Blood Will Tell

 "It's in my blood. I can't help it."

"Mrs. McGinty's Dead"

Which such long times between my reviews for both Detective Conan and the Kindaichi Shounen franchise, perhaps I should find a third manga to do regular reviews of...

Hajime's cousin Fumi was a focus character in The Kindaichi Fumi Kidnapping Murder Case, the final case in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R ("The Young Kindaichi Case Files", 2013-2017), for the moment the last series in this long-running franchise still set in Hajime's teenage years. Part of the fun of the currently running series Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37"), set many years later, is of course not only seeing how Hajime has changed (or not) in two decades, but also to see what happened to the other main characters, so there were probably quite a few fans who were interested to see what had become of that young, bratty girl who at times would show that she too was one of the talented grandchildren of the legendary detective Kindaichi Kousuke. Fumi finally returned in volume 9 of the series, first released in April 2021. I already wrote a little about the story that started in that volume, but The Ayase Serial Murder Case wouldn't be concluded until volume 11, which was released in October 2021, so it took a while for me to finally be able to write about this rather lengthy story. 

Blood will tell, so should it surprise anyone that the twenty-nine year old Fumi now works at a detective agency? In her spare time though, she's also dabbling with mystery writing, and she's finally making her professional debut by winning in one of the categories of the Osokawa Mystery Awards with her novel The Hinokawa Legend Murder Case, written under the pen name Kaneda Hifumi. Hajime is of course happy for his cousin, but perhaps even happier he managed to secure the organization of the award ceremony for his company. At the venue, Hajime and his assistant Marin meet Osokawa editors, fellow debuting winner Fuyuki Agatha and Fumi's boyfriend Yuuto, an accomplished mystery writer himself. The grand winner of the main award is Setokura Ryou and his The ABC Murders-inspired The Ayase Serial Murder Case, but Setokura disappears during the ceremony, and instead a creepy video is shown on the projector, showing a man being murdered inside an abandoned building in a city block named Ayase. Hajime quickly realizes that this murder is exactly the same as the first murder in The Ayase Serial Murder Case, that's about a series of murders in city blocks called Ayase. Because there's no proof of an actual crime, Fumi and Yuuto decide to go look for the building shown in the video themselves while Hajime tries to convince Inspector Makabe to do something. Fumi and Yuuto, as well as some other interested parties manage to locate the building and find a corpse there. But when a new murder video set in a different Ayase is mailed to Setokura's editor, everyone fears the copy-cat killer will continue with these Ayase murders and it's up to the two grandchildren of Kindaichi Kousuke to catch the murderer.

While Detective Conan has a very irregular publishing schedule nowadays, Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo has been rather consistent in its releases, so you don't get gaps of a year between volumes. Still, the stories in this series seem to take up more chapters than they used to be, so this is not the first time a story has been spread across three volumes. It takes about half a year to release three volumes normally if there's no delay, so still better than the year wait between Detective Conan volumes 98 and 99, but still, three volumes is pretty long for a serialized story and I can't say that I'm a big fan of that. I know a lot of the fans of this series prefer the longer format, one of the defining differences between this series and Detective Conan, but as I'm reading this volumes as they release, it's just so frustrating to see a story cut up in so many volumes...

But that's more a matter about the publication format than the story itself, let's get back to that. After The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case and The New Murders At The Foreigners Hotel, two not very impressive stories, I have to admit I liked The Ayase Serial Murder Case a lot more, even if as a detective story, it's not going to be very surprising or hard to figure out the major mysteries. I still enjoyed it a lot, partially I think because we actually get to see a lot of Fumi doing her own detecting now. The story is not solely focused on Hajime as the only detective, and Fumi, as a detective's assistant, mystery novelist and granddaughter of a rather well-known detective, gets to do a lot too. She's not as smart as Hajime, but that brings a different dynamic to the story we don't usually see in this series: while we'll see rival detective figures at times in the form of people like Superintendent Akechi, Fumi is unique in this series as an ally character, and this allows The Ayase Serial Murder Case to develop as a story from multiple angles and it feels rather fresh. I would love to see this Fumi more in the series: in the original series you'd catch glimpses of her talent in certain stories, but she was really by far the youngest character in the cast, which made usage of her sometimes a bit difficult in stories. Here she's really grown into a fuller character who could support her cousin in more interesting ways than we had seen before in this series.

The story starts in a real-time thriller mode, with Hajime, Fumi and the others realizing someone is copying the murders from the novel The Ayase Serial Murder Case, meaning first someone whose name begins with "A" will be killed in a place called Ayase, and then someone whose name starts with (the Japanese kana) "YA" in a different Ayase, etc. and a lot of the story focusing on them actually locating the crime scenes and trying to stop the killer in advance. As the story develops however, Hajime starts to notice little things that seem to not follow the book, and his attention is also drawn to the victims themselves, and it doesn't take long for him to deduce what of course most readers would have guessed: these are not random murders that are "just" copying a novel. By the time Hajime starts looking back at all that has happened and tries to figure out what is hidden beneath the surface of the case however, the story is severely handicapped by the series itself. For most people will be reading this series, because the franchise has always focused on impossible crimes. It's extremely rare for this series to have a story not focusing on an impossible crime, so when you know there's no locked room murder here or some murder without footprints, 99% of the readers will guess that this is one of those stories that focus on the murderer having a perfect alibi. And that means that everyone will at least have an idea who the killer is going to be, because there's basically only one character whose alibi is strong enough to be considered "perfect". And from that point on, all you're going to do is to pay attention to everything they do in each panel and you'll soon get a good idea of how the whole thing was pulled off.

Other series might have gotten way with this, but I'd argue that Kindaichi Shounen is the one mystery manga where it becomes too apparent immediately. While this franchise is never about the whodunnit only, once you know who to watch, a lot of the relevant panels will stand out a lot and because the underlying mystery plot ultimately uses fairly simple tricks (though woven into each other to make the overall picture more complex) to create the seemingly iron-clad alibi, it's rather easy to guess most of what's happening. That said, I have to admit the last act of The Ayase Serial Murder Case did manage to turn my initially somewhat lukewarm views on the story into something more positive. There's a great part in the story where Hajime decides to confront the suspect despite not having found any evidence yet, resulting in a very amusing game of shadows, where Hajime tries to lure the culprit into traps, while they carefully weigh each of their answers and tries to turn things around. The scene is tense and exactly because the reader will also have noticed a lot of the little questions Hajime asks, it's pretty interesting to see the suspect addressing them directly and trying to divert suspicion from themselves in a rather convincing manner. When Hajime finally manages to seal the deal with the support of both Makabe and Fumi, you'll realize the murderer was definitely one of the more trickier ones Hajime has encountered, which makes the moment Hajime reveals they were suspecting them right from the start even more satisfying: this moment is actually quite clever and I had completely missed the clue that set Hajime on the right trail at the start of the story. The story also ties back to the overall storyline of this series about Hajime slowly being drawn back into the life of an amateur detective again and about the incident that had made him stop in the first place, planting seeds for later story developments.

Volume 11 ends with the opening chapter of The Killer with Twenty Faces, about an Edogawa Rampo exhibition and a rather familiar-sounding name, but I'm going to guess that that story will also be spread across three volumes, so I'm guessing I won't be discussing it until the early summer of the northern hemisphere...

