Look into my Eyes

Look into my eyes　きっと会える

 探し続けた人も、場所も　求め続けた答えも

"Look into my Eyes" (Fayray)

Look into my eyes You will definitely find

the person you've been looking for, the place, the answer you've been searching for

"Look into my Eyes" (Fayray)

Now that I think about it, this review has been waiting to be written for almost two months now. I should really work a bit faster...

The 2004 TV drama Rampo R is based on the works of Edogawa Rampo, grandfather of the Japanese mystery story, and set in contemporary times. Our protagonist is Akechi Kogorou III, grandson of the original Akechi Kogorou, the greatest detective Japan has ever known. Due to his father's sudden demise, Akechi III has to take over as the field agent of the famous Akechi Kogorou Detective Agency, which in turn brings him in contact with the strangest cases and the most grotesque of murderers. The original Akechi Kogorou is known for having solved countless of crimes featuring the most strange murderers, but can Akechi III live up to his family name, and will he be able to solve the mystery of his grandfather's nemesis the Fiend with Twenty Faces, who is said to be still alive?

Rampo R has long been lauded as one of the best Rampo adaptations available, so I didn't hesitate when I had the chance to finally see it. And it certainly didn't disappoint. I have discussed a great number of adaptations of Edogawa Rampo's works by now (Kyoufu Kikei Ningen, Kurotokage, Rampo, Rampo Noir, Moujuu, Yaneura no Sanposha, Issun Boushi VS Moujuu, Akechi Kogorou VS Kaijin Nijuu Mensou, and those are just the TV/film adaptations...), but I will declare it now, Rampo R is by far the most interesting of them all.

It is also one of the most loose adaptations of Rampo's works, but that doesn't hurt Rampo R a bit. Sure, the main story is pretty generic (grandson of the original Akechi Kogorou following his footsteps), but don't let that fool you. Every episode is based on one story (or more) by Rampo (though not all stories originally featured Akechi), set in contemporary times and often highly rewritten to fit in the time-limit of one episode. What makes this series a bit different from most Rampo adapations, is the fact the creators actually aimed for a fair detecive drama, instead of focusing on the more erotic and grotesque aspects of his works. The first episode is based on the horror short story Ningen Isu ("The Human Chair") for example, but this has been extensively rewritten to be a fair detective story. And it works! In fact, Ningen Isu has often been used as an 'element' within other Rampo film adapations (Kyoufu Kikei Ningen and Yaneura no Sanposha had it, for example), but never has it been 1) used as the main plot and 2) done so well (I will admit that Ningen Isu is one of my favorite stories, so Rampo R gets bonus points for that).

The adaptation of famous Rampo stories as fair play detective stories works mostly well. Most of the stories were written as such anyway, but an episode like Kurotokage is a bit strange; the original was a Great Detective VS Great Criminal story, but turning that into a whodunnit of sorts, doesn't work, because everyone knows who the Black Lizard is. Rampo's works often featured larger-than-life criminals (seriously, have you ever seen the titles of his books? From vampires to clowns from hell and electric men, Rampo has everything), so sometimes it feels a bit strange to have a rookie detective face off against them, but then again, he is the grandson of Akechi Kogorou.

Of course, free adaptations don't always work well. In some eyes, any change from the original might be seen as a bad thing. Some might consider minor changes, but Rampo R's changes are anything but minor. Yet, I don't think it is a bad thing per se, and I actually doubt Rampo himself would have really minded, considering a lot of his works were in fact rewritten versions of / reconfigurations of / inspired by other books / ideas / concepts. I think that Rampo, who was often moved (forced) to writing more mainstream, grotesque horror stories, would have appreciated more 'orthodox detective' versions of his own stories. And more importantly, the stories as presented in Rampo R are fun! The spirit of the original stories are kept intact and one can feel the love for Rampo's work throughout the series. And as long as the end product is good and keeps the spirit of the original intact, you won't see me complaining (and even then, I actually enjoyed the TV adaptations of Christie's The Big Four and The Labours of Hercules quite well, even though they were quite different from the spirit of the original novels).

Visually, the series does suffer a bit from being made on a TV series budget. It sorta adds to the childish atmosphere some of the Rampo stories have (a man hiding in a chair is not that scary if you think about it), but still, some of the sets seem a bit cheap. The music on the other hand is fantastic though.

Rampo R is a very free adaptation of Edogawa Rampo's work, but also one of the best. In fact, I think it's the easiest Rampo adaptation to recommend to people and a great example of how adapatations don't have to follow the original to the letter to be good, and respectful to the original at the same time.

Original Japanese title(s): 『乱歩Ｒ』

「事件に大きいも小さいもない！」

「音楽家が不調和音に敏感な様に探偵は真実の不調和に敏感であることが必要かも知れません」

『一寸法師』

"Like how a musician is sensitive to dissonance, it might be necessary for a detective to be sensitive to dissonance to the truth"

"The Dwarf"

I was contemplating making a 'crazy-dwarf-playing-with-dismembered-body-parts' tag for this post, but then I remembered I have a batshit-Edogawa-insane-awesome tag here! For when things get so grotesquely absurd that no other word can describe the amount of awesomeness.

Issunboushi ("The Dwarf") starts with a young man, Kobayashi Monzou, taking a walk at night through Asakusa, when he spots a dwarf sitting in the park. The dwarf, as he leaves the park, accidently drops a parcel on the ground. The parcel contains a human hand to Monzou's great surprise and he decides to follow this mysterious dwarf. After long walk through Asakusa, the dwarf disappears into a temple. The following day, the newspapers are all reporting about the discovery of a chopped off female hand and Monzou decides to look for the dwarf again, but the monk at the temple swears no dwarf lives there. Confused, Monzou leaves the temple again and comes across Yamano Yurie, the young and beautiful wife of an acquaintance. It seems like her stepdaughter Michiko has run away from her home and Yurie wants to ask Monzou's friend, the famous amateur detective Akechi Kogorou to help him find her. Akechi however suspects that Michiko might not have left her home on her own will. And as more dismembered pieces of a female body are found throughout the city, it doesn't take long for Monzou to connect the pieces. Who is this dwarf and what is his connection to the Yamano family?

Issunboushi was Rampo's first novel serialized in a newspaper (in 1926), which is pretty much proof of his immense popularity. A novel serialization in a newspaper in those times was like having a TV drama now! In the foreword, Rampo warned the readers that his particular kind of detective fiction was not like the classics, nor like the works of other, contemporary detective writers. His brand of detective fiction was indeed different, borrowing heavily from horror and also distinctly modern and aimed at the masses, which is what made him so widely popular. Rampo did not rate Issunboushi too well in later years, but it was a hit with the public at the time and was also the first Rampo story that made the jump to the silver screen in 1927 (and was remade a couple of times later).

As a detective story, this is actually quite decent. While the grotesque horror plots elements are overshadowing the detective plot, the latter is still constructed adequately and Issunboushi can still be considered an orthodox detective story with layered solutions even and both hard and psychological evidence. There are some really farfetched parts in the story too though (like how the dwarf keeps disappearing), but the main mystery is perfectly solvable based on the hints given to the reader. What is interesting to the mystery though, is how the story at first doesn't look like a real mystery (I mean, the book is called The Dwarf and we have a dwarf dropping body parts). It takes some time for the plot to really settle (and it might hard to recognize it because of the sheer weirdness of the dwarf's actions), but it is there and it is quite good.

