A Murder of Crows

"People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead."

"The Crow"

Another mystery manga post in the same week!?

Thirty years ago, in 1992, comic readers were first introduced to 17-year old Kindaichi Hajime, a seemingly not-so-bright high school student who'd rather sleep than study, and his childhood friend Miyuki. However, we soon learned there is more than meets the eye. For Hajime was in fact the grandson of Kindachi Kousuke, the famous detective created by Yokomizo Seishi, and while not apparent as first, the moment Hajime found himself trapped on an island with a mysterious murder who could commit crimes under impossible circumstances, we saw how he definitely inherited his grandfather's mind for tackling mysteries. Ever 1992, Hajime, Miyuki and detective Kenmochi have been part of Japanese popular culture, with many adaptations based on the manga ranging from live-action and animation on both the small and silver screen, video games, audio dramas, net dramas and more. Unlike Detective Conan however, the manga series has not been running (more or less) consecutively or at a regular schedule. After two initial series, there was a hiatus between 2000 and 2004, after which the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo franchise has continued in the form of several irregular short series, sometimes only running for three months a year, sometimes in a regular weekly schedule and sometimes in a monthly. In 2018, a new series started titled Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37"), set twenty years in the future and focusing on a 37-year old Hajime, who has grown very tired of solving mysteries, but who finds himself tackling more mysterious murders again. However, fans of the series of course that sooner or later, we would see the familiar 17-year old Hajime again, and what better occassion than the 30th anniversary of the series?

Earlier this year, the first volume of the new anniversary series titled Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo 30th, or The Case File of Kindaichi 30th was released, which seems to be replacing Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo for the moment.The second volume followed in October, and the two volumes together contain all the chapters to the story The Yatagarasu Vllage Murder Case, which is clearly intended to be a "classic" Kindaichi Shounen story, with Hajime, Miyuki and Kenmochi as the main characters, a story about a series of murders in an isolated setting that involves a creepy local legend and of course impossible crimes and locked room murders. Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo occasionally had stories with a more urban setting, which you don't see as often in the older series, but having this new series start with a story set in a creepy old village in a place that is about to be disappear off the charts feels kinda like returning home. Due to a nearby dam project finally finishing, the tiny village of Yatagarasu will be erased from the maps next week. Almost all villagers have moved out to their new homes already, and the few remaining villagers are those who help coordinate the final days of the old village, like the proprieter of the last inn, the shrine maiden of Yatagarasu Shrine and some former council members. Inspector Kenmochi has brought Hajime and Miyuki along to this village as a favor for a recently deceased friend: even on his dying bed, this fellow police inspector regretted he never managed to solve a strange disappearance case in Yatagarasu Village six years ago, where the man had been threatened and given police protection, and yet the man disappeared from his inn. Arriving at the same inn, which had been actually been quite busy with tourists wanting to have one look at the village before it would disappear. 

Kenmochi, Hajime and Miyuki are also invited to attend the last ritual visit to Yatagarasu Shrine. The Yatagarasu, the mythological three-legged crow, is worshipped in this village, and for centuries, there's been a monthly ceremony at night, which involves a visit to the deepest quarters of the shrine. The participants all have to walk in procession as they go deeper and deeper in the shrine, which consists of five chambers. The doors to the first four chambers are locked by two different keys, carried by two different important figures of the village, while the last door is sealed with special ceremonial paper by the shrine maiden. But when they arrive in the inner chamber after unlocking the previous five doors, they find a decapitated head on the altar for the Yatagarasu. The victim is the secretary of a former village council member, but how could the killer have placed this head here despite the five locked doors? Kenmochi calls for police reinforcements, but the road is blocked. During this wait, Hajime and Miyuki decide to help the villagers clean the village before it'll be flooded, collecting everything in garbage bags,but then another decapitated head is discovered, despite everyone in the closed-off village having an alibi. It is then they realize that according to legend, the Yatagarasu eats humans, but always leaves the head...

A rather busy story, like we are used to from old Kindaichi Shounen stories: there's a disappearance in the past, and as things develop in the present, we are presented to three different locked room or impossible crimes: the decapitated head in the inner chamber of the shrine, another decapitated head inside a room (with paper doors!) of the inn and a decapitated head found in a place despite everyone having an alibi for the period the head was placed at that location. The latter is of course also a staple of the series: the "impossible crime" due to every suspect having an iron-clad alibi for the period the crime must have occured. In form, The Yatagarsu Village Murder Case is everything you would expect of a classic Kindaichi Shounen story and vibe-wise, it's a welcome return to these kinds of stories, as you simply didn't get them as often in the series with the older Hajime. While you don't get to see too much of the village itself, the idea of the whole village (and all the evidence!) disappearing in just a week is pretty depressing, and seeing the remaining villagers doing mundane things like gathering all the remaining garbage to ensure the village is "clean" when the time comes and to leave a good "imprint" on nature is touching.

But I have to admit, overall I was a bit disappointed with the story, though perhaps this story was just a bit unlucky in that regard. The first murder, where the decapitated head is found behind five different doors inside a long shrine, four of them locked with two different keys, and the final door sealed with ceremonial paper used signed by the shrine maiden. I like the idea behind the trick... but I already know the same trick from a different mystery manga, and it even uses a very, very similar setting (temple/shrine), so it came to me rather quickly. I have read that one, well, not "recently" as in these last two years, but still recent enough to recognize it almost immediately, and that did disappoint me, as both the idea and execution here are very close to the first instance I read of the same trick. The two other impossibilities in this story in comparison are far simpler, and obviously just there as "side-dishes" to the main that should have been the shrine mystery.  They are not really memorable on their own, and especially the last one is hint-wise quite disappointing, as a lot of the physical clues Hajime points to at the end aren't visible on the pages despite him saying so. Yes, it would have given the trick away too easily perhaps, but now I feel like this story is cheating a bit, something this series doesn't really do often. The second impossible crime, where everybody has an alibi for the time the decapitated head was placed at where it was found, is good in concept and execution: I just really don't like the clewing applied here. It reminds of a similar instance of bad clewing in one story in Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo, where "an important hint" is introduced very late by having someone mention something out of the blue about a topic completely irrelvant to the rest of the story, but that somehow applies to crime. Of course, an "unrelated remark" functioning as a clue for the detective is very normal in mystery fiction, so it's not the action that bothers me, it's just how awful this "unrelated remark" is introduced in the story. Like, if the "unrelated remark" is about the stars or something like that, have a character be interested in stars from the start and mention things like that throughout the story. Here it just feels like Amagi couldn't think of any way to "naturally" introduce a clue, so the whole section feels very artificial.

So I wasn't too big of a fan of the first two volumes of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo 30th, or The Case File of Kindaichi 30th  that tell The Yatagarasu Village Murder Case: I think that in terms of dynamics and atmosphere, it's a fine return to the old, classic set-up of Hajime, Miyuki and Kenmochi tackling the type of cases we have learned to expect from this series, and in terms of scale/length, it's also the type of story we haven't really seen for some years now. But the main mystery of this story is just too similar to a different mystery manga I read relatively recently, so despite the cool setting, it just felt a bit disappointing, especially as the other murders in this story just feel like "extras" to what should have been an impressive main act. Nonetheless, it's not a bad story, and I for one am glad to see 17-year old Hajime again. The next volume is scheduled for next year, though I assume it will only have part of the next story, so it's very likely my next review of this series will only be once the fourth, or perhaps even fifth volume is released.

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一少年の事件簿30th』第1, 2巻