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commentaryvorg · 5 years ago

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 3.8

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time in chapter 3, Maki started to realise how her talent could be used for good as she helped Shuichi through the investigation, Kiyo was the worst and murdered Tenko as well, causing something of a setback in the fact that she’d just begun to get through to Himiko, the writers might still be trying to get us to think Kaito is expendable, Kaito’s illness took over as the most pressing issue on his mind, and he completely accidentally brought up the mastermind’s intent to nerf him with his phobia.

This time, the trial begins.

Kaito: “Sorry everyone, but I don’t think I’m gonna be much help this time. Because of Monokuma’s… disruptions, I couldn’t do a thorough investigation.”

Kaito is still clinging to his unintentionally-completely-correct excuse to save face. It’s interesting to note how he apparently wants everybody to think that the way in which he’s useful and therefore needed to be nerfed is because he’s a good investigator, when he’s decidedly not. His real value – and presumably the reason the in-universe writers wanted to nerf him in this chapter – comes from being able to be there for and encourage Shuichi, and everyone else too. He should know this himself, but he doesn’t seem to want to frame things that way.

(And he’s still apologising even as he is arguing that it is supposedly not his fault.)

Kokichi: “I can tell Monokuma is overcompensating to hide his self-consciousness.”

And obviously here Kokichi’s actually talking about Kaito. Which, to be fair, is correct, because Kaito doesn’t really believe his excuse is true.

Monokuma: “Next time, spend less time fixing your hair and more time investigating, spaceman!”

It’s interesting that Monokuma comments on this too. I have to wonder whether or not he knew about the decision to nerf Kaito in this chapter – it’s not like he necessarily needs to know everything about what the writers have planned to manipulate the way the story goes, only the stuff directly related to the motives.

Kiyo: “Do not let your emotions hasten your judgement. There may be two killers.”

Tsumugi: “So… our other culprit… might nooot be one of us heeere…”

Tsumugi, you know full well that does not logically follow from what Kiyo just said. The possibility that the culprit is a spirit has nothing to do with the possibility that there are two killers. If you’re accepting that a ghost murderer is an option, then both victims could have been killed by a spirit, and it could have been the same one or two different ones. And if you’re trying to present a legitimate theory, you could try saying it like a normal person instead of putting on that spooky voice.

What I’m saying is, leave Kaito the fuck alone already, you know he’s not going to make a huge amount of difference in this trial either way. At this point you’re not even manipulating the story; you’re just being an unnecessary dick.

Maki: “Say something, Shuichi. It’ll be a mess if this keeps going on.”

Maki is still frustrated at Kaito’s inability to be his usual self while this ghost stuff is going on and wants it to stop being a thing already. I don’t know why she can’t say something herself, though; she also read the Necronomicon.

Shuichi: (Well, in the interest of being thorough, I should clear things up here.)

More like in the interest of keeping Kaito functional.

Gonta: “So ritual did work!?”

“C-Come on…”

“I said stop…”

“Resurrected!?”

“Y-You gotta be kidding me!”

…

Miu: “Angie did say she was gonna bring Rantaro back!”

“Guys?”

“Come on, be serious…”

“This can’t be happening!”

“So stop it, stop it!”

This is the kind of thing that white noise is really fun for.

Kaito: “PLEASE! STOP IT!!!!”

“Shuichi, say something.”

…I still think loud outbursts like this aren’t quite in character for Kaito, though. At least we get some fun white noise from Maki here too.

Monokuma goes on to insist that the Necronomicon would have worked if it’d been used. So even though it was the cubs who made that claim to begin with, it is also backed up by Monokuma himself, and, well… he never usually lies about motives. Which is what led me to think up my Flashback-Light-and-clone theory I proposed earlier. That said, it is pretty awkward writing that they leave open this insistence that resurrection would have been possible but then never properly explain how at any point. They don’t even hint at it in a way that lets you figure it out on a replay if you’re paying attention (like how they hint at the reason for Kaito’s totally extraneous phobia). I only thought of my theory because I wanted to come up with something that worked, and this was all I could think of, not because I’m certain that it’s what the writers intended to be the truth.