The appearance of Akechi Kogorou in this story is pretty unique. Akechi hadn't starred in any of Rampo's stories for some time now, so the story starts with explaining how he had been on business in Shanghai. Which somehow explains why Akechi suddenly decided to dress in traditional Chinese dress. Wait, no, it doesn't. Why would he dress like that? Anyway, Akechi is officially still an amateur detective in this story, but he has assistants (not young Kobayashi though) and as his name was actually know to Yurie, it seems like Akechi was already slowly going towards the image of the dandy gentleman detective he would end up to be. Except for you know, the Chinese clothing. It is interesting though that despite Akechi's presence, Monzou is also seen detecting on his own. It made sense in D-Zaka no Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case of D-Slope"), as Akechi was not an established character at that time and thus a viable suspect, but why have two amateur detectives in Issunboushi?

Yesterday I already wrote about voyeurism in Rampo's work, which is related to this I guess, but a couple of Rampo's stories play with the notion of the public showing of something criminal. This is related to that famous idea in one of Poe's short stories about hiding things in plain sight: in Rampo's work an object that is the proof of a crime is placed before the eyes of the public, but they are not (immediately) recognized as such. It is the realization of what the object is that leads to an incredible feeling of horror. In Issunboushi for example, the arm of a woman is replaced with the arm of a mannequin in a busy department store in the Ginza. At first everybody is just admiring the mannequin, until two boys ask themselves the question: why is that one arm a lot more detailed than the other? The horror you feel when you realize that the thing you have been looking at the whole time was an actual, cut off arm, must be amazing. This is very different from Queen's way of publicly showing grotesque things (like in The French Powder Mystery), as his bodies are usually not meant to be found. In Rampo's work, tension is created because the criminal actually wants the objects to be found, because he wants the people to realize that the object they have been watching is actually an arm or a leg or something. Exhibitionism, I guess.The mind should go like [that is a plastic arm] [wouldn't it be weird if that was a real arm] [but that would be impossible] [or would it....] and then go into panic mode. Other stories by Rampo that play with this include Odoru Issunboushi ("The Dancing Dwarf", no relation to Issunboushi), Hakuchuumu ("The Daydream") and Mojuu ("Blind Beast"). Especially the latter is very similar to Issunboushi, with the latter half of the story focusing on the blind masseur gone mad (= not making this up) who leaves dismembered body parts of women all over town. For fun.

This tendency of public showing might have to do with the modern culture in Tokyo at the time, with its department stores to show off the newest products or the Asakusa Twelve-Stories showing off the newest technology in the world. Indeed, most of the story is set around Asakusa, the main entertainment area of Tokyo and home of the masses who liked a good show. And of gay couples, as Issunboushi starts in a park where apparently gay couples meet (with Monzou curious to the customs of how those people strike up a conversation). The depiction of gay relations in Rampo's work is actually a pretty popular topic, I think I have seen titles of quite a lot of academic articles in the last few years. This was the first time I came across it in Rampo's work though.

And this was actually the first point I wrote down, but somehow it ended up last: man, this book was really written in a different time and place. The depiction of pyshically impaired people as evil is of course one thing. The theme occasionally pops up in Rampo's work like in Mojuu ("Blind Beast"), though they might also be the victim, like in Imomushi ("Catterpillar"). Here however, it seemed like Rampo wanted to make the dwarf evil no matter what and some passages might be considered discriminatory nowadays. I was kinda surprised to see how Rampo changed the image of the dwarf throughout the book: [Evil] -> [Maybe he is a tragic, misunderstood person] to finally -> [No, he was definitely pure evil and let's leave it at that]. Akechi also does something unforgivable at the end of the book, which really emphasized the 'dwarf=abnormal=evil <-> beauty=normal=good' ideas Rampo employed for this book. Which was weird, considering Rampo of all people is usually a writer who manages to depict social deviance as something more sympathetic.

I think I also saw a couple of words in the book that are considered discriminatory nowadays.Not that I would have wanted for the publishers to have changed that: like I said, this was written in a different time, so it was quite interesting to see this all-star parade of words you don't see to often anymore in modern media because they are considered offensive. Which can be quite troublesome at times, with for example a famous hint from a novel by Yokomizo Seishi actually being censored nowadays.

So the short story: this is overall a fun book, that manages to mix an orthodox detective plot with Rampo's trademark grotesque horror in a (mostly) satisfying way. Hmm, did this post turn out to be long? I sometimes have trouble writing an acceptable amount of words for these things, but with Rampo's work the words flow out of me quite easily. And less focused. Mostly ramblings. Let's stop here.

Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩　『一寸法師』

『殺人現場では靴をお脱ぎください』

オレンジ色した 極楽特急に乗り込んで 彼に会いに行くよ

すごいスピードで駅をとばし

あの小さな部屋へ

心がここにない私にね何言ってもムダなの

100万キロのスピード上げて彼のもとへ向かうよ

『恋の極楽特急』(小島麻由美）

Stepping into the orange heaven express, I go to my boyfriend

Passing stations at an incredible speed

To his small room

It's no use talking to me, as my heart is not here

Speeding up to a million kilometers, towards him

"Love's Heaven Express" (Kojima Mayumi)

Like I said in the previous post, I can always rely on Edogawa Rampo. Struck down by a cold and confined to my bed, I spent the last two days going through some works of that old master of Japanese mystery fiction. Most of Rampo's work might be quite different from orthodox detective fiction, the main focus at this blog, but I always make an exception for Rampo.Which reminds me, Rampo is pretty much the only writer where I have to read up a bit on a story before I actually start reading it. Why? Because Rampo was not the most consistent of writers, even having several unfinished stories. You really have to be careful with Rampo sometimes. Anyway, this time I took a look at two (relatively) early orthodox detective stories by Rampo.

Nisen Douka ("The Two Sen Copper Coin") is commonly known as Rampo's debut work and widely praised as the first truly original Japanese detective story when it was first published in 1923 in the magazine Shinseinen. Rampo however wrote Ichimai no Kippu ("A Single Ticket") simultenously with Nisen Douka. So why is only the latter known as Rampo's debut work? The editors at Shinseinen thought that the story of Ichimai no Kippu was too good and suspected that Rampo had based it on some foreign story! The plot of Nisen Douka revolves around a code that was purely Japanese, so the editors had no doubts about the authenticity of that story, but there was nothing typical Japanese in Ichimai no Kippu, so the publication was delayed as the editors researched whether it was based on a different story. It wasn't.

Structurally, the story of Ichimai no Kippu resembles its more famous twin brother Nisen Douka. Both stories are built around the conversation of two people (the story-telling party (not the narrator) and a listening party) who participate in some kind of amateur detecting. In this story, the listener (Matsumura) is told the details of a murder case by his friend Souda. The eminent professor Tomita, a person Souda respects as a scholar, has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of his wife, who was ran over by the train near their home. It was found out that the wife was drugged and further police investigation made it seem like the professor did away with his wife. Souda however suspects that the professor is innocent, based on the discovery of a train ticket he found near the scene of the crime. The next day, Matsumura is astonished to find a letter of Souda published in the newspaper, revealing the truth behind the case, all based on a single ticket.

This is actually quite an ingeneous story by Rampo. It is short, but it is pretty impressive, which has a lot to do with Rampo's gift for storytelling. His plots might not have been always that good, but he sure could write. Many years may have passed, but there is something timeless to his writings. Which you could also say of stories by Doyle and Christie, but there have been tremendous changes in both the written and spoken Japanese language since 1920, with modernization, great social changes and the Second World War as examples, but Rampo's work does not feel as nearly as old as contemporary Japanese writings. Yay for mass fiction!

