English Dub Review: The Millionaire Detective – Balance:UNLIMITED “Ill Got, Ill Spent”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The episode picks up with the aftermath of the embassy incident as Haru and his team are called in to explain their actions to the committee. His team throws him under the bus, so Haru’s on thin ice. Meanwhile, Daisuke attempts to figure out the reason for HEUSC’s refusal and lack of authorization that he has on matters relating to the products produced by his family’s company. Cho asks for Haru’s help and the two go and question a woman, Imura who works for Mizuo Future Technology as Daisuke uses a small drone to follow them. However, they are derailed with her intent to record after a call to her boss. Then Daisuke catches her on reckless driving and takes her in for interrogation on the materials from the embassy bomb.

Daisuke hits a wall with that interrogation as Cho takes a different approach with Haru. Haru doesn’t like how Cho played dirty in getting the woman to talk and lets her leave only for the woman to end up in a fiery explosion in her car. In the aftermath, Cho meets Daisuke on the rooftop to talk. After asking why Cho is so fixated on the case, the Director shows Cho’s locker to Haru which is revealed to have a plaque from a cold murder case with Sayuri Kambe’s name on it.

Our Take:

After five episodes we finally get a potential clue on Daisuke’s intentions for joining the police. Before I get into that cold case clue, the episode’s storyline is very linear. It often switches between Haru and Daisuke as their actions move the story to that cliffhanger conclusion. The animations and voice acting are great as usual.

Now with the events of the last episode, it’s clear that Haru shouldn’t do anything rash unless he wants his bandage taken away. There’s also the matter of how everyone turns to him when it comes to Daisuke. From Cho asking him about Daisuke’s character to the Division 1 Chief asking about him,  Then there’s their partnership in general which has grown with Daisuke subtly warning him not to get involved and Haru acknowledging that Daisuke’s methods do get the job done even though he may not like it.

I really enjoyed how the episode frames Cho’s actions on getting Imura to talk by using her son. That scene shows that no method is truly righteous and it forces Haru to confront the moral issue. Furthermore, there’s Cho’s determination to finish the cold case even if it means sticking his nose in dangerous waters. That’s a common death flag for any detective show. His reason isn’t stated, but it could be revealed in the next episode in the upcoming talk.

On the other hand, there are Daisuke’s methods and how they’re no longer as efficient as he would like them to be at the moment. He can still do things like hack into the computer in the interrogation or cover the costs of damages incurred on his methods. However, with HEUSC saying that he doesn’t have the proper clearance to access those secrets it impedes the investigation. This brings me to the name he mentioned in the interrogation, Shigemaru Kambe, They appear to be connected to the family business and therefore could be in a higher position than Daisuke on the HEUSC’s chain of authority. Furthermore, the explosion that killed Imura appears to have been caused by Daisuke, but it could HEUSC since it was a small drone that could be controlled by the A.I. since we never saw the drone retract from Imura’s car after Daisuke’s orders.

Now the cold case of Sayuri Kambe, it’s obvious that she’s a relative of Daisuke’s but the fact that her case is cold is astonishing given how the Kambe family’s influence is enormous. Unless there’s more to that case than meets the eye, and someone in the family wanted the case to go cold. Therefore it could be the reason that Daisuke joined Modern Crimes.

Overall this episode is a great set up for the next one especially with that cliffhanger of Cho and Daisuke on the rooftop like they’re going to have a dramatic talk. While the show has some common aspects of other detective shows, it has its differences with how Daisuke does things, how the police department is divided, and the attitudes of Haru’s employees. Those differences make the show unique in its own way.