Tsumugi: “Oooh? So resurrecting the dead was actually possible this whole time?”

Leave him alone, for goodness’ sake! Just drop this lazily-written phobia plotline already and let Kaito move on to freaking out about the other thing you gave him to deal with, which is an infinitely better story than this. Not that I think that’s why you gave him that to deal with, but still.

Okay, wow, complete tangent here: I took a break here while writing the commentary and came back to it after booting the game up at this point in the trial, and… the screen was completely black, except for the textboxes and other UI stuff. The game still played, but I couldn’t see any of the text in the Nonstop Debate, so actually proceeding would have been nigh-impossible. I had to restart the class trial from the main menu to fix it and then fast-forward back to here. Is this a known glitch? Maybe it’s because I saved while a line was still in the middle of being read? Because that was a thing.

Kiyo: “I did not care about some katana…”

He totally did, though; he was threatening to tear out Kokichi’s nerves if he touched it earlier in the chapter. It amuses me that the game acts as though you can try and prove that, too.

Kiyo: “I had no desire to kill her in the first place.”

Yeah, of course not, it’s not like you’re a serial killer who targets girls or anything.

Kokichi: “Well, it can’t be Himiko. She was besties with Angie. I trust their friendship! You guys do too, riiiight?”

Sure you do, Kokichi. Yet again, this is him trying to make a point of how foolishly naïve everyone else sounds for talking about friendship and trust in a killing game.

Keebo: “…Can we trust their friendship so readily?”

Kokichi: “Obviously! Let’s believe in them!”

Kokichi’s got this really mocking tone to his voice as he says this. He is really transparently just trying to make his own words about belief sound empty and hollow, to make people think that everyone else’s words about belief are just as hollow too.

Kiyo: “And do you have an alibi for last night?”

Gonta: “Gonta in room, talking to bug friends. Much better than being out too late at night. Ask bug friends if Kiyo doubt Gonta!”

Aww, Gonta. He doesn’t realise that other people don’t speak bug and so can’t question his bug friends, so obviously this makes a perfectly good alibi, right?

Kokichi: “Yeah, I did it. I killed Angie.”

Shuichi: (…Hm.)

I love how Shuichi’s immediate reaction to this is one of utmost scepticism.

Kiyo: “What are you saying? Is this some kind of joke?”

Kiyo looks more flustered than you’d expect him to be about this if he weren’t the murderer. He is so confused as to why the fuck Kokichi would confess to something he knows he didn’t do.

Shuichi: “The gold leaf on that katana did peel rather easily.”

Monokuma: “Hmmm… That evidence rings a bell. Specifically, a school bell…”

Yeah, because everyone in the audience is a big Danganronpa genwunner and you put that here to pander to them, apparently.

(Like, seriously. Fifty-two past seasons. People should not be so fixated on season 1 any more.)

Ugh, these Psyche Taxi segments. Practically every time, the first two or three questions are things that have already been clearly established and only the last question has you actually figure out something new, this time that the whole katana-effigy-rope setup was used to lock the door by being spun around. Why the heck not just take that last question and make it a regular multiple choice question.

Kokichi claimed earlier during his confession that he locked the room by picking the lock closed, so this gets him to admit he didn’t actually do it after all.

Maki: “Why did you say you were the culprit?”

Kokichi: “…I wanted to lure the culprit out. If I claimed to be the culprit, then the *real* culprit would agree as well, ya get me?”

Yeah, except that the real culprit did not jump on the opportunity to save himself by condemning Kokichi (and why would he even try to, since Kokichi was already busy condemning himself with his confession). What Kokichi’s confession actually achieved in terms of smoking out the culprit was having Kiyo be subtly the most bewildered out of anyone by it. But Kokichi didn’t pick up on that subtlety, apparently (or if he did he’s still keeping it to himself, thanks a lot Kokichi), so fat lot of good his whole ploy was.

