BakaOnna said: I don't exactly remember if Nanjo ever confirmed the time of Kinzo's death.
I think Genji said that the time of death wasn't clear because the stench could have built up in the boiler room for a long time before it leaked out into the upper floors.
BakaOnna said: But there are also inconsistencies with the above. For example, Natsuhi saw and talked to Kinzo during the events of Ep1. Unless she was somehow hallucinating him, which I doubt. Or unless someone is disguised as him. Well, I'm rather skeptical about that idea as well, since none of the character resemble Kinzo that much. : /
Well, that scene could have been a lie too. Nothing says Anti-Mystery scenes have to involve wild displays of magic. On the other hand, if we accept the "Kinzo was already dead" theory then some of the conversations Battler witnessed in Ep 1 become... interesting.
If Kinzo was already dead, then not only was Natsuhi lying/hallucinating about Kinzo's presence in the study, then so were all of the people who answered when Eva asked who had seen him the previous night. At a minimum, that means Nanjo, Genji, and Kanon also knew and were willing to reveal that fact to each other (which is somewhat supported by all of them hesitating significantly before they answered). Moreover, the timing of Eva's receipt trick makes no sense at all unless she herself knew beforehand that Kinzo wasn't going to be in the room when they opened it back up.
My pet epileptic tree is that Nanjo and the servants, and possibly Natsuhi, were all working together to create the illusion that Kinzo was still in the study, and Eva somehow secretly found out about the deception. Then, Eva created the receipt trick to trap Natsuhi, and the servants were forced to go along with it because they couldn't clear Natsuhi of suspicion without blowing their own cover.
BakaOnna said: Well, the main thing is besides Natsuhi and Battler (if we really believe everything that happened at the end of Ep2), has anyone else in the main family ever physically seen him? From I remember, no. Though Krauss and Eva have heard his voice
Rosa claimed to have seen him in his study, along with Shannon and Genji, after the first twilight in Ep 2. Actually, that whole scene struck me as really odd on second read-through. When she came back with the servants, Battler noticed that her attitude was suddenly really unnatural. She also said that Shannon and Genji's presence in the study gave them an alibi for the second twilight, but she acted a little uncertain about it, which doesn't make sense unless that alibi didn't really exist. It could be that Rosa reached some kind of secret understanding with them when she found them in the study, and casting suspicion on Shannon would have forced her to reveal it.
Or, if Kinzo really was there, Rosa could have suspected he was lying about Shannon and Genji being in the study the whole time before she got there.
My head hurts :( |