Last time with the Pretty Boys, the club members discussed the entity known as Yurika, or Kodaki Kawaike, or… Nagahiro’s fiance via an arranged marriage. They hypothesized how she could have gotten a massive oshie-hagoita into the club room, only to find two mysteries before them. Why did she do it, and how did Kodaki do it? Now, in Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 9, the Pretty Boys are on the case, piecing together clues and figuring out why the whodunit did it!
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Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 9 is a direct continuation of the previous episode. It even starts similarly with Mayumi running into Kodaki. Only this time, it’s after school, and Mayumi directly confronts Kodaki as a student rather than a “yokai.” It all feels like a part of Nagahiro’s plan to get Mayumi to talk to Kodaki, which was a critical part of episode 8. Still, plan or not, Mayumi doesn’t hit it off with Kodaki well at all. If anything, they butt up against one another from the beginning. It looks like they won’t be friends anytime soon, no matter Nagahiro’s insistence.
Speaking of Nagahiro, he gives us a great deal of background on Kodaki. This includes background on his arranged marriage to her, but also her personality. Kodaki is, for lack of a better word, coarse. She’s rude, she mean, and she’s bitter. But it’s not without reason. It’s because she was forced into a certain status and mindset by her family, who wanted to save face as a formerly noble family. This step was to make an arranged marriage with Nagahiro’s family. Really, a marriage of convenience. Combined with a couple of choice details about why she didn’t make it into the Pretty Boy Detective Club, viewers get a fuller picture of Kodaki.
However, that doesn’t necessarily redeem her, at least not for me.
One of my least favorite things is children who use swear words. In this case, Kodaki refers to Mayumi as a “whore” when they first meet, which ultimately weakens Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 9. It also weakens Kodaki as a character because like… who is this bitter first-grader? Of course, she has a right to be upset, but… still. It feels a bit like shock value for a character that could have been quite dynamic. Then again, I suppose you could argue that her derogatory terms towards Mayumi reinforce her initial distaste for Mayumi. It just feels jarring in a show that’s avoided talking about its main female lead like that thus far.
In the end, Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 9 is a quite complex episode that discusses class, which was unexpected. However, much like Mayumi, I wasn’t really moved by Kodaki’s story. Instead, I was put off by it, which might be harsh because Kodaki is a literal child. I’ll place the blame, as always, on the source material. I have very mixed feelings about this episode, ultimately. But maybe, Kodaki will get more development before this series is said and done. I’m not necessarily hopeful for that, but… Pretty Boy Detective Club has surprised me more often than not.
Pretty Boy Detective Club is now streaming on Funimation.
Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 9
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Rating - 6.5/106.5/10
TL;DR
In the end, Pretty Boy Detective Club Episode 9 is a quite complex episode that discusses class, which was unexpected. However, much like Mayumi, I wasn’t really moved by Kodaki’s story. Instead, I was put off by it, which might be harsh because Kodaki is a literal child. I’ll place the blame, as always, on the source material. I have very mixed feelings about this episode, ultimately. But maybe, Kodaki will get more development before this series is said and done. I’m not necessarily hopeful for that, but… Pretty Boy Detective Club has surprised me more often than not.
