Even more anime lateral thinking puzzles

This is the third installment of a series of posts where I come up with anime-themed lateral thinking puzzles for you guys to solve – well, technically I don’t come up with them myself as much as take already existing puzzles and give them an anime twist ;) I wrote the first post in 2011 and the second in 2013, so it seems like they’re becoming a two-year tradition! But anyway, for those who aren’t familiar with them, lateral thinking puzzles are basically riddles where you have to use critical thinking and logic in order to solve them. I’ve always enjoyed these kinds of things, so what better way to present them than in anime-style!

Below are the five puzzles I’ve come up with for today (couldn’t think of the usual seven =/) Like the other posts, in addition to the solution, I also included a few hints for each one to help you if you’re stuck, with each hint getting increasingly more revealing. Both the hints and solution are hidden in white text, so just highlight them with your cursor when you want to read them. Good luck!

During their journey to try and get their bodies back to normal, Edward and Alphonse take up lodging at a large hotel in a busy city. After checking into their room on the 11th floor, Al stays behind to go through the books they picked up at the local library while Ed decides to pick up something to eat. He takes the elevator back down to the first floor and leaves the hotel. After picking up some pastries at the bakery next door, he then returns to the hotel and gets back into the elevator. He takes it to the 8th floor, then begrudgingly walks the remaining three flights of stairs to their room on the 11th floor. Why did he do that?

Hints:
(1) Nothing changed with the elevator, or with him, during this time that would have influenced his decision to take the three flights of stairs, such as the elevator breaking down.

(2) If Al was with him, he would have taken the elevator all the way to the 11th floor rather than take any stairs (which is what they did when they first went to their room).

(3) If their room was on the 8th floor or below, he would have taken the elevator all the way to the appropriate floor.

(4) If he was in this exact same situation at any other hotel, he likely would have done the same thing.
—–

Solution: Due to his short stature, Ed is unable to reach the button for the 11th floor (Al had been the one who pushed it when they first went to their room). When he returned to the elevator, much to his annoyance he saw that the 8th floor button is the highest one he could reach. So he pushes it and then takes the stairs the rest of the way.

—–

While hanging out with Haru and the gang at a local cafe, Rin notices a newspaper on the table next to them that someone left behind, with a big headline that reads, “Woman dies in holiday accident.” Curious, he picks it up and starts reading the article, which goes on to say, “Mrs. Kana Iguchi from Shinjuku, while on holiday with her husband Taro Iguchi in New York, fell to her death from the balcony of their 7th floor room.” Nagisa inquires as to what he’s reading, so Rin puts the newspaper down on the table. As the others look at it, he says “It wasn’t an accident, she was murdered by her husband.” Some days later it was discovered that this was true. Rin had never met the Iguchis, so how did he know this beforehand?

Hints:
(1) Although Rin had never met the Iguchis before, he did have a brief communication with Mr. Iguchi prior to the murder. However, nothing in the communication suggested to Rin at the time that Mr. Iguchi intended to murder his wife.

(2) The communication involved Rin selling two items to Mr. Iguchi.

(3) The two items were practically identical except for one slight difference, and that difference is what later gave Rin the idea that Mr. Iguchi had killed his wife.

—–

Solution: At a big swimming event that Rin had attended, he won two round-trip tickets to New York in a raffle. However, when he later looked at the tickets closely, he found that one was accidentally a one-way only. He knew he wouldn’t have time to use the tickets before they expired, and didn’t know anyone who could either, so he decided to sell them online to people in the swimming forums he frequents. He found someone in Shinjuku who wanted to buy both of them and so Rin mailed him the tickets. It struck Rin as odd though that the person gave him one name for the mailing address, but when Rin received the payment from him online, the payer information said he had a different name, “Taro Iguchi.” Apparently Mr. Iguchi had forgotten about his true identity getting leaked this way, so that together with his interest in the tickets despite one being one-way only, caused Rin to properly deduce that he had intended to take his wife along and murder her there.

—–

Titans are wrecking havoc on a nearby town, and since the rest of the Survey Corps are occupied with Titans elsewhere, only Eren, Armin, and Mikasa are available to stop this group of Titans. They can see the Titans about a mile away, but since all the buildings have been smashed to bits, there’s no way they can get close to the Titans without being seen and nowhere they can properly use their Maneuvering Gear. They eventually find a way to travel the mile to where the Titans are located, all the while without being seen by them. How did they do that?

