Kamisama no Memo-chou – 02

So…what would YOU do if you stole 300 million dollars from the yakuza? Oh, you’re not that dumb? Me neither!

Wooh! I’m in Egypt now! Watching Kamisama no Memo-chou was a pretty awesome way to pass the time on the 8 hour plane ride from Atlanta to Amsterdam. I hate planes. I can never get comfortable. After I arrived in Amsterdam I flew for 4 hours to Cairo, Egypt. And then drove another 4 hours to get to Alexandria. Needless to say, I’m exhausted. Anyways, let’s see what our fantastic NEET crew is up to now!

The episode begins with a man running away from some people. He stops to call his daughter, telling her to grab a bag in a safe and run away with it. Before he hangs up he tells her that she has her mother in heaven with her. Before we can find out anything else though, we cut to Narumi who is delivering ramen to Alice. Alice of course requests her Dr. Pepper which explodes in Narumi’s face when he opens it for her – she forgot to tell him that she had dropped that one. The doorbell then rings and Narumi opens the door to find a girl there.

The girl, Meo, is delighted at the sight of Alice and has come to request her services. Alice then notes that Meo is Thai and her name refers to a chuuren, a string of beads designed to protect somebody you love. Alice asks to help with Meo’s issue. and pulls up information on Meo’s father; he is Kusakabe Masaya, a management consultant who studied theft. He got married to a Thai woman and when he lived in Osaka, he used to be a part of the yakuza. Alice then asks to look inside of the bag that Meo brought with her, presumably the one that had been in the safe. They open the bag to find A LOT of money. Meo’s family was not rich enough to have this sort of money which means that her father was probably involved in some sort of crime and had to run away from it.

“I’m afraid that I cannot assist yo-”                                                              “…Deal.”

Alice then pulls up the phone records between Meo and her father, noting that Meo called her father from a public phone. Meo does not have a cell phone because her father would not give her one and Alice states that she should not contact her father. Meo decides to leave to find her father herself, but Narumi stops her, telling her to calm down. Alice then declares that she is a NEET detective and, if Meo were to let her help, she would stop at nothing to find her father. Later on, Meo is at Hanamaru and thanks Narumi for being so nice to her. Afterwards, Ayaka and Narumi walk home together. Ayaka likens Meo to a younger sister and then asks Narumi if he has any siblings. He has an older sister who he’s on pretty good terms with. We find out that Narumi’s dad only comes home once a year and his mom is dead, just like Meo’s. Ayaka’s family is not much better; she hardly ever gets to see her brother.

The next day, at Alice’s place, Hiro requests a massage from Narumi as he hands Alice a picture that he managed to attain of Meos dad. Narumi then notices a hickey on Hiro’s neck – Hiro does not seem the least bit ashamed. xD Alice then sends Narumi to the Fourths place to fix the computer. It looks like his men were up to no good (LULZ PORN). The Fourth comes in and thanking him for his help. Narumi gives him the picture of Meo’s dad and the men make copies. In his office, the Fourth recommends that Narumi get off this case seeing as the Yakuza are involved here. Narumi, however, promised that he would help Meo and wants to do what he can. The Fourth gets angry, grabbing him by the collar and asking him if he understands what he’s getting into. He responds that understands but he’s Alice’s assistant. He is then kicked out, but the Fourth has a smile on his face as he leaves. Heh.

Look at this series of pictures out of context. Hehehe… *grins*

“That was some nice porn…”

After leaving, Narumi gets a phone call. He arrives at what looks to be a pachinko parlor only to find Tetsu requesting money from him. One of Tetsu’s mates, Nemo-san, is part of the yakuza and they ask him about Kusakabe Masaya. We find out that Kusakabe was the money launderer for the Kishiwada Group. He ended up stealing 300 million dollars from the group. What’s funny is that there were 200 million dollars in the bag… Afterwards, Narumi and Tetsu walk home together, the latter explaining that he went through the yakuza to find Nemo-san.  Narumi is shocked that Tetsu would put his life on the line like that for somebody he just met.

“WHAT?! It’s not the uke that’s on top?!!?!”               “…”

Meanwhile, Meo is standing in front of a phone, reminiscing back to when she first arrived in Japan with her family. She places a call, but it doesn’t look like that’s her father’s on the other end! At home, in bed, Narumi receives an urgent call from Alice. He arrives at her place only to find Meo and Ayaka, clad only in towels. After he gets slapped in the face, Hiro, Tetsu and Major then arrive to discuss the case. The issue at hand seems to be the missing 100 million dollars. Before they can continue, Alice sends Meo and Ayaka down to get her some ice cream. They continue their discussion, speculating as to why Kusakabe left the 200 million with Meo. Alice decides that they should follow the money and find out the connection between Kusakabe and the Kishiwada Group.

