Sonny Boy – 03 – The Detective Is Already Snarky

Nozomi, Nagara, and Asakaze have turned out to be a pretty good survey team, with Nozomi locating new worlds with her Compass, Nagara being able to access them, and Asakaze bailing them out with his powers of flight.

When we check in they’ve already found thirteen new worlds, and Rajdhani is soaking up the data like a sponge at his beachfront laboratory. Their survey work is interrupted by an unsettling trend of students starting to freeze in place and turn pitch black, like voids in human form.

Since she’s the one with the most time on her hands owing to the immense wealth her power provides, Mizuho is put on the case, and she chooses Nagara as her Watson, partly to share what sounds like a hassle of a case, but also because Nagara…was nice to her previously, and she enjoys his company.

That said, she still initially treats him as a rank servant, making it clear that this isn’t a collaboration of equals. That said, she still orders a gaudy couch big enough for both of them, and even gets Nagara the same fast food order she got. When it comes to sharing the wealth, she’s fine sharing it with Nagara.

The uniting quality of the two students (who later become three, then four) who fell victim to the freezing phenomenon is that they kept to themselves, hardly anyone noticed them when they were around, and no one noticed when they suddenly vanished.

While Nagara is busy with Mizuho, Nozomi and Asakaze fail to find any new worlds. Despite this, Asakaze drops in specifically to tell Nagara that he’s not needed and that Nozomi doesn’t care if he doesn’t come back. Nagara brushes this off, and that ineffectual passivity irks Mizuko.

Eventually, Mizuho and Nagara break the case wide open when, no doubt due to Nagara’s unspoken power even he may not even be aware he has, they discover a portal to the space where the four students ended up.

They walk through a honeycomb of blackout curtain walls separating the four spaces of the students, all of whom are content to stay right where they are and keep doing what they’re doing indefinitely. It becomes evident that while they may be content, this wasn’t originally their doing, but another rule of the world, separating those no one else wants around or cares about.

After Nagara and Mizuho’s nightly debriefing with Cap and Pony, a minor disagreement causes simmering underlying resentment to boil over for both of them. Mizuho points how how watching Nozomi follow him around like a puppy grosses her out; Nagara accuses Mizuho of lying to show off and being “ill-natured” because she’s just another recluse; Mizuho tells Nagara to die and storms off.

It’s a testament to how much these two have come to know each other that they each know the precise buttons to press to sting hardest.

But because the two really do care what the other thinks of them despite words to the contrary, both of them feel bad about the spat. Fortunately, back at Rajdhani’s lab, Nozomi offers a clue Nagara hadn’t considered, and he texts an apology to Mizuho, along with a promise to be waiting by the blackout curtains tomorrow.

Armed with Rajdhani’s bizarre, whimsical instruments, the two get down to business lifting the blackout curtains and freeing the students. This is Sonny Boy at its most Eizouken, particularly with the fantastical machinery and Yuuki Aoi lending Mizuho such a wonderfully husky, distinctive voice.

With the case solved and the afflicted students retrieved, Nagara and Mizuho make up with a handshake; what was said when heads were less cool and frustration was mounting is water under the bridge.

As much if not more than their surreal surroundings, what I enjoyed most about this episode was just reveling in this nascent friendship between two people who don’t normally do so well around others doing just fine around one another. I daresay I wouldn’t even mind a whole cour of these two solving cases together.

On the periphery were some interesting inroads into the larget questions about this place, with Hoshi admitting a voice told him this would all happen, and Nozomi being the first to suggest that while she can spot new worlds, Nagara alone has the power to create portals between them.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 11 (Fin) – The New Boss

“Final Boss” Shigemaru leads Daisuke and Haru on a wild goose chase to the bowels of the Kanbe summer home. There, they not only find the allodium lab and his father’s research data, but a secret underground tube train that shoots them all the way back to Daisuke’s house, where Shigemaru is waiting for them. That is, until Daisuke remarks that his father was left-handed and this guy is right-handed, and the gig is up.

“Shigemaru” removes his mask to reveal he was an imposter all this time. Grandma Kikuko sics the guy on Haru while she and Diasuke discuss the future of the world over a cup of tea. Gran considers Allodium too dangerous to allow in any other hands but the Kanbes; it’s why she had Daisuke’s mother killed and Shigemaru framed. Haru eventually brings down the imposter, but not before he gets a bullet in the thigh.

Haru’s victory, and the fact the imposter was not given orders to kill him, end up mattering quite a bit. Daisuke is ready to transfer the Allodium research to scientists around the world, but hesitates in the powerful presence of his grandmother. Haru ends up making the choice to transfer the data for him, but by pressing the button on accident as a result of slumping over Suzue’s control panel.

This was never about Daisuke defeating the final boss, or even taking his rightful place on the throne of the Kanbe Empire, but making that Empire his own. To that end, he rejected generations of secrecy and lets the spread of Allodium information take place…then arrests his granny.

Weeks pass, Haru recovers, but turns down a return to the First Division, citing he can be a detective and dish out justice no matter where he is. He and Daisuke then proceed to do just that, tracking down all criminal activity regarding Allodium and stopping it in its tracks, with the help of HEUSC and Daisuke’s Unlimited Balance (The Second Division misfits also get full access to HEUSC, and of course use it for silly things like porn and sweets). On Daisuke and Haru’s particular mission, Suzue is on a well-deserved vacation.