So The Ayase Serial Murder Case might not be an exceptional high-point in terms of mystery plotting in Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo, and the execution of the story in fact suffers a bit because it's this specific series, but on the other hand, I think fans of the franchise will enjoy this story exactly because it also feels a bit different in the way it presents the story, with fan-favorites like Fumi returning as an adult, as well as a rather determined murderer who is able to keep up a good fight with two grandchildren of Kindaichi Kousuke. After a story set specifically at the location of an older story, and a story that followed the familiar closed circle trope, the pacing of this story felt refreshing despite the core plot being fairly predictable. And I'm kinda looking forward to seeing The Killer with Twenty Faces unfold: it's been a while since we had a killer who dresssed up in a costume in this series!

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一37歳の事件簿』第9, 10, 11巻

The Problem of the Phantom Parlor

"Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, love"

"House on Haunted Hill"

Isn't it about time they started developing a live-action series based on Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo with Doumoto Tsuyoshi? We should have enough material by now for one cour...

The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case started at the very end of volume 7 of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37") and finally ends in the recently released volume 9 of the series, so time to look back. And some might even remember I wrote a short preview of this story already. Otowa Black PR is hired as a subcontracter by the big PR company Denpoudou to help out in a project to develop a Scottish manor into a pension. The manor was moved brick for brick from Scotland to Japan thirty years ago, but had fallen in disuse and now Denpoudou wants to redevelop it into a tourist spot. Denpoudou wants to preserve the current vibe of the manor however, so no renovations have been made yet. A test pilot is organized to see how guests enjoy a stay at the manor, and Hajime and Marin (of Otowa Black PR) are sent to assist in the pilot, basically doing all the menial work while the capable manager Shiratori Reo from Denpoudou and her assistant supervise the project. When they moved the manor to Japan though, they apparently also moved the poltergeists to Japan too, as there are rumors of ghosts and other supernatural beings. And indeed, the party has only just arrived in the building when they are greeted by candles in the hallway suddenly lighting up on their own and falling wineglasses. And it doesn't take long for supernatural murders to occur, like a poisoned arrow in the parlor which decided to fly straight into a victim's neck or a woman being attacked by a suit of armor inside her locked bedroom. The perfect moment for our middle-aged Hajime to show he's more suited to be a detective than an event planner!

The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case is also honestly one of the least interesting stories I've ever read in this franchise. In my preview, I mentioned how uninspired and boring the clue gathering scenes where in this story: Hajime and Marin spend a whole chapter just visiting each crime scene, Hajime immediately noticing an important clue and realizing how the impossible murder was committed, then off to the next room where Hajime does exactly the same, rinse and repeat. It was basically a grocery list of the necessary clues which writer Amagi decided to present in the most literal and straightforward manner without any intention of making it feel natural even remotely. This uninspired approach is felt throughout this story basically, with the murders and most of the mysteries presented being rather dull. The murders and the tricks behind ghostly pranks basically all occur in a vacuum, with tricks that are not related to each other. Which isn't a bad thing per se, but each of these tricks can barely be called variants on the classic locked room murder tricks and none of the ideas shown will impress: you'll have seen the same basic ideas elsewhere, even within the Kindaichi Shounen franchise, only as better or more original variations. I mean, 17-old Hajime saw plenty of tricks that use the same basic ideas, only in better adapted versions. The trick behind the flying arrow features the most original approach (relatively speaking), but even then it's not enough to make this a truly memorable story.

The only part of the mystery plot that I did enjoy was the elimination process, where Hajime slowly crosses off suspects of his list. The last part is genuinely clever, with a fantastic set-up for the decisive clue that allows you to identify the one murderer. Honestly, there's only one thing you need to remember of this story, and that's this part, as it's a great idea that makes fantastic use of the unique setting of this story and also a fantastic example of how mystery fiction can basically use anything, even or especially the objects you yourself use every day without much thought, as a brilliant clue or part of a mystery plot. What's done here is easy to overlook, but in hindsight it's an idea that works perfectly in this franchise.

In fact, it's the first three chapters of the next story included in this volume that seem much more promising. In The Ayase Serial Murder Case, we are reintroduced to a familiar face from the past: Kindaichi Fumi, Hajime's cousin. And no, that's not a spoiler as she's featured prominently on the cover. For the reader, it's been about three years since we last saw her in The Kindaichi Fumi Kidnapping Murder Case in the finale of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R, but in-universe it's been twenty years for Fumi too. Twenty-nine year old Fumi now works at a detective agency, but she's also been dabbling with writing mystery fiction (based on Hajime's cases) and at the start of the tale, Fumi informs her cousin that her novel Hinokawa Legend Murder Case, written under the pen name Kaneda Hifumi, has actually won one of the Osokawa Mystery Awards. Using this connection, Hajime manages to get the job for his company to organize the award ceremony, where Hajime and his assistant Marin also meet some of the other winners like the young debuting student Fuyuki Agatha and Osokawa editors. The grand award goes to Setokura Ryou and his The ABC Murders-inspired The Ayase Serial Murder Case, but Setokura disappears before he is handed the reward and instead a creepy video is shown where a man is murdered inside an abandoned building in a city block named Ayase. Hajime quickly realizes that this murder is exactly the same as the first murder in The Ayase Serial Murder Case. Fumi, her boyfriend (a mystery author), Agatha and an editor manage to track down the building shown in the video and indeed find a dead body there. When a new murder video is mailed to Setokura's editor, everyone of course fears that the murderer is copying the murders in Setokura's book.

But we'll have to wait until the next volume to see how this story develops further, as we're only three chapters in. But I have to say I liked the set-up of this story much better than the previous story already. Admittedly, it's partially because of the appearance of familiar faces like Fumi and Makabe (again), but the story pattern is also quite different from the usual Kindaichi story and I'm really curious as to what will happen next.

Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo's The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case (volumes 7-9) is definitely not one of my favorites in the current series, even if it has some minor points I liked. Which is perhas also partially the reason why I was so pleasantly surprised by the first three chapters of The Ayase Serial Murder Case, which is definitely a must-read for the long-time fans due to the return of Fumi. The next volume is scheduled to be released in June already, and while the last few volumes were all delayed slightly from their announced release frames, I hope we'll see the next volume soon and find out what happens next!

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一37歳の事件簿』第7, 8, 9巻

A Taste of Danger

Something old, something new, 

something borrowed, something blue

You know, I really should use my short shorts tag more often. Originally, I intended to use it as a corner to collect short, usually unrelated reviews and other observations that can't fill a complete post on their own. But nowadays, I usually just end up not writing about smaller things, or at least wait until I've got enough material for a full, standalone post. But the last one I did was back in 2016...

Anyway, so just a few random short pieces this time. And let's start with a short look at the eighth volume of  Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37"), which was released in October. It collects a large part of The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case, which started in volume 7, but the volume ends with Hajime having started on his summation of the case (the identity of the murderer hasn't been revealed yet), so I'll wait until the release of the next volume in March to go in detail. Hajime and Marin are this time sent to a Scottish manor which had been moved brick for brick to Japan thirty years ago. The large company Denpoudou now has plans to change the manor into a pension and has started a pilot panel. Hajime's company is a subcontractor of Denpoudou, and Hajime and Marin are there just for the menial work under the supervision of Denpoudou's Shiratori Reo, a young, but very capable manager. The Scottish manor breathes atmosphere, but apparently, some poltergeists were brought to Japan too when they moved the building.The guests have only just arrived when they are greeted by candles in the corridor suddenly lighting up on their own and falling wineglasses and it doesn't take long for ghostly murders to occur, like a poisoned arrow which decided to fly straight into a victim's neck or a woman being attacked by a suit of armor in her locked bedroom. 

