The Apothecary Diaries #08 — Gratuitous Bath Scene
November 25th, 2023
When all else fails, just headbutt a child.
Impressions:
Well, I can't say this wasn't technically what I was saying I'd prefer, but be careful what you wish for, I guess. It makes the same mistake that so many of these anime mysteries do. The fun is in the procedural part; investigating, interacting with various colorful characters, sorting out the red herrings and other things people are trying to hide, piecing out the truth from among that. Instead, we get two very short scenes of showing up at the crime scene(s), and then nearly eight straight minutes of monologue giving the first imagined theory that comes to mind, which turns out to be completely correct. The 'mystery' here was about two minutes before dropping all pretenses and just stabbing, to be followed by almost four times as long on the explanation. There wasn't even a chance to start to wonder about things, let alone be led astray before the clever deduction is made.
What's even to talk about there? To simply summarize the monologue that consumed almost the entire episode? Prostitute lady wanted to murder a dude who was a horse's ass, and staged things. To be followed by a grautious bath scene, heaping insult upon injury. A good deduction is elegant and simple; something that makes complete sense despite the chain of logic presented leading to a different assumption. There's no Columbo "just one more thing" satisfying epiphany where the case is unraveled; just fetishization of theorycrafting.
Next Episode:
…
Posted in The Apothecary Diaries | 1 Comment »
IMO the mysteries in this story were always its weak point, and they don’t get better. There’s no attempt made to write proper mysteries in the classic sense. They are mostly just a framework to explore the setting, which is the star of the show.