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「大英帝国の醜聞 第二幕」 (Daiei Teikoku no Shūbun Dainimaku)
“A Scandal in the British Empire Act 2”
The way Yuukoku no Moriarty throws a bunch of disparate Doyleisms into a blender, adds a cup of anime stying and churns out something altogether new is quite interesting I have to say. To a bigger Holmes purist than me it would probably seem like excessive liberties are being taken, but I’m not enough of one to be offended. And truthfully, this is a series that’s been warped into the near-unrecognizable so many times over the decades that it’s hard to be too bothered about such things in this day and age.
For a while there, this episode lapses into the same pattern which occupied much of the first cour. That is, evil aristocrats acting cartoonishly evil and the Moriarty brothers murdering them in the name of justice (and to make a point). It’s not the series’ best side and this isn’t its best 15 minutes, but there is a point to it. Albert – acting on William’s orders of course – stages a masked ball in order to draw Irene in and get her to spill the beans about what she knows. The baron he murders in the process is really just a casual sacrifice in order for Albert to convince Irene he’s to be taken seriously.
It seems, plainly, that Irene has gotten in way over her head here. If she’s to be taken at her word she’s a social warrior of her own, and was merely hoping to blackmail the royal family in order to fund her efforts at social change. But what she learned – that the British Empire was responsible for the French revolution (a complete invention by this series as far as I’m aware) – was way bigger than she could handle. The government position is that she has to be taken out, plain and simple, bur Albert sees her as a useful tool for his own family initiatives.
I struggle with the notion that Albert would be able to freelance like this right under the nose of Mycroft, who’s said by all concerned (including Doyle) to be even more brilliant than his brother. But be that as it may he offers Irene a way out – not through his official status as the government’s dog, but as the “Lord of Crime”. The Moriartys have developed quite a legend for themselves, a notoriety to rival that of Holmes himself, and Albert has proves his seriousness to Irene. Seeing no other path forward she agrees to meet Albert and turn over the papers the next morning.
The problem is Sherlock has unpacked what’s going on here too, and he manages to get her to reveal where she’s hidden the papers in another sequence that kind of stretches credulity. The paths they take are different but William and Holmes always seem to find the answer at around the same time, which I suppose is what makes them such suitable adversaries. The big question here is whether William will have predicted that Holmes would figure this out as quickly as he has – if not, Sherlock may be about to find out just who the Lord of Crime actually is. Which, if we’re honest, he should already strongly suspect.
I assume Albert was able to freelance under Mycroft’s nose because he was able to gain Mycroft’s professional trust to begin with. It was set out in an earlier manga arc which the anime skipped.
Back when Albert was still serving in the army, he heard how his superiors were having problems trying to take down a notorious opium-trafficking ring due to lack of political will and nobleman ties to said ring, and the formation of a secret independent intelligence division in the government. Realizing the benefit said division would have for William’s plans, Albert schemes with him to take control of it. The plan involves arranging for William to be kidnapped by the ring, thus giving Albert justification to move in to rescue a fellow nobleman and take down the traffickers as well. The plan is a success. It allows Albert to gain Mycroft’s attention and confidence, thus earning him a reward of being the head of the division, called MI6. Of course, Albert’s codename here is M. (Author started using a lot of James Bond terms at this point, given Bond is in public domain inside Japan).
The issue for me, as stated, isn’t how Albert was able to gain Mycroft’s trust in the first place. It’s that he could operate directly under him and constantly be working against him without Mycroft figuring it out. According to Doyle – and the series has done nothing to suggest it’s different here – Mycroft is a preposterously clever man (if lazy, at least in the original version). Could he really miss this happening right under his nose for years?
Look at it another way. Mycroft is not only even smarter than Sherlock, supposedly, but he has the entire British intelligence network at his beck and call. He wouldn’t have figured out who the Lord of Crime is by now?
Ah, I see what you mean.
I did look through some of the source, but at no point does the author write about Mycroft suspecting Albert and the Lord of Crime’s identity in what I read. That duty was relegated to Sherlock (although there is one future antagonist character that does figure it out very quickly!).
It’s not like it’s a deal-breaker for me or anything, just an observation. I would say though that generally speaking, I think this series is better when it doesn’t go too, too silly.