Like I said, the story is still on-going, so I'll save my detailed thoughts for later, but I do wanted to note how I didn't really like the chapter before Hajime started his explanation of the case. Basically, up until that point everyone's just in a panic because of the ghostly pranks and the murders, and eventually, Hajime finds the time to investigate on his own with Marin, but this part is so... boring. It's literally Hajime and Marin visiting each crime scene, and Hajime immediately noticing some clue which tells him exactly how the impossible murder was committed. So they move on to the next room, and again, Hajime solves it immediately. It's incredibly boring with Hajime just walking from room to room and instantly solving the murders This is hardly a chapter about an investigation, this was writer Amagi just wanting to serve the readers the necessary clues without actually wanting to pour any effort in the presentation, as this is more-or-less just a grocery list. There is of course an inherent problem with serialized series like Kindaichi Shounen and Detective Conan that have to cut the narrative in distinct chapters that are released weekly/biweekly, but for some time now, the 'clue-gathering-parts' of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo have felt dry and business-like. Anyway, more on this rather Carr-like story somewhere in March or April!

Originally, the short shorts tag was used for a post which was partially about mystery storylines/homages/parodies in series that weren't strictly works of mystery. About a year ago, I also wrote about how broad the definition of the mystery genre could be, and how for example a film like Iron Man uses proper mystery grammar to tell part of its story. Recently, I've been enjoying some works of fiction that aren't really mystery, but can be studied as such, and I think it's worth mentioning them to give people an idea of what I meant when I said that the definition of mystery can be very broad.

Herakles no Eikou ("Glory of Herakles") is a series of role-playing game that originally started in 1987 on the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) and has seen a few sequels since, with the latest entry being 2008's Glory of Heracles (the only one released in the west). It's a very classic JRPG like Dragon Quest, but as the title suggests, this series is set in a mythological Greek world and with stories partially based on actual Greek myths. Last week, I played Herakles no Eikou III - Kamigami no Chinmoku ("Glory of Herakles III - Silence of the Gods, 2008), a feature phone remake based on the 1992 original created for the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). While you might not immediately associate "Greek mythology" with the mystery genre, it's surprising how well the story of this game works as a proper mystery ! The story starts in a rather familiar manner for RPGs: the protagonist wakes up with amnesia, having no recollection of himself. But he does learn he has been made immortal for some reason: he can fall off cliffs and land dozens of meters below without dying. Meanwhile, strange events have been happening all over the world: monsters start appearing everywhere because of holes to the underworld being opened, while at the same time, the sun decides to not set anymore. The protagonist decides to find out what's happening, because he suspects his immortal state has something to do with all of this too, and during his quest, he finds new companions who like him have gained an immortal body in exchange for their memories, and they all join our hero to find out the truth about why the gods of Olympus stay silent during this crisis.

The story was written by Nojima Kazushige, a game scenario writer best known for his work on all-time classics like Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X, but he has also written for mystery games like some of the earliest Tantei Jinguuji Saburou ("Detective Jinguuji Saburou") videogames, and it's his writing which changes a story about a quest of a band of immortals in a mythological Greek world into something that's actually a pretty darn interesting mystery! Throughout the game, our party comes across many mysterious events that occur in the world, and each time you think you've found an answer to the question of why everything's happening, another mystery is added to confuse the characters (and the player). Why are they suffering all from amnesia? Why have they been made immortal? What are the gods planning? Near the end of the game, there's a really neat section where everything is explained and suddenly every pieces falls into place, with even a few very early events taking on a very different meaning now you know what really happened. Yet this reveal doesn't come out of nowhere, as Nojima's been making use of foreshadowing and very carefully articulated dialogue to prepare the player for what was coming, utlizing the techniques of a mystery writer. So I'd say this game is pretty interesting for those who want to see how techniques of the genre can be used for very different types of media. The original Super Famicom version of the game is supposed to be a bit outdated when it comes to gameplay by the way, while the feature phone remake recently ported to the Nintendo Switch makes it a very easy game to play (but ideal if you just want to know the story).

I've also been enjoying the anime version of Oishinbo recently, which is a long-running classic manga about food. Everything food. The story is about the newspaper writers Yamaoka Shirou and Kurita Yuuko, who are tasked to compile "the Ultimate Menu" as a special project for the 100th anniversary of their newspaper the Touzai Shimbun. Their search allows them to try out a lot of very delicious dishes, but also puts Yamaoka in the path of his estranged father Kaibara Yuuzan, a famous and influential gourmand who puts cuisine above his own family. The series is perhaps remarkable for its realism: there's obviously a lot of research done on all the ingredients and recipes that are discussed, and the series even looks at "food" as a very broad theme, also focusing a lot on food production/distribution/culture and more.

The interesting thing is that a lot of the stories are also written like they could've featured in a mystery series. Many episodes revolves around Yamaoka getting involved in some kind of argument with a professional cook/critic about food and how a dish should best be prepared, and Yamaoka managing to prove that he was right, even though the opponent appears to have all the advantages. This is basically the same set-up as Liar Game, where characters manage to win games even though that seems impossible at first. In one early episode for example, Yamaoka claims he can prepare a better sashimi dish with a dead fish, than someone who'll use a fresh, living fish, which sounds utterly impossible of course due the matter of freshness, but this mystery can actually be solved by the viewer with some very basic knowledge of food (nothing specialistic, nor does it even require the reader to be able to cook). To make it clear: most of the stories are less likely to be solved beforehand by the viewer because they do require knowledge of lesser-known facts, but you'd be surprised how many of the Oishinbo stories do actually work as proper mystery stories.

And now I want to go eat sushi...

Anyway, that was it for this short short post! Any good recommendations you have for works-that-aren't-really-mystery-but-actually-do-feature-mystery-plots? And your favorite sushi?

 Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一37歳の事件簿』第8巻;『ヘラクレスの栄光III　神々の沈黙』; 雁屋哲（原作）、花咲アキラ（画）『美味しんぼ』

The Case of the Rising Stars

唄え　踊れ　無数のライトが闇を照らす

世界は一つの舞台

「世界はひとつの舞台」（marina）

Sing! Dance! Numerous lights shall illuminate the darkness

All the world's a stage

"All the World's a Stage" (marina)

Huh, the previous Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37") was released not that long ago. I wish Detective Conan would return to this release schedule... And in case you missed it: seventeen-year old Hajime recently made a return in a special webdrama...

Kindaichi Hajime, age 37, has seen a lot of deaths in his lifetime, but he is likely to remember some of them better than others. One of the murders he has always regretted the most occured in the Foreigners Hotel in Hakodate, where as a teen, he solved a serial murder case involving the "Red-Bearded Santa." Hajime however was too late, as one of the victims had been a personal acquaintance and Hajime would literally be haunted by the victim's ghost in later stories. Obviously, Hajime never wanted to return to the place again, but sometimes, you don't really have a choice when you're employed by a promotion agency and your boss sends you back to that painful memory. In The New Murders At The Foreigners Hotel, collected in volumes 5, 6 and 7 of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37"), Hajime and his subordinate Marin's new assignment is to supervise the premiere of the fantasy musical "Hakodate Wars", starring several popular male idol stars, two from the former group Skywalker and the three men in Desperado. "Hakodate Wars" will be performed in the special theater of the Foreigners Hotel. In Hakodate, Hajime runs into familiar faces like Saki (a professional photographer) and Itsuki (still the freelance writer), but he also finds a less friendly face on his path: Superintendent Yukimura of the Metropolitan Police Department has been investigating the death of an ex-member of Desperado and this subordinate of Akechi has gotten into his head that Hajime is probably some kind of serial killer who was active when he was seventeen, and who has now returned to his deadly games as a 37-old man. Yukimura suspects Hajime has something to do with the death of the former idol and that something will occur at the premiere, and indeed, the premiere is horribly interrupted when it turns out that one of the pistols used in the play was the real deal and that the actors shot by that pistol on stage were really shot fatally. The investigation first focuses on who could've swapped the prop pistol with a real one, but soon after the "murderer" commits suicide by suspending themselves high above the stage and cutting their own wrists. Hajime however isn't convinced that this was a suicide, but forensic investigation of the blood stains shows that the victim's wrists were definitely cut several meters above the stage, so how did the murderer manage to fly up there?

