Slip at Sea

Under the sea 

Darling it's better

Down where it's wetter 

Take it from me

"The Little Mermaid"

The last year or so, I've been trying out the anime original episodes of Detective Conan, so the episodes that were not based on the original comic, but written especially for the animated series. There have been some fine gems there, but a lot of them are pretty forgettable. But when I was writing my review of the PlayStation 2 game of Tantei Gakuen Q, I recalled the animated adaptation of the adventures of Q Class of the prestigious Dan Detective School also featured a couple of anime original episodes. I couldn't recall what those episodes were about though, and as there were only a few of them, I decided to skim through them again.

Most of them turned out to be very forgettable, of course. I had completely forgotten that the animated series had a whole series of four anime original episodes at the very start of the series, but they are all very simple (revolving around one single trick) and these episodes mostly serve as character-focused introductions for the various members of the main cast, giving the viewer an early glance at what makes them tick and how the members of Q Class learn to work together. The animated series only adapts the first half of the manga, so it features an original two-parter ending to end the story, but that story is nothing special either. Strangely enough though, no less than two anime original episodes were about a bomb terrorist.

In the end, I think that only one anime original episode left an impression on me. Suishin 30m - Kaitei Misshitsu Satsujin Jiken ("Depth: 30m - The Case Of The Locked Room Murder At The Bottom of the Sea") was originally broadcast on July 22, 2003 and features a surprisingly densily plotted mystery considering the relatively short runtime of one single episode  about twenty minutes). During the summer holiday, the five members of Q Class decide to go scuba diving together. When Kyuu, Ryuu, Megu, Kinta and Kazuma arrive at the shop however, they find a group of distressed doctors and nurses who are on holiday together. One of the members of the group, Doctor Ikezoe, had a bit too much to drink last night, and he hasn't been seen since. Ikezoe had been talking about wanting to take a night dive, and when the people from the shop notice one set of scuba gear is missing, they fear Ikezoe may have gone out diving in the middle of the night on his own, and gotten in some trouble. They suspect Ikezoe went diving near a sunken shipwreck resting on the sea bed (a popular diving spot), so they decide to go diving near the ship to see if they can find him. Kinta reveals that they are students of Dan Detective School and are taken along too.

The divers of the search party scatter around beneath the sea surface and eventually locate a deceased Ikezoe behind the locked door of one of the cabins of the sunken ship. They force the door open, and bring his body back up. The doctors determine that Ikezoe died of a head fracture and that he had alcohol in his blood, so it's assumed that he must've been diving while drunk last night, locked himself up by accident in the cabin and then hit his head against one of the walls. An attack on Megu while under water and more curious facts however suggest to Q Class that this was no accident, but foul play and they quickly determine how the murderer managed to create a locked room inside a sunken wreck.

Whereas the other anime original episodes revolved around one single idea (like one dying message), this episode is a lot trickier, with far more elements to consider. There are clues why it wasn't a murder, clues that point to how it was done, clues that point to the identity of the murderer and taken together, the plot of this episode is really quite decent. While the murderer makes one really lame mistake (the clue that allows you to identify that character postively as the culprit), the other elements are far more promising. The actual explanation behind how the room was locked from the inside isn't that original, but it makes really good use of the setting of this episode and the highlight of the episode is of course the whole matter of how the murderer managed to kill Ikezoe and leave his body safely inside a locked cabin while they were under water. The trick used here is really good, because it is so much more convincing in the visual format compared to if you had been reading about this in a novel, and the trick also works because actually solving the trick also requires the special abilities of one of the main characters. Tantei Gakuen Q is at its best when it provides a story where the individual skills of the various members of Q Class are integrated naturally into the mystery plot (for example when the plot relies on Megu's photographic memory, while the reader can simply turn back a few pages). Count in the fact the story does a great job at setting thist last part up in a convincing manner, and you've got the best anime original episode of this series.

And as a side-note: it had been a while since I last saw the anime, but it's such a shame this series never got a soundtrack release! There are some really great BGM tracks, like the fantastic main theme. The live-action drama had a soundtrack release, so why didn't this one get a release?!

In general, I did enjoy the anime adaptation of Tantei Gakuen Q, but as for the anime original content, I think Suishin 30m - Kaitei Misshitsu Satsujin Jiken is the only episode really worth mentioning. While not a classic like Conan's Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau, this episode's a surprisingly well-plotted story considering its limited runtime and worth the twenty minutes investment, also if you have already read the manga of Tantei Gakuen Q, but haven't seen the animated series.

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵学園Ｑ』第１５話「水深30m・海底密室殺人事件」

The House of Haunts

「答えはひとつ！」

『探偵学園Ｑ］　

"There's one answer!"

"Detective Academy Q"

Are we all playing Animal Crossing New Horizons?

Despite the sequel hook in the final episode in 2007's Tantei Gakuen Q Premium, readers were sadly enough never treated to more Tantei Gakuen Q ("Detective Academy Q") after that volume. I don't know whether the creative duo of Amagi Seimaru and Satou Fumiya really planned to continue the series at one point, but given that they have been working on various Kindaichi Shounen series since, I assume I shouldn't expect new adventures of Q Class soon. Which is a shame, because I really like Tantei Gakuen Q. In my mind, it strikes a perfect balance between the story types of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo or Detective Conan, featuring both longer, relatively technical impossible murder stories like in Kindaichi Shounen, but also offering an overall storyline like in Conan, as well as having interesting short stories (the short stories in Kindaichi Shounen are usually not really interesting). And of course, it had a lot of unique elements on its own, most importantly having a team of young detectives as the protagonists, all specializing in different fields.

As I have already gone over each and every case in the manga in the past, I don't mention the series often anymore here. I guess I could still do the handful of anime original episodes, but I hardly remember them and I don't think they were particularly outstanding (and that's ignoring the fact the anime series has a completely different ending). But fortunately, there are still the videogames to discuss! I've already reviewed the GameBoy Advance title Tantei Gakuen Q: Meitantei wa Kimi da! ("Detective Academy Q: You're the Great Detective!") many years ago, which unfortunately I didn't like that much. But I can already tell you that the PlayStation 2 videogame Tantei Gakuen Q: ~ Kioukan no Satsui ~ ("Detective Academy Q ~ Malice in the Houses of the Eccentric Elder ~, 2003) is muuuuch better, offering an experience that truly makes you feel like you're going through another true adventure with Q Class, featuring a story that could've easily fitted with the original series. The game starts in a familiar manner, with the five students of Q (Qualified) Class attending a lecture at the prestigious Dan Detective School of the legendary detective Dan Morihiko. Kyuu is late for school like always, but he has an excuse: he received an odd letter from a childhood friend by special delivery. The letter by Urushizaka Haruka, who used to live in Tokyo but moved with her family back to the family estate in a remote mountain hamlet, seems to be a completely normal letter, but that's exactly what bothers Kyuu about it, for why would Haruka send him a letter like that by special delivery? The five Q Class students discover a hidden message in the letter where Haruka asks for help, and Dan Morihiko reveals to his pupils that a few days ago, Haruka's mother had died in what was determined by the police to be an accident. Dan suspects that Haruka's letter has to do with her mother's death, and he decides to send three members of Q Class to Okumiyama to poke around, with the other remaining in Tokyo as support.

