Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland

"Just the right size for the Big Bad Wolf to come down the chimney... unless he's already here."

"The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery"

The voice actor of Hajime in the television anime series of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, Matsuno Taiki, passed away last week at the young age of 56... While unlike many other fictional anime characters, Hajime actually had seen a handful of different voice actors for various media, ranging from theatrical anime, games and audio dramas, Matsuno played the role for the longest time across the most well-known productions, so most people do associate his voice the strongest to Hajime. Really a great loss. I myself usually read the manga with Matsuno's voice in mind, which is what I also did when I read this story (I read it before Matsuno's death was announced)

Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37") had a short serialization hiatus because it had been replaced by the limited series Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo 30th, or The Case File of Kindaichi 30th, celebrating the franchise's thirtieth birthday, but with that series wrapping up last year, the adventures of a middle-aged Hajime reluctantly solving crimes continue. In The Werewolf Murder Case, Hajime and his assistant Marin are put in charge of providing support to a special Werewolf (the social deduction game) event. They are responsible for the logistics like welcoming all the participants and the catering, though the game itself is set-up by a different company. At the station in snowy Nagano, Hajime and Marin welcome a group of very fanatic, and well-known Werewolf players, like the influencer Mineyuki Kouta, the musician Fuyiki Gakuto and the idol Touka. Hajime drives everyone to the location where the event will take place: Schwarzdorf, an abandoned theme park themed after a quaint German forest village. They will stay in the Weiss Schloss, which consists of an East and West annex. Upon arrival, the guests all instructed to wear special robes and masks (with built-in voice changers), so they can't recognize each other. They are also each given an in-game name (Alain, Ben etc.) to be used during this game. After that, they are randomly assigned their roles within the Werewolf game (villager, werewolf etc.). One of the participants, "Henry," is assigned the task of Game Master, who will coordinate the game, so Hajime and Marin can focus on providing service. After the initial explanation of the rules, everyone is sent back to their room as the Night Phase of the game will start, where the werewolf will kill one of the villagers. Before this part of the game can start however, Hajime and Marin stumble upon the body of... Henry in the courtyard gazebo! Beneath the mask is the musician Gakuto, who has been stabbed in the chest. It seems a real Werewolf has committed a murder during this game, but the footprints in the snow in the courtyard seem to tell a curious story: snow falling from the roof had blocked the direct passageway between the east and west annex, so people can only go from one building to the other via the courtyard, but there is only one set of footsteps going from the east annex to the gazebo, with none returning. That means that the murderer can't be in the east annex: while one can go to the west annex from the gazebo without leaving any footprints in the snow due to a covered passageway, this is not the case for the east annex. So whether the murderer has a room in the east or west annex, they couldn't have gone to the east annex after the Henry murder. Hajime tries to phone the police, but their mobiles have no reception and the landline has been cut, and their van has also been tampered with. They know of course help will eventually come if they don't return as per schedule, but Hajime fears more murders will take place before they'll be saved...

It's been more than a year since I last discussed the Kindaichi Shounen series! The Werewolf Murder Case is collected in volumes 14 until 16 of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo, though I have to admit I have only read until volume 15: it's at that point the culprit starts monologuing about their motive for the murders, with the bulk of the mystery has already been solved by Hajime, so I decided to review the story already: I was planning to buy volume 16 once the story that starts there ends, together with the other necessary volumes.

As I mentioned, I have never played Werewolf myself, but I have read a few mysteries that take direct or indirect inspiration from that game (like Danganronpa Kirigiri 2), so of course, I can understand the potential of using it as a vehicle to tell a murder mystery. In this case, what I did like about the case was that it allowed for all characters to be genre savvy: they are all experts in playing Werewolf, so even after the real murder is committed, all the characters are able to come up with reasonable theories and arguments to point to or away from suspects, and it's certainly more interesting than the "I'm not staying with you in one room, one of you might be a killer!" type of character. At some times, the story tries to portray the participants a bit off, as they seem to approach the discussions about the real murder as if it were a game, with a noticable sense of excitement: Hajime does note more than a few times this is not a game and that they're dealing with a real murderer, but I felt this part fell a bit flat, as ultimately, Hajime does constantly continues the discussion on the murders, so of course, they'd approach it in the way they play the Werewolf game and use the techniques they learned there: not everyone is like Hajime and encountering a real murder every two weeks and have a specific skillset for real murders!Anyway, by having these characters, it feels like we have more delving into theories by various characters than in most conventional Kindaichi Shounen stories (save for those that have multiple detective characters of course), and in that sense, I think The Werewolf Murder Case provided an interesting set-up with far more able characters than you usually see in the series. Also: was I the only one who thought it strange some of the participants also seemed used to discussing the logic behind the footsteps, even though practicality behind the murders in a typical Werewolf game shouldn't be important? A werewolf can just kill a villager right, it's not like they have to "explain" how they got inside or away...

