'The Great Pretender' Episode 2: What led Edamame to become Japan's best conman?
'Great Pretender' is promising to be an unusual and quirky anime, with its bizarre storylines, dark undertones coupled with comic characters. In Episode 1, we were introduced to Makoto "Edamame" Edamura, the most successful swindler and conman in Japan as he proudly proclaims himself to be. He deceives a woman into buying an expensive water filtration system from his partner, Kudou. Proud of their victory, they try to cheat the French conman Laurent Thierry but get tricked by him instead. They realize that they have walked into something more seedy than they had bargained for.
Thierry is a far more devious crook than he lets on. There's a lot more to him behind the calm demeanor than he prefers to let on. While on the run from the police, he hitches a ride with Thierry and is taken to meet a secret drug kingpin Eddie Cassano at his Beverly Hills mansion, which is where he meets Thierry's partner Abigail "Abby" Jones. Abby puts on a face of being Cassano's groupie and consumes a drug and feigns a trance in the hope that Cassano buys the drug from Thierry. Edamame discovers he is being used and tries to escape, only to realize that Thierry had placed a secret tracking device on him. He is knocked out and finds himself hanging from the Hollywood Sign.
This is the tone of Episode 1, where we see the playful, cocky side of Edamame, the cocky conman. However, in Episode 2, we learn about the trail of events that led him to become a conman. His father was a criminal and due to this tainted history, Edamame was unable to find work for himself. In order to help his mother, who was unwell, he had become a salesman at Kudou's company. In another twist, he was shocked to know that the company had been dealing with consumer fraud. The police did not believe him when he tried to explain himself, due to his father's criminal records. Edamame was in jail for 18 months and was finally released on parole. Following this, he approached Kudou offering to partner with him and become Japan's greatest swindler. But turns out, that Thierry has some other plans for him.
'The Great Pretender' is now streaming on Netflix.
