再生 -Rebuild-: the Writer Alice series

Last week a TV adaptation of this particular series started on Japanese TV, so I thought this was a good time for a new Rebuild post, which serves as an introduction to some of the longer series I discuss here. Links to all related reviews, short introduction, discussion on general series tropes, it's all here.

Writer Alice / Himura Hideo series (Author: Arisugawa Alice)
46 Banme no Misshitsu ("The 46th Locked Room") [1992]

• 46 Banme no Misshitsu ("The 46th Locked Room") (Audio Drama)

Dali no Mayu ("Dali's Cocoon") [1993]
Russia Koucha no Nazo ("The Russian Tea Mystery") [1994]

• Yaneura no Sanposha / 'The Stroller in the Attic' (Audio Drama)

Sweden Kan no Nazo ("The Swedish Mansion Mystery") [1995]
Brazil Chou no Nazo ("The Brazilian Butterfly Mystery') [1996]
Eikoku Teien no Nazo ("The English Garden Mystery") [1997]
Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken ("The Castle of Screams Murder Case") [2001]

• Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken/ 'The Castle of Screams Murder Case' (Audio Drama)

Malay Tetsudou no Nazo ("The Malay Railroad Mystery") [2002]
Swiss Dokei no Nazo ("The Swiss Clock Mystery") [2003]

• Swiss Dokei no Nazo/ 'The Swiss Clock Mystery' (Audio Drama)

Kisaki wa Fune wo Shizumeru ("The Queen Sinks The Boat") [2008]

• Saru no Hidarite / 'The Monkey's Left Paw' (Audio Drama)
  
• Zankoku na Yurikago / 'A Cruel Cradle' (Audio Drama)

Nagai Rouka no Aru Ie ("The House With The Long Hallway") [2010]

• Nagai Rouka no Aru Ie / 'The House With The Long Hallway' (Audio Drama)

(Because the series is quite long, I've only listed the titles I've actually reviewed)

The Writer Alice series, alternatively known as the Himura Hideo series, is about mystery writer Arisugawa Alice (a male) and his friend Himura Hideo. Himura teaches criminology at Kyoto's Eito University, but his keen mind is also recognized by the police, who often ask him for help with difficult cases. Himura considers his cooperation the police to be 'fieldwork' for his research. Alice is his close friend, whom he first met when they themselves were students at Eito University. Himura often asks Alice to accompany him during his fieldwork, because occassionally Alice being a mystery writer actually comes in handy, but mostly because he is a friend he trusts (despite the many jokes at Alice's expense) and can use as a sounding board.

Note that the narrator shares the name Arisugawa Alice with the (pen name of the) writer of the books, like Ellery Queen. To keep them apart, I refer to the actual writer as Arisugawa on the blog, while I use Alice for the character (I similarly use Ellery for the character, and Queen for the writer-duo).

Whereas previous Rebuild posts looked at major series tropes, I'd say that the Writer Alice series is actually quite diverse, with no real major series tropes. Sure, the series is of course loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes model with a brilliant detective and his writer sidekick (Himura still lives in his student apartment room, with the elderly landlord granny taking care of him), but the cases themselves are about all kinds of mysteries: sometimes it's about solving traditional locked room murders or serial killings, but at other times Himura and Alice are wrecking their brains on secret codes or other less criminal mysteries. Because of his work, Himura is often asked by the police for help with criminal investigation, but occassionally his students bring (less criminal) problems to him, and even Alice himself has a tendency to come across little problems while writing his books. The Writer Alice series probably has something to offer to every fan of the genre, in both novel form as short story form. On the other hand, I'd say that the quality of the series isn't always consistent: there are some really great stories that invoke the Ellery Queen spirit for example, but some stories don't show as much ambition. Hit or miss is too harsh, but sometimes it's hit or meh. It's also a very long series.

One interesting trope might be the setting of most of the stories though. Himura's homeground is in Kyoto, as he teaches at Eito University (which is based on the actual Doshisha University). Alice lives in nearby Osaka, so most of the stories in the series are set in the Kinki (Kansai) region of Japan. Many mystery novels are set in Tokyo, but in the Writer Alice series, you're more likely to see a scene set at Namba Station than at Shinjuku Station. Note also that Alice speaks in Osaka dialect (even though the narration in the books is always in standard Japanese). The series therefore has a distinct Kansai feel to it.