Kokichi: “And if they pressured me to confess, then that would have looked mighty suspicious. Sheesh! Darn it! It didn’t go my way because Shuichi butted in on my plan.”

You were already confessing. Obviously the culprit wouldn’t have needed to pressure you to confess any more. Your plan was already failing before Shuichi came along and put the lid on it. You are not as clever as you think.

Kaito: “That leaves us with four suspects… Tsumugi, Gonta, Keebo… and Kokichi.”

Kokichi: “Don’t forget Himiko. She’s also a part of the student council. Doesn’t matter if she was besties with Angie, she’s still a suspect.”

And here’s Kokichi proving just how transparently manipulative and two-faced he was being a few minutes ago. (Look at Kaito low-key running with the “it wasn’t Himiko because they were friends” argument, though. Of course he would.)

Himiko: “Me? A suspect? I’d… never kill Angie!”

Himiko is having emotions!

Kokichi asks all of the “Suspect Rangers” what they think they could say to clear their names. Everyone is understandably unsure (what can they say; obviously no-one has alibis), then…

Himiko: “Why… did Tenko have to die?”

Kaito: “Huh?”

Aww, Himiko. And I like Kaito being the one to react to that, because of course he cares about her suffering and wants to help if he can.

Himiko: “Can we talk about Tenko’s case now and not just Angie’s—”

Kokichi: “Mwah-hahahaha! I got ya exactly where I wanted, Himiko!”

…And Kokichi was apparently trying to bait someone into changing the topic to Tenko’s murder, under the assumption that whoever does so is Angie’s killer trying to misdirect everyone.

But no, Kokichi, Himiko doing this doesn’t prove she killed Angie. It just proves that she’s a person who’s having emotions about the fact that the two people who cared about her most are now dead.

Kokichi: “Until we solve Angie’s case, Tenko’s case is meaningless! Did you suggest that to waste our ti—”

Himiko: “It’s not meaningless!”

Shuichi: (Himiko?)

Himiko: “Tenko’s death was meaningless? How dare you! Poor Tenko… How could you do this to her!?”

Look at Himiko go! Look at her getting genuinely fired up and emotional because Kokichi is being a dick about the fact that her would-have-been friend is dead!

Kokichi: “Himiko, stop it with your crappy lies.”

Himiko: “Lies…?”

Kokichi: “Everything you said is total BS. You didn’t give two shits about Tenko when she was alive… But now you’re like, ‘Oh no! Poor Tenko!’ after she’s dead. C’mon, really?”

And again we have an example of Kokichi projecting his own manipulative assholery onto someone else because he can’t comprehend the notion that other people don’t think like he does. If he were in Himiko’s shoes and had not cared about Tenko while she was alive but was claiming to care now, obviously that’d be him lying to try and get sympathy and misdirect everyone, so that’s definitely what Himiko’s doing too, right? It couldn’t possibly be that she’s realised she was unfairly cold towards Tenko and regrets it now that it’s too late or anything.

Like, seriously, Kokichi, you were there in the seance room when Tenko gave her final speech to Himiko. Have some fucking empathy, dude, instead of trying to make everything about you.

(There could be an argument made here that Kokichi is being a dick about this on purpose to push Himiko into admitting to her feelings and showing them. But this started as Kokichi making an attempt to bait out the killer and wasn’t specifically about Himiko until she spoke up, and she was already having emotions at that point. For Kokichi to then continue to be even more of a dick, even after she’d started getting really riled up and passionate, would not be at all necessary if he were secretly trying to help her. So that’s not what he’s doing. He’s just projecting and genuinely believes she doesn’t care.)

Himiko: “I know I ignored Tenko before… That’s why… I’m so upset now… I should’ve faced Tenko… worked things out with her while she was still alive. But now… it’s too late. I can’t complain to her… or thank her…”

Poor Himiko is finally accepting that Tenko was always trying to help her and that all she was doing was running away from the advice Tenko was giving. It’s just a shame it took Tenko’s death for it to fully sink in.

