The first half of this series was very enjoyable. There were well-written, interesting, multi-layered characters, and slowly an intriguing, plausible mystery was given shape. The show got more and more interesting all the way up until episode 13. In episode 13 the series makes a U turn and goes to hell in a handbasket very rapidly. Rin Shirogane is introduced, he is the central figure for the latter half of the series, and he is an antithesis to the quality writing in the first half. His literally only dimension is "I am a psycho and I've got a gun", and that is also the sole content of his every scene in every episode. The logic and consequences of actions disappear. While in the first half of the series the only weapons available to both sides were knives, in the last episodes the other side has military grade weapons and a helicopter. And the great down-to-earth mystery story we had in the beginning boils down into a dime-a-dozen "plot of a Secret Organisation" bullsh*t.
In the end nothing really made sense. Apparently the whole town was behind the robbery, succeeded, knew where the treasure freight car ended up in, had means to get to it -- and then did nothing with it. What?! And there was a large fake corporation looking for that treasure carriage for over ten years -- in a tiny town that had two possible places where it could be. OK! And the Secret Organization needed to keep things very hush hush to avoid any unwanted attention (because the treasure would be worthless to them if they could not get it unnoticed), so in the latter part of the series the Ginzame gang kept low profile by threatening the police, multiple shooting incidents, collecting dozens of criminals from other areas into the tiny town, arsoning the Tanokura mansion, and kidnapping people, one with a helicopter. Splendid! And the loving mother of Miyuki decides to make up for all her bad deeds by making her daughter motherless via suicide. Good for the character! And after "George" finally realizes who Mr Konishi is, he of course reveals it to him when Mr Konishi is holding a gun and they're in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant! And Mr Konishi's motivations for his actions (apart from returning to Kimujuku) make zero sense, he had nothing to gain with any of them. I could go on, but why bother. Just disappointed that the promise of sublime writing did not deliver in the end.