In a nice bit of series symmetry, Daisuke’s brash, expensive actions end up blowing up part of the Manhattan Bridge, and Haru, even wearing one of those ASV suits, finds himself hanging on a ledge. Last time Daisuke let him fall because he neither trusted nor thought he needed Haru. Now the two are partners and pals, so Daisuke offers his hand…only to playfully pull it back, letting Haru fall in the drink once again. Same action, completely different motivations.

Blending James Bond and Batman billionaire tech and backstory with procedural detective stories and a uniquely Japanese keiretsu element made for a sleek and entertaining eleven episodes. If you’re into any or all of those and love a good rich family drama mystery full of bodacious crime-fighting toys, Fugou Keiji is a solid viewing choice.

Season Average: 8.55

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 10 – The Hero Returns

With a powerless ASV suit, Daisuke is at a distinct disadvantage against a seasoned bodyguard in Frantz Weinski armed with a mini-railgun-like weapon. Then Daisuke spots Haru in the shadows and has him drop a shipping container about as close to Frantz as possible without crushing him. Even after Haru saves him and patches him up in the galley, Daisuke still thinks Haru should have killed the guy, but Haru is a civil servant, not a secret agent, i.e. no license to kill, even in international waters.

Suzue isn’t sleeping on the situation, as she launches an armada of drones at the ship. They’re all shot down by lasers, but out of their wreckage emerge even smaller drones, one of which makes it to Daisuke with a new earring. Now no longer blind or on his own, Daisuke has Suzue map out the route to the engine room, where the Allodium reactor itself is interfering with his ASV suit.

Daisuke is somewhat slowed by his wound, but he still insists Haru go topside to serve as a diversion while he goes to the engine room alone. This means Haru has to run around and attract the attention of Frantz and the guards but not let them get close enough to kill him. Ultimately Frantz sees what Haru is doing, then races to the engine room to give Daisuke the “lesson” Shigemaru paid him for.

Haru isn’t far behind, and he has his gun…he just can’t shoot it. Not until Daisuke, remembering what Hoshino said and all the adventures they’ve been on, tells Haru that his job is to “make justice happen!” A simple civil servant won’t do in this situation…a hero is what’s needed. Haru’s hand steadies and he shoots the right wire that interrupts the cooling system and shuts down the drive.

With the drive down, Daisuke’s ASV is back online, which means he can be the superhero and incapacitate Frantz with ease. Then the drive blows and the ship starts to sink, so Suzue sends a chopper to rescue them. Daisuke heads to the bridge first, and Haru follows him.

There they find his dad, who has nothing to say for himself. Rather than take care of “family business” his own way, Daisuke holds out handcuffs for Shigemaru to take. He may have tossed his badge earlier, but still he intends to make justice happen, not revenge.

Unfortunately, Shigemaru gives them the slip, using HEUSC to fire a laser at Daisuke and then escaping on a hoverbike. But rather than chase him, the two detectives first do their jobs, loading Frantz and the crew members onto the chopper and taking them back to shore.

Only when their captives are safe do Daisuke and Haru head back to the chopper. When Hoshion asks Haru where they’re headed, Haru tells him, with a smile and glint in his eye that the final boss still needs to be caught. Hoshino grins at that; thanks to Daisuke, the hero is back.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 09 – Old Tricks Are the Best Tricks

This episode begins encouragingly, with Haru and Daisuke in the same room together. Unfortunately, they’re soon separated again, as Daisuke refuses to return to the station and tosses his badge, telling Haru the case is a personal family matter he’ll be handling in his own way, i.e. ostensibly alone, but really with the help of Suzue and his bottomless purse.

Back at the station, the Second Division is on the job, even as the First Division now led by Hoshino takes Haru in for questioning. No doubt awakened by his old friends’ deaths, Kiyomizu shows his underlings that the dice Cho-san always had on him were in fact a nifty transmitter-receiver set, and Cho-san’s last act before being killed was planting the transmitter on Shigemaru. Natural Po-lice to the end.

After mostly goofing off for most of the show, it’s awesome to see the Second Division misfits pull off through pure pluck and resourcefulness what it costs Daisuke hundreds of millions of yen to achieve. Even deprived of official cars, under the pretense of “going out for lunch” they slip out one by one to the “kabob truck”, actually an old surveillance van with an antenna.

As the lanky Kamei contorts himself on the van’s roof to get the antenna into position, Saeki works her computer mojo to attain a clear enough signal to hear. It’s the boat-loving Yumoto who first recognizes a marine motor, and then they hear sweagulls and a huge steam whistle. That means in the 10km-range of the die, the Oura Wharf is the only place Shigemaru could be.

Haru isn’t able to participate in this awesomeness, but he tells Hoshino the whole truth and nothing but the truth, which Hoshino can’t really believe because he still resents Haru for washing out of the First Division. However, upon searching Takei’s desk, he find’s Haru’s letter of resignation from two years ago; after killing the bank robber’s accomplice he’d become unable to fire his weapon. Thanks to Takei, he remained a detective with the Second Division.

