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』

Forgotten Lady

忘れても消えないこの温もり

「溢れるもの」（Goodbye Holiday）

 

This warmth will never fade even if I forget

"Overflowing"  (Goodbye Holiday)

Forgetting things that only occured yesterday? Sounds like me on a normal day...

Ever since his parents gave him his name, Yakusuke (yaku means calamity) has lived a life full of misfortune. Running around with the other kids, he'd be the only one to fall victim to bird droppings. On his way to school entrance exams, a meteorite struck right next to him, flinging him off his bicycle and causing him to be late. So was Yakusuke really surprised when a micro-SD card with confidential information was stolen from his new workplace and everyone started to accuse the new, nervous guy who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time his whole life? Fact is however that Yakusuke really didn't steal the micro-SD card. The advanced security gate outside the office that can even detect micro-SD cards if you'd swallow them seems to suggest that the card should still be somewhere in the office, but a thorough search of the office and the people there does not lead to any results. Yakusuke decides to contact a private detective broker he knows, who first asks Yakusuke whether the case can be solved within one day, before he recommends Okitegami Kyouko, the "Forgetful Detective". Kyouko, a young woman with white hair, is a very good detective, but she has a small problem: she suffers from a special kind of amnesia, which makes her forget everything that happened at the end of each new day. While she has memories up to a certain point in her life, she's not able to remember anything afterwards, so each time she sleeps, her memories are "reset". This is why she can only take cases that can be solved within a day. Yakusuke becomes interested in Kyouko after she proves his innocence, and because of his "ability" to get into trouble easily, he finds himself hiring Kyouko rather often to get him out of trouble, even though to her, she's always meeting Yakusuke for the first time in her life in the 2015 television series Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku ("The Memorandum of Okitegami Kyouko").

I don't read NisiOisin (Nishio Ishin)'s work regularly actually, but the Okitegami Kyouko series, also known as the Forgetful Detective series, has always been one that managed to linger somewhere in my mind. The series has been running since 2014 and while I knew a new volume was occasionally released, I hadn't quite realized there were already twelve volumes out now until I took a look at the Wikipedia page to prepare for the review. I knew it was about a detective who would forget everything at the end of each day, which sounded like a concept that could lead to original situations, but I never tried the books, nor the manga. And in a move that's actually not that rare for me, I know ended up trying the series through the drama adaptation. Which was surprisingly broadcast only a year after the series started. While the title of this series is taken from the first volume, the drama is based on stories from multiple volumes in the series and includes an original series finale. There are also few characters created especially for this series to fill out the main cast, like Kyouko's landlord/broker and two sidekicks.

So I knew nothing about the original novel series, but I ended up enjoying Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku a lot, even if the detective plots remain fairly simple over the course of the series. It's definitely the type of series where you just have to have fun watching the weird characters interact, from the forgetful Kyouko who writes notes on her limbs and turns out to be a surprisingly cheapskate to the always unlucky Yakusuke and the weird trio at the cafe Sandglass which serves as the series' headquarters. The series betrays its origins as a light novel series with its weirdly named characters (a staple of NisiOisin's work) and very slow hinting at something big in Kyouko's life which caused her to lose her memories, but the latter is obviously not the real driving force of the whole novel series (which is still running) so nothing truly important is learned at the end of this adaptation, and you'd best just expect a case-of-the-week set-up.

As a mystery series, Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku has fairly simple plots, which one could partially explain because Kyouko isn't suited to handle cases that would take too much time: she'd be reset at the end of the day, and as a principle, she does not write down any notes for herself save for some bare essentials like her own name, meaning she can't bring her progress in a case to the following day. The opening episode for example is about the theft of the micro-SD card under impossible circumstances, as nobody could've gotten the card out of the office, yet it can't be found. The trick used by the thief is fairly simple, though I like how the idea makes good use of the medium, and while the core idea is simple, the story is made more interesting by adding a second "crime" by the thief who wants to use Kyouko's special condition agains her: the reasoning surrounding this second crime is unique and memorable. The second episode also makes interesting use of Kyouko's amnesia to give a unique twist to a story that on its own would be pretty simple as a mystery story: a swimming coach is accused of murdering a former rival, but the man swears he has an alibi for the time of the murder, because he was having a coffee with Kyouko that day. She of course can't remember a thing of her encounter with this man, so they have to find another way to prove his innocence.

