#16: The Last Target

Ah yeah, it definitely seems like Fukube is jealous of Oreki’s skills. So let’s see if the self-titled database can solve the mystery behind Juumonji, once and for all. Of course, this doesn’t go without some unwanted competition from Tani and some other people who are out keeping watch over the halls.

Tomoe is going around the festival in the midst of all this panic with a smile, so she decides to visit her brother, who’s having a little more luck with selling the anthology than the previous episodes. This week’s strange item is a manga called “A Corpse by Evening.” Sound familiar? It should, because it’s the one that Ibara is looking for. Fukube discovers that Juumonji has skipped a letter, and instead, decided to steal a string from Yui’s Gitah in the K-ON! club. Chitanda gets some broadcast time on the local station to tell everyone that one in every twelve Americans are unaware that the bird is the word. The Manga Society is as dramu-filled as ever when one of those bitches tires to sabotage Ibara’s poster, but a bump from a fellow student makes it even worse. Ibara herself is sabotaged. On her way out, however, she meets up with Chitanda, who’s got the manga she’s been looking for. The manga that has similar art to the festival poster. Looks like this manga, by the way, was written by a group of people. Oreki read through some of the information and self-review on in the back of the book. Pretty interesting.

Well now it’s really kinda funny to see Oreki get owned by everyone on simplistic things, like who the Student Council president is and how to pronounce things. There’s strength and weaknesses in everyone here. Oreki’s just the mystery-solving guy. That, or he’s too lazy to know the council president. Either/or, or maybe both, it doesn’t matter. All I know is that Oreki got owned for a minute. After some curiosity, Oreki decides to tell Fukube only. We can see Fukube’s jealousy getting the better of him, but he backs off, and let’s Oreki give his theory, connecting this incident to, of course, Christie’s the ABC Murders. Either that or And Then There Were None are easy to pin as the inspiration here. In fact, it’s a possibility that this Juumonji Incident was announced last year in the “A Corpse by Evening” manga. Fukube heads back, but hopes Oreki won’t let them down. Perhaps he’s realizing that Oreki has talents of his own. Elsewhere, we have one ditzy Chitanda on the broadcasting show. She slams into the mic as the episode closes. Wow, to be honest, I thought it was gonna end this week, but I’m not complaining. This arc has been so different and interesting from the rest that it’s pretty fun to watch.

Next: Kudryavka’s Order