How far will the Puppeteer’s manipulations go?

What They Say:
Kindaichi reveals the identity of the second murdering Sparrow! But how did the Puppeteer from Hell convince two law-abiding people to commit serial murder? And what fate lies in store for all three criminals?

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Kindaichi having revealed that the Puppeteer from Hell has managed to basically manipulate everyone into the murders that have happened, he’s now starting to reveal more of what’s going on with how it was all happening. The show has to start examining the clues with everyone in tow, which helps since he’s got Akechi there to take it all in an ask some of the right questions as well, but also to understand that there are some kinds of leaps of faith you have to take with Kindaichi. While he does get to the end result across the story here, it’s the kind of drawn out piece that you have to accept in its explanation as we see the small movements that build to the larger piece, such as how one of the students writing 117 was actually a line short from writing Hama in Japanese, which fingers Akkiko as the second Sparrow.

In a lot of ways, it’s all reminiscent of some of the older 70′s and 80′s Hollywood TV murder mystery shows as we see Kindaichi leading everyone around to the various places and putting all the clues together to get everyone to understand, also while getting a few things answered himself, such as the lighting on one of the mansions signs to look like the other in order to really take the trick to a whole other level. The lighting trick is certainly interesting and clever, but it’s one of those elements that makes it feel too clever for itself and in some ways too obvious to being caught at some other time. This puts the guilt in some specific places, but it also starts to lead to a greater look at the pain some of those here have suffered, giving us a deeper look at Akkiko’s recent past and her hardships that have pushed her into this position.

With Aino, who meant so much to her, having come to Gokumon to get help and fix things in his own life, seeing him being bullied and terrorized certainly pushed her to a bad place, especially since they really badmouth him to her in a way that she can’t help but to believe and that in turn has her participating in what ends up doing him in. That kind of guilt has driven her to a dark place that has lead to all that’s happened, which certainly makes sense but again just feels so overly complicated. Of course it goes even further as the larger culprit is revealed as well, which leads to a pretty tense moment as the mask is revealed, but as the gloves come off we once again see how the Puppeteer from Hell is able to continually escape. It’s a frantic last couple of minutes with what goes on and it really comes across different from the other arcs in the season as there’s a darker and more ominous feeling to a lot of this.

In Summary:
While I do enjoy the final reveal episodes of an arc because they go through so many details and pull things together in ways that most people would never see, there’s also a kind of surreal disbelief over aspects of it that’s hard to reconcile as well. This episode goes bigger because it’s dealing with the Puppeteer and what he’s up to and that adds a kind of dramatic flair to it that’s rather fun to watch, even if it does lead to some unsettling and unfortunate material. But it balances it with a kind of reveal for the instructor that’s really nicely done as it pulls together things that weren’t clear and could easily be disbelieved based on what we knew of him. For an arc involving Kindaichi trying to improve his grades, it ends in a whole lot of death.

Grade: B

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.