Afterwards, Ayako asks Alice if Kusakabe is coming back but she doesn’t know at this point in time. Ayako continues to say that, if Kusakabe didn’t care deeply for Meo, he wouldn’t have told her that her mother in heaven was with her. This fact seems to resonate with Alice. Hmmm… Meanwhile, Narumi asks Meo if she’s heard anything from her father about him going back to Thailand but she hasn’t. He then suggests that maybe her father isn’t coming back after all. At this, Meo gets upset and yells at Narumi that her father would never do that because he promised that they’d always be family, no matter what. To this, Narumi retorts that there’s no way anybody could keep that sort of promise. Meo begins crying and Ayako walks in on this scene, only t0 become upset and run away.

Alice then calls, requesting that Narumi bring Meo’s bag. She cuts it open and finds a cell phone inside. There was a hidden meaning to Meo’s father’s words. He meant it literally when he said that Meo’s mother in heaven is with her. Meo instinctively knew the meaning behind her father’s words. Just then, they hear a crash from where they checkout security cameras video and see what we can probably assume to be men from the Kishiwada Group.

End Thoughts:

So, we’ve got quite the case this week!  We’ve got a money laundering father who stole 300 million dollars from the yakuza. He then runs away, leaving 200 million dollars and what looks to be her mother’s cell phone with Meo, his daughter. Now, we’re left wondering what the hell happened to the last 100 million AND Meo tried calling her father (when she wasn’t supposed to). Whoever was on the other end of the line looked pretty bad. Major suggested that, perhaps, Kusakabe was using his daughter as bait, but I highly doubt that’s the case.  He doesn’t seem the heartless type. My theory is as follows: Seeing as he stole 300 million, he might have left 200 million in the safe at home and wanted to make it seem like he only took 100 million. However, when he somehow got in trouble, he wanted his daughter to leave home and take the 200 million with her because the Kishiwada Group would probably look for him there. So he saved is daughter AND the money. Now, as to why he even took the money in the first place? Perhaps since he was the money launderer, he felt as though he deserved the money since he got it. Or maybe he was trying to return it. I have no clue on that one. xD

The whole cell phone/mother in heaven thing was slightly confusing to me. I didn’t quite understand how Alice made the connection between Kusakabe’s statement and the cell phone in Meo’s bag. Then again, she’s a loli with super NEET powers and her crib’s full of super cool computers and Doctor Pepper. I think it’s obvious that her critical thinking and reasoning skills are borderline godly.  Either way, the cell phone’s definitely going to play a pretty big role in the next episode; probably as the mode of communication between Meo and Kusakabe. I think the fact that Kusakabe left her the phone at all indicates that he isn’t the type of guy who would risk the safety of his daughter on purpose. However, just because he doesn’t mean to, doesn’t mean that he won’t. Getting involved with the yakuza and stealing their money is a surefire way of putting your family in danger. Not to mention it’s just plain DUMB.

It seems as though cases in Kamisama no Memo-chou span at least two episodes. For such episodic whodunits, this method of spreading things out should work well for several reasons. One is of course suspense.  Leaving off before the mystery is solved allows for uncertainty and subsequent speculation from the viewer as to what will happen next – that’s a lot more exciting in my not-so-humble opinion. xD Another is that there is more time to properly develop the case. The cases are increasingly complex (and thus more intriguing) and the new characters more fleshed out. Things don’t end abruptly and all aspects of the mystery are covered. Finally, our main cast plays a larger role in the case as well which hopefully allows for character development as well as interaction between all the characters. This interaction may perhaps be the most important because we’ve got quite the eclectic cast of characters here.

A bit of Narumi’s background was revealed this episode. We already knew that he moved around a lot, but now we also know that his mother passed away. He now lives with his sister and his dad only visits once a year. That definitely explains why he would have concluded that Kusakabe left Meo, though it was harsh for him to tell her so. I’m guessing that Narumi’s become rather jaded because of his inconsistent home life.  It doesn’t seem to affect his sense of morals and good-will though. He’s actively taking on his role as Alice’s assistant and I’m guessing that he does so because it gives him a sense of purpose. Continuing on, Ayaka seems to have a difficult family life as well seeing as her brother hasn’t been home. This elusive brother of hers is sure to make an appearance later on in the season and I am most certainly looking forward to it.

Finally, it looks like we’ve got a new ED, Asu Naru by Suzumura Kenichi. I like this one better than the previous one. I guess you could say it’s easier on the ears? Plus it fits the show better. xD Also, I know I might have already said this in my first impressions but I REALLY like the character designs and animation here. It’s so…so smooth, so crisp. It makes me HNNNNGGG at times. xP But yah, I can’t wait to see how this case comes to a close!

Preview:

So…the Fourth in a tank top. Yes please!! ^_^

About Zabobinator

Doesn't get enough sleep. Dork with a rather eclectic taste in manga and anime. Adores Studio Ghibli films.