Shion no Ou

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by tlynnec

Yeah. At this point I think he's too obvious to be the killer.

Maybe it is obvious because he is the killer, that does make sense after all. The writer knows that you'll think he's too obvious and discount him so it doesn't spoil the suspense.

Originally Posted by tlynnec

I wonder if part of the reason Satoru hates Shion so much is because everyone has sympathy for Shion since her parents died and she turned to Shougi, but no one cared when the same thing happened to him?

That makes sense. It's actually a reason for him to be harassing her now despite not being the killer. I think my top suspect is still the old guy who minds the desk.

[SeijiSensei]

People might have thought Satoru had his brother for support whereas Shion had no one. Also he was much older than Shion when his parents died. So it was only natural for people to dote on little orphan Shion but give Satoru's grief short-shrift.

In reality, though, I doubt Hani Makoto had much to offer. Satoru's anger (hatred?) toward his brother might accentuate his anger (hatred?) toward Shion. All those years of stored-up resentment from being beaten by the Meijin just fuel his need to defeat this spoiled, lucky brat. Psychologists (which I not one of) call this phenomenon "displacement." Sad, isn't it?

[Ashlotte]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

Maybe it is obvious because he is the killer, that does make sense after all. The writer knows that you'll think he's too obvious and discount him so it doesn't spoil the suspense.

That makes sense. It's actually a reason for him to be harassing her now despite not being the killer. I think my top suspect is still the old guy who minds the desk.

Reminds me of the episode in SZS with the mean looking girl..."Oh she looks too meant to have done it".

I really need to figure out how shougi is played before I catch the next episode...The characters and plot are great as-is, but I have the distinct feeling id get more out of the show if I had a clue about the game.

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by Kimichi

I really need to figure out how shougi is played before I catch the next episode...The characters and plot are great as-is, but I have the distinct feeling id get more out of the show if I had a clue about the game.

While I'm not at the point to where I want to learn to play (I'm positive I'd be bad at it), I've studied the wiki on shougi and how to play. Now sometimes I can actually figure out what's going on in a game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi

[Sinestra]

Wow after this past episode the suspense is killing me im racking my brain for who the killer is. Shion no Ou is defiantly an underrated series great plot great characters and Shion is just so cute watching her facial expressions is great. I suspect since she doesnt talk they paid extra attention to how her face responds to certain situations.

[Seditary]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

What bothers me most about the murder-mystery aspect of the story is the lack of discussion of motive. Without any clue about why her parents were killed, we left with random speculation about almost any character in the show. Or even people we've never seen. Maybe Nikaido's father killed them in hopes of derailing the career of a potential competitor. (Obviously I don't believe this; I give this example to demonstrate how little evidence we have to rule out even highly implausible scenarios.)

I might be totally wrong here, but I'm pretty sure the police detective mentioned to his subordinate in one episode that they couldn't find any motive for the murder.

Too lazy to go back through them all.

[Sinestra]

Originally Posted by Seditary

I might be totally wrong here, but I'm pretty sure the police detective mentioned to his subordinate in one episode that they couldn't find any motive for the murder.

Too lazy to go back through them all.

Nope you're right they had no motive and hardly any evidence except for a few pieces like the bloody king that was left behind.

[takodori]

Originally Posted by Kimichi

I really need to figure out how shougi is played before I catch the next episode...The characters and plot are great as-is, but I have the distinct feeling id get more out of the show if I had a clue about the game.

You can try a game against a Hamster here. It's a flash game.
http://hozo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/shogi/

This is the instruction how to use it in English
http://shogi-shack.net/playhamshogi.aspx

The author of Star Crossed Anime Blog wrote a review about Ep. 08 after playing the application linked above.
http://psgels.blogsome.com/2007/12/02/shion-no-ou-08/

He/She wrote, "I’ve gotten even more respect for the different characters of this series."

[Shiroth]

Episode 13: Okay --- the scene that had the old man walking out right after they found out that Shion's shoelaces were cut screams out to me that he had something to do with it. I know we have talked about him in the past, but i can't just let what happened dropped.

Yet another very interesting episode. I was very entertained with the ending to Satoru and Shion's match, especially the ending. The great thing about this series is that our main characters can't do the impossible, they can actually lose matches, and each time that happens it's shown that they grow stronger after each defeat. Shion's smile is a perfect example of this.

Scene of the episode for me had to be the flashback that shown Kamizono giving money to Yasuoka. A very beautiful scene, that sweet piano piece (which better had appear on the soundtrack that's being released this week) which helped a lot, along with a certain line that can come across as a powerful one, more ways then one: "Kishi need to believe in the move they've decided upon."

As for the cliffhanger, all i could think is why Satoru would send Saori to see Ayumi's Mother (it's even more mysterious as to why he had to have the text sent by Hani). Sure it looks as if his hidden plan was to show Saori that Ayumi is really male, though why? And that also explains that he knew about it all along --- no surprise when you think about how easy it would be for him to find out such information.