So in terms of the type of characters, this story was interesting, but only if the mystery was the same...

While the story starts interesting enough with all the masks, it's kind of a shame the actual murders basically take place outside the framework of the Werewolf game: not even one round of the actual game is played before Gakuto is murdered, and after that, Hajime of course cancels the game and everyone is free to take off their masks and robes. Gakuto's death isn't the only one to happen, of course, because this is a Kindaichi Shounen story, but by then, it really has nothing to do with Werewolf anymore, with tricks and situations that could have used in any nondescript setting. This was a big disappointment to me, as the Werewolf game offers so much more potential than seen in this story. At the start of the story, Hajime very briefly explains the Werewolf game to his boss, and this was a very rudimentary explanation, but that was really all you ever needed to know, as it's barely used. The main mystery revolves around Gakuto's death: the crime scene suggests the murderer must be one of the persons present in the east annex after the murder.... which of course meta-wise strongly suggests it was actually someone in the west annex, making this an impossible murder. Oddly enough, this story seems reluctant to show you a clear floorplan until relatively late in the story, though this is not really troublesome. But I think this story is far too simple when it comes to the logic pointing to the murder of Gakuto: the way the major trail of clues is laid out to point to who it was, is done so obviously on the pages, the moment the scene comes up, you know exactly what its purpose is. And because it's a one-stage clue (i.e. the clue points at one single person, instead of excluding a Y number of suspects of the total pool of X), you just instantly know who did it. From there, figuring out howdunnit is not difficult, as some parts of the story set-up and presentation stand out too much to not be involved in how it was done. There is a second murder, that also involves most characters having an alibi (a body being placed outside in the courtyard during a time when most of them were chatting together), but again, the clewing for the solution to the howdunnit is incredibly straightforward, as if writer Amagi had no idea how to properly set-up the introduction of this clue, so he just decided to just have it appear randomly on the page.  Not to mention the solution itself is very basic and not at all memorable...

Well, at least Hajime gets to do something memorable he seldom manages to do in the series, and that's cool, though I guess I still don't know what happens in the last few chapters found in volume 16...

No, The Werewolf Murder Case in volumes 14 until 16 of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo is far from being my favorite story in the series. While the idea of a real murderer taking over a game of Werewolf sounds really cool in theory, this story barely goes beyond that premise, offering a mystery story that in terms of actual content might as well have been a short story. The only thing I thought interesting, was the fact we have more characters who seemed into discussing theories regarding the murder, but that was far from enough to save this tale for me. Volume 16 with the next story is already out, but my guess it won't properly end until volume 18, so it might take another while before I discuss this series again.

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14+15巻

The Lion's Smile

For every up, there's a down. For every square

- There's a round?

"The Sword in the Stone"

Wow, has it been three years since I last did a double Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen post?

As basically every year the last decade or so, the new Detective Conan film Kurogane no Submarine seems to be extremely well received, both by viewers in terms of the actual contents as well as financially, once again breaking the earnings record set by last year's film (The Bride of Halloween). I will have to wait for the home video release though, so as every year, I'll have to be content with the latest Detective Conan volume released simultaneously with the film. Detective Conan volume 103 was released mid-April and starts with the final two chapters of A Troublesome Triple Collaboration. Previously, Conan and the Detective Boys ended up at a family restaurant in the evening, where very coincidentally, three very unlikely pairs were having dinner too: for some reason Inspector Shiratori is joined by patrol officer Yumi, while Yumi's boyfriend is having dinner there too with patrol officer Naeko, while her boyfriend Chiba is joined by Inspector Shiratori's girlfriend Kobayashi. The discovery all three pairs are there, in secret, with a different partner obviously leads to a lot of angry faces, but during this, a murder occurs at the family restaurant: a group of four friend regularly meet up, and today they were at the family restaurant where one of them works. One of the women however is poisoned during their get together, but it seems impossible for anyone to have poisoned her specifically, as she picked her own food and several people handled the plate before her. As an impossible poisoning story, it's... nothing special. I like the basic idea of the how, though there's a bit of luck concerned when it comes to actually hiding the trick, and overall, it's just... too basic. Part of the story is dedicated to the mix-up between the couples, so that leaves little room for the mystery.