I think the most interesting episodes were the third and eighth episode, as they worked the best as standalone mystery stories. In the third episode, Yakusuke's been working as a museum guard, and to his great surprise, Kyouko's been visiting every day too (as she forgets every day she's been to the exposition already). One day, he strikes up a conversation with her about the painting she's always admiring, and she confides to him she's most of all impressed by the value of the work. Yakusuke decides to come to the museum on his day off as a visitor to talk to Kyouko again, but for some reason she doesn't seem impressed by the painting today, which utterly baffles Yakusuke. Later, Yakusuke and a rather angry elderly man damage the painting in a struggle,  but to Yakusuke's surprise the news is kept silent, further fueling his doubts about the painting. Kyouko is hired to figure out what's wrong with the painting and why her impression of it changed so much in one day. The solution is so simple, yet nicely hidden through the misdirection and it looks great on the screen! The eight episode is about a "soft" locked room: a woman's found dead inside the fitting room of a boutique, her head hit with a hanger. Witnesses in the store saw the woman entering the shop and going into the fitting room, but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary until Yakusuke accidentally discovered her body when he tripped in front of the fitting rooms. Due to the cramped space of a fitting room, it doesn't seem likely the killer could've gotten inside the fitting room together with the victim to club her with the hanger, so how was this "locked room murder under observation" (with the door being a simple curtain) committed? The core idea probably sounds familiar, but the way it was adapted to the context of a dressing room of a boutique was good, with a slight cultural-specific touch to it. It wouldn't work like that in many countries, but most definitely in Japan, making this a nice variation on the idea.

The drama has great presentation by the way! The series has a slight Sherlock-feel to it because it often "labels" things on the screen for the viewer to read, but also builds on it, using this on-screen text also like thought balloons are used in comics. It has a very comic-like feel throughout, with collage-esque crime scene recontructions. But while Gakki is also absolutely adorable as Kyouko in this series, and it's not like the wig looks absoutely awful, her hair does stand out. I kinda wish that Gakki'd dyed her hair in a not-so-bright color, or that the team hadn't gone with the setting of the unusual hair color in the first place. I'm one of those who doesn't think that an adaptation needs to stick to the source material that closely if it works out better in a different manner/can give an original touch to the adaptation, and ultimately, it's not like her hair color really matters in this series.

So despite the fairly simple plots, I did enjoy Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku, as it's a series that has both style and a funny cast that make the series fun to watch even when the mystery stories can't always keep up with them. I'm kinda interested in the novel series too now, though it'll be hard to figure out where to start as I know parts of the earlier volumes now, even if they have been changed partially for this drama series. Will have to figure out whether I really want to re-read familiar plots again or not before I get to the new stuf.

Original Japanese title(s):『掟上今日子の備忘録』

The Mystery of the 99 Steps

"You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?"

"Appointment with Death"

Man, I want to read more mysteries set at the Kumano Kodou now, because it's a visually stunning place and would make for a great setting for a mystery revolving around perfect alibis!

The famous detective Suguro Takeru enjoys a well-deserved holiday in Tengu Village in Wakayama Prefecture, near the Kumano Kodou, a series of ancient pilgrimage routes and sacred sites that cross the Kii Penisula. One of the other guests at the same hotel is Mrs. Hondou, a filthy rich widow who spends her time travelling across Japan with her family. While her (step)children are adult, they have all been terrorized by the commanding and controlling woman since a young age, and they literally can't do anything but follow her around and beckon at her orders, even if it makes them deeply, deeply unhappy. Not only Suguro is greatly disturbed at the sight of the woman intentionally playing her children apart to make them as miserable as possible, but also the young doctor Sara who is also staying at the hotel and who has become attracted to the younger Hondou son. Suguro is also rejoined at the hotel with an old friend, Uesugi Honami, who has become a Dietwoman. Uesugi convinces Suguro to come along on an excursion to explore the pilgrimage routes of the Kumano Kodou (even though Suguro would rather prefer to stay in the comfortable hotel). The Hondou family has the same plan, but after bossing her children around for a while in the bus, Mrs. Hondou insists she wants to be left alone for some time, and sends her children off, while she takes a rest at one of the sacred sites. At the end of the day, when the bus is ready to return back to the hotel however, Sara stumbles upon Mrs. Hondou still sitting there, but then realizes that she's dead. It turns out Hondou had been injected with something to kill her and it's obvious that her whole family has a motive for wanting her dead. But what makes matters even more serious is the fact that Suguro on his first day at the hotel overheard someone of the family saying "You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" But which of them did it?

