The Perfect Insider – Episode 8

The Perfect Insider pulled out another great episode this week, cementing the rally it began in last week’s episode. Instead of working to push the overt narrative forward or give us lots of new information, this one instead honed in on the relationship between Moe and Souhei, offering up some of their most compelling exchanges since the very first episode. Between last week’s reveals and this week’s behavior, Souhei is actually somehow coming into his own as a character, coming across as pretentious for sure, but also legitimately dedicated to Moe in a familial way. Now that it seems clear there’s never going to be any romance there, and for a very good and understandable reason, their relationship is much more engaging. I hope the show can keep this up through the ending.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

The Perfect Insider

The opening seems to have more significance now that it’s likely they’re chasing Magata into a digital world

“Purple Dawn”

Shimada’s still in her school swimsuit

Anyone can log into those machines. Shimada’s not sure who made contact with Moe, but a new name was registered

The new name registered was “Michiru”

“I have no spare mental capacity to deal with you” hahaha Moe

“Do you think Miki-san resembles Magata?”

“If we don’t answer questions, we aren’t liars, right?”

Moe’s not putting clothes back on, but it makes sense. She really wants Souhei to notice her

“Maybe it was two murders with two motives that happened to coincide”

Moe’s just having a good time in general

“I kept asking you ‘why do people live?’ Every time you had a different answer, and never one I understood” Really nice scene. The slow dawn framing device is great

They’re trying to switch from Red Magic to UNIX

A Trojan in Red Magic – something that appears to be a useful program, but contains destructive functions

Souhei with a fond look towards sleeping Moe, but then remembering himself and awkwardly shifting away, regaining his distant expression

“Death happens all the time. It just happened to be physically near us.” Moe and Souhei are certainly both unique

“You’re in a very good mood. I can tell. You’ve figured something out, haven’t you.” But it seems like Souhei actually is just enjoying his time with Moe. But she wouldn’t believe that, and he can’t tell her

Talking about the different ways they think. Souhei tries to find the correct path towards the truth, and move slowly down it. Moe thinks laterally, tossing out ideas and seeking new connections between them

“Everything” as the operative word in the phrase. Will shutting down Red Magic make everything Red Magic, pull everything into Magata’s world?

Both of them use the mystery to create distance and safety

Talking about Magata wearing gloves in Red Magic

Ostriches in Souhei’s mind. OKAY

Moe wants to figure out what Souhei’s learned on her own