“Purple Dawn”/”Yellow Blind Spot”

Thursdays at 2:00 pm EST on Crunchyroll

Moe attempts to find out who talked to her in the virtual reality while Saikawa struggles to commit to his promise of keeping Shiki’s death a secret. When the police arrives, however, all the puzzle pieces start falling into place.

Aqua’s thoughts

Well, I know this is supposed to be a double feature, but damn, everything I wanted to say about episode 8 is pretty much invalidated by that tidal wave of twists at the end of episode 9. I figured the murder would be something of Shiki’s own creation, but I always suspected it was the robot, and not — well — an actual child. The revelation that Shiki was pregnant when she went into exile is nonetheless a brilliant twist that perfectly fits the show’s general theme of killing your parents and breaking free from their shackles. Looks like Shiki’s daughter inherited her mother’s desire to ascend humanity and become a ‘perfect insider’, an isolated genius not bogged down by any familial ties or obligations, and ironically, Shiki got in the way of the ambitions that led her to kill her parents herself in some sort of twisted coming-of-age ritual.

If the Shiki Moe talked to inside the virtual reality machine actually was the murderer, then Shiki 2 (SHIKI?) may have tried to go even further in her desires to become ‘free’ by uploading herself onto a computer. It’s a bizarre chain of libertine violence, of geniuses killing each other in increasingly more scheming ways, and both Moe and Saikawa seem to have a stake in solving it because they are afraid it might drag them along as well. Both Shiki and Shiki jr. (never to be confused with ridiculously catchy j-pop band Shiggy jr.) have been taunting Moe with the mysterious deaths of her parents for the entire show now, and Saikawa is so obsessed with Shiki’s ‘perfect insider’ ideology that she might just be the only thing keeping him from going the extra mile. Episode 8 spends a lot of time fleshing out their relationship, and it clearly shows that their dynamic has evolved past a grating pseudo-romance.

Yet being so obsessed with Shiki’s libertarian ideology, it’s quite the surprise that Saikawa would willingly go along in Yamane’s scam. The whole thing turned out to not really go anywhere at all, which does make me wonder if it served only to imply that Yamane is worryingly concerned about the state of the lab. Did he kill the director over some sort of petty squabble regarding the mysterious thing they’re working on? Saikawa himself finally brings up the possibility of a second killer in Episode 8, though he once again claims that the killer, after killing Shiki, lied in wait for the director and killed him as well. Admittedly, Shiki jr. has a perfect motif, given that the director is likely her father, but we still have 2 episodes left, and Yamane has been acting suspiciously enough for there to be yet another twist. If it’s not him, it might be one of the other dozens of characters who’ve shown up in this show for no good reason (Miki?).

Whatever The Perfect Insider still has in stock, It’d be rather disappointing of the following two episodes simply consist of Saikawa explaining how he figured out the case. Moe has been our de facto main character for a while now, and the idea that the frankly boring, insufferable Professor figured the entire case out while she was off going through, like, character development just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s not that I think the big reveal is rushed or anything — The Perfect Insider has always been more about figuring out the killer’s motive, rather than their methods — but for Saikawa to casually announce the truth after several episodes of dicking around behind the scenes just feels as if Moe, and by extension, the audience she represents, is being robbed of the knowledge she is entitled to.

All in all, The Perfect Insider has somehow managed to turn itself from an endearing character study into a bona fide murder twistery. So yeah, here’s hoping they aren’t letting us of the hook just yet.

Random observations

• I’m certain Moe’s bizarre getup consisting of a tiger-stripe bikini, a towel cape and bland name baby blue Chuck Taylors will win her several Best Dressed Anime Character of 2015 awards.
• Shimada’s room contains a bunch of posters referencing a whole load of obscure noitaminA deep cuts. Remember Fractale? No. 6? [C]: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control? Is it me or does Shimada have terrible taste in anime?
• As brilliant as the clock twist actually is, wouldn’t a normal computer, if ever made to automatically produce a file with the same name as a file that already exists, simply rename the second file as ‘(1)’?
• Never thought we’d see Chupacabra Girl again, but, err, does she actually have a reason for being in this show?
• ‘I will not let you do this’ is a bit of a sloppy translation for Shiki’s dad’s last words. You can’t exactly ‘let’ someone be pregnant. How about ‘I will not allow this’?