Daisuke’s much more expensive solo investigation bears fruit when Suzue finds Shigemaru’s car, but assumes it’s a trap…and it is. Upon entering the car to read a letter bearing his name Daisuke is hit by nerve gas; thankfully he was wearing a protective mask.

As Suzue tracks surveillance footage of Shigemaru, HEUSC starts painstakingly deleting all the camera data in the city. With their video trail suddenly dried up, Daisuke suggests they create their own surveillance network with the power of Balance: UNLIMITED.

As Haru and a newly convinced and contrite Hoshino head to the wharf, he gets a video message offering cash prizes to anyone who turns on their video camera and spins around in place. In addition to reminding be of the excellent Gatchaman:Crowds in clever hijacking of mass technology, it’s a wonderfully whimsical workaround.

But the fact is, it is almost totally unnecessary. Had Daisuke kept in touch with Haru and his police colleagues he would have learned the position of his father a little bit quicker and with none of the cost. Haru actually beats Daisuke aboard the huge cargo ship in the wharf where Shigemaru’s signal is located.

Hoshino is there to tell Daisuke Haru is aboard, much to Daisuke’s surprise. He also tells Daisuke about Haru’s past, and that while he’d “stopped being a hero” after the bank incident, thanks to Daisuke he seems to have gotten his spark back. Daisuke listens as he puts on a Black Panther-like nanotech suit Suzue calls an “Active Support Veil”, one of the highest-tech toys we’ve yet seen.

Plunging his apparently amphibious Bentley Continental into the sea, he catches up to the ship and stows aboard, using his suit as camouflage until he locates Frantz Weinski, bodyguard of an international arms dealer and apparent accomplice of his not-dead dad.

But while Daisuke gets the jump on Frantz, upon confronting his dad, who stares down at his son from the bridge, an “Allodium antenna” is activated that causes EMP-like burst, deactivating Daisuke’s suit and thus his tactical advantage. Frantz smashes his earring and Suzue loses all contact; I wonder if she’ll stay away or take a helicopter out to sea.

Before his phone is fried by the Allodium burst, Haru gets a text from Suzue asking him to look after Daisuke. Just like that, the two detectives are back together, having chased the same trail by very different means. I liken those differing means to two very different consecutive James Bond films.

In Die Another Day the spy tech reached its peak of goofiness with the cloaking device-equipped Aston Martin “Vanish” (a pun on the car’s real name, Vanquish). Casino Royale, on the other hand, was a return to basics, and Bond’s “toys” were similarly stripped down, until by Skyfall he had the same old DB5 with an ejector seat.

If Daisuke was Die Another Day Bond when he boarded the ship, now he’s just a well-dressed man with no tech at all. Haru is unable to immediately rescue him from Frantz because he still can’t fire his gun. But he’s there, and Shigemaru pointedly says his son is not to be killed. It’s a big ship, and if there’s a way to save his partner that doesn’t involve cloaking suits or revolvers, I’m confident Haru will find it.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 08 – Much Ado(llium) About Something

19 years ago Chou-san’s fruitless obsession with the Kambe Sayuri murder began. But Daisuke actually witnessed his father killing as a lad. Far from joining the force to protect the Kambe family and its interests, Daisuke is as eager for answers about the murder—and his fathers suicide—as Chou-san.

Haru, who has basically been swept up in all this by Chou-san and Daisuke, thus becomes a willing member of their re-investigation team. While he’s initially tasked with what appears to be busy work—poring through piles of family files, it’s clear Daisuke is counting on Haru’s detective’s instincts to find something.

Meanwhile, Chou-san is served weird rich people food while he conducts an interrogation of Takei in a secure location within the Kambe residence, offering Takei expensive whisky as no sake is available. Unfortunately, Takei seems too scared to say anything more than they learned with the VR machine.

Daisuke’s grandma similarly stonewalls his efforts to acquire any further information about his parents’ deaths and the “third laboratory” where they both worked and where the mysterious Adollium was researched—a lab now suspiciously missing from the Kambe org chart.

When Suzue tries to bypass an uncooperative HEUSC by basically scouring the internet for mentions of Kambe’s father and the lab, an informational page suddenly shoots a 404 error and the remaining search results are suddenly reduced to zero before her eyes.

She clandestinely informs Daisuke that not only is HEUSC refusing any questioning, it’s now actively working against them, using their own voices and body language to keep them one step behind. She does this by taking a very confused Daisuke by the hand, throwing him on the bed, and covering the two of them with the sheet.

When Haru sees them slightly disheveled, there’s a whole lot he could say considering Daisuke told him Suzue is related to him; but more importantly, he’s found a clue in a photo of Daisuke and his folks that indicates a mountain summer mansion was the location of the Third Lab.

Daisuke and Haru head to the lab, with the latter serving as a auto-missile-chucking diversion so the former can infiltrate the lab. It’s good to see the two working side by side on the same case again, even if Haru was left in the dark about the exact nature of the heavy pack on his back.

As Daisuke gains access to the lab, Suzue reports an intruder back at the residence, who is having success breaking her firewalls in order to gain access to Takei’s cell. Stranger still, the computer identifies the intruder as Kambe Shigemaru, Daisuke’s dad. When the power to her control center is knocked out, she heads off the intruder, only to be knocked out cold.