The plot of Ichimai no Kippu is also quite good. The story is split in two parts (the details of the case and then the explanation by Souda), mirroring a problem / challenge to the reader structure and while it is not completely fair, the plot is (almost surprisingly) logical and satisfying. Realizing that Rampo wrote this in 1923 as one of his two debut works, as an original attempt at what was until then a purely Western literary genre,  Ichimai no Kippu is an impressive short story and I think I actually like this story more than Nisen Douka, due to its more serious tone (though the conclusion to Nisen Douka is admittedly a classic, even among Rampo's work).

Ichimai no Kippu also resembles Rampo's later story Nanimono ("Who?") (translation available), with its focus on footsteps in wet ground and other similar clues and story developments. As a whole, I think Ichimai no Kippu is a better story, but Nanimono is still pretty awesome as an orthodox detective story written in a time when Rampo kinda stopped writing those kind of stories.

Another early orthodox detective story by Rampo is Kohantei Jiken ("The Lakeside Pavillion Case"), his second serialized novel. Since his debut in 1923, Rampo only wrote short stories and it wasn't until 1926 when he first started to write serialized novels. Kohantei Jiken was his second novel, serialized in the magazine Sunday Mainichi, and Rampo himself admits that at that time, he pretty much took on any offer he got, without planning his stories. Which explains why around this period he wrote a lot of unfinished and/or simply disappointing stories. He just winged his way through Kohantei Jiken too with each installment, but it actually turned out  surprisingly good in my opinion. Considering that it was a completely unplanned story.

The narrator is residing at the Lakeside Pavillion, a small hostel in the mountains (facing a lake) to recover from a nervous breakdown. It does not take long for him to be utterly bored and hoping to find some excitement in this place, he remembers he has taken a peculiar invention of his with him on this trip. The narrator has always had a fascination for lenses and he once built a portable peek-machine, a contraption of lenses and mirrors which would allow him peek at places unnoticed. A kind of webcam. He sets the contraption so he is able to look into the dressing room (for the bath) from his own room and spends his days on voyeurism. Until one day, he sees a woman being murdered in the bathroom! He runs to the scene of the crime, only to find out that there is no trace of murderer, victim or even blood in the bathroom. Was it just a dream? The next day however, he discovers that a woman has disappeared and our narrator starts wondering what he did see in his mirror-contraption.

And then things happen. Hey, it is a serialized novel so stuff had to happen every installment and Rampo really just came up with stuff everytime, until he thought he should wrap things up.

A lot of Rampo's protagonists are probably what we nowadays call hikikomori or otaku, with their tendencies to stay inside their room focusing on sometimes bizarre interests. These characters know they are what many would call abnormal, but they seem to have peace with that and just live their lives the way they want to, spending time with what they like. Rampo's descriptions of the psychology characters is really good though and really captivating. Rampo himself had a fascination for lenses, cameras and other apperati that change ones views on 'reality' and this is I think one of the first stories where he really goes into that subject. The description of the narrator of Kohantei Jiken of his love for lenses is bizarre, almost grotesque, yet very amusing and appealing. There is something alluring to the idea of a single sheet of glass changing the surroundings into an almost inrecognizable world. Other famous lens/mirror lovers in Rampo works are the "him" from Kagami Jigoku (1926, "The Hell of Mirrors") and Ookawara Yumiko from Kenin Gengi.

In Kohantei Jiken, the lenses and mirrors are used to peek into the dressing room. Voyeurism is also a big theme in Rampo's work, with the most famous examples being the inverted detective story Yaneura no Sanposha (1925, "The Walker in the Attic"), featuring a man who peeks on his fellow inhabitants of a lodge house from the loft, and the horror story Ningen Isu (1925, "The Human Chair"), where a craftsman builds himself into a chair, allowing him to have very close physical contact with however sits on him. This time though, the voyeur is not the criminal in the story (though peeking is also a crime).

Like I said before, for a mostly improvised story, Kohantei Jiken isn't even that bad. Yes, there are some plotlines that seem to go nowhere, as if Rampo forgot them as he wrote every installment, but most of the plots comes neatly together near the end and includes the classical surprise twist ending Rampo loves so much. The first part, highly focusing on the narrator's fascination for lenses, is probably the best (and most original) part of the story though. While this is mostly an original story, there were some instances, besides the above mentioned themes in Rampo's work, where I suspected that Rampo re-used some plot-elements from earlier stories (in highly rewritten contexts though). All in all though, this is an enjoyable story.

Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩　『一枚の切符』　『湖畔亭事件』　

『何者』

 「……わからねえな。どんな理由があろうと、殺人者の気持ちなんて、わかりたくねえよ」
『名探偵コナン』

"I don't understand, ya know. No matter what their reasons are, I don't wanna understand what a murderer feels"
 "Detective Conan"

The third and final post in the Edogawa Rampo month series. Because I don't think that planning something for my blog was a good idea. But to be honest, the whole declaring a Edogawa Rampo month was all just to force myself to translate something by Edogawa Rampo. Because it's been a while since the last time I've done that. And the lucky one is 1929's Nanimono ("Who"), which is a very interesting Edogawa Rampo story.

Nanimono is an early story by Edogawa Rampo and probably his final real orthodox detective story. The publication of this story was between the publication of Kumo Otoko ("The Spider Man") and Majutsushi ("Magician") was kinda unlucky, because Nanimono is a very orthodox story without any of the outlandish and fantastical elements found in those stories, and so it wasn't accepted that well by the general public. They longed for more of the dreamy, fantasy-like crime stories (ero guro nonsense) stories written by Edogawa. Seeing this reaction, Edogawa stopped writing orthodox detective stories like Nanimono and D-Zaka no Satsujin Jiken ("The D-Slope Murder Case") and concentrated on writing his more pulpy stuff. So Nanimono is a turning point in Edogawa Rampo's writing career. Which is a shame, as this is one of the few stories Edogawa Rampo himself was pleased with and it was also quite well received by detective critics in Japan at the time.

I doubt I will ever translate something as long as this any time soon though. It's the longest story I have translated here yet and to be very honest, I don't feel very pleased about the translation, but it's readable. Enjoy Edogawa's story, and not my sleepy English-with-definite-elements-of-Dutch-and-Japanese-mixed-within.

何者

著者：江戸川乱歩

Who

Author: Edogawa Rampo

A word from the author

Even though the guilty party is right in front of the eyes of the readers from the beginning on, the readers don't know who it is until the very end: this has become one of the rules to orthodox detective novels. I've tried to comply to this rule as best as possible. Alert readers might figure out the guilty party halfway through this story. People who aren't used to reading detective novels, might not find out until the end. I have tried to write this story with this in mind. Please read this as a game of wits, where you are the one who has to solve the case.

Jiji Shimbun (evening paper). Shouwa 4 (1929): 19 december, 24 december.

「すべての謎が一本の線につながる」

「探偵小説の根本興味はパラドックスなりと感ず。インポシブル興味とはパラドックス（思想の手品）のことなり」
「探偵小説に描かれた異様な犯罪動機」

"I feel the fundamental fun in detective novels is the paradox. The fun in the impossible is the paradox (a magic trick of the thought)" 
"The Peculiar Criminal Motives Discussed in Detective Novels"

Second post in the Edogawa Rampo month! And yes, I am a bit late, but that was planned. Sort of. I have decided this is the last time I'm going to plan something for my blog.

So, the plan was to discuss the more orthodox side of Edogawa Rampo this month, right? The fact that he himself has written very few orthodox detectives might seem a problem, but it actually isn't. Because even if Edogawa didn't write many orthodox detectives himself, he sure has written a lot about them. He has especially published many essays on them in the post-war years.

