《Moriarty The Patriot》

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Review of what I think is the best mystery and anime in a long time

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First of all, this is my first review. Pls not be too strict. I'll just say what's close to my heart about this anime

And of course there is a spoiler warning here, because you never know what I'm going to say here

For now, superficially speaking about the anime:

In my eyes, the anime is something new in every respect. Whether it is about the goal, what is the fight against the class system or London in the 19th century.

But what I liked the most was just plain and simple the character "William James Moriarty". Whether it's his past, his ideas and the embodiment of good and bad.

It was really fun that you can follow his plans and get to know his way of thinking. The whole thing decreased with the 2nd season because it was more about "Irene Adler" and "Jack The Ripper".

Just "the bad" side of the story was just something different than always Sherlock Holmes.

Now let's get a little deeper into the matter:

When you saw his past when he was younger in the first episodes, you saw the effort there made. At the latest when they dished up the story where William, when he was younger, dragged the aristocrat into court to give the money back to the orphanage.

The only thing that really made me sad was that you really didn't know anything about his parents or where they were in front of the orphanage. Has he been repelled? Has he always lived in London? or where exactly did the hatred of nobles come from, to hate them in such a way that one devotes one's whole life to nothing but that?

In the first season in general there was never really anything I had to complain about except for one point!

In the manga, after the incident in the Noathic, Albert was ordered to run the Mi6, which he then used in one case. In the anime, on the other hand, it was never mentioned. (in season one, in the second I'll talk about it later)

In the second season you could see that they didn't take that much time to take in everything from the manga. I'm not talking about the side stories of Fred or Moran, but the details in the main story.

For example, the conversation between Sherlock and Irene Adler in the park was completely omitted and the incident when Sherlock and Watson set off the smoke bomb in her house. A lot of dialogues were left out and I thought whether it would go on like this and became more skeptical.

In the case of "Jack The Ripper" everything went back to Manga and was then relieved again. In general, I didn't find the case that exciting, but it was still well done. I thought it was nice that they included the greatest murderer in Britain, who was also in the 19th century, in history.

From then on everything went really well and I was pretty happy with the next case of "Charles Augustus Milverton", the master of blackmail. I also found his character very interesting and would have liked to know his story about it too, but I think that otherwise they couldn't keep the episodes at 13 and that's why they left it (or it wasn't there, it could be).

I was also very surprised when Sherlock shot him, I was expecting everything but not that he would kill him. William didn't think that either and you saw his reaction to it when something in his plan doesn't go as he planned. As soon as you saw the desperation in Sherlock that he only did what William wanted before killing, even though he did not intend it himself.

And now to the end of the anime in episode 13 in the second season:

I was undecided ...... will William die ..... or will Sherlock save him ..... the developers really played with you. I thought the idea of ​​setting the whole city on fire was good, only because I don't know whether it will really be of any use to change the way the aritocrats think. Even if you have worked there once with the citizens, this does not mean that you are suddenly best friends. But I can be wrong about that too.

In the end, when William and Sherlock were standing on the bridge that had not yet been built ..... I actually thought Sherlock would save him, but when William attacked him, I thought to myself in the fight when he ran, "Not that Sherlock now dies ". But that was also a nuisance, because in the end both of them fell into the water and in the end neither of them found them.

After the finale, there were short excerpts of what Moriarty's followers were doing in the future and how Albert was behind bars and Louis and James Bond work in Mi6 ...... yes, Mi6 was discussed in the last 3 minutes ..... but it didn't play a big role in the manga either, so it's not dramatic now.

I also found the ending clip of Sherlock sitting at the bar with William in Switzerland very successful and you could see that although they weren't in good contact, they became really good friends

On the whole, I found the anime really nice and found it so good in the first season that it became one of my favorites.

