Triple Jeopardy

" There must be something comforting about the number three. People always give up after three."

"Sherlock"

I have mentioned it before that in general, I like the short story format more than a full novel, but when it comes to reading them, I have to admit I usually read these short stories when they are collected in short story collections and published as a single book. And in my case, that's basically always a short story collection of the same author, and very seldom anthologies. So I usually consume short stories as part of a bigger release, and rarely do I read just one short story on its own. Today however, I'll be briefly discussing three stories that I have read exactly in that matter, as just a single short story release. And strangely enough, all three of them were released in rather different ways.

The first one some readers might have expected already: while not exactly planned, the last two years I have discussed the winners of the Mysteries! Newcomer Award around this time of the year (here (2020) and here (2019)). Simply put, the Mysteries! Newcomer Award is the sister award to the better-known Ayukawa Tetsuya Award, as both awards are organized by the same publisher and aimed at unpublished works of authors who haven't made their major debut yet as writers. The Mysteries! Newcomer Award is meant for short stories, while the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award accepts full-length novels/short story collections. Ayukawa Tetsuya Award winners are obviously published as standalone book releases, while in the case of the Mysteries! Newcomer Award, publication means being published on paper in the mystery magazine Mysteries!. This changed however this year, as the magazine Mysteries! was cancelled, but a new magazine came its place: Shimino Techo (lit: "A Notebook for Silverfish") started in October 2021 and is of course a mostly mystery fiction-focused bimonthly magazine. So the winner of the Mysteries! Newcomer Award of 2021 was published in the inaugural issue of Shimino Techo, which the publisher Tokyo Sogensha was kind enough to send me, so I guess I'll be discussing the winner this year too! Aaaaand, no, I don't know why the award is still called Mysteries!

Yanagawa Hajime's Sannin Shobou ("Three Men's Bookshop") is named after the used bookshop Edogawa Rampo, the father of the Japanese mystery story, ran with his two brothers before he became a professional writer and took on the name of Rampo. As you can guess, this story is about Rampo himself, or rather Hirai Tarou (his real name), though the story uses "Rampo" for convenience. The narrator of the story is Inoue Katsuki, a friend of the real Edogawa Rampo who is also mentioned in Rampo's essays. Rampo wrote that Inoue was staying with Rampo and his brothers in the bookshop for a while, and this story is set during that period. One day, when two frequent female visitors/friends are at the shop, Rampo and one of his brothers happen to going through a collection of used books they bought, when inside one of the books, they find a note signed by a Sumako, that appears to be a farewell or suicide letter of some kind to a lover. Based on the writing style and the name Sumako, they quickly realize that this note was written by Matsui Sumako, the actress who committed suicide a few months ago, following in the footsteps of a director with whom she was having an affair, who died because of a disease. But the note they found seems to indicate Sumako had another lover besides the director. Curious to the person who received this note, Rampo and his brothers start to look for the previous owner of the used books they bought, as they fear the note might shine a different light on Sumako's death. 

An interesting story, though not completely my cup of tea. The best part of this story is without a doubt the historical setting, based on the life of the father of the Japanese mystery story. The idea of having Rampo and his brothers solve cases while running their used bookshop is pretty fun, and having actual persons like narrator Inoue, but also the link with actual Japanese history is done really well: at first I didn't even know Matsui Sumako was a real person, so it was interesting learning what kind of news/scandals were on the mind of the people in Tokyo in the early 1920s. In that sense, the way this story uses some familiar Rampo tropes like letters/correspondence and the hidden meaning/messages in them in combination with Sumako is pretty inspired. As a mystery story however, the plot feels a bit too slow for me: there is no clearly defined mystery for the reader to solve, more like vague questions raised about the note and Sumako's suicide, as well as other characters' actions, and then the story moves to an interpretation of the situation that addresses these questions, but you never deal with a clear-cut problem to solve. That's just something I personally don't always like, though I think that if you like (well-researched) historical mysteries, and Rampo of course, you'll find a lot to like here. Personally I do think the mystery plot has some nice ideas, like how it reveals how a certain situation is mirrored elsewhere, but things move just a bit too slow for me.

The whole world had to adapt to a new situation last year and to cheer people up, playwright and film creator Mitani Kouki decided to bring back Furuhata Ninzaburou in his long-running been newspaper column Mitani Kouki's Mundane Life for the Asahi Shimbun. Furuhata Ninzaburou was a highly succesful comedic inverted detective television series that ran between 1994-2006, which followed the adventures of the somewhat eccentric Lieutenant Furuhata of the Tokyo police. Heavily inspired by Columbo, each episode would show the viewer how the culprit committed the crime and the mystery presented to the viewer was figuring out how Furuhata was going to solve the case. Inspiration was also taken from the Ellery Queen television series, as each episode, Furuhata would turn to the audience and challenge them to guess what put him on the trail. While the show had stopped long ago, Mitani decided to bring Furuhata back last year by serializing the very short story Isshun no Ayamachi ("A Moment's Mistake") across four installments of his column. While obviously there's only that much you can do in the space of four newspaper columns, the story was actually quite fun to read. Earlier this year however, Tamura Masakazu, the actor who played Furuhata Ninzaburou on television, passed away, and as far as Mitani is concerned that means Furuhata will never return on television again. However, on paper is a different story, so this year too, Mitani decided to use up his columns between September 30 - October 21 2021  to bring back Furuhata Ninzaburou for a special appearance.