Himiko: “It’s… too la—”

Kaito: “Yeah, seriously! It’s way too late to realize that now.”

And here comes Kaito, doing what he can to help! This is essentially an application of his philosophy that simply moping around lamenting bad things isn’t going to get you anywhere.

Kaito: “Our only option is to face her death head-on!”

Himiko: “…Nyeh? Face her death?”

Kaito: “Himiko… I understand what you’re going through.”

It’s a little oddly specific of Kaito to say that he understands what Himiko’s going through when he hasn’t personally lost anyone he was especially close to so far in this killing game. Yet, I really, really don’t think that Kaito would lie or exaggerate about something this serious and personal. He wouldn’t try and artificially make things about himself when this is 100% about Himiko right now. So… more fuel for the “Kaito’s parents died” train? I really think it is. Him having dealt with his parents’ death by trying his best to face it head-on definitely sounds like the kind of thing Kaito would have done that would have helped shape him into the person he is today.

(Also, assuming that Kaito did lose his parents, it’s still notable that he’s not explicitly mentioning this as his reason for why he cares so much about helping Himiko, because this still isn’t about him and as much as possible he wants to avoid making it so.)

Kaito: “So I’m gonna help you out! Let’s work together to find the truth! I’m not gonna let anyone say her death didn’t matter!”

Himiko: “K-Kaito…!”

Aww, Himiko being appreciative of Kaito’s support. After losing the two people she was closest to, she must be feeling completely alone and like nobody’s on her side, but here’s Kaito showing that he is on her side. That has to really help.

Kaito: “Abandoning someone who died and only thinking about your own survival… That’s just as bad as a hit-and-run! I won’t forgive something so messed up!”

…Did Kaito’s parents die in a hit-and-run.

It is just like Kaito to be furious at any hypothetical person who commits a hit-and-run regardless of who the victims were, just for running away from what they did rather than owning up to it and facing the pain they inadvertently caused. But even so, this is a strangely specific thing for him to bring up in this particular situation, unless he has some personal investment in hit-and-runs that has made him think about this before and is at the front of his mind because he was already thinking about his parents.

I am like 90% certain this is something the writers deliberately intended to imply here, and again I love that there are subtle details about Kaito like this that don’t need to be outright stated because that doesn’t stop them being true.

Kokichi: “I already told you, that’s sooo unnecessary. We’re getting sidetracked here.”

Kaito: “No, even if it was a different culprit, we need to know how Tenko died. If we don’t find out who killed her, we won’t be able to work together. Not now, not ever.”

He’s so right! If they come out of this trial only knowing who killed Angie and not who killed Tenko, then there will always be the looming possibility that one of the remaining survivors killed Tenko and is still hiding that fact. It would be impossible to truly trust each other with that hanging over everyone. And of course Kaito would have already considered the risk of that happening, because he’s always thinking about everyone’s co-operation. Kaito is so good.

(And look, Kokichi is still arguing that Tenko’s death is meaningless even when this is no longer so much about Himiko’s feelings, so that was never why he was saying that.)

Kokichi: “Finally, you noticed! Geez, you’re so slow.”

Yeah, sure, Kokichi, you just try and save face and pretend that you were aware of that all along and that Kaito’s the one who’s slow on the uptake, not you. I totally believe that you were already aware of this notion which centres around the concepts of co-operation and trust; it’s not like you have trouble even comprehending those ideas or anything. God, Kokichi is so incapable of ever admitting when he’s wrong.

Shuichi: (I don’t mind going over Tenko’s case… But that was an abrupt change of topic. Was that… intentional…?)

Shuichi, don’t tell me you’re actually being fooled by Kokichi’s attempt to imply that Himiko only changed the topic to draw attention away from the fact that she supposedly killed Angie.

Miu: “So those four are the culprits!”

Gonta: “Oh… Himiko still culprit?”

Why are we still using the words “culprit” and “suspect” interchangeably. Gonta I can understand, but come on, Miu.

Kiyo: “True, I may have suggested it. But I explained the procedure beforehand, yes? If we all knew of it before the murder then we are all equally suspicious.”

