Sabotage at Sports City

All that glisters is not gold

"The Merchant of Venice"

I've always had a weakness for murders mysteries where the crime occurs during a public event like a sports match, though I guess I haven't seen many where the crime occurs during the award ceremony...

Defense attorney Naruhodou Ryuuichi enters the Judicial Olympics as a contestant because his assistant Mayoi has set her eyes on the special tour of entertainment parks all around the world awarded to the gold medalist. The Judicial Olympics are organized by the International Judicial Federation to determine the ace attorney-at-law of the world. Naruhodou is surprised to see that his old opponent, the prosecutor Godot, is head director of the Judicial Olympics, but also to spot other familar faces among his fellow participants, like his rival Mitsurugi Reiji and the whip-carrying prosecutor Karuma Mei. Naruhodou learns from Mitsurugi that there have always been shady rumors about the International Judicial Federation and that he's making use of this special event to investigate the Federation. The contestants compete in several weird competitions like a rap courtroom battle and dance-offs, and after several days, the winner of the Judicial Olympics is finally determined. But right after the winner is given the gold medal, one of the contestants is murdered on the ceremonial stage. At first, it appears clear as day that the protestors against the IJC who jumped on stage with the knife in her hand committed the murder, but Naruhodou isn't quite convinced. The IJC too wants to play an open hand and it's agreed that the suspect's trial will be broadcast live on television, with Naruhodou as her attorney. Can he find out what really happened in the 2019 stage play Gyakuten Saiban: Gyakuten no Gold Medal ("Turnabout Trial - Turnabout Gold Medal")?

If you read this blog often, it's impossible to not know the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney franchise, as it's featured a lot here. While it started out in 2001 as a comedic mystery adventure game series starring a defense attorney defying unsurmountable odds in crazy trial, it's grown to be a multimedia franchise, with spin-off games (like this and this one), an anime, manga,  musicals, novels, drama CDs, and stage plays. Three stage plays were performed between 2014-2016, being Gyakuten Saiban – Gyakuten no Spotlight (“Turnabout Trial - Turnabout Spotlight”), Gyakuten Saiban – Saraba Gyakuten (“Turnabout Trial – Farewell, My Turnabout”) and Gyakuten Kenji -  Gyakuten no Teleportation ("Turnabout Prosecutor - Turnabout Teleportation"): all three of these plays were produced by the same company and featured more-or-less the same cast. Gyakuten Saiban: Gyakuten no Gold Medal however features a new cast and also feels quite different from the previous three plays.

With so much spin-off material available, it shouldn't surprise when I tell you that some of this material is designed to attract new audience, while other media is pure fanservice that'll mostly only appeal to existing fans. The live-action film and the manga for example are obviously designed to appeal to a wider audience, hoping to capture new viewers from a new medium and bringing them back to the original games, but the stage plays have always been produced with existing fans in mind, which is pretty logical considering the limited number of viewers a small stage play can attract. The stage plays were full of inside jokes, with familiar characters being put in new situations to entertain the viewers and motions or scenes made to invoke the feeling ofthe original games. But still, I'd say the previous stage plays were also workable as standalone mystery plays (especially the first and third one), with plots that were relatively focused on the core story and not just character interactions.

Gyakuten Saiban: Gyakuten no Gold Medal however seems more focused on fanservice than the previous plays, resulting in a play that might be entertaining for existing fans of the genre, but it's not going to be that interesting for those who are primarily looking for a mystery stage play. The play is a bit over two hours long, but the first hour is basically just fanservice: the Judicial Olympics are just an excuse to see the familiar characters in situations you'd otherwise see them in, like a rap battle or a catwalk competition. While I'm a fan of the franchise, I've always been more interested in Gyakuten Saiban as a mystery franchise rather than as a character-focused drama, so while the idea of Naruhodo rapping might be fun, I was utterly bored for the first hour or so because basically nothing of importance occurs in regards to the mystery plot. One or two scenes might've been okay, but an hour long of 'hahaha, look at our characters in these wacky scenes!' is too much for me.

The murder finally happens during the award ceremony of the Judicial Olympics, but the mystery plot this time is not particularly interesting, to be honest. Gyakuten Saiban is at its best by pointing out little contradictions one after after, the argument slowly crawls towards a grand reveal. What made the games fun was that the contradictions were solvable by the player themselves using the evidence available to them and that that it showed how by even solving relatively easy contradictions, you could eventually reveal a greater picture. In Gyakuten Saiban: Gyakuten no Gold Medal however, a lot of the deductive moments that could have been more memorable, fail to be really impressive, as often, the 'evidence' needed to contradict a point is either kept completely out of sight or tucked away in a tiny corner on the set, so when Naruhodou suddenly says that something's wrong and shows the evidence to back his story up, the viewer is not impressed by his deductions, but just wondering where the hell that evidence just came from because it surely hadn't been shown to the viewer yet. At other times, the story tries to be clever with 'in plain sight' clues that just fall flat because the logical jumps to them cover too much ground. Ultimately, when you look solely at the mystery of the man who got stabbed at the ceremony and the circumstances leading up to that, it's disappointingly minor and easy to see through.

A sequel to this play, with the same cast, was originally going to be performed in spring 2020 by the way, but it was put on hold due to the pandemic. For the moment, it seems they still plan to do it whenever it's possible, but the story introduction at least makes it sound they'll stick to the more fanservice-focused approach with that play too...

So unlike some of the previous stage plays in this franchise, I'd say Gyakuten Saiban: Gyakuten no Gold Medal is really just for the existing fans, and not worth watching if you're not familiar with the franchise and only looking for an interesting mystery play. As a detective story, there's just too little that manages to impress, with too much distractions going on that, resulting in something that's just so uninspired and contrived you're wondering why it also needed an hour of fanservice as a set-up. Your mileage may be very different if you're a fan of the characters of the series and want to see them thrown in all kinds of crazy situations, but even then it's hard to deny the core mystery plot feels like it's playing second fiddle to the fanservice

Original Japanese title(s): 『逆転裁判　逆転のGold Medal』

Training for Trouble

ねぇ忘れないでねblue bird

「blue bird」(Garnet Crow) 

Hey, don't forget me, blue bird

"blue bird" (Garnet Crow)

Earlier this year, I re-read the 5-volume manga series Gyakuten Saiban ("Turnabout Trial") by Kuroda Kenji (story) and Maekawa Kazuo (art), based on the comedic courtroom mystery videogame franchise Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney. While the short manga series did feature the familiar characters and settings from the videogames, the plots were created exclusively for this series by writer Kuroda Kenji, and in my review I mentioned how it's actually a very good mystery manga that could easily stand on its own and would also appeal to people without any knowledge of, or even interest in the videogames. The series was originally serialized irregularly between 2006 and 2008 in Young Magazine to cross-promote the 2007 release of the Nintendo DS game Gyakuten Saiban 4 (AKA Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney). 