Satsui no Yukemuri ("Steamy Intent to Kill") follows Mitani, who is enjoying a stay at a hot spring inn when a new guest arrives at the same inn: the actor Chateau Jirou (a thinly-disguised Satou Jirou) has worked on many productions of the great director Mitani Kouki, but there's one thing that has always bothered Mitani: Chateau Jirou improvises too much! Nothing is left of the original script whenever Chateau Jirou is in the scene, and it's about time Mitani finally confronts Jirou about this. Late at night, Mitani manages to corner Chateau Jirou in the outdoor hot spring and pleads with Chateau to finally stick to the script from now on, but the two get into an argument and a push and an unlucky landing on the head later, Chateau Jirou is dead. After fleeing the scene, Mitani is sure no clues have been left at the scene, but surprisingly, Furuhata Ninzaburou wants to have a talk the following day regarding the death of Chateau Jirou. But how did Furuhata figure out it was Mitani who did it? Like the story last year, Satsui no Yukemuri is incredibly short due to its publication format, but it's actually surprisingly well-plotted. Sure, it's kinda a one-trick pony because 4 columns worth of text is really, really little, and to be honest, the dying message featured in this story is really, really not interesting at all, but there's some good clewing going on regarding the fatal mistake Mitani made, and there's even a genuinely shocking conclusion to the case, when Furuhata reveals how he managed to connect all the seperate clues and immediately figure out it could only have been Mitani who did it. I would love to see this idea worked out into a more substantial story, but even as it is now, I have to say it was a very nice surprise. Definitely a must-read for fans of Furuhata Ninzaburou, or Mitani Kouki's work in general. I wonder if Mitani will be killing off another actor he often works with next year too!

The last story to be discussed today is also a "continuation" of  a post of last year, in a way. Ooyama Seiichirou's Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu ("Alibi Cracking, At Your Service") was a great short story collection that focused completely about perfect alibi stories. The unnamed narrator (a rookie police detective stationed in Nano Ciy, Nano Prefecture) is a very frequent visitor of Mitani Clockmakers, run by Mitani Tokino who inherited the shop from her grandfather. Tokino, a young woman in her twenties, does not only sell and repair clocks, but she also offers a special alibi cracking service. The concept of one single series on cracking alibis was not only fairly unique, but the quality of the stories was very high. Ooyama started working on the "second season" of this series soon after the first book was done, publishing a new story once every few months, which for some reason can all be read for free on the official site. The previous three I have already discussed, so I figured, I might as well discuss the fourth story too!

Tokeiya Tantei to Niritsu Haihan no Alibi ("The Clockmaker Detective and the Antinomic Alibi") starts in the familiar fashion, with the narrator needing Tokino's help to crack the alibi of the main suspect in a murder case. However, what is unique about this case is that Nakaishi Junichi is the suspect in two different murders committed in different places around the same time, even though it would only be physically possible to commit one of them! On the fifth of November, the narrator is forced to cancel a dinner date with Tokino due the discovery of the body of Nakaishi Satoko, who was found in her house by a friend with whom she had a lunch date earlier that day. The Nano Prefectural Police soon start to suspect her husband Junichi: the couple had been living seperately for a year now. They trace Satoko's last known movements on the night before, and find out she must have been killed on the fourth of November, after having dinner at a restaurant. Confronting the husband with his history of infidelity and the fact a neighbor saw someone like him leaving the house around the time of the murder, the husband claims he was alone in his home, but can not prove his story. The detectives of the Nano Prefectural Police are pretty sure Junichi's their man and hope to nab him after Satoko's funeral, when they run into homicide detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department, who reveal Nakaishi Junichi is the main suspect in the murder of Kawai Aki, Junichi's mistress who was slowly turning into a nuisance. It turns out that this Aki was also killed around eleven o'clock of the fourth of November in Tokyo, and the MPD too have enough evidence to at least bring Junichi along for questioning, but this leads to a problem: Both the local Nano detectives and the MPD detectives are sure Junichi is the culprit of their own case, but obviously, he can only have committed one of those crimes, because the murders were committed around the same time and whether you take public transport or the car, it's about ninety minutes between the two crime scenes. Both investigative parties refuse to admit they are wrong, but the harder the Nano police detectives try to prove they are right, they are just proving Junichi's innocence in the other case, while the work of the MPD detectives in turn weakens the Nano police's case, resulting in neither party being able to pin anything on Junichi!

A story with a very interesting premise: Junichi is the suspect in two different cases that occured at the same time, so proving his guilt in one case, would only provide him with an alibi for the other case! Considering this series is about perfect alibis, you can of course guess that Junichi is in fact involved with both murders, and that his trick naturally does not rely on him having hired an assassin to do the other murder. I have to admit that at first though, the story seemed a bit too obvious to me: one of the most important clues in this story is very similar to a (good!) idea from the first collection, so that allowed me to guess what Junichi must have done fairly easily, because the connection is quickly made in your head. But when Tokino explained the crime, I was pleasantly surprised by the way the story actually builds up to that solution. While I had correctly guessed the main trick behind the double murders, I had completely missed the two clever hints that serve as the first step towards the 'big' solution. They are very cunningly hidden in the story, and result in a mystery that really benefits from a well thought-out structure: it doesn't allow, or expect from Tokino, nor the reader, to just jump to Step 3: The Trick in one go, but you also have Step 1 and Step 2 to go through first in terms of clues, to have the proper build-up to the final reveal. It makes this a story that is more than "just a clever trick meant to surprise the reader", because it shifts the focus more to the logical process behind how to solve such a mystery, and it succeeds because of that.

