Don't Monkey With Murder

"Now is the time for the ultimate in Monkey Kombat!" 

"Escape from Monkey Island"

So I've been running behind with writing some of my reviews... I wrote this post eight months after reading this book...

After Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Was A Body", 2019) and Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau ("And On Her Way, Little Red Riding Hood Met A Corpse" 2020), Aoyagi Aito returns again to the world of fables and legends in his third short story collection in which he retells famous fairy tales as mystery stories. Whereas he made a trip to Western fairy tales in the second volume, the third volume titled Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Yappari Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Really Was A Body", 2021) returns to Japan, presenting five short stories that will sound very familiar in a way, but also very different as each time, Aoyagi manages to add completely new twists to stories that everyone knows. The impressive part of this series has always been that Aoyagi manages to make splendid use of the supernatural and magical themes of each of the stories, while preserving the fair-play spirit of the puzzle plot mystery story. Magical tools, houses made out of candy, wizards: all the stories embrace the supernatural motifs of the original fairy tale, and make excellent use of them to bring utterly original mystery stories, which at the same feel very familiar because most of us will be familiar with these fables. The second volume featured an overarching storyline involving Little Red Riding Hood travelling the world with her basket full of delicious food, but the third volume is closer in set-up to the first one, once again opting for (mostly) disconnected stories.

Taketori Tantei Monogatari ("A Bamboo-Cutter Detective Story") is of course based on the story of the Bamboo Cutter and Princess Kaguya, probably one of the best known Japanese fairy tales outside of Japan, for example due to the anime film The Tale of Princess Kaguya. This story is narrated by Shigenao, a bamboo cutter who one day finds a baby girl inside a bamboo shoot. He takes her home and raises her as his own daughter with the help of Yasu, an old friend. To their surprise, the girl Kaguya not only grows up into a beauty, but she also does that incredibly fast. Eventually, five suitors appear who all want to marry Kaguya, but she seems not very interested. She announces that the five suitors must each find one mythical item, ranging from a jeweled branch from the island of legends Hourai to a robe of Chinese fire-rat skins. They are to return in one year, and the person who has found his item will be found suitable to marry Kaguya. One year passes and Shigenao, Kaguya and Yasu see the five suitors appear in town again, all claiming they have found what they had been tasked with. The showing is to be held the day after, but during the night, Yasu's home catches fire. Shigenao and Kaguya try to save him, but find the house locked from the inside. When the fire is over, they go inside, and find Yasu dead, but he did not burn to death, but was already stabbed to death prior. But how could the murderer have escaped the locked hosue? Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise the various magical items mentioned earlier become relevant here, and once again Aoyagi manages to present a really entertaining story by using familiar motifs of the original story and utilize them in a genuine mystery story: we see Shigenao and Kaguya theorize which of these items could have been used to create the locked room murder, something you'd never have thought of when you first heard the fairy tale. Not only that, but Aoyagi manages to add in multiple false solutions in this relatively short tale and even has a bigger surprise in store by recontextualizig the whole fairy tale of Princess Kaguya at the very end, making this a fantastic opening story that basically pulls off everything this series should always strive for.

Nanakaime no Omusubi Kororin ("The Seventh Time the Rice Ball Rolled") is based on Omusubi Kororin, a story I myself didn't know beforehand. It follows old Soushichi, who is jealous of his neighbour Yonehachi, who became rich after chasing his rice ball rolling down the hill and found himself inside a hole inhabitated by mice, who offered the man a feast and a treasure. Soushichi tries to do the same, so he too rolls a rice ball down the hill and rolls down after it, and indeed, he finds himself shrunk and inside a gigantic underground network inhabitated by mice, who thank him for his rice ball and treat him to a feast. The old man is rather impatient though, and tries to get the part where he's given a treasure, but during dinner, one of the mice is found murdered in the food storage, but the storage had guarded, so it's a mystery how the mouse was killed. The old man then ends up dead... only not really, because he wakes up at the top of the hill again with his rice ball intact. He tries the thing again, and slowly realizes he must be in some kind of time loop, as the mice don't seem to remember he came earlier. Eventually, the mouse-murder occurs again, but once again, Soushichi's fixation on just leaving the cave a rich man eventually results in his death.... and he wakes up again at the top of the hill. Eventually, he guesses that the murder is involved with his Groundhog Day experience and he decides to solve it so he can finally leave this place. The impossible crime element of this story is quite clever, utilizing the original motifs of this fairy tale to present a mystery story that really could have worked in the world of mice. I wasn't that big a fan of the execution of the time loop aspect though. The "rules" behind the time loop are quite complex considering the length of the story, and they feel very arbitrary, with a lot of specific rules that only seem to be there to confuse the reader. That is why the "reveal" at the end doesn't feel really satisfying, because it's based on time loop rules that seemed to change after each story section.