In 2009, the spin-off game Gyakuten Kenji ("Turnabout Prosecutor") AKA Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth was released on the DS, which focused on the adventures of the prosecutor Mitsurugi (localized name: Miles Edgeworth), a rival character in the main series. The duo Kuroda and Maekawa were again made part of the marketing campaign, as they too started a new series based on this game. Gyakuten Kenji ran irregularly between 2009-2010 in Weekly and Monthly Young Magazine and consisted of eight stories collected in four volumes. In terms of setting, it followed the spin-off videogame: Mitsurugi is a prodigy prosecutor, who always teams up with the hapless police detective Itonokogiri (Dick Gumshoe) to conduct investigations at the crime scene to find the person they are going to bring to trial. While Itonokogiri often thinks the case is open-and-shut, Mitsurugi shows he's not called a prodigy for nothing by uncovering complex murder schemes based on his own investigations. After writing my review of the Gyakuten Saiban manga series, I also re-read this 4-volume series, but to be honest, I found the stories in Gyakuten Kenji not as memorable as the ones in Gyakuten Saiban and ultimately, I just didn't feel like writing anything about it.

So why am I talking about this series now? Well, Kuroda Kenji has been posting some of his unpublished stories/unfinished scenarios on his Note page for a while now, because he thought it would just be a shame if these stories would never see the light and be kept in the vault forever, despite all the effort he poured into them. And so, a few weeks ago, Kuroda also started posting the unpublished scenarios he had written for the Gyakuten Kenji manga! These scenarios were written over ten years ago, but ended on the cutting board. But now these ideas are given new life! I can only applaud such efforts to show the public this cut content, so obviously, I just had to write something about these stories, even though I haven't even written a review about the whole series.

Moesakaru Gyakuten ("The Blazing Turnabout") starts with a few cases of arson at the campus of Medaru Sports Academy, a renowed university with famous athletes who have won many awards. After another incident, detective Itonokogiri decides to visit the head of the school, Medaru Nozomu, in the hopes of learning more, but Medaru is very dismissive of Itonokogiri, assuring the police detective that these were not cases of arson, but just minor accidents of students not being careful with their cigarettes and things like that. It's obvious Medaru doesn't want the news to blow up, and he tries to get Itonokogiri out, but not before Itonokogiri has a chance to meet four of Medaru Sports Academy's finest, who will go an international event next month and are going to have dinner with Medaru now. That night, Itonokogiri hangs around the campus when he runs into one of the four students he met earlier, who has discovered a fire behind the training facility. They managed to extinguish the fire, but nearby, they find the strangled body of Kurama Manten, a gymnast who was one of the four students Itonokogiri met earlier that evening. Itonokogiri is convinced Kurama must've spotted the arsonist and was therefore killed, but when prosecutor Mitsurugi arrives on the scene and starts poking around himself, he discovers a very different motive for Kurama's death.

Those who have actually played the videogame Gyakuten Kenji/Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth might be able to guess why this story was canned. The title Moesakaru Gyakuten was originally intended to be the second story in the series, but the title sounded too much like the title of the final episode in the game it was supposed to promote: Moeagaru Gyakuten/Turnabout Ablaze. Kuroda didn't know about these details of the game, because he worked on the scenario before the game was released, but ultimately, this story was abandoned. A truly unfortunate coincidence and I'm happy he has now found a way to still release this story in a way. As you can see on Kuroda's Note page, it's just the core plot divided in scenes, with all the spoken lines of the characters and the important visual cues written out in detail. There's no art at all, and as far as we know, Maekawa never did create any art for this lost episode.

As a mystery story, The Blazing Turnabout is okay. I found the Gyakuten Kenji manga on the whole a bit disappointing, because I thought the turnabout theme of the series was never as strong as in the Gyakuten Saiban manga series. There were always elements of things turning out to be actually the other way around, but in the spin-off series, the moments always felt less impressive. The same can be said of The Blazing Turnabout: there is a really clever moment where Mitsurugi points out that one certain action of the arsonist-murderer was taken for a completely different reason than you'd first assume, but it feels detached from the rest of the mystery plot. A shame actually, because I love this turnabout part of this story! It reminds of two of my favorite stories in Puzzle Game ☆ High School in terms of what the real goal of the culprit was, and really challenges you to think outside the box. So the 'grand' turnabout moment the story works towards to is really good, even if it's not as grand as we've seen in the main Gyakuten Saiban manga series and admittedly, more hinting would've been welcome: Mitsurugi's realization kinda comes out of nowhere. Other parts of the plot make less of an impression: the identity of the murderer is awfully obvious because it's the one single character who's been given a trait to make them stand out, while earlier parts of the investigation feature very easy to spot "contradictions" or simply Mitsurugi receiving a report that outright tells him something is off. 

In hindsight, the "special school" setting of this story is pretty interesting: the 3DS game Gyakuten Saiban 5/Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (2013) would eventually also feature a similar setting, though with a special law high school rather than a sports academy. I wonder if this chapter had been published, whether it would've worked the other way around too, and whether the writers for Gyakuten Saiban 5 would've refrained from using a school setting for their game.

Toki no Yakata no Gyakuten ("Turnabout in the House of Time") is an inverted mystery story, which is interesting because Kuroda never wrote any inverted stories for both the Gyakuten Saiban and Kenji series, and now we learn that he did actually write one, but he canned the idea! Tokita Shinnosuke is the founder of TOKITA, a luxury watchmaker. He is retired now, giving him time to spend with his antique watch collection. Or at least, that's what he hoped for, but his son Ryuuzu, who is running TOKITA now is ruining Shinnosuke's life work, and when he learns of Ryuuzu's intentions of selling the company, Shinnosuke decides to take his own son's life. At his own 77th birthday reception, Shinnosuke tells his guests he'll be leaving them for thirty minutes to wind his antique clocks, a daily routine he never skips. He however uses the time to kill his son, who was parked down the hill on top where the Tokita manor stands. When prosecutor Mitsurugi and police detective Itonokogiri arrive on the scene however, their investigation tells them Shinnosuke of all people couldn't have killed his own son in the blank periode of thirty minutes when he was alone, because he is in a wheelchair. Tokita Manor stands at top of a very steep hill, while his son was killed down the street, on the parking lot at the foot of the slope: the slope is too steep for Shinnosuke to safely descend on his own, and also far too steep to climb with his arm strength. Apartment buildings are lined along the hill street, so the image of an the old man struggling to climb the hill in a wheelchair would've been noticed by someone, while the less steep, but roundabout path would take much more than thirty minutes. So how did the man kill his son within half an hour?

This is a truly interesting story to read as a scenario for a comic, because its greatest moment, when Mitsurugi reveals to the reader how Shinnosuke did manage to kill his son within the thirty minutes, is definitely designed to be seen as a comic book panel! You really feel that this plot was written with the visual medium in mind, because it works towards a fantastic shot where you suddenly see how simple, but brilliant Shinnosuke's trick was to get to and back from the crime scene in time while in a wheelchair. The 'turnabout' theme is again not particularly strong here, but as a short mystery story, it definitely has interesting ideas, even if the clewing is a bit too crude (culprit dropping crucial piece of evidence on floor is not really exciting). But the basic idea of how Shinnosuke managed to create a "secret route" to kill his son is really original, and would've looked great on paper.

