Nakahama

Kiyoshi loved Derective shows almost as much as he loved animal shows. He wasn't going to miss a new episode of Nezumi Detective.

Watching holoshows was better with more people, so he and the Detective put out an open invitation for other Detective enthusiasts to join them for a watch party. The Kitsune rearranged the furniture of his suite and ordered food and drinks.

Looking super fly, Kisha will arrive. Notably, she does not have her holodrone this time.

She does have a bottle tucked under her arm, though, and she bows as the door opens.

"Thanks for having me!" she'll say as she rises.

The spa was certainly a bit of a drive after the parties. Still when a friendly Miya asks if you want to attend a viewing party of a celebrity at the spa, who would turn down such an opportunity?

She'd changed outfits again, putting on something that was a bit more Silver Fin and Chill.

She offered her greetings when she arrived.

"Evening everyone. Thank you for having me."

She bowed to the host.

"Yasuki Taraka, Manager at Flying Battle Carps, it's an honor to meet you." she offered.

Kisha smiles and gives a nod to Taraka, but she'll wait for the host to say anything, herself.

The Detective greeted them, clapping happily. Then the monkey offered a bow. Kiyoshi appeared a moment later.

"Mina-sama." He bowed. "Thank you for coming! I know it has been a busy day."

Taraka smiled.

"And what better way to conclude it than with some light entertainment with new friends?" Taraka offered. "So any guesses on what we're in for tonight, based on what little we've seen?"

"I think I might need to be caught up," Kisha says, putting the bottle she's brought with the others on the table. "I might have missed the last episode."

"We might be able to view some older clips before the new episode starts." Kiyoshi suggested. "A highlight holo."

Kisha nods. "Thanks for that," she says. "I don't want to be a drag, but I also don't want to be left out!"

Nezumi Detective

Despite the name, the show doesn't feature any nezumi main characters in the show. The show follows an aspiring magistrate, a quirky and eccentric Kuni shugenja by the name of Kuni Oharu. It also takes place in feudal Rokugan around the year 1169, although the continued popularity of the show had them skip over the Destroyer War due to budget reasons. The main character hails from the outskirts of Kyuden Hida and served the Wall before moving over to the Yasuki city of Sunda Mizu Mura. Her traits include speaking in a peculiar nezumi accent, a love of drinking and flirtation, and ending up in general trouble.

The first season, and initially the only season planned, had her adjusting to life away from the Wall, often butting heads with the local Yasuki and court customs. She does eventually take to courtly life surprisingly well, despite maintaining her quirks, and earns some manner of local respect by solving various mysteries she finds herself entangled in.

A rarity for Crab Clan serials, the show managed to get renewed for subsequent seasons and seems to have managed to endure despite some rather outlandish tales (jumping the shark as it were). There would be an inclusion of a recurring cast of characters, including an ancestor ghost, a Hida yojimbo, and a rotating cast of potential suitors. From the second season forward, the show no longer took place in the Crab lands but had her wandering the Empire in what seemed like a perpetual, unexplained vacation. She would find herself in Winter Courts, weddings festivals, small towns in the middle of nowhere, and so forth. This is some attempt to bridge a story toward becoming a Jade yoriki but seemed the writing team was too content with episodes being a mystery of the week.

This particular episode has her wandering around the Painted City, trying to make sense of what was an act and was reality, all while solving a mysterious death...or did anyone die?

"Oooh, it's starting!" Taraka exclaiming, grabbing a snack and a seat. "The Painted City, huh? That must have been a big deal back in it's day. A whole city of actors, entire scripted seasons."

"A very interesting setting for a detective to explore." Kiyoshi nodded. "Second guessing everything you see."

"I heard that Painted City used to reshape itself for every graduating class," Kisha puts in. "Each new year was a new play put on, with students taking different roles each time. Can you imagine having to be a new person season to season, years on end?"

Taraka chuckled.

"I mean, I can't imagine it for me but..." she said, with a nod to the Kitsune. "I assume Kitsune-san might have SOME inkling of what that's like."

"Not entirely." he shrugged. "I've played Souta for 10 years. There have been a few other roles, mostly brief cameos, but I've basically been living two lives from season to season."

"I'd imagine that's strain enough," Kisha says. "Even the shift between this," and she gestures to herself, "and what goes out over Comments is...an effort."

He nodded. "It's why the others left the show. They wanted different lives."

"But no, he wanted a different different life, didn't he Shosuro-san? And you couldn't have that, could you?" Kuni Oharu said on the program as they pressed a witness.

Taraka popped a snack cracker with a satisfying crunch.

"Well, now we know who the killer isn't at least," Taraka commented. "It's never the first person caught in the questioning is it?"

"Maybe," Kisha says. "There were one or two episodes early on where it was, if I remember right."

She gets up to get drinks for the three of them.

"One of them, the suspect walked on a technical issue but still got it in the end."

"The Shosuro seems to obvious. But, this is the Painted City. What's real and what's an act?" Kiyoshi offered a mango to the Detective.