Warashibe Tajuu Satsujin ("The Multiple Murders of the Straw") is a story is very tricky and complex considering the length, but the manner in which it utilizes the Straw Millionaire story doesn't become apparant until very late in the story, making this story somewhat difficult to rate. As on one hand, it is a definitely a good detective story, but its connection to the base fable isn't as strong as in other stories in this book. The story starts with the three deaths of the very same man: the mystery man Hachiemon turns out to have been living a double, nay, triple life as a mountain thief, merchant and money-lender, but for some reason he managed to be killed by three people in his three personas on the same night! Eventually the investigation into his murder leads to the home of the famous Straw Millionaire, a man who started with a piece of straw and with the guidance of bodhisattva Kannon trades himself up the world. Saying more would just spoil too much, but it's honestly a good story, just one where you feel the link with the fable is kinda weak and almost feel like it was added in later.

The final two stories, Shinsou: Sarukani Gassen ("The Truth Behind the Monkey-Crab Battle") and  Saruroku to Bunbuku Koukan Satsujin ("Saruroku and the Boiling Murder Exchange") form one story together, with the first story setting up the motive for the second story. The first story is a kind of folkloristic analysis of The Monkey-Crab Battle, a folklore tale where a monkey and crab get into a fight for a rice ball and the monkey ends up killing the crab. Friends of the crab then conspire to kill the monkey in his home. In this tale, the son of the murdered monkey tells someone about this tale, but then explains the famous tale isn't the truth, as there was a much bigger plot hidden beneath the version everyone knows. In a way, it's similar to other folklore-centric detective stories I have read in the past, like Professor Munakata, the Toujou Genya series and the Three Ballets series, where motifs of well-known folklore tales are examined and shown to have a hidden origin/meaning. In this story, the motifs from the original tale like the chestnut, cow dung and mortar who all conspired to kill the monkey, are shown to have been something else, though still firmly set in "fairy tale logic". It's a fun story that on one hand "analyses a folktale and shows the underlying meanings of certain motifs" while at the same time still remaining firmly set within the fairy tale world itself, resulting in a rather unique reading experience. The twist at the end basically sets-up the last story in the volume, which tells us of the mastermind monkey behind everything and who has been in hiding ever since, fearing revenge.

So in Saruroku to Bunbuku Koukan Satsujin ("Saruroku and the Boiling Murder Exchange"), we learn the monkey Nantenmaru has been fearing revenge for quite some while now, and he is living on an small island right at the centre of the territory of a large monkey clan, whose leader fortunately is fond of Nantenmaru and who has been keeping Nantenmaru save on that island. The island is surrounded by a thick, muddy swamp that will swallow anyone trying to get in, and there are no high trees around the island, making Nantenmaru's boat the only way to cross to the island. One day, Saruroku ("Sherlock") and his assistant visit the monkey enclave and there's also a feast that night. After the party, Nantenmaru returns to the island that night, but the following day, he's found murdered in his boat, his head stuck in the muddy water of the swamp. But who could've made their way to Nantenmaru's home on the island? As a locked room murder story, this one makes good use of the fairy tale setting to present a solution that is only acceptable in this specific world, but I think the merits of this story especially lies in the way it interacts with the previous story: this is really the 'second half' of the story, and a lot of the more clever revelations and twists are built on the set-up of the first story. 

Once again, Aoyagi Aito manages to deliver a great fairy tale murder mystery collection with Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Yappari Shitai ga Arimashita. The book perhaps misses the surprise element of the first book, and I liked how the second book had that overarching storyline. In that sense, Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Yappari Shitai ga Arimashita just feels like more of the same, but the stories themselves are always entertaining, and save for the Straw Millionaire one, I think they do a great job at twisting the original story just enough to bring a genuinely surprising mystery story, while also retaining the core fairy tale or fable. Definitely a good one to pick up any time, and I can't wait to see where Aoagi will bring us next!

Original Japanese title(s): 青柳碧人『むかしむかしあるところに、やっぱり死体がありました』:「竹取探偵物語」/「七回目のおむすびころりん」/「わらしべ多重殺人」/「真相･猿蟹合戦」/「猿六とぶんぶく交換殺人」