The relation between Himura and Alice is also a focal point of the series. The constant teasing between the two also betrays how close the two are, and it has attracted a fairly large female fanbase, from what I gather. Sherlock has done the same in more recent years with its portrayal of the Sherlock & Watson dynamic, but the Writer Alice series has been doing this for many, many years. It's definitely no coincidence that the audio dramas of this series were produced by Momogre / Momo & Grapes, which mostly caters to the female fanbase with a love of coupling men. The bickering between Himura and Alice is also a part that betrays its Osaka roots however, as well, people from Osaka are known / stereotyped as rather talkative and easygoing.

There is no real overarching storyline for this series, so you can pick up any book and start from there. Personally, I think the first novel, 46 Banme no Misshitsu ("The 46th Locked Room") was a fun novel, so you might as well start there, but it really doesn't really matter which book you pick up.

Note that Arisugawa actually has two series that both have an Arisugawa Alice as its protagonist. Besides the Writer Alice series, there's also the Student Alice series, which stars a student with the same name (See also this Rebuild post of the Student Alice series). Interestingly enough, each Alice supposedly writes the other Alice. So the Alice from the Writer Alice series writes the Student Alice series, while in the Student Alice series, that Alice is writing the Writer Alice series. Confusing? It sure is! What's interesting though is that while this series does take on a Sherlock Holmes model, Alice isn't writing about his adventures with Himura. Most detective + writer sidekick stories usually have the writer basing his stories on their adventures, but in this series, they have little to do with each oether.

再生 -Rebuild-: the Yakata series

Another Rebuild post, which serves as an introduction post to some of the longer series I discuss here. Links to all related reviews, short introduction, discussion on general series tropes, it's all here. This time, one of the more famous series of contemporary Japanese orthodox detective fiction.

Yakata series (Author: Ayatsuji Yukito)
Jukkakukan no Satsujin (The Decagon House Murders) [1987]
Suishakan no Satsujin (The Water Mill House Murders) [1988]
Meirokan no Satsujin (The Labyrinth House Murders) [1988]
Ningyoukan no Satsujin (The Puppet House Murders) [1989]
Tokeikan no Satsjin (The Clock House Murders) [1991]
Kuronekokan no Satsujin (The Black Cat House Murders) [1992]
Ankokukan no Satsujin (The Darkness House Murders) [2004]
Bikkurikan no Satsujin (The Surprise House Murders) [2006]
Kimenkan no Satsujin (The Strange Masks House Murders) [2012]

Related:
Kirigoetei Satsujin Jiken (The Kirigoe Mansion Murder Case) [1990]
Ayatsuji Yukito Satsujin Jiken (The Ayatsuji Yukito Murder Case) [2013]

Spread all across Japan are the mansions built by genius architect Nakamura Seiji. While all of his creations have different themes, these houses all have two characteristics. One is that Nakamura Seiji loved building gimmicks in his mansions: each of them are full of secret passages, hidden rooms and other surprises. The second characteristic is that his creations somehow always seem to attract death. Violent death. Nakamura Seiji died in 1985 on his own private island Tsunojima, but his legacy would remain lethal: after getting involved with the events in The Decagon House Murders, where a group of students was murdered on the island in a And Then There Were None style, Shimada Kiyoshi tries to learn more about the haunted houses and travels around Japan to see what more evil Nakamura Seiji's creations have led to.

I'll first note that The Decagon House Murders, the first book in the series, is a very important book in the history of Japanese detective fiction, being the first in the so-called New Orthodox movement, which meant a re-, and deconstruction of the classic puzzle plots of lore in the modern age. As this post is meant to be a general introduction to the series, I refer to the review for more details on the meaning of The Decagon House Murders within Japanese detective fiction history. In terms of series continuity however, it might be interesting to note that The Decagon House Murders wasn't planned as a series: Shimada Kiyoshi in particular wasn't created as a series detective and this entry in the series might feel a bit detached from the other novels in terms of style.

And on a sidenote, the word yakata refers to a mansion than 'just' a house, but the titular house in The Decagon House Murders isn't really a mansion (in the grand, impressive building-meaning of the word), but an annex building of the actual, main mansion. This is why I first used the word house instead of mansion as a translation for jukkakukan (decagon house): I just sticked with the word in other reviews to be consistent, although subsequent houses can all safely be called mansions.

As the titles of the books suggest, each book is set around a different creation by Nakamura Seiji. There are two major 'types' of house, which tie in with the creative writing process behind the books. Writer Ayatsuji Yukito sometimes comes up with an interesting-sounding house, after which he thinks of a plot to set in that house (i.e. Bikkurikan no Satsujin). Other times, he comes up with a plot, after which he creates a house to support that trick/plot/story (i.e. Tokeikan no Satsujin). In general, the latter practice leads to houses which are integral to a certain trick in the book, as the houses are created especially to facilitate execution of the plot.

The most important characteristic of the series is of course the plot device of the mansions as a setting. This is highly influenced by S.S. Van Dine's The Greene Murder Case and especially Oguri Mushitarou's Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken (1934), which also features a dark house brimming with secrets and surprises. The horror-like style can be felt distinctly throughout the stories (Ayatsuji Yukito also writes horror conveniently) and it results in each of the houses becoming something like a living entity in each narrative, not unlike the House of Usher. A great number of the novels are so-called closed circle mysteries: in these novels everybody is confined to the titular mansion, with a murderer among them (a bit like Scooby-Doo. A little bit). These mansions also all feature secret passages, hidden rooms and other surprises that would make Knox go utterly mad. One might think for a second that such elements would make a detective story unfair, but because these secret passages are taken for granted in Nakamura Seiji's houses, it's never unfair. Everyone knows they exist, and the way writer Ayatsuji utilizes them is absolutely fair to the reader (for example, the existence of a secret passage itself might come out of nowhere, but not the question of who could have used the passage).

And for fans of the genre who like maps and stuff in their novels, there's always a neat, detailed map of each mansion in every novel!

There is another major characteristic to the series, but this includes major spoilers for the novels, so I'll hide the next part.  SPOILER ALERT!! I REFER SPECIFICALLY TO THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDERS AND THE WATER WHEEL HOUSE MURDERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK (SELECT TO READ):

Most of the novels feature a narrative trick to be springed upon the reader, usually executed through a dual narrative structure. The Decagon House Murders for example had the two narratives of island and main land, while the The Water Wheel House Murders had a past/present narrative. Ayatsuji's narrative tricks are usually accomplished by suggesting either a link between the two narratives, while in reality there isn't, or the other way around. The Decagon House Murders for example made it seem like the island narrative was a closed circle And Then There Were None scenario, while the main land narrative was about finding out the truth behind the events. However, one person from the main land narrative had in fact been traveling up and down the island, posing as another person there, having broken the closed circle. The Water Wheel House Murders made it seem like the narrators from the two past/present narratives were the same, even though there had been a switch. The other novels also feature such tricks (practically all have dual narratives), but the narrative trick isn't always crucial to the main story (sometimes it's just to give the story another surprise twist, but not particularly crucial to the murder-plot).

The Yakata series was originally planned to end with the fourth novel, The Puppet House Murders, but is now planned as a ten novel series, of which nine have been released at the moment.

Note: The novel The Kirigoe Mansion Murder Case is formally not a part of the series, but the book does open with "dedicated to another Nakamura Seiji" and similarly features a mysterious house as the scene of murders, suggesting that the Kirigoe Mansio might also be a creation by Nakamura Seiji.

Note 2: The Ayatsuji Yukito Murder Case is the novelization of a murder play inspired on the yakata series.

再生 -Rebuild-: the Student Alice series

Readers of the blog might have noticed that I often read books from the same series/authors. I often refer, and build upon what I wrote in previous reviews, but I figured that a single post introducing a certain series might be easier to read. So here, the first post in a series I have called Rebuild, which serve as general introductions to the more lengthy/interesting series I discuss. Expect a short introduction, some observations on characteristic tropes of the series and of course a bibliography list. For more indepth reviews and observations, please refer to the individual reviews.

