Moriarty the Patriot — An Innovative Retelling, or a Disappointment?

Professor James Moriarty is a famous and fairly important antagonist in the original Sherlock works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was created by Doyle to be the man to “end” Sherlock Holmes himself, who sacrificed his own life to die with Moriarty in the famous story “The Final Problem” (and he’s totally dead).

Without nerding out too much with my thoughts on the original Sherlock that I have read—because that’s a whole different can of worms for another day—it can be said that Moriarty is one of those characters from a popular fictional work that gets way more popularity and credit than perhaps would be expected, or arguably deserved, in how important he is to Sherlock’s story. But then again, Sherlock antagonists are most important for the threat they pose to Sherlock’s intellect and legacy, and that makes Moriarty, his intellectual equal, a big deal either way.

So it’s not so much of a shocker to see a Sherlock series reframed with Moriarty as our main character. And that’s perfectly fine. Honestly, it’s pretty cool. As someone who was not an adamant Moriarty fan based on the original material, I look forward to and even deeply appreciate the retellings and reinterpretations of his character. I think Andrew Scott did a great job in the Sherlock show, and even this mediocre anime added twists to his characterization that I quite liked. We are now seeing Sherlock’s world of 19th century London through Moriarty’s, the villain’s, eyes.

Because this is definitely a story with a villain protagonist—is how the anime paints itself. And is therefore what I originally thought.

Sigh.

Let’s jump into the show, shall we?

There’s a story framing device when we open where it’s revealed Moriarty’s story is being told to a young boy by his grandfather—which is cute, and it helps to turn back the clock to our setting in England long ago. The Moriarty we are introduced to is young, blonde anime bishōnen Moriarty, because why not?

Before any of this though, let’s start off with the best aspect of the entire show—the opening.

I don’t declare this as an insult, even though it definitely sounds that way, but let me say point blank: the opening song and video are my favorite thing about this anime, and it is what I have taken away the most from the entire season. And the reasons why this is the case actually make sense. What made the anime Moriarty the Patriot enjoyable, to me, is not the plot. It’s not any number of impactful moments. It’s certainly not the characters, who we will get into shortly. No—Moriarty’s strength as a show comes through the vibes and the setting. The show encompasses this gorgeous, dark aesthetic that stays faithful to the original stories while also adding a perfect flair of dark academia-esque edginess, with just a dab of anime pretentiousness. It’s not only a gorgeous looking show as far as animation and character design goes—it’s a gorgeous feeling show. The dark vibes and visual design in this show are top tier.

The plot is okay. The overall plot, we learn, is that Moriarty is actually woke as fuck, which is an interesting choice for his character. He wants to basically exterminate the corrupt and wealthy like a weird, nuance-less combination of Robin Hood and Light from Death Note.

There’s a different crime each episode that Moriarty either perpetuates or uncovers, and it can get a little repetitive, but the episodes are at least fast-paced and engaging. The sense of mystery, though, is pretty bad, which is not good when you’re doing a Sherlock retelling. A lot of the investigation either comes from Moriarty just knowing everything—which I love—or it happens offscreen, which is really stupid. Sometimes the show even just tells you the mystery or the culprit right away without any clues or build up, and the rest of the episode is just Moriarty defeating them, and it’s very questionable why this is. There are twists, but there are never any exciting twists. There are some surprises here and there, but they end up feeling random or just being straight up bad writing. The plots are alright at best, dumb at worst. But never bad.

Now, let’s get into the show’s biggest problems: the characters.

We’ll start with our protagonist, Mr. Moriarty himself.

To all my anime-savvy readers: yeah, his character design is literally just blonde Sebastian from Black Butler. I know. I see it, and I hear you. I mean, to the point where it is almost straight up derivative.

Anyway: like the original Moriarty, this younger, prettier, cooler Moriarty is a genius beyond the point of reality. We can all suspend our disbelief in order to see and know that he is not only smart and always right, but he’s pretty much written to just know everything, and if you’re engaging with any type of Sherlock content, this is something you just have to accept about these characters. There is a word for what this is—it’s magic, quite literally, under the guise of logic. It’s so dumb, and it’s so Sherlock.

I, for one, love it. It’s stupid and ridiculous and unrealistic, and that’s why it’s so great. And the writers make it make sense as much as they possibly can whenever Moriarty shows that he knows everything and can read absolutely everyone adeptly. So that’s the most important thing about his character, and I’m cool with it. I’m fine with him being a logical magical genius. It’s amusing, it makes sense in the context of the show, and it gives us some really good moments. Seeing people get bested by a consistently underestimated genius is always going to be enjoyable.

But since Moriarty wants to eat the rich, he’s never going to be seen as a villain, because he’s not one. Which is fine. I’m not mad at the moral standing of this Moriarty being much higher than that of the original character; since he’s getting his own spin off series, he has to be somewhat sympathetic. But Moriarty is supposed to be serving as an anti-hero, and this is where we run into our first problem: he’s not one. Because every single character he kills, wrongs, or defeats is ridiculously evil.