Three completely unrelated short stories, published in three very different ways, being via a magazine, being serialized within a newspaper column and online. And contents-wise, they are really different too, now I think about it, from the historically grounded Sannin Shobou to the more comedic, single idea-focused Satsui no Yukemuri to the tricky puzzler Tokeiya Tantei to Niritsu Haihan no Alibi. As a matter of personal taste, it's of course the puzzler that I liked best of these three, but all three stories have interesting angles to them. And that about wraps things up for this post. The next time I'll be discussing individual, seperate short stories again outside of short story collections? I guess... next year, around this time of the year agan?

Original Japanese title(s):  柳川一「三人書房」/ 三谷幸喜「殺意の湯煙」/ 大山誠一郎「時計屋探偵と二律背反のアリバイ」

Murder: A Self Portrait

"Now are there any more questions? No? Well, if you don't mind, since my column for tomorrow is put to bed, I would like to do the same thing for myself."

"Ellery Queen: The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express"

Memo to self: don't forget to watch the special Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo #StayHome Youtube live-action mystery drama filmed by the writer of the series/the original anime voice actors this and next week! Pretty nuts how they created that with Zoom and stuff and really looking forward to watching it!

While fans of series like Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo are probably quite aware that these series are published in a serialized format, with individual chapters being published in weekly/biweekly magazines first before a number of them are collected in one single volume, some might be surprised to hear that the serialized format is also still used for "normal" literature. While direct-to-book is still the most prominent form of publication, there are still a number of books that have seen serialization in some form or another: whether it's a "classic" serialized form with installments being published at a steady schedule or for example short stories being published seperately in magazines at random times before they are colllected in one short story collection. With the aforementioned manga, I only buy the volumes and with books, I always buy the individual release, so I usually don't notice much of the serialization process of a certain work, though there are exceptions. I followed the serialization of Madoy Van's Gyakuten Saiban - Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten ("Turnabout Trial - Turnabout of the Time Traveler", 2017) for example, because when it started, I was not sure whether this Ace Attorney spin-off novel would actually receive a standalone release in the first place.

The last few weeks however, I've had a lot of fun with a very special serialized mystery short story. I've mentioned the hit mystery drama Furuhata Ninzaburou quite often here. This comedic inverted detective series about the somewhat peculiar and occassionally very petty Lieutenant Furuhata of the Tokyo police ran for three seasons and one final special season between 1994-2006 and was heavily inspired by Columbo. Like in Columbo, each episode the viewer was shown who committed the crime and how and the mystery presented to the viewer was figuring out how Furuhata was going to solve the case. The series also took inspiration from the Ellery Queen television series, as each episode, Furuhata would turn to the audience and challenge them to guess what put him on the murderer's trail in the first place or how he was going to nab them before the episode would continue into the final act. The series was a creation of playwright and film creator Mitani Kouki. He started out with writing comedic plays for the stage, but his heartwarming comedy films with ensemble casts have also been very succesful in Japan. In a way, his style works perfectly with the inverted mystery, where you follow the murderer before and after the deed: most of Mitani's movies are comedic pieces about all kinds of silly problems happening 'backstage' at for example an hotel (The Uchouten Hotel) or a live radio play performance (Radio no Jikan). He also directed two amusing Agatha Christie adaptations by the way: Murder on the Orient Express was interesting as a two-piece production and the second part was sheer genius: it told the story of Murder on the Orient Express from the point of view of the murderer(s) in a comedic tone. Kuroido Goroshi, an adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on the other hand was truly a very accomplished adaptation of a book many deem very difficult to adapt.

Mitani has been writing the weekly column Mitani Kouki's Mundane Life for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper since 2000, but with the current pandemic going on, he decided to do something very special: bring back Furuhata Ninzaburou in a short story! The television series Furuhata Ninzaburou stopped in 2006 (there was a spin-off prequel special in 2008), so it's been about 15 years since we saw the somewhat annoying, but sharp detective, and I think nobody had even dared to dream Furuhata would ever return (especially as Furuhata's actor, Tamura Masakazu, isn't very active anymore). The story Isshun no Ayamachi ("A Moment's Mistake") started in the evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun of April 23rd 2020 and ended with the fourth installment published on May 28th. And this is a special occassion, Mitani decided to go with a very special murderer this time: himself! We follow screenplay writer Mitani Kouki as he plans to kill the actor Ooizumi Myou: a talented actor with whom Mitani has worked often. One day, Ooizumi and his family visited Mitani at his home, when Mitani had to leave suddenly. As a polite gesture, Mitani told them they could stay in the house and relax a bit, but he never thought they would actually take him up on his offer. When Mitani returned home, he found the Ooizumi family still hanging around and that they had watched Frozen on DVD. Even though he himself hadn't seen that movie yet. It was the moment he decided Ooizumi Myou must die.

Mitani plans to kill Ooizumi with a home-made pistol at an event for Ooizumi's latest film, with a reception held at a hotel. Mitani is a surprise guest so few people are aware he's in the hotel in the first place. Mitani makes his way to Ooizumi's hotel room, shoots the actor and returns to his own room, where he has also prepared an alibi in the form of a new script he was working on. It doesn't take long for the murder to be discovered, and Mitani soon finds Lieutenant Furuhata in front of his door. Furuhata instantly starts poking holes in Mitani's story, but even so, Mitani is utterly shocked when Furuhata points out the one vital mistake Mitani made during his murder which told Furuhata who the murderer was the moment he met Mitani. But what was that mistake?

Despite the limitations this story has as it's written in the limited word space of four columns, I have to say I really enjoyed this short inverted mystery. It has everything you'd want in a Furuhata Ninzaburou story, the comedic tone, Furuhata 'poking around' until he unveils his ace, the Challenge to the Reader. The fatal mistake Mitani (the murderer) made is a bit silly, but it works in the context of this specific release, as a funny side-story to entertain people during the pandemic. And don't get me wrong, this is still a decent, well-clewed mystery story and not just a purely comedic piece. I could definitely see a full episode being built upon this, though on the other hand, I think the mistake is easier to overlook in its current prose form as opposed to if this had been an actual episode broadcast on television, but it's genuinely a cleverly set-up mistake of the murderer that most readers will never think of.

