Do you really think that’s all the yakuza would do — smash a plate or two and knock some chopsticks to the floor? With 200 million yen on the line, the Kushiwada Group send a few muscle men only to yell at Minli a bit. When Minli doesn’t give in, they leave without a fuss — c’mon, really? I don’t take delight in women getting beaten up, but I’m not going to call foul if it makes sense within the narrative. The yakuza are supposed to be dangerous; the threat to Meo’s father is supposed to be imminent.
Tastes bad, bro.
But “fraud ramen” is all they could think of. This is Japan, y’know, where shame is the most potent weapon, i.e. they could have called the shopkeeper a whore or something. It seems as if the anime will only handle its female characters with kiddie gloves and that is truly patronizing. After all, the only “real” danger is Narumi getting beaten up and some bros clashing with other bros. In the end, Meo’s father walks away no worse for wear — okay, so maybe he broke his arm, but it didn’t seem like his life was in any real trouble. The result of this is flaccid drama and equally flaccid tension; where there’s no danger, there’s no excitement.
After all, the yakuza couldn’t even rough up a pretty anime female. So when Meo runs away and tries to barter for her dad’s life, her desperation doesn’t translate through the screen. We don’t connect to her because her predicament doesn’t feel serious. Sure, there’s usually the presumption in these stories that things will always work out in the end, but that’s an inherent challenge that “Kamisama no Memo-chou” has to tackle head on. The anime’s job is to make us doubt whether or not the good guys can pull through. If the anime can’t, I’m just watching a less charming “Scooby Doo.”
Stray Observations
• These guys look like they’re getting married:
• For a job well done, Alice pats Narumi’s hair, which is a bit of a role reversal. Usually, the guy pats the girl on the head and she blushes. Still, when Alice does it to Narumi, I just think she’s patting a dog. “Who’s a good dog who came up with a clever plan! Yes, you are! Yeeeeees, you are!”
• So what happens to that 200 million yen? Does it stay in Kusakabe’s account for good? Wouldn’t the bank find it suspicious to see such a giant deposit all in a single day?
I think they split the deposit up into many transactions to keep it from being detected. I have no idea why the Yakuza would just stop at this point, though. Unless Kusakabe and Meo leave Japan, I don’t understand why the Yakuza wouldn’t just pick him up again.
The amounts of transactions would still trigger a red flag. As for the yakuza stopping after they got beaten up, well, they don’t exactly look like the bravest group out there.
*tips chopsticks over*
Totally agree with you on this one, E Minor.
This is one of the most facepalm-worthy anime displays of the Yakuza I’ve ever seen. They came off like generic, useless, and harmless thugs from a 80s Saturday Morning cartoon. XD
This anime is too kiddie gloves and idealistic for its own good. That does not gel well at all with a Detective story of all things.
It doesn’t help also that Japan, naturally, has a body of really awesome yakuza flicks all with extreme brutality. Then you watch “Kamisama no Memo-chou” and a punk high school kid waltzes right into the leader’s office and tells him off. Yeah… I’m not asking for “Ichi the Killer” level of violence, but this episode was weak.
Was Alice on a stool when she petted Narumi or was he kneeling when she did it?
From the looks of it, those Yakuza are like high school bullies. Using vandalism and slander. That’s classy. I guess those guy were holding that money for some high rankers because they’re acting like rookies. Now if it were real Yakuza, there would
Remember “Waltz for Venus” from Cowboy Bebop. That bathroom scene had real tension for me because the gangsters the man was running from were right there next to him. And that episode didn’t have a happy ending (still makes me cry).
If Memo-chou worked on the conflict more, there would the a reason the care about the detectives. But alas, as a poster girl, Alice must remain one note to sell merchandise.
200 million yen is no chump sum, so I doubt the group would just send some rookies to do the dirty work. I just think the anime fucked up.