After a rollicking first part, "The Most Dangerous Game: Part 2" slows down considerably. This is partly down to the very nature of the story which has already come to a head in the first part. Furuhata is fully aware the cop is a fake and is now merely smoking him out and partly down to the fact that the second part seems to have been conceived as a more standard "Furuhata Ninzaburô" episode. The problem is that there are still 45 minutes to fill and more than half of it is padding. This is a problem that every single extended episode of the show has had so far as "Furuhata Ninzaburô" undoubtedly works best in 45-minute increments.
The episode plays out mostly in real time as Furuhata, the subway controller, and the fake cop drive from the control room to the baseball pitch where the ransom drop is supposed to be happening. Since Furuhata already knows the cop is a fake and the cop already knows Furuhata knows, there's very little real suspense to it all just a series of circumlocutory dialogue scenes. Why does Furuhata not merely arrest the fake cop immediately? There's no conclusive answer to this question. Masakazu Tamura plays it as if Furuhata is merely having fun with his dinner. Playing mind games with his opponent for kicks.
This conclusion is not so much disappointing as it is drawn out. Had the events of this episode been condensed into 15 minutes and tacked onto the first part, I'd have been a happy camper. As it is, part 2 quickly loses the momentum of the superb part 1 and just sort of meanders along until the conclusion. Furuhata and the SAZ member explain the plot to each other over and over again. The SAZ member has an unconvincing change of heart midway through. And then some more complications occur merely so that the 45-minute runtime would be filled out. Mukojima and Hanada also make brief cameos for the same reason.
"The Most Dangerous Game" was intended as the final episode of the show and for five years it was. It has quite a nice and sentimental send-off for Furuhata and the final scene is equal parts funny and sad with its metatextual joke ending. I really liked that for the prologue they had Furuhata stand in front of a wall containing pictures of all of the previous guest stars. It's a nice nod to the three seasons that went before.
However, after such a brilliant opener, part 2 feels listless and overlong despite fine work from the regulars and the intensely creepy Hajime Yamazaki who is a far more interesting character than the main guest star Yôsuke Eguchi whom I mostly found to be a bland bad guy. The way he is written is also quite confusing, especially the revelation that he does not like to use violence after we've seen members of his gang murder a person right at the beginning of the last episode.
The episode plays out mostly in real time as Furuhata, the subway controller, and the fake cop drive from the control room to the baseball pitch where the ransom drop is supposed to be happening. Since Furuhata already knows the cop is a fake and the cop already knows Furuhata knows, there's very little real suspense to it all just a series of circumlocutory dialogue scenes. Why does Furuhata not merely arrest the fake cop immediately? There's no conclusive answer to this question. Masakazu Tamura plays it as if Furuhata is merely having fun with his dinner. Playing mind games with his opponent for kicks.
This conclusion is not so much disappointing as it is drawn out. Had the events of this episode been condensed into 15 minutes and tacked onto the first part, I'd have been a happy camper. As it is, part 2 quickly loses the momentum of the superb part 1 and just sort of meanders along until the conclusion. Furuhata and the SAZ member explain the plot to each other over and over again. The SAZ member has an unconvincing change of heart midway through. And then some more complications occur merely so that the 45-minute runtime would be filled out. Mukojima and Hanada also make brief cameos for the same reason.
"The Most Dangerous Game" was intended as the final episode of the show and for five years it was. It has quite a nice and sentimental send-off for Furuhata and the final scene is equal parts funny and sad with its metatextual joke ending. I really liked that for the prologue they had Furuhata stand in front of a wall containing pictures of all of the previous guest stars. It's a nice nod to the three seasons that went before.
However, after such a brilliant opener, part 2 feels listless and overlong despite fine work from the regulars and the intensely creepy Hajime Yamazaki who is a far more interesting character than the main guest star Yôsuke Eguchi whom I mostly found to be a bland bad guy. The way he is written is also quite confusing, especially the revelation that he does not like to use violence after we've seen members of his gang murder a person right at the beginning of the last episode.