By the way, people familiar with the Japanese entertainment world will probably have noticed Mitani didn't only have fun using himself as the murderer for this story. The victim Ooizumi Myou is of course a veeeeeery thinly disguised Ooizumi You, with whom Mitani has worked a lot in his films. Ooizumi plays the unnamed detective in the films based on the novel series Tantei wa Bar ni Iru and is also the voice actor of Professor Layton, but for this specific story, it's of course interesting to note that Ooizumi played the Watson-character of Dr. Shiba (Dr. Sheppard) in Mitani's adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Apparently, Ooizumi You did actually once watch Frozen at Mitani's home, though we may assume the real Mitani isn't considering killing off Ooizumi You. Probably. Furuhata Ninzaburou has a history of featuring 'real' people as murderers by the way: last year, I reviewed the special where Furuhata had to take on the Major League baseball player Ichiro (played of course by Ichiro himself) and Furuhata has also crossed paths with the boy band SMAP in the past (also played by the members of SMAP themselves).

Anyway, it was very fun to have these serialized installments of a mystery story to look forward to these last few weeks, and Isshun no Ayamachi didn't disappoint a bit. While it may have been lean because it was written as part of a newspaper column, it feels 100% like a genuine Furuhata Ninzaburou story and I also found the story entertaining as an inverted detective tale with a nice twist. While the series is formally ended, it's nice to see the creators willing to do something special in these times. And who knows, perhaps it's the first step towards getting one new, final production with Furuhata....

Original Japanese title(s): 三谷幸喜　『古畑任三郎　一瞬の過ち』

Game of Shadows

「今回の犯人は、常にフェアプレイを好むスポーツマンです。人を殺したという以外は、実に公明正大な人物です。 そして、アメリカ大リーグで活躍する、ある日本人野球選手と全く同じ名前で、顔もそっくりです。しかし、別人です。お間違えのないように」

『古畑任三郎：フェアな殺人者』

"This episode's culprit is a sportsman who enjoys a fair game. Save for the fact he killed a man, he's actually a spendid, upright person. He shares his name with a certain Japanese baseball player who's active in the American Major League and he also looks exactly the same. But they are not the same person. Don't confuse them."

"Furuhata Ninzaburou: The Fair Murderer"

Earlier this week, the Japanese news reported heavily on the announcement by baseball player Suzuki Ichirou, better known as simply Ichiro, that he was retiring. The mass attention for this announcement was not surprising. I myself know nothing about baseball, but Ichiro is known as one of the most famous athletes of Japan ever, and is a popular sportsman in both the American Major League and his home country. But to mystery fans, he is perhaps better known as that one murderer.

For Ichiro once starred in an episode of the television drama Furuhata Ninzaburou. In fact, it was only through Furuhata Ninzaburou that I first heard of him and because it has been a while, I decided to pop the DVD in again last night. The inverted mystery show Furuhata Ninzaburou, conceived by playwright Mitani Kouki, ran for three seasons and one final special season between 1994-2006 and was heavily inspired by Columbo. The show starred the somewhat eccentric, peculiar and very petty Lieutenant Furuhata of the Tokyo police, assisted by his bumbling subordinate Imaizumi and later the capable, but close-minded Saionji as they tackled cases in which we, the viewer, already knew who committed the crime and how and where like in Columbo, the fun was in seeing how Furuhata was going to solve the case. One unique characteristic of the show was that Furuhata talked directly to the viewer twice: in the avant-title, he'd start with a random story or observation which usually turns out to have something to do with the main story, whereas in the latter half of the episode, he'd always challenge the viewer directly when he figured the whole thing out, asking the viewer whether they got the answer too.

Furuhata Ninzaburou Final was broadcast in 2006 and consisted of three long specials and in the second episode, The Fair Murderer, we are introduced to the famous baseball player Ichiro who plays in the MLB in the States. In the avant-title, Furuhata assures us by the way that the Ichiro in this episode just happens to share his name with a certain famous Japanese MLB player and who also just happens to look exactly like that other man. Ichiro is back in Japan for a charity event for children. On the day of his arrival, Furuhata and his subordinates Imaizumi and Saijonji visit the hotel where Ichiro is staying, to visit their old friend and former colleague Mukoujima. Mukoujima recently quit his job as a police constable to work at this hotel as a security guard. To their great surprise, they see Ichiro himself coming down to the guards' office to have a chat with Mukoujima whining about wanting to get out for a quick snack, and it's only afterwards that they learn that Ichiro is in fact Mukoujima's younger half-brother. What they do not learn however is that Mukoujima's been blackmailed for some time now by a sleazy reporter with the name Kooriyama, who has not only found out a minor slip-up Mukoujima made when he was a police officer, but the man also knows he's the brother of Ichiro. Fearing his own slip-up will ruin Ichiro's sports career, Mukoujima plans to kill Kooriyama, but realizing his older brother will never be able to pull such a scheme succesfully Ichiro decides to murder the man himself to save his brother. After the body of Kooriyama is discovered in the underground parking lot of the hotel, Furuhata quickly realizes he's dealing with a strange murderer this time, because the killer has left clues on purpose, as if they are hoping for a fair game with the police...

