And so The Perfect Insider comes to an end. This episode was pretty much of a piece with the last one – more meaningless pseudo-philosophy from our resident pseudo-geniuses, more glum reflections on how this entire show has essentially been yanking my chain. There were definitely nice moments here, though – the whole thing looked perfectly nice (I’m still totally cool with this show’s subdued color palette), and the long conversation between Moe and Souhei was actually pretty great. But basically every Magata moment was a chore, and there were a lot of Magata moments. Congratulations, Perfect Insider. You really had me going there.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
“Colorless Weekend”
Returning to the scene of Moe getting up in her apartment
The police told Moe to avoid Souhei
“I don’t think he needs me.” So in the end, Moe really does become a device for Souhei’s development. Bleh
Moe says she’s just a chain holding him back from Magata’s style of freedom. The other professor says Souhei thinks about her all the time
“Why did you do it?” “To go outside”
And Magata tries one of his cigarettes, just to try it
“What an interesting experience!”
“The natural state of things is death” more nonsense philosophy
“I think I would like someone else to kill me. I want someone else to interfere with my life”
Interference represents love
“Meaningless gestures can sometimes save people”
This is supposed to be a climactic moment, but I don’t care about either of these characters. One of those weird situations where it’s not the scene’s fault (though it also is that here), but the prior episodes
Aw dang, Magata got away
“Being killed is love?” “Love has no single shape”
“For those two, it was a very natural thing.” But Magata abused her daughter. Gah
Cool visuals of this memory
Good speech, too. Good recollection of Nishinosono’s father
Gido is actually Souhei’s sister
The Magata mother and daughter as two wise men. Lol
Perfect Insider’s quality was certainly uneven because it tried to balance two focuses (developing the characters / developing the mystery). But I think it deserves more credit than you give it. The mystery was nicely paced, you’re given enough time to muse over it and essentially everything could be derived by the audience (Magata was a programmer and hexadecimal system is programming 101, Shiki & her uncle had a sexual relationship so possible pregnancy, … ). The three mains where characterized to feel like actual characters, even if you did not agree with Saikawa (& Magata). The philosophy was hit-or-miss. There were some good scenes, others less so (actually liked the desert scene since it was the most straightforward Shiki had been). It wasn’t outstanding and certainly not memorable but I liked it for what it was.
Fun trivia since you’re a fan of Moe (and consequently the way her voice brought her character to life), her seiyuu got cast for Chise in Mahou Tsukai no Yome’s Drama CD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3XbW74-QQ
I really did enjoy it too. I always thought that Magata had just planted a doll filled with rotten meat in order to escape and that they would never truly check the “doll”, so the mystery was pretty interesting.
Her “philosophy” is much more believable when you take in account that she was a super-conscience from very early, and was still stuck in an infant body. That would account to her incessant search for “freedom”, which was being able to do whatever she wished for.