I’m going to try to keep this one really short. I have a tendency to ramble on or to just try to throw every random thought I have on the page and I would really like to curb that a bit. So wish me luck. However, we have some very important business first. How are you Karandi? Not too exhausted I hope.
I’m doing okay. I’ve been super busy and having to learn a lot but I feel like I’m mostly in control. I’d love more time to watch anime and read and just generally lie about but don’t we all.
I have a feeling I’m going to be the only one here but I quite enjoyed this week’s Jeweler Richard. I think it was my favourite episode of the show so far. For instance, this is the first time I was honestly trying to figure out what was going on in the first half. It felt more like a “case file”. Why was the old friend lying, what was going on. To me it evoked old timey detective short stories I use to devour as a kid. The Case of The Mysterious Senpai… Right up until the halfway mark, we we got an idea of what was going on, I was into it just because of my love of mysteries. Did you enjoy it too? Maybe it was a bit too low stakes?
I think you know me fairly well. I found this episode a little on the slow side and a bit of a drag. My main complaint would probably be how illogical the senpai was. Why use Seigi’s story on Seigi’s boss? Why not go to any other jeweler and pull that? It just kind of left me shaking my head.
When we did get the reveal, the episode took a calm dramatic turn. Nothing drastic. It was sort of a study of disappointment. Being let down in a small way by someone you admire can be surprisingly painful. It sort of throws your entire world view out of whack. I think they did a decent job showing us just how affected Seigi was by the situation. And I’ve grown quite fond of Seigi because I like doofuses. Seeing him all down didn’t leave me indifferent.
I kind of felt like he could have seen it coming. Then again, when he was standing in the rain and Richard pulled up, I did kind of feel happy for him. He looked like a small puppy caught in the rain and the way he ended up being grateful for his ‘chance encounter’ with Richard was kind of nice to see. So while I didn’t feel too bad for Seigi when he was miserable, I must have felt something because otherwise there’s no reason for me to be relieved when Richard extends a hand.
Adult friendships are really rarely explored in anime and making friends as adults is sort of different and more nuanced. As much as I’m not interested in romance stories, I’m a suck for a good friendship story. In this episode we got to see how friendships can come undone and people we love can become strangers. We also got to see how chance meetings can bring us someone who turns out to be important to us. It’s a simple story and it was a nice repose at the end of a very long day.
From that point of view the episode is successful and you are right. Anime doesn’t often explore adult characters and their friendships so The Case Files of Jeweler Richard is filling a small void there. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed watching something that feels kind of slice of life-ish with adult characters as much as this since Recovery of an MMO Junkie and that had a romance woven through it. However, I’d probably be even more into it if Seigi seemed to have normal emotional reactions. When he was humming at work I thought it was the day after meeting his friend and he was on a high, but it turns out it was a whole week later. Who still hums about meeting a friend a week after it happened?
I am hoping for an actual case at some point though!
Likewise. I feel the title here is a bit on the misleading side. Overall though, while I’m not jumping up and down about this anime, it remains fairly low-key enjoyment.
Thanks for Reading From
Irina and Karandi
I was a little confused about sempai choosing Richard, too. I tend to think it was a coincidence, but that also doesn’t make 100 % sense. This show confuses me a lot in a little ways.
Also, I finally noticed that I don’t like Seigi much. I don’t hate him, but a strong sense of right and wrong coupled with social clumsiness is a great weakness of mine. I don’t know how to deal with it.
Sometimes I wonder if there’s a really subtle source material that the writers of the show didn’t quite get. Maybe the show’s worldview is just too different from mine? I think I get the show overall, but I’m rarely this confused when it comes down to details.
For example, I think I get where both Seigi and Sempai come from, but I can’t make sense of sempai stumbling through this jeweller’s door (because no interpretation quite fits). This sounds all negative, but on the whole I’m actually enjoying the show.