Mouryou no Hako 02-03: As If Things Weren't Confusing Enough

Nothing was made clear. If anything, things are becoming even more confusing. That's either a sign of a good mystery or of illogical storytelling.
EPISODE 02: The Raccoon's Trick
Detective Kiba continues to investigate the train accident and is torn between treating it as just another suicide attempt or something more sinister. In the course of his investigation, he meets the victim's beautiful sister, who is a former actress, and the rest of Kanako's odd family. Meanwhile, three people on the trail of a seemingly unrelated case find themselves unexpectedly drawn to a box-shaped building closely guarded by uniformed police.





EPISODE 03: Incident of Euphoria
Detective Kiba makes his assessment of Kanako's extended family in between his visits to Kanako in the hospital. Meanwhile, Yoriko faces problems of her own as her mother becomes more and more convinced that their house is inhabited by evil spirits. When her mother brings an exorcist into their home, she finally runs away and goes to Detective Kiba to tell him something she remembers about the night of the accident: Kanako did not jump into the tracks; she was pushed.

COMMENTS:

I am not even going to pretend that I know even half of what's going on. There seems to be a lot of characters being introduced and all of them naturally play roles which will be revealed later on. So far, every single of one of them, with the possible exception of that other detective (he strikes me as very flat), seems to be more than what they appear to be.

Take Youko, for instance. She's supposed to be Kanako's elder sister and yet she does not seem to be in line for the inheritance that Kanako is supposed to get. That's already odd by itself. Add to that the fact that she is a former actress. That makes her character even more interesting. Kanako's guardian is another noticeable character: no one is fooled by his submissive, apologetic, wimpy attitude.

But who is the glasses guy? And that other random guy who seems to do nothing but randomly appear at the oddest places and make random mental expositions. Doesn't that girl driving with the glasses guy look like the head in the box? I change my earlier speculation: she's not Yoriko. And while on the topic of Yoriko, what's her role in all this? I understand she's Kanako's friend, but so? And what is up with her mother?

I wonder if there is a perfectly logical explanation for the odd things happening or if there really is a supernatural element to all this.

Things better start to make sense soon.