After a capable adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express in 2015 followed by a very impressive adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, screenwriter and playwright Mitani Kouki returned on March 6, 2021 with his third adaptation of a Hercule Poirot novel for television: Shi to no Yakusoku is a three-hour television special based on Agatha Christie's 1938 novel Appointment with Death. The summary above might make you suspect that this is a very loose adaptation of the Christie novel, but you'd completely wrong. While Mitani's adaptations do take place in a post-war Japan and star the eccentric detective Suguro Takeru, these specials have been very faithful to the source material and an absolute delight for fans of Christie's work. It's strange that even though these specials take place in another time, in another place than the original novels, they manage to capture the spirit of the source material so incredibly well. This respect for the original work can be seen in all the Japanese character names for example, which are clearly derived from the original names: the Boyntons became the Hondous, Doctor Sara King became Sara Kinuko, family friend Jefferson Hope Juumonji Kouta etc. There are some changes here and there that some might find significant, like the absence of the character of Dr. Gerard in this adaptation or for example the fact that Uesugi was made an old friend of Suguro (Poirot), but Mitani always does a good job at justifying each change from the novel, and the script never feels unnatural despite his tinkering. For example Uesugi is used to make Suguro a more involved character in this adaptation, while Poirot doesn't really appear that much in the original novel.

It's funny how the theme color of Shi to no Yakusoku is green by the way. Appointment with Death is set in Jeruzalem and they visit Petra in that book, so I always associated with a more... sandy yellow.

In terms of atmosphere, you can definitely feel Mitani's hand like in the previous adaptations: he is best his comedic storytelling and while lately, he's done a lot of historical drama, he's also quite experienced with mystery productions (like in Furuhata Ninzaburou, the fantastic Japanese Columbo and Ellery Queen-inspired TV show). His cozy, comedic style does fit Christie's stories pretty well, so the comedy never feels weird, and while Suguro is perhaps more of a physically comical character compared to Poirot, these adaptations have also shown a Suguro who's much more human than Poirot is in the original novels. Which is also shown here, as Suguro knows the Hondous are better off without their mother, but his own morals don't allow him to ignore this murder. We had a glimpse of this Suguro in the previous adaptations too, but Suguro is a detective who doesn't always enjoys his calling, but he knows it's the right thing to do, and this focus works very good with Mitani's own style. The setting move to the Kumano Kodou however is amazing. There are some fantastic shots of the party exploring the mountain woods and while in the original novel, several witnesses talk about Mrs. Hondou shooing off an Arab servant while she was alone, in this adaptation, it's changed to a pilgrim wearing a Tengu mask and it looks stunning visually. 

As for the mystery plot itself, it's mostly the same as the original novel and I'll have to be honest and say that Appointment with Death has never been one of my favorite Poirots. A lot of the plot revolves around Suguro having to reconstruct a timeline of who saw Ms. Hondou when while she was alone at the sacred site, but that makes the middle part of this story rather long, while the pay-off is... just a timeline of the events. Sure, Suguro builds on that to eventually identify the killer, but it does make this a rather slow story. What I did like about Appointment with Death was an iconic moment where the motive for the crime suddenly becomes clear: it's hard to explain what this is without spoiling the surprise, but people who know the original story will probably understand what part of the story I mean. It's basically the moment the victim actually makes her own appointment with death, making her own murder inevitable. I'm surprised to say that I actually like the variation in Shi to no Yakusoku even better than the original! It's when the little changes here and there by Mitani really pay off, because while the scene is basically the same as in the original novel, the set-up to have that particular scene play out the way it did is even better in this television special, and feels sooooooo much more satisfying when they talk about it again at the end of the story. 

So yep, Shi to no Yakusoku was yet another highly enjoyable and very well-made Christie adaptation by Mitani. In comparison to the adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, this televsion special might not be as ambitious, but like the previous two adaptations, Shi to no Yakusoku is a production where the combination of Agatha Christie and Mitani Kouki really feels like a match made in heaven, with the end result is more than the sum of the parts. The core plot by Christie has one very memorable moment in terms of mystery, while the changes made by Mitani to fit "his" version of Appointment with Death aren't made for fun, but often support or even elevate the original story. It's a shame that Suguro doesn't have his own Hastings at the moment, because tone-wise, it'd love to see how Mitani would tackle an adaptation of Curtain!

Original Japanese title(s): 『死との約束』

House Arrest

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

"Crooked House"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home Sweet Homicide

"There's no place like home."