What makes this episode so memorable is of course that Ichiro is really just playing himself. Apparently, the character in this episode was originally planned to be called "Hachiro", but Ichiro himself proposed to use his real name, and it results in a very strange experience where reality and fiction is mixed. This had happened before in this series by the way, when the five members of the boy band SMAP played themselves in a story where SMAP killed a blackmailer during their concert. What's also surprising about the Ichiro episode however is that... Ichiro's actually pretty good at acting. I mean, I guess playing yourself helps, but he really didn't feel out of his league compared to the other professional actors in the episode.

The core mystery plot of the episode is a bit simple, though that has an in-universe explanation, as Ichiro only took over from his brother at the last moment, and most importantly, Ichiro is portrayed as a sportsman who enjoys the game. Throughout the episode, he states he likes to play fair and square, which is why he left one clue at the crime scene so the police'd have a chance at getting to him, and throughout the episode, he never lies to the police to protect himself. In fact, Furuhata soon realizes what is going on, and even suggests that if he were to ask Ichiro on the spot whether he was the murderer, he was sure Ichiro'd sooner admit to the fact honestly rather than lie. This idea of a 'fair-play' murderer who tries to get away while not coming up with elaborate alibi tricks and similar idas definitely helps the otherwise simple mystery plot, really changing it into a game of wits, as Furuhata himself is too proud too to get Ichiro in a simple manner, and wants the sportsman to admit defeat on his own. The way Ichiro is finally caught is incredibly common in inverted mystery fiction, so it's not really shocking, but there are a few scenes that are memorable from a mystery point of view, for example the unique way in which Ichiro decides to get rid of a damning piece of evidence (only possible because he's Ichiro) and the initial deduction of Furuhata which first set him on Ichiro's trail.

If you have the occasion to watch this episode of Furuhata Ninzaburou, I can definitely recommend it. It's incredibly fun to see Ichiro playing himself as a murderer, and while the core plot might seem a bit too familiar at times, the little things in the script that help cement the idea that it's really Ichiro who committed the murder do really help set this episode apart in a series which is already full with memorable murderers.

Original Japanese title(s): 『フェアな殺人者』

The Trial

「われわれは、あらゆる手段を使って、被告を攻撃する。　しかしそのたびにどんな絶望的な状況でも、決して諦めることなく

食らいついてくる男がいた。 悪夢のような信念を持って。　そして私はいつしか‥‥その男を信頼しはじめていたのだ。　だれかが、どんなにキタナイ手を使っても‥‥真実はかならず、カオを出す。　われわれにできるのは、全存在をかけて戦うことだけだ。‥‥やがて、ナゾは１つずつすがたを消して‥‥　最後にわれわれは、たどりつく‥‥かならず‥‥１つしかない“真相”に」

『逆転裁判２』

"We attack the defendant with everything we got. But there was always someone who, no matter how hopeless the situation, would take it all and never give up. With an amazing power of trust. And in time, I began to trust that person myself too. No matter how dirty our methods, the truth will always come out. The only thing we can do is to fight with all we have. By doing so, the mysteries will disappear one by one and finally, we will definitely arrive there... at the one truth"

"Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All"

Kinda bummed out because I wasn't able to get tickets for the worldwide premiere of the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney film held in the Netherlands. So I did the next best thing, I went back to a classic courtroom story that heavily influenced Takumi Shuu when he wrote the script for the original Gyakuten Saiban videogame.

Shaberisugita Otoko ("The Man Who Said Too Much") is the first episode of the second season of Furuhata Ninzaburou, the famous Columbo-inspired TV drama. It is an inverted detective series starring Tamura Masakazu as the titular Furuhata Ninzaburou, a somewhat eccentric, yet amazingly sharp police lieutenant and considered one of the classic TV detective shows of Japan. Befitting a season opener, Shabesugita Otoko starts things out with a bang. The succesful defense laywer Oshimizu (Akashiya Sanma) feels forced to kill his lover as she was endangering his engagement with the daughter of an influential lawyer and arranges things to make it appear as his lover's admirer was the murderer. And that admirer just happens to be Imaizumi, Oshimizu's friend and Furuhata's (bumbling) sidekick. Who panicks when he discovers the victim, leaving even more incriminating evidence and testimonies than Oshimizu himself did!

The interesting problem of this episode is that Oshimizu is hired by Imaizumi (who obviously has no idea that his friend is the murderer) to be his defense lawyer, leaving him in the perfect position to get his scapegoat convicted! He convinces Imaizumi to plead guilty to accidental death, saying it is better than being found guilty of murder. And so Oshimizu manages to trap Imaizumi his web of deceit. Until Furuhata appears on the scene. Imaizumi might be the worst police officer he knows, but he is also sure that he would never kill anyone. And so Furuhata has to save his friend (?) while the trial nears its conclusion.

Mitani Kouki was strongly influenced by the Ellery Queen TV show when he created Furuhata Ninzaburou and he even cited The Adventure of the Wary Witness as one of his favorite episodes, so it was not strange to see Mitani write an episode set at a courtroom. And what a episode! Sanma makes for an impressive villain-of-the-week, who not only commits a murder, but spends most of the episode making sure Imaizumi gets convicted for the crime! It changes the dynamic of the series too. The suspense in most episodes is derived from seeing how the murderer gets cornered by Furuhata, similar to Columbo, but in this episode most of the suspense is actually deriven from seeing how Oshimizu is completing his perfect crime, making sure his scapegoat gets convicted by acting as his defense laywer! It results in a different viewing experience that is certainly nice to have occasionally.
 