[Access]

He just enjoys manipulating people and causing trouble, I don't think there's any reason beyond that. He recognized a situation where he could do some mischief and jumped at the opportunity. Not that there wasn't mischief (deception) going on there in the first place, but at least Ayumi had a purpose in doing that while he just enjoys tormenting people. Otherwise, his actions don't really make sense. Sending the text from Hani's phone made sense as she was more likely to follow it that way.

[NoSanninWa]

Though it is quite interesting that Satoru had Ayumi investigated. I can't have been obvious since he is the only person to have figured out the secret. It raises the question of why he'd investigate her like that. Though it seems likely that the investigator is the same friend that was investigating for Shion's mom... Hmmm... perhaps this mysterious "investigator" is the killer!

[SeijiSensei]

Satoru's investigator must be more skilled at the task than Saori's majordomo whom she commissioned to investigate both Ayumi and Shion in one of the early episodes. Apparently this investigation failed to discover Ayumi's true gender. In fact, I don't really remember any scene where the results of his investigation were discussed.

The flashback scene with Kamizono could be seen as either making him a less likely suspect, because of his concern and generosity, or a more likely suspect driven by guilt to make amends to the little girl whose parents he murdered. My first reaction was the "less likely" option but the alternative also has some plausibility.

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by takodori

You can try a game against a Hamster here. It's a flash game.
http://hozo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/shogi/

Sheesh, that pokey little hamster absolutely destroyed me. Thanks for the links.

Off to watch Shion no Ou now...

[sunflower]

Does anyone else think that Kobayashi (the sponsor) is just way too creepy and could be the murderer? I don't know what his motive could be at this point, but the glasses and goofiness and supposed lack of knowledge about the game could be a planned disguise. He's got some evil eyes in the manga sometimes.

If it's not him I have to think it's Hani-meijin. That guy has some repressed anger in him. I wonder what would happen if he ever lost an important match?

Spoiler:

Also, that girl Satoru is looking at in the photo after his match with her, is that Shion's real mom? That would explain a lot.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by sunflower

Spoiler:

Also, that girl Satoru is looking at in the photo after his match with her, is that Shion's real mom? That would explain a lot.

Spoiler for Episode 13:

The girl he called Kazumi?

I was wondering about that myself.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Spoiler for Episode 13:

The girl he called Kazumi?
I was wondering about that myself.

Spoiler for eps 11 + 13:

Back in episode 11 during the discussion of the report by Satoru's detective, Shion's stepmother mentions that there's a reference to "Kazumi" in Shion's birth mother's diary. The police thought it was a friend of Shion's mother and didn't investigate it further. (I thought that was pretty poor police work for a murder case myself.) The stepmom thinks it might be a reference to her brother "Kazuyoshi." Regardless it doesn't seem like this Kazumi is Shion's birth mother; for now, she's a mystery. (What's the name of Ayumi's mother by the way?)

Maybe this Kazumi is the murderer? There's no reason so far that I can remember that would rule out a woman. Or, maybe she's just another distraction like the stalker in the early episodes. That seems less likely since she apparently has a tie to Satoru.

[Deathkillz]

After listening to the full ED version I just had to check out the series which it ends with (quite possible one of the most addictives ED this season).

Now I'm still trying to catch up just finishing ep 8.

Needless to say this is an awesome series - I play chess myself but that got boring after a while (especially when I don't have any human players to play with ;__; ). Shogi on the other hand seems more like a challenging game with the twist of having the ability to capture pieces rather than kill them. Seems like this is another thing to learn

What an awesome tournament...9th dan getting whipped by an amature? ye ouch on the pride isle

[Kaoru Chujo]

Spoiler for ep15:

I may be the only one here watching the raws (actually I usually watch the Chinese subs that come out within 24 hours), but anyway this was a great episode, for me. And an episode based almost entirely on one single shogi match. The way Shion and her stepfather reacted in the match was great. Their reactions after the match were also great. And Satoru seems to be changing slightly. He may be the killer and he may not be. But he is learning things and his better side is being coaxed out, it seems to me. And he has a great shougi mind, clearly.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Spoiler for ep15:

I may be the only one here watching the raws

I'm rather tempted with the raws, especially after how each episode loves to end of a cliffhanger which is set up nicely.

Episode 14: Thanks to Satoru touching Shion's face, we have yet another reason that makes him stand out as the murderer. On the other hand i guess this also makes Hani a suspect --- i don't even wanna begin to imagine his reason for doing such a thing, though at this point he is a suspect.

Seeing how much this episode focuses on cross-dressing Ayumi makes me believe that this won't be the end of that, especially with Satoru knowing about it. Regarding Hani, i hope he just doesn't ignore the text message sent by Satoru, though knowing him he'll keep it in mind until more of his plan is exposed.

[Proto]

I continue with my guess that Hani meijin is the murderer, and Satoru's plan is to bring the spotlight to Meijin through this tournament, both by bringing attention to his family through his acts, having Shion, Ayumi and Nikaido closer to each other through this maquinations (so that they can support each other, probably because Hani will go a little rampant on Shion when things are exposed), and making Shion see the resemblance of the murderer to him, and by connection to his brother.

My speculations in this forum so far have a success ratio of 75%. Yay.