The intruder than enters the cell, but despite being given an emergency escape route, Chou-san has no intention of crawling to safety like a rat. After one last drink of expensive liquor, he takes out his handcuffs and prepares to confront the knife-wielding intruder head on, and Takei stands beside him. It doesn’t go well.

So, things are a bit clearer now: Daisuke’s dad never committed suicide, but his death (and dental records) were faked…perhaps so he could continue his work without further interference. His wife clearly expressed moral and ethical objections about that work, but they were ignored. It’s possible Shigemaru snapped when Sayuri left him, and he certainly remains snapped to be able to slash two detectives to ribbons.

That said, there must be a method to his madness. He could be behind HEUSC working against Daisuke and Suzue, and he clearly exhibited the faculties to infiltrate the highly secure residence and its network. Whatever the state of his mind (and, incidentally, his research), Haru blames Daisuke for not coming to the doomed detectives’ aid sooner.

That said, Daisuke did give Chou-san an out from the start, but he made his choice (as did Takei). Chou called the Kambe Sayuri case his “life”, but now the case has outlived him. Here’s hoping his and Takei’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, and Daisuke and Haru will be able to complete Chou-san’s 19-year search for the truth…and for justice.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 07 – In Too Deep

I’ve already commented on my preference for fun cases-of-the-week centered on Haru and Daisuke’s budding buddy cop dynamic to the dense and lengthy trip down memory lane we get this week, but as someone with the belief a work of criticism should explore what you’ve been given (rather than harping on what you weren’t), this wasn’t a bad murder case diligently worked by good cops, then swept under the rug by higher-ups.

The relationship of then-relative newbie Takei Katsuhiro and Nakamoto Chousuke also provides an imperfect but still notable parallel to Haru and Daisuke’s dynamic: Takei and Haru are the by-the-book cops while Nakamoto and Daisuke are the mavericks, willing to go down any rabbit hole for the sake of justice.

The murder case they investigates is that of Kanbe Sayuri: Daisuke’s mother, and while her husband Shigemaru is the prime person of interest, he’s overseas and the Kanbe family (Daisuke’s gran) stonewalls the investigation. This doesn’t stop Nakamoto from stealing a photo album to positively ID Shigemaru as the suspect.

What Nakamoto didn’t expect was the album to contain a key to a locker likely containing data and materials on a top-secret material being developed by the Kanbe group. Just when they’re about to crack the case, that key turns up missing and Shigemaru is dead of apparent suicide.

For sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong, both Nakamoto and his boss Kiyomizu were sent to the drudgery of Modern Crimes, while Takei, the director’s son-in-law, remained in the first division, where all three men still reside.

The flashback is full of great details, such as the fact Takei’s wife is expecting and ends up giving birth while he is busy with a case that ultimately proves to be a dead end.  I also liked how Nakamoto always spit out the chocolate “seeds” of the watermelon pops he and Takei would often eat; a symbol of his ultimately career-torpedoing dedication to dispensing with bullshit.

Nineteen years later, Nakamoto has been hoping for a new lead in Sayuri’s case ever since Daisuke arrived at Modern Crimes, and sure enough, Daisuke admits he caused Imura’s car to go out of control so she could be arrested. What he didn’t do is cause the explosion, but Takei believes Daisuke is the culprit.

Takei wants to bring someone to justice to repay Nakamoto for his past kindness, but he ends up being knocked out by gas in his own car. By literally knocking down the front gate of the Kanbe compound with his Corolla, Haru and Nakamoto manages to get to Daisuke, who with Suzue’s help placed Takei in an elaborate virtual reality simulation that that reveals Director Saiki’s role in the cover-up.

Daisuke, Nakamoto, and Haru all want the case closed and justice served; Daisuke has already spent billions of yen in that effort. As Nakamoto told Takei regarding the ambitions inherent in marrying the boss’ daughter, justice requires power. All that remains to be seen is who out there still has more power than our good guys, and how they’ll continue to pervert that justice.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 06 – Playing it Dirty

The dealings at the embassy have given Daisuke an itch he can’t scratch, but the deeper he tries to dig, the more HEUSC blocks him with access walls. At a disciplinary hearing, the Second Division gets lightly chewed out before everyone playfully throws Katou under the bus.

No matter how things turned out, he should expect further punishment from the department down the road. Daisuke’s investigations end up crossing with those of elder detective Nakamoto Chousuke, who believes the company that built and smuggled in the jammer and gas is also related to a cold case he wants to solve before retiring.

Katou, who is forbidden from further digging into the embassy case, is hungry for a case, so accepts when Nakamoto asks for his help. When they fail to get any answers out of Imura, a company executive, Daisuke hacks her futuristic car and causes an accident.

By replacing her view of the road with the digital illusion she’d hit and killed a pedestrian, he’s able to arrest her for reckless driving and manslaughter.

Nakamoto watches through one-way glass while Daisuke tries and fails to get anything out of Imura. He’s able to get some strong reactions out of her from hacking into a company laptop, but it’s HEUSC who stops him dead in his tracks by refusing to crack open a highly classified file.

When Katou asks what Daisuke is up to, he gets stonewalled as well, a sign that while they’ve worked well together so far there are certain things Daisuke feels he must do alone. He’s not just keeping things from Katou, but Suzue as well, no doubt to try to keep them out of trouble.

