I think it makes sense in a way, that he'd be pretty careful about not getting caught, not keeping evidence on his person that could get him immediately put in a holding cell. As long as he's a free man, his connections can work on cleaning up the rest, but a gun is an instant excuse to take one into custody. So I think it "justifies" it in why Dobu is an idiot besides "because the plot needs him to be" but still makes him an idiot. What do you think?
Not sure. The reasoning is "Even if they enter his house", but how should the police know his place to begin with? Especially if Daimon covers him. Plus, apparently the gun was entrusted to him by Kuroda. Do you want me to believe that he hides it in such a bad place, considering how he's fixated with getting recognition from the boss?
@@davidedalterio4979 This will be a bit long, and it's ultimately only my opinion. I do ultimately agree he was an idiot about the gun, I'm just willing to see it as in character rather than a plot convenience. It requires a lot of interpretation though, and your interpretation may still just see it as too inconsistent to his character. Especially since a lot of the characterization that makes it click for me is in materials outside the main series itself. And I do think a series should try to be a little more self contained, but the Kuroda group's drama is clearly enough to be a new 13 episode series unto itself (just as the Mystery Kiss drama became a stage play of its own). In the short story released before the series, Justice, the police were already close enough to finding his place (unknown if it's his current in-series one or if he bailed to a new one since then) that the younger Daimon was only stopped from catching him there by the older brother happening to be there at the same time. He also doesn't live in as much of a 'hideout' style as Yano and Sekiguchi; in the novelization, Odokawa even bitterly notes that Dobu's apartment is clean, stylized, and, well, *nice*, compared to Odokawa's own sparse and empty living space. Odokawa also notes in the novelization how careless it is to just trust and invite a blackmailed accomplice on over into his private abode. I think style and form are very important to him. This can lead him to having unexpected blind spots for the obvious despite being one of the smarter characters in terms of the minutiae. Despite his biggest pain being Yano trash talking him, he's *really* doesn't want to do Yano's unrelated enterprises any harm, and in Yano's short novel/drama CD, it turns out the real estate Yamamoto's working out of was given to Yano by Dobu to make money with it however he wanted very, very recently. Odokawa has to pressure him to get involved over Kakihana, by pointing out that there IS a connection to Kakihana and Yano's antagonism of Dobu; Kakihana just being caught up in one of Yano's bits, when Yano's in theory an enemy, isn't enough. Yano's an enemy in practical terms, he rants about outright killing him, but to Dobu more concerned with form and style, Yano's still his junior in the same organization (and both Yano and Sekiguchi still -san him). His biggest beef seems to be Yano breaking that form and style of respect. If Dobu's made the connection, he may even be trying to "shame him out of town" as he says, because he's put together that Yano has to be the real culprit, as explained to Odokawa in how he knew it was Yano after the camera data. Yano's in deep if he broke the rule and killed someone, especially the daughter of the boss's friend. This is what I think Odokawa meant when explaining to Kakihana that Dobu and Sekiguchi slugging it out was two idiots who couldn't say their feelings outright (with Sekiguchi as a stand in for Yano). Likewise, the only lie we seem to catch Dobu giving in Into The Woods is covering for Shirakawa in saying she approached Odokawa on her own. Dobu let her go, there's no reason to keep her entangled, yakuza stuff is yakuza stuff, she was some normie who should go hook up with a normie taxi driver and live normally ever after. But Sekiguchi and Yano were much more serious about the practical affairs. They didn't stop or even react to Dobu being shot and left for dead in a parking lot, there was money to get after. Dobu wanted the last case because of form and style. Purely a matter of face. He's not the most practical man. So I think Dobu is the type to think, on more mundane affairs not involving another person: "hide gun, good enough", indeed like a dog burying a bone as Rena says. There's nothing human or interesting there for him so he just doesn't put his usual smarts to work on it.
Thank you for these insights. I've never got to read the novel. However, in the end I think it's plot convenience and I'll explain how: basing off the series, Dobu's main weakness is that he gets ahead of himself when he thinks to be in control. That's why he commits stupid mistakes, like inviting Odokawa to his place because he (supposedly) believes he's not in the place to do nothing but obey, and the very first time they met; he thought that, with a gun pointed at the head, there was nothing the driver could do, not realizing that he was actually buying time. That said, buring the pistol doesn't relate to such arrogance in ANY way: he isn't above someone else at the moment and just has to hide it for his boss; again, with how much he does to excel in front of Kuroda, you're telling me he could mess up like this? Also, as far as I remember, JUSTICE says only that the police found a blue van that's costantly seen near Dobu, and Little Daimon is pursuing it (until it doesn't reveal itself to be his brother's car). Finally, a few other things: 1. Yano and Sekiguchi didn't even see Dobu's corpse. 2. I think the look of Dobu's apartment, alongside his golden necklace, it's just because of his obsession with money. 3. Dobu entrusted Yano with that apartment only because he didn't want to do the job by himself. And he also hoped that Yano would've becomed indipendent and gone away from him, since he was a pain in the a**. 4. All the words about "style, principles etc..." are hypocrisy. Don't trust them. Dobu always tells to himself to be a better person than how he is in reality; similiarly to Odokawa's thing with the animals, it's a mask to stand up against a world that seems hostile. However, everything falls over when it comes to money. If he really cared about not messing with Yano's job, why he used Odokawa to gather info from Yamamoto, Yano's henchman? And if he considers extortions to be cheap work, why'd he do it with Shirakawa?