The way the wealthy act in this anime is absolutely laughable in how unrealistic it is. We are already suspending our disbelief to believe our main character is a genius. We can’t do it for every single terrible character in the show so they can act an absolute fool. Every single rich person in this show is not only awful—they are the worst. We’re not getting rich people throwing luxurious parties while the poor outside are starving and hungry; no, we’re getting rich people who literally kill orphans, openly mock and demean other humans in insanely cruel ways, and want to see the death and extermination of all those who do not have the same economic standing as them. And they’re all like this. There is not a single ounce of depth to any of these mean, crazy fucks. So Moriarty just cannot be seen as an anti-hero for wanting to crush them. He is the, albeit a dark and mysterious and brooding one, hero of this story, and that’s a little disappointing.

So Moriarty—good character. Absolutely acceptable. Solid foundation. Flawed, and a little nuance at all within his world would be great, but he’s fine. It’s fine.

Let’s move on to his brothers.

They… are terrible.

Character summaries: Albert is the brother on the right—found family, of course. He really looks up to Moriarty, and that’s his thing. Lewis is the brother on the left. He also really looks up to Moriarty, and his thing that makes him different is he really looks up to Moriarty. He’ll kill for his beloved brother—and he’s also in love with him.

Yeah, there is definitely some incestuous yaoi-baiting going on between Lewis and Moriarty, which isn’t great.

Let me be absolutely clear: every character associated with Moriarty is merely an extension of Moriarty. They are not unique, interesting, or intelligent in any individualistic or compelling way. Moriarty and Sherlock are the only characters that matter, and even Sherlock himself is hanging on by a thin thread. Let’s throw a picture of him below.

And they’re basically the same person, only Moriarty wants to eat the mean, awful, demonically evil rich and Sherlock wants to protect them—for whatever reason—from the next big crime. Because he loves uncovering mysteries and knowing everything and proving that he knows everything, and I do like that about him, but there’s a weird, skewed sense of justice about this Sherlock so far that I don’t know if I’m rocking with.

The character writing in this show is not good. It’s actually really, really bad. I would say it’s the anime’s greatest weakness by far.

Alright, guys, hard cut—let’s talk about gay people.

This anime is queer-coded in a number of ways. It knows its audience. You heard what I said about Lewis having a crush on his brother—I didn’t stutter. So, of course, we already have a problem.

As an avid watcher of not only anime but just media in general—I’m tired, guys. I tire of the miserable, tired trend of queerbaiting bullshit.

There’s nothing wrong with having romantic or sexual tension between two male or two female characters without a relationship or explicit romance occurring by the end. There is something wrong when in every single show, the tension between two same-sex characters is only used for pure marketability, and the emotional depth and nuance of the relationship between the two is not respected or treated as a heteronormative relationship would be.

I’m sure we can all think of examples of queerbaiting in media. Supernatural had the most heinous queerbaiting in the history of television until the half-assed conclusion between Dean and Castiel finally happened. Free: Iwatobi Swim Club had some wild queerbaiting too, if you’re familiar with that mess of a show. Black Butler, once again, is an extremely popular example of an anime with lots of it. (It also arguably, very unfortunately has… a lot of pedo-baiting… alongside that? Again—a conversation for another time.)

Moriarty falls a little bit into this, unfortunately, which I knew it would. You can’t have a main character that looks like Moriarty and expect to not have queerbaiting in your anime. It’s probably illegal.

But I am pleased to admit that the queerbaiting levels here, as of season one, are… not that bad!

The Lewis stuff is just despicable. It’s just awful, to have a character already be so bad and shallow and also have a crush on his brother. But it’s very subtle to the point where it’s not ever relevant or important. It’s a weird decision, sure, but that’s luckily all it is. Whatever way Lewis loves Moriarty, that’s the extent of his character—loving Moriarty. So remember, guys—bad character writing works out if you’re writing incest.

The moments of tension between Moriarty and Sherlock, while definitely having queer undertones, are not taken too far or used distastefully. They do flirt pretty openly at times, and there’s definitely intrigue and even attraction going both ways, but a romance is not the point of the show. The point is that they have this intense rivalry, a rivalry of two geniuses with opposing world outlooks, and adding this kind of tension to their connection actually makes it more intriguing.

There’s always that element that the tension between them could be, to an extent, fabricated or manipulated by one of the characters for purposes of “winning” even though the intrigue both characters have is real and true, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. Their dynamic is quite interesting so far, and I would be interested to know what will come of them in the second season—which I most likely will not be tuning in to watch. I’m rooting for the writers, for once, to have the guts to actually pursue a gay relationship or at least a kiss, but I also don’t think this show would be the one to need it the most, if that makes sense.

Overall, Moriarty the Patriot is pretty decent. I’m a pretty harsh critic, and even though it may have sounded like I was crapping all over this show this entire time, it was genuinely a fun watch. It isn’t, by any means, a phenomenal show; don’t get me wrong. But I found the aesthetics, the music, the character designs, and certain specific aspects of the plot to make for an entertaining and enjoyable anime overall.

If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes-related content, sexy anime men, detective stories, borderline incestuous brother relationships, rich people being awful, homoerotic subtext, and/or Death Note, I’d recommend checking out this anime—there’s a little something for everyone.

I’ll go for my 5 point rating that I apply to books and give Moriarty the Patriot about a 3/5.

Thanks for reading! 😊