The anime crew totally overhauled these scenes. Methinks to fast-track the four-chapter into two episodes. And the continuity is crazy good. Even the dialogue is changed. In the manga, Toto was so unsure he wanted to gather more evidence. However, in the anime Ron and Hummingbird talked about Toto, who was checking the rooms with the manager Mitsubashi.
The laptop as held by Toto (manga) and Hummingbird (anime)
Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Episode 19 Review - Talentnapping
Excuse me? What number did that police car have? 801? In the episode where Ron and Toto go on a date? Diomedea, are you shipping these two as much as the fans? I’m not complaining, though. This was clearly a date episode that was interrupted by work of all things again. Poor RonToto, work will always be the third wheel.
But yeah, a new case means a new situation. Instead of murder, this time, RonToto are dealing with serial kidnappings of talented people. The abductor is known as Hummingbird and they only abduct those with genius talent. Why? Not sure yet… However, the abductor’s target is coincidentally Nyonyon, the singer-songwriter that RonToto go to the concert of with the latter being a fan.
The craziest thing about the case is that we, the viewer, already know who Hummingbird is, if you saw the post-credit scene in the previous episode. Hummingbird is the detective Sanno and also the masked individual Ron spotted by the stairs at the concert venue. This means that the culprit is right next to them, yet Ron and Toto haven’t figured it out yet, which makes sense as they’re in work mode right now and have no idea that Sanno was the guy from earlier. Maybe Ron knows since he did the hair flip? Though, I’m also curious if Sanno is actually a detective or if he’s just posing as one.
Though, there are a few things bugging me about this case. If Nyonyon is afraid of heights, why is her office at the very top of a clock tower room? Also, is Mitsubashi, the manager, in on the kidnapping scheme or something? She just locked Nyonyon in her composing room while knowing she’s afraid of heights. Having her be alone is like the worst possible thing to happen because someone could easily swoop in from the curtain-shielding window. Or maybe there could be a secret room that Nyonyon was taken into?
New characters mean an influx of voice actors. Although these guys are just characters introduced for this new case, they have quite the well-known voice actors. Nyonyon is voiced by Ayahi Takagaki, who you might know from Durarara as Erika Karisawa. I think she does the singing too. Her manager Mitsubashi is voiced by Ami Koshimizu. Namazu, the newly introduced detective, is voiced by Rikiya Koyama. Sanno, or Hummingbird, is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai which makes me feel conflicted because a minor character like him is voiced by the same voice actor as one of my favorite anime villains Shogo Makishima from Psycho-Pass and that anime also has Akira Amano doing the character designs. Why must you do this?
It feels like the animation quality has went up a bit in this episode with how Nyonyon’s music video was animated. Though, I don’t really expect too much regarding animation for an anime like this as it’s not really action-focused as it is a mystery/detective story. I was just super happy about the RonToto moments. Regardless, I can’t wait to see what happens next. What could Hummingbird’s motive be for all these abductions? What are your thoughts on the episode?
