Turnabout Power vs. Supernatural Power

ひとつの目で明日を見て

ひとつの目で昨日を見つめてる

「The Real Folk Blues」（山根麻衣）

One eye looks at tomorrow,

While the other eye stares at yesterday

"The Real Folk Blues" (Yamane Mai)

Late November last year, I reviewed Imamura Masahiro's debut novel Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead"), which I friggin' loved: it was a mystery novel that took on a very classic approach with its closed circle situation and impossible crimes, but set under extremely unique circumstances. I was already late to the party, as it was widely lauded as the hit mystery novel of the year  in its release year of 2017 and its popularity certainly didn't wane in the following year. In fact, 2019 will see both a live-action movie adaptation and a manga adaptation of the bestseller, so I think that the work will eventually find its way, be it in the form of the original novel or one of the adaptations, to the English-language market.

It was announced around the time I was reading the first novel, that Imamura was working on the sequel, and that it would be published soon, in February 2019. This time, I didn't wait a few years to come across a nice discount campaign, and bought the new book on release day (and finished it on the same day... more or less). Magan no Hako no Satsujin ("The Murders In the Box of The Devil Eye", 2019) takes place a few months after the events in Shijinsou no Satsujin. In the previous novel, Hamura Yuzuru (first-year student of Shinkou University and the narrator) became friends with Kenzaki Hiruko, a second-year student who, unknown to the public, has solved many criminal cases over the course of her life. After the crazy circumstances in which they had to deal with multiple impossible murders in a hostel near Lake Sabea while having to literally fight for survival, Hiruko decides to investigate how that all could've happened, and she learns of a mysterious letter that had been sent to the occult magazine Atlantis: apparently, the anonymous letter had foretold several major deadly incidents in Japan, months before they even happened, including the sudden outbreak near Lake Sabea. Another letter hints at where the prophesy came from: their destination is the abandoned settlement of Magan, where Sakimi lives, an old woman who can supposedly see in the future.

Hiruko and Hamura travel to the small village of Yoshimi deep in the mountains, as you must pass through Yoshimi to get to Magan. To their great surprise, they not only find a gate blocking the road from the bus stop to Yoshimi, but when they slip through, they find that the village itself is completely empty. Well, not completely, because several other outsiders happen to arrive in Yoshimi at the same time, including a journalist of the magazine Atlantis, two high school students of whom one also seems to be able to see in the future too, and a former inhabitant of Yoshimi who's back for the day to visit her parents' grave. Baffled by the disappearance of the people of Yoshimi, the group crosses the bridge across the river to go to abandoned Magan, to the windowless, box-like building where Sakimi and her help live, to ask about what happened to the people of Yoshimi. Here they learn that Sakimi's prophecy  has foretold that in the two days starting tomorrow, two men and two women will die in Magan, and that is why everyone in nearby Yoshimi left. But as some of the vistiting group try to make their way back, they find the bridge back to Yoshimi has been burned down for some reason, and now everyone is trapped on this side of the river, in Magan. At first, not everybody seems to believe in the prophecy, but the following morning, one of the group is buried in a landslide after an earthquake. While this incident might still seem like a mere coincidence on its own, the following murders that happened under seemingly impossible circumstances suggest that Sakimi's prophecy is destined to come true, flinging the party staying in Magan in a whirlpool of fear.

After I finished Shijinsou no Satsujin, I really wondered how Imamura was going to write a sequel to that novel. Was he going to build further on the specific circumstances he used in that book, or perhaps go a completely different way? The answer is that Imamura, perhaps wisely, decided to go a completely different way. We don't see those beings from the first novel anymore, but the reader will not be disappointed by Magan no Hako no Satsujin despite that, as the novel definitely builds on the underlying foundations what made the first novel so good: it combined a classic, closed circle murder mystery story with completely unique (and not particularly realistic) circumstances, to create an immensely original, but also entertaining, and clever detective novel. This time, the unique situation is of course that everything occurs because the prophecies of Sakimi are real. We actually have two people who can tell the future in this novel, Sakimi who prophesied four people will these in the coming two days, while one of the high school students is able to make sketches of incidents happening in the very near future (within ten minutes). Whereas in other mystery novels, you'd usually find out that these people are frauds or something like that, Magan no Hako no Satsujin makes sure you realize that these prophecies are real and thus these insights into future events actually become part of the deduction process. For example, early on in the story the high school student Toiro is both suspected, and partially cleared from suspicion of poisoning Sakimi, because her sketch of the crime scene before it happened, also included an object she couldn't possibly have known about, with the deductions and accussations all revolving around how those objects still made their way in her sketch.