When Katou sees that the case has gotten too personal for Nakamoto, who has taken to using less-than-kosher tactics to get what he wants, he declares he can no longer be a part of it. Despite being the black sheep of the department, Katou is still a rigid by-the-book guy when it comes to justice, and doesn’t buy Nakamoto’s self-serving justifications.

With that, he releases Imura, just when Nakamoto was minutes away from learning from her own mouth the connections between her company and the Kanbe family and her company. But when she starts her car—the one Daisuke had already tampered with—the battery explodes with her and an aide trapped inside.

I can’t believe Daisuke would murder to protect his family, so this must be something those who do have complete access to HEUSC were able to pull off. Both he and Suzue have admitted to HEUSC refusing their commands on grounds of insufficient authorization. But ultimately I think Daisuke is going to have to lower his own walls and accept help from his partner and relative. As for Nakamoto, the case he can’t let go of involves the murder of Kanbe Sayuri.

this case may be the focus of the show from this point on, and this was an episode that paved the way to a satisfying resolution. As for the episode as a whole, the fact it’s not a self-contained, open-shut case makes it a little less satisfying on its own. I’ll also always prefer human beings with motivations and qualities other than the pure evil of nebulous corporate specters.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 05 – No Need to Panic

This week the Second Division of Modern Crimes goes on a field trip—er, I mean an assignment to basically be warm bodies in front of an embassy during a sensitive diplomatic visit from a South American head of state.

Daisuke is apparently out because his grandmother has taken ill, but his colleagues learn that he’s the one the president is meeting with in his gran’s stead, since the Kambe conglomerate is building the dam that will change his country.

Hoshino and the First Division never let Haru and the Seconds forget their place, including when there’s a mix-up with their fancy lunches; the second have to surrender tasty Kyoto bentos in exchange for noodle cups. Basically no one other than Haru wants to be there and isn’t taking their job seriously, but are simply happy to be outside.

Meanwhile, Daisuke and the president are ushered into a panic room, but not before Daisuke launches a tiny surveillance drone from the heel of his shoe. They eventually learn that one of the embassy’s security detail is from a fraction opposed to the dam, and is responsible for the murder of the embassy chef.

We soon learn the reason he had to kill: he smuggled a VX gas bomb through the normal kitchen deliveries, and the chef saw too much. The terrorist then placed the bomb in the panic room so it would only kill the president and Daisuke.

Haru and Co. just so happen to notice when the perp leaps over the wall and attempts to flee. Haru gives chase (his colleagues are not in good enough shape to keep up), but the perp ends up saying his piece and jumping off the roof to his death. Due to wide-scale comms jamming, Haru can’t contact Daisuke or anyone else.

Suzue, who had no doubt been monitoring Daisuke closely, is on her way via motorcycle, but swerves to avoid a cat and must continue on foot. Even more distressing, when Daisuke asks HEUSC for the specs of the bomb so he can defuse it, HEUSC…refuses, stating Daisuke lacks proper authorization to be told that info. Unlimited his balance may be, but not his security clearance.

Daisuke resorts to a last-gasp effort to mitigate the gas release, but Haru ends up opening the door and saving his partner and the president in the absolute nick of time. While the terrorist had disposed of what he thought was the only unusual star-shaped key, Haru learns through Saeki that the embassy janitor made a copy so he could use the room to…ugh…jerk off.

This is how despite doing little other than eating strangely-flavored chips and almost successfully stealing the First Division’s lunch, Saeki ends up being the X-factor in the success of the mission, simply because she noticed the janitor wearing what looked like an uncharacteristically stylish piece of jewelry.

Thus ends another case-of-the-week, with the added bonus of Haru saving Daisuke despite the latter having access to HEUSC. I’m also glad Suzue wasn’t seriously hurt in her accident; I imagine she knows how to ditch any number of vehicles in a survivable manner; she’s exceedingly capable.

I’ve actually quite enjoyed the episodic nature of Millionaire Detective, but between Daisuke’s HEUSC access block, the Kambe-based origins of the bomb that almost killed him, and the fact Daisuke doesn’t intend to take over as the family head, there’s some interesting serial elements in play.

I’m also hoping that the tension between Haru and Hoshino is relieved at some point, if for no other reason than the Haru-vs.-First Division dynamic is growing rather stale. Heck, if Haru and Daisuke were able to achieve détente, anything is possible.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 04 – Two Lost Puppies

This might be my favorite episode of Balance: UNLIMITED yet, and it only cost Daisuke a scant $500: pocket change for the moths in Daisuke’s pockets if his pants weren’t mothproof. After some kind of quarrel (thankfully left undisclosed) he leaves his family’s palatial mansion on his day off.

Haru summons him to a park, where a fourth grader has guilted him into helping him find his lost puppy. Haru figures Daisuke can just employ the “magic” of his HEUSC and unlimited balance to find the pup, but Daisuke left home in such a hurry he’s without his interface earring, and left his phone in the butler Hattori’s minitruck.

With neither his tech nor any cash on hand and out in the world of ordinary people, Daisuke makes for an amusing fish out of water. Haru initially thinks he ditched him and the kid, but finds Daisuke waiting outside the station where Haru dropped the kid off to be united with his parents.

