Un-Go - Episode 4

Last week's instalment of Un-Go left us with the unlikeliest of cliff-hangers, revealing that the young head of the Sasa family isn't so much dead as he is currently operating as some kind of cupboard.

Given that fact, it's pretty obvious that Kazamori isn't in fact an adopted child of the Sasa family, but rather a RAI - a now-outlawed cyborg built and created by his "father" Komamori.  So, that's one mystery answered, but a more pressing question remains - if Kazamori is "alive", then who did burn to death within the Sasa residence?  No matter who it was it seems likely that Kazamori was the culprit, but Shinjurou thinks otherwise, transferring this digital suspect into the body of a small toy before leaving the house as the powers that be arrest what they believe to be Kazamori.

With no ability to lie (even without Inga's powers), quizzing Kazamori on whether or not he's a murderer seems simple enough, but his silence proves none too helpful before Shinjurou finds himself the subject of some rather aggressive government types.  Avoiding their attentions thanks to some of the other strings to Inga's bow, it's time to unravel the truth - a truth which brings with it surprise after surprise right the way through to the introduction of the long-thought dead Komamori, while also revealing both killer and victim in the case which started this entire chain of events.

So ends a two episode story arc which far surpassed its predecessors to create an excellent and clever piece of story-telling that revelled in its twists and turns while providing some thought-provoking fare to boot.  Let's also not pretend that there wasn't an eye inwardly turned towards the anime industry in this episode, with its tale of non-human individuals being used in depictions of sex and violence, leading to their being banned for adversely affecting the health of the youth.  "But it's okay, they're not real!" cries Komamori Sasa, but does that make using them for those acts okay?  It's a question that this story doesn't explicitly answer, preferring instead to dwell on the definitive wrongs of murdering a man, but it's an interesting one to chew on nonetheless.  Aside from such things, this was still a nice little piece of science fiction detective story-telling, and hopefully it paves a way for more similar exploits in the future - spreading stories out over two episodes like this certainly allows the plot and characters more time to grow, and it really paid dividends on this occasion.