In a way, the concept behind the prophecies isn't very different from what was done in the first novel: Imamura locks his whole cast up in a closed circle situation, and then has a supernatural/unnatural phenomenon threaten our cast. What makes his novels different from most other closed circle mysteries is that the threat isn't simply a force of nature, like a snow storm or the raging sea or something like that, but something out of the ordinary. What's more, Imamura is sure to make use of these unique special circumstances to come up with situations that can only exist because he's utilizing these unique ideas, resulting in mystery stories that are in the core recognizable, but also like something you have never seen before. The core mystery plot in Shijinsou no Satsujin could not have worked if not for those special circumstances, and that is also true for what happens in Magan no Hako no Satsujin.

That said, Magan no Hako no Satsujin is likely to leave less of a visceral impression on the reader at first, as the threat of... those beings was far more intense that the threat of a prophecy. Whereas the first novel felt quite dynamic, with barricades being forced open and the survivors being forced to move around, this novel feels calmer (relatively speaking, of course), as the prophecy itself isn't going around breaking down doors and attacking people. The deaths in the novel are also less gory, though the first clear murder is still quite brutal, with someone shot by a shotgun. This situation is the main problem of the novel perhaps, as the deductions surrounding this death are what allows Hiruko to figure out who the murderer is. The investigation initially focuses on the semi-impossibility of the situation, as everyone seems to have an alibi: nobody was away long enough from the dining room to break open the locker with the shotgun and kill the victim. However, this problem later turns in a more Queenian investigation when Hamura focuses on the physical clues left on the scene, and this part is quite ingenious. The deduction chain based on one physical object left on the crime scene allows one to identify the murderer, and opens up possibilities to solve the other deaths. There's also a situation with footsteps leading to a waterfall, but none back: this one is a bit simpler in design, but a bit tricky to uncover beforehand (as there are basically no real clues indicating what had exactly happened). Another death is quite subtly clewed through physical clues, not as clever as the first one, but still very nicely hidden within the text.

What makes Magan no Hako no Satsujin a unique read however is that the premise of the prophecies being true, is unmistakenly a fundamental part of how this mystery is plotted. I won't spoil too much as obviously, these prophecies spoil the story, but for example, several characters act in certain ways because they know the prophecies are true, and this is also reflected in the deductions made by Hiruko, but also the other characters, and the result is a detective story that can't exist without this shared reality of the existence of foresight. It's not as in-your-face as in the first novel, where you could immediately point out how those beings were involved in the mystery, but by the time you get to the end, you'll see how the theme of foresight is an integral part of the plot, with each of the murders happening or made possible only because the premonitions will come true.

The overall structure of this novel might be trickier than the first novel though, as even after an initial climax, the remaining number of pages betray there's even more to be solved by Hiruko, even if it's not obvious there's something else lurking beyond the obvious. This part was nicely done, even if the hints were a bit more obvious to pick up on. Even so, even this part makes fantastic use of the premise of the prophecies being real.

With the waves and impression the first novel left, I couldn't help myself drawing comparisons with that book in this review of Magan no Hako no Satsujin. The overall impact of this second novel is definitely not as shocking, but Imamura once again manages to write a tightly plotted, fair play closed circle murder mystery, which once again is made possible, and memorable because of extremely unique and special circumstances. The prophecies aren't just for decoration, but are a fundamental element in just about everything, making this a read you just won't find elsewhere. As this novel does build upon the story and characters introduced in the first novel though, it's recommended to read the novels in order. I for one can't wait to see what Imamura will cook up next in the third novel!

Original Japanese title(s): 今村昌弘　『魔眼の匣の殺人』