Oh, and let me tell you right now: this volume in general isn't really interesting, at least, not mystery-wise.

Which you wouldn't expect right away, considering the second story features Sera! The high school detective takes Conan back to the hotel she's staying, when they learn a new arriving guest on the same floor found a strange code on a sheet of paper in his room. It turns out the code is similar to the coded messages sent to two other hotels earlier: when the people at those hotels failed to solve the code in time, rooms in those hotels were blown up with explosives! Ran's mother Eri happens to be in the hotel too, as she's their corporate lawyer and she manages to arrange for Sera (and Conan) to work on the case in secret, as soon after the coded message is found, the hotel is called by someone who treatens to blow up a room here too unless they solve it. Even the sub-plot of Sera's "sister" pushing Sera to solve the case because she can't risk being seen if the hotel needs to be evacuated doesn't do much to change the fact this is just another code-solving story, and this one is really nothing remarkable. The identity of the bomber is also hilariously simple to guess, so there's just nothing memorable to this one.

In Two Attendants, the Detective Boys go to the beach with the assistant teacher Wakasa, with Okiya joining them too as he can drive there (and because Conan doesn't really trust Wakasa with Haibara). They enjoy the Kamen Yaiber sausage at a beach restaurant, but after the break, the owner of the restaurant is found strangled in the employees room, with one of his employees asleep in the same room. But why would the murderer go to sleep in the same room after strangling his boss? Part of the story also involves Okiya and Wakasa both trying to probe each other, but the core mystery is a bit disappointing, once again. I think I like the core idea of how the strangling was done, that certainly, but the story kinda tries to avoid focusing too much on it too early, making the first half of the mystery feel very slow and unfocused, as the mystery part ("what is the puzzle?") feels undeveloped. A shame, because I do like the "big" reveal in terms of how the murder was committed, as it's something that works best in the manga format.

Kaitou KID's Crown Magic is the last story in the volume, and starts mid-res, with Conan having cornered two Azusas from Cafe Poirot, with one of them obviously being the phantom thief KID in disguise. We then jump back in time a few hours, when we learn Suzuki Jiroukichi has made a new KID trap, with a jewel-embedded crown as the lure. Jiroukichi's trap is mainly built around a special corridor in front of the room where the crown is kept: the corridor is flanked by wind blowers and small enough so everyone has to crawl through it, rendering KID's usual tricks with his glider and cards useless. Of course, the crown does disappear after a sudden arrival by KID in the room, and it's up to Conan  to solve how he did it. Only... this has to be one of the least interesting acts of magic ever done by KID, because there's no way this trick could've fooled anyone for say longer than a minute. I can accept it working the initial moment, but the trick is so simple with so little misdirection going on, it should've been discovered immediately, or there should have been a secondary phase to the trick to flesh it out, but this shouldn't be the main and only mystery.

So overall, a rather disappointing volume, with none of the stories in any way memorable. I guess that's because the next volume seems to feature a very important story according to the preview, so this is the calm before the storm, but considering the slow pace nowadays, I guess this calm will last for like half a year before the storm finally arrives...

My last Kindaichi Shounen review also dates almost 8 months ago, when I discussed the first two volumes of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo 30th, or The Case File of Kindaichi 30th, a limited short series to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the franchise. And with short, I mean short, as the series was only four volumes long. The Oninohe - The Grave Lion Legend Murder Case starts with the 17-year old Hajime having no ideas for his summer project on Japanese folklore, so he joins Miyuki's project: she was planning to visit the village of Oninohe, where Tsumugi, a former elementary school classmate moved to. They have a rare local legend about a Grave Lion, holy beasts that calm the raging dead, and this year, Tsumugi is selected to perform the Lion Dance in a village ceremony. Miyuki and Hajime, and also Saki (2),  thus visit the small village and are invited to see Tsumugi perform the dance, but during the ceremony, which requires all villagers to be present, one of the few teenagers in the village is poisoned to death via a poisoned knife hidden in the back of his seat. Later, another teenager is also found murdered. Saki has recorded most of the ceremony and the surroundings with his trusty camcorder, but none of the suspects seems to have been able to arrange both murders. And what is the link between the victims, and a certain incident that happened some years ago?