"The Wizard of Oz"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time After Time

Time after time 

君と出会った奇跡

緩やかな風吹く街で

「Time after time~花舞う街で」（倉木麻衣）

Time after time

The miracle of meeting you

In the city where the gentle wind blows

"Time after Time ~ In The City Of The Dancing Flowers) (Kuraki Mai)

One of the first reviews of last year, and one of my best reads overall of 2019, was Ooyama Seiichirou's Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu ("Alibi Cracking, At Your Service", 2018), a wonderful short story collection revolving completely around the problem of the perfect alibi. The stories introduced us to Mitani Tokino of Mitani Clockmakers, a young woman in her twenties who inherited the shop from her grandfather, who also taught her the art of cracking alibis. For a good clockmaker should offer all services related to time and clocks. When the narrator, a rookie police detective, first noticed the sign saying they also offer the service of alibi cracking, he didn't think much of it, but when Tokino easily solved a case where the main suspect had a perfect alibi, he became convinced of her talent and since, he's been occasionally visiting Mitani Clockmakers whenever the police is struggling with a tough case. The stories were a delight to read: while all revolving around the theme of the branch of the impossible crime involving a perfect alibi, there was actually quite some variety (an alibi that depended on the download of a song that was only available for a limited period for example, or a murderer confessing to a murder in his dying moments even though he had a perfect alibi) and the plotting of Ooyama was excellent, with story structures reminiscent of the Queen school.

The first collection was released in September 2018, but it was received quite well, and to my surprise, it was promptly picked up for a live-action television series adaptation. The drama Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu started last weekend, so things went really fast. The show does feature a larger cast than the original stories, and the personalities/background setting of the characters are also changed slightly (Tokino being more bubbly, the narrator now being given the name of Saji and not being a rookie detective), but the core mystery plots seem to be adapted quite faithfully. The stories do really lend themselves wel for fairly straight adaptations, as they are not too long, and the visual aspect of the medium also helps visualize/convey the notion of time quite well (with graphs/diagrams explaining why an alibi appears to be perfect). And oh, man, the main theme of the soundtrack is excellent. Anyway, it seems Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu will become a good and entertaining adaptation of the source material.

Meanwhile though, I thought it might be fun to take a sneak peak at the "second season" of the original stories. Ooyama started working on new set of alibi cracking stories last year, and at the moment, two of them have been published. The first book featured six stories + one story especially written for the collected volume, so I assume the second volume will be of similar length, but as I couldn't wait anymore, I tried the two new stories out already.

Tokeiya Tantei to Shizumeru Kuruma no Alibi ("The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi of the Sinking Car") starts in the familiar manner, with the narrator visiting Mitani Clockmakers for help. One morning, a car with the driver inside was found submerged in the dam lake far away from the city. The victim was Fujimura Kouzou, a wealthy, elderly man who liked to fish. At first the police thought he might've just lost control of his car and gotten off the road into the lake where he drowned, but medical examination proved he had been drugged, so the police suspects someone may have lured Kouzou to the lake with the excuse of going fishing together and that the culprit drugged the victim and pushed his car in the lake, after which they made their escape. The main suspect is Kouzou's nephew and only relative Hiroki, but of course, the man has an alibi for the time of the murder: he had a gathering at a friend's house, and all the friends there swear the longest time he was gone was to go to the bathroom, hardly enough to ride up and down the lake to kill his uncle. Personally, I thought the exact method in which the culprit managed to fake his alibi was a bit simple, as the trick is a relatively often-seen one in these kinds of stories, but I did like the chain of clues that first led Tokino on the trail, as she notices a few things about the crime scene that allows her to ask the right questions. So I guess I like the plotting of the clues/the line of reasoning that guides you to the solution better than the solution itself. Sounds negative perhaps, but I actually think that good clewing is perhaps harder than thinking of a good solution/trick in mystery fiction, so I wasn't in any way disappointed in this story.

Tokeiya Tantei to Oosugiru Shounin no Alibi ("The Clockmaker Detective and the Alibi with Too Many Witnesses") starts with a somewhat nervous narrator visiting Mitani Clockmakers and for a good reason: the death count in this case is already at two, as the murderer in this case is apparently also willing to kill witnesses, and the narrator fears what might happen to Tokino if the murderer would find out about her. The case started with a riverside discovery of the burnt body of Nagoshi, the secretary of Tomura Seiichi, member of the House of Representatives. Nagoshi's body was in a horrible state, but his personal belongings and subsequent DNA examination helped identify his body positively. The night before the murder, Nagoshi had been present at Tomura's fundraiser party in a hotel, but he had been called away by a, what turned out to be a fake, emergency phone call about his father being carried to the hospital. Due the state of Nagoshi's body, the time of death had to be estimated based on the contents of his stomach, as he had eaten the exclusive risotto served at the party and it was determined he was killed not too long after that. When Nagoshi's father reveals to the police that his son may have been blackmailing his boss with some dirty secret to become his political successor, the investigation naturally starts to focus on Tomura as a suspect, but he has a perfect alibi: he was present at his own fundraiser party, with about five hundred guests witness to that, and he was of course also there long after Nagoshi had left the party (which was also seen by witnesses and captured on hotel cameras). A few days later, a man tied to his bed is found dead in his own apartment, and it is discovered that this man was one of the people at the fundraiser party, raising suspicions this man may have seen something which led to his murder, but how could Tomura have snuck away from his own fundraiser party to kill and burn Nagoshi without anyone noticing save for the dead witness?

