Based on a mystery novel of the same name from 1996, The Perfect Insider follows the cryptic death of a genius computer scientist named Magata Shiki, who has been locked up in an isolated research facility on an island for the last 15 years after having been accused of murdering her own parents as a teenager. Nishinosono Moe, a rich young lady, and the university professor Saikawa Souhei travel together to the island with the hopes of meeting Shiki in person, only to find her dead inside her room upon arriving, with her arms and legs cut off. Based on the guards' testimony as well as the security camera footage, it is clear that no one else ever entered or left Shiki's quarters. So who killed her, how and why? Those are the main questions which the story revolves around. In other words, at heart it's a classic 'locked room' problem. Though that's not all there is to it since as you'll find out, the case only escalates even further from that point onwards...
Now since mysteries are very spoiler-sensitive I don't really want to say anything more than that about the story, but I can at least say that while the overall plotline didn't exactly blow my mind... I still found it very satisfying. The most important part of a good mystery is to give the viewers a fair chance at figuring out the problem before the truth is revealed, and The Perfect Insider does a good job at that. Part of the solution is actually not that difficult to figure out on your own, but the whole thing? Yeah I don't think very many people were able to do that, but it all made sense when I finally heard the explanation, and that's all I can really ever ask for.
Shiki herself is unquestionably the most interesting character of the anime as is made evident when the others slowly but surely come to realize who she used to be whilst investigating the case. She's crazy, but unbelievably intelligent. As far as Saikawa-sensei and Moe goes though... I can't help but feel like they're utilized more as plot mechanics than actual persons. Saikawa-sensei quite simply fulfills the role of the detective of the case. To quote one of the 20 rules of detective fiction: "The detective novel must have a detective in it; and a detective is not a detective unless he detects. His function is to gather clues that will eventually lead to the person who did the dirty work in the first chapter; and if the detective does not reach his conclusions through an analysis of those clues, he has no more solved his problem than the schoolboy who gets his answer out of the back of the arithmetic." And that is effectively all he does: logically solving the problem, one step at a time. Beyond that he's honestly a quite bland and uninspiring character, but at least he fulfills the role that the story has given him very well. Moe on the other hand is the intermediary character who is there to ensure that the viewers are able to follow along and don't get confused, by not being quite as sharp as Saikawa-sensei is, and thus making him have to explain most of his discoveries vocally to her, thus indirectly informing the audience in the process as well. And all the other side characters... well they're mostly just 'there', not a whole lot more to say about them.
The Perfect Insider is produced by A-1 Pictures of all studios, which is pretty unexpected in and of itself since this is hardly the kind of series they usually adapt. They pretty much always make shounen anime, but this time they're tackling a philosophical seinen mystery instead. But either way, they do a surprisingly good job at it, and the animation is as top notch as ever as well. Something that might be worth mentioning here as well is that the character designs are actually made by Asano Inio, the mangaka of Oyasumi Punpun and Solanin among other things. And although The Perfect Insider perhaps doesn't look *that* crazy relatively speaking, you can still really see who the artist is. It's just too characteristic to be unnoticeable.
In the end, The Perfect Insider might be very dialogue-heavy and slow-paced, but I still found significantly more consistent enjoyment value in this anime than almost anything else from this season, mostly because it actually feels like a real mystery for once. Like a legitimately interesting one which teases your imagination and makes you think for yourself. It's surprising just how rare that is to see in anime, but it means quite a lot to me. So even though the mystery in this case might not have been completely flawless, it's still a hell of a lot better than getting nothing at all. I'll just take what I can get.