Hints:
(1) They did not do anything to themselves physically that would make them hard to see, such as wearing camouflage.

(2) It was broad daylight, so they weren’t traveling by the dark of night. However, not only would Titans not see them coming, other people wouldn’t see them either.

(3) They traveled the whole way by foot.

(4) The particular path they traveled on wasn’t a typical path.

—–

Solution: This town had a mine with a long underground tunnel that stretched a mile from the outskirts of town to where the Titans were. They got a hold of a lantern or torch for light and hurriedly walked the distance underground and unseen.

—–

Chiyo arrives late to school one morning, around the time they start closing the gate and no longer let students in. She was looking forward to seeing Nozaki today and didn’t want to get locked out! However, the school gate is broken and so instead of closing it, one of the teachers is standing near the front entrance. He was told to prevent any late students from coming in, and of course, prevent any students already in school from leaving without a good reason. He’s standing about 50 feet away from the entrance and Chiyo knows that he’d spot her before she could get inside the main building behind him. How was she able to get inside?

Hints:
(1) She did not hide herself in any way.

(2) She did indeed walk into the school building and didn’t get there by any other means.

(3) She did exchange words with the teacher, but nothing to the effect of her pleading with him to let her in.

(4) In the end, the teacher did do what he was told…or at least, he thought he did.

—–

Solution: Chiyo waited just outside the entrance and out of sight for the teacher to momentarily look away. She then started walking towards the school as fast as she could. As soon as he turned her way, she quickly turned around and began running in the opposite direction away from the school. The teacher called out to her, asking where she’s going, to which she replied that she forgot one of her books at home and was going to get it. He said he wouldn’t be able to let her back in when she came back, so she said she’d make due without it and headed back into the school. Basically, she tricked him into thinking she was leaving the school instead of coming to school late!

—–

(*And here’s a really annoying one to finish things up! Unless you’ve heard a riddle like this before, you’ll be mad when you read the solution*) Kyoko and Sayaka are lying dead on the floor in a house. Nearby is a broken bowl. There are no marks on their bodies and they weren’t killed by any other external means like poison…or magic! No one was in the house when they died. How did they die?

Hints:
(1) This one is really all about making the wrong assumptions. Try and think about the possible causes for their death going by the facts given and putting all prior knowledge aside.

(2) They died within moments of the bowl breaking.

(3) The cause of their death was lack of oxygen.

(4) If you still don’t know what led to their death, just think: Kyoko and Sayaka are indeed two of the unfortunate magical girls from Madoka Magica, but they’re not the only ones with those names…
—–

Solution: An ardent fan of Madoka Magica decided to name his pet goldfish after his two favorite characters from the show. Unfortunately while he was out of the house one day, his clumsy dog knocked down their fish bowl.

—–

If you don’t want to view the solutions and want to ask more questions, I’ll be glad to answer them in the comments. You can also view the first and second sets of puzzles I did here and here.

I started school this week, so new posts are back to every 10-14 days. I’m taking one less class than last semester, and as a whole they’re not as difficult, so there shouldn’t be too many blogging delays this season XD Also, I’m going to the SoCal Pokemon Regionals Tournament this weekend. I’ll be participating in the video game competition with the new ORAS team I made. I’ve gone to several Pokemon tournaments over the years, but none as big as regionals. I’ve been working hard on the team of pokemon I’m going to use so…wish me luck!

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Kal says:

    The first one fits perfectly with FMA, and I like the one with Chiyo. Makes sense. The others are a bit impossible to figure out though with just that info :S Interesting anyway :) good luck in the tournament!

    • Yumeka says:

      I think the Free! one is the most difficult of the bunch; it is pretty impossible unless you read all the hints…but I don’t think it’s that out there after that. Same with the Madoka one. Good job trying though. Glad you enjoyed the other two at least XD

  2. jimmy says:

    I liked 5, even though I didn’t get it. Actually, my guess was “Was their house underwater?” I have no idea how that made sense, but it was sort of a weird inversion of the actual answer.

  3. Moon says:

    Ahh wats the answer to the first one I can’t think of any answers lol

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