After posting the scenarios of the two unpublished comics above, Kuroda followed up with one final surprise. In 2007, Kuroda wrote the first original short mystery prose story for the franchise: Gyakuten Saiban - Gyakuten no Kakehashi was a fun novelette-sized impossible crime story that followed the same format as the Gyakuten Saiban manga, focusing on the courtroom adventures of Naruhodou Ryuuichi (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey). Kuroda apparently had plans for a second novelette story, and had hoped to have the two stories published as one single volume, but that dream never became reality, so the plot for this second story was put away, until he posted them on his Note.

Gyakuten no Michishirube ("Turnabout Signpost") is a direct sequel to Gyakuten no Kakehashi, and starts at Yatabuki's noodle stand, where Mayoi, Kanae and Yatabuki are thrilled to see the show by the popular five-man comedy act The Green Monsters tomorrow, to be held at the Twins Hotel where Gyakuten no Kakehashi took place. The Green Monsters have been an enormous hit and consist of five people dressed as monsters with green as their trademark color. The five also had completely different careers before they switched to comedy: Monster King was a stuntman, Monster Queen a model, Dracula a doctor, Wolfman a guitarist and Franken a wrestler. Mitsurugi stops by the noodle stand however to bring bad news: Monster King has died, and the circumstances suggest that Monster Queen killed him. Last night, the five members had been drinking together in Monster King's suite room until late. When the party was over, Dracula, Wolfman and Franken left the twelfth floor, as the two suite rooms on the twelfth floor were occupied by Monster King and Queen. Guards had been posted at the elevator because Monster King has a stalker, and they swear that after Dracula, Wolfman and Franken left, only King and Queen remained on the twelfth floor. Later that night, Dracula, Wolfman and Franken went outside to the court to rehearse their act, when they witnessed how Monster King plunged to his death, having fallen from an old emergency door on the twelfth floor: the door had been in disuse and locked because the emergency stairs had been removed so the door led to nothing, but someone had forced the door open and Monster King fell through that door. Because the three heard him cry for help before he fell, they know it's not a suicide, and because Queen was the only other person on the twelfth floor, she's the main suspect. She however maintains she's innocent and hires Naruhodou as her attorney.

Wow, this was surprisingly fun! While the plot is mostly dialogue and there are some segments that would need to be worked out in more detail in terms of setting clues up, this scenario definitely had potential to have been an interesting locked room mystery! The story revolves around two 'locked spaces', being the twelfth floor of the Twins Hotel as a whole, as well as Monster King's suite room with autolock and the mystery revolves around who could've broken through those locked rooms. The argument goes back and forth in the courtroom as at one moment Naruhodou manages to avert suspicion away from his client, while the other moment a new witness appears who points the arrow back at Monster Queen: exactly like you expect from the series. The plot is slowly revealed in the trial, and the grand trick used by the killer to kill Monster King is definitely the kind of idea you'd expect from this series, with a proper "turnabout" theme, and I've loved to have seen this story worked out completely. I do have to say the plot does work better when you imagine the scene visually, so it's a bit weird Kuroda planned this as a prose story, instead of using the idea in the manga series... Though to be honest, this story does mirror some concepts from another story already featured in the manga.

I wouldn't consider either Moesakaru Gyakuten or Toki no Yakata no Gyakuten hidden masterpieces that had been wrongfully been kept away from us, but they are reasonably entertaining short mystery stories that would've been perfect additions to the published Gyakuten Kenji manga series. The prose story Gyakuten no Michishirube would've been very entertaining as a mystery story too, so it's such a shame Kuroda never got to release his own Gyakuten Saiban volume together with his earlier Gyakuten no Kakehashi. Anyway, as full-fledged "extra" stories revealed ten years after these series originally, I quite enjoyed reading them. But most of all, I can only say I love the idea of creators digging up old material that have gone unpublished/were cut for various reasons like this and making them available to the public. Obviously, I don't expect them to actually work the whole thing out, but even scenarios like these are fantastic material!

Original Japanese title(s): 黒田研二『逆転検事 ヤンマガ版未発表脚本』『逆転裁判 小説版未発表プロット』

The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story

修羅場を演じる時代劇のど真ん中に立ってるみたいだ

「2012Spark」（ポルノグラフィティ）

I feel like I'm right in the middle of a fight scene of a historical drama

 "2012Spark" (Porno Graffiti)

Perhaps I should also reread the Gyakuten Kenji manga...

If you look around on this blog, you'll find a lot of posts that cover the Gyakuten Saiban ("Turnabout Trial") videogame series. While it started a low-key zany Columbo-inspired courtroom drama mystery game on the GameBoy Advance back in 2001, Gyakuten Saiban, better known outside of Japan under its localized title Ace Attorney, is now nearing its twentieth birthday as a multimedia franchise. I have reviewed the various videogames in this series, but also other media outings like novels, serialized short stories, guidebooks on the actual Japanese justice system, musicals, stage plays, theatrical films and probably more. Nowadays you also have events like real life Ace Attorney Escape Rooms, but I vividly remember that the series really started to develop as a multimedia franchise after the release of the 2005 Nintendo DS title Gyakuten Saiban; Yomigaeru Gyakuten, which was also the first game in the series to be released outside Japan with the title Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This was an enhanced port of the original 2001 videogame, but after this release, it was also announced that the fourth game in the series was in development. It was the marketing surrounding the release of the Nintendo DS game Gyakuten Saiban 4 (AKA Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney) that really made the franchise grow into something much more than videogames.

The serialized manga Gyakuten Saiban ("Turnabout Trial") by Kuroda Kenji (story) and Maekawa Kazuo (art) was probably one of the more remarkable moments that helped the series' development. This limited series was serialized irregularly between 2006 and 2008 in Young Magazine and ultimately collected in five volumes. While it was based on the videogames, basically no prior knowledge is necessary to read this series. All you have to know is that this is a comedic mystery series about the attorney Naruhodou. Each story revolves around a trial, where he and his client face absolutely hopeless situations, but by slowly pointing out contradictions in the prosecution's story and pulling a Columbo, Naruhodou always manages to turn the case completely around and find out who the real murderer is. The stories featured are completely original creations by the mystery author Kuroda and the recurring characters from the videogame that do appear, are properly introduced for first-time readers/players.

So the manga Gyakuten Saiban wasn't a comic made exclusively for existing fans, but it was written to introduce new readers to the world of Ace Attorney, to entice the readers to purchase and play Gyakuten Saiban 4, which was released soon after the serialization of this series started. You'll find no obscure references to in-game events or a story steeped too deep in the lore of multiple videogames: this is simply a highly enjoyable mystery comic that made great use of the characters and setting of the original videogames. This comic was also published outside Japan, and to be honest, at times I do think this series may be better to introduce mystery readers to mystery manga than for example Detective Conan or Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, because it's a fairly compact series at only five volumes, while still featuring a few interesting locked room murders and other types of tales (and the English version features localized names, making it easier to follow for people who can't memorize Japanese names). So I'd definitely recommend this series even if you haven't played any of the videogames or ever read any mystery manga.