A traditional Kindaichi Shounen story if there ever was one, with Hajime, Miyuki and Saki visiting a small village, an Old Friend of Hajime and Miyuki being there, an impossible mystery revolving around the suspects having an alibi for the time of the murder, Saki's video footage being a vital clue and of course An Incident of the Past. The series was of course always very much a 'by the numbers' series, and in that regards, this story is nothing special. I do think that mystery-wise, it's a bit too lean? I really the main trick of the story, where the murderer created an alibi for themselves during the ceremony, but that's basically only one impressive idea, and it's actually fairly small scale. A few more murders occur in the story, but those utilize fairly simple ideas and concepts, and ultimately, the story feels a bit dragging because the main idea is the only one that actually feels unique enough. Had this been a short story, with only the main trick, I would have loved this so much more, but not as much now, as a story that spans two volumes.

The final volume of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo 30th , also contains a short two chapter story titled Greetings from the Gentleman Thief, which has old series regular the Gentleman Thief threatening to steal a painting. The main focus of this story is actually just fanservice, as a lot of familiar faces make a short appearance in the story, but there's also a short mystery with Hajime quickly deducing how the Gentleman Thief managed to steal the painting as announced, and the trick is pretty good, so that's a plus.

So overall, I can't say the latest volumes of Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen were really high points in either series. Of course, considering both series have been running for thirty years (Conan's 30th anniversary is next year!), I guess you can't expect all volumes to be absolute bangers, but still, I can't deny I'm disappointed this time. Conan's next volume at least seems to be important plot-wise, while Kindaichi will now return to the  Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37") series, so let's hope the upcoming volumes are more fun.

Original Japanese title(s):  青山剛昌 『名探偵コナン』第103巻

天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一少年の事件簿30th』第3, 4巻

A Murder of Crows

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

"The Crow"

Another mystery manga post in the same week!?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Kill a Legend

犯人はこの中にいる！

『金田一少年の事件簿』

 

"The murderer is among us!"

"The Case Files of Young Kindaichi"

This year, Kindaichi Hajime, grandson of the famous detective Kindaichi Kousuke, "celebrates" thirty years of solving mysteries! When the manga series Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo started in 1992, its creators couldn't have known that their puzzle plot mystery manga would become such a long-lasting hit, which would also leave a mark in the history of mystery fiction. As explained in the seminal Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar, the publication of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, followed by Detective Conan two years later, was a true watershed moment, as they became big multimedia hits and paved the way for future puzzle plot mystery manga. If you're looking at the history of mystery fiction in Japanese popular culture, there's a period before Kindaichi and Conan and after. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo in particular is an interesting case, because the manga was followed by a live-action adaptation relatively soon, which became a hit on its own and an icon in pop culture, making the franchise widely known beyond just a comic-reading audience. Both Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo and Detective Conan have became huge multimedia franchises with anime series, spin-off series, theatrical releases, drama CDs, novels, games and much more, but unlike Detective Conan, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo does not have one continuous main manga series. It technically consists of multiple, shorter series, like the original series, the 20th anniversary series and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R, with sometimes one or two years rests between these. Nevertheless, the series has never really been out of the public eye in Japan in these thirty years, whether it is in manga form, television drama, games or something else. And at the moment, it doesn't seem the series will end any time soon, so let's hope for another thirty years of this giant in mystery history!