And Edogawa's most important essay collections are surely Geneijou ("The Illusion Castle") and its sequel Zoku Geneijou ("The Sequel: The Illusion Castle"). The first one comprises of essays published between 1946 until 1951, while the sequel was published in 1954. And they're both treasure chests full of information.

And today, I will discuss just a little part of it. Because reading too much of this stuff in just a couple of days is just too much for my head. There is just too much interesting information. The last two days, I've been having fun with a certain part of Zoku Geneijou, namely a series of essays on tricks used in detective novels.

Apparently, Edogawa Rampo took notes whenever he was reading anything crime related. Notes on what kind of tricks the murderer (or detective!) used in the story. Notes on motives. Notes on real crimes. And inspired by The Locked Room Lecture in Carr's The Hollow Man, he wished to write a book on all tricks used in detective novels.

Of course wishing isn't going to bring you far, and because he states his notes were incomplete (he didn't have much on Japanese detective fiction, for example) and he didn't want to re-read everything again, he never got to writing that book. But he did the next best thing: he wrote a series of essays based on his (incomplete) notes and these essays are the most interesting part of Zoku Geneijou.

The first essay to actually discuss tricks in detail in the collection is The Peculiar Criminal Motives Discussed in Detective Novel. Which is indeed on what it says in the title. Edogawa identifies four major categories: emotional crimes, crimes for profit, crimes commited because of some abnormal psychology and crimes for ones beliefs. Within every category, he has many subcategories (for example: inferiority complex under emotional crimes), many of them accompanied by some example. Most of these examples are from British or American novels.

And the work Edogawa has done is fantastic! While the essay is a bit on the long side, it's a very interesting one and it strengthens his argument that motives are indeed a sort of trick an author might use for a detective novel. I for one am not a reader who pays much attention to motives, but this essay surely has made me rethink my position on that. I am not sure though whether crimes for ones beliefs are to be considered a different category from the crimes commited because of an abnormal psychology.

But the best essay is certainly A Categorization of Tricks. Which is also what it says. It's too long to translate (though I'd love to do it sometime!), but the contents are as follows:


I Tricks concerning the criminal (or the victim) as persons

A. One person, two roles
1 The criminal disguises themselves as the victim
2 An accomplice disguises themselves as the victim
3 The criminal disguises themselves as one of the victims
4 The criminal and victim are the same person
5 The criminal disguises themselves as a third party to attract suspicion
6 The criminal disguises themselves as a non-existing person
7 Substitution (two persons, one role; two persons, four roles)

B Unexpected criminal (besides the One person, two roles trick)
1 The detective is the criminal
2 A judge, policeman or prison warden is the criminal
3 The one who discovered the crime is the criminal
4 The narrator is the criminal
5 A child, or an elderly is the criminal
6 A handicapped person, or an ill man is the criminal
7 A corpse is the criminal
8 A puppet is the criminal
9 An unexpected number of persons is the criminal

C The criminal erasing himself
1 Faking being burned to death
2 Other fake deaths
3 Transfiguration
4 Disappearance

D Strange victims

II Tricks concerning evidence of the criminal having entered and left the crime scene
A Locked room tricks
1 The criminal was not inside the room at the time of the crime
a A mechanism placed inside the room
b A murder commited from outside through the window or some other opening
c Setting things up so the victim inside the room dies
d Suicide made to look like a locked room murder
e Murder made to look like a suicide
f  A non-human criminal inside the locked room

2 The criminal was inside the room at the time of the crime
a A door-mechanism
b Making it seem like the crime was commited later than actually was
c Making it seem like the crime was commited earlier than actually was (a fast murder commited inside the room)
d The simple method of hiding himself behind the door
e A locked room in a train

3 The victim was not in the room at the time of the murder

4 Escape from a locked room

B Tricks concerning foot tracks

C Tricks concerning fingerprints


III Tricks concerning the time of the crime

A Time tricks using vehicles

B Time tricks using clocks

C Time tricks using noise

D Time tricks concerning the seasons or other natural phenomena

IV Tricks concerning murder weapons and poisons

A Tricks concerning murder weapons
1 Unexpected sharp instruments
2 Unexpected bullets
3 Electrocution
4 Beating to death
5 Death by pressure
6 Strangulation
7 Falling to death
8 Drowning to death
9 Murder using animals
10 Other remarkable tricks concerning weapons

B Tricks concerning poison
1 Oral poisoning
2 Poisoning by injection
3 Poisoning by inhalation

V Tricks concerning hiding persons or objects

A Hiding a corpse
1 Hiding for a period
2 Hiding forever
3 Deception by moving corpses
4 A corpse without a face

B Hiding a living person

C Hiding objects
1 Jewels
2 Coins, gold bars, bills
3 Documents
4 Other objects

D Substituting corpses or objects

VI. Other tricks
1 Tricks concerning guns
2 Optical illusions
3 Illusions concerning distance
4 Misunderstanding of the chaser and the one being chased
5 Murders commited very quickly
6 A murder commited in a mass of people
7 "The Red-Headed League" trick
8 "The Two Rooms" trick
9 Probability crime
10 Crimes commited by making use of one's profession
11 Tricks concerning legitimate self-defense
12 Tricks concerning double jeopardy
13 Tricks with the criminal witnesseing the crime from far away
14 Nursery rhyme murders
15 Murder following a script
16 A letter from a deceased person
17 A maze
18 Hypnosis
19 Sleepwalking
20 Amnesia
21 Remarkable stolen objects
22 Murder exchange


VII Categories of secret codes
A Tally code

B Orthography

C Allegoric codes

D Displacement
1 Normal displacement
2 Mixed displacement
3 Insertion
4 Windowing

E Substitution
1 Simple substitution
2 Complex substitution
a Codes using a square
b Codes using a ruler
c Codes using a circle
d Codes using a calculator

F Mediation

VIII  Peculiar Motives

A Emotional crimes
1 Romance
2 Revenge
3 Superiority complex
4 Inferiority complex
5 Flight
6 Other crimes


B Crimes for profit
1 Inheritance
2 Tax evasion
4 Protecting one's life
5 Protecting a secret

C Abnormal psychology
1 Homicidal mania
2 Murder as art
3 Electra complex

D Crimes for ones beliefs
1 Religious crimes
2 Crimes for ideology
3 Crimes for politics
4 Superstition

IX Tricky hints for detecting crime
A Physical clues
B Psychological clues

Yes, it's quite comprehensive. Most categories are of course accompanied by short examples and explanations. It was using this scheme, that Edogawa wanted to write a complete book. While every category is discussed briefly in this essay, the original plan was to discuss every category in detail. I don't have to mention the Motives essay anymore, but the essays that follow this essay, Ice as a Murder Weapon, Bodies without Faces and Hiding Tricks are clearly expansions on what is discussed in the Trick essay. While I understand Edogawa not wanting to read everything again, it's still a shame he never 'finished' this work. Just imagine what a wealth of information this would have been! It's like a TV Tropes solely on detective novels!

Of course, it's a bit spoilerific on tricks (though he usually avoids actually naming the titles), but for someone who enjoys the puzzle-element of detectives, this is a must-read. For the English reader, a follow-up essay to this one ("An Eccentric Idea") is available in The Edogawa Rampo Reader.

I'd love to know whether there is a more recent index of tricks like this available somewhere! I myself don't feel much for re-reading everything I've read until now, mining for motives and tricks, but there has to be someone who is making such a database right?!

And the next posts will be translations and I hope to finish one for next weekend, but not sure if I'm going to make it.

Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩　『幻影城・続 』「探偵小説に描かれた異様な犯罪動機」/「類別トリック集成」

"And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

「あー、変幻自在のあいつ・・・」
『妖怪博士と少年探偵団』

 "Ah, that ever-changing one..."
"Monster Professor and the Boys Detective Club"

This is the first time I've actually really planned something for my blog. January is Edogawa Rampo month here. Despite Edogawa's reputation as the father of the Japanese detective novel, most of his works are actually of the unorthodox, erogurononsense kind that aren't detective stories, but this month I'll focus on Edogawa's orthodox side, which is mainly found in his earlier works and his essays. So expect translations of stories and essays and other stuff this month. And behind the screens, one can expect a lot of last minute changes in topics. Heck, I actually planned a translation to start Edogawa Rampo month with, but I have been slacking. So this week I start with something I had planned for later. Which also kinda falls outside Edogawa's orthodox works and his essays. Nothing goes as planned.

I've written about Edogawa's Shounen Tantei Dan ("Boys Detective Club") series earlier, but I've been wanting to expand on that for some time now. As someone who has been interested in the great art that is detective fiction since childhood, I still have a soft spot for detective fiction for children. I of course grew up with Scooby-Doo Where Are You, I have most books of The Famous Five and I have to admit, I still read the Mickey Lost 't Op ("Mickey Solves It") comics in the weekly Donald Duck magazine with great interest (the older ones with Sul Dufneus were better though...).

Nowadays, quite a nice collection of literature can be found on Edogawa Rampo in English, but most, if not all, of these focus on his formative years, or his onorthodox side. The fact that more than half of his writing career was spent on writing children's detective stories, seems to be either forgotten, or carefully hidden from the public. The Shounen Tantei Dan series however is a series that has a lasting influence on Japanese culture, always returning in a range of different forms, be it a movie, a TV series or even reprints of the original books in recent years.

The Shounen Tantei Dan series effectively begins with 1936's Kaijin Nijuu Mensou ("The Fiend with 20 Faces")'s seralization in the magazine Shounen Club, even though the actually Boys Detective Club, the Shounen Tantei Dan itself doesn't appear in that novel. It does introduces us to the titular Kaijin Nijuu Mensou, a brilliant thief 'who has 20 faces', who focusses on stealing pieces of art. In the first novel, detective Akechi Kogorou and Nijuu Mensou try to defy each others plans. In the first part of the book however, Akechi is on a trip abroad and the one who has to battle Nijuu Mensou is his boy assistent Kobayashi Yoshio (who is more often refered to as the boy Kobayashi). Who is actually quite good at fighting off a genius criminal mind, considering he's just a boy around 10-12 years old.

I have no idea where the concept of a very young detective came from, but I think it's safe to say that at least Kobayashi should be considered a direct descendent of Isidore Beautrelet, from 1909's L'Aiguille creuse ("The Hollow Needle") (Maurice LeBlanc), a young boy detective who manages to make Arsène Lupin's life difficult. 1907's Le mystère de la chambre jaune's ("The Mystery of the Yellow Room") protagonist Joseph Rouletabille is also very plausible as a model for Edogawa's Kobayashi. All of these novels have a young detective battling an experienced criminal mastermind and they actually put up a good, if not fantastic fight.

Kobayashi's performance is of the good, but not fantastic kind. He manages to come quite far, but in the end it's Akechi Kogorou who manages to overcome Nijuu Mensou. But even if Kobayashi didn't win from Nijuu Mensou, he sure did win from the editors at the Shounen Club magazine who weren't sure about Edogawa Rampo, at that time known for writing weird stories, writing for a children's magazine. Kaijin Nijuu Mensou proved to be a great hit with the children.

And kids like to read about kids having adventures, so Edogawa created the Shounen Tantei Dan in the second book of the series (1937). Lead by Kobayashi and sometimes helped by Akechi himself, the Shounen Tantei Dan is a group of elementary school kids who fight crime. Or at least, they try to fight crime. And usually, crime is uncanny close, as Kaijin Nijuu Mensou always seems to target some art object that is owned by a family whose son is in the Shounen Tantei Dan. They do stuff, Nijuu Mensou does stuff, Akechi appears, Nijuu Mensou disguises himself, Akechi unmasks him, Nijuu Mensou flees and rince and repeat. It's really just a fun novel for kids admiring detectives.

While the Shounen Tantei Dan of course remind of Holmes' Baker Street Irregulars, they differ in the sense that the Shounen Tantei Dan isn't just a support group to Akechi, they share the limelight with him as protagonists of the series. And instead of street urchins, these are all well to do kids, but more about that later.

The final book that was written before the war, 1938's Youkai Hakase ("The Monster Professor") revives Nijuu Mensou  (who should have died in the last book), who wants to take his revenge on Akechi and those meddling kids. For reasons I don't understand at all, he calls himself the Monster Professor throughout the story, even though we all know he is Nijuu Mensou, but then again, I'm not a master in disguise posed on taking revenge on a bunch of kids. Once again nothing but plain old fun for children.

After the war, Edogawa Rampo mainly wrote books in this series (and a lot of them too!), leaving both the orthodox and unorthodox detective novel behind him. Which is a pity, but it seems the war, especially war censoring, had had a great toll on his creativity (see the movie Rampo for a bit on Rampo and war censoring, and the movie Warai no Daigaku ("University of Laughs"), based on a Mitani Kouki play, for a humorous take on war censoring).

But it wasn't like censoring had played no part in the Shounen Tantei Dan series though. 1937 was also the year the Ministery of Home Affairs implemented a new guideline concerning children's literature, that severely limited the freedom of writers. Stories couldn't feature elements that would be considered bad for the morale of the country, like too gruesome scenes or even love stories. Edogawa Rampo actually wanted to use the  word kai-tou ("strange-thief" -> "phantom thief") instead of kai-jin ("strange-man" -> "fiend") for his kaijin nijuu mensou, as a clear reference to kai-tou Lupin ("Phantom Thief Lupin" = Arsène Lupin) and make him the protagonist, not the antagonist of the story, but he wasn't allowed to use a thief as the protagonist of the story, neither was he allowed by the editors of Shounen Club to use the character tou ("steal").

Following Washitani (2000) and reading the pre-war Shounen Tantei Dan books as pieces of propaganda is actually quite interesting. The notion that Nijuu Mensou, who is a thief, a man who kidnaps children, who is able to disguise himself from homeless man to idle musician, was a character who essentially represented everything that was considered not good for the war, everything the government wanted to censor, who battles the children from quite good families (and therefore to be the elite of the future) is actually quite interesting.

Matsuyama (1999) looks at the Shounen Tantei Dan from another point, namely of modernization. The members of the Shounen Tantei Dan are all children from well to do families. As mentioned, their families are actually quite often the target of Nijuu Mensou. These children were all part of a new elite in Tokyo, the children who lived in Ginza and Setagaya. People who would grow up to be the next elite, by studying hard and finding good jobs. While people used to inherit their work from their parents, this generation could get places by studying hard and getting in good universities. These kids were the first generation that actually had their own study room and they actually hardly left it, as they had to study. It was actually quite hard to play outside, with gray walls of stone around every house, and the city effectively a maze of asphalt. The scene in Youkai Hakase of Taiji getting lost while following a suspicous man would have be familiar to the readers. Stories like Shounen Tantei Dan and other stories in magazines like Shounen Club, were thus not only propaganda, but one of the few ways to actually "experience" the real world outside their study room for children.

And what a fun 'real world' it is. It must have been amazing to have read those stories in those days! Both Akechi Kogorou and Nijuu Mensou, as story devices, do their best to entertain the children. Nijuu Mensou never really gets dangerous, and the times some trap of his is deadly, Akechi will pop up. And wasn't it nice of Nijuu Mensou in 1938's Shounen Tantei Dan to actually wait till everyone had left the hideout until he set fire to the explosives?!

