It's been a while since I discussed a television production...
Pineapple Murder? was a two-part variety program broadcast on September 20 and 27, starring the idol group Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu. It would have never been appeared on my radar, if not for a tweet that appeared after the first episode was broadcast: it noted that in the credits Shirai Tomoyuki was credited for the mystery plot. I don't know if his announcement had been announced beforehand, due to the interesting set-up of the show. In the program, the six members of Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu are invited to a manor, where they will have a small party to eat a deliciously sweet pineapple, prepared especially by the owner of the manor, who loves the fruit. In fact, his house only has one knife: a pineapple knife, used solely to cut a pineapple. The girls are shown the pineapple, which is kept in a special case. But before they get started on the pineapple, the six get an assignment. At the start of the program, they each were given a special item, like a bluetooth speaker, cat ears and balloons. They now have to go each their own way for ten minutes, making cute selfies and short videos of themselves using those items. Ten minutes later, they all gather on the ground floor and move together to the upstairs sitting room, where the pineapple is waiting for them...
Only they only find the remains of the pineapple scattered on the table: someone has eaten it!
It is then revealed the program up until now was just a ruse to fool five of the six Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu members. One of the girls is the culprit, and while everybody was taking videos and selfies, this culprit ate the pineapple by herself. The television program staff members of course all vouch for each other's alibis, making the six Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu members the only suspects. The girls sit around a table and have to find out who the culprit is, but for some reason, the videos they all took seem to show they all have an alibi for the ten-minute period they were alone. How did the culprit manage to devour the pineapple in the sitting room, while securing an alibi?
I have to admit I was kinda surprised at the first episode, as the show started showing floorplans of the mansion and showing where everybody was according to their alibis/videos. It was really set-up as a classic mystery story. But after the second episode was broadcast, I noticed a BlueSky post by Abiko who noted how due to certain limitations like for example budget and the fact it's a variety program starring a idol group, the potential Shirai Tomoyuki holds never comes to fruition, and that is certainly true. The mystery plot we see in Pineapple Murder? is decent at best, following familiar tropes and has the culprit use a trick that is not surprisingly original, but it is properly hinted at with visual clues and things like that.
Only, you wonder: did you really need Shirai Tomoyuki for that? There is basically nothing here that feels distinct to his work, and that's a shame, for Shirai in particular is an author you'd associate with certain ideas. Okay, I was not expecting anything gross from the solution (again, because we have actual idols as the "characters" here), but still, you do expect something grander from Shirai, and within the show's limitations, it must have been nearly impossible to accomplish something typical of his work.
It is a trick like you often see in the Kindaichi Shounen manga, with a crime having happened while everybody seemingly has an alibi, supported by visual evidence and with people moving around in a building and timestamps and everything, but in a Kindaichi Shounen story, it would only be one element in a larger mystery story. Here it is the main trick, and if you've read a few mystery novels, you'll probably get a pretty good idea of what happened early on. The deduction scene of the Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu members is also relatively short, with most of the second episode being dedicated to the initial examination of all the members' alibis (their videos/selfies), leaving little time for the girls to come up with theories about who the culprit truly is. What we have now feels more like a basis for a larger mystery, and therefore ultimately feels lacking in content.
So I don't think Shirai Tomoyuki fans are missing out on something important if they can't manage to see Pineapple Murder?: it's definitely more something fun for fans of Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu, watching cute girls do cute things. For the die-hard fans: I believe there are two (?) special episodes on Hulu that offer more footage/content beyond the television broadcast. One thing though: the way the girls wrap up their deduction is kinda hilarious and you kinda wonder how it could ever end like that in a real mystery novel.