That’s when we learn that Suzue, who ran after him as he fled in the beginning, is desperate for Daisuke to return home; so much so that she hacks every electronic sign in his vicinity in order to urge him to return home.

Due to this cyber-stalking, Daisuke is resolute in not wanting to return home quite yet. Haru assumes he had a fight with his wife, but we officially learn Suzue isn’t Daisuke’s wife, but his “relative.” A relative who dotes on him excessively.

Instead, Daisuke elects to spend the night at Haru’s modest apartment; Haru must answer the question “You really live here?” far more times than he would like. He whips up a mean curry, presents Daisuke with some 1500-yen dry-cured ham that he declares “inedible” since it’s not Jamon Iberico de Bellota, and the two get drunk and watch crime dramas together.

It’s great to see these two do nothing together for once, but Suzue is a nervous wreck with Daisuke out in the world with nary a yen to his name, and pulls an all-nighter observing the giant monitors, drinking several energy shots and developing a strung-out Wednesday Addams appearance.

Seiyu Sakamoto Maaya brings a lot of energy, passion and enthusiasm to Suzue, who loses it when HEUSC almost mockingly declares “Balance: LIMITED.”

The next day Haru wakes to find Daisuke slept in the tub. Haru takes another day off to help the kid search for the dog, but they’re unsuccessful. It’s Daisuke who arrives at dusk with the puppy, or rather a member of the same litter; he learned the kid’s dog was hit by a car, and that it would be best if he didn’t know that.

Daisuke then heads home, not wanting to worry his family “too much”, and treats Suzue to Haru’s family recipe, “The Devil’s Natto Rice”, which of course she loves. In all, an extremely fun and informative low-key outing that was all about the characters.

It’s bonding episodes like these that God of High School desperately needed to establish the three leads as friends. Now that we’ve seen them hang out and do regular stuff together, it’s fully credible that Haru and Daisuke have grown a bit closer and learned a bit more about each other.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 03 – Shinkansen Standoff

I’m a week behind, but I finally got around to watching the continuation of one of the most promising, quality anime of the Covid-shortened Spring season, Balance: UNLIMITED. And I’m happy to report it’s just as solid, though this episode wasn’t quite as flashy as the first two. That said, I’m glad we get to meet Daisuke’s gran, one of the few people who can put him in his place.

When she tells him to accept his senpai Haru’s coaching, Daisuke has no choice but to comply. On the way back to Tokyo via Shinkansen, Haru finds himself sitting next to an unassuming-looking hungry college dropout, and gives him his onigiri.

Haru figures he has this guy pegged, but upon reaching Tokyo the platform is suddenly evacuated due to a standoff: that same mild-mannered seeming kid has a woman at gunpoint and is streaming the standoff live on “ChainTube”. We learn from bystanders that whoever scores ten million views in one day will earn 100 million “coins”, which is presumably a lot.

While Haru is first on the scene to to being a passenger, the First Division unceremoniously shoos him off. We flash back to a bank robbery in which he shot and killed a civilian who had pulled a gun on him after he shot the robber. While the First Division and his former partner don’t trust him anymore, Daisuke has no such compunctions, and in fact is obligated to follow Haru’s lead, having promised his grandmother.

Haru’s objective is to resolve the standoff without anyone dying, and Daisuke has the resources to put them in the best possible position to achieve it. That includes smoke rockets fired from the boot of his Bentley, a laser capable of cutting through the train’s windshield, the perp’s email records…and a gun, which the police Chief says he must use to shoot the perp if he gets a clear shot.

Once again Daisuke’s resources enable another way: having earlier asked his AI to provide info on the hostages in the car, he learns they’re a fan club for a male vocal quartet. Seeing their farewell concert is a matter for which they’re willing to risk their lives, something the young perp didn’t count on.

So Daisuke has the group choppered in to perform a quick impromptu show the group of fans can watch from within the train. The fans bum rush the perp, who loses the gun, only for the fan everyone thought he shot (but was just playing possum) knocks another gun into his hands.

Daisuke calmly approaches the perp and gets him to stand down with a promise to pay for his sister’s surgery—the money for which he was live-streaming the standoff. When Haru asks him how he knew the kid wouldn’t shoot, I was ready for Daisuke to say “My suit is bulletproof.” It probably is, but the real reason is that Haru told him it wasn’t in the kid to kill, and following his gran’s directive, trusted in his senpai.

Kakushigoto – 07 – What They Grow Beyond

Hime voices interest in a puppy, and researches a bunch to prepare, she comes across the “ten commandments of dog ownership”, one of which is to spend as much time as possible with your dog, as chances are they’ll only live ten years. Having any lifetime put in such stark terms is particularly upsetting to Kakushi, who later equates it to the life of a manga artist.

Kakushi comes around to having a dog when he learns through Ichiko how having one will help an only child feel less lonely (though Ichiko is not an only child), just as Hime learns from some mothers in an alley that they (i.e. what she and Kakushi don’t have) are necessary to properly care for a dog. If they knew Hime’s situation they probably wouldn’t have said that within earshot. Meanwhile, the original litter of puppies all found homes, but Kakushi’s father-in-law produces one for Kakushi to present to Hime.