Located in a snowy region surrounded by mountains, Okumiya is a very small hamlet with only one single general store. While the Urishizaka family fortune has dwindled in the last two generations, the family is still considered the 'lords' of this area, which is also apparent from the grand mansions Haruka's grandfather had built in the past in this otherwise very, very remote village. These houses are referred to collectively as the Houses of the Eccentric Elder (a nickname for Haruka's grandfather) and include the Clock House, the Lake House, the Incense Burner House, the Cherry Blossom Corridor House and the Elder and Younger Brother House. The kids pretend like they are just visiting Haruka as they secretly investigate her mother's death, who had apparently been crushed by the tower bell in the Clock House. While the local police determined it was an accident, Q Class soon finds evidence that the clock bell had been tampered with. Dan Morihiko orders his pupils to investigate the matter further, but they could not have expected that more murders would follow during their stay and to their great surprise, they realize these murders may have to do with the Mountain Spirit of an old local ball song (something like a nursery rhyme) and tales of a gold treasure protected by the Spirit.

Wa-wait, so we have a case where Q Class is split up in teams, about multiple murders (many with an impossible angle), murders patterned after a nursery rhyme, and we have ancient family secrets, hidden treasures, creepy , themed houses and talk about a vengeful Mountain Spirit? Yep, this is exactly the type of story you'd expect from Tantei Gakuen Q. In fact, I was surprised to learn that the scenario of this game was credited to a team of scenario writers, as the way this was written, I was almost expecting Amagi himself to be credited in one way or another for the story outline, because it was so much like the real deal. So if you're looking for more Tantei Gakuen Q, this particular game is definitely one to try out. The game features the voice cast of the anime series by the way, even though the artwork seems more inspired by the manga.

So while this definitely feels like Tantei Gakuen Q, I can also tell you this game can be difficult! While at the core a conventional mystery adventure game where you go around the hamlet questioning suspects and examining all nooks and crannies for evidence or other relevant pieces of information that allow you to answer questions that help you solve the case, Tantei Gakuen Q: Kioukan no Satsui also tries to make it a much more engaging videogame experience. For example, there's the notion of time in this game, with each action you take in the game consuming a certain amount of time. Each day, you have a time limit (usually at the end of the day to report back to Dan Morihiko) and it's important to have gathered all the relevant clues by that time in order to present a case to the teacher, so it's crucial not to waste time examining the same things or repeating your questions all the time. This ties in with the character affinity stats: some of the dialogue choices will either raise or decrease a character's friendliness towards you, which can affect how cooperative they are (and if they're uncooperative, you might not obtain the information you need to proceed in the game). And to receive some pieces of information, you even have to do well in the various minigames they throw at you at the oddest times (like a snowball fight with two twin girls, or learning to juggle), and that taken together can make this a tricky game to play, as gathering all the necessary data to solve the case isn't just a matter of clicking on "Yes" all the time.

And one warning: at the start of the game, you're asked to take two Q Class members along with Kyuu to Okumiyama, with the other two members remaining in Tokyo as support. While all members will help in their own way if they're brought along to Okumiyama, there is actually one specific character you absolutely must bring along if you want the best ending. That's really frustrating, because there is no way you could ever guess at the very beginning of the game that you absolutely need that character in the future, and even if you'd pick your two mates at random, there's still a good chance you wouldn't pick the correct one. Considering this series is all about showing how these characters all bring something unique to the team (Kyuu and Ryuu as geniuses in reasoning, Megu has photographic memory, Kinta boasts extraordinary physical skills and Kazuma is the resident whizzkid/data gatherer), it's a bit weird that the best ending of the game is written around the notion that one specific character must be present.

Anyway, the story features multiple murders with impossible features to them: Haruka's mother for example was crushed under the tower bell and her death was initially determined to be a suicide because nobody could've dropped that bell on her head and then gotten away from the tower before other people arrived, while another murder involves a body being hung from a tree, even though there were no footprints of the murderer in the snow around the tree. Most of the tricks behind these murders are perhaps not mindblowingly amazing or original, but they work well in the context of the game, making good use of the unique setting and also of the presentation in the game (while nothing impressive in comparison to AAA game titles, this game seems to boast better production values than most mystery adventure games of the era usually had, and they definitely help visualizing the mystery plot). There is one rather audacious reveal about the Houses about midway in the story which I really liked though and the presentation (clewing) there was pretty clever. It's an idea that invokes a rather famous moment in the series, but in a very different manner, and it leaves an impression here too. Also note that this game has multiple endings: each day, the members of Q Class solve part of the murders, but depending on how well you do on explaining the murders and other choices you make, you can actually identify the murderer early and prevent some of the later deaths from happening. Which is part of what makes this game really interesting, but also really difficult, for if you missed some clue, you might be forced to start all over again to get the best ending.

Tantei Gakuen Q: ~ Kioukan no Satsui ~ can be a tad tricky to play with its multiple endings, buddy system and time limit system, but this game undeniably feels like Tantei Gakuen Q. It's almost as if you're playing through a lost episode. While in terms of story, this game doesn't make any specific references to the main story of the original series, it's the type of tale that could've easily fitted in early to middle part of the manga, both in terms of atmosphere as well as the type of mysteries solved here. So for people who are still looking for more Tantei Gakuen Q after reading the manga or watching the anime and/or drama: this is as close as you can get. Probably. Perhaps I should try the second GameBoy Advance game too...

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵学園Q　～奇翁館の殺意～』

The Stolen Relic

"You have then a private 'Black Museum.'"

 "Bah!" Mr. Shaitana snapped disdainful fingers. "The cup used by the Brighton murderer, the jemmy of a celebrated burglar absurd childishness! I should never burden myself with rubbish like that. I collect only the best objects of their kind." 

"Cards on the Table"

I assume that most of the readers here are not only into mystery fiction in general, but fan of one, or probably, multiple series. Some might be completely hooked on a certain series and try to binge-read/watch/listen (to) them, while others are doing it slowly on purpose, to savor each and every taking of the particular series. Some might also be actively collecting a series: trying to get their grubby hands on every release of a certain version for example, or perhaps various versions of the same book because they have different cover art or something like that. I myself have a Detective Conan volumes from various countries for example, something that looks neat in the bookcase.

Today however, I want to look at something else that fans like to have: merchandise. With merchandise, I mean items that aren't a form of mystery fiction on their own (book/TV series/films/audio dramas/videogames etc.), but related objects that are meant for display, or for actual usage, that bear the branding of a certain mystery series or author. Fans love merchandise, as can be seen from the many, many, many collectors of practically any series. Some love to flaunt their fandom with branded mugs or T-shirts, while others simply like to put an action figure in the glass case, but in any case, merchandise is big business. So I was wondering what readers here have in terms of mystery-related merchandise. That said though, a first look will probably show that it can be pretty hard finding official mystery fiction-related merchandise. Which made the success of BBC's Sherlock the more tangible: at the very height of the series, you saw T-shirts with quotes, Sherlocked mugs, heck, Sherlock funko dolls being sold in shops.