Not really, though. That makes it possible that the others could have done it, but Kiyo is still clearly more suspicious than anyone else because he’s the one who wouldn’t shut up about this seance for the past several days and definitely knew every single detail of it.

Kiyo argues that Keebo did it by using his flashlight to sneak in under the floor. He’s later going to try and claim Himiko did it because she picked the room. He has absolutely no game plan for this, does he. Most killers usually at least try to pin it on one specific person and make all the facts seem to point to them.

Miu is also totally on board with claiming Keebo did it. So much for her caring about him, then.

Keebo: “My status as a robot does not mean I am capable of performing superhuman feats!”

I mean… you are, Keebo. Nobody else here can shine light from their eyes or replay recordings of conversations they were witness to without additional equipment.

Kaito: “Enough with the flashlight! It’s way too bright!”

Kaito being specifically the one to complain here makes me wonder if his illness is making him more sensitive to bright lights than usual.

Tsumugi: “Maybe they marked Tenko with glowing paint and looked for that? That’d let the culprit find her. Then they could stab her through the floorboards…”

Monokuma: “Boy, that sounds really familiar too! But I’m just gonna ignore it!”

…Yeah. On a first time through, this would just seem like a fun little continuity nod that Tsumugi just unintentionally happened to make. But really, it’s a pretty clever subtle hint towards the mastermind’s identity. Less subtle of a hint for people who know what’s truly going on here, though – by which I mean the in-universe audience. You’d think this would have basically told them who it is.

Kokichi: “Nee-heehee… What if Angie’s spirit killed Tenko?”

I’m going to assume that Kokichi doesn’t really think spirits are a thing and is just suggesting this because it gives him an opportunity to be a huge dick to Kaito again.

Kokichi: “See? You can’t explain, can you? Only a spirit could have done th—”

Kaito: “W-Wait, I know! What if the culprit was hiding inside the cage!? If they were in there, they coulda stabbed Tenko during the seance!”

I am amused by Kaito proposing something way stupider than he usually would in his desperation to move the topic away from spirits.

Maki: “I agree with Kaito. The culprit could have been inside the cage.”

And then Maki going along with that seemingly ridiculous theory for a much more sensible reason.

Maki: “Maybe the culprit wouldn’t need to hide in the first place.”

Kiyo: “What?”

Maki: “Also, the culprit could’ve killed her in the cage at any time. I think you know what I’m getting at, right?”

This, however, is a frustrating example of someone acting uncharacteristically vague just so that the player controlling Shuichi can have a game to play and figure it out themselves. Maki would not usually beat around the bush like this.

Kiyo: “After stabbing herself with the sickle, she threw it underneath the floor.”

Still pretty difficult to buy that the sickle ended up in the corner of the room from that, though.

Himiko: “W-Well it doesn’t make sense to me! There’s no reason for Tenko to commit suicide!”

Damn right it doesn’t make any sense! Look at Himiko understanding and believing in Tenko at last.

Of course Kokichi is the one to make the argument that Tenko killed Angie and then killed herself out of guilt and hid her suicide in an attempt to take Himiko with her, because that kind of selfish, underhanded assholery makes perfect sense in his mind as something that someone who liked Himiko would do.

Kokichi: “Himiko, you said that Tenko would never do anything like that… But how can you be so sure? Did you guys *actually* know each other? People keep all sorts of secrets, like Maki. She hid the fact that she’s a cold-blooded killer. Is it wise of us to trust people wholeheartedly in this kind of situation?”

Kokichi is so utterly, unshakably convinced that trusting anyone ever, and especially in a killing game, is completely illogical no matter how they might have acted towards you.

Kaito: “Geez… you’re such a naive dude.”

Kokichi: “…Naive?”

Kaito: “We’re all just people, y’know? Of course we’re gonna have some secrets. What matters is whether there’s any malice behind ‘em.”

Kaito continues to have the best philosophy, yet again. He knows that people are complicated and therefore that doing a bad thing doesn’t necessarily make someone a bad person. The simple act of hiding something from others is not inherently malicious. Maki was hiding something bad about herself, but it wasn’t for a malicious reason! It was to protect herself, not to hurt everyone.

And this is delightfully relevant to the main theme of this game, that lies can sometimes be used for good. While Kokichi is usually the person one would think of as advocating that idea the most, maybe Kaito actually believes that more than Kokichi does.

Kokichi: “People can lie about how malicious their hidden secrets really are.”

…Because Kokichi is irrationally convinced that if someone is hiding something, it’s always for malicious reasons. That’s why he was so terrified of Maki. That’s why he continued to try and push the idea that Maki was a terrible person even once she’d explained her non-malicious reasons for hiding her talent and everyone else had more or less accepted it.

Kaito was not wrong to call Kokichi naïve. Think about how Gonta is naïve: he always assumes the best of everyone when there’s no evidence either way, and even sometimes when there is circumstantial evidence indicating that they’re not such a good person. Kokichi is exactly like that, but in the opposite direction: when things are ambiguous, he always assumes the worst of everyone, even to the point of selectively ignoring circumstantial evidence that indicates they might not be so bad after all. It’s an unusual use of the word “naïve”, but not an inaccurate one. While Gonta is childishly convinced that everyone is always good and wants to help each other, Kokichi is childishly convinced that everyone is always bad and out to get each other.

Kaito: “Well duh. It’s impossible to know for sure what others are thinking. That’s why it all comes down to whether or not you believe in yourself!”

Kaito isn’t doing a great job of explaining exactly what he means here – one would have expected his sentence to end with “believe in them” – but there is a logic to this that makes sense to him. It still is about whether you believe in that person, but Kaito extends this to then also be about whether you believe that your own judgement of that person is correct, despite not being able to know for sure what’s going on in their head. And of course Kaito can believe in himself in this way – as I have pointed out time and again, he has an incredibly keen intuition when it comes to other people and has literally never been wrong so far and never will in future. Kaito has full confidence in how good his intuition is (his “official Luminary of the Stars hunches”!), which is why he’s able to believe in other people as strongly as he does.

(Okay, technically Kaito’s intuition has been wrong so far about one person: Ryoma. Which is to say that Kaito’s intuition is only ever wrong when his issues about heroism get in the way and cloud his judgement. He’s going to be wrong in future for that reason, too – but only for that reason. When that’s not a factor, which is most of the time, his intuition is and will always be correct.)

Kaito: “If you get betrayed, it’s not their fault! It’s your fault for believing in them! That’s why I believed in Maki Roll! Because I wanted to believe in her!”

Kaito is not like Gonta in this regard. He does not just blindly believe that everyone is good without proof. His proof is his judgement – which isn’t completely concrete evidence, but it’s more than enough for him to be willing to take that risk. And again, he knows he’s taking a risk by doing this. He’s fully accepting of the possibility that he might be wrong. But if he turns out to be, then that’s the fault of his judgement being wrong, not of the person in question for being who they always were in the first place. It’s a really great philosophy that would help anyone avoid becoming paranoid, because it puts any problems down to misunderstandings between people, rather than the other person having been deliberately out to get you.

Maki: “Just because you’re acting all cool doesn’t mean you get to skip training.”

Pfft. But also, this is Maki not quite getting Kaito once again. He’s not saying this to try and make himself look good! He’s doing it because this is what he believes, and it’s relevant to the discussion, so why wouldn’t he say it? He’s just being Kaito.

Kaito: “H-Hey, c’mon… Don’tcha think you’re being a little too strict?”

…Although it seems like Kaito might want an excuse to skip training, you know, because of the whole dying thing. Still, I don’t for a second believe that’s the reason he gave this speech.

Kokichi: “Well, we come from different backgrounds. So for now, let’s agree to disagree.”

You want to tell us what it is about your “background” that gives you such ridiculously massive trust issues, Kokichi? No? No, of course not.

Like, I understand why Kokichi would never want to talk about the reason why he’s like this. Even so, it frustrates me to no end that the writing never even tries to hint at what it is. I would like him so much more as a character if I could get a proper, cohesive picture of why he is this way and not just that he is this way! I’d be able to really empathise with him and feel his fear of betrayal instead of just intellectually knowing that he must have it. But that picture just isn’t there. (And it’s not like it couldn’t be there even without Kokichi directly talking about it. Look at how many things about Kaito I’ve been able to point out and be almost completely certain are true even though they’re only subtly hinted at.)

Kokichi: “No one’s ever called me naive before. And from Kaito? Seriously?”

Haha, Kokichi is so mad at the notion that Kaito’s the rational one while he’s not. Of course he’d want to insist that it’s Kaito who’s naïve for buying into all this nonsense about belief. But no, in reality, Kaito’s philosophy about believing in people isn’t naïve at all. It’s not for everyone, sure, but it has great internal consistency and logic to it. Kokichi constantly tries to insist that his own philosophy is the sensiblest most rationalest in order to protect himself from any notion that he might be in the wrong by being an untrusting lying asshole, but really, the logic of his philosophy falls apart as soon as you get to the “everyone must be a bad person no matter what because I’m terrified of thinking otherwise and then turning out to be mistaken”.

Himiko: “My heart… can’t reach Tenko anymore… But I wanna believe in her… She wouldn’t commit suicide! She wouldn’t try to take us down! That’s what I want to believe!”

Yay, Himiko buying into Kaito’s philosophy!

Gonta: “Me too. Gonta no can believe Tenko commit suicide.”

And of course Gonta would believe in her too.

Kiyo: “If you insist we believe in Tenko, then provide a reason to do so.”

Shuichi: (A proper reason…) “Alright… I’ll give you a reason.”

There is no evidence-based reason to believe that Tenko didn’t commit suicide. Shuichi believes in her as a person, just like Himiko does and just like Kaito was encouraging them to do, but in order to get the others who don’t believe in her to buy that she didn’t kill herself, there needs to be evidence. So Shuichi is planning to lie.

Maki: “…Is there a reason?”

Shuichi: “Yes, there is. Will you trust me, Maki? If it turns out I’m wrong, you can blame me all you like. But for now… I need you to trust in my detective work.”

He’s not really asking Maki trust his detective skills; he’s asking her to trust his judgement of Tenko’s personality and play along with his lie. It’s exactly like Kaito was saying: you have to believe that your own judgement of that person is accurate – and if you can believe in someone else’s judgement too, that works the same way. (That’s also why Shuichi started believing in Maki in the previous trial – because Kaito did, and Shuichi decided to trust his judgement.)

Tsumugi: “But if Tenko did commit suicide… It would explain why she died during the seance.”

“Makes sense to Gonta…”

What do you mean it makes sense to you, Gonta? You were just saying how you believed that Tenko would never kill herself!

Maki: “…You’re right. I completely forgot about that important detail. Tenko died instantly…”

Yay for Maki believing in Shuichi’s judgement and lying with him! Even though she has to make herself seem careless in order to do so.

Kokichi: “Nee-heehee… Words of a true killer. Pretty sure we can believe everything she said.”

Yeah, Kokichi’s pretty sure she just lied, isn’t he. Look at him still trying to imply that everyone should doubt her just because she’s an assassin, without actually calling out her lie and dragging the trial back to a halt.

Kaito: “How could you forget that, Maki Roll? You better apologize to Shuichi!”

Maki: “…Excuse me?”

Shuichi: “I-It’s okay, Kaito, really. No apology necessary…”

And I love how Kaito is completely oblivious to the fact that they both just lied.

(Again, reminder: Kaito advocates apologising when you’ve genuinely made a mistake.)

Himiko: “Just like I thought… Tenko wouldn’t commit suicide…”

Gonta: “…Thank goodness, Himiko.”

Aww, Himiko looks to relieved to hear proof that she’s right to believe in Tenko, having no idea that the “proof” is a lie. And Gonta is so happy, all for her sake. What a good.

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