It’s not just any dog, but the descendent of the dog Hime’s mother had (and the subject of her father’s painting, which one of Kakushi’s assistants find at the ocean house). While the moms discouraged Hime a bit, the sight of the new puppy erases those doubts, and she vows to sleep beside the puppy on its first night home (though later ends up kind of between her dad and the puppy).

Kakushi’s father isn’t done with anonymous gifts for Hime: Kakushi comes home to find a baby grand piano has been delivered. Like the dog with the long and distinguished lineage, the piano is a kind of inheritance. That gets Kakushi and the assistants thinking about how assistants inherit some of their masters’ style, but because they end up doing most of the physical work, it’s more of a new synthesis. Similarly, as master age their skills often wane while their apprentices rise.

In the midst of all this talk of lineage, and inheritance in the present, some new clues are presented in the obligatory flash forward. Hime’s classmates tailed her to the seaside house, continuing their detective club from school, but also because they’re worried about her. Then Ichiko appears, shockingly not in a tracksuit, bearing “good news and bad news.”

This got me thinking: perhaps Kakushi isn’t dead yet in this timeline? Maybe he’s just ill, bedridden, and possibly near the end. Maybe during this time he told Hime about the house, finally revealing the hidden thing he’d kept hidden so long even at 18 she had no idea what he did for a living. And maybe the good and bad news relate to his present condition. Or maybe not.

In any case, the consistent trickle of future information is starting to create a conflict: While I’ve enjoyed the present-day adventures of Kakushi, Hime & Co. (and the ensuing comedy), I’m beginning to care more about these more drama-oriented future events. There are essentially two shows here running in parallel, with the future one by far getting the short end of the stick runtime-wise. We’ll see whether and how the show manages to bridge these two times.

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 02 – Unnatural Police

Whether Katou likes it or not, money and not hard work makes the world go ’round. When he stops to watch a pair of street comics believing they’ll benefit from a real audience, Kanbe simply deposits 10,000 yen and they immediately stop performing and go out drinking. Katou is right that they’d probably continue working if they didn’t get a windfall from Kanbe, but Kanbe is right that their end goal was cold hard cash, so why waste everyone’s time?

Just as it got Kanbe on the force in record time, money makes the wheels of justice turn a little smoother, even if the sound of those wheels doesn’t sit right with Katou. Kanbe got in at the ground floor, but clearly has big plans for his new official position, as he smells drugs on the pair of comics and brings them in for questioning.

An old-fashioned detective manages to get the name of their supplier, but Katou’s AI/AR glasses and deep pockets net the same result. This round may be a tie, but the perps wouldn’t be in her were it not for Kanbe’s (or his AI’s) sensitive nose. The dealer is a male model who is popular with female models from a certain agency.

Katou and Kanbe then engage in some good old-fahsioned stakeout on the dealer, and Kanbe tries (and not surprisingly likes) instant Cup Noodles for the first time. But Katou keeps the stakeout up far longer, and his stink intensifies as the junk in his car propagates. Katou learns with help from his human asset Mita that the model is getting his supply from a yakuza underboss, aided by a gorgeous raven-haired go-between.

Katou follows this go-between…to her and Kanbe’s house, or rather their palace. Turns out she’s Kanbe Suzue, and she’s either Daisuke’s wife or sister (they very closely resemble each other). If he’s James Bond, Suzue is both gadget-master Q and attractive information broker Moneypenny.

Suzue also seems to be a bit less of a stuffed shirt than Daisuke, donning casual work clothes as she works on various machinery in what could only be described as the Kanbe’s Batcave. The bottom line is that again Kanbe has acquired as much if not more intel from the power of his purse than Katou has managed with his vintage gumshoeing.

That doesn’t stop Katou from storming out of Kanbe Manor, reconvening with Mita, and securing a spot at the mob boss’s latest drug and sex party. Things start out fine as he nabs the distracted boss’s smartphone, but he doesn’t make it past the massive bouncer, and has to be saved by the police mascot “Patrol”, whom he assumes is Kanbe but is really Mita, who had been paid by Kanbe to secure the smartphone.

On the rooftop, Daisuke and Suzue arrive via goddamn Apache helicopter and, after purchasing the whole building, proceeds to gas the entire place, using the floor-penetrating missile devised by Suzue. The boss and twenty others are arrested for drug-related charges, as well as suspected in the murder of a model that came up in the beginning of the episode.

That something that felt like a throwaway line at the time grew into an entire season of The Wire (only with a happy ending) speaks to the strength and agility of the storytelling.

Still, Katou still isn’t okay with Kanbe’s methods. Katou feels insulted on behalf of everyone Kanbe pays off to achieve his goals, and yet he can’t argue with the results. Lives were saved, bad guys caught, and justice will be done, and all at the nifty price of US $770 million. All while he got bogged down and almost killed trying to do things his way.

I mentioned The Wire above because it did indeed take an entire season of episodes to achieve what Kanbe did in a matter of days. Katou feels a lot like a sober McNulty before the systems stacked against the Good Guys fully crushed his spirit. He’s good at his job; what one on The Wire would call “Natural Po-lice”.