The story interestingly reminds me of a certain well-known Agatha Christie novel with Poirot: it hits a few familiar notes in terms of why the witness had to die and in very abstract terms, how the perfect alibi was created, but the execution is completely different and it's in no way a redressed version: Tokeiya Tantei to Oosugiru Shounin no Alibi is in fact a pretty good alibi-cracking story as it's pretty comprehensive: there are a lot of little mysteries like why did the murderer set fire to Nagoshi's body and why was the other victim tied to his bed, and there's even the talk about risotto and other elements: at first, the story may seem a bit disorienting, with too much going on, but once the truth is revealed, it turns out all these 'clashing' elements all work really well together. I do find the actions of one certain character a bit hard to swallow (like, you had no suspicions whatsoever?), but this way the perfect alibi was created does do justice to the evenly alluring premise of an alibi vouched for by five hundred guests.

At the moment, I don't know whether I'll be reviewing more single stories from the second season, or whether I'll just wait until the whole volume is released, as I suspect the standalone volume will feature an originally written story exlusive to the volume anyway. But the two stories discussed today definitely make me want to read more about the brilliant deductions of Tokino. Considering the usual length of a television drama series, I wouldn't be surprised if some episodes of the adaptation will be based on stories of the second season, so I'll be keeping an eye out to see if there's an episode based on source material I haven't read yet. But it's clear I will pay more visits to Mitani Clockmakers sooner or later.

Original Japanese title(s):  大山誠一郎　「時計屋探偵と沈める車のアリバイ」/「時計屋探偵と多すぎる証人のアリバイ」

Greed

いまから嘘をつくよ

たった一度の君へ嘘

『君への嘘』(Valshe) 

"I am going to lie now

My one and only lie I will tell you"

"My lie to you" (Valshe)

About a month ago, I repeated the intention to write something about Liar Game, something I'd said for years. I was not lying.

Liar Game is a manga series by Kaitani Shinobu, which was serialized between 2005-2015 and which also acted as the original source material for a Japanese live action franchise spanning two television series and two theatrical films, as well as a Korean live-action series. I name-drop the series occasionally here, and the last time I did that, it was in my post on what I think a "mystery" can be in mystery fiction. For in my opinion, Liar Game is a prime example of how a mystery plot does not need to be about crime, locked room murders, ingenious alibi tricks or anything remotely close to what most people would usually associate with the mystery genre. It shows exactly how immensely diverse a mystery plot can be, and how the usual dynamics associated with a mystery or detective show can change completely by broadening one's views of what a mystery plot entails, without letting go of core concepts like clewing, fair play and a logical build-up and pay-off.

The series is about the Liar Game Tournament, an underground tournament that revolves around big money. Players are provided with 100 million yen at the start of the game, and each stage introduces a new game where more money can be earned or lost. However, participants are also strongly encouraged to cheat, lie and betray to obtain money from other contestants. Losers of a round are disqualified, and burdened with a debt proportional to their losses, which usually means nothing but complete despair (and if you can't pay, the Liar Game Tournament organization will find ways to get their money from you). At the start of the series, Nao, a gentle, but very gullible student, is duped into becoming a participant in the game. She's immediately swindled out of her starting money, so she seeks help from Akiyama Shinichi, a brilliant psychology student and evenly gifted con man. Together they manage to retrieve Nao's money and survive the first round of the Liar Game Tournament. They advance through each round thanks to Akiyama's brilliant strategies and sometimes despite, and sometimes thanks to Nao's natural gift to believe in the good of other people.

It's the variety in games that really makes Liar Game shine as a very diverse mystery series, providing an ever-changing battlefield that allows new mysteries and questions to pop up all the time. While the games can be very different in each stage, they usually revolve around the common theme of trust and betrayal, and the Prisoner's Dilemma. If all contestants in a game would cooperate and trust each other, everyone would be able to get away debtless at the least, and perhaps even earn modest earnings. The problem is that these games are designed in a way so betrayal will always pay off more to the individual traitor and not surprisingly, each of the games end up with everyone trying with minimalizing loss and maximalizing their winnings. It's this framework of original games each with their own specific rules and setting combined with the colorful cast of participants who can choose to trust or betray each other at any moment, which makes Liar Game one of the most entertaining and engrossing works of mystery fiction I've ever consumed.