This was an interesting re-read for me by the way. I hadn't quite seriously started studying Japanese yet when this series started, and I bought the recently released first two volumes during my first visit to Japan. My Japanese studies started after that and reading Gyakuten Saiban really made it clear how much I was learning. I could hardly read any words when I started with the first volume, but by the time the fifth volume was released, I was already preparing for my first extended study exchange in Japan... And now of course, I can race through these five volumes in the same time it took me to read one chapter in the first volume when I first started. The 2007 prose short story Turnabout Bridge, which I reviewed in 2016, was also written by Kuroda Kenji by the way, so you consider that 'part' of the manga series.

In the opening story Kaze to Tomo ni Gyakuten ("Turnabout in The Wind"), Naruhodou has to defend his childhood friend Yahari, who has a real knack of getting into trouble, and causing trouble for others. He is the suspect in the murder case of Shinjou Hikaru, a middle-aged married man who had an affair with Yahari's girlfriend Suzune. She broke up with Shinjou after finding out he was married, but even though she was dating Yahari now, Shinjou kept bugging her. On the night of Shinjou's murder, Yahari had made a rather threatening call to the victim, and Shinjou was found not long after Yahari's call, stabbed in the abdomen. Making Yahari the perfect suspect. While it's not hard to guess who the real murderer is, I think this story is an excellent showcase of how the mystery plotting of the videogames go, and it works also perfectly in this manga. The reader is thrown into the trial right at once and basically backed into a corner immediately with all the evidence the prosecution has, but you'll slowly uncover small contradictions that string together into an actual line of reasoning. The clues are really good: some make clever use of the visual medium, some require you to also make deductions and conclusions yourself based on previously presented information. There's a really nice flow to the story: you're not waiting until the very end of the story to see things unfold, but you move there step by step, clearing up smaller contradictions one at a time. The way the evidence of the prosecution is turned around in the defense' favor is also great, and if you'd plot all the clues/foreshadowing on a graph and how they sometimes return later in the story, you'd see that despite the simple and short set-up of this tale, it's a very well crafted and fair tale. For example, there's one aspect of the story that requires knowledge that is a bit specialistic, but Kuroda's clever plotting and clewing allows the reader to deduce that piece of knowledge on their own, so even if you didn't know that, you can make an educated guess based solely on the information given to you within this story. So the game is played very fairly.

Naruhodou and his assistant Mayoi are invited to the manor of IT company CEO Komori Akamune in the second story, Gyakuten no Shikeidai ("Turnabout Gallows"). Two weeks ago, his arrogant, but talented employee Kimura Jirou committed suicide by falling off a platform in the park and Akamune fears he may be arrested for Jirou's death. On the night of Jirou's murder, Akamune had invited Jirou to his manor to discuss his attitude, but when Jirou left the house, he was in an extremely agitated state and ultimately made a fatal fall. When Naruhodou and Mayoi talk to Akamune's daughter Sara and Jirou's older brother Hatsurou however, they realize that Akamune had probably murdered Jirou, by making use of Jirou's fear for spiders. Akamune's younger brother Sasao lives in an annex building with his huge collection of spiders, and Hatsurou suspects Akamune tortured his younger brother with those spiders. Later that night, Akamune is knocked out by an unknown figure, and he wakes up to findhimself tied up to a chair in the Spider Mansion. To his great shock, he sees a spider-man walking on the ceiling. His wife, daughter, Hatsurou, Naruhodou and Mayoi had been looking for Akamune in the main manor, and when they use the intercom to contact the Spider Mansion, Akamune explains he's being held captive in the Spider Mansion and that's there's a spider-man roaming around. But then Akamune's killed by a knock on the head and the Spider Mansion goes up in flames. The suspect in the murder case is Akamune's younger brother Sasao, as he was the only one absent during the intercom call to the Spider Mansion from the main manor.

Again a case that makes good use of the theme of a "turnabout" and visual clues. The visual clues are really clever and nicely incorporated in the background, and it really gives you a good chance at figuring out what happened and how the real culprit managed to fake their alibi. It's pretty easy to guess who probably did it, but I really like how you also need find the logical argument to prove that the real murderer did it, and it's here again where the trope of re-using earlier presented clues/evidence in new context really shines. In the videogames, most evidence pieces are used multiple times in various context, and that is replicated perfectly here, with utterances and clues being used in one way in deductions presented earlier in the trial, coming back in a completely different way at the end. The trick behind the murder is really original, though to be completely honest, it's a bit hard to swallow anyone could've prepared all of that within that short time period. It's a lot of work. Still, it's a really interesting case.

Gyakuten no Showtime ("Turnabout Showtime") is a much shorter case, but still interesting. Narohodou and Mayoi are visiting the entertainment park Kira Kira Land, but during the Kirarin Show with the three mascotte figures Kirarin, Pikakorin and Dekarin, one of the actors collapsed on stage. When they realize he's so bleeding heavily it's seeping out of the suit, they try to get the actor, Ichinomiya, out of it but the zipper in the back has been glued tight. It's already too late when they finally get him out, but to everyone's great surprise, Ichinomiya had been stabbed in his stomach. As the three suit actors can't zip themselves up (the zipper is in the back, but it's impossible with the suits' arms and hands to even attempt to zip up yourself), suspicion of the murder falls on the actress Juri, as she is the only one of the group who doesn't wear a big fluffy suit and could thus unzip Ichinomiya, stab him, and zip him up again. Everyone has a few moments backstage during the show, so the police suspects Juri stabbed Ichinomiya while they happened to be backstage together. Assuming that Juri's innocent though, it means Ichinomiya died inside a locked room: he was inside a mascotte suit that had no exterior damage at all (so the knife did not pierce through the costume), yet all the other suspects were zipped up and none of those two could unzip themselves or Ichinomiya in a swift manner to stab him in the stomach. I love this story: the setting of a murder during a mascotte costume show is really original as is the notion of the "smallest locked room murder" as Naruhodou calls it. You're constantly presented with information that at first seems to be in your favor, then dismissed in a logical manner by the prosecution, only to come back again later in the trial in surprising manners. The theme of "turnabout" (the situation being exactly the opposite of what you assumed) is used fantastically here too.

In Gyakuten no Yogensho ("Turnabout Prophecy"), Naruhodou and Mayoi visit the fortune tellers' corner at the local department store, where they also meet with Kaede, a high school student with a love for the occult. The corner houses five different fortune tellers, and because of the immense popularity, visitors are put in time slots and scheduled for three fortune tellers. Naruhodou is having his palms read when he hears a woman's cry from the room of Oracle Reika, a fortune teller who is considered the real deal. They break the locked door open to find a shocked Kaede inside. Reika however has been brutally murdered with the Deathscythe which usually decorated the wall. Because the two doors to the room (one connecting to the plaza in front, the other to the backyard) were locked from the inside, it appears only Kaede was capable of slaying Reika, but Kaeda swears she couldn't have done so, as Reika had instructed the girl to put her arm through the Hell's Gate and that a demon on the other side held her hand until moments before she herself found Reika's body.