And of course, the popularity of any given kids' series is visible by the amount of related merchandise. It seems to be able to wear an actual BD ("Boys Detective") badge was almost considered a status symbol by post-war kids, and the kids who didn't get hold of on, would make their own BD badges. The Shounen Tantei notebook also seems to have been quite a popular product. In the '70s, the TV drama BD7 (Shounen Tantei Dan) also spawned its own series of goods (via Same Hat).

Nowadays, Shounen Tantei Dan's influence is mostly felt in Meitantei Conan. The Shounen Tantei Dan in Conan doesn't only borrow its name from Edogawa invention, but many other parallels can be found. For example, Conan's many, many gadgets are actually a modern version of the seven tools Kobayashi carried with him in the first novel. Actually, Kobayashi's tool might be even more effective than Conan's, as one of them was an actual gun.. I hate Meitantei Conan's Shounen Tantei Dan though. Members of the original Shounen Tantei Dan at least  know when they should rely on adults.

In the West, modern remakes of Scooby Doo and even Famous Five have appeared on TV. And while Meitantei Conan may be a sort of a replacement for the original Shounen Tantei Dan, I really wonder how a modern remake would turn out.


Literature of interest:

江戸川乱歩、山田貴敏(2004)「少年探偵団ワンダーランド」『少年探偵団２』小学館
Edogawa Rampo, Yamada Takatoshi (2004) Shounen Tantei Dan Wandarando. In: Shounen Tantei Dan 2. Shougakkan. 

松山巌 (1999) 『乱歩と東京・１９２０　都市の貌』双葉文庫
Matsuyama Iwao (1999). Ranpo to Toukyou: 1920 Toshi no Katachi. Futaba Bunko.

佐藤文昭（編集者）(2007) 『僕たちの好きな明智小五郎』　宝島社 
Satou Fumiaki (editor) (2007) Bokutachi no Sukina Akechi Kogorou. Takarajimasha

谷花 (2000) 「怪人、帝都を席巻す　：　『怪人二十面相』と『少年倶楽部』の地政学」『文学研究論集』 筑波大学比較・理論文学会
Washitani Hana (2000). The Phantom Thief in the Imperial Capital: Kaijin 20 men-so and the Topology of Syonen-Club. In: Bungaku Kenkyuuron Shuu. Tsububa Daigaku Hikaku Ronri Bungaku Kai

Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩　『怪人二十面相』、『少年探偵団』 、『妖怪博士』

『一人二役』

「現世（うつしよ）は夢、夜の夢こそ真実（まこと）」、乱歩
"Reality is a dream, your dream at night is reality", Rampo

While I like Edogawa Rampo's stories, I really need a lot of time to read his stories. I haven't really read many pre-war stories so I don't know whether this is a general thing or not, but the usage of kanji in Edogawa's work is very aggrevating at times, with of course many pre-war kanji and strange ways to write words from a modern point of view.

So while I actually wanted to translate The Murder Case of D-Hill, the first Japanese locked room mystery, I've put that plan on hold for the time being and instead did the simpler, short One Person, Two Identities. Which is an OK (non-detective) short story of Edogawa, but what is more interesting is how the theme of one person, two identities plays a big part in Edogawa's stories. People taking on other identities, people taking on other people's identities, blurring lines between reality and dream, no knowing anymore what is the original, it's a theme I enjoy very much in Edogawa's work. Silver actually makes an interesting point in Purloined Letters: Cultural Borrowings and Japanese Crime Literature when he mentions how Edogawa's work can be read as stories that were both emulating the Western model, as well as atempts to try to move away from them, as Edogawa might have been afraid to forever remain nothing but 'an impersonator', never to be an original himself. But of course, who is to tell what original is in this world, what seperates the daydream of reality and when Morpheus' world ends ?

「私は飛んだ失敗をやったのだ。私は愛してはならぬ人を愛したのだ。」

「名探偵。皆さん名探偵といえば誰を想像しますか？…シャーロック・ホームズ、エルキュール・ポアロ。エラリー・クイー ン…。日本にも様々な探偵がいます。日本の名探偵に共通する特徴なんだかご存じですか？実はみんな名字は洒落 てんですけど名前がどうも田舎臭いんですね。例えば…、明智…小五郎。金田一…耕助。そして、古畑……任三郎…」
『古畑任三郎：　ゲームの達人』

"Great detectives. If we're talking about great detectives, who do you think of? ... Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen... There are all kinds of great detectives in Japan too. Would you know the common feature between the Japanese great detectives? While they all have stylish family names, their given names somehow sound... provencial. For example, Akechi... Kogorou. Kindaichi... Kousuke. And Furuhata... Ninzaburou..."
"Furuhata Ninzaburou: The Game Master"

Paris The Netherlands in the fall. The last months of the year and the end of the millenium. This city holds many memories for me. Of cafes, of music, of love, and of death. Ok, scrap that Broken Sword reference. Anyway, the last days in the Netherlands and Murphy kindly decided to pay me a visit by cursing my computer with fairly mild to very drastic problems, which is kinda scary. Other hurdles that had to be dealt with was finishing a review for the Dutch magazine AniWay (on Japanese popculture) (I am always doing reviews last minute). While I thoroughly enjoy writing reviews on manga, games et cetera and have written some years now, I find writing in Japan to be extremely difficult. Writing for a magazine has been quite fun though, as I could promote underrated and unknown series to the general public. Including detective manga. And somewhere I am kinda proud I actually got pictures of kids being crucified for rain published in the magazine.

So I wrote my final review on Maruo Suehiro's Panoramatou Kidan ("The Strange Tale of Panorama Island") and a habit of more recent years has been to do way more background research than required for such a review. With a draft review on Tezuka's MW, I even had referenced the big (BIG) book from the International Relations of Japan course, because it was quite relevant from a historical viewpoint, but in the end, you only have only just so many words you can put on one single page. So that was scrapped. And probably information overkill for the average reader anyway.

Panoramatou Kidan is based on the novelette by Edogawa Rampo and tells the story of a writer who fantasizes about an utopia. His utopia. He impersonates a recently deceased wealthy man, pretends to have come back to life and uses the money of the family to build his dream, the titular Panorama Island (and commits murder along the way). While it was not very well received at first, the story gained popularity in years and is now one of the better known stories by Edogawa, having also been the main source for the movie Horrors of Malformed Men and also filmed as one episode in the popular Akechi Kogorou tv-series ("The Beautiful Lady from Heaven and Hell").

Having read the original story and the manga, I am sorta surprised I like it as much as I do. It's not as creepy as The Blind Beast or the Human Chair, nor as interesting for a detective reader as The Psychological Test or Beast in the Shadows. But the story just works. It somehow manages to convey the dreamy aspect of Edogawa's writings perfectly and with just enough a bit of crazy crime, just enough a bit of gaudiness (I am truly wondering whether Edogawa was one of the first to think of a underwater tunnel like you see often in aquaria nowadays), just enough a bit of horror, resulting in a fine novellete. I am also pleased to say the manga is excellent, as the crazy visuals of Maruo Suehiro add a lot to the experience.

As an early work of Edogawa, it's also interesting to see that the detective who appears at the end is interestingly not his series detective Akechi Kogorou, but a very similar named Kitami Kogorou with a similar occupation, a scholar (the early Akechi was a scholar, later a famous detective). It seems to serve no purpose at all to have a different (but the same) detective in the story (even considering how the story ends). And it is even stranger considering Edogawa had been using Akechi Kogorou as a series detective for several stories now, so why use a character who was clearly an expy of Akechi?

