So we had quite a big shock moment at the end of Chapter 2. Anyone else think that the timing of Saikawa and Moe being casually allowed in the building and the disturbances at the lab was overly convenient? Was Magada provoked into some kind of fugue state after learning that Moe and Saikawa would be coming to the island?
My favorite part was when Yamane started approaching the open door and frantically introducing himself:
With chapter 3 done, I am officially irritated by the repetitions–the judo build, the baseball cap, and above all, the smoking. None of these things irritate me on their own, it is only how often they’re stuck in there that makes me grumble.
Anyway, into the locked room murder mystery! Plot-wise, I thought this was an interesting chapter. It blocks off most of the obvious solutions while introducing many potential suspects. The environment is further defined–the surveillance, the systems, the floors, the elevator. 犀川 smokes a lot. Lots going on.
Indeed, lots of things going on! And I’m a bit worried about 新藤所長. Are there gonna be several murders?? But maybe he’s still trying to contact the police, and for some reason the radio doesn’t work and maybe the helicopter mysteriously won’t take off or something. I have a feeling they’re meant to be cut off from the world for a while.
In general, for a place that seems to have pretty high security, they’re really letting Moe and Saikawa do as they please. Moe even gets to look at all the security footage. Whaat.
Yep, same here To be fair, the smoking already irritated me right from the start.
Yes, I thought so too! I totally expect him not to get out of this alive…
Also, why did our baseball cap friend disappear for such a long time? That was very suspicious, I think.
BTW I’m getting serious HAL vibes already…
And to speculate a bit about how this might end up altogether: The book title sounds like Deborah’s voice who said すべてが。。。 several times. F could mean “failure” here? - In other words, I definitely include Deborah in the list of suspects. Just how could she have pulled this off?
In part 5, what kind of wife refers to her own husband as あれ? Isn’t that a rude way of addressing someone, especially someone you’re close with? Maybe they’re just not very close or have a complicated relationship…?
To me the repetitions were not annoying, I’d rather have that than just the names of the people. I’m not very good at remembering Japanese names (yet) so I’d definitely mix up the characters, especially when several of them were introduced at the same time I do agree that there is a bit much of the smoking, though.
I still feel like there’s way too many named characters to keep track of, but at least stuff is getting more interesting with the mystery vibes. Somehow I felt like 新藤 could be a possible suspect at first, but after nobody had seen him partway through the chapter I’m guessing it’s more likely something happened to him. At least the system for delivering stuff seems like it would make the murder slightly less impossible though, even if I can’t say exactly how it could have been used
Aside from that I felt compelled to also mentally calculate that volume when Moe did somewhere near the middle of the chapter, and I can safely say it took me a bit longer than it did for her
To be fair, the smoking already irritated me right from the start.
I do agree that there is a bit much of the smoking, though.