Are fortune tellers corners a thing in Japan? It seems so extraordinary, but I've seen the same setting (a courtyard with various fortune tellers with different specialties) used in series like Puzzle Game ☆ High School and 33pun Tantei now... I think it's a shame these stories always feature such a small cast, because you can usually guess who the murderer is (not very imporant) and as a result, make an educated guess about what happened (I find this more disappointing). In this case, I think it becomes pretty obvious soon in the story how the locked room of Oracle Reika could be penetrated, but I do think the explanation of how that trick was done and why everything was arranged like that was really good: the foreshadowing for that reveal is excellent.

Tengoku kara no Gyakuten ("Turnabout From Heaven") is the most minimalistic story featured in this series, and has no impossibility/perfect alibi angle whatsever. The story revolves around the death of Kanenari Nihachi, the elderly owner of a famous buckwheat manufacturer. Ironically, the man had developed a buckwheat allergy recently, and someone had swapped his medicine for buckwheat, which obviously killed him. The suspect is his daughter Tsukimi, who was the only other person at home that night. She however claims it must have been her mother who killed her father. Tsukimi's mother died 16 years ago, but lately, Tsukimi has been seeing her a lot in her dreams, especially in the dreams about when she was kidnapped for a few days when she was young. She was saved by her mother then, and she believes her mother's ghost killed her father, as he had been abusing Tsukimi. The story seems to revolve around who could've swapped the medicine with buckwheat, but then turns into a very different story as Naruhodou has to prove the motive of the killer. I love the theme of turnabout here, and this story offers a very weird experience you don't even really see in the games. It's very different from the more technical murder mysteries in this series, but I think it's a welcome change of pace.

Gyakuten Kuishinbou ("Turnabout Gourmet") is about the televised food fighter competition The Strongest Gourmet King Competition. Naruhodou, Mayoi and her cousin Harumi are watching because their local ramen food stall will be offering the meal that will be used in the finals: whoever finishes the Yatabuki Special Super Spicy Miso Ramen Muscle (Super-Sized) the fastest, will be the new Gourmet King. Justice Masayoshi manages to beat his rivals Muscle Taketora and Eko Risa, but he's halfway through his victory speech when he falls down dead. The announcer becomes the defendant in the murder case, as he was the only one who could poison Justice's bowl of ramen, but was it really a case of a targeted murder? Perhaps the most disappointing case in the series, even if it's fairly entertaining on its own. The murderer's plot consists of hoping a lot that characters will do exactly as planned, which is plausible for one single action, but not if multiple characters have to do various things at various stages. I think the case does make good use of the visual medium, and the way Naruhodou deduces something had been going on behind his back is pretty good, ultimately, this is definitely the story that stands out the least in this series.

The final story in this series is titled Gyakutenryoku VS Jinzuuriki ("Turnabout Power VS Supernatural Power"), which reunites Naruhodou and Mayoi with Kaede from the fourth story. She's been interested in the shady sect The Great Tengu Association, a group which worships the Heavenly Tengu. Naruhodo had been calling Kaede everyday during her stay, but when she stopped answering his calls, he became worried and decided to visit the Association together with Mayoi. When they arrive at the cult's five-storeyed pagoda in the middle of nowhere, they find that the Association is also being harrassed by a private detective, who is determined to prove the sect and its founder Hime Tengu to be a fraud. Naruhodou and Mayoi find a safe Kaede, who has become a true believer of the Tengu. After a discussion with the founder, the detective takes the elevator down to the ground floor, an act witnessed by every member of the sect, Naruhodou and Mayoi, but when the elevator arrives on the ground floor, Kaede (the only person at the reception desk), swears the elevator is empty. The sect fears the detective is still snooping around the premises, so they search the pagoda going from bottom to top, but can't find any trace of the man. When the group is about to give up and decide to take the elevator downstairs again, they find the detective's body lying in the elevator! As Kaede was the only one who had been alone at the time, prosecution thinks she killed the detective, hid his body and later put it back in the elevator, but Naruhodou is of course sure Kaede wasn't the murderer.

A disappearance from a moving elevator! I love the trick behind it, and the clewing is really good too. There's plenty of visual clewing going on, some of them directly related to the actions of the murderer, but also a lot of clewing and foreshadowing that is utilized during the trial segments, when the defense and prosecution go back and forth with their arguments to prove or disprove Kaede's involvement in the case. Because these stories are not only about uncovering how and whodunnit, but also about making a logical argument during a trial that moves from the question of whether Kaede's guilty or not, to building a case to accuse the actual murderer, the plots in this series are usually really packed with all kinds of smaller mysteries/contradictions, and this is another great example of that leading to a story that is engaging start to finish. There's always something happening, the reader is always put in position where they're able to deduce things themselves and in the end, this is without a doubt a highly entertaining mystery story with an original impossible angle.

This post has become rather long as I decided to discuss all seven cases in this five-volume series, but as I said: Gyakuten Saiban is a really good mystery manga that is also recommended to people who don't know anything about the videogames it's based on. The stories Kuroda wrote for this series feature really original plots, most of them featuring some kind of impossible or locked room mystery, but they also do a great job at playing with the "turnabout" theme of the videogames, with the deduction battles between prosecution and defense going back and forth. The way the series makes use of the visual medium is also great and considering the series is only five volumes long, I truly think this is an excellent entry point for those who want to try out mystery manga.

Original Japanese title(s): カプコン（監修）、黒田研二（脚本）、前川かずお（漫画）『逆転裁判』第1-5巻

A Good Medium is Rare

 "Nothing is impossible," declared The Thinking Machine with equal emphasis. He always spoke petulantly. "The mind is master of all things. When science fully recognizes that fact a great advance will have been made."

"The Problem of Cell 13"

I've reviewed a couple theater mystery productions now, but still haven't seen one live....

Divine Dragon Village is a small community in the mountains on the verge of extinction because of its rapidly greying population, but also because it might be literally wiped away from the map because of talks of a dam being built nearby, which would lead to the flooding of the village. The one thing that keeps it alive now is a small filming studio, where the popular live-action series Psychic Academy Sigma is being filmed. Prosecutor Mitsurugi Reiji, police detective Itonokogiri and the energetic thief-in-training Mikumo are invited there by Mitsurugi's friend Yahari, who works at the studio as an assistant-director. The discovery of the body of the director puts a hold to the filming, but an initial investigation quickly leads to a suspect. Actor Asukai, who plays the lead Psychic Teacher admits he's the murderer, but there is one, enormous problem to this conclusion. The body of the director was found in the morning at the studio, but they have proof she was killed last night at the shrine high up in the mountains where the village treasure, the Dragon's Scale, is kept. However, the only path that leads up to the shrine was blocked last night due to a landslide following a heavy rainfall, so how was the body moved from the shrine down to the studio if the road was blocked? Asukai claims he used his psychic powers of teleportation to move the body, but Mitsurugi refuses to accept this supernatural explanation and tries to figure out how the body was "teleported" down the mountain in the stage play Gyakuten Kenji -  Gyakuten no Teleportation ("Turnabout Prosecutor - Turnabout Teleportation", 2016).

Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney is a comedic mystery adventure game series starring a defense attorney defying unsurmountable odds in crazy trials that started in 2001. A spin-off game Gyakuten Kenji ("Turnabout Prosecutor") was released in 2009, starring the popular character of prosecutor Mitsurugi Reiji (known in the localized games as Miles Edgeworth), who'd investigate crimes himself on the scene to find his suspects. The spin-off was followed by a sequel in 2011, a manga series, and even a musical version performed by the all-female troupe Takarazuka. Gyakuten no Teleportation is a stage play (not a musical), performed by the same troupe that brought the two stage plays Gyakuten no Spotlight (2014) and Saraba, Gyakuten (2015) based on the main Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney series.

The story of Gyakuten no Teleportation is based on an unused plot idea originally conceived for the second game, though it is difficult to say how much of it has been changed for Gyakuten no Teleportation. Anyway, it does feature an interesting mystery plot, as we are soon introduced to the suspect who gladly confesses to the crime, but who could not have done what he says he has done: teleporting a dead body from a mountain down to the studio in the village. What follows is a plot that mainly revolves around looking around at the crime scene and finding clues. This is similar to the games the play is based off, so that is something for the fans, but the story can feel a bit slow at times, as there are few plot developments until the finale, with most of the time being spent on exposition on locations/character backgrounds, making it feel like the main problem of teleportation is being pushed aside for something that could've been presented in a more direct, concise manner. The mystery of the teleportation trick is a bit crude, but adequately clewed, though there is a missed chance of presenting a truly great clue to the audience: I was convinced that they'd reveal a certain clue in the finale, as it appeared everything was pointing towards that, only to find out they totally ignored a chance to come up with a memorable clue. There is a great piece of misdirection going on though, one which worked perfectly with the medium of the story.

Of the three stage plays, I think the first made best use of its medium as it was a stage play about a murder happening during a stage play, and while this one is somewhat similar in idea (a murder that happens in a studio with actors), I thought this play was less... ambitious? The things they do with the props and other theatrical "tricks" are similar throughout the three stage plays, but whereas it was exciting and new in the first play, it's just not as original anymore when you see it performed for the third time with nothing new. There are also some points about the plot that don't seem to synergize well with the medium: the way the locations are connected is for example fairly important to the plot, but on stage you only see discrete sets without really showing how the previous set is connected to the other in geographical terms.
 

The live-action film and the Takarazuka musicals were made to appeal to a wider audience, but the stage plays have always been more directly aimed at existing fans of the franchise, so generally, the acting is usually a lot closer to the original games, with many of the quirks and motions of the actors being lifted straight out of the game. This works for these fan-oriented productions, though even as a fan of Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney, I never disliked the more serious, darker tone the live-action film had, even though I always hear people complaining how it was not EXACTLY like the original games. People who do want their live-action productions to be very, very much like the games, they need to seek out these stage plays, because these productions are very clearly made to appeal to that audience. There is also more interaction with the actors and the audience (talking about their favorite characters), and there is ad-libbing going on too, so these stage plays have more at-home feeling.

Gyakuten Kenji -  Gyakuten no Teleportation is a good mystery stage play though, that manages to combine a faithful adaptation of the source characters and atmosphere to a decent mystery plot that the audience can also solve themselves. If you have never seen any of these, you're in for a treat, though in terms of production, this play is not very different from the previous ones, so it might feel a bit underwhelming.

Original Japanese title(s): 『逆転検事　逆転のテレポーテーション』

Beyond Time

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"

- "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?" 

"Back to the Future"

Are novel serializations still a thing today outside Japan? Today's book was released in September 2017, but it was originally serialized in Hayakawa Mystery Magazine, with the first installment released in the March 2017 issue (which went on sale in January 2017). I followed this serialization actually, buying each issue as it was released, but also got the book now.

2001. Engineering graduate student Yuuko bumps into a man who claims to have come from the future. This Doctor Kitamita says he invented a time machine in the year 2016, but a rival tried to take his life, and he had to flee back in time in a panic. Now he's stranded in 2001 and he needs help to make the repairs to his time machine. Yuuko, whose dream is to make a time machine herself too, becomes Doctor Kitamita's assistant, and the two work hard on the machine in the months that follow. That is until one day, Doctor Kitamita is once again attacked by an unknown assailant, with Yuuko being knocked out during the struggle. When she wakes up, she finds that Doctor Kitamita has been murdered and that their laboratory is locked from the inside, with no sign of the assailant. Yuuko is arrested as she's the only living person to occupy the locked lab together with the murder victim. The only one to believe her story about working on a time machine and being attacked is the defense attorney Mitsurugi Shin, who decides to take her case, but defending Yuuko will not be easy with the demon prosecutor Karuma on the case.

Fast forward to the year of 2016. Rookie attorney Naruhodou Ryuuichi has recently taken over the law office of his deceased mentor, but as the clients are not coming to them, Naruhodou and his assistant Mayoi decide to look for clients on their own. Mayoi brings a confused woman to the office as a potential client, but she appears to have problems with her memory. She claims that her name is Yuuko and that she has traveled through time from 2001 to 2016. Before Naruhodou and Mayoi can figure out what's going on though, Yuuko runs off to find Doctor Kitamita, but the following day they learn that Yuuko has been arrested on suspicion of murder on Doctor Kitamita, in a laboratory that had been locked from the inside. How are these two identical locked room murders across time linked and can Mitsurugi and Naruhodou prove their client's innocence in Madoy Van's Gyakuten Saiban - Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten ("Turnabout Trial - Turnabout of the Time Traveler", 2017)?

Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney is a courtroom mystery adventure game that was originally created in 2001, and it has since then grown out into a very large franchise. The most recent entry in the main series is 2016's Gyakuten Saiban 6, but there is also a spin-off series set in Victorian London with the two Dai Gyakuten Saiban games (1 & 2) for example, and that's just the beginning, as there are also musicals, a live-action film, several manga series, an anime series, stage plays and much, much more (most of them I've reviewed). The series celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2016~2017, and the original novel Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten was one of the special celebration projects. This was a first for the series: the short story Gyakuten no Kakehashi (2007) had been serialized before in the magazine IN-POCKET, and Gyakuten Idol (2016) and Gyakuten Kuukou (2017) were both excellent paperback originals aimed at a younger public, but this was the first time Gyakuten Saiban would have a whole novel serialized in a mystery magazine for adults.

What is interesting is that Madoy Van was selected as the author of this original novel. He debuted as a professional author in 2009 with Marutamachi Revoir, which was a mystery novel about a private underground trial held in Kyoto, and in my review I mentioned that I thought that fans of the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney series would probably like it. I met Madoy several times as he too was a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club by the way, and he was even there when we did a book club on the then recently-released 3DS game Professor Layton VS Gyakuten Saiban, where we talked about this series, so it was interesting to see him getting his hands on Ace Attorney-related work some years later.