Having read the original story, I also wanted to include background information regarding modernism in Japan (which is important in Edogawa's work) in my review of the manga through a reading of Silverberg's Erotic Grotesque Nonsense (which is an interesting book on its own) and rereading other books like Silver's Purloined Letters: Cultural Borrowings and Japanese Crime Literature (which has a very interesting section on Edogawa Rampo). Of course, then I noticed I would have needed more pages to incorporate all that information, so I decided to scrap most of it. I should've known.

I might not get as much exposure writing stuff here, but I can write as much or little as I want on anything, which naturally has its good points. Of course, it means getting less pictures of kids being crucified for rain published in magazines available all across the Netherlands. Which is a pity. Maybe I should try to pitch a Left Hand of God, Right Hand of the Devil review one of these days (these are literally just the first few pages of the manga, it gets a lot messier).

(Ugh, I want to bring the books mentioned earlier (and more, like Kawana's Murder Most Modern) to Japan, but they're so heavy~)

「昼は夢・夜ぞ現」

"Can't sleep... clown will eat me....", Bart Simpson, "The Simpsons: Lisa's First Word"

I don't like clowns. If there is one existence on this Earth I truly fear, it's clowns. And I haven't even seen Stephen King's "It". Nor am I ever planning to. Of course, coulrophobia is not a very rare phobia. Don't know about my fear for human-like dolls and that other fear though. Especially the last one seemed strange to my fellow Tokyo students apparantly.

And when I innocently started up the 1976 movie Watcher in the Attic ("Yaneura no Sanposha"), based on the short story by Edogawa Rampo, I never, ever would have thought the director would add a clown to the story. Not the figure-of-speech type of clown, but the one with a red nose. That certainly wasn't in the original. Adding a clown to a story can never be a good idea. Never. The rest of the movie was enjoyable, a more explicit version of the story of a voyeur spying on people from the attic and also contemplating about murder. And bonus points for incorporating that other Batshit-Edogawa-Insane-Awesome short story, The Human Chair in the movie. But minus points for the clown. Note that I don't have the usual movie cover beside the text. For it features the clown.

In an interview with Edogawa's son which I very coincidentally found (involving buying random manga just because his name was on it), it was revealed that Edogawa actually wanted to direct movies and it makes me wonder how Batshit-Edogawa-Insane-Awesome his movies would've been.

But after so many of these kinds of stories of Edogawa, I really needed to go back to the essentials. Detectives. Edogawa is famous for his eruogurononsense mystery stories, no doubt about that, but few people know he has written loads of criticism on the detective genre. Most of his important essays can be found in Edogawa's Gen'eijou ("The Illusion Castle"). Which was also the name of his house (now sort-of-a-museum) in Ikebukero, where I could've gone to when I was in Tokyo, if not for the little fact I didn't find out about it till way to late. Gen'eijou (the book, not the house) features texts that almost seem blog-like on what he has read lately, to more abstract analyses on detective fiction in both Japan and the United States and the United Kingdom. Some of his essays have been translated in The Edogawa Rampo Reader, with An Eccentric Idea being an interesting essay about some specific murder tricks found in fiction. The big brother of this essay, An Itemized Catalog of Tricks however is way more interesting. It's a gigantic list of all sorts of tricks used in detective fiction, categorized in tricks concerning the identity of the murderer, the murder location, time of murder, hiding places et cetera. With examples. And it's a very, very good read. If you like detectives. A full list of tricks to use when planning a murder can never be a bad idea.

And it's when you read stuff like this, you know why Edogawa is immediately associated with detective novels in Japan and not just with erogurononsense. Stuff like An Itemized Catalog of Tricks deserve a translation. Clowns however, can disappear for all I care. Of course, combinations of intricate murder tricks and clowns as victims are also acceptable. Truly, a movie directed by Edogawa about the murder of a clown (or plural) would have been Batshit-Edogawa-Insane Awesome.

"Reality is seen in dreams. What you dream at night is real."

「愛。こんな精巧な美術品を作り上げたヤツがそんな形のないモノを信じてるはずがない。形のないモノは醜い。」、平井太郎、『乱歩地獄』

"Love. Somebody who made such a beautiful piece of art surely doesn't believe in an intangible thing like that. Love is intangible and ugly.", Hirai Tarou, "Rampo Noir"

I am great with books. Can easily spend a whole day reading books. Multiple books are no problem either. Movies however are another story. I seldom have the patience to sit through a whole movie in one session (which is kinda a problem when at the cinema...), I just can't keep my attention to it the full two-and-a-half hours movies nowadays take (Cue the "In the old days..." story). Though I have problems keeping my attention to things in general. Happens in conversations often. Yeah.

But anyway, somewhat related to the whole Kyuushuu thing, have I been watching movies based on Edogawa Rampo's work lately, which provide me with 1) not so insanely long movies (or at least segmented movies) and 2) strange visuals which leave me wondering what the heck I was watching. Not the why-did-I-waste-my-time-on-this wondering, the Gee-wiz-this-was-entertaining-but-what-was-that wondering.

(Exception: K-20: The Legend of the Mask (K20 - Kaijin Nijuu Mensou Den, 2008, Satou Shimako), which was a Japanese take on the Hollywood superhero movie based on the Monster with 20 Faces character of Edogawa's Boy Detectives Club series. Entertaining adventure movie. And no strange visuals which leave me wondering what the heck I was watching)

One of the most famous movies based on Edogawa's work is The Black Lizard (Kurotokage, 1968, Fukusaku Kinji). Mainly due to two things: famous writer Mishima Yukio (the one who commited ritual suicide) penned the screenplay and played a (small) part in it. And two, it's a very campy movie. Not as campy as 1960's Batman, but it runs dangerously alongst the border. Partly because The Black Lizard, a female thief, is played by Miwa Akihiro, a cross-dressing actor. Partly because of the corny dialogue. Largely because of the snake throwing henchman. Besides the campiness though, it is a pretty faithful movie adaptation of the book. Which itself was pulpy, so that explains a lot. Not the snake throwing henchman though.

Horrors of Malformed Men (Kyoufu Kikei Ningen: Edogawa Rampo Zenshuu, 1969, Ishii Teruo) on the other hand is completely Batshit-Edogawa-Insane Awesome. The mishmash of pretty much all the famous Edogawa Rampo stories (but mostly based on The Strange Tale of Panorama Isle) has actually never, ever had a home release in Japan and got its very first release worldwide in 2007. Known as a precursor to Pinky Violent movies, Horrors of Malformed Men does not make that much sense, but hell, it's captifying due to what's shown. From an island of naked women to monsters, a strangely dancing madman, several dancing madwomen, People-in-Chairs, Wandering-in-the-Attic, Siamese twins, Batman Gambits and..... way beyond the borders of campiness, it's just Batshit-Edogawa-Insane Awesome. Watch it.

Rampo Noir (Rampo Jigoku, 2005, Jissouji Akio, Kaneko Atsushi, Satou Hisayasu, Takeuchi Suguru) a more recent anthology of four movies (Canals of Mars, Hell of Mirrors, Caterpillar and Crawling Bugs) by four directors based on Edogawa's work similarly uses its visuals to provoke the watcher, though this is more so through design. Which is gorgeous. This was a high-budget production which really shows in the movie. Combined with great stories which in turn were adapted great for the screen, this is best Edogawa-based movie I have seen till now (And because despite appearances I never just randomly quote or write stuff as bridges, I also like this movie because it is split in four parts. Which means I can watch in four sessions. Which is not a strain to my attention span. Which I like very much.).