Meanwhile Kanbe is about as unnatural a po-lice as you can get. But despite coming off as a bit of an asshole, he’s not in this for the money, but to do something good and worthwhile with it. As incompatible a package as Kanbe presents to Katou, the contents are the same. He’s good police too, and they’ll achieve a lot more good by working together.

P.S. The cars in this show are very well-cast so far. Katou drives a staid, reliable Toyota Corolla E160 Axio. Kanbe’s daily driver is a third-gen Bentley Continental GT. The casanova they’re tailing drives a loud bright-red Porsche Cayenne Turbo. And a woman no doubt after sesameacrylic’s heart, Suzue gets around in a slick yellow Alfa Romeo 4C, an appropriate machine for a true gearhead.

P.P.S. Unfortunately, this is the last episode of Millionaire Detective we’ll be getting for a while, as the remaining episodes have been delayed due to you-know-what-19. We’ll miss it, as it had Top-5 potential, and will most definitely pick it back up if and when future episodes air. UPDATE: It is now scheduled to re-air, starting with the first episode, on July 16. Fingers crossed!

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 01 (First Impressions) – Anything’s Obtainable

Two men from completely different backgrounds start out hundreds of miles away, only to end up in the same car at the top of an opened drawbridge. Like a car gradually coasting down an increasingly steep hill, Fugou Keiji builds momentum slowly but surely, using a bustling Tokyo and a ticking time bomb to add to the difficulty level. And yet, nothing is really that difficult for Kanbe Daisuke, because his account balance is, for all intents and purposes, bottomless.

Daisuke has decided if things are going to be so easy for him, he should at least do some public good. Katou Haru, his future partner in the Metro Police’s Modern Crime Department, Second Division, couldn’t be more different than Daisuke. His credo is “money isn’t everything”, and his primary loyalty is to the ideal of justice for all, regardless of their assets. It’s simple, direct contrast that should make for a fun buddy cop dynamic.

Of course, first the show needs to bring these two together, and that’s where Yoko and Hiroshi come in. At first this pair of lovers are separate from the case involving classic cars, a wealthy Arabian prince, and a bomb. But after Hiroshi pooh-poohs a number of Ginza jewelry stores due to their tight security, he and Yoko end up inadvertently sticking up…a fancy chocolatier.

While Daisuke and Haru are essentially ciphers for their opposing philosophies this week, Yoko and Hiroshi are the beating emotional heart of the episode. Yoko’s gun is loaded only with paint rounds, but Hiroshi’s need for cash to appease the syndicate, and her feelings for Hiroshi despite his being a useless dipshit, lead them into a deeper and deeper hole, as they end up stealing the very van containing the bomb as a getaway car.

Daisuke quickly demonstrates how he does things by pulling the prince himself out of the fastest car in the parade—a mint AC Cobra—and paying over three times the prince’s offer on the spot thanks to his Augmented Reality/AI “butler”, HUESC. His character inhabits elements of James Bond, Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, and Richie Rich, and he’s an appropriately arrogant asshole about throwing his monetary weight around. He barely acknowledges the presence of Haru in his car.

Using HUESC to hack the traffic control of a major chunk of Tokyo, Daisuke arranges things so both he and the van they’re pursuing have a clear path to the drawbridge mentioned earlier. When Yoko tries to cross, Daisuke has HUESC open the bridge, trapping her and Hiroshi.

Then, in a move that’s more vigilante than cop, he pushes the van off the edge of the bridge into the drink with the Cobra. At no point does he warn the occupants either of the bomb in the back of the van or his intent to sink said van, implying they’re expendable as long as the bomb is neutralized. Hiroshi bails out, leaving Yoko all alone, and it’s up to Haru to save her.

At the foot of the bridge, a tearful Hiroshi is waiting there for Yoko, expecting her to forgive him for leaving her to die…which she does, as his mewling brings tears to her eyes. She just can’t quit this guy! Such a realistic depiction of a co-dependent relationship that benefits neither party.

Speaking of which, Haru manages to avoid falling with the van, but is just barely hanging onto the edge of the bridge. Does Daisuke lend him a helping hand? Readers, HE DOES NOT. He just stares at Haru like he’s an insignificant bug, until Haru’s grip gives out and he plunges into the drink. With the crisis averted, Daisuke simply saw no reason to muss his no doubt ruinously expensive suit dragging Haru up to safety.

The next day, all of the damages billed to the department have been paid twice over; a magical reset button Haru’s supervisor is all to happy to accept in exchange for Daisuke joining the Second Division. On the rooftop of police HQ, Haru confronts Daisuke, serenely smoking an expensive cigar on the helipad.

He condemns Daisuke’s methods as unbecoming an police officer, and warns him he’s no superhero, no matter how many lives he saved. Daisuke sidesteps lives altogether, and simply asks Haru “How much?” In a clever touch, we get an invoice of all the costs associated with the events of the episode before the credits roll.

Fugou Keiji is slick, stylish fun that pulls you in and takes you on a ride. It’s as inspirational (in terms of what’s possible given unlimited funds) as it is cautionary (showing what kind of person those funds makes you). I can’t wait to see how Daisuke and Haru butt heads in future cases, and what crazy expenditures Daisuke will rack up in the name of Getting Shit Done. This wasn’t initially on my Spring list…but it is now.