The Fable – 22 – Lost in Anime

Perhaps more than any series I know, The fable strikes a believable balance in its depiction of the Japanese mafia, as I kind of think it is. Some people here are smart, some are pretty dumb. There are those evil in a calculating way, crazy violence addicted dogs, power seekers. Most of them are oddballs and social misfits. It manages to show us these characters as people and individuals without overly romanticizing them. I don’t know why that balance is so elusive for animanga, but it sure is.

Utsubo definitely qualifies as one of the villains, perhaps the worst in the cast. I think it’s his arrogance that compels him to take on Akira, when someone as calculating and clever as he is knows it’s a bad idea. There’s also an element of revenge, of course, since Fable took out his brother. Ironic, considering Utsubo created the whole revenge fic around Hina and her parents, who he killed themselves in an attempt (failed) to provoke Fable. Akira didn’t seek out this fight – he’s actually been true to his word and hasn’t really sought it out in this series. Utsubo was once his target – as Kawahira Kouichi – but that moment has passed. If Utsubo would leave Akira alone, Akira would return the favor.

For Suzuki, it’s more about pride than arrogance (and there’s a difference). The fact that he interrogates the arms dealer (targeting Akira is a boon to his business) about an overseas escape route (which will cost him ¥10 million) suggests that he doesn’t see his future in Utsubo’s. There are potential betrayals everywhere here, and that’s not even mentioning Isaki (whose usefulness to Utsubo is nearly over). I’m not convinced that Hina believes Utsubo’s lie about Satou murdering her parents. She may have asked for that gun because she’s waiting for the right moment to point it at Utsubo.

Speaking of Isaki, how he’ll play out in the finale is yet to be determined. What’s not known yet is that he’s a bit of a fuck-up. After losing Kainuma and finding his body at the bottom of a ravine, he dumps it in the river instead of trying to get it up the slope. I couldn’t possibly be less of an expert in this kind of thing, but damn, even I can tell this is a bad idea. He eventually asks Kuro for advice on whether people fish in that river (Kuro, of course, has no idea) and later tries to get a car from the Maguro Group. Is he planning on escaping himself, or does he have something else in mind?

When we first saw Ebihara in a while, I thought Akira would actually try to work with them to fix this mess, but nope – he just wanted Suzuki’s hidden camera footage of Youko erased. Utsubo comes clean and tells Akira that they’re at war, more or less, and Suzuki has come up with a Plan A – an infrared-activated grenade and an RC car. To a normal human, that might be effective – against Akira, not so much. Akira is walking into a trap knowingly and confidently, so confident is he that he can avoid it. But man, that grenade explosion can’t be good for the neighbors. Not his fault, I know, but collateral damage is something he can feel guilty about.

There’s no doubt that Utsubo was right. He had a good handle on Akira’s motivations, and he certainly feels he can use them against Akira. As we’ve seen time and time again, none of these people have any idea what they’re dealing with him. Their risk assessments are calibrated to mere mortals—Akira breaks their scales. His only concern is really minimizing damage to others (a grenade makes that pretty difficult) and solving cases for the innocents caught up in his fights. That proved to be a big challenge with Misaki and Koujima, and it looks like it’ll be even more of a challenge with Hina, Utsubo, and Suzuki.