and asks him to come to her right away.
Which he does right after the opening.
Sora apparently came all by herself to the coffee shop, she was apparently beat up by the kids in her neighborhood because they say her mother is a murderer. They try to tell her that her mother isn't a murderer, but Sora just wants to know who the murderer is and begs them to catch whoever it is.
Shiori and Naruse talk about the picture book that he gave to Sora.
Whoever called the anagram thing? Nicely done!
Shiori tries to read impressions on the book, but gets overwhelmed, whether by the number of images on a public library book or something else, it's not clear.
Though clearly hurt by her collapse and his memories of how much she wants this to stop, he says 'It's too late to stop now.'
He answers her phone when Naoto calls, but the conversation is clearly less than productive.
I'm too busy squeeling to summarize the 'take care' 'good night' conversation
Glasses meets the scary person. And Serizawa Sr. asks the man to get rid of the reporter.
Turns out Shiori did get an impression from the book. Of seeing herself through a gap in the library shelf. She admits to having been the first person on the scene of Hideo's murder and seeing the impressions left on the basketball nearby to say that one boy stabbed another boy wearing the same uniform.
...wow. Just wow. How much more convoluted can this plot get?
Serizawa Sr. demands that Naoto quit the police. Naoto refuses.
Naruse and Naoto talk. Naoto says that he wants to ask the criminal something when he finds him. He believes that people are originally good and wants to ask if (or maybe applogize for) him being the one to make whoever it is into a villain.
The rest of the episode runs vaguely downhill and my brain petered out about twenty minutes ago. I think I'll have to re-watch after some more sleep.
I was explaining this to Jess and realized that at some point I decided that Naoto is in the right here. I love Naruse. I want him to win. but I don't think he needs to be doing what he's doing to be happy, and I think it's a little of a cop out to say that he can't stop now. They both deserve peace, but I think there's no way for this to end peacefully between them.
The reviews are getting rather overwhelming. This one focuses mostly on Naoto, emphasizing how much he's lost and his regret and anger at himself over the murders. It gives a much more mixed picture of Naruse, covering everything from moments of his cold-hearted manipulation to the fact that he's lost his whole family and even faked his own death. It makes a point to bring up the reporter a couple of times, both his threats to Naoto and his suspicion of Naruse... even though that was later explained to be less threatening than it sounded.
Leading us right back to where we were last episode. Naoto and Shiori having just found an envelope addressed to Naoto in a book at the library and Naruse visiting his 'sister'.
Naruse even apologizes for not visiting lately, and when she catches his hand she expresses concern that he's lost weight... he shrugs it off, asking instead about her.
Naoto's card is the Ace of Swords and his message 'LIVE = EVIL' seems pretty clear. His continuing to live after having taken the life of another is unacceptable. Shiori says that the card means 'A great power based in love or hate. It also suggests an unavoidable change that it coming.' (「愛や憎しみに於ける大きな力を意味します。それから、避けられない変化が起こることを暗示しています。」)
There's an awkward moment when Naruse's Nee-san asks him about a day in middle school when he swallowed a watermelon seed. Naruse looks lost for a second but picks up the conversation, saying that because of her teasing he was worried that the watermelon would grow in his stomach.
We get a flashback to young Naruse Ryo and Manaka Tomo (now Naruse), Ryo shares the story about the watermelon and they talk about Ryo's sister, who lost her sight quite a long time ago apparently.
Back at the hospital his sister jokes that he's easy to fool because he's such a good person. Naruse replies - a bit ironically - that it's just because she's good at fooling people.
Shiori scans the new card, getting a clear picture of Yamano picking the card up and then of some falling metal beams. She tells Naoto first about the poles and then hesitates before explaining that she saw Yamano too. Naoto of course, takes this as confirmation of his suspicions about Yamano.
Naruse has a meaningful moment with a photo of himself and Ryo, telling it that Nee-san was doing well. Reporter man takes photos of him doing this, but my guess is that he's probably too far away to have heard anything.
Meanwhile, Naoto and his partner stake out Yamano's office, following him when he leaves. Reporter stalks Naruse and they each observe oposite sides of a conversation that we aren't allowed to hear. Naoto sees Yamano approach a locker, and remembering what Shiori said he pounces on Yamano and grabs the large red envelope that he's removing from the locker. It looks to just be a hand-written manuscript of some kind and Yamano snatches it back, saying that he'll inform the police if Naoto does something like this again.