With references to the Red-Bearded Santa case and appearances of several familiar faces (including a surprise appearance of a special someone at the very end of the story!), The New Murders At The Foreigners Hotel was obviously written as a throw-back episode. If you're only familiar with the anime or the live-action drama by the way, you might not quite remember who the person is Hajime lost in the Red-Bearded Santa case, because those adaptations changed the details of the case and the "replacement" character for that deceased friend doesn't even exist in those media, even though he's been a part of the main cast since forever in the manga... Is it even a spoiler anymore to mention his name? It's almost like Aeris' position... We also have a new rival character, and I quite like him! Superintendent Yukimura reminds of the old Akechi, being in the same position in the police, but he's a bit funnier because we (the readers) know Hajime wasn't a serial killer in his teenage years, while on the other hand, it's not completely odd that Yukimura would find Hajime to be suspicious based on the police files which have Hajime's name appear in all those gruesome murder cases! Like Akechi, Yukimura is fairly intelligent, instantly figuring out how the locked room where the ex-member of Desperado was found was constructed and while obviously, he's destined to lose against Hajime forever, it'll be interesting to see if his character development will differ from Akechi's.

The case itself is fairly compact, and personally, I don't think there were moments that stood out as memorable, but it's an okay story that might be a tad too long: it's basically two full volumes long, but a fair amount of those pages aren't even specifically about the murder case, but just about Hajime and the reader reuniting with old friends. The plot revolves around two core mysteries: when was the prop pistol swapped for a real one, and how did the murderer manage to slit the "suicide" victim's wrists while the victim was suspended four meters above the ground and there were no ladders or other tools around? The latter one is fairly easy to solve considering the setting and indeed, Hajime basically solves the mystery immediately. The swap of the pistols is also a bit easy to guess: once Hajime accidentally stumbles upon a certain clue, it becomes clear what must have happened. More interesting are the clues that eventually point to the identity of the murderer. I can't say they are perfect: some actions are taken by the murderer in an attempt to evade suspicion, but these actions kinda stand out, which is what makes them look suspicious in the first place! I do like the more physical clues that point to the murderer: one element makes good use of the  visual medium (and the presence of Saki, of course) and the whole idea the story is about a fantasy musical. The other significant clue is perhaps less original, but I love clues in general that revolve around whether the murderer could or could not have known certain facts and how that knowledge (or absence of knowledge) influences their behavior.

The backstory that led to the crime was really dark by the way. It's still Revenge with a capital R (because why else?), but the details of this definitely wouldn't have flown in the magazines the older series were serialized in and you can definitely understand why the murderer would've been so set on killing their targets. It's basically going one step further than The Inspector Kenmochi Murder Case, which was already really pushing it. The novels do occasionally go that way, but I believe the adaptations of the novels in the anime series did tone down the darker side of the motives. This case also ties back to the very loose overall storyline of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo, but it's done in such an off-hand manner, I have a feeling series writer Amagi doesn't really have anything concrete thought out yet and just winging it as he goes. There's some hinting again at the cause why Hajime stopped his amateur sleuthing, but I assume it'll take a while before we'll learn the details.

Volume 7 ends with the first two chapters of The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case, in which Hajime and Marin are to monitor a test panel: there are plans to renovate a Scottish manor which was moved to Japan brick by brick and recently turned into a pension, but there are also rumors it's haunted by poltergeists. You know, at this point of the story, I was genuinely thinking, hey, perhaps this case won't be about a murder, but simply about Hajime figuring out what the poltergeists really are, until I noticed the friggin' title of the case in the table of contents just now. Alas, poor guests, you're probably going to die horribly in a creepy manor.

Anyway, Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo's The New Murders At The Foreigners Hotel (volumes 5 - 7) storyline is probably a story many long-time fans have been waiting for, as we see a lot of the old gang come together again to solve a case, even if the 37-old Hajime's still claiming he doesn't want to solve any mysteries anymore. I didn't find the case itself very memorable: it's stretched a bit too thin, and the case misses the impact of something like the Japanese rock garden with no footprints setting in the previous story, or the always falling chandeliers in the (former) Opera House. It will be interesting to see how the story will move on from here though: with old faces returning as part of the gang, as well as a new rival and Marin finally learning about Hajime's history in more detail, future cases might give us a nice mix of the old and the new.

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一37歳の事件簿』第5, 6, 7巻

House Arrest

"Curious thing, rooms. Tell you quite a lot about the people who live in them."

"Crooked House"

Volume 7 of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37") will be released this week, will probably take a while before I'll get to it though... (Limited shipping options at the moment).

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the special Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Young Kindaichi Case Files") project Stay Home Satsujin Jiken (The Stay Home Murder Case). With everyone being asked to stay home as much as possible, series writer Amagi Seimaru (AKA Kibayashi Shin) decided to produce a #StayHome-inspired murder mystery. Mitani Kouki did something similar when he used his weekly newspaper column to publish a brand new Furuhata Ninzaburou story to bring some much-needed joy to people's lives, but Amagi's project can be described as far more ambitious, as his Kindaichi Shounen story was made to be filmed as a short live-action drama! Of course, because it's advised to not go out, all the actors filmed their own parts at their own places. These individual parts were then edited together in a Zoom-like screen, allowing everybody to 'play together' in one scene without actually being physically together (the story does pretend everyone's together in one room). The voice actors of Hajime and Miyuki from the television series reprised their roles for this special story (obviously, they got Hajime and Miyuki as profile pictures), and it surprisingly does feel like a genuine Kindaichi Shounen short story. Other roles were performed by actor-acquaintances or themselves (Amagi's own older sister Kibayashi Yuuko was cast in the role of the victim), while the background scenes too were presumably filmed at the Kibayashi family home.

In the previous post, I also explained how this drama was released in two parts.  The first part was released on Youtube on May 31, while the solution was released as paid content a week later. I wasn't sure whether I'd discuss the second part/solution at the time, even though I had a pretty good idea who the murderer was/how to prove it, but I did finally manage to watch the second part, so I decided to write this short follow-up post.

To go over the story of Stay Home Satsujin Jiken again: Inspector Kenmochi has to self-isolate due to a nasty fever, so he asks Hajime to help him with the investigation into the murder of Komatsuzaki Akane, a middle-aged woman who made a fortune with her own company. Because her dog had been barking for days, her neighbors became suspicious and when the police entered the very spacious Komatsuzaki manor, they found a stranged Komatsuzaki. The main suspects are the three persons known to have visited the victim on Friday, the day before Komatsuzaki is presumed to have died. The housekeeper, the victim's niece and the Uper Eats delivery guy all met Komatsuzaki that day for chores and deliveries, but none of them seemed to have noticed anything weird about Komatsuzaki at the time. Komatsuzaki always changed the code of her door lock after people visited her, so it also seems unlikely any of these three could've entered the manor on Saturday to kill Komatsuzaki. But as Hajime pokes around the home, he starts to suspect something else is going on.

