I feel a little bad about this show. I feel bad because I enjoy watching it quite a bit and I know Karandi is not having as much fun as I am. I feel like I’m forcing her to watch it which makes me feel bad. On the other hand…I do enjoy watching it. It’s a conundrum.
I think Irina is underestimating my enjoyment of the anime. I’ll admit, The Case Files of Jeweler Richard isn’t exactly the first anime that comes to mind when I think about what shows I’m currently watching, but each episode passes pleasantly with something that catches my attention. It isn’t great, but it is by no means unwatchable, and I do enjoy using it as a break between some of the other anime I’m reviewing.
Last week I mentionned that I would like to see and episode that was more like a “case” and apparently I’m some type of anime diviner because that’s exactly what we got. It started off in the usual way, Richard and Seigi in a casual throw-away scene talking about sweets. These two seem to have gotten a lot more comfortable around each other which makes sense when you take the last episode into account. The episode quickly moves on to introduce us to a young lady that has lost a turquoise earring given to her by a boyfriend before he disappeared. For some reason I loved how she kept refusing the tissues Seigi was offering. It was a soft repeated visual gag and it tickled my fancy. What did you think of the set up this week?
Weirdly enough I really enjoyed it and for some weird reason took a lot of screen caps – most of which I didn’t end up saving, but there were just these scenes that kept grabbing my attention. For instance, when Richard tried Seigi’s pudding and he wiggled his toes, I really loved that moment.
Similarly, I also enjoyed the gag with the tissues. It was just this unobtrusive visual running through the whole conversation and I loved how smug Seigi looked when she finally took a tissue.
After reassuring the girl and an odd scene where Seigi pretends he doesn’t know what Richard would like as a thank you (we were reminded of his sweet tooth just minutes ago), it’s revealed that the earring was a fake and the guy was probably a scam artist praying on vulnerable girls. Richard is way more upset about this than we figure. You know, for a second I thought that he got caught in a love scam at some point and that’s why he’s so annoyed when people praise his good looks. Someone took advantage of him that way in the past. My head canon is elaborate!
I really liked the slow pan we got of Richard when Seigi returned to the shop as well. It gave the whole scene a bit of gravity even though it was the same brightly lit shop it always is. I will say that the rest of the episode doesn’t quite measure up to some of the real positives in the set-up phase, but I think this is one of my favourite episodes yet from the series.
We don’t get an explanation but we do get Richard’s plan to deal with the scammers and it’s just delicious. And by that I mean it’s hilariously silly and nonsensical in the most joyful way. This is the type of rubbish I am here for. Basically, Seigi and Richard dress up in what I can only describe as Miami Vice cosplay (I took a billion caps cause it was hilarious). Then Richard goes to a jewelery story that seems to be serving as head quarters for the scam and pretends to be a gemstone medium(?) to shame/scare/confuse the culprits into stopping what they’re doing. And it works! This is the type of sequence you can’t think about to hard because if you start asking questions it all falls apart. I was just fine with enjoying the ride but I have good will towards these characters. All in all, it wouldn’t be unfair to describe Richard’s plan as stupid. To me, it was fun stupid so it works.
It was incredibly stupid and yet I’m with you and agree it was pretty hilarious. I particularly found Seigi’s presence as an interpreter truly ridiculous once Richard started speaking fluent Japanese anyway. More importantly, Seigi couldn’t even pretend to talk to Richard in another language so the entire set up for their plan was absurd and the execution was shoddy at best. However, if you don’t think about it and just watch the scene it does make you chuckle. The one thing I was struggling with though is why anyone would make a fake turquoise when they just aren’t that expensive in the first place (okay, high quality ones are but it isn’t exactly a gem stone out of reach for most people).
I’m not that big a fan of Richard’s character design usually. The hair style sort of bugs me I think. This is why I find it funny that everyone in the show makes a big deal about how beautiful he is. All the time! Not gonna lie, the end of this episode made me sort of get it. Evil Richard was pretty hilarious in his own way. Mostly though, I would not have disagreed with a character that called him pretty. Thoughts on blonde bishies?
I’m not generally into blonde characters but I do find Richard pretty gorgeous to look at. Probably why so many of my screen caps are of him. There’s just something aesthetically pleasing about his character design. It’s probably that curl of hair on his face. While I don’t think he’s as good looking as some of Seigi’s commentary would make him out to be, I can definitely see why a lot of characters do double takes when seeing him for the first time.
Thanks for Reading From
Irina and Karandi
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