Naoto doesn't let it go, grabbing the other man and saying that this can't possibly a cooincidence. He accuses Yamano of playing with him and orders him to just kill him himself if he wants it so badly and not involve other people. Yamano says he's not a murderer like Naoto. Naoto, to his credit, looks stricken.
Meanwhile, the reporter continues to tail Naruse, though the only conversation we overhear is about investigating the precidents for some other case. Naruse turns up an alley and manages to lose reporter man. (Is it bad that I cheered and was proud when Naruse got away from him? I mean... knowing when you're being followed is such an important skill! Also, his look of 'well, /this/ is annoying' was brilliant.)
Yamano sits apparently alone in a park, and tells the darkness that Naoto is moving /exactly/ as predicted. Amusingly so, in fact.
Naruse (the darkness) replies that there's still much more to do, that they've only just begun to approach the gates of hell. (The literal prasing is more like 'We've barely scented the gates of hell', which is just poetic enough to make me squiggly.)
Yamano seems excited and asks what he should do next, but Naruse instructs him meerly to wait for his next command. Yamano wants to know more, saying that he's a friend, isn't he? Naruse's response is somewhat cryptic: Sometimes not knowing is a blessing. (Or 'sometimes you can be saved by not knowing.') And asks him "Do you still want to know?" Yamano retracts his request and Naruse departs.
In the park, we see Serizawa's father (Serizawa Eisaku) apparently having a heart irregularity. The reporter approaches him, saying that very recently he heard that the boy involved in 'that incident' was Seizawa-sensei's son. When Serizawa asks what his goal is, he says he just wanted to see that Sensei was healthy and well. (Translatey-note that despite him referring to Eisaku as Seizawa-sensei, it's meerly an honorific in this case and doesn't imply that they ever had any sort of teacher-student relationship.) His parting shot is that Eisaku must have a lot of anxiety about his son just now.
Serizawa Sr. calls his assistant (megane-who-isn't-Yamano) to have him check in on Naoto. Also tells him to contact someone else, but won't share details.
Drama ensues with The Mistress and Souda, etc.
Shiori calls Naruse and asks him to come to her right away.
Which he does right after the opening.
Sora apparently came all by herself to the coffee shop, she was apparently beat up by the kids in her neighborhood because they say her mother is a murderer. They try to tell her that her mother isn't a murderer, but Sora just wants to know who the murderer is and begs them to catch whoever it is.
Shiori and Naruse talk about the picture book that he gave to Sora.
Whoever called the anagram thing? Nicely done!
Shiori tries to read impressions on the book, but gets overwhelmed, whether by the number of images on a public library book or something else, it's not clear.
Though clearly hurt by her collapse and his memories of how much she wants this to stop, he says 'It's too late to stop now.'
He answers her phone when Naoto calls, but the conversation is clearly less than productive.
I'm too busy squeeling to summarize the 'take care' 'good night' conversation
Glasses meets the scary person. And Serizawa Sr. asks the man to get rid of the reporter.
Turns out Shiori did get an impression from the book. Of seeing herself through a gap in the library shelf. She admits to having been the first person on the scene of Hideo's murder and seeing the impressions left on the basketball nearby to say that one boy stabbed another boy wearing the same uniform.
...wow. Just wow. How much more convoluted can this plot get?
Serizawa Sr. demands that Naoto quit the police. Naoto refuses.
Naruse and Naoto talk. Naoto says that he wants to ask the criminal something when he finds him. He believes that people are originally good and wants to ask if (or maybe applogize for) him being the one to make whoever it is into a villain.
The rest of the episode runs vaguely downhill and my brain petered out about twenty minutes ago. I think I'll have to re-watch after some more sleep.
I was explaining this to Jess and realized that at some point I decided that Naoto is in the right here. I love Naruse. I want him to win. but I don't think he needs to be doing what he's doing to be happy, and I think it's a little of a cop out to say that he can't stop now. They both deserve peace, but I think there's no way for this to end peacefully between them.
