Poor Jikukawa!

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There was plenty of tension at the start of this episode. Thirteen episodes in and Kaito is already facing one of his precious friends thanks in part to the will of the Orpheus Order. However, unlike the numerous other characters thus far controlled by the rings, it seemed that Jikukawa wanted to differentiate himself from them. He would try to suppress the fake powers and control it himself. Could he be successful doing this? And even more, when faced against both a powerful foe and a puzzle that put their lives on the line?

Doubt and betrayal seemed to be on the minds of the friends. Even in me, a viewer, I had to doubt Jikukawa’s motives at this point. Although Cubic said he was surpressing the powers, it seemed that Jikukawa was still acting as if he were controlled. For example, he loved the school, so why would he have bombs planted that would blow up a significant portion of the school in the event the game lost? 

Puzzle time was interesting. Sliding Junction was simple yet fun. Simply put, they just had to slide the pieces in place to get their trolley to the opponents station. The most interesting aspect was giving Kaito a new role to play. Often we’ve only seen him serve in the solver’s role, however, in this game, which featured alternating giver and solver roles, required him to play both sides. It is nice when an anime switches roles up to show just how versatile some characters can be. 

Confirming our fears, Jikukawa seemed to be under the full control of the ring. How could we tell? Well, he parted ways with a key accessory, his apple juice, that now had no flavor!

Fortunately, it didn’t last for long as Kaito was able to bring him back. It really is always impressive how just Kaito’s simple expression of joy over a puzzle provides enough of a stimulus to characters to bring them from the brinks of mental collapse and back to the real world. For Jikukawa, this kick started his return as his mental state’s return was further amplified by him stepping on his apple juice and wondering what he was even doing. Knowing that he lost, he just gave up and the ring collapsed.

Overall, it was an interesting episode that provided a few more details on the fake Orpheus Rings. It brought up an interesting question of what would happen if Kaito had it as well as who would be able to save him. Thus far in the series, only perhaps Rook or Nonoha could fit that roles. Beyond that, Orpheus Order seemed to be prepared to make a move, though what it would entail wasn’t clear from the episode. 

GO Rating: 4/5