The inevitable slip-up of Oshimizu that Furuhata discovers is a pretty ingenious one and can be easily missed. I earlier said that Shaberisugita Otoko was one of the important influences of Takumi Shuu's Gyakuten Saiban videogame series. That was not only because it is set in a courtroom. The way Furuhata manages to prove Oshimizu's guilt is in fact the bread and butter of the Gyakuten Saiban series. Especially the first chapter of the first Gyakuten Saiban game, The First Turnabout, borrows heavily from this story, but it is safe to say that every chapter of every game borrows a bit of Shaberisugita Otoko. It would be spoiler-ish to actually point out what this is, so I will just say that Gyakuten Saiban owes a lot to this episode.

The courtroom during a (murder) trial naturally provides an exciting setting by its nature anyway. A place where someone's future is decided (or if you are playing Gyakuten Saiban, where ideally the truth is brought to light). Both China and Japan have a history in narrative court records being told as a kind of detective stories (see for example Judge Dee and Judge Ooka), but for example the first hit 'translation / adaptation' of famous Meiji period translator Kuroiwa Ruikou was also Houtei no Bijin ("The Beauty at the Trial", adapted from Hugh Conway's Dark Days). More 'recent' novels I know with trial segments are from Carr's The Judas Window, Christie's Sad Cypress and Queen's Halfway House. But the Gyakuten Saiban series is probably the best of all these courtroom based detectives, as it actually places the player himself in the role of detective. And it features awesome music and witty writing that few can match.

Which reminds me: I shouldn't forget my tradition of playing the three Gyakuten Saiban games every year!

Original Japanese title(s): 『古畑任三郎：しゃべりすぎた男』

「古畑任三郎でした」

「赤い洗面器の男の話。ある晴れた日の午後道を歩いていたら、向こうから赤い洗面器を頭にのせた男が歩いてきました。洗面器の中にはたっぷりの水。男はその水を一滴もこぼさないように、ゆっくり、ゆっくり歩いてきました。私は勇気をふるって、「ちょっとすいませんが、あなたどうしてそんな赤い洗面器なんか頭にのせて歩いているんですか？」と聞いてみました。すると男は答えました。この話の続きは番組の最後で。中浦たか子のミッド・ナイト・ジャパン、午前4時までお付き合い下さいませませぇ」
『さよなら、DJ』

"A story about a man with a red wash basin. On a clear day, I was walking in the afternoon, when a man carrying a red wash basin on his head came walking this way. The wash basin was full of water. The man was walking slowly, very slowly, so not even a drop of water would fall out. I gathered all my courage and asked him: "Excuse me, but why are you walking around with a red wash basin on your head?" And the man answered.. The continuation of this story will come at the end of the program. This is Nakaura Takako's Midnight Japan and please accompany me until 4:00 AM!"
"Goodbye, DJ"

If my habit of using introductory quotes was stolen from Ellery Queen, then my inability to write a post without an introductory, contextualizing paragraph comes from Furuhata Ninzaburou. I need start-up time before I get into the main topic. I just can't go straight into the reviews. I just can't.

And as I don't seem to use my Furuhata Ninzaburou tag as much as I should, a short introduction: Furuhata Ninzaburou was a Japanese TV-drama, penned by playwright Mitani Kouki, that ran for well over a decade. The show was very much like Columbo, where the thrill came not from finding out who did it, but from guessing how the detective would catch his culprit. Tamura Masakazu played Furuhata Ninzaburou, a Japanese police lieutenant. Assisted by bumbling subordinate Imaizumi (played by Nishimura Masahiko) (and in the third season, also by smart, but short, sidekick Saionji (Ishii Masanori), Furuhata would use his keen mind (and utterly irritating habits which would annoy every living being) to confront his murderers, played famous Japanese people (Ichiro, SMAP, Ishikawa Kouji, Shoufukutei Tsurube and  Karasawa Toshiaki to name a few).

Every show would begin with a short introduction, before the opening themes, were Furuhata would talk about some non-sequitur. Like vending machines or alarm numbers or the moon or dogs....But in fact, these little stories would often turn out to be hints pointing at the solution of every case. The stories are, as said, very much like Columbo. Furuhata would lock on every single contradiction at the crime scene or testimony and try to find the truth behind it. Not seldom would he give his suspects a chance to explain themselves, only resulting in them burying themselves in more lies till they couldn't get out. Also, in a nod to the Ellery Queen TV drama, Furuhata would always address the TV audience just before the final act, asking them whether they knew where the murderer had slipped up or how he would trap the murderer.

And yes, this is a great show. It's my favorite Japanese TV-drama (well, shared with Trick) and while Trick is more a bizarre comedy set in a mystery, Furuhata Ninzaburou is just everything a fan of the genre can wish for. And more.

Scenario-writer Mitani Kouki was mostly known for his comedic stage productions (some of which have been made into movies), and has also directed movies himself in recent years (for example Welcome Back Mr. McDonald, The Uchouten Hotel and The University of Laughs). Mitani is quite a prolific writer, as he also pens essay-books and novels. But I am actually not sure what moved him into creating Furuhata Ninzaburou. You do see a lot of his background in Furuhata Ninzaburou though. Situation comedy plays a big part in the show (you might chuckle when watching Columbo, but Furuhata Ninzaburou is actually _funny_) and I can't help but think that the small casts and the focus on fast dialogue also comes from the theater.

But anyway, the novelization of the first season of Furuhata Ninzaburou was actually penned by Mitani himself. As he writes in the afterword of Furuhata Ninzaburou - Satsujin Jiken File ("Furuhata Ninzaburou - Murder Case File"), usually scenario-writers just lend their names to ghost-writers for TV drama novelizations, but as Mitani is a honest man, he wrote it himself. The book was to be released before the final episode would appear and because of that, Mitani was only able to make novelizations of 10 episodes (of a total of 12 episodes).