Like I mentioned in the first post, Stay Home Satsujin Jiken does feel like a real Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo short story despite the unique circumstances in which it was produced, but that also means that a lot of it is rather familiar in terms of plotting. There is a focus on visual clewing of course, but it's fairly simple here (probably partially because they had to prepare all the story props themselves with 'normal' objects you have lying around at home) and most people will soon realize what the main contradiction is that allowed Hajime to identify the murderer. Some clues are just lightly changed versions of ideas and concepts we have already seen in earlier stories in this series, so fans will immediately recognize them. A different trick used by the murderer to protect themselves is actually I don't immediately remember as having ever seen in the Kindaichi Shounen main series, but I do know it's one of the possible tricks seen in the brilliant Kindaichi Shounen videogame Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo - Hoshimitou - Kanashimi no Fukushuuki ("The Case Files of Young Kindaichi - Stargazing Isle - The Sad Monsters of Revenge"), where you play as the murderer and have to make sure Hajime won't catch you (yes, it's an inverted mystery game!). On the whole, Stay Home Satsujin Jiken is not a remarkable mystery story, but it's definitely a very fair one and with a little effort and thinking, you should be able to pinpoint the murderer. Who, of course, has A Tragic Backstory. Because what else?

In the conclusion of the first post on Stay Home Satsujin Jiken, I wrote " If my hunch is right, Stay Home Satsujin Jiken may perhaps not be extraordinary if one looks only at its merits as a mystery story, but I think I will forever remember it as a special piece of mystery fiction, a memento of that period in 2020 when the world was different, a detective story where you absolutely need to understand the context in which this was produced. It's an immensely odd murder mystery, created in immensely odd times." I don't have much to add to that actually. If we had seen this story in the manga, I'd have shrugged and just considered an average Kindaichi Shounen short story that doesn't do anything wrong, but doesn't stand out in any way either. It's the story behind how this story was produced that sells it, and in that regard, I think it's definitely worth remembering that in 2020, we had that one weird Kindaichi Shounen story filmed over Zoom with laggy sound and creepy talking profile pictures of Hajime and Miyuki. I guess we'll see more StayHome-related mystery fiction this year: I know there's an anthology coming up in August titled Stay Home no Misshitsu Satsujin ("The Stay Home Locked Room Murders") with Kitayama Takekuni as one of the contributors for example and it'll be interesting to look back in few years to look at all the COVID-19-related mystery stories.

Original Japanese title(s): 『金田一少年の事件簿STAY HOME殺人事件』

Home Sweet Homicide

"There's no place like home."

"The Wizard of Oz"

Countries all handle the pandemic in different ways, and while Japan's state of emergency in certain prefectures did not lead to a true lockdown like seen in Italy, it's still advised to remain home as much as possible. This has also led to new creative projects that came to be due to these circumstances. As an Animal Crossing: New Horizons fan for example, I loved seeing the StayHome performance of the main theme.Earlier this week, I reviewed Mitani Kouki's little project to lift the spirits of the people in these times: I truly enjoyed how Mitani used his weekly newspaper column to revive his hit mystery series Furuhata Ninzaburou.

I mentioned in that same post that Amagi Seimaru (AKA Kibayashi Shin), the writer of the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Young Kindaichi Case Files") series was also working on something special and the result is a very memorable one as it's a genuine #StayHome-inspired murder mystery, a story that could only have been produced because of the current situation. Story-wise though, it may not be very special. Stay Home Satsujin Jiken (The Stay Home Murder Case) starts with the police knocking at the door of the mansion of Komatsuzaki Akane, a middle-aged woman who made a fortune with her own company. The dog's been barking for days now, which alerted the neighborhood. When the patrol officer opens the door, he first notices a broken wine glass with some spilled wine on the floor, but in the next room, he finds Komatsuzaki, strangled to death. Inspector Kenmochi is put on the murder case, but he catches a nasty fever, and he is forced to self-isolate, even though he already asked Hajime and Miyuki to go to the Komatsuzaki mansion. Kenmochi hopes Hajime can solve the case for him, so Hajime has no choice but to meet with the three suspects: the housekeeper, the victim's niece and the Uper Eats delivery guy. While Komatsuzaki's housekeeper would swing by three times a week, and her sommelier niece also brought wine on the day before her death, it appears they couldn't have committed the murder as they wouldn't be able to get inside the house: while the locks of the Komatsuzaki mansion can be opened with a code number, Komatsuzaki always changed the code whenever someone had come, and the code had indeed been changed again after both of those women had left. It is therefore believed the Uber Eats delivery guy was the final person to have come to the mansion. While he's questioning the suspects however, Hajime seems to realize which of the three suspects is the murderer.

And the attentive reader will of course also have noticed the screenshots in this write-up are a bit weird. That's of course what makes Stay Home Satsujin Jiken so special: it's a live-action murder mystery drama filmed over Zoom, broadcast via Youtube. It might take a second before you really grasp what that is. Creator Amagi Seimaru employed the help of family and friends to create Stay Home Satsujin Jiken: the actors all filmed/recorded their parts in their respective homes via Zoom/other methods, thus respecting the #StayHome advice. Amagi's own older sister Kibayashi Yuuko (a manga writer herself) for example was cast in the role of the victim Komatsuzaki Akane. The individual parts were then edited together, allowing everybody to 'play together' in one scene without actually being physically together. On top of that, the actual voice actors of Hajime and Miyuki from the television series reprises their roles too. The end result is a live-action drama which of course feel very much home-made (the lagging voices!), but it's still a genuine Kindaichi Shounen mystery.

The first part was broadcast today (May 31) via Youtube, while the second half (with the solution) will follow next Saturday (July 6) as paid TwitCasting content. This obviously means this write-up isn't meant to be a full review: I have only seen the first part of this story, and I am not even sure whether I'll purchase the second half. Mystery-wise though, I think I have picked up enough clues to have an idea where this will be going, and if I'm right, the plotting is what you would expect from this series, with a lot of visual clewing. Which is therefore surprisingly well done as everyone had to to film their own parts via Zoom etc. But despite this being early, I felt I really had to write something about this production, because it's just such a unique piece of mystery fiction.

For Stay Home Satsujin Jiken does feel like a real Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo short story, and that's quite impressive given the way this thing was produced, with live-action actors filmed in sub-optimal environments, and odd talking shots of Hajime and Miyuki. If my hunch is right, Stay Home Satsujin Jiken may perhaps not be extraordinary if one looks only at its merits as a mystery story, but I think I will forever remember it as a special piece of mystery fiction, a memento of that period in 2020 when the world was different, a detective story where you absolutely need to understand the context in which this was produced. It's an immensely odd murder mystery, created in immensely odd times. And yet, it is exactly what you'd expect from this series. People will find a way to create something fun, even if they have to find new methods.