Finally, I have both read and seen Moju: Blind Beast this week. The novellete was published in the United States by Shinbaku and tells the story of a blind sculptor who kidnaps a model to his lair. And dismemberment and murders and evil-blind-man-on-rampage adventures ensue. It is truly a work of erogurononsense, that is, a story that uses erotic and grotesque imagery to shock the reader. It succeeds in its purpose. Moju is that and nothing more than an erugurononsense work, but it's fantastic in that aspect. Blind Beast (Mojuu, 1969, Masumura Yasuzou) is maybe even better as visual imagery help very, very much. The workshop of the blind beast, filled with giant hands, ears, lips, breasts and giant naked women is something to be seen. Or felt, if blind. And this movie makes great use of its length. The novelette tells us a lot more than the movie, but most of Edogawa's novelletes tend to get gimmicky and pile ups of shocking moments which in the end just cheapen the whole experience. The same with Moju: Blind Beast. Movie Blind Beast however tells us a gripping story with great visuals and shots without weakening even once during its play.

And with this it has been more than enough of Edogawa Rampo for a while. Back to normal sane detectives where people just get murdered and don't enjoy it. Where murderers don't paint their victims in all the colors of the rainbow. Murderers just murder, victims just die. Rational, logical murders.

"Rationality, that was it. No esoteric mumbo jumbo could fool that fellow. Lord, no! His two feet were planted solidly on God's good earth" , Ellery Queen, "The Lamp of God"

Today's song: 美野春樹 (Mino Haruki) - ＢＬＵＥ　ＤＲＥＡＭ～夢旅人～（Ｐｉａｎｏ　Ｆａｎｔａｓｉａ) (Blue Dream~Yume Tabibito~ ("Blue Dream~Dream Travelers~")

"It would be better to die than eke out an existence in this dreary world"

"...but no matter how entertaining they were, he regarded human beings as the most idiotic of all living things. Every-where you looked, you found the same thoughts, the same expressions, the same words, repated over and over again. Despite his change of lodgings and encounters with new people, Saburo sunk back into the bottomless depths of ennui before the week was over.", "The Stalker in the Attic"

During my year in Kyuushuu, I am supposed to write a research essay in Japanese. The research plan has already been filed in, which I focused on Japanese detective fiction. While I am pretty sure the research scope has to be narrowed down quite a bit, I intend to keep the foundation intact, that is, Edogawa Rampo will play a big role in it. I first got to know about this writer due to the manga Detective Conan. With my interest piqued, I searched for English translations of Edogawa's work, which with recurring themes as mirrors, identity crises and people unable to cope with the dreariness of reality were so engrossing I really wanted to do research on him and his work.

While one of the giants in Japanese literature, not that many of his works are translated in English. A pity, but it does mean I might still get a chance to translate stuff from him in coming years. Which will probably take some time, as Edogawa Rampo is a pre-World War II writer, which means his writing style, especially concerning the usage of kanji is quite difficult, with Edogawa using kanji for words which in modern Japanese are written in plain hiragana, as well as the usage of old kanji. Which explains why I still rejoice when I hear new English translations of Edogawa's work appear. Apparently, a new translation (Mojuu, "Blind Beast") was released during the time I was in Japan, so I'll have to pick that one up too, but for now, a overview of what is available in the English market.

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination (Tuttle Publishing, 1956)

The very first translation of Edogawa Rampo's work. Or can it even be called a translation? Trivia for aspiring-translators: the translator of this work couldn't read Japanese, but could speak Japanese. Edogawa couldn't speak English, but could read English. Combined with the Power of Friendship though, this led to an very unique translation effort.

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination is a short story collection which includes 11 of Edogawa's most famous works. It also offers a good selection of the types of stories Edogawa wrote, ranging from mystery-crime stories, dreamy stories to sadistic horror erogurononsense stories. If anyone wants to get an introduction in Edogawa Rampo's work, this should be it. Over 50 years after its first publication, this is still the best Edogawa work available in English.

Batshit-Edogawa-Insane Awesome because: Wife abuses crippled husband who has no limbs. Mirrors are scary. Scary man hides in chair to get physically close to people and steals stuffs. What makes it even more Batshit-Edogawa-Crazy Awesome: it happened in reality.

The Boy Detectives Club (Kodansha, 1988)

Quite an obscure translation, as this is an English translation meant for the Japanese market (i.e. for English students). This is a translation of the second book in the Shounen Tantei Dan ("Boy Detectives Club") series (yes, the title would suggest it's the first book), which is a series of books targeted on kids. Which by the way are the only books written by Edogawa I can read without going crazy due to dictionary rage.

The series chronicles the detective Akechi, his sidekick Kobayashi and the Boy Detectives Club and their battles against The Monster with 20 Faces, a disguise-expert-thief. This book is pretty much the same as the first book in the series. And probably the sequels. Adventure stories with the kids as protagonist and Arsène Lupin-esque capers of The Monster with 20 Faces. Or it's someone else who turns out to be the Monster in the very end. Enjoyable, but quite different from Edogawa's other works. However, these characters are probably the most famous of all of Edogawa's creations, with many Japanese manga, movies and TV-series either being based upon or borrowing from the Monster with 20 Faces and Boy Detectives Club.

Batshit-Edogawa-Insane Awesome because: Kids Have Guns. No, wait, I mean, Akechi willfully gives guns to kids to threaten somebody they hate. Even famous detectives must have their moments of insanity. And Amano Yoshitaka of Final Fantasy fame drew the cover of this release.

The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows (Kurodahan Press, 2006)

This bundle features two of Edogawa's more famous works. The Black Lizard tells the story of the detective Akechi and his battles with the woman-thief The Black Lizard (as in a female thief. Not a thief of women. Though she does that too). Very pulpy. It was also made into a 1968 movie (Kurotokage), which probably only because Mishima Yukio wrote the screenplay and played a part in the movie, was actually released on VHS in the United States. The movie was also very, very pulpy.

Beast in the Shadows, a story about a man helping a woman who suspects her husband is planning her murder, is more interesting as it mingles several of Edogawa's recurring themes like sexual deviation, doubts about identity, crime and the mingling of reality and dreams. Combined with an excellent preface attached to this book, this was an excellent release of Kurodahan, paving the way for more recent Edogawa releases.

Batshit-Edogawa-Insane Awesome because: People hide in chairs. Again! And everyone disguises as everyone! Nobody's identity is sure! And Wandering in the Attic.

The Edogawa Rampo Reader (Kurodahan Press, 2008)

Edogawa Rampo wasn't just a writer of mystery novels, he was also a prolific essay writer. Ranging from expositions about what kind of tricks appear in a detective novel to expositions about the wonders of lenses and film, he wrote a lot and The Edogawa Rampo Reader is the first English publication that includes several of his essays. The other half is made up by stories, of which I personally love "The Stalker in the Attic", the story of a man who has enough of this world, until he discovers he can crawl up to the attic of his lodge house and spy upon the other tenants for some needed thrill in his life. Crazy voyeuristic crime story.

Batshit-Edogawa-Insane Awesome because: Killing dwarfs. Hypnotic mirrors. And people wandering in attics, peering into private lives from above.

It is kinda sad to realize that this probably doesn't even amount to 10% of Edogawa's total work, which in pocket form was a) impressive and b) kinda expensive and hard to carry back home. As a pre-war writer who still inspires manga-artists, movies, bands and real crimes in Japan, why is so little of his work translated?

Today's song: Shogun - Bad City (Opening theme of "Tantei Monogatari")