Student Alice series (Author: Arisugawa Alice)
Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game - The Tragedy of Y '88") [1989]
Kotou Puzzle ("The Island Puzzle") [1989] AKA The Moai Island Puzzle.
Soutou no Akuma ("Double-Headed Devil") [1992]
Jooukoku no Shiro ("The Castle of the Queendom") [2007]
Egami Jirou no Dousatsu ("The Insights of Egami Jirou") [2012]

The Student Alice series is about the adventures of the Eito University Mystery Club (EMC), as experienced by Arisugawa Alice, a Law student of Kyoto's Eito University. Other members include Mochizuki Shuuhei (economics, Ellery Queen fan), Oda Koutarou (economics, hardboiled fan) and founding member Egami Jirou (philosophy, several years overdue for graduation). Arima Maria (law) joins as the first female member of the EMC during her (and Alice's) second year at Eito University. The members of the EMC have a tendency to get involved with mysteries (most of them of the criminal kind), but Egami Jirou always manages to explain everything with his impressive deductive powers.

The series has three major characteristics. First is the setting of students and the mystery club. Like many writers of the so-called New Orthodox movement from the late '80s (which revisited, and reconstructed classic puzzle plots), Arisugawa Alice (the writer) debuted while he was a student and member of his university's mystery club, and these are elements that are mirrored in his own work (compare also with Ayatsuji Yukito's Jukkakukan no Satsujin). The Student Alice series is often described as young adult fiction, with its focus on student life.Also, the fact the characters are all well versed in mystery fiction is quite important, as they act as a device for discussions on all kinds of mystery fiction, and they can also make insightful observations from a meta-point of view, by refering to famous novels.

Secondly, the novels all deal with closed circle situations. For some reason or another, the EMC members always get involved with murder cases while cut-off from the outside world. Vulcano, island, they have seen it all. It's never 'just' a murder, but there's always another element of danger that drives the story.

Finally, as one can guess from the device of having the protagonist sharing a name with the author, Arisugawa Alice is strongly influenced by Ellery Queen. His novels also have Challenges to the Readers, like you'd expect from the older Queen novels. The deduction style is also similarly very complex, dealing with who-knew-what-when-how-which-allowed-them-to-do-what. Prepare for long deduction chains when you read the novels. Special mention goes to The Island Puzzle, of which the conclusion is an incredible tour-de-force in deduction all based on just one object.

Chronology of the EMC

Chronology is fairly important to the series. A bit more than two years have passed since the start of the series. For example, when we first met Mochizuki and Oda they had just survived their first year at Eito University, but by The Castle of the Queendom, they're already preparing for their graduation.
 
1984: The Eito University Mystery Club (EMC) is founded by Egami Jirou and Ishiguro Misao.
1987: Ishikuro graduates. Mochizuki Shuuhei and Oda Koutarou enter the Economics faculty, join the EMC.
1988: Arisugawa Alice and Arima Maria enter the Law Faculty. Alice joins the EMC.

• 'The Maison Lapis Lazuli Case' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Hard Rock Lovers Only' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'The Body on the Faded Railway' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• Moonlight Game - Tragedy of Y '88 (1989)
• 'The Ophelia of the Sakura River' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Four Minutes is too Short' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'The Mystery of the Sealed Room' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'A Twentieth Century Abduction' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Walking on New Year's Eve' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)

1989: Arima Maria joins the EMC.

• 'An Observation regarding Squandering' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• The Island Puzzle (1989)
• Double-Headed Devil (1992)

1990: Final year Egami Jirou is allowed to be enrolled in Eito University.

• The Castle of the Queendom (2007)

As of now (March 2014), four novels and one short story collection have been published. There are also a handful of uncollected short stories. The series is planned for five novels and two story collections, so we can expect another two releases in the future. The final novel will probably deal with Egami's graduation.

Note: Arisugawa Alice (the writer) has two series, both starring an Arisugawa Alice. Also, both of these protagonist Alices write detective stories. And to make things even more complex, each of the Alices writes the adventures of the other Alice. So the Alice of the Student Alice series, writes the Writer Alice series, while the Alice of the Writer Alice series, writes the Student Alice series.