As a mystery novel, Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten is brilliantly exciting. Madoy has mentioned on Twitter that he arrived at the theme of time travel because the book was supposed to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the franchise, and it is this period of fifteen years that forms the crux of the problem: Yuuko has apparently travelled in time from 2001 to 2016, but in both periods, she is arrested for the murder on Doctor Kitamita in a laboratory that is locked from the inside. It doesn't get anymore wonderfully alluring than this. In practice, we are given two locked room mysteries. The first half of the book is set in 2001, where we follow defense attorney Mitsurugi Shin as he unravels the story of the story of Doctor Kitamita and his time machine and works to prove Yuuko's innocence in court. The locked room mystery is not complex in design at first sight, but then one conundrum is introduced that makes the whole situation a lot more mysterious. The way this is resolved at the very end of the novel is fantastic: it makes brilliant use of the theme of time travelling, and in terms of deduction, it is something you'd expect from an Ellery Queen novel.

The second part of the novel is set in 2016, in the same time period as the first game (this novel is set between the second and third episode of the first game, for those curious). The mystery here is two-fold: once again we have a locked room mystery, but we have the added mystery of how Yuuko managed to travel in time, and how she manages to be accused of the same murder on the same victim once again, 15 years after her first trial. The locked room mystery in 2016 is once again not particularly complex on its own, but a competent one that fits perfectly with both the theme and the props prepared for this story. The greatest mystery, that of Yuuko's time travelling, makes quite an impression. I think the attentive reader will quickly figure out what is going on, but then you stop and really think about it, and it really hits you. It's good this is fiction, set in a world that is not quite our own reality, as it might've been a bit difficult to swallow in any other fictional universe. But as you add up all the seperate parts of this novel, you'll arrive at the conclusion that Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten is an ambitious mystery novel that succeeds in using the fantastical theme of time travelling in an excellent mystery story that is absolutely fair to the reader.

A question most readers will have however is: is Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten a good Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney novel? I'd say yes and no. In terms of structure, it follows the familiar routine of featuring both Investigation parts (where the protagonist gathers information by visiting people and locations) and Trial parts, where most of the puzzle-solving is done by pointing out contradictions in the testimonies of witnesses. The novel does really feel like how the games work in this respect. Madoy also did a tremendous job at really integrating his story with the storyline of the games. The children's novels Gyakuten Idol and Gyakuten Kuukou were fun novels, but they were obviously set in a slightly different timeline, with certain details not corresponding with the main games. Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten on the other hand takes great efforts at fleshing out certain events from the original game (especially in the part set in 2001), and we also see a few welcome cameo's by fan-favorite characters, with one appearance in the courtroom being the absolutely winner. I absolutely loved how the 2001 trial also tied in with arguably the most important event for the first Gyakuten Saiban game in a meaningful manner.

On the other hand, the tone of this novel is quite different from what you'd normally expect from the series, which is best known for its zany comedy and over-the-top characters. This story was serialized in Hayakawa Mystery Magazine, which is a "normal" mystery literature magazine, so the writing style is much more in the spirit of conventional fiction. The characters are never as cartoony as in the games, and the narration is much more sober and "literary" compared to anything featured in the original series. This stands in stark contrast with Gyakuten Idol and Gyakuten Kuukou: these two paperback originals were released in Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko label aimed at children, and these two novels do a great job at really capturing the atmosphere of the games with larger-than-life characters with weird tics and comedic dialogues. Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten is "What if Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney was slightly more serious", but this also allows it do tackle themes the Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko novels could never do. For those who have never played the games, but do read mystery fiction, this book is a great entry point.

As a side-note, Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten had a pretty strange serialization schedule at the end. It started in the March 2017 issue (released in January 2017) and the fourth and final installment was originally planned to be released in the September 2017 issue (July 2017), but I guess Madoy missed his deadline, because despite the announcement, the serialization skipped an issue, pushing the final installment back to the November 2017 issue  (September 2017). But the paperback release was already scheduled for September too, so in the end, it meant the standalone book was released just a few days after the final installment was published. And in fact, the release day of the standalone book was pushed back a few days, because with the original release schedule, it would've meant that the standalone book would've been released even before the final installment was published in Hayakawa Mystery Magazine and that would've made the whole serialization pointless.

All in all though, I have to say Gyakuten Saiban - Jikan Ryokousha no Gyakuten's a great mystery story. The style and tone might be a bit different from the games, but what you get in return is a captivating mystery story that features a fantastic theme that also does a good job at striking meaningful connections with the main series. Yet the book is definitely accessible for people who have never played Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney before: while there are some good references to the games for the core fans, it doesn't feel like they're throwing with in-jokes, and it is a very competently written mystery story overall that can stand on its own merits, while also showing why the games are fun as mystery games.

Original Japanese title(s): 円居挽　『逆転裁判　時間旅行者の逆転』

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

"There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet."

"His Last Bow"

I've reviewed only one mystery game this year, it seems (and a couple of other game-related materials). Huh. Still have a few more planned for this year, but still, that's surprisingly few game reviews this year.

The greatest challenge facing the Meiji government in Japan around the turn of the 19th century was the modernization of all facets of the country, including its legal system. One year ago, Naruhodou Ryuunosuke made his way from the Japanese capital to Victorian London to study as British law as part of an official government exchange mission. He became friends with the brilliant, yet very eccentric Mr. Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, the renowned detective whose exploits have become known all over the world thanks to the stories published in Strand Magazine. Ryuunosuke eventually made a name for his name in Old Bailey, as he learned that wherever on the world, defendants will always need the help of defense attorneys to stand by them in their time of need. The truth behind the at times zany, but always complex cases Ryuunosuke solved not only showed that London's perhaps not the bright place he imagined it to be, but little could he have guessed that all the adventures he had over the last year would all intersect and come together to reveal a truth about the darkness that envelops modern, enlightened London. Standing in court to protect other asks for courage from a defense attorney, but does Ryuunosuke also have the resolve to remain there even in the most difficult of times in the 2017 Nintendo 3DS game Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 ~ Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Kakugo ("The Grand Turnabout Trial 2 ~ The Resolve of Naruhodou Ryuunosuke").

Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 is a direct sequel to 2015's Dai Gyakuten Saiban, a spin-off game of the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney game series. In this series of comedic adventure mystery games, you take up the role of a defense attorney solving cases and revealing the true culprits behind murders in the courtroom. The original series was conceived by Takumi Shuu, who would eventally leave the main series for side-projects like Professor Layton VS Gyakuten Saiban. He brought us Dai Gyakuten Saiban in 2015, which was a spin-off game set in the London of Sherlock Holmes, who also played a big role in the story. The sequel Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 was long-awaited, mostly because the first game was clearly just the first half of a story: many plot points were not resolved in the first game, and this left a pretty bad aftertaste for what was in fact a fun game, but which was clearly not "complete". Whereas previous games in the series were always designed as standalone games, Dai Gyakuten Saiban simply could not stand on its own with all those unanswered questions and hooks, so fans were quite eager to see how Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 would turn out.

