Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the tantalizing mysteries of Shoushimin Series, as Urino’s precious arson investigation seems poised to draw all surrounding actors into the conflagration. Having flipped the script on club president Kengo’s attempts at a graceful withdrawal from the spotlight, Urino has claimed the presidency for himself, and now eyes not just a continuing investigation, but the chance to catch the culprit personally.
With the arsons continuing and Osanai clearly involved, even Jogoro has been shaken from his stupor, and is now making his own plays alongside the ever-watchful Kengo. And frankly, it’s hard to say who Jogoro was actually convincing; his focus has remained on the horizon all through his time with Nakamura, and even the revelation that she was apparently cheating on him prompted nothing more than a surprised “huh” from our detective.
It is easy enough to just live passively, but clearly neither Osanai nor Jogoro have the stomach for it. Osanai’s been manipulating this case all along, and Jogoro has been so emotionally absent that all he could muster regarding his feelings for Nakamura was “you seemed like a good person.” That exchange laid his true intentions bare; his words spoke only to his own self-image and desire for transformation, his need to see in himself what he had come to assume was laudable in others. Both Jogoro and Osanai entered into new relationships assuming the blandness of their partners would rub off on them – little wonder that both of those relationships have stalled, given they were built on a foundation of assuming others essentially lacked emotional interiority, and that it was furthermore noble to pursue such blandness of spirit. With their facades in tatters, I’m eager to see both our leads abandon their aspirations of lukewarm geniality, and return to the wildness that makes them shine!
Episode 14
“Suspicious Summer (Part One).” Our episode titles again jump us ahead, essentially proceeding at the pace of the serial arsons, another subtle way to convey a sense of time carelessly slipping past. None of the usual seasonal markers or holidays are being celebrated by our preoccupied leads – that one time we briefly saw them during a new year’s shrine visit, it was largely to emphasize how seeing Osanai was an unusual, meaningful change in routine for Jogoro. Without their mysteries or each other, time just slips away from them
We open with Urino’s latest column, describing an April 12th fire near an apartment. Gotta give credit to the subtitle typesetting folks here – I appreciate that they actually frame this text as newspaper cutaways even in English, properly preserving the feeling of looking for choice details within an article
“Up until the year before last, Funado Monthly was merely a sheet of scrap paper mysteriously found on students’ desks once a month.” Oh boy, Urino. Disparaging the efforts of his predecessors and collaborators as he hypes up his own importance to his new team of arson investigators. He’s got a hard fall ahead of him
In his attempts to make himself exceptional, Urino is actually adopting some of the antisocial habits of Jogoro. But he can’t keep this up; the arsons are his sole claim to fame, and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to command such rapt attention once this case is concluded. And people are always swift to devour those who strive for greatness and fail in the attempt
Though the club has five new recruits, it has lost all but one of its old members, the mild-mannered boy who always went with the flow in the first place. Urino has remade the club in his own image, for better or for worse
Urino has narrowed the suspect’s activities to the second Friday of each month, just after midnight
Urino’s “there are seven of us” is contrasted against a suspicious look from the one remaining original member. Urino believes his era is imminent, but it’s hard to be objective when you’re this drunk on success
“But right off the bat, one of our new members has already dropped out.” Yep
“I figured I’d show off and impress her once the arsonist is caught.” Urino’s relationship with Osanai is so strained, and so unlike her bond with Jogoro. Osanai and Jogoro were fellow accomplices, reveling in the process as they quietly competed against one another. In contrast, Urino treats Osanai like a judge in a competition, hiding away while he works and then showing off his efforts to his distant overseer. It’s not really a relationship
Their night patrol is a farce. Urino directs them to “check out any potential targets” (ie basically anything in the environment) while fantasizing about a cool line to use when they catch the arsonist
Osanai calls Urino, proudly announcing she knows exactly what he’s doing. A contradiction as always; she doesn’t want him pursuing this track, but can’t deny how she enjoys watching it proceed. And as she says goodbye, the screeching of a train in the background implies she may be out here herself, whether as witness or participant
One of his assistants discovers the fire just under the railroad tracks, potentially placing Osanai directly at the scene of the crime
Some excellent layouts using the fire as a sort of reverse spotlight, painting our students as black silhouettes captured in its glow. The layouts emphasize the feeling that this is now larger than Urino – that he may have participated in stoking a fire he cannot possibly control
The next day, Jogoro continues his own methodical investigations. A sharp visual contrast between the fiery recklessness of Urino’s plays and Jogoro’s staid, placid movements