Original Japanese title(s): 『金田一少年の事件簿STAY HOME殺人事件』

Light in the Darkness

「追いつきたい 突き止めたい その真相 最高機密」

「永遠の不在証明」（東京事変）

"The truth / I want to catch up to it / I want to figure it out / Top secret"

"The Scarlet Alibi" (Tokyo Incidents)

Ever since the 1997 film Detective Conan: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper, Detective Conan has seen a new theatrical release each year, which always releases mid-April, just in time to draw in viewers during Japan's Golden Week. The release schedule of the Detective Conan comics is also synchronized to the annual film, with a new volume releasing in the same week as the film's premiere. But that only works if everything goes as planned. In 2018, Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer was not accompanied by a new volume in the long-running series, as series creator Aoyama had been having health issues, which disrupted the schedule of the comic serialization, and volume 95 wouldn't be released until October. This year we have the reverse, as Detective Conan 98 (2020) was released in April as scheduled, but the release of the 2020 film Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet has been postponed for the moment due to COVID-19 and at this moment, there's still no new release date set. I always wait for the home video release around October/November, but I guess that the discs will be delayed too this year...

The sad thing is that volume 98 is one of the best examples of how good the timing process of the multimedia franchise that is Conan has been for the last decade or so. The main three stories in this volume all focus in one way or another on the four characters who form the focal point in the upcoming Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet, so it's clearly meant to push the film. I am happy to say that after a very disappointing volume 96, and a rather average volume 97, this volume was far more entertaining. The volume opens with the remaining chapters of The Antique Appraiser Murder Case. Previously, Dr. Agasa had brought an antique bowl he inherited from his uncle to the famous antique appraiser Nishitsu. Meanwhile Nishitsu had also been approached by three different clients, who all brought him the same antique Chinese decorative Phoenix plate. Only one of these three plates is the real thing of course. Nishitsu is fatally wounded by the owner of one of the forgeries, just as Dr. Agasa arrives at the house to get his own bowl back. In his dying moments, Nishitsu tells Agasa which of the plates is real, marking it with a smear of his own blood, but not knowing the murderer was still hiding inside the room, Dr. Agasa ran off to call for help. Nishitsu was then finished off for good by the culprit, who also made sure to replicate the smear on all three plates and to place the real plate in the container with their own name, with the intent of taking the plate back as their own of course.

The puzzle of figuring out which plate was real based on what Dr. Agasa saw isn't that difficult: the thing he overlooked was very elementary, though I like the follow-up better: after they figure out who did it, they still have to figure out who was the actual owner of the genuine plate, and the clewing there was both simple, yet cleverly hidden in the illustrations. The story however also acts as a set-up for future story developments, as Dr. Agasa, Conan and Haibara had extra company in the persons of Sera and Dr. Agasa's neighbor Okita. Sera has had her suspicions of both Conan and Haibara's real identities for some time now, so she's eager to get the truth out either of them, while Okita, in their first real interactions in this series, attempts to temper Sera's efforts. And even Conan seems to come to a surprising conclusion regarding Sera and her "sister from beyond the territory," a plotline which have been running for some time now.

The second story, The Deduction Race Between the High School Student Detectives, sees the return of Momiji, who is still intent on winning Hattori over. She organizes a kind of detective competition between Hattori and... Kudou Shinichi and if Hattori loses, he has to do whatever Momiji wants. Momiji has been approached by an acquaintance looking for help. The housekeeper of that family recently died, and she had sent four different coded messages to her four sons, whom had all been adopted by other families when they were young due to the father's death, which caused severe financial problems. The four brothers had not seen each other since, though the mother and the oldest brother Benzou did keep in touch with the others through e-mail. The mother had been bequested a treasure by her wealthy employer before her death, so it is assumed her coded messages, when put together by all four sons, will reveal where this treasure is. The brothers had been discussing the code over e-mail, but then the mails from oldest brother Benzou stopped. Fearing he might've gotten into some trouble while hunting for the treasure, Momiji wants Hattori to solve the code and figure out the location of the treasure. When they finally arrive at the location indicated however, they find a dead Benzou, surrounded by three men who claim to the other brothers, but as none of them had seen each other since childhood, nobody knows for sure whether these men are really the people they claim to be.

Interesting story! I think this is a good example of what makes a Conan story a typical, but good Conan story, mixing the rom-com drama featuring the regular characters with a story that has a few plot twists and good clewing that makes use of the visual format. It seems unlikely anyone is going to figure out the coded messages themselves, even if it's strangely similar in idea to the code featured in the Scarlet School Trip storyline. Once we get to the murder, we get a slim, but capably plotted who-of-three type of mystery story, where Aoyama shows how even with concepts that aren't that surprising taken on their own, he can still craft an enjoyable mystery story through good clewing. The story is also funny to read because in the background, you also have the plot of having a deduction battle between Hattori and Shinichi, as well as the romantic intriges plotted by Momiji to win Hattori's heart, so all in all a good Detective Conan story. The way the tale ties back into the current overarching plot is also interesting.

In The Shogi Player Serial Murder Case, Conan bumps into Shuukichi, boyfriend of patrol officer Yumi and expert shogi (Japanese chess) player as the current holder of the prestigious title Taikou Meijin. Shuukichi has been heading a small shogi study group for some time now, and Yumi and Conan are invited along to take a look (because Yumi assumed Shuukichi was cheating on her). The group always meet at an apartment room they rent together, but on the way, Shuukichi, Yumi and Conan bump into three of the four members outside: the four members had first come to the apartment together, and then three of them went out to buy snacks and drinks for the study group. The fourth member, Genda, is waiting in the apartment already, preparing some other snacks there. When the party arrives at the apartment however, they find the door unlocked, and a strangled Genda lying on the floor. Besides him lies a shogi table with two of the feet knocked off, tying this murder to the recently murdered shogi player Nishikido, who suddenly disappeared after suspicions of matchfixing rose, and who was later found murdered together with a shogi board with one of the feet removed.

Conan suspects one of the three members of the study group is the murderer, and that they only pretended to go out to buy their designated snacks/drinks, to kill Genda in that time period. The problem is that all three of them brought their food and drinks either warm (bread and coffee) or cold (ice cream), while the kitchen in the apartment didn't have gas nor a microwave, and the refrigerator was empty too when they left. So if their alibi is fake, how did they prepare their food to make it appear they just got it from the store? Strangely enough, Conan doesn't seem to really give any good reason why the murderer couldn't be some third party who planned to kill Genda while the others were out, making his suspicions a bit weird, as they only make sense for us, the reader, as we can safely guess that the murderer is, of course, one-of-the-three. I think that the trick the murderer used to fake their alibi is interesting in the sense that it's obvious from this story, but also many of these which-of-the-three type of stories, that Aoyama, his assistants and editors collect loads of ideas, factoids and trivia that can be used for a murder mystery in one way or another. While I hate mystery stories that rely on very specific pieces of knowledge that only experts know, many of these Conan stories are based on something practical you see and use in everyday life, like kitchen appliances, stationary and writing utensils, even the way cupboards are built. These ideas usually revolve around something very mundane, so I seldom feel cheated. Here too, I think the trick is a clever way to use what's there to create the fake alibi without feeling like it's based on something obscure, but with these stories, I always think, "Man, you guys really just write down everything you come across in the hopes of using it in this series at one time or another. And you actually succeed in that too!"

I like how this story focuses on Shuukichi though. He's been pushed to the main stage these last few volumes, but I never felt his stories were really... memorable? he always seemed like a minor secondary character, as he was always shown through his relation to Yumi (who has of course been part of the series universe for much longer). In this story he solves the murder basically instantly, with Conan trailing far behind him, and the story also does a better job at showing him as a character on his own, . And the action scene at the end... is nuts!