I will give the anime with the 2nd tier a 95-100 and then rounded up my list to a 10/10, because I don't know whether an anime in such a genre can top it

"They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains” he remarked with a smile. “It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work"

• Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (1887)

What perfect way to describe both William and Sherlock than to use a quote from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. --- Compared to part 1, the structure of part 2 was a bit of a mess. While each arc was interesting, the way it has been laid out makes me wonder if they’ve taken random arcs from different points in the manga and pieced them together to make this part 2. Despite this, the last few episodes were super consistent and were also by far the best. While part 1 introduced us to the Moriarty family’s business, part 2 exploits that and takes it further, giving us more time to delve into the crimes. It goes back and forth from William’s side of things to Sherlock’s side of things, sometimes letting the two sides of the stories meet ever so briefly. That is, until we get to the last arc where the story is really entangled. In part 1, where we mostly follow William’s POV, his ideas make a lot of sense and highlights that deep down, there are a lot of people who are like him, who want the power to punish people for their wrongdoings, they just don’t have the courage that William does. Part 2 slowly dives into different territory and gives us more insight on William as a character and makes the audience realize that, well, the end doesn’t justify the means. # __From here on out, there are spoilers. So you have been warned__ What's truly interesting about Moriarty the Patriot are the characters, William and Sherlock, so let's talk about them. As I also mentioned in my review for part 1, William can be compared to Light. However, how many traits they share, they are still two vastly different characters. William plays the role of a villain, which is “what the society needs”, and he’s aware of it, even pointing out necessary evil (William) vs pure evil (Milverton). He even goes as far as to point out that the only way to achieve his goal would be the death of him, meaning he will atone for his actions because he is aware that what he is doing he is doing for justice, but it is nonetheless morally wrong. No, not even for justice, as he says “I don’t consider the actions I’m taking to be in the name of justice. I’ve never believed that a person has the right to pass judgment on another”. He is much more self-aware of his actions, and this sets him apart from Light who is egocentric and thinks himself to be flawless. William is “playing Robin Hood”. I stumbled upon a comment made by someone, and they made a brilliant point. William is using Light's methodology of wanting to make the world a better place by getting rid of all the bad guys, but with Lelouch's ideology of wanting to protect the weak as the strong and privileged one. Truthfully, William is more like Lelouch than Light if you think about it. At first glance, it makes sense to compare him to Light but the more you learn about him, the more you learn that he’s way more like Lelouch, both are characters that know that their actions are pretty damn messed up. And both have pinned a protagonist to be the good guy – Lelouch with Suzaku and William with Sherlock. This series has such an interesting take on Sherlock, partly due to the focus mainly being on his rival. This Sherlock shines at his brighest when the focus shifts to both him and William. Sherlock is selfless but also selfish and acts how he wants if that means it's for the sake of justice, or well, what he deems to be justice. His actions also cause him pain and regret, sometimes. He's always one to look back at his past actions and dig up his wrongdoings, whether there were wrongdoings or not, makin him a bit pessimistic at times. However, he's never regretted anything that has to do with William. Ever since he met him, maybe due to _how_ they met, he's always seen William as a rival and a friend. Never the former alone, never the latter alone, always as a rival AND a friend. And that's what makes their dynamic so good. For once, things aren't going as William had planned. And it's getting to him. He wasn't expecting Sherlock to kill Milverton at all. And it seems to have affected him greatly, "I never meant to let him become a murderer as soon as this" he says but the last part can pretty much be left out cause in truth he respected and acknowledged Sherlock for his methods of achieving justice - that being the exact opposite of his own. Because Sherlock is the light, William is the dark. Even after finding out that William is the Lord of Crime, he exclaims that he is happy that it was William and wouldn't know what to do if it hadn’t been him. He never even stops calling him Liam. To him, William is and has always been who Sherlock wanted him to be. Sherlock understands William in a way even his brothers don't, because they don't share the same ideology. Understanding their relationship, it is NO wonder, that the first thing Sherlock says when he finds out about William's final plans... Because he knows that deep down, William wants to be saved. However, he didn't expect William to be so honest with his feelings, and even to the audience this is a surprise. When Sherlock asks William why he chose him, out of all people, William gave him the perfect answer ever imaginable: >I found our meeting to be enjoyable enough to forget all about my heinous plan for a moment. It felt as though I had found the one person who could understand me. Not only Sherlock, but William _too_ has always seen Sherlock as both a rival and a friend. Ladies and gentlemen, this is peak character writing. William even repeats what is _the best scene in the show_ but instead of "Mr. Holmes", he changes it to >Catch me if you can, Sherlock And with that, you have beautiful character writing, beautiful character dynamics in a show that will satisfy your curiosity.