Ever since the last time I checked in with ID: INVADED, stuff has only gotten more layered and confusing.

Yes…if you didn’t notice, I’m using all-caps for the title now. If you read the katakana under the English in the logo, you’ll find the name of the series is actually Ido: Inveideddo, meaning it’s meant to be read “Id: Invaded” (as in, Freud’s concept), but it can be interpreted as “ID: Invaded” thanks to the all-caps. There’s also the less-likely chance of it additionally being “Ido: Invaded”, where, as explained last time, ido is the romaji reading for the two-character version of the Japanese word for “well” (as in a water well), so it could potentially be those kanji but with the reading rendered in katakana. Kiki Asukai has the single character for “well” at the end of her surname, too, just for a bit of continuity.

Sidebar: Notably, Aoki calls this work “Ido” for short, which is part of why I’m getting flustered over this.

On that note, there’s a lot of other things to read into when it comes to the names – aside from what’s already been uncovered with the ido, Denshin Katsuyama likes to win (katsu) and the den in his name can mean “legend”…Stuff like that. (Since Anaido is “hole” + ido, I still have no idea if calling Sakaido – “alcohol” + ido – is deliberate or just to make it look like someone’s actual surname.) (Update: It turns out the video I linked above reveals the connection…characters are named after types of alcohol. For instance, Narihisago is a type of alcohol from Fukui. It also reveals other people, not just Aoki, call this “Ido” as well.)

That’s not to say that every bit of humour and depth in this show is restricted to wordplay in Japanese – Anaido’s interactions with Sakaido are hilarious (ep 8) but they also betray the truth of this world (ep 10). Specifically, I like how Anaido’s off-the-wall thought processes break up the inherent seriousness of Sakaido’s deductions and utilitarian way of doing things. Not everything in this show is clever, either – after Narihisago faces the Challenger again, there’s no sign of where Katsuyama chucked his clothes…(which is kind of awkward to notice, now that I’ve pointed it out.)

On a related note, I discovered when reading the sample of the manga, #Brake-Broken, that it isn’t an outright adaption of the anime – it’s a different case, focussing around Sakaido avoiding being smushed by trucks and cars without being able to pump the brakes on his own car…hence the name. How this case is connected to the main series, aside from Sakaido’s presence, is that it seems to run by standard Mizuhanome rules (for what I’ve seen, which is the one sample chapter) including the fact the brilliant detective starts with no possessions but the clothes/accessories they choose for themselves and whatever they need to solve the case, but otherwise, anything and everything is fair game, especially with developments in episodes 8 – 10.

So, how are you finding ID: INVADED? Is it too convoluted, or is it blowing your mind in the best way possible? (Episode 10 made me cry, actually, so the anime is not just capable of evoking a sense of awe.)