The essence of Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 is of course still same as always. The core has always been built around solid mystery plots with a good touch of comedy, set in the courtroom, featuring the so-called contradiction system. The player, as defense attorney Ryuunosuke, needs to point out contradictions between witness testimony and evidence. Pointing out a contradiction leads to new testimony, which in turn leads to new contradictions and by slowly unraveling the thread like a True Columbo, the player eventually figures out the identity of the true murderer. In the two Dai Gyakuten Saiban games, you'll also occasionally have to reason with the jurors in order to turn their guilty vote in one of not-guilty, which you of course do by pointing out contradictions in their lines of thought. Nothing has been changed in these mechanics for this second game, but you don't have to fix what's not broken, right? Finding contradictions by carefully comparing what the various weird witnesses claim, and the evidence you have at hand is still a great feeling, as you really feel that you, as the player, figured out what's wrong. I reckon that's how Columbo is feeling all the time. As you solve each contradiction one by one, you also gain better understanding of how each case unfolds, rather than havng a detective character explaining everything at the end of a tale in the denouement. Few games have come up with better ways to translate the "puzzle solving" of mystery fiction into such an intinuitive game mechanic.

Sherlock Holmes plays an important role in the Dai Gyakuten Saiban games, not only as a character in the story, but also as a game mechanic. The Holmes in these games is quite comedic, with a very silly side to him (don't forget, the stories in Strand Magazine are fiction!), and that side to him is also reflected in his deductions. For Holmes once said "From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other." and that is basically what Holmes does in this game. He presents brilliant deductions based on very small clues. The problem: He's usually looking at the wrong clue, which means that while his method is good, his starting point is usually wrong, which results in him arriving at very surprising (yet "brilliant) conclusions (to use the example above, he's supposed to start with a drop of water, but deduces a desert based on a grain of sand). In these scenes, you're supposed to 'guide' the flow of Holmes' deductions the right way by ever so gently indicating the correct clue/starting point. It's a very fun mechanic, that reminds of mystery writers like Queen, Brand and Berkeley, who often show in their books how chains of deductions can change completely just by adding or removing one single clue. Conan also often does the same by 'nudging' Kogorou in the right direction in Detective Conan. The presentation of these scenes is excellent by the way, showing off how Holmes' mind works in a very extravagant way, and there is one scene in particular in Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 that is absolutely amazing.

So you use these mechanics (together with simply talking with all the suspects/investigating the crime scenes) to solve various cases over the course of the game, which brings us to the mystery plots. We are treated to familiar tropes like fantastical, yet baffling locked room murders (especially locked room murders, now I think about it), and most of the cases make excellent use of the setting of late nineteenth/early twentieth century, with some of them very unique to the time period. Efforts are of course taken so the 'modern player' knows what's up, but the fact that these cases work because they are set in that time period is definitely worthy of praise. There are some unique settings, like a Chamber of Horrors in a wax museum or a shabby apartment building with walled-up windows because of window tax, but also a case revolving around a daring scientific experiment gone wrong, which adds a bit of a steampunk feel to the setting. The London of this game is definitely not historically accurate in every detail, but the world-view is consistent enough for every player to know what is possible, and what is not, and that is the most important for a mystery story.

What I thought was unfortunate though was that a lot of the core mystery plots in Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 were very easy to identify, as they come from fairly well-known stories. Of course, Takumi Shuu has often used famous tricks and scenes from mystery fiction in his game as a homage/reference (the original three Gyakuten Saiban games have several scenes straight out of Columbo for example), but in Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2, it is overly clear where the core trick came from, especially as the source material is not particular obscure. So each time, I was hoping it would turn out not to be the same as story X, only to find out that it was basically exactly the same as story X. I thought this was a shame, as Takumi is usually very capable of building much more around a basic trick, while this time, it seems the effort to rework these ideas into more original concepts was not as intensive. So while the main plots of this game make good use of the time period, I can't deny that it's also because they are based very obviously on stories that actually date from that time period. That said though, Takumi also makes sure to play with the fans' expectations of how things will go. It's something he already did in the first Dai Gyakuten Saiban, but he does the same in this second game (though arguably not as effective).

The experienced mystery fan, or specifically the Holmesians with us, will have a lot of fun picking up on the numerous references to the Canon though. Some familiar names are used in surprising ways, and there's even a very daring take on Holmes lore revealed near the end of the game. Some might find it lacking in respect for the original stories, but I absolutely loved it as an original way to play with the whole idea of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and it's one that fits perfectly within the world of Dai Gyakuten Saiban (which doesn't pretend it's the ultimate interpretation of Holmes anyway. It's simply an original take on the character and everything around him).

As I mentioned earlier, the greatest point of criticism aimed at the first game was the fact that it was clearly just the first part of a longer story, with many plot points addressed, but simply unresolved. The marketing campaign for Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 was thus very eager to emphasize that all the mysteries would be revealed in this second game, which it fortunately did. I can safely recommend people who played the first game and felt dissatisfied about the story to play this second game, as it really does answer all the pertinent questions you may have. But this second game also made clear that this story was really not meant to be split in two. Writer Takumi basically admitted in an interview that the scale of the story he came up with was too large for one game, but that doesn't mean it was a story fit for multiple parts/games. He simply wrote too much. Each of the games is quite long (I ticked in at around 24 hours for each game), so you could hardly expect them to have put everything in one single game, but the story structure makes it clear that most of the episodes originally belonged together, but were sliced up in two episodes, and in some instances, spread aross the two games. One episode in Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 is closely related to an episode from the first game for example, but they would've worked much better had they been in the same game in terms of hinting, and in fact, I suspect that they originally did belong back-to-back, or that they were actually one story. The way Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 relies so much on references (plot points/clues) to the first game, and especially the manner in which foreshadowing/clues are structured, make me suspect that this was always meant to be one big story.

There are of course mediums that split their story in two or more parts in an effective manner, for example the two live-action Death Note films or Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, but that does not hold for Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2. I also think the structure of the Gyakuten Saiban series might have hindered the development of the Dai Gyakuten Saiban series. Traditionally, each game has always consisted of distinct episodes (which may or may not also have interlinking story elements), but I feel that some parts of the Dai Gyakuten Saiban series would've worked better as a contineous story, rather than arbirary seperating them in episodes. So following the Sherlock Holmes model, I think a "novel" structure would've worked better for some elements than the short story collection model.

Another reason why the two Dai Gyakuten Saiban games feel like they were originally one set is the extensive reuse of assets. Many characters, locations and music tracks return from the first game, making it difficult to differentiate them. The new tracks are all great, but there are only relatively few original compositions, so that's a bit disappointing. So while it really does look and sound great, there's also a great sense of déjà vu, again weaking the feeling that you're truly playing something new, instead making it feel like you're just playing the continuation of something that shouldn't have been split up in the first place.

Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 ~ Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Kakugo is an excellent mystery game, but it can not stand on its own. It works because there is a Dai Gyakuten Saiban that posed the questions answered in this sequel. The game offers, on the whole, interesting and captivating mystery plots that make good use of the unique setting, and it also plays a lot with the Sherlock Holmes character for surprising results, but from start to finish you feel that this is simply the second half of a story. So I can only recommend the game if you've played the first game. Together, they form a fantastic series of mystery games that rank among the best, but its ambition is also what makes each individual game not as strong on its own.

Original Japanese title(s): 『大逆転裁判2 －成歩堂龍ノ介の覺悟』