Saturday late night (or actually Sunday early morning, or in practical terms just plain Sunday for me) was a flashy anime time this season. Nige Jouzu, Yatagarasu, Makeine. It had really good shows with a big range of styles. But The Fable was always lurking there in its low-key fashion. Anything but flashy to be sure, but substantial in every way that mattered. This was a series that wormed its way into my consciousness more and more as it progressed. And absolutely unique in its own right, along with its singularly weird protagonist.
The aftermath of the Utsubo affair revealed a couple of loose ends to tie up. First Isaki, who met the end I rather expected him to in light of what happened with Kainuma’s body. It would have been dangerous for Suzuki to keep him around anyway but that screw-up probably sealed his fate. Kuro-chan had no problem selling his former comrade out, Isaki’s clumsy attempt to fish for intel on the Maguro Group having violated the yakuza code of conduct. Before Suzuki disappears he gives Kuro two things – first, the advice that trying to follow in Akira’s footsteps is a fool’s errand (like me, Suzuki is most impressed with Fable’s intuition). And second, a letter from Hina to give to Akira.
From there on it’s more or less a coda episode, which is something I’m always glad to receive (especially with multi-cour series). The quiet moments with nothing but dialogue are really this series at its best. The humor is extremely deadpan and very unique, but those moments like Youko and Akira’s conversation over the oden pot just leave me in stitches. She gets very upset with the whole stone grenade situation, especially when Akira gives the same assessment Suzuki did. And then she tries to teach Akira how to react emotionally like an ordinary person would (Youko specifically doing that is hilarious on so many levels), which I think we can take as a sort of payback.
Suzuki keeps Utsubo’s ¥20 million escape fund for himself, and turns over the ¥6 million Isaki had to Kuro on the grounds that it’s just “dead weight”. Kuro then turns around and tries to give it to Akira, who once more displays a sneaky psychological dexterity by accepting it and then presenting it to Kuro as a gift. He does ask for the Lexus, on the grounds that it has his blood in it and he doesn’t want that just lying around. Kuro gets Ebihara’s permission, the latter telling him to get the Hakosuka towed and bring him the key, Alas, Kuro takes the initiative to have it scrapped first – which really does beg the question of what he thought Ebihara wanted the key for…
Back at Octopus the news comes in that Kainuma is dead, and I guess it’s understandable that Prez and Misaki are shocked even though he was a raging dickhead. Akira’s design career continues to take off, with his Christmas drawings proving a big charmer. Misaki is especially charmed by the image of the young woman standing up from her wheelchair, and seems to sense there’s more to that story than Akira is letting on. With his new responsibilities Akira is now a thousand Yen man (I guess Octopus can afford that now). And Prez goes into full-on wingman mode, deciding that it’s time to try and get Misaki and Akira together officially.
To that end, Prez proposes an Octopus Christmas party (that being the biggest dating holiday of the year in Japan). Misaki suggests that Akira invite Youko, and she’s only too willing given that there’s drinking involved and that the Prez seems to be a serious boozer. And there’s one more development which may mean nothing but stands out as interesting to me, that whole bit with Jackal getting a Christmas present – the renewal of his TV show. Again, maybe it means nothing but it was interesting that they would include it as it’s not even really a gag – and all the more since I later found out it was anime-original.
Finally, the letter from Hina, the contents of which aren’t revealed until the final moments of the episode. This is played absolutely straight, with Hina thanking Akira for everything he’s done and for saving her from prostitution, and asking him to imagine her walking in six months. Hina knows who Akira is, and given his situation that’s a pretty big deal – she’s an extreme danger to him now. But it’s one he chooses to live with, and in fact I wondered if we might get a little taste of that emotion that Youko was asking for earlier in the ep. But no, this is still Akira – he is who he is, and always will be.
Whether there’s another season or not (maybe the Jackal thing is just grasping at straws), I consider this adaptation to be a pretty successful one. As it progressed I became less mindful of the things it lacks (top-quality animation and visual flair) and more aware of everything it has in spades. The casting was superb, and the world-building and tone-setting were extremely effective. It was easy to lose yourself in this seemingly mundane Osaka full of extreme oddballs every week, maybe for the very reason that the direction and visuals were so low-key. For the material at hand this adaptation worked very well, and probably deserves more credit than it’s been getting (including from me). I’m certainly going to miss it.
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