Each of the games brings a new dynamic because of the unique goals and rules, and while some games are played by the contestants individually, other games are played in teams, which can lead to uneasy alliances. While these games appear at first sight to revolve around an element of chance and bluffing, there are ways in which to 'rig' the game to always win. Each games has clearly defined rules, and often involve elaborate props to play the game (the game Russian Roulette has a special 24-shot revolver for example). It's up to the players to figure out how within the confines of the rules, they can make sure they won't lose the game, and quite surprisingly, this can be done in a lot of ways: from finding loopholes in the rules to making clever use of the props provided for the game to even cooperating (and betraying) on-the-fly alliances with fellow participants. Ultimately, each stage of the Liar Game Tournament ends up being a true mystery story, with proper clewing and a logical build-up to the solution. The solution to what exactly, you may ask. Usually, each stage ends up being a howdunit, whodunit, or both. Because there are ways to 'cheat' through each game, there's always the question of how a game can be manipulated under the eyes of all the other participants and within the framework of the specific game (the Liar Game Tournament referees will throw out anyone who goes against the explicitly stated rules). Sometimes it's an opponent who is mysteriously able to see the moves of the other participants, sometimes it's one of the protagonists who miraculously turns the game completely around even though they were about to lose the whole thing. The question of how the game can be rigged (howdunit) is sometimes combined with the whodunit, as in certain games, contestants aren't able to see exactly the actions of the others, and some people might be betraying others through secret team-ups or manipulating the game in other ways to raise their own earnings and force others to lose the round. At any rate, one will be surprised how despite its appearances, Liar Game is a really well-executed fair-play puzzle plot mystery.

One of the earliest games featured in the series for example is Minority Rule: all the contestants are asked to vote yes or no a statement, and the participants who voted for the majority are disqualified. It becomes clear right away that it's not about answering truthfully to the statement (for example "I am female"), but in what way can the protagonists make sure they will always vote for the minority statement? Another prime example of how a 'simple' game can turn into a brilliant mystery tale is Contraband, where two teams try to smuggle money from the enemy country to a safe place over multiple rounds. At "customs" the enemy state has to guess whether the person passing trough is really carrying money with them or not, and false accusations are penalized with a money fine. At first, this game seems to be merely a game of guessing and bluffing and not a stage set for a fair-play mystery, but as the game continues, it's revealed that there's definitely room to force an outcome within the framework, making it a proper mystery plot.

I recently rewatched the 2010 film Liar Game: The Final Stage, which I had seen in the theatres when it was originally released. This film was the original ending to the two television series before it (2007's first season and 2009's second season) and was followed by the 2012 sequel film Liar Game: Reborn. My own first encounter with Liar Game was through the live-action television series, and while I did try out the manga at a later point, I always thought the live-action series was more entertaining, so I loved watching the finale to the original series in the theatre. I also think Liar Game: The Final Stage is an excellent mystery film, which really showcases how one can build a whole movie with many twists and turns and ever-changing dynamics around one well-designed game As the title of the film suggests, Liar Game: The Final Stage is about the finale in the Liar Game Tournament, so it's best watched after viewing the first two seasons. Over the course of the two television series, Nao and Akiyama managed to proceed through each round to arrive at the final game in this movie, where they are joined by some new faces, but also reunited with familiar characters from earlier stages. The game these final elevent contestants play is titled The Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden exist three types of apples: golden, silver and red apples. In each of the thirteen rounds, each player must pick one of these apples. If all eleven contestants pick red apples, all earn 100 million yen each that round. But if even only one participant choses either a golden or silver apple, only they will earn money while all the contestants with red apples are penalized. There are further rules that encourage not picking red apples, but also to not vote as a whole group on either the golden or silver apples. In the end, everyone picking red apples would be the safest bet, but of course, there are more than a few people in this final stage who are willing to betray the others to make more money. The results of each round are also announced anonymously, so it's impossible to tell who won or who lost each time. Can Nao and Akiyama still manage to win this game and save everyone from debt despite the presence of the traitor "X" who is lurking among the contestants?

I think that The Final Stage shows exactly what makes the series so great within the confines of one single film. While the whole story revolves around one single game, of which all the rules are explained at the very start, The Final Stage never becomes boring over the course of the two-hours-and-some runtime. Each time, a new betrayer pops up, but Akiyama not only always manages to figure out who this is, it's always properly clewed. The mystery plot is highly dynamic, because you're not only looking at "one culprit" in this film: sometimes it's Akiyama himself who has set a trap to capture a traitor, sometimes the focus is on how the traitor managed to manipulate the results of a certain round. Each time, you think all the loopholes of the Garden of Eden game have been found, but then another new, unexpected event occurs, and it's absolutely thrilling to see how the earnings and losses of each contestant change as the game approaches the final thirteenth round and the contestants keep on deceiving each other. By transforming the type of mystery constantly over the course of the film, Liar Game: The Final Stage manages to avoid a common hurdle for mystery films: becoming boring midway. The process of mystery-to-solution is repeated several times in this film and they're all about different problems, so you're never bored. In a way, it's a bit like how Columbo always picks up little mysteries on the way, before he arrives at his final problem.