Jogoro lays out plenty of rope to draw the one holdover newspaper club member into his court, at first pretending he doesn’t even know Urino’s name. Getting a witness talking by offering easy questions is a natural way to guide them towards more useful confessions, by reframing an interrogation as an open dialogue
“Has Urino-kun been doing his job lately?” Another well-sculpted question, casting no aspersions and not even mentioning the arsons
“He’s a meek, honest guy. Don’t go getting him in too much trouble.” Another clear contrast between Urino and Jogoro’s investigations – Urino is set on personal glory no matter what disruption it creates, whereas Jogoro is being tasked from the start with minimizing collateral damage. While Urino is reveling in the power and thrill of being someone who stands out, Jogoro has learned to take care in weaponizing his abilities
Kengo and Jogoro take a trip to the mind palace bridge as they discuss the ordering of the local fire stations. Apparently, Jogoro had to go back six years of documentation to find a version where they actually listed out the various stations’ divisions of service – thus the version Urino was working from was six years old, something he likely didn’t know himself. And the fact that the arsonist is also working from that list likely means the arsonist wanted Urino to discover the pattern, a pattern that would be invisible to anyone checking the current documentation. Meaning Urino’s investigations are likely also part of the arsonist’s plan, and also that our list of suspects has just become extremely short
“It’d be best if we could get Yoshiguchi-san’s help again.” Another stark difference between Urino and our increasingly self-aware Jogoro – Urino is caught up in his own glory, while Jogoro is getting more accustomed to relying on others
Jogoro later meets up with Nakamura for a date. Their rapport is a touch stilted; Nakamura is surprised Jogoro doesn’t ask more questions about her scheduling issues, which to her could imply a lack of interest in spending more time with her, while Jogoro is presumably both happy to make his own deductions and wary of seeming too authoritative or controlling, given his prior social failures
The overall focus here is on the summer heat; we get establishing shots of characters fanning themselves and the overhead AC, while the white-saturated lighting further emphasizes the unsparing weather
Another odd heat-related beat: Nakamura chose this restaurant for their cold pasta to beat the heat, but chooses a hot pasta when she learns her preferred choice isn’t available. Jogoro notices this, but again doesn’t offer any questions; he’s so considerate of his own probing that it comes off as indifference
“Hypothetically, what would I have to do to upset you beyond redemption?” Given Jogoro’s apparent placid indifference to Nakamura’s behavior, it’s little surprise she’s actively trying to get a rise out of him. If he were upset, it would least mean he was thinking about her – his indifference makes it far clearer that she is just some kind of placeholder in his life, the person he believes he is supposed to be dating
Jogoro even frames his inability to hold a theoretical grudge as “that’s normal.” He is not acting on his own feelings, he is following a script of normalcy as best he can
God, their conversations are agonizing! Nakamura tries a different tack for assessing their relationship, attempting to gauge Jogoro’s thoughts on how they’re not really publicly out as a couple, but he just offers mild-mannered “is that so” responses
We finally get Jogoro’s first genuine contribution to this conversation – his deduction that Nakamura doesn’t like tomatoes, because she rejected the second, tomato-heavy cold pasta choice. An actual conversation they could have had, but Jogoro obviously prefers deductions to discussions
“You say the weirdest things at the weirdest times sometimes. And you seem to enjoy it.”
But Nakamura denies his fully logical world, saying that the picture of the hot pasta just looked more appetizing than the tomato pasta, plus it was cheaper. People aren’t so simple as Jogoro sometimes assumes – and I doubt Nakamura appreciates being treated as a simple puzzle to solve
And again, she asks the question he can’t really answer: “what about me made you want to go out with me?”
“I think trying to put into words why you want to be with someone leads to mistakes.” Jogoro is unwilling to express any passion, preoccupied instead with “avoiding mistakes.” But you can’t live like that, and you certainly can’t carry on a relationship like that
We conclude with the next newspaper publication, which could possibly have been tampered with by Jogoro’s agent
And Done
Oh my god, that date was so painful! Nakamura and Jogoro are just so awkward together, and Nakamura is making so many quiet attempts to pierce the veil between them, but Jogoro simply will not have it. It seems abundantly clear that Jogoro sees his relationship with Nakamura as something he is “supposed to do,” not out of any emotional desire, but because Nakamura is a normal girl and he is seeking a normal lifestyle. But watching her sad attempts to poke him out of his complacency, as well as his one brief, immediately regretted flourish of genuine personality, makes it clear that they can’t really connect. Osanai may well be an arsonist, but at least she’s enjoying herself!
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