The current main manga series is called Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37"), and is set twenty years after the previous series, with a middle-aged Hajime working for the promotion/marketing company Otowa Black PR. Volume 13 was recently released, collecting the last chapters of the story The Killer with Twenty Faces which started in volume 11. Hajime's company is one of the companies involved in an grand Edogawa Rampo exhibition produced by none other than Araki Gou, better known as the Japanese Banksy. The hugely popular anonymous artist has reproduced a 1920s Tokyo inside a large event hall, themed after the works of Edogawa Rampo and even Hajime himself is impressed by all the references to Rampo's work hidden in the hall, from a Red Chamber of the same-titled short story to a reproduction of Rampo's own storage house. Hajime and his assistant Marin are responsible for a special preview event of the exhibition, with some of the guests including an influencer and a journalist. One of the attractions they visit during the tour is the Red Chamber: the first time they look at the chamber, situated on the other side of a courtyard, it's empty, but when they look at the chamber a few seconds later, they see one of the guests is sitting in a chair in the chamber, stabbed in the heart. They rush to the room and confirm the man's dead. Everyone else was together on the other side of the courtyard when they observed the empty chamber the first time and also when the body appeared, so nobody on the preview tour could've killed the man and placed his body in the chair. Leading to the question, who killed him? A message signed by the "Killer with Twenty Faces" (yes, that's a reference)  direct the party to Rampo's storage, and when they arrive there, they find the doors locked. They unlock it with a special key carried only by the manager of the event, who had been with Hajime all the time, but when they look inside, they find another of the guests killed, strangled like the victim in Rampo's debut story The Case of the Murder on D. Hill. Hajime soon realizes this is a locked room murder, as the person holding the key had been with him all the time, so how did the Killer with Twenty Faces pull this off? When they learn they are locked inside the event hall, Hajime knows he has to solve this case quickly or else they might all end up dead in one of Rampo's works.

This is most of all a fun story, I think. I am of course quite fond of Edogawa Rampo's work (disclosure: I have written the introduction to The Fiend with Twenty Faces), so the idea of an exhibition with a rebuilt "Rampo-esque" 1920s Tokyo full of Rampo references is just a really fun setting for a good old closed circle murder case, which is made even more interesting if you are aware that Yokomizo Seishi, the creator of Kindaichi Kousuke, knew Edogawa Rampo very well in real-life and even acted as his editor for some time. Anyway, the first murder definitely has the right amount of Rampo references I like: a body suddenly appearing in the Red Chamber, which is under observation by all the characters. Voyeurism is a big theme in Rampo's work, so to have an impossible situation hinging on the fact the characters witnesses the Red Chamber across the courtyard through binoculars and then having a body suddenly appear feels really like a Rampo-inspired situation. The second murder, in the locked storage, is perhaps less "Rampo-esque" despite it supposedly being themed after The Case of the Murder on D. Hill, but overall, I think this Rampo amusement park setting does a lot to sell the story. That is perhaps also why I think that the story works pretty well, even though the actual tricks behind the impossible murders aren't really mind-blowing. Some of the things pulled off by the killer in this story almost feel like a parlor trick, but you know, that's exactly the kind of tricks Rarmpo used in his works! Some of the tricks may feel very familiar and some of the fundamental concepts behind the trickery here have definitely been featured before in earlier Kindaichi Shounen stories, but in this particular context, in a story that is about murders being committed in what is effectively a Rampo story, I think they work perfectly fine. Volume 13 ends with this story perfectly by the way, so we'll have to wait for the next volume, though I am not really sure when that'll come out, because....

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the series, a new manga series has started, titled Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo 30th, or The Case File of Kindaichi 30th, and this series takes us back to the "normal" timeline, with a seventeen year old Hajime and Miyuki. So it's basically the direct sequel to Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R, which ended in 2017. I have to admit, after about four years of the 37-year old Hajime, it's nice to go back to the familiar format again. The story starts in the usual way, some chatter with fellow classmates like Souta, and then Inspector Kenmochi arriving to invite Hajime and Miyuki to some remote village: Yatagarasu Village is a place which will be erased from the maps in just a week because the nearby dam project will be finished, which will flood the village. Most people have moved out already, and the few remaining villagers are those who help coordinate the final days of the old village. Kenmochi wants to visit the village for a recently deceased friend: this fellow police inspector always regretted he never managed to solve a strange disappearance case in Yatagarasu Village a few years ago: the man had been threatened and was given police protection, and yet the man disappeared from his inn. Kenmochi, Hajime and Miyuki arrive at the same inn as the last tourist to visit the village and are also invited to attend the last ritual visit to Yatagarasu Shrine. The Yatagarasu, the mythological three-legged crow, is worshipped in this village, and for centuries, there's been a monthly ceremony which involves a visit tot the deepest quarters of the shrine. The participants all have to walk in procession as they go deeper and deeper in the shrine, which consists of five chambers. The doors to the first four chambers are locked by two different keys, carried by two different important figures of the village, while the last door is sealed with special ceremonial paper by the shrine maiden. The procession slowly proceeds through the shrine, opening each door after another, but when they arrive in the inner chamber, they find a decapitated head on the altar. The victim is the secretary of a former village council member, but how could the killer have placed this head here despite the five locked doors? The road to the village *happens* to be blocked too, so while they wait for police reinforcements, Hajime and Miyuki decide to help out the villagers cleaning the village before it'll be flooded, but then another decapitated head is discovered, but everyone in the village has an alibi for the murder. It is then they realize that according to legend, the Yatagarasu eats humans, but always leaves the head...