Speaking of figures and dolls, I don't have much myself: besides for a few Detective Conan and Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney keyholders, I'd say the only mystery-related figure I have is the Detective Pikachu amiibo (an amiibo is a NFC-enabled figurine, which can communicate with certain games for various results: the Detective Pikachu amiibo can be used in the Detective Pikachu game to unlock special scenes and hints). I absolutely love the little guy with his Holmes hat though. There are a few action figures that I'd love to own though. For example: there's an action figure of Yokomizo Seishi's famous detective Kindaichi Kousuke, as played by Ishizaka Kouji in the 1976 film adaptation of Inugamike no Ichizoku. The thing comes with real cloth clothes and even his suitcase with all the travel stickers, just like in the movie! Another figure I'd love to have is the one of the Dark Shadow/the Culprit of Detective Conan, who comes with a whole arsenal of weapons and facial expressions.

But to get back to some of the merchandise I do have. Sometimes, merchandise is simply a replica of an iconic object used in a certain series. Not all series lend themselves to this of course, though I heard that people started looking for that long coat Sherlock wears in Sherlock some years back.... Anyway, I have here for example a school badge as seen in the mystery manga Tantei Gakuen Q, with which the students of Dan's Detective Academy could identify themselves to the police, giving them the authority to mingle with official police investigations. Another piece of merchandise I have is a pink pass case, which people might recognize as the pass case Momiji lost in Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter. And yes, it comes with the pictures hidden inside and Momiji's public transport card!

I also have a weirdly large amount of mystery-related... stationery. I have pens, notebooks, clear file folders, desk pads and post-its with Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo branding. They don't have anything directly to do with those series of course, but errr, stationery is actually useful merchandise. My somewhat faded bookcover is also handy: most books and comics in Japan follow standard sizes, so many people use bookcovers. This particular one is mostly suited for standard tankobon-sized manga (I have different ones for novels), but they are really handy. 

To finish off, the weirdest merchandise I have. A friend had sent these to me as a surprise, and lo, I was surprised. I was aware there was Detective Conan tea, and even with SUPERCUTE artwork for the bags. But I did not know there was Detective Conan-branded instant curry. I haven't eaten them yet, but apparently, the Conan Curry is "spicy in appearance, but sweet in taste", while the Dark Shadow curry is supposed to be really black. And perhaps poisoned. I mean, it's the curry of the culprit. I'm really curious as to how they'll taste. But yeah, mystery fiction-related food is not something I come across often.

Anyway, this was some (most) of the mystery fiction-related merchandise I have. I'd like to know what you have! A Holmes bust like Holmes had, a replica of Poirot's moustaches, a Poisoned Chocolates Case, anything!

Detective School Dropouts

みえないストーリー

戸惑い抱いて

僕らはまだやれると 

信じていいでしょう? 

『みえないストーリー』　（岸本早未）

An invisible story

We're still uncertain
But is it alright for us

to believe we can still go on?

"An Invisible Story" (Kishimoto Hayami)

I sometimes make comments about my book backlog, but that backlog isn't even nearly as horrible as my games backlog. Today, a game I think I purchased two years ago. But it could also have been five years ago. I forgot.

Two years ago, I discussed the complete Tantei Gakuen Q ("Detective Academy Q") manga series in three parts (part one, two and three). The series, created by the people behind Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, told the story of Q (Qualified) Class, a group of five young students of the prestigious Dan Detective School. Kyuu, Megu, Kinta, Kazuma and Ryuu all had their own fields of speciality (Kyuu and Ryuu were geniuses in reasoning, Megu had photographic memory, Kinta had extraordinary physical skills and Kazuma was the resident whizzkid) and would combine their powers to form Voltron to solve a myriad of cases, from simple thefts to serial murders. Tantei Gakuen Q: Meitantei wa Kimi da! ("Detective Academy Q: You're the Great Detective!") is the first of two Game Boy Advance games based on the series and offers the player, in the role of Kyuu, four different cases to solve together with the other members of Q Class.

It shouldn't be very surprising if I tell you Tantei Gakuen Q: Meitantei wa Kimi da! is a detective adventure game. Not all, but a fair amount of the games I discuss on this blog follow the same exact command-style format (in fact, that's where this blog's current look is based upon. To be precise, the lay-out is based on Famicom Tantei Club). Talk to the right persons and investigate the right places to obtain the necessary evidence and answer a few questions in the denouement scene to solve the case. Nothing new here.

Well, one interesting special feature is the evidence collecting system: the player has to 'notice' and write down the evidence himself. Whenever you see something suspicious (the dialogue usually gives it away), you have to press a button to 'record' these hints in a notebook yourself. Then, at the end of each story, you'll have to select a certain, set amount of these hints that lead to the solution of the case. The catch is that 1) it's thus possible to miss the necessary hints (if you didn't record the hint) and 2) there are a lot of fake hints. If you chose the wrong evidence, your case will be faulty and fall apart during the denouement. This system makes the investigations a bit more exciting, as you wouldn't want to miss recording a decisive piece of evidence. The red herring hints are also fun, as these make it a bit more difficult figuring out what really happened.

But it's also a very faulty system. Most importantly, the system is extremely vague (in fact, it's not even explained in the game! I am not that big a fan of tutorials, but this really should have been explained...). Because you have to 'save' evidence yourself, and because of the existence of fake evidence, you never know whether you have collected all the necesssary, right evidence to solve the case. You just have to guess. The game sometimes gives you the option to expose the murderer / trick early, but you'll often need evidence you can only find after being given that option. Which makes no sense at all. That's like Ellery Queen giving you a Challenge to the Reader, only to reveal that you needed facts made known after the Challenge!

Also, it's extremely vague what the game expects from you at the end of each story. When you choose to expose the criminal, you are told that an X amount of hints will reveal the truth behind the case. But that's all. You are never given a specific description of what the game wants of you (do you want evidence that points to the criminal? Evidence of how a certain trick was performed? Evidence of when the crime was commited?), and it often results in just a guessing game in just what the games wants you to prove. The Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney games in comparison always make it very clear, mostly by very precise wording and focus on contradiction between testimony and evidence. Trick DS also had a lot of fake evidence/hypotheses, but at least you were given a direction, because the game would tell you exactly what hypothesis would follow out of each specific combination of evidence pieces. In Tantei Gakuen Q: Meitantei wa Kimi da!, you can only pray you're going in the same direction the game wants you to go, because it never tells you anything.

