Warning: This review contains spoilers for a book from 1934. In my opinion, this is long past the statute of limitations, but people are very picky about such things. The book in question is of course Agatha Christie‘S Murder on the Orient ExpressHercule Poirot’s classic case, which ultimately ends with the seemingly ridiculous “they all did it”. But while that has become something to be made fun of, especially in the 1985 film Noticein Christie’s day it was a revelation – and one that Poirot was ultimately willing to live with, because it provided the reason for the crime. The victim of the crime had been involved in a horrific kidnapping, loosely based on the Lindbergh kidnapping of 1932, which resulted in the child’s death. It was an unthinkable crime at the time, all the more so because (whatever later emerged) Charles Lindbergh was a national darling.

What does all this have to do with this episode? That’s a fair question for most of the episode. We get a very clear shot of Kobato reading Murder on the Orient Express at the beginning, and we see him return to it several times throughout the episode, so that’s a very good reason. But the final scene brings us back most clearly, when Osanai’s mother gets a call telling her her daughter has been kidnapped and a ransom is being demanded. Since this is what happened to little Daisy in the novel (and little Charlie in real life), and despite handing over a ransom, both were found dead, the connection is alarming.

Or it would be if this show regularly reveled in this level of danger. We’ve seen before that this show likes to hint at much more dangerous situations than turn out to be – like the bike thief who turned out to be a small-time bootlegger. This episode is very careful to throw as many dire warnings in our faces as possible, with the kidnapping and the drug dealer/user gang that Kento investigates for his girlfriend. She’s worried that her sister has fallen into bad company, but a lot of it seems to be based on hearsay and rumors like those that circulate in most middle and high schools – you know, about how A-ko is fully Taking drugs that B-suke sells and OMG, did you know that they sleep together?! That’s not to say that things like that don’t happen, but it still feels like more of a distraction considering how things have generally played out in past episodes. There’s also an uncomfortable whiff of racism in the way the alleged drug dealers are discussed in an episode clearly promoting a reggae festival.

All the storylines will undoubtedly converge next week. This, like the storyline with the bike thief, clearly splits the plot into build-up and resolution over two episodes, and frankly, everything might turn out to be a fever dream level of red herring based on Kobato’s current reading material. But I love a Agatha Christie reference, and I’m curious to see how much truth there is in all the clues that were dropped. Kidnapped or not, Osanai’s candy odyssey had to navigate some rough waters.

Evaluation:

SHOSHIMIN: How to become ordinary is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.