The volume ends with the first chapter of The Truth Of Poison and Medicine, where Ran, Sonoko, Sera and Conan attend the birthday party of their classmate Remi and her older sister Yumi, who is a famous actress now. Murder ensues (of course) at the party, while Sera's still trying to get the information she wants from Conan. I guess this will be build-up to the approaching climax to the current storylines.

Oh, I also read the sixth volume of  Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37"), which features most of the chapters of The New Murders At The Foreigners Hotel. Hajime has already started his explanation of the case by the last chapter of this volume, so I already know part of the solution, but I'd better wait with my review until I've read the full conclusion in volume 7. I do want to note already that this story is an interesting blast to the past. Hajime and his subordinate Marin are sent to the one place Hajime really didn't want to return to: the Foreigners Hotel in Hakodate. When he was seventeen, he solved the infamous murder case involving the Red-Bearded Santa here, but painful losses were also made. Now Hajime's boss has sent him here to supervise the premiere of the fantasy musical "Hakodate Wars", starring several popular male idol stars, two from the former group Skywalker and the three men in Desperado. Hajime runs into familiar faces like Saki (a professional photographer now) and Itsuki (still the freelance writer), but he crosses paths with Superintendent Yukimura for the first time, who has been investigating the death of an ex-member of Desperado. This subordinate of Akechi has gotten into his head that Hajime's probably some kind of serial killer who was active when he was seventeen, and who has now returned to his deadly games as a 37-old man. I guess we have a new rival character! We have some deadly incidents during the premiere and of course the ol' 'everyone has an alibi, so this is an impossible murder' angle, but I'll wait until the next volume to organize my thoughts about this story.

Anyway, Detective Conan 98 proved to be one of the volumes I enjoyed best overall these last two, maybe even three years. The mystery plots aren't that impressive, but Aoyama manages to cover for that with good writing/clewing and by tying these stories to the overall storyline. He has done this in the previous volumes too, but not as consistently as with the stories in this volume, I think. It's clear the chess pieces are moving towards a certain point, not only to provide the foundation for the 2020 film Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet, but also in the comic storyline. Volume 99 is scheduled for a Winter 2020 release, meaning volume 100 will probably follow in 2021: I think it's safe to say we may expect something big then. I might write a post reminiscing about how I first started with this series then... Update on the 37-old Kindaichi Hajime will follow when volume 7 releases in July!

Original Japanese title(s):  Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第98巻

Slip at Sea

Under the sea 

Darling it's better

Down where it's wetter 

Take it from me

"The Little Mermaid"

The last year or so, I've been trying out the anime original episodes of Detective Conan, so the episodes that were not based on the original comic, but written especially for the animated series. There have been some fine gems there, but a lot of them are pretty forgettable. But when I was writing my review of the PlayStation 2 game of Tantei Gakuen Q, I recalled the animated adaptation of the adventures of Q Class of the prestigious Dan Detective School also featured a couple of anime original episodes. I couldn't recall what those episodes were about though, and as there were only a few of them, I decided to skim through them again.

Most of them turned out to be very forgettable, of course. I had completely forgotten that the animated series had a whole series of four anime original episodes at the very start of the series, but they are all very simple (revolving around one single trick) and these episodes mostly serve as character-focused introductions for the various members of the main cast, giving the viewer an early glance at what makes them tick and how the members of Q Class learn to work together. The animated series only adapts the first half of the manga, so it features an original two-parter ending to end the story, but that story is nothing special either. Strangely enough though, no less than two anime original episodes were about a bomb terrorist.

In the end, I think that only one anime original episode left an impression on me. Suishin 30m - Kaitei Misshitsu Satsujin Jiken ("Depth: 30m - The Case Of The Locked Room Murder At The Bottom of the Sea") was originally broadcast on July 22, 2003 and features a surprisingly densily plotted mystery considering the relatively short runtime of one single episode  about twenty minutes). During the summer holiday, the five members of Q Class decide to go scuba diving together. When Kyuu, Ryuu, Megu, Kinta and Kazuma arrive at the shop however, they find a group of distressed doctors and nurses who are on holiday together. One of the members of the group, Doctor Ikezoe, had a bit too much to drink last night, and he hasn't been seen since. Ikezoe had been talking about wanting to take a night dive, and when the people from the shop notice one set of scuba gear is missing, they fear Ikezoe may have gone out diving in the middle of the night on his own, and gotten in some trouble. They suspect Ikezoe went diving near a sunken shipwreck resting on the sea bed (a popular diving spot), so they decide to go diving near the ship to see if they can find him. Kinta reveals that they are students of Dan Detective School and are taken along too.

The divers of the search party scatter around beneath the sea surface and eventually locate a deceased Ikezoe behind the locked door of one of the cabins of the sunken ship. They force the door open, and bring his body back up. The doctors determine that Ikezoe died of a head fracture and that he had alcohol in his blood, so it's assumed that he must've been diving while drunk last night, locked himself up by accident in the cabin and then hit his head against one of the walls. An attack on Megu while under water and more curious facts however suggest to Q Class that this was no accident, but foul play and they quickly determine how the murderer managed to create a locked room inside a sunken wreck.

Whereas the other anime original episodes revolved around one single idea (like one dying message), this episode is a lot trickier, with far more elements to consider. There are clues why it wasn't a murder, clues that point to how it was done, clues that point to the identity of the murderer and taken together, the plot of this episode is really quite decent. While the murderer makes one really lame mistake (the clue that allows you to identify that character postively as the culprit), the other elements are far more promising. The actual explanation behind how the room was locked from the inside isn't that original, but it makes really good use of the setting of this episode and the highlight of the episode is of course the whole matter of how the murderer managed to kill Ikezoe and leave his body safely inside a locked cabin while they were under water. The trick used here is really good, because it is so much more convincing in the visual format compared to if you had been reading about this in a novel, and the trick also works because actually solving the trick also requires the special abilities of one of the main characters. Tantei Gakuen Q is at its best when it provides a story where the individual skills of the various members of Q Class are integrated naturally into the mystery plot (for example when the plot relies on Megu's photographic memory, while the reader can simply turn back a few pages). Count in the fact the story does a great job at setting thist last part up in a convincing manner, and you've got the best anime original episode of this series.

And as a side-note: it had been a while since I last saw the anime, but it's such a shame this series never got a soundtrack release! There are some really great BGM tracks, like the fantastic main theme. The live-action drama had a soundtrack release, so why didn't this one get a release?!

In general, I did enjoy the anime adaptation of Tantei Gakuen Q, but as for the anime original content, I think Suishin 30m - Kaitei Misshitsu Satsujin Jiken is the only episode really worth mentioning. While not a classic like Conan's Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau, this episode's a surprisingly well-plotted story considering its limited runtime and worth the twenty minutes investment, also if you have already read the manga of Tantei Gakuen Q, but haven't seen the animated series.

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵学園Ｑ』第１５話「水深30m・海底密室殺人事件」

The House of Haunts

「答えはひとつ！」

『探偵学園Ｑ］　

"There's one answer!"

"Detective Academy Q"

Are we all playing Animal Crossing New Horizons?

Despite the sequel hook in the final episode in 2007's Tantei Gakuen Q Premium, readers were sadly enough never treated to more Tantei Gakuen Q ("Detective Academy Q") after that volume. I don't know whether the creative duo of Amagi Seimaru and Satou Fumiya really planned to continue the series at one point, but given that they have been working on various Kindaichi Shounen series since, I assume I shouldn't expect new adventures of Q Class soon. Which is a shame, because I really like Tantei Gakuen Q. In my mind, it strikes a perfect balance between the story types of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo or Detective Conan, featuring both longer, relatively technical impossible murder stories like in Kindaichi Shounen, but also offering an overall storyline like in Conan, as well as having interesting short stories (the short stories in Kindaichi Shounen are usually not really interesting). And of course, it had a lot of unique elements on its own, most importantly having a team of young detectives as the protagonists, all specializing in different fields.