Oh, and finally, I was kinda disappointed that the game was so focused solely on tricks. If you do manage to read the game's mind and 1) collect all of the right evidence before entering the finale and 2) select the right evidence despite not being told what the game wants you to prove in the first place, you're done. The game is focused completely on just figuring out how a thief managed to get to the eight floor of a department store, steal an art artifact, and get out within five minutes, or what kind of alibi trick is behind the multiple murders in a small mountain village (real examples from the game) and if you do manage to get these parts right, the criminal will confess immediately, without any effort at defending himself. Which is kinda anti-climatic. Once again, Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney is built completely around the premise of deductive confrontations with criminals, but even other adventures without such an obvious detective vs criminal confronation system usually feature a criminal who will at least give you the pretense of putting up a fight, instead of just saying "yes, you're right, arrest me".

Was there nothing good about Tantei Gakuen Q: Meitantei wa Kimi da!? Well, the stories themselves are also quite boring, so mostly no. I do have to mention that I did think this was technically a good game. I don't mean that in a mocking way, but the character design (based on the manga), the menus, the voice samples (the voice actors from the animated TV show), the music, I really liked what Konami did for this game in terms of presentation. I know it sounds sarcastic, but I do like the game on a technical level. And I do think the evidence collecting system has potential. But presentation and ideas aren't enough to make a good game... (Also: see this older post where I talk more about mechanics in detective games)

And two more notes: each chapter opens with a short test about a variety of topics, to simulate the 'school' element of the series. The idea is good and the questions that test your deductive skills and other detective related skills are fun, but a lot of the questions are just random trivia questions, and hard ones too! Also, there's a competitive card minigame, which is insanely fun, because this minigame actually does test your deductive skills up to an extent. I had more fun with the minigame than with the main game.

Anyway, Tantei Gakuen Q: Meitantei wa Kimi da!? is a pretty disappointing game. And I mean pretty in the literal way of the word. There's a vaguely good idea with the evidence collecting system, but it stays vague the whole game, leaving the player in the dark as to what he's supposed to do. A bit more direction would have helped the game. As well as more interesting stories. Conclusion: this game definitely does not belong in the Qualified Class.

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵学園Q  名探偵はキミだ！』

「MAKE★YOU」

「探偵は真実を見抜く力―――『推理』を武器に悪と戦うんだ！」

『探偵学園Ｑ』

"A detectives fights evil with the power to see through the truth... with deductions!"

"Detective Academy Q"

The last two days (which is probably almost a week before the actual publishing of this post) followed the same pattern:

• *Read the Tantei Gakuen Q manga after dinner*
• *Stop halfway through a story to sleep*
• *Can't fall asleep because story bothers me*
• *Give up sleeping around two, read until the morning*

I definitely finished rereading the series a few of days earlier than I had planned. And lost a couple hours of sleep somewhere.

Anyway, this will be the last post about in this series discussing the cases in Tantei Gakuen Q ("Detective Academy Q"). Oh, and just for those interested: the anime of this series is a pretty faithful adaptation of the manga, but handles only until the first part volume 7 (of the bunko release), leaving out a couple of short stories in the middle, but adding a couple of original stories to (the soundtrack was sadly enough never released, though I absolutely love this 'I've totally solved' BGM that starts here (spoilers episode 1)). The anime  lacks a proper conclusion to the battle with Pluto and the mystery behind Ryuu's past and it also switches out Kerberos for an original character called Sir Anubis (who for some reason is the only high ranking Pluto agent not having a Greek name).

The live action series on the other hand has a distinct Akihabara-geek setting and most stories are heavily rewritten to only feature the original tricks in different settings. The pilot special for example is also about the entrance exams, but has elements of The Detective Academy Entrance Exams, The Secret of the Old School Building and The Princess Maya Legend Murder Case. The series does have a satisfying conclusion, as it properly adapts the important battles between Pluto and DDS, including the final case of the manga.

But now, a review of the final batch of Q Class's cases.

Detective Academy Q
「迷Ｑ!?」: Volumes 1 ~ 4
「迷宮」: Volumes 5 ~ 8
「MAKE★YOU」: Volumes 9 ~ 12, Premium

In Kiken na Contact ("Dangerous Contact") and Kangoku kara no Message ("The Message from the Prison"), Q Class is brought by Nanami Koutarou to the high security cell of Kerberos, the captured top agent of Pluto, as a special schooltrip. Fearing he might hypnotise his guards, Kerberos is handcuffed at all times and forced to wear an eyemask. Nanami offers Kerberos to appeal for a lighter sentence in exchange for information on Pluto, but Kerberos refuses and declares he will have escaped the next time they will meet again. Kerberos also leaves Q Class with a curious note that is supposed to point them to the identity of the spy inside DDS (which is a lot more complex than seems at first sight). So no, there is no real mystery in these two chapters.

It is back to normal DDS activities are Chinureta Hanazono ("The Bloody Flower Garden"), when Ryuu and Kuniko (from A Class) are sent undercover to investigate the case of a bleeding Holy Mary statue. I think that 'normal' bleeding statues cry, but this particular statue bleeds from her back and the blood forms the word murder. Which kinda seems like some kind of announcement of murder. One little problem: the school is actually an girls' high school. Ryuu is thus forced to crossdress during the story. What is even more mindboggling is that he is forced to take up the role of the prince in a play at the school, meaning he crossdresses as a woman who crossdresses as a man.

During the rehearsals, the head of the school (who also played the villainess vampire Carmilla in the play) is found stabbed to death in her dressing room. Everybody was at the stage during the time of the murder, making it seem like someone from outside did this, but we all know that is never the case with detective stories. The case is pretty simple, as all the hints point to a certain solution. The best part of the stories are undeniably the hilarious reactions Kuniko (who has a crush on Ryuu) has whenever she sees crossdressing Ryuu.

ESCAPE IMPOSSIBLE is the best story of this volume and what a fantastic story it is! Kerberos thinks it is about time to escape and sets in an escape plan in motion that would have made Arsene Lupin proud. Yes, Kerberos might be an expert in hypnotism and highly intelligent, but hey, he wears an eye-mask, his hands are cuffed and he is locked inside a private cell, so that is safe, right? Heck, there is even a hidden trap within the prison building preventing any person to leave it alone (doors only work if two or more people approach them). And yet the guard dog of Hades manages to break free. What makes this story almost even more amazing is that Amagi had actually hidden hints about how Kerberos would escape in previous stories, even before Kerberos was captured!

In Sorezore no Kiro ("Their Own Crossroads"), Kyuu and Ryuu manage to track down two more of Kuzuryuu Takumi's art and they decide to split up to save time. Ryuu is heading for the Seiryuukan Hotel, a building designed by Kuzuryuu, while Kyuu is looking for the Senrinryuu puzzle box. Kyuu finds the box in Tsuribashimura Satsujin Jiken ("The Hanging Bridge Village Murder Case"), located deep in the mountains in Yozara Village, which can only be accessed by crossing a hanging bridge. Knowing that everything made by Kuzuryuu has a secret, Kyuu challenges the box, but he can't seem to open it. At the village, he also learns of an artist who has not left his cottage for a year. The artist was witness to a murder in the village one year ago and he declared that he would make the identity of the murderer known through a sculpture. He has now invited all the suspects in the case to the village and intends to reveal the statue, and the identity of the murderer. The artist also knows how to open the puzzle box, so Kyuu is eager to meet him too. Naturally, the artist gets murdered and the statue destroyed before he managed to tell anyone how the murderer was. And the bridge is destroyed too, cutting the village off the outside world, to complete the picture.

This story is also used to develop the character of Kyuu a bit more, as Kyuu meets a private detective in the village who used to be a disciple of Dan Morihiko and his assistent Renjou (Kyuu's father). It is fun to hear stories about Renjou from someone who, while a student of Renjou, has very different thoughts about what it means to be a detective, as Kyuu (and Renjou) have rather idealistic views about that.

The village full of artists reminds of Arisugawa Alice's Soutou no Akuma, especially as in both stories the village gets sealed off from the outside world because a bridge breaks down. The story is also a throwback to old Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo stories that focus on checking out alibis by checking out the distance between the victim's cottage and the suspects' locations during the time of the murder (for example The Hiren Lake Murder Case and The Amakusa Treasure Murder Case). While not inherently bad, this focus on spatial and temporal locations of people are usually rather boring to read, as it comes down to a long list of moving icons on a map, plotted against a timeline. Even with a visual medium like manga, it is not really comfortable to read and I think these kind of alibi-checking things work the best... in videogames, where interactivity enables the 'reader' to quickly check out differences between two (temporal or spatial) points. In the DS game Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Kyoto, Atami, Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana, there are bonus train alibi tricks scenarios to solve which make perfect use of this and are not confusing at all.

Kyuu returns to the normal world in Sara ni Fukaki Yami he ("Towards a Deeper Darkness"), having solved the riddle of the puzzle box. There he found a picture of Kuzuryuu Takumi and an unknown boy looks a lot like Ryuu. Ryuu confirms that the boy is his grandfather, King Hades, head of Pluto. He also tells Kyuu that he has no memory of before he was five years old. The story then changes to a discussion of Q Class about what the code Kerberos left them means. The code is supposed to point to the identity of the spy within DDS, but Q Class comes up with three possible interpretations, pointing to three suspects: the teachers Hongou, Maki and Katagiri.

In Saiaku no Yokan, Dan Morihiko calls a meeting with his senior DDC detectives, discussing with them who the spy might be. The other half of the story is about Ryuu taking up a part time job as a private tutor, which continues in Kiken na Katei Kyoushi. This is a hilarious thriller (paradox?). The mother of Ryuu's tutee is killed by her lover's wife and the murdereress is just about to leave the house, having hidden the body, when Ryuu arrives, who naturally assumes that she is the mother of his tutee. She can't afford to have been seen in this house, so she decides to pretend to be the mother until she finds a chance to kill Ryuu. This story mirrors a set of short inverted stories in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, where Hajime and Kenmochi always happen to stumble upon a complex murder plan in motion, with the murderers trying to act as normal as possible (the most hilarious of them is probably Murder Restaurant, where Hajime and Kenmochi enter a little cafeteria whose master has just been killed, forcing the murderer to pretend like he is the master).

Kako Kara no Shoutaijou ("The Invitation from the Past"), Spy Tsuiseki Sakusen ("The Spy Chasing Plan"), Aratanaru Shuppatsu ("A New Departure") and Yochimu wo Miru Onna ("The Woman Who Sees The Future") set up the stories to come and deals with two major plot points. One is investigation of Q Class into the identity of the Pluto spy. While Q Class doesn't find out who the spy is, his/her identity is made known to the reader. The other plot point is the National Talent Development Research Center, the place where Megu had been to develop her photographic memory. She is invited to a reunion as the building will be taken down soon, though she hesitates because of a strange case that happened there. Ryuu has a deja vu when he sees a picture of the research center, making him and Kyuu suspect that Ryuu's past might be connected to the center.

Megu, Kyuu and Ryuu go together to the reunion in Psychic Murder. The National Talent Development Research Center wasn't only for children with an exceptional high IQ, but they also tried to find develop psychics, some of them also present at the reunion. Megu tells about a mysterious locked room murder case that happened in the past, where a man inside a small lodge was found dead, his body smashed with three axes. Nobody could explain how someone manages to kill the victim and get away from the little lodge and it was always thought that one of the psychics at the center must have done it. And the tragedy is repeated, when a murder happens again under the same conditions!

The murder is almost suprisingly easy to solve, because the hint behind the trick is clear the moment it appears in the story. At first this is a bit disappointing, as up until now all plans made by Pluto were quite complex, but it is actually logical why this plan seems so simple to solve. The whole purpose of this story was to present the reader with a story with faults, with red herrings that were completely unnecessary. Amagi wrote a detective story that seems good, but is full of faults on purpose, making use of popular tropes used in average detective fiction. It is pointed later on in the story by all the detectives present that this was a horrible plan that really should not have been made by Pluto in the first place (well, ignoring the whole murder is bad thing). It almost feels like Writing Detective Fiction 101, where Amagi points out faults in the murder plots other writers make.

Wana ni wa Wana wo ("A Trap for A Trap"), Tokihanatareta Kioku ("The Released Memory"), Kokuhaku, Soshite... ("Confessions, and...") and Kawanu Michi ("Roads That Never Cross") deal with the aftermath of Psychic Murder, with the identity of the Pluto spy revealed and Ryuu confessing to Dan Morihiko that his life story and the fact that his grandfather is King Hades, boss of Pluto. They also release the hypnosis memory lock placed on Megu by King Hades, helping her remember that she used to friends with Ryuu at the Research Center for a short time. Unbeknown to the others, a memory lock on Ryuu is also unlocked, making him remember something about seeing his father commit suicide when he was young. Finally, Dan Morihiko tells Kyuu that he knows who King Hades is and how their destinies as detective and criminal were decided in their youth, when they were best friends.

Meitantei Kerberos ("The Dark Detective Kerberos") is an extra story about the third case the top Pluto agent Kerberos handled when he was just a rookie in Pluto. Having constructed a complex murder plan for his client, he is surprised to see that his client has been murdered before she could execute Kerberos' plan. Furious with the one who killed his client and messed up his perfect plan, he swears to find the murderer for his own honor. As a detective story, it is decent, but the story's main attraction is definitely seeing someone who up until now has only appeared in a purely evil role as a detective. OK, he is definitely not solving the case for something like justice, but as we have seen how smart he was when he escaped from the prison, it is really exciting seeing Kerberos solving a murder. The fact he is basically a murderer though does make the conclusion quite exciting, as it is not clear what he'll do with the one who messed up his plans.

Owari no Hajimari ("The Beginning of the End") is what says it is and the end is the extremely long Seiryuukan Satsujin Jiken ("Seiryuukan Murder Case"). The Seiryuukan are nine buildings designed by Kuzuryuu Takumi, one of them being the old school building at the DDS. The buildings are all named after the nine Dragon children. Four of them once belonged to Ryuu's family, but due to his father's disappearance, the four Seiryuukan have gone to his family's helpers, who manage the Amakusa assets. Having his memory unlocked in the last story, Ryuu remembers the image of his father hanging dead in a room in their old house, which is nowadays Seiryuukan Hotel. He decides to leave Q Class and investigate the supposed murder of his father alone. At the hotel, there is a convention of the owners of the nine Seiryuukan buildings (including the four current managers of the Amakusa family, who had the strongest motive for doing away with Ryuu's father). At the same time, the remaining members of Q Class are charged with investigating the convention, because it was apparently organised by someone pretending to be Dan Morihiko and they suspect something might happen during the convention.

Which happens. Ryuu is found near the body of one of the managers holding the murder weapon, which is kinda suspicious. While the scene of the crime has two entrances, one of them was blocked off and the other entrance was under constant camera surveillance, proving that only Ryuu entered the room after the victim. Ryuu is thus seen as the main suspect in this case, but he escapes during his escort to the police station. More murders happen (among the managers of the Amakusa holdings) and every time Ryuu is spotted near the scene of the crime. What is even more disturbing is the fact that the victims are all murdered following the legends of the Dragon children (i.e. the owner of Koufuku, who likes water, is found in a bathtub).

This is a really long case, befitting the final case of this series and resembles the final case Kindaichi Hajime had to solve in his first season. In both stories a protagonist is set up as the murderer in a serial killing case and forced to work on the case while fighting time. In both stories, the mastercriminal behind it all is something who has no direct part in the murders, only planning the whole thing out. The plan in this story is what you would expect from King Hades, head of Pluto, but it does rely on some 'coincidences' (that are explained, but then we get into the question of what is considered realistic, even in manga). There is a locked room mystery in it too, but not as amazing as you'd hoped from the final story (it is a nice trick though). Overall, it is quite a complex and satisfying story, made even more perplexing because the reader also knows that multiple owners of the Seiryuukan buildings are in fact Pluto members in disguise, adding another layer of mystery to the story.

Honoo no Hate ("At the End of the Flames"),  Saigo no Present ("The Last Present") and Tantei Gakuen yo Eien ni ("Detective Academy Forever") deal with the aftermath of the Seiryuukan Satsujin Jiken, resolving some little plotlines like the mystery behind Ryuu's father and the future of Q Class. These chapters really do nothing more than cleaning up for the ending of the series.

But in reality, the series has one little sequel. Tantei Gakuen Q Premium was released two years after the serialisation of the original series ended and is a standalone volume. The story is set some time (two years?) after the ending of the series, with Nanami Koutarou having taken over the function of director of Dan Detective School. The members of Q Class have all grown up a bit and Kyuu and Megu actually being a couple now. Which for some reason was already sorta established at the end of the series, but they apparently kept it secret to the others until now (at least they thought so). The first story, Senritsu no Alibi ("A Melody Alibi"), a contestant in a violin concours is attacked brutally just before it is her turn. Kyuu and Megu were present at the contest, as they came to see one of Megu's friends perform. The story showcases the five's strong points, which is nice, but the story lacks... impact. There is nothing really baffling to the case at first sight and while the basic idea of the alibi trick of the murderer is pretty smart, it is full of holes and could have been solved by the normal police.

The same holds for Time Limit ni Idome ("Challenge the Time Limit!"), where the perfect suspect for a murder has an ironclad alibi for the murder. The murder was commited in Osaka around three, but the suspect left Tokyo by car at twelve and could not have made it to Osaka before three. The police is actually the one confirming his alibi, as the suspect was caught on camera for speeding on the highway. The solution to this conundrum is almost painfully easy to deduce.

The final story Ai to Kanashimi no Misshitsu ("A Locked Room of Love and Sadness") is a multi-layered locked room mystery, the victim being a teacher accused of bullying around students (until they commit suicide). There are some interesting particulars to this case (including a trope not used before in this series), but it is fairly disappointing. In fact, the only real point of interest is the ending of the story, where Kerberos returns on the scene with a newly rebuilt Pluto, challenging Q Class again in a new fight between good and evil.

Tantei Gakuen Q Premium suffers a lot from being a one-shot, featuring three mediocre short stories. It would have been so much exciting (and probably more interesting) to have had a long story, like the annual one-shot stories Kindaichi Shounen nowadays has. Now it is a standalone sequel that really adds nothing substantial to the whole series. The ending seems like a pitch for a new series of Tantei Gakuen Q, with the return of Pluto, but it has been since five years since Premium was released I don't see that going anywhere. The 'problem' with Tantei Gakuen Q is that it is not fit for the annual one-shots of Kindaichi Shounnen, as it is much more focused on bringing an overall storyline between the cases. The stories collected in Premium lack an overall storyline, resulting in a boring volume that should not be the end of an awesome series.

Because this is really an awesome detective series that no fan should miss. The impressive amount of impossible crimes is something that really makes this series worthwile, but Tantei Gakuen Q also manages to succesfully combine the shounen teamwork formula with a true orthodox detective story, resulting in an original setting. The overarching storyline of Q Class and the criminal organisation Pluto especially make this series feel distinctly different from other detective series because of its cohesiveness. The series is really addictive because of the ever-developing main storyline combined with solid detective stories that few series will manage to match.

Let's hope that Q Class will return in the future again!

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）& さとうふみや（画）『探偵学園Ｑ』　第９巻～１２巻　（文庫）,　『探偵学園Ｑプレミアム』

「迷宮」

愛する人がどんどん増えてく

それって素敵な事ね　きっと人生

宝物なんだ

『ありがとう』　（レミオロメン）

More and more people I love

That is a wonderful thing

Life is really a treasure

"Thanks" (Remioromen)

Second part in the Tantei Gakuen Q ("Detective Academy Q") case by case review series. Yes, I am going fast, but it's also because I kinda skimmed throught the stories I still remembered. Which was about half of the stories here. The previous four volumes formed a solid foundation for this teamwork based detective series, but volumes five to eight are more focused on developing the characters and the main storyline.

Detective Academy Q
「迷Ｑ!?」: Volumes 1 ~ 4
「迷宮」: Volumes 5 ~ 8
「MAKE★YOU」: Volumes 9 ~ 12, Premium

Kateikashitsu no Nazo ("The Mystery of the Home Economics Classroom") continues the trend of cases tailor made for individual students of Q Class. This time the story is set at Kazuma's primary school, where Kazuma's favorite teacher gets attacked by somebody with a cursed poison blowpipe in her office. The would-be murderer flees into the home economics classroom, next to the office, but when Kazua enters the room, he is astounded to find it completely empty, with every window locked from the inside and no other ways of escape. Oh, I did mention cursed poison blowpipe, right? Those things apparently can be found at primary schools. Anyway, the trick behind the impossible disappearance of the assailant is really smart and it is almost a shame that it was 'just' for a story two chapters long!

Alibi Ressha de Ikou ("Let's Go With The Alibi Train") is one of my favorite stories of the series, even though it is nothing special. I just have a thing for inverted detective stories. Kyuu and Kinta are sent away on an assignment for DDS and travel by train to their destination. The same train an illustrator (and murderer-to-be) has chosen for her alibi trick. She starts up a conversation with Kyuu and Kinta, making sure they remember her as she will need them as decisive witnesses she couldn't have commited the murder during the ride (of course, she did). Of course, using two members of the prestigious DDS's Q Class as pawns in your murder plan is definitely going to fail. Especially if one of them is Kyuu. The story mirrors a series of short inverted stories of the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, complete with the humorous tone and the elegant simplicity of the slip-up and it is really a shame there are so few inverted stories in Tantei Gakuen Q.

The trio of Megu, Yukihira and Kuniko (of A Class) are sent to help Kyuu and Kinta, as they were mistaken for gropers on a train in the last case. Thus Bishoujo Tantei (Trio The Beauty) Kikippatsu ("Beautiful Girl Detectives (Trio The Beauty) In A Pinch") starts off with our three girls taking the train (which is packed because of the rain), but during the trip Kuniko is molested by a groper. As Kuniko screams, the groper's arm disappears into the mass of people, but Megu is able to find the groper thanks to her photographic memory and bring the man to the train police. The suspect denies all charges though and claims that he wasn't even on the train during the period Kuniko was being molested.

By now, we've seen quite a lot of gruesome murders in this series, yet I was kinda surprised to see a story addressing sexual harassment here. The story is pretty simple, but the problem of proving someone's guilt or innocence in a grope case are quite well known in Japan. Famous are the 'women only' sections in trains during the busy morning rush in Tokyo. I have the unforgetable memory of being squished every morning in the train in Tokyo for three months and I can say that as a male you do make an effort to make sure the position of your hands isn't going to be mistaken for a more criminal act. Which isn't always easy if there is literally no place to move because everybody is leaning against you. The movie Soredemo Boku Wa Yattenai (based on a true story) is pretty famous, where a man is accused of molesting a high school girl in the train and he sees no way to proof he did not do it.

Gensoukan Satsujin Jiken ("The Gensou Mansion Murder Case") goes back to the format of a long Kindaichi Shounen-esque story. In fact, this story is remniscent of Akuma Kumikyoku Satsujin Jiken ("The Devil's Symphony Murder Case"), originally a Kindaichi Shounen audio drama. Both stories are about the legacy of a eminent musician, with a lot of rivalry and hatred amongst his disciples. In this story, the disciples of Yuge (who is still alive, by the way) are all hoping to get the Testa di Drago, a magnificent violin. A threatening letter has been sent to Yuge, supposedly sent by a disciple who died six months ago, saying the Testa di Drago belongs to her and that she'll come get it. But what is even more interesting is that the Testa di Drago was made by Kuzuryuu Takumi, the mysterious allround artist who also designed the old school building with a hidden prison (volume 4). Thus Dan Morihiko sends Q Class to investigate the case, hoping they will find out more about Kuzuryuu too. And of course people die during Q Class' stay at the Gensou Mansion, a mountain villa where Yuge and his disciples reside.

I think this is one of the last stories incorporated in the anime and it is a pretty interesting story, even if a bit straightforward. The scale of this story is mostly derived because the murderer commits several murders, but the individual murders are not all that interesting to be honest (except for a cool alibi trick used in the first murder). Suspense in this story is mostly derived from the fact the people in the Gensou Mansion are cut off the outside world because of a storm, while Kinta and the DDS teacher Hongou are still on their way to the villa. The closed circle setting and the motive behind the murders is definitely a throwback to Kindaichi Shounen, but 'fresh' in this series.

Maybe the more interesting part of Gensoukan Satsujin Jiken is that Hongou finally explains the truth behind Pluto, the criminal organisation that sells perfect murder plans, to Q Class and its connection to the cases Q Class has solved in the past. They also manage to capture Miss Kaori, one of Pluto's agents, but not before Ryuu was stabbed by the murderer (who was hypnotised to fight back if he was caught). Ryuu also finally realized his connection to Pluto in this story, which is made even more clear in Shisha wa Kurayami Yori ("The Messenger from the Darkness"), a transition chapter that introduces Kerberos, a high ranking Pluto agent who will act as the face of Pluto for the time being.

Shounentachi no Yoru ("Boys' Night"), Kuzuryuu Takumi no Nazo ("The Mystery of Kuzuryuu Takumi"), Shiunryuu no Hen'i ("The Change of the Shiunryuu"), Uketsugareshi Mono ("He Who Inherits") and Kuzuryuu Nikki no Himitsu ("The Secret of the Kuzuryuu Diary") is a little story arc that I think is missing from the anime. After the events surrounding Pluto, Ryuu decides to leave his home and decides to live in Kyuu's home. There the two boys decide to do more research on the mysterious Kuzuryuu Takumi, whose art seems to have the strange power of bringing the worst out of people. Thanks to a lucky break (Kyuu's mom once had a translation assignment connected with Kuzuryuu), the duo manages to track down the Shiunryuu, a beautiful vase Kuzuryuu made. There is a little disappearing case with the Shiunryuu during their visit, but they manage to solve that and also a small secret behind the vase. It appears that there is a secret behind every thing Kuzuryuu made (for example the secret prison in the old school building) and when the boys get hold of a translated copy of Kuzuryuu's diary, they suspect there is a secret code hidden there, but they can't solve it.

Leaving the secret behind the diary, Q Class is sent away on another assignment in Mayahime Densetsu Satsujin Jiken ("The Princess Maya Legend Murder Case"), because a threatening letter has been sent to a politican regarding the construction of a dam. Q Class quickly find out that many villagers of Jinchuu, the politican's hometown, are not happy at all with the plans and it should not come as a surprise that the murder of this story turns out to be the politician. No, the surprise lies in the fact that the man was found inside a locked storage house. And with locked I mean it was blocked by a block of concrete used for building the dam. What has this to do with the legends surrounding the human pillar sacrifices that are told in this village? A funny code is also added to the locked room mystery, but the latter is certainly the star of the story. Why use a key or a bolt to lock a door if you can also use a concrete block? Just going that extra mile in the presentation makes this an interesting locked room story.

Mittsu no Yubiwa ("The Three Rings") is a supplement story about a ring Megu wears, but nothing special (cute though!). Hikari to Kage no Kizuna ("The Bonds of Light and Darkness") is another transition story, where we learn a bit more about the fate of the Pluto agent Miss Kaori, who has lost her mind ever since Kerberos hypnotised her. Dan Morihiko still has no idea how to retrieve her mind (so he can question her about Pluto). At the DDS, Megu is presented with a code she has to solve herself, which is I guess to be considered her 'own' case like Kyuu, Kinta and Kazuma got? Or it was volume 5's Bishoujo Tantei (Trio The Beauty) Kikippatsu, but that was actually done with three people...

Kochira DSD Kagaku Kenkyuushitsu ("This is the DDS Laboratory") is a short story that introduces Doctor Skull, the man responsible for the gadgets used by the DDS. He is short on hands and he asks Kyuu, Megu and Ryuu to solve a case for him (while smart, Doctor Skull is technically not a detective, so he leaves this up to the real detectives). The case involves a murder of a woman in her own flat, with the main suspect living two apartments above her. The problem is that the suspect has an ironclad alibi, as he had friends over at his apartment during the time of the murder. The trick is a good and simple one, which is also the best way to describe this story. While this case is solved completely at the DDS laboratory, the live action drama turned this story into a case Q Class actually has to investigate themselves. And added in a weird idol otaku subplot.

Shinrei Camera de Scoop ("A Scoop With a Ghost Camera") is the first in a series of stories related to supernatural phenomena. During school, Kuniko of A Class shows off some of her ghost photographs. Most of the students think that they are fun, but nothing more than retouched pictures, so they don't think much more about it. On their way back home, Ryuu and Kyuu are witness to an awful train accident and help out a bit with identifying the man. They have a feeling something is wrong though and visit the victim's closest relatives, his brother and sister-in-law, but come up with nothing. But imagine the surprise as Kyuu makes a photograph of Ryuu (Kyuu has been playing with his new camera for some time) and they discover the face of the deceased man floating behind Ryuu on the photograph! The mystery the ghost picture is surprisingly clever and one of the most original tricks in the series. This might be a short, relatively light-hearted story, but the quality is still as high as any other story.

Contuining the investigation into urban legends, Q Class investigates the mystery of the headless woman dressed in kimono who is supposed to haunt a certain neighbourhood in Meirokouji no Kubinashi Onna ("The Headless Woman of the Road Labyrinth"). Kyuu, Megu and Kinta stake the place out and actually see the headless woman and they decide to chase and catch her. The ghost (?) runs into a small labyrinth of walled off alleyways, with Q Class right behind her, but when Q Class arrive at the end of the labyrinth, the ghost has disappeared. This is a really light and easy mystery, not much more to be said about it.

After ghost pictures and monsters, now aliens in UFO Kara Ai wo Komete ("From UFO with Love")! Kazuma has a mail-friend from Hokkaidou who has made a picture of an UFO and she also says that a certain class of her school has been acting very strange ever since the appearance of the UFO. Q Class flies to Hokkaidou (paid by Kazuma) to investigate the case, but who would have expected that even crop circles would appear near the town?! A case of misdirection, with some smarter mysteries hidden behind the main mystery, which is not really difficult to deduce.

The previous stories already refered to an upcoming exam at DDS, that determines your class ranking. Q Class naturally has to take the exam too and there is a real danger of being degraded to a lower class. The five students therefore decice to go on a training camp in Kurayamidera Yuurei Jiken ("The Kurayamidera Ghost Case"). Their training location is at the summer house of Kinta's family, a place deep in the mountains where he spent his youth. There they meet Sumire, an old friend (love interest?) of Kinta and she convinces the five members of Q Class to do a kimodameshi (test of courage) in the Kurayamidera temple, involving passing a candle in a relay. But even though one of them chickens out of the test, the relay doesn't end in a failure. Which is impossible with just four members due the rules. The only conclusion: a ghost took over the place of the one who chickened out! Another light-hearted story, but this story is actually set up to serve as a meaningful introduction of the following story. The kimodameshi is a trope that is used a couple of times in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo actually. They always ended up in murder.

Setsugekka Satsujin Jiken ("Setsugekka Murder Case") is a very long and complex story, probably the longest of the series save the last case and includins substories titled Q Class De Aru Tame Ni ("Because We Are Q Class"), Abakereta Katachi ("The Blown Cover") and Setsugekka no Shinjitsu ("The Truth Behind Setsugekka"). The Setsugekka are a set of scrolls painted by Kuzuryuu Takumi and in the possesion of the Kiryuu family. Kiryuu Ukon, the youngest son of the family, is a childhood friend of Kinta and Sumire and was once known as a genius trickster, but some years ago his mind suddenly turned for the worse and nowadays has a very childish personality. He is still best friends with Kinta though and happily shows Q Class the three Setsugekka scrolls, depicting a demoness with a snow, moon and flower setting.

But the Kuzuryuu Takumi art objects are always connected to crime and the following night one of Ukon's stepsisters is found stabbed in her neck in the room of the scrolls. Seeing only Ukon and his father have keys to the room (and Ukon's father isn't able to walk anymore), Ukon is seen as the main suspect of the case by the police. Kinta has to solve the case to save his friend, but little does he know that Kerberos, the top Pluto agent, is behind this case.

And what a case this is! The live action drama did a poorly distilled version of this story, but that really didn't do any justice to this impressive case. It's a very deeply layered case that is sure to fool most readers and is made even more impressive as Amagi ups the Pluto storyline, by letting Kyuu discover Ryuu's connection to the criminal organisation. This story is also the first time we see Kerberos in action and what a debut! He takes his cues from Kindaichi Shounen's Hell's Puppeteer, as both are extremely smart criminals who sell murder plans, but don't dirty their own hands (which in turn builds on the identity of the criminal in a certain famous novel I won't mention by name). Kerberos easily uses several psychological tricks on Ryuu, tricking him into making rash deductions and it takes the likes of Nanami Koutarou and Dan Morihiko himself to cope with the watchdog of Hades. This is the most satisfactory story in the whole series until now, splendidly mixing in the whole idea of detective teamwork, visual clueing and the idea of fighting a criminal organisation that are central to this series with a really complex detective plot. One of the subplots also eerily mirrors the Conan story KID and the Four Masterpieces (volume 53).

Amagi seemed eager to further the main story line and in thus deals with the 'mystery' behind the mysterious detective who taught Kyuu everything he knows in Sono Na wa Renjou Satoru ("His Name is Renjou Satoru"), Oshie wo Tsuide ("Inheriting the Lessons") and Takusareta Inori ("The Entrusted Wish"). It shouldn't be a big surprise to hear that Kyuu is the son of the (deceased) first assistent of Dan Morihiko and while it makes for a nice 'now-the-circle-is-complete' feeling, no mystery is present in these chapters. Well, except for the fact that Kazuma makes the daring (yet perfect!) guess that Pluto might have infiltrated the DDS, seeing as several of Pluto's actions lately seem to rely on information that must have come from the DDS itself. This is confirmed in Akuma no Egao ("The Devil's True Face"), where Dan Morihiko manages to release Pluto agent Miss Kaori's hypnosis and asks her the question: who of the people he brought with him here is the spy inside DDS?

Volumes five to eight really show the difference of this series with series like Conan and Kindaichi Shounen, by focusing much more and better on the main storyline and the fight with Pluto. There are some great short and long stories in these volumes, which really shows off the diversity of this series and it also moves away from the impossible crime-oriented beginning of this series. We also see that Amagi tries to develop the characters a bit more by giving everyone their own story arcs and while Ryuu and Megu seem to have little attention at this point, their importance will be shown in the last part of the series, so Amagi was able to pay a little bit less attention to them.

Even though I already read this series, I am actually really excited to read the last part now!

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）& さとうふみや（画）『探偵学園Ｑ』　第５巻～８巻　（文庫）