Burn Card

瀬を早み　岩にせかるる　滝川の 

われても末に　逢はむとぞ思ふ 

(崇徳院)

Rushing over a steep plummet / The rapid stream of the river / Is split in two by a rock

But like how those two streams will join once more / We too will find each other once more

(Poem by Sutokuin)

And we start the new year with a familiar face....

While Aoyama Goushou is of course the original creator of Detective Conan, the franchise has grown out to be much, much more than his original comic. Of the many products based on the hit mystery comic, the annual theatrical releases are probably the best known in Japan. Ever since 1997, each April has given us a new theatrical edition of Detective Conan with all-new original stories on a scale not feasible in the comic form. It is actually very rare in most cases in Japan for the original creator to get involved with the production of an animated theatrical adaptation personally, but Aoyama has always been a major part of these movies, often deciding on the main theme of each year's entry, as well as drawing key animation scenes himself (known among fans as the Aoyama key-frames, as they are instantly recognizable). The screenplays however are always written by other people, often specialized screenwriters who have worked on the animated TV series. The last few years, the release of each new theatrical film has also been accompanied with a novelization of said movie in publisher Shogakukan's Junior Bunko series: these novelizations are written for a young public, adapting the movies quite faithfully.

The twenty-first Detective Conan film, The Crimson Love Letter, was released in April 2017 and was received extremely well: it was in fact the highest grossing domestic (Japanese) film of 2017. Let that sink in for a while: the highest grossing Japanese film of 2017 was a mystery film, and an animated one too at that! When details about The Crimson Love Letter's production were first released in 2016, we learned that mystery author Ookura Takahiro was responsible for the screenplay. Ookura, who was written several succesful mystery series that have been adapted for live-action TV dramas (most prominently the Lt. Fukuie series), had not worked on Detective Conan before, but for this special occassion, he was not only put on the screenplay for the film, but also on an episode for the animated series. The Shogakukan Junior Bunko novelization (by Mizuki Shima) of course also released in April, but I waited for the home-video release in October 2017 to watch The Crimson Love Letter, and absolutely loved it.

But I was quite surprised when I learned that an another novelization of The Crimson Love Letter would be released in December 2017. Shousetsu Meitantei Conan: Karakurenai no Love Letter (A Novel: Detective Conan - The Crimson Love Letter, 2017) is a novelization written by the screenplay writer Ookura Takahiro himself, and is based on the final version of the screenplay he handed in. As you can guess: his version is not exactly like the final product, with several scenes either slightly changed, or cut out completely from the film. This new novelization is thus somewhat like a Director's Cut of the film, based on the original vision of the screenplay writer (whereas the Junior Bunko is based on the film that was released, and written for a younger audience). The base story however is of course the same in this version: a nation-wide high school karuta competition is about to start in a few days, so a program to promote the competive game of karuta, the Satsuki Cup and the Satsuki High School Cup is being recorded at a TV studio. A bomber however destroys the whole studio during the recording, and high school student-turned-into-six-year-old-boy Conan and the high school student detective Hattori Heiji suspect that the bomber's aim is focused on key members in the Satsuki Karuta Assocation, as they learn that the champion of the Satsuki Cup has also been killed on the same day. Meanwhile, Hattori's childhood friend Kazuha finds herself in a predicament: she suddenly has to participate in the Satsuki High School competition because her friend Mikoko got injured during the bombing, and one of her opponents is Oo'oka Momiji, a girl who is considered the future karuta queen who also claims she's Hattori's fiancée....

AND OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS COVER.

Ahm. It's only been two months ago since I wrote down my thoughts on The Crimson Love Letter, so I want refer to the film review for my main thoughts about the story and its relation to the main series, as the core plot in the novelization is exactly the same. The novelization is still a great Detective Conan story that manages to mix a proper mystery plot, with a captivating sport story surrounding karuta as well as romantic comedy elements. The film was easily one of the better entries these last few years thanks to the story, and that also holds for this novel. So in this review, I want to pick up some of the differences between the film, and this novelization.

I do want to point out right away that about 80% of the book is more-or-less the same as the film. Sure, most of the scenes have their differences, but these changes are very small. For example: the film starts with the whole cast chatting in the TV studio. In the novelization, their chat starts outside the studio. The novel does make good use of its medium to explain a bit more about various topics, most importantly the game of karuta. I noted in my review of the film that certain details of karuta, like basic rules or strategies, weren't explained really well there: the novelization does a much better job at that, as well as exploring the themes behind the poems on the karuta cards in relation to the film. The downside is that reading about the actual karuta matches isn't as fun as actually seeing them. While karuta is a card game in essence, it's actually a very physical game (see also Chihayafuru), and the energy and dynamic movements going during these matches are of course conveyed much better in the animated feature compared to the novelization. The final act of the story is about the actual Satsuki High School Cup, which was mostly skimmed over in the film with a montage (because it's a sports film!) to jump to the final match, while the novel actually goes a bit more into detail in the various rounds of the competition, fleshing out some characters we only see very briefly in the film.

The novelization also brings some improvements to the mystery plot. Some of the developments in the plot that were handled only briefly in the film are explored more deeply in the novel, which greatly helps the story. While the film works on its own, some of the red herrings and clues were discussed rather briefly there, but Ookura manages to explain them much better in detail in the novel, so for the people who thought things went too fast in the film: try this book!  On the other hand, it's also clear the story was indeed written for a film, as some of the more crucial, and also better clues of this story work much better in a visual format, as opposed to in a novel.

What also work much better in the animated format are the action scenes. The theatrical releases of Detective Conan have always been known for their over-the-top action scenes that you usually wouldn't see in the original comic (precisely because they can't do over-the-top action there), and the animated version of The Crimson Love Letter has some fantastic scenes in a great opening set-piece as well an impressive climax scene. Those same action parts are completely different in the novelization and it's not even a contest: the action scenes in the final film are muuuch better than the ones Ookura originally had in mind (and they are a bit strange too: since when does Conan has a wire in his wristwatch? He's not Lupin III!). What's interesting is that the major scenes that were cut out of Ookura's script were in fact also action scenes. The novelization (and thus Ookura's original script) contains two action scenes that didn't make it into the final movie. While the second of these is admittedly quite unnecessary (I'd argue cutting this scene out was a good choice), it's a pity the first of these action scenes didn't make it. A certain revelation is made in the movie after this scene, and it's one of those parts of the mystery plot that work better in the novel, precisely because this action scene actually helps set-up that revelation. Including the scene, in one way or another, would've improved the mystery plot, so I kinda wish this action scene would've been there, especially because it'd be more interesting to actually see the scene animated.

In the end though, it's clear that The Crimson Love Letter's best version is still the animated feature. While this novelization by Ookura does offer some more insight into the plot, as well as some other versions of certain scenes, this "Director's Cut" is not the best version, precisely because the plot was originally written for an animated film and many of its elements work out better in motion. I'd recommend the novel to those who loved The Crimson Love Letter and want to see how Ookura originally envisioned the story, but yeah, go watch the film if you haven't seen it yet. 

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌（原）、大倉崇裕　『小説　名探偵コナン　から紅の恋歌』