Closer look at Great Pretender: Edamame
Spoilers ahead.
Let’s take a closer look at this anime and what this show is trying to say about society at large. While it does have some globalization aesthetic the show is rooted in Japanese culture by our main lead Edamura.
The show poises a question can Edamura lead a good life? Which is a C plot in the back of our minds throughout the show in the first two cases. You see Edamura’s dad turned out to be a corrupt lawyer and that hangs over his head every time he tires to get a job to help his hospitalized mom. After being labeled a criminal and finding no job and his mom passing away he decides to become the very thing society labeled him out to be.
What’s great about this show is how quick that backstory was and how much I wanted more. Those quick scenes told you everything you need to know about Edamura’s motivation in being involved in those cases.
And as the audience we can’t really blame him for taking that route. In a Joker kind of way it takes one bad day to turn him into something society deems to be a criminal. And when Edamura doesn’t have a choice was it really his decision?
In solving the first Con with his new friends it seems Edamura wants a fresh start. He sees the value in what Laurent is doing while the methods aren’t the purest it may be the only way to bring a sort of justice in the world. Edamura wants that justice since he was denied that since childhood. So much so that he used his money to give it all back and turn himself to the cops back in Japan.
He has a choice now and wants to change. And with Laurent and the others he can have a better start. While it’s still coning people it’s for better reasons. Edamura was gaining the system for his own profit now he is doing it for nobler goals.
It’s worth noting that Edamura only wants his record clean in the eyes of Japan. There’s a nationalistic lens to this. He still wants to remain in good standing in his home country while doing all the coning in other countries. But he does commit to doing good only using his powers to get the bad guy. He also would have stayed in the honest job if it wasn’t for Laurent pulling the strings to get him back.