Character Analysis: Keith Kazama Flick

I recently finished watching the show Killer B: The Beginning just to cross it off from my watch list. As a psychological and suspense anime, it falls short on my expectations. Yep, I dropped a spoiler right there already if this was a review about the anime itself. But this is post is centered around one of the main characters.

Summary of the Post:

The Plot
Keith Flick
His Strengths
His Weakness
Conclusion
References

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The Plot

In an island nation Cremona, series of murders were committed by a a serial killer nicknamed Killer B. The murderer kills of known criminals and leaves of a sign that resembles a “B”. The Royal Investigation Service (RIS) is tasked to investigate on these incidents. Keith Flick, a genius investigator joins in the team to solve the mystery and possible series of crimes related.

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Keith Flick

You can tell right off the bat this guy’s reputation precedes him even if he just came back from 10 years of quitting the force. He enters the show breaching police lines in a crime scene like a casual stroll. Yep, that spells out MC right there even without the promotional poster.

He’s supposed to be a genius when it comes to solving cases. You can liken his presence in the show as L or Sherlock Holmes based on how people interact with him. Often laid back until everyone is tensed and not knowing what to do, he goes off to the drawing board and writes mathematical formulas as if the numbers are whispering him towards the answer.

An introvert that has a talent for deducing facts from fiction, Keith can solve anything anything if he sets his mind to it. So as what the show paints him anyway.

His obsession is to solve the murder that surrounds her adopted sister’s death. Not going to dwell on how it came to be and the antagonist on the show. This post is focused on him alone.

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His Strengths

We see him often pensive and translates his thoughts into mathematical formulas that makes less sense to understand for normal people. He can use an entire white board to forecast the next event based from what given data he works with.

He’s you started overpowered genius in detective cases. It almost feels like the author had a lot of difficulty layering out several mysteries just to compensate how good Keith is at solving through all of them. His computing power and laid back personality makes him look cocky without intending to do so.

He is difficult to shake and has grace under pressure. Yep, that’s Mr. Perfect right there.

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His Weaknesses

He’s not really a sociable type of person and keeps most things to himself. He even translated his sister’s image into an equation just to hide the fact that he is thinking about her and the mystery that revolves around her murder. What an introvert.

Keith would have been a more effective leader and crime fighter if he was better at communicating with the team. He could do it at will of course but he’s a soloist and like what soloists usually do, you go in and solve the mystery on your own. He doesn’t do this just to prove something, he already knows he is capable. This often makes him be perceived often as a negative personality because of his lack of interest in interacting with people.

It can’t be helped. I mean if your IQ was over the roof, it’s hard to find a decent conversation with people that are contented with the mundane demands of life.

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The Conclusion

I didn’t think of Keith as a character worth remembering. I blame it on how the story was executed. There was more to be developed about his character and 12 episodes may not be enough to show him more depth to the audience.

Unlike L or Sherlock Holmes, Keith did not have any screen time explaining how he derived such formulas or how he deduces the events. We, as the audience are just left in the scene with several boards, walls, floors, and ceilings with equations that don’t make sense. He could have been more 3D if he methodical ways were shown.

As a character, pretty standard and nothing really unique about him but his issues required by the plot. The show itself is a bore but you don’t have to take my word for it. I watched 12 episodes and already got my decision that it fell off expectations after halfway through. But I finished it because I didn’t want to miss out on details that might change my mind about him.

So is he an interesting character for me? So so. I wished the story tellers did a better job than losing his potential to be great. I’m not even sure who is the main character the show wanted to focus on. Two stories intertwined and one plot to connect them. I believe he deserves a spin off of his own criminal investigations as prequel to the show.

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References: 123

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art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics