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“The Entrusted Bones, Part 2”Tales of the Past: As a preface, I’m writing my impressions under the assumption that this ‘Entrusted Bones’ story has been rounded off with this episode, though there are hints that more is to be explored next week. However, that could very well lead into another mystery that separates itself from this one. With that in mind, I’ll start off positively, with the flashback sequences that we were given this episode. Perhaps it’s because I like period stories set in Japan, but jumping back a good fifty-or-so years was somewhat of a treat. Leading on from Sasaki-sensei’s boxed-up belongings from last episode, we get to meet his sister, Haruma Sayuki, and get some insight into the history between them and their close friend, Natsuko, who also acted as her caretaker. The scenes between them are short, but sweet. We get a nice sense of the atmosphere around them, despite the unfortunate circumstances that led to them being together. Some shots were especially pretty, and almost pencil-like – the sakura leaves and the trio looking over the porch were particularly lovely moments. All things considered, I’d say the flashback sequences helped build a nice sense of camaraderie between these characters; even if we’ve never heard of them before now, it still feels like we knows quite a bit about them after this episode. The twist that Natsuko’s premature child was actually Sayuki’s perhaps wasn’t the shocking ‘WOW moment‘ that it intended to be, but it still ended up a sensible twist that allowed even more insight into the wheelchair-bound Sayuki. Even if Sakurako’s assumptions were proved bang on the mark yet again, I can’t nitpick about that too much because it did make sense. From the shape of her feet, to the inconsistencies in her original story – the final resolution was set up relatively well, even if it doesn’t feel as natural as other more refined mysteries would manage do, by hiding their hints with more subtlety. Overall though, it’s a sad story that has somewhat of a happy resolution, if only because the real mother and child can be buried together. Morbid as it may be, I’m glad we left off where we did. Convenient Detective Work: It’s an unfortunate thing when the tales of the past are more exciting than the mysteries of the present. But unfortunately, that’s how I would best describe this episode. Once the flashback was out-of-the-way, I felt it a lot harder to buy into what we were getting. As I mentioned, the hints are all there, but this time around it felt so heavy-handed that I can’t find much positive things to say about it. Maybe it was the period setting in the first half of the episode that had me intrigued, or maybe I just don’t believe that Shoutarou is as good a detective as Sakurako makes him out to be. Sure, he figured out there was another cat named after the other forearm bone, and he realised Sakurako attended his school in her younger years, given how she knew the lab and seemed familiar with Sasaki-sensei, but I just don’t buy it. I’m glad that everything made sense in the end, after last episode seemed to randomly pull out various plot threads – some that seemed important, while others felt rather pointless. But sadly, I could not get immersed in this current mystery, which I think comes down to my waning interest in Sakurako and Shoutarou. While I enjoyed them at first, I’ve grown tired of their back-and-forth, to the point where I’ll care much more about the stories of the various side character as opposed to those of our main duo. Overview – What’s Next?: There wasn’t nearly enough Kougami and Isozaki this week. Thankfully, the story of Sasaki-sensei’s sister and their shared friend was enough for me to get some enjoyment out of this episode. It is sad to admit, but as this series progresses, I find myself becoming less interested in Sakurako’s presumably tragic past, as well as how Shoutarou ties into all this. How did they even meet in the first place? As annoying as that unanswered question may be, I don’t think I care much to actually find out… |
That reminded me of Gosick. All the “mysteries” were tragically easy to solve (and they called it a mystery show, ha!), but at least Victorique’s past was an interesting subject.
That’s a good comparison. However, I do think Gosick’s mysteries and main characters were more interesting than what Sakurako-san had to offer.
Got to disagree on this one. How stories are viewed is a personal preference and mysteries are even more so I think. I found the mystery with the cat bones to be well done. Yes it was easy to solve, but all the clues were given to the viewer rather than having Sakurako pop up with some esoteric medical trivia to solve the case. It also allowed (me at least) to see the emotional girl that existed before she closed herself off (most likely to the loss of her brother). The connection between Sakurako and Sasaki and his family I thought also gave the story more of a intimacy than just some random person’s death would have. Partly this is due to my curiosity about why people are the way they are and that is why I like to have backstories like this in shows.
Yup, they really needed to tackle Sakurako’s randomly tragic past early on so they could get into the real degraded calcium of her character development, or at least to tell us how she and sidekick-boy-with-default-haircut-for-eighty-percent-of-all-teenage-anime-boys actually met. Eh, whatever.
I agree that Sakurako’s backstory has been dragged out for too long, so the point where I can’t find it in myself to actually look forward to the big reveal. I’m sure the butterfly fedora-wearing guy from a few episodes back will play a role in all this, but with only 4 episodes to go I don’t know how it’s going to wrap up nicely…
that was nice mystery to solve, if we can put it that way… but there is more to this than a family / love tragedy from long ago…
I am betting my detective’s hat that the mysterious guy who was trying to poison the guy from few eps ago with painting, might be involved with poisoning of both cats, and , possibly death of sakorako’s little brother?
Kougami didn’t show up and Isozaki’s appearance didn’t even last a minute.
I had an inkling that Sakurako wanted another cat specimen to pair with Ulna, but it turns out I got it backwards–she wanted the cat bones precisely because it was from Ulna’s partner.
Close, but no cigar, as they would say.
I’d congratulate Shoutarou for figuring it out. At least he is leveling up.
Maybe I should scrutinize every scene instead of casually watching the episode, so I can catch these sorts of things better.
Can’t wait for the next episodes. I hope she starts investigating her brother’s death next week.
This show is so inconsistent.