Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge - 4

"Where's the Guest?"

Yeah, this is definitely not for everyone. But it is for me, and damn is it good.

I don't know what the manga is like, but I have to say I'm really rather surprised that the adaptation of Dansai is willing to go where it has. Though I'll still argue that everything in this series is mysteriously alluring, right down to its sexuality, the series has somehow managed to get even more bizarre and out of conventional territory than it ever has been. I mean, how many series feature characters addicted to the erotic high of asphyxiation and wave it off as a matter of course? Make no mistake, this is not a series afraid of making strong narrative decisions; it doesn't seem to care very much on pandering for the sake of pandering (ecchi aside, some of this is pretty hard to digest if you're looking for a more conventional form of fanservice) and the more I watch, the more I'm convinced that this is a series about fetishists and how much that's affected by the supernatural aspect of the Hair Queen and her curse.

That being said, we don't have any real action this week for Kiri and Iwai to jump into, though things are no less interesting because of it. Yamane and her sister take steps to clarify just where it is they stand in regards to the game, and though it's not clear how sincere they are, they at least proclaim not to have killed Iwai's father. Whether or not they bear Iwai ill will is complicated as well; they did, after all, have plenty of time to act and kill her before Kiri showed up and became her protector, but they certainly don't seem to be innocent of mind, since Yamane has already tried to kill the Hair Queen. However, the real meat of the episode lies in the introduction of four new characters, namely the busty (but familiar-looking, hehe) and blind pianist Karuko Hitomi (Inoue Kikuko), her deaf partner (and piano tuner?) Koizumi Houichi (Koyasu Takehito), the justice-seeking Author Nakajima Seigi (Ishida Akira), and his Instead, the aforementioned asphyxiation addict (and, ironically, cop) Kozakura Zenigata (Nagatsuma Juri).

Interestingly, neither Nakajima nor Karuko (who is also an Author through her piano playing) seem intent on harming Iwai, and the former even claims that he'll help protect her for the sake of justice; unlike most of the Authors, he seems to enjoy his work, and his Killing Good won't kill anyone it deems unworthy in the first place (which is how Kozakura gets away with her addiction). However, neither is any less sinister despite their relative camaraderie with Kiri. Though Nakajima claims to be on the side of justice, Kozakura mentions that he often provokes criminals into committing a crime for the sake of prosecuting them, and Karuko and her Instead are shown as capable of murder as any of the other Authors. Kiri too, for all his Knight-In-Shining-Armor motivations has proven himself more than ready to shed blood, so it seems that its only a matter of time before this perverse game begins in earnest.

N.B.: Thanks to Ivan for his help capping!