What is also impressive is that ultimately, this is a fair-play mystery film. Akiyama sets several traps to find out who is betraying the group, and each time, the viewer is shown the clues that build up to how Akiyama set up his traps and how that allowed him to pin-point the traitors. Likewise, the movie also shows how each of the traitors managed to manipulate the game to their own benefit, and of course, these moments are also properly clewed. What's interesting is that everything all happens within the confines of the rules as shown at the very start of the film: it's not like the dynamics change because rules are changed or new rules are added: the game as designed simply offers this much room for a great mystery movie. Nothing in Liar Game is like what you'd normally expect of a "mystery film", and yet few mystery films will  actually be as satisfying as Liar Game: The Final Stage. Rewatching the film really made me see how it is really a fairly set-up story.

Anyway, enough fanboying about Liar Game. I can only repeat myself again and say it's a must-see for mystery fans and those who want to see how much potential the mystery genre really has. People who know series like Death Note or Spiral - The Bonds of Reasoning will know the potential of mystery tales revolving around games with clearly defined rules and battles of wits, and fans of either series should definitely check out Liar Game. I believe the first two seasons are available for (free!) streaming at Crunchyroll, and both are excellent (do watch them in order though).

Original Japanese title(s): 『ライアーゲーム ザ・ファイナルステージ』

Bear Witness to Murder

Three little Soldier Boys walking in the zoo;

A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Disclosure: I translated novels by both Arisugawa Alice (The Moai Island Puzzle) and Ayatsuji Yukito (The Decagon House Murders). And in case you're still looking for Christmas presents...

I don't plan to find me some Christmas mystery stories when the season approaches, but coincidences do happen, resulting in today's review. Anraku Isu Tantei ("The Armchair Detective") was a brilliant television drama series created by mystery writers Ayatsuji Yukito and Arisugawa Alice, produced irregularly between 1999-2017. Earlier, I have discussed the episodes ON AIR (2006) and ON STAGE (2017), with the latter later being confirmed by co-creator Ayatsuji as being the last episode of this series, at least in the usual format. If one considers the detective genre to be an intellectual game that challenges the reader (viewer) to solve the mystery themselves, than this show was the ultimate example of how to present a mystery drama as a game. Each story consists of two episodes: the first episode introduces the viewer to all the characters, the events leading up to the murder and the subsequent investigation. All the hints and clues necessary to solve the crime are shown in this first episode, while the solution is revealed in the second episode broadcast the following week. Sounds like common sense of course, but this point was of particular essence for this show, as viewers were encouraged to write in that week with the answers to the following two questions: 1) Who is the murderer? and more importantly: 2) What is the logical process by which you arrived at that conclusion? The winner, drawn from the people who submitted the correct answers, was presented with a sizeable money prize.  The show thus provided the ultimate challenge to the armchair detectives at home and one of the more impressive parts of the show was how it had to walk the line between being difficult enough that not everyone would arrive at the correct conclusion, along the correct route, but not being overly complex so nobody could guess who the murderer was in a logical manner.

Anraku Isu Tantei no Seiya ~ Kieta Teddy Bear no Nazo ~ ("The Holy Night of the Armchair Detective ~ The Mystery of the Vanished Teddy Bear~", 2000) was the third installment of this show, the first episode broadcast on December 21 and the solution episode following soon after on Christmas. We are introduced on Christmas Eve to Kumako, a young woman who recently found a new job, but her boyfriend sadly enough can't see her on Eve, so they plan a date for the twenty-sixth. The twenty-sixth is also the first day of Kumako working at NATO (Nihon Action Team Office), a small scale stunt action series production team, which recently got a small hit with the television tokusatsu series Athlete 4. It's also the last office day for the year, so everyone is present at the office. Kumako is introduced to all the staff and actors, but she soon learns her new workplace is also a den of intrige and hate, with love triangles, post-divorce fights and rumors of embezzlement flying around. In the evening, Kumako waits for her boyfriend in a restaurant, but she's stood up and she only comes home after a lot of drinking. At home, she finds an e-mail waiting for her by Norie, her new colleague who plays Athlete Purple in Athlete 4. To her surprise, Norie says she killed the boss of NATO at the office and that she'll commit suicide too. By the time Kumako had reported this to the police, it's already to late: NATO's owner Inoue was found with his head bashed in with his own golf club at the office, while Norie set fire to herself at her own home. The police however determine that Norie did not commit suicide, but that she was already dead by the time the fire was started. It thus appears someone else must've killed Inoue en Norie, and the main suspect is a suspicious figure spotted by the guards of the building that houses the NATO offices. The two men saw a figure dressed like Santa Claus carrying a large sack on his back leave the building that night, only moments after the Inoue murder must've happened. The Santa Claus costume was stolen from NATO's costume wardrobe, but there's another missing object: the rare, large teddy bear Inoue kept as a memento in his office. But why would the murderer steal a teddy bear or dress up like Santa Claus? Eventually, even Kumako is accused of the murder by the police, which is when she decides to use the magical flute she was gifted a few days ago, of which she was told it would save her from danger. The flute is of course the item that summons the titular Armchair Detective, a mysterious entity who is ratiocination personified and who can prove without any doubt who is in fact the true murderer.

