Saturday 16 July 2011

Kami-sama no Memo-chou - Episode 2

After a rather long gap since we enjoyed the opportunity to check out its first, double-length episode, it's finally time to dig back into Kami-sama no Memo-chou and another case for our NEET detective and her crew.

This time around, the case which comes to Alice's attention arrives via a Thai girl living in Japan named (or rather nick-named) Meo, after receiving a phone call from her father telling her to take a bag from a safe in their house and go on the run.  Needless to say, Meo's primary concern is with finding her father, but it doesn't take much investigation from Alice to find links between our missing man and the yakuza, and even less investigation to find that the bag being carried by Meo contains a ridiculous sum of money.


It's at this point that things begin to get a little more difficult (and might I say dangerous) for the gang, as they try to pinpoint exactly what the role of Meo's father is within the yakuza, and more importantly for who, with Narumi in particular finding himself in some rather intimidating circumstances when he isn't helping remove porn-induced malware from one yakuza gang's PC.  Come the end of this episode, Meo's desperation to see her dad threatens even greater danger for all involved, while Narumi's attitude and decision making when it comes to dealing with the group's client is also found to be wanting.

After that really rather excellent opening episode that benefited greatly from its longer running time, episode two of Kami-sama no Memo-chou has a lot to live up to.  Its story is certain interesting and solidly laid-out enough to hold my attention, although having to split the story down episodically means that this particular instalment feels a little all over the place as it jumps around somewhat rather like Alice's thought processes.  As it took until the second half of episode one for things to really click into gear, I think the proof of this particular story arc's putting while be in what episode three delivers - for now though, a couple of great moments of humour interspersed within a decent story framework means that this remains a very watchable viewing experience thus far.

No comments: