The Fifth Bone – “The Cursed Man, Part 2”

Each episode opens with the sentiment that each story is dedicated to those trapped by the past, and that wish has held true as Sakurako-san consistently uses bones and corpses as windows into the past. However, this particular arc was slightly different in that nobody was dead or even died by the end, which was a nice change of pace. It was all about using deductive reasoning to prevent a tragedy from occurring, rather than using the remnants of a tragedy to piece together how the event transpired.

Last week, I mentioned how I was interested in seeing how this mystery would be affected from having an extra episode, compared to all of the previous episodes, and I think it largely benefited from the increased amount of exposition. Though as a small bit of consequence, for the majority of this episode, it felt like we are sliding down the slide of resolution. More answers are being answered rather than questions being asked, more tension is being released than built up.

I think a lot of this is due to with how much expertise Sakurako-san can approach any situation. At least in this episode specifically, it is a lot of just Sakurako-san rattling off explanations, without any real explanation as to why she knows all of this information. I get that working with and being obsessed with bones makes one knowledgeable about things like this, but it almost sucks the fun out of the mystery, especially when so much of the resolution is packed into one episode. This doesn’t mean I don’t like Sakurako-san’s character though(I like her quite a lot), and I think she plays a great Sherlock Holmes with her own Watson in Shoutarou.

Perhaps the person who suffers the most from being ensnared by the past is Sakurako-san herself. The series has been dropping hints concerning Soutarou and those specific events from the days gone by. That, to me, is the most exciting part of the series, and I can’t wait to see how things are connected together. Speaking of which, I really appreciate how all of the characters from previous episodes show up at the end of this episode. It shows that these characters are more than just vessels that move a single story around. They have lives that continue after each mystery; seeing them congregate and have fun like that is proof.

“From a psychological standpoint, anxiety can be a lethal poison.” ~ Sakurako Kujou

B.W.