Okay, this is just the set-up of the story, but for now, it feels like a classic Kindaichi Shounen story, and I'm perfectly fine with it! I like how The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37 sometimes gave us locations the old series didn't really have, but once in a while, Hajime just needs to end up in some isolated village or island with weird ceremonies! By the way, this first volume also has a limited edition, and I was kinda hoping for Original Video Animation DVDs like they had done in the past.... but the limited edition is basically just NFT marketing. You get a booklet with Hajime talking about NFTs, and an NFT. Sigh. The normal edition, it is!

Another important "pillar" in the celebration of the thirtieth birthday of the franchise was of course the new live-action drama series, which ended last week. It is quite unique in the history of the franchise, because it was immediately picked up for worldwide streaming on Disney+ with the English title The Files of Young Kindaichi. Michieda Shunsuke is the fifth actor to play Kindaichi Hajime on television in what is technically the fourth television series, though that is not reflected in the title. The fact this series was also made with an international audience in mind probably played a role in the decision that this is actually the first television adaptation of the series that also adapts stories that had been adapted before. The first drama adaptation aired in 1995, and since then, Hajime seem to return on Japanese television once every five-ten years with different lead actors and production teams, but they had always avoided redoing stories previous series had done. The Files of Young Kindaichi is the first time they started "remaking" these stories. For example, the first episode of The Files of Young Kindaichi is actually an adaptation of The Seven School Mysteries Murder Case, the fourth story in the manga, but the first story featured in the anime and also the first story to be adapted as a live-action special in 1995. It is in a way the quintessential Kindaichi Shounen story, so I can understand why they decided to redo this story as the first episode of The Files of Young Kindaichi, considering it is also aimed at a wider, international audience now who don't know the older series and episodes and have no (legal) way to watch them.

That said, most stories are adaptations of stories that had not been featured on television yet (not in anime form either), like the excellent The Seiren Island Murder Case from Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R or the third Opera House story (unlike the anime adaptation, this version doesn't cut out a complete part of the mystery!). Overall, I'd say The Files of Young Kindaichi is a pretty solid adaptation by the way, and an excellent way to experience Kindaichi Shounen if you happen to have Disney+ anyway. I liked the previous adaptation, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo NEO from 2014 a lot, but that series was made intentionally to feel very much like a continuation of the original 90s adaptations. While the same director worked on both NEO and The Files of Young Kindaichi, you can tell the new series was created to function almost like a reboot, so is a bit more accessible even if you are not familiar with the franchise at all, and is also slightly more serious than than NEO (it still uses a lot of stylistic choices of the old series though, old-school fans will be happy to know, and there's of course also the use of some iconic background music). The mysteries in this show often focus on space, and the layout of the locations, and I have to say this show generally does a great job at clearly conveying "space" to the viewer. The stories are also rewritten to be set in contemporary times, as of course a lot has changed between the 90s and now (no pagers and word processors anymore!). Some of the changes I didn't really like or felt indifferent too: the background story in the Seven School Mysteries for example is surprisingly different, and it didn't really work for me, but some other story or character changes, like in The Murder of Young Kindaichi, definitely made the story more convincing than the original story. I think overall The Files of Young Kindaichi is a really solid adaptation and a good mystery show on its own, so definitely take a look if you want to see a locked room focused live action mystery series, whether you are a fan of the franchise already or not!

Anyway, a lot of Kindaichi Shounen talk today, but even though the franchise is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year, it's clear the series is still going strong, with multiple running series and a brand new live action drama series. So you can rest assured that I'll be looking at Hajime's adventures in the future too. But while we're here anyway, let's all look back at thirty years of Hajime solving mysteries in the name of his grandfather! Feel free to leave comment on what some of your favorite stories are, your first encounter with the series, and all of things Kindaichi-related!

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13巻
天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一少年の事件簿30th』第1巻

『金田一少年の事件簿』

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