The show was conceived as a puzzle plot mystery drama where the reader could participate, so to start off with some statistics: the television station received 36,731 (!) entries for this particular installment, the highest amount of participants in the history of the series. 21.5 percent of the respondents guessed the identity of the murderer correctly, but only forty respondants, or mere 0.1 percent, actually got the process right of correctly identifying the murderer/eliminating the other suspect. The numbers will thus tell you it was pretty hard to get all of the story right. I have seen most of the episodes of this series now, and I thought this was one of the easier episodes actually (it was), but getting full marks would've been difficult.

Because as always Ayatsuji and Arisugawa came up with a deliciously tricky story. The second episode starts off with every major character in the story being transported to the dimension of the Armchair Detective, who then goes through the long chains of deduction that lead to the identity of the murderer. The tone here is rather comedic, with each character trying to argue why they aren't the murderer. There are a few meta-rules here that help the viewer out: there is always only one culprit (no accomplices), everything shown on screen (including the time stamps) is correct and nobody besides the murderer lies intentionally. Still, you need to pay attention very well to keep up with the Armchair Detective while he eliminates the suspects one by one and crosses off false solutions. I mean, how many detective shows do you know that spend between thirty minutes and an hour purely to the explanation of a crime? In order to solve the crime yourself, you need to reference the time stamps of each scene and sometimes check the backgrounds very carefully for hidden clues. In some episodes, the zoom-and-enhance trope can be rather persnickety (and kinda unfair in pre-HD TV broadcasts), but it's done fairly err, fair here. As mentioned, this show has to be both difficult, and also fair enough for the viewer at home (anyone can come up with an unsolvable mystery), and I think this episode is definitely one of the better efforts. It helps this show isn't about locked room murders etc., as they are harder to present in a truly fair manner. You can show a thread and needle on the screen, but it's not really fair to expect from the viewer to imagine what could've done with that. This show is about eliminating suspects, so you have to determine what the murderer must have done or known, and then see which of the suspects does or does not fit that profile. You'll definitely have to rewatch scenes a few times to get it though, and unless you have photographic memory, it's impossible to solve this in one go. There are a few scenes in the first episode that do stand out as being obviously 'oh, this scene is used to prove that this character couldn't have done this or that' but this doesn't hurt the experience, because you still need the context of the murder to understand how this becomes revelant in the elimination process.

In this case, the mystery revolves around two questions: Why the Santa Claus dress-up, and why steal a gigantic teddy bear after committing a murder? At first, the problem seems so trivial and also meaningless, but when the whole solution is presented, you'll see how neatly everything fits, and how all the odd movements of the culprit actually made perfect sense considering the situation. The problem of the teddy bear in particular is great, with a convincing reason as for why it had been spirited away from the office, one that seems so obvious in hindsight. The misdirection is quite clever, and while I kinda knew which characters I could already eliminate based on some of the scenes, I still couldn't make out exactly how the teddy bear was involved, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was all explained to me.

Anraku Isu Tantei no Seiya ~ Kieta Teddy Bear no Nazo ~ is in general a strong installment in this series, and while I'll be the first to admit that this series can be very fussy about its visual clues, I'd say this was actually one of the entries that didn't expect everyone in 2000 to have HD recorders to be able to solve the mystery. Some of the scenes do telegraph themselves too obviously as being clues, but overall, the mystery of the disappearing teddy bear is an amusing one, resulting in a very well-constructed mystery drama show that also does its job well as a Christmas-themed mystery.

Original Japanese title(s): 『安楽椅子探偵の聖夜 〜消えたテディ・ベアの謎〜』