@@davidedalterio4979 I think we agree on most things but our difference in accepting it comes down to how we read Dobu's character, your #4 point. I read his apartment and the necklace as less materialistic and more asincere matter of form and style; I'll see about translating the novel bits in the future since I don't like going "just trust me bro, it's in this thing only I can read," and I do still think someone could take your read on it even with the extra materials. The narrative itself I think emphasizes that Dobu is stylish for its own sake, but that narrative is also largely Odokawa's view point so his own bias is in play. (As an aside, the necklace I think is just the standard mobster bit of having something you can quickly turn into cash for bail or such if you flee the country; whether Dobu is even that practical about it or just follows certain traditional mob protocol is up for debate). Other elements that make me disagree with your fourth point are that his main rift with Yano happened when he drunkenly opined about how he views the meaning of life to be what kind of memory he leaves behind in people (leading Yano to wonder if his feelings for Dobu were specifically manipulated, because Dobu is good at deducing exactly what people want--he says so himself, it's key to his connection to Shirakawa, Odokawa and Daimon in the main plot, and Akadou in Root of Odd Taxi complains about it to Dobu's face as well as a reason he's so hard to trust; Dobu questions if that's what Yano's beef is, but Akadou doesn't give a clear answer on that. Dobu's a good people reader but he is apparently sincerely stumped on what has Yano's panties in a twist. Yano's an outlier.). Again, your take that it's actually about money has some support too. Dobu gives Yano a whole spiel after he creams Sekiguchi and co. about how there are more important things than money in the business, which Yano, in support of your point, points out is *really* hard to take seriously given Dobu is saying it while going through the wallets his just flitched off of the whole gang he beat up (and in the novelization we find out Dobu got free access to their gym from then on as well as having taken most of them on as his own underlings). Although I don't think him being *opportunistic* negates the style and principles element, even if it undermines them. The novelization of 2019 (which IS translated!) also has Yano note that Dobu secretly went broke buying Yano his suit, specifically because style is so important, and went to a cheap joint after that talking about how cheap hole-in-the-wall joints are secretly the best as a cover up for the fact that he didn't have the money to treat him to anything good at the moment. Whereas after beating up Sekiguchi and co., he's perfectly willing to take Yano out to somewhere nice, and Yano remarks in the rap album that he's never once paid for a thing for himself while out with Dobu. Dobu only gets "cheap" with him again when he's dating Shirakawa more seriously (and Yamabiko isn't exactly a discount hole-in-the-wall joint, he's just not taking him to high class yakiniku and crab joints anymore). For point 1, that's a possibility but seems really odd that they'd completely miss the guy lying there. If they did, it'd have to be because of more important, practical affairs eating up their attention, because Sekiguchi is characterized by an outright creepy stalkerish eye for detail, and Yano is obsessed with the guy so unless he just didn't see over the dashboard, it's a hell of a miss. (But if more materials came out to confirm they really didn't see him, that'd make a lot more sense. At present I still take the 'they're more practical' read, but I'm very open to new takes on that scene.) For point 3, it's somewhat interpretation again, but I don't think Dobu saw him as a pain in the ass until Yano started smack talking him, which was after he pushed him to be independent (and pushing Yano to grow was a consistent theme from the moment he bought the suit onward). He seems to enjoy being the "big brother" who gets to "complain" about Yano while still coddling him quite a bit. He was the one who continued reaching out to take Yano out to eat after Yano had gone independent, asking how things were going, cautioning him to take it easy on whatever drugs he might take, and prattling drunkenly about his meaning of life (and more damningly in Yano's eyes, his love life). The only time he sticks his nose into Yano's business to interfere is when it pertains to the missing girl incident, of interest to the boss and which Yano's successfully framing him for. He doesn't see Kakihana as related to that, but Yamamoto and the dash cam are. Thus why Odokawa has to pressure him for help on Kakihana. Given Dobu's not shy about using force, he's going *really* easy on Yano when he could just waltz up and beat them into submission for the framing and the smack talk in the beginning. To me, it seems Yano's paranoia is wonderfully tragic. Yano might be the single person Dobu's unusually decent towards with no obvious ulterior motive (unless he is indeed just trying to carve his memory into Yano for his own ego--which still would go back to style over practicality). Dobu himself even insists in Root of Odd Taxi that they're not *really* fighting (compare to Yano who is all but eager to spit on his grave in the movie). Even if Dobu is ultimately more full of shit than not, there is definitely a genuine fondness for Yano, however tainted. As for why he considers extortion to be cheap work but does it anyway, Yano wasn't wrong in his shit talk. Dobu does cheap gigs. It's a problem if the boss sees it that way, he has his pride (which he also cites as a reason he can't just tell the boss he has the dash cam data, and also highlighted when Odokawa remarks that Dobu's unexpectedly feeling it when he's the target of a hate campaign by Kabasawa). But she's fun to him, he kept with her for four years, there's a human element there to keep it interesting to him, and it pulls in *some* cash. He specializes in human things, he's bored with things that aren't very people-y. Bar owner up and fled, have to start new work with that building? Seems as good a time as any to turn it over to Yano who still seems to be struggling to find his own beat. Meanwhile he goes around digging up Yano's dad's address for no money because it's human-y and interesting to him---or, more cynically, he thinks it'll carve himself into Yano's memory more, but either way: peopley. He couldn't make much use of Sekiguchi who is more 'data' than anything. He gave him to Yano as muscle and as Yano was less people-driven (and tends to complain about how he feels that People-y side of Dobu is too soft). All outside his sphere of interest, enough he can't even make use of Sekiguchi doing the boring gruntwork for him. Hiding a gun is not in his sphere of interest, it's more 'things' than people so he's again not as smart about it. To me, and my read of the character, that makes sense. But it comes down to a lot of how one takes various bits within and outside the series.
