![]() Japan is one of the most peaceful countries in the world. It's 2000s Japan and crime has never been lower. However, he's an interesting and compelling villain. Was he justified in murdering a small child who was only trying to copy his snooty mother? Of course not! James Moriarty is not a nice man. Moriarty's anger at this societal injustice makes perfect sense in context. For the majority, living in England REALLY sucked in the 1800s. There is a reason that Charles Dickens became the national author and voice of the people during this time. If those 2 didn't kill you, the air pollution would certainly finish you off. The wealthy lived in 3 story, 100 room manors in the countryside while the majority lived in squalid apartments dying of cholera and tuberculosis. From 1873 to 1896, Great Britain suffered from a 23 year Great Depression! Unemployment and crime were absolutely rampant. ![]() ![]() The wealthy benefited from the blatantly exploitative East India Trading Company and British South Africa Company, but how much of this wealth trickled down to the average Briton? Not enough. Over half the population was hungry and didn't have enough food to eat. According to historians, over 25% of the population lived in dire poverty and this percentage was even higher in London. Let's look at 1880s England when this story takes place. It also helps that Moriarty's worldview and goals make a LOT more sense than Light's. For one thing, Moriarty genuinely cares about his younger brother and isn't purely a selfish, evil asshole with a God complex. People will quickly compare this version of Moriarty to Light Yagami, but I will actually go on record saying this Moriarty is vastly superior to his bishounen prototype Light. I'm also glad that the show remembered that Moriarty is still the villain despite ultimately good motives and also refrained from demonizing Holmes and Watson to try make us cheer for Moriarty easier. I'm glad the director or whoever read the room and realized it's not 2004. In the beginning portion, Moriarty got to the brink of going full Elfen Lied, but the show wisely backed off a bit. At one point, Moriarty convinces a rich kid to murder his snobby little brother in cold blood, then kill his parents for being assholes towards the servants. This is a pretty damn violent and brutal anime, although it calms down a little after the first 4 episodes. So basically this is an anime that combines the cat and mouse games of Death Note with the class struggle of Rose of Versailles, topped off with a generous helping of EDGE. Moriarty's ultimate goal is to bring about radical, revolutionary change that will dismantle the strict caste system of Victorian England. Moriarty wishes to help the poor and downtrodden gain revenge on nobles that have deeply wronged them but can't be punished because they own the courts. He holds a deep anger and resentment towards the British aristocracy and especially those that believe themselves above the law due to their social status. Moriarty grew up homeless and starving with a sick younger brother he had to care for. He's still a math professor by day who moonlights as a criminal consultant that orchestrates crimes from behind the scenes. In this series he is still a cold, calculating, master criminal. As you could guess from the title, the character that they changed the most is Professor James Moriarty. ![]() the Baker Stree Irregulars, are all portrayed very accurately. A lot of dialogue is lifted directly from the source stories. Sherlock Holmes and Watson besides looking weirdly bishounen act exactly like they do in the books. Moriarty the Patriot is both a surprisingly faithful Sherlock Holmes adaptation and puts a new spin on familiar characters at the same time. It's been a rough year, but we finally got a genuinely good anime that's not Interspecies Reviewers! This is something I can actually recommend to my offline friends and they won't just laugh awkwardly and say, "Um.Really dude?". ![]()
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