Yuukoku no Moriarty 2nd Season Episode 3 Discussion

BertKnot said:
There is such a lack of understanding on who is Irene Adler and what made her so special in Conan Doyle's masterpiece 'A Scandal in Bohemia'. There are so many characters in the Sherlock Holmes canon that are so unique, so well-written and so special to many readers across time and space that adaptations and apocryphal writings cannot help but lavish them with even more attention, which is counter-productive to what made Conan Doyle's detective tales so appealing in the first place.

Irene Adler is one of these characters, even though she only appeared once in the entirety of the canon - which is quite understandable, considering she bested Holmes to his own game. What a fascinating and iconic figure to adapt into other forms of media, right? The problem is that all of these adaptations fail to understand her character. In most of them, she is a rather boring, dull, and pointless 'femme fatale' - and 'Moriarty the Patriot' is no exception unfortunately.
I do not mind the idea of rewriting Adler, what I mind however is the rewriting in question being good and especially respectful to the character: I am sorry to report that using the very tiresome trope of the 'femme fatale' is not doing Irene Adler any favour. Not only is it quite expected, it is also very boring for the most part. You have this brilliant female character, and what do you do with it? This sexy, cliché 'femme fatale'... Come on, can't you be a bit more creative please?

In the case of 'Moriarty the Patriot', I am afraid it is even worse than that: the twist by the end is at odds with what her character stood for in the original story. She was 'The Woman', the one who outsmarted Holmes, and got away with her significant achievement. She even disproved his reductive views on women - Holmes lost, thus had to learn a lesson from this severe defeat in his detective career. We were shown that even the great detective - so full of himself - was not immune to the biaises of the patriarchal culture he lived in. Needless to say that for a story published right at the end of 19th century England (and by a man no less), it made careful strides on how men had to challenge their preconceptions on women. What a progressive story that turned out to be also one of the most compelling detective tales ever written.

What did the scriptwriter working for the 'Moriarty the Patriot' choose to do with this premise? Well.. I guess Irene Adler has to be protected by men now. She also has to become a man against her own will, because as a woman she cannot really succeed I suppose... Oh, and why not naming her 'James Bond', since she is working with the MI6 now, *wink wink*... Not quite the relevant timeframe for this nod, but whatever. Cannot wait for Dr. Who and The Beatles to make their debuts in the upcoming episodes!

As a Sherlock Holmes aficionado, this had to be one of the cringiest things I have ever witnessed. And let's not dwell on the 'Robespierre being Sherrinford (AH) Holmes' or the old French Revolution conspiracy theory I certainly did not expect to find here. I get that 'Moriarty the Patriot' is clearly not 'tailor-made' for me, but I am sorry to say that I truly fail to see what was enjoyable in this messy arc. The narrative was all-over the place. The twisting and the untwisting plot also made very little sense, and was far from being compelling. There was no 4D Chess at play here, just 'bad writing' in my opinion. Cool if people liked it - more power to them - but I am not one of them.

I did not like the first season, but I still wanted to give this show another shot considering the PV for season 2 focused on the 'A Scandal in Bohemia' adaptation. I guess I should not have, I am just not the target audience.

Im_Stuff said:
First the French Revolution shit, then James Bond. It's probably the first "darker" anime that I'm just not able to take seriously

hachiclo said:
And Irene joins the crew. As James Bonde. Seriously.....lololllll

Stark700 said:
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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Hmm, it seems Irene is actually quite important this season and the length that Sherlock is going to protect her is something else.

Irene is one of those characters that is hard to trust tbh. But for someone like Sherlock, he seems prepared to take any measures this arc. Quite a thrilling episode imo.

Ashhk said:
Hmm an arrangement between Moriarty and Sherlock to protect Irene's life.
I loved that part about the french revolution, so Robespierre = Holmes' ancestor... wut xD
And now it's time for Irene Adler to get a new life... she's James Bond now? xD

jd2001z said:
WOAH ok I'm not that knowledgable in Sherlock Holmes books or anything of that, but I never would have expected that James Bond part. I'm definitely looking forward to more.

issen-ken-taka said:


Yeah, the show was always cheesy, but this whole French Revolution and James Bonde thing really jumped the shark. I legit burst out laughing when she said that lol

RobertBobert said:


Also, how could you forget all these parallels with Lelouch and Code Geass? An anti-villain who wants to change the world and become a scapegoat to unite people, yes yes. Do I have to remind you that their archenemies are the same white knights with high morals?

Ashhk said:


That's true indeed, but it's been like that since the beginning, even though with these settings it feels that different xD

RobertBobert said:

Well, they still have a way to go. For example, they might reveal that the Duke of Wellington is actually a woman who conceived her own magical clone using gender bender magic and yuri.

issen-ken-taka said:


I had moved on from the show, throwing it away into the dark pits of my mind to be forgotten as it deserved, but I might as well say one last thing since I got this notification.

At the end of the day I was thoroughly disappointed. It's just another failed attempt at mimicking the greatness of stuff like Code Geass and Death Note. Except Moriarty isn't anywhere as smart as Lelouch or Light. He just has plot contrivances on his side. Death Note was a lot better written and interesting. Code Geass was probably less smart than Death Note, but at least it had some serious action scenes to keep you going. Moriarty meanwhile is primarily a smarts anime like Death Note but fails to reach to even Code Geass levels. I first realised this with the convoluted bank scene, where Moriarty somehow planned it all... utter nonsense. But the show really jumped the shark when it tired to pull a Code Geass ending and have Moriarty "sacrifice" himself... Sadly it's been a while and I've already started forgetting a lot of details (thank God) so this is probably less coherent than it would have been had I written it immediately after watching, when I was talking with my friends about the show, but it'll have to do.

TL;DR Moriarty does not deserve the score it has on MAL. It would better fit the 7.0-7.5 bracket.

RobertBobert said:

Well, I don't think the show is bad overall, but I wouldn't be surprised if a notable percentage of the high ratings came from people who still believe in Sherlock x Moriarty's potential. This persists even after the author has expressly refuted it.

issen-ken-taka said:


IMHO, scores are less likely to reflect quality the fewer people voted on them.

IME, while the score scaling on MAL is shifted (i.e. 5 doesn't mean mediocre, more like 7 means mediocre, IMHO, with 8 being good, and 9 being amazing, and 6 being terrible for the most part) it is consistent. Most of the time I find I agree with where the show is positioned on this shifted MAL scale of 1 to 10 where the 7 is mediocrity. I did notice some exceptions, but when I did it was because of the aforementioned lack of people voting. Scores with 1.6 million members are generally a lot more trustworthy than scores with 10k members. S1 at 8.13 at 100k members is closer to reality, IMHO, than S2, which I'd argue was worse, or at least included that express refutal you mentioned, and made me too realise it was a lost cause, that has 8.23 but only 61k members. I assume the score will decrease as more people watch the show. Just my theory.