As a man of the theater, Mitani didn't see the novelization as just a novelization, but more like how it works with a play. Every time a play is performed, the playwright learns something new, he sees something that needs to be changed and so the novelization differs at some points with the TV drama. Mitani deleted some scenes/lines he felt obsolete, added scenes/lines that had been cut at first. Most importantly, Mitani shifted the perspective of the stories from Furuhata, to the criminal. Furuhata Ninzaburou in the TV show is, thanks to Tamura's acting, a very recognizable character, with dozens of habits and pet-peeves (Regarding hamburgers: "One pickle in the middle, surrounded by four pickles!"). You'll see him a lot in monomane shows. In the novel however, Mitani tried to erase as much of Furuhata's presence as much as possible. And as we only see him through the eyes of the criminal, it almost seems like Furuhata is a ghost. Appearing before the eyes of the murderer after the crime, solving it, and then leaving. Because of the shift of perspective, subordinate Imaizumi was deleted from the stories entirely, which is a bit sad, but I admit it's needed if Mitani wanted to write it like this.

But onwards to the stories.

In Omedetou Ari sensei ("Congratulations, doctor Ari) [TV-version: Episode 3, Waraeru Shitai ("The Laughing Corpse")], psychologist Ari kills her lover, but sets things up to make it seem like self-defense. The fact that the corpse seems to laugh makes Furuhata thinks otherwise though (Memorable moment: Furuhata smoking through a panty, something he had hoped was impossible.). Both the way Ari killed her lover, as well as the solution are amusing, though the solution is slightly... well, not unbelievable per se, just a bit unlikely.

Rokudaime no Hanzai ("The Sixth' Crime") [Episode 2, Ugoku Shitai ("The Moving Corpse")] is about a murder committed by a kabuki actor. Besides the kabuki theater setting though, the story has no real particulars in my opinion. Not counting Sakai Masaaki playing the murderer in the TV-version.

Banzuiin Dai, Hashiru ("Run, Banzuiin Dai") [Episode 4, Koroshi no Fax ("The Murder Fax")] is memorable to me, because it's the first Furuhata story I ever saw. Mystery-writer Banzuiin's wife has disappeared and Banzuiin is sent fax-messages from a kidnapper demanding money. But actually, Banzuiin has killed his wife himself and has set his fax on a timer to send the 'messages from the kidnapper' to himself, as this would make him seem innocent in the eyes of the police. Furuhata was called in just in case by his superiors (as Furuhata handles murders, not kidnapping cases), but some sharp observations ruin all of Banzuiin's plans. And it seems even my modern readings are old: I chuckled when reading the line saying using something like a fax for an alibi trick must be unprecedented. Times move fast.

Chinami no Ie ("Chinami's House") [Episode 1 Shisha kara no Dengon ("A Message from the Dead")] I have actually translated. Features a dying message without a message. Or something like that. Read it.

Iguchi Kaoru no Requiem ("Iguchi Kaoru's Requiem") [Episode 6, Piano Lesson] is very similar to Rokudaime no Hanzai. Both stories are set in a 'special'  environment. Where Rokudaime no Hanzai was set at a kabuki theater, Iguchi Kaoru no Requiem is set at a music school. Both stories also feature a solution that hinges the culprit's misunderstanding of circumstances. 

Kuroda Seinen no Yuutsu ("Young Kuroda's Melancholy") [Episode 9. Satsujin Koukai Housou ("Open Broadcast Murder")] is a fun little episode, where the self-proclaimed psychic Kuroda shows his powers to the world in live broadcast show. His 'powers' are quickly proven to be nothing more than mere parlor tricks by a scientist. But just as it looks like game over for Kuroda, he senses and finds the body of a dead man. Live on TV! I actually enjoyed the novelization more than the original TV version; reading it from Kuroda's perspective makes the character a lot more interesting (he has the same character development in the TV-show, but there it's rather sudden). And this time, Furuhata doesn't even make a real appearance, as he only tells the scientist some thoughts he had while watching the broadcast...

Sakotsubo Hisho no Nagai Yoru ("Private Secretary Sakotsubo's Long Night") [Episode 10, Mujun darake no Shitai ("The Corpse full of Contradictions")] feels a bit like those shakai-ha (Social) detective novels. Sakotsubo, the private secretary of a Diet member accidentilly kills his boss' lover as Sakotsubo and his boss tried to convince her to break up with, in fear of a scandal. When his boss orders him to make it look like Sakotsubo had a relation with the woman and that she comitted suicide because he dumped her, Sakotsubo snaps and kills his boss. Or so he thinks. Even though he went through the trouble setting things up to look like a double suicide, he is quite surprised to see the police handling the lover's death as a murder, while his boss wasn't dead, only heavily wounded! And as if that wasn't enough, that annoying police lieutenant keeps rambling about things...

Sayonara Otakasan ("Goodbye, Miss Otaka") [Episode 11, Sayonara, DJ ("Goodbye, DJ")] is one of my favorite stories. Once again a 'special' environment is used, this time a TV/radio station, where DJ Otaka manages to kill her assistent while on-air! The setting of TV/radio station is used perfectly and Mitani would revisit the radio-station setting in the wonderful movie Welcome Back Mr. McDonald,

Nakagawa Gekabuchou no Coat ("Chief Surgery Nakagawa's Coat") [Episode 8, Satsujin Tokkyuu ("Murder Express")] is just fun, because it features a murder on a train. On a Shinkansen to be exactly. With topics like ekiben, yakuza and train manners in Japan, this story is also one of the more cultural interesting ones, I think. 

Kogure Keibu Saigo no Jiken ("Police Inspector Kogure's Last Case") [Episode 12, Saigo no Aisatsu ("The Final Greeting")] is indeed about Police Inspector Kogure's last case. The murderer of Kogure's granddaughter was never convicted by the judge, so Kogure took matters into his own hands. Furuhata immediately suspects his superior, but it seems like he has an iron-clad alibie. This story once again features a solution that hinges on the culprit's misunderstanding of circumstances and I don't really like it, as the solution is rather hard to deduce yourself. It makes sense in hindsight, but it's a bit unbelievable and the whole story is only just memorable for some scenes where Furuhata explains that he never uses a gun (he always pretended to be sick when they had shooting exams) and eating MOS burger.

It's just too bad it ends with this though! I wish Mitani had wrote more novelized versions, as there are great stories in later seasons too. Especially season two's opening episode, Shaberisugiru otoko ("The Too Talkative Man") can be considered one of the better known detective stories in Japan (having Akashiya Sanma as the culprit might help) and in fact, I'm pretty sure that episode is where Takumi Shuu got his inspiration for Gyakuten Saiban from, as it features a case solved in the court and incessant pouncing on contradictions in testimony that is the essence of Gyakuten Saiban.　

Original Japanese title(s): 三谷幸喜『古畑任三郎・殺人事件ファイル』/「おめでとうアリ先生」/「六代目の犯罪」/「幡随院大、走る」/「ちなみの家」/「井口薫のレクイエム」/「黒田青年の憂鬱」/「迫坪の長い夜」/「さよならおたかさん」/「中川外科部長のコート」/「木暮警部最後の事件」

"Ah, one more thing, sir."

「え～、ご無沙汰しております。皆さん、お元気でしたか？私は元気です。え～、さて誰にでも少年時代がありました。勿論、私にもありました。そして誰にでも多感な時期、影響を受けた人物がいるものです。勿論、私にも。今のこの私があるのも、その人との出会いがあったればこそです。今でも目をつぶると瞼の裏に、その人の顔が浮かんできます。…つぶってみましょう。」
『古畑中学生』

"Erm, it's been a long while. How have you been? I've been fine. Erm, everyone was young at a time. Of course, so was I. And everyone in that sensitive period, had someone who influenced them. Of course, so had I. The person who I am now, was all because I met that person. Even now, when I close my eyes, the face of that person is visible behind my eyelids.... Let's try closing our eyes."
"Middle School Student Furuhata"

Lately, I have been watching some old episodes of that classic detective show Columbo again. Ever since I was a kid I have loved this show and while occasionally some of the more recent movies are shown on Dutch television, the original series has not been broadcast here for years now. But even now as I watch the series, I feel it has lost nothing of its charm. Heck, in the 40 years since its debut few series were made that were so entertaining in my opinion.

And this is despite the fact that pretty much every episode is the same: you see the murderer-of-the-week (celebrity actors like Leonard Nemoy Dr. Spock) commit his/her murder, usually in a clever way to avert suspicion. Then scruffy-looking lieutenant Columbo arrives and the rest of the episode, consists mostly of cat-and-mouse scenes between just the lieutenant and the killer, with Columbo asking trivial question after question and telling stories about his wife and simply looking a lot more stupid than he actually is. The point of every episode is figuring out how Columbo is going to prove the murderer is guilty.

The show is just two people talking. About a murder you have seen already. Dialogue about something you know everything about for an hour. But it works. Every. Single. Time. The great plots, the great acting, it's all top-notch and every episode is as exciting as the previous one, despite being basically the same. Columbo pulls off the use of a formula brilliantly.

I actually don't like the name howcatchem (c.f. whodunnit), nor inverted detective (techically it's inverted, but from a chronological view, the inverted detective runs completely straight, so the term feels strange to me). But it's been a style in detective fiction since at least Freeman's The Singing Bone (1912). Interestingly, Edogawa Rampo had written one himself too (The Psychological Test (1925), included in Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination) and in his 1934 essay The Four Types of Detective Stories, he had identified the inverted detective (the toujo tantei shousetsu: "chronological reversed detective" which feels even more wrong than inverted detective) as his fourth type, but as he had only 3 examples (including his own story), he wasn't sure whether he should include it as a proper detective story type. Time proved Edogawa right though.

A more recent Japanese example would be the Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) game series, as in many cases you usually know who did it, you just have to prove it in court. As an attorney using the foolproof Columbo way of pouncing on every contradiction, how insignificant it may seem, you eventually manage to solve the case.

But if you're talking about the inverted Japanese detective, one name should come up immediately: Furuhata Ninzaburou (yes, I shamelessly stole the logo design for this blog). It's pretty much a clone show of Columbo, with lieutenant Furuhata being the one asking many many seemingly trivial questions to the murderer-of-the-week with his polite way of talking. And like Columbo, Furuhata Ninzaburou managed to make every episode worthwile. Running for more than 10 years in Japan, it has been one of the most popular shows there, featuring many high profile celebrities (like Ichiro, SMAP, Sanma and Matsushima Nanako) as murderers. Also amusing are the seemingly non-sequitur introductions of every episode (that in the end turn out to tie up with the theme of the episode neatly), which I occasionally use as introducing quotes myself. But what makes Furuhata Ninzaburou really interesting, is the formal challenge to the watcher in every episode. Inspired by the 1975 Ellery Queen show, Furuhata actually breaks the fourth wall near the end of the episode and asks the viewer whether they can prove the murderer did it, as he certainly can. It's one of those shows I am proud to own on DVD.

Ah, one more thing, sir, the proper way of finishing this post would be a Columbo-ian "one more thing, sir...", of course, but as I can't think of something worth mentioning, this will do. え～、古畑任三郎でした。