As I have already gone over each and every case in the manga in the past, I don't mention the series often anymore here. I guess I could still do the handful of anime original episodes, but I hardly remember them and I don't think they were particularly outstanding (and that's ignoring the fact the anime series has a completely different ending). But fortunately, there are still the videogames to discuss! I've already reviewed the GameBoy Advance title Tantei Gakuen Q: Meitantei wa Kimi da! ("Detective Academy Q: You're the Great Detective!") many years ago, which unfortunately I didn't like that much. But I can already tell you that the PlayStation 2 videogame Tantei Gakuen Q: ~ Kioukan no Satsui ~ ("Detective Academy Q ~ Malice in the Houses of the Eccentric Elder ~, 2003) is muuuuch better, offering an experience that truly makes you feel like you're going through another true adventure with Q Class, featuring a story that could've easily fitted with the original series. The game starts in a familiar manner, with the five students of Q (Qualified) Class attending a lecture at the prestigious Dan Detective School of the legendary detective Dan Morihiko. Kyuu is late for school like always, but he has an excuse: he received an odd letter from a childhood friend by special delivery. The letter by Urushizaka Haruka, who used to live in Tokyo but moved with her family back to the family estate in a remote mountain hamlet, seems to be a completely normal letter, but that's exactly what bothers Kyuu about it, for why would Haruka send him a letter like that by special delivery? The five Q Class students discover a hidden message in the letter where Haruka asks for help, and Dan Morihiko reveals to his pupils that a few days ago, Haruka's mother had died in what was determined by the police to be an accident. Dan suspects that Haruka's letter has to do with her mother's death, and he decides to send three members of Q Class to Okumiyama to poke around, with the other remaining in Tokyo as support.

Located in a snowy region surrounded by mountains, Okumiya is a very small hamlet with only one single general store. While the Urishizaka family fortune has dwindled in the last two generations, the family is still considered the 'lords' of this area, which is also apparent from the grand mansions Haruka's grandfather had built in the past in this otherwise very, very remote village. These houses are referred to collectively as the Houses of the Eccentric Elder (a nickname for Haruka's grandfather) and include the Clock House, the Lake House, the Incense Burner House, the Cherry Blossom Corridor House and the Elder and Younger Brother House. The kids pretend like they are just visiting Haruka as they secretly investigate her mother's death, who had apparently been crushed by the tower bell in the Clock House. While the local police determined it was an accident, Q Class soon finds evidence that the clock bell had been tampered with. Dan Morihiko orders his pupils to investigate the matter further, but they could not have expected that more murders would follow during their stay and to their great surprise, they realize these murders may have to do with the Mountain Spirit of an old local ball song (something like a nursery rhyme) and tales of a gold treasure protected by the Spirit.

Wa-wait, so we have a case where Q Class is split up in teams, about multiple murders (many with an impossible angle), murders patterned after a nursery rhyme, and we have ancient family secrets, hidden treasures, creepy , themed houses and talk about a vengeful Mountain Spirit? Yep, this is exactly the type of story you'd expect from Tantei Gakuen Q. In fact, I was surprised to learn that the scenario of this game was credited to a team of scenario writers, as the way this was written, I was almost expecting Amagi himself to be credited in one way or another for the story outline, because it was so much like the real deal. So if you're looking for more Tantei Gakuen Q, this particular game is definitely one to try out. The game features the voice cast of the anime series by the way, even though the artwork seems more inspired by the manga.

So while this definitely feels like Tantei Gakuen Q, I can also tell you this game can be difficult! While at the core a conventional mystery adventure game where you go around the hamlet questioning suspects and examining all nooks and crannies for evidence or other relevant pieces of information that allow you to answer questions that help you solve the case, Tantei Gakuen Q: Kioukan no Satsui also tries to make it a much more engaging videogame experience. For example, there's the notion of time in this game, with each action you take in the game consuming a certain amount of time. Each day, you have a time limit (usually at the end of the day to report back to Dan Morihiko) and it's important to have gathered all the relevant clues by that time in order to present a case to the teacher, so it's crucial not to waste time examining the same things or repeating your questions all the time. This ties in with the character affinity stats: some of the dialogue choices will either raise or decrease a character's friendliness towards you, which can affect how cooperative they are (and if they're uncooperative, you might not obtain the information you need to proceed in the game). And to receive some pieces of information, you even have to do well in the various minigames they throw at you at the oddest times (like a snowball fight with two twin girls, or learning to juggle), and that taken together can make this a tricky game to play, as gathering all the necessary data to solve the case isn't just a matter of clicking on "Yes" all the time.

And one warning: at the start of the game, you're asked to take two Q Class members along with Kyuu to Okumiyama, with the other two members remaining in Tokyo as support. While all members will help in their own way if they're brought along to Okumiyama, there is actually one specific character you absolutely must bring along if you want the best ending. That's really frustrating, because there is no way you could ever guess at the very beginning of the game that you absolutely need that character in the future, and even if you'd pick your two mates at random, there's still a good chance you wouldn't pick the correct one. Considering this series is all about showing how these characters all bring something unique to the team (Kyuu and Ryuu as geniuses in reasoning, Megu has photographic memory, Kinta boasts extraordinary physical skills and Kazuma is the resident whizzkid/data gatherer), it's a bit weird that the best ending of the game is written around the notion that one specific character must be present.

Anyway, the story features multiple murders with impossible features to them: Haruka's mother for example was crushed under the tower bell and her death was initially determined to be a suicide because nobody could've dropped that bell on her head and then gotten away from the tower before other people arrived, while another murder involves a body being hung from a tree, even though there were no footprints of the murderer in the snow around the tree. Most of the tricks behind these murders are perhaps not mindblowingly amazing or original, but they work well in the context of the game, making good use of the unique setting and also of the presentation in the game (while nothing impressive in comparison to AAA game titles, this game seems to boast better production values than most mystery adventure games of the era usually had, and they definitely help visualizing the mystery plot). There is one rather audacious reveal about the Houses about midway in the story which I really liked though and the presentation (clewing) there was pretty clever. It's an idea that invokes a rather famous moment in the series, but in a very different manner, and it leaves an impression here too. Also note that this game has multiple endings: each day, the members of Q Class solve part of the murders, but depending on how well you do on explaining the murders and other choices you make, you can actually identify the murderer early and prevent some of the later deaths from happening. Which is part of what makes this game really interesting, but also really difficult, for if you missed some clue, you might be forced to start all over again to get the best ending.

Tantei Gakuen Q: ~ Kioukan no Satsui ~ can be a tad tricky to play with its multiple endings, buddy system and time limit system, but this game undeniably feels like Tantei Gakuen Q. It's almost as if you're playing through a lost episode. While in terms of story, this game doesn't make any specific references to the main story of the original series, it's the type of tale that could've easily fitted in early to middle part of the manga, both in terms of atmosphere as well as the type of mysteries solved here. So for people who are still looking for more Tantei Gakuen Q after reading the manga or watching the anime and/or drama: this is as close as you can get. Probably. Perhaps I should try the second GameBoy Advance game too...

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵学園Q　～奇翁館の殺意～』