Holmes of Kyoto Episode 11 Review: Valentine's Party

It’s Valentine’s Day (in the anime)! Perhaps many of you are already familiar with the Japanese custom of girls giving chocolate to the guys that they like. In many an anime has this date sparked an important turn in the romantic relationships between characters! Will Aoi give chocolates to Kiyotaka? Let’s carry on to find out!

Japanese title: バレンタインの夜会

‘See? I don’t dislike touching you at all!’

Aoi and Kiyotaka have been invited to a book reading of popular mystery writer Kurisu Aigasa. Cafe-otaku Kiyotaka is super excited as it will be happening at one of his top cafes! At the venue, various people related to Aigasa appear. They are a pair of photographers, her editor, a private detective, and her friends. Aigasa’s sister starts the reading and explains that there was an attempted murder on her sister, whose real name is Rika. The members gathered at the venue are the suspects, and, having heard of Kiyotaka’s reputation, Rika has invited him to help solve the case, much to Kiyotaka’s chagrin.

Kiyotaka asks questions to each of the individual members and then comes up with the hypothesis that everybody was involved in some way. It turns out that Rika herself was watching them through a hidden camera the whole time. She threatens the group with a gun, and everybody keeps blaming one another. It was good to see Kiyotaka jumping in front of Aoi to protect her without hesitation. Shockingly, Rika actually gives the group of attempted murderers the chance to talk things over!

Seemingly getting over this scary incident almost instantly, Aoi gives Kiyotaka some chocolates decorated like Sherlock Holmes! It was also his birthday, so it is a special present. Here we get a very cute moment. Kiyotaka very clearly declares that the homemade presents she gives him are not silly at all!

Trivia

Change in order

The anime changed the order slightly compared to the books, and I think it was a great idea! Originally, Aoi and Kiyotaka’s hands touch while they were at Kura, and he asks her right there and then if she doesn’t like him as she jumped away. The gift of the gloves and even the chocolates are also done at a different point in time before they head to Yoshida. I think it was a really great idea to combine all the scenes into one and have them right at the end of the episode. It was very exciting in terms of their romantic relationship! Kiyotaka is seeming very clear about how much he cares for Aoi, but now we just need Aoi to be honest about her feelings too!

Rika’s Pen Name

Rika’s pen name comes from the famous British mystery writer Agatha Christie. As well as Kiyotaka’s explanation of the name, it also very simply sounds very similar to how Agatha Christie is pronounced in Japanese (‘Agasa Kurisuti’). There are also some parallels with this episode’s story and Christie’s famous works, Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None.

Valentine’s Day

I’m sure many of you are already aware, but Valentine’s Day’a customs in Japan differ from most countries. Typically, women and girls give chocolate to guys on Valentine’s Day. In many cases, these chocolates are so-called ‘giri choco’ or ‘obligation chocolate’, which are given out to male coworkers, friends etc and are a way for the girl to say ‘thank you for being kind to me’. There is also a more romantic version of this chocolate gift-giving, where the girl will give them to the guy she likes as a way of confessing their feelings. In these cases, the chocolates are typically hand-made by the girl. Aoi perhaps was very nervous when giving chocolates to Kiyotaka, but she convinced herself and explained that the chocolates were the obligation kind. It was cute all the same.

Places which appeared in Episode 11

Yoshida Sanso

A ‘sanso’ is a mountain villa, and this one is located on, you guessed it, on Mt. Yoshida. This mountain is very close to Kyoto University, which is where Kiyotaka is currently a student.

Let’s Start the Appraisal

This is certainly one of the more interesting stories to happen in Holmes of Kyoto. Not only does it show many of the uglier sides of human nature, but it really feels like a very typical mystery story. At the same time, however, I am glad that this is more of a one-off rather than the common story-type for this series. We still just about get away with the ‘mystery without murder’ niche of Holmes of Kyoto, but is still pretty horrific. There is also a very grey zone when it comes to the victim Rika, as she certainly wasn’t acting completely innocently.

I also have to admit that it may seem a little strange that we have such a horrific storyline followed by such an adorable moment between Aoi and Kiyotaka, but I really liked the ending scene personally. Will the series end next week with the pair of them finally confessing their budding feelings?

Don’t forget that we will be here each week with a preview of the next episode. You can check the stills gallery from Episode 11 here.