Remember to Ring Twice

"I'm going slap happy"

"South Park"

I always think of white and blue when I think of the covers for the Koigakubo Academy books, even those are not even the primary colors for every cover...

Disclosure: I translated Higashigawa Tokuya's Lending the Key to the Locked Room. If you haven't read it yet... read it! 

Higashigawa Tokuya first introduced his readers to the fictional school of Koigakubo Academy, located in Kokubunji, Tokyo, in 2002 with Manabanai Tantei-tachi no Gakuen. In that book, we followed the members of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club as they tackled a murder case that happened at school. After the first book about the Detective Club, we have seen other books featuring the Detective Club too, but interestingly enough, Higashigawa also started to feature the high school in other books that weren't about the Detective Club exclusively. First we had the Kirigamine Ryou series, which featured the vice-president of the Detective Club who for some reason very seldomly met the characters of the main series, but still often came across mysteries herself. Four years ago, Higashigawa wrote Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda, a wonderful short story collection about the Second Literature Club of Koigakubo Academy. And 2024, the twentieth anniversary since the first book with the Koigakubo Academy, brought us another new series about the school where so many odd happenings happen, both criminal and not. The binding element between all these series is the school itself, with some characters like the teachers or a delinquent student appearing in several series, while usually the main characters of each series remains in their own 'part' of the world.

Asahina-san to Himitsu no Aibou ("Miss Asahina and the Secret Buddy", 2024) is a short story collection which presents us with another detective character in the school: Asahina Reika is the daughter of the school's chairman, which basically gives her a lot of informal authority. That is why some students sometimes go directly to her to ask for help when nobody else can help them: Asahina is actually quite involved with the school's reputation and how it's run, and basically acts as a 'shadow chairman' under the auspices of her father. That is why Ishibashi Mamoru comes to her when he's accused of theft by his fellow Mystery Club members: one morning, Ishibashi was the first to retrieve the padlock key from the teacher to open the club room. When he noticed one locker door was open and approached it, the harm had been done: the user of that locker saw Mamoru standing in front of it, and it turned out a manuscript for a detective story he was writing, had disappeared from the locker. He had put it in the locker the day before, and other members were present when they all left the club room together, put the padlock on the door and returned the key to the teacher. This means nobody could've gained entry into the club room and stolen the manuscript from the locker, until Ishibashi asked for the club room key this morning. Mamoru swears he's innocent, and wants Asahina's help, who's secretly more than thrilled, because she's a huge mystery buff and realizes she might be dealing with a genuine locked room mystery. Her guesses however are shot down very swiftly, and it seems Mamoru won't be able to escape the shadow of suspicion, until Asahina accidentally slaps Mamoru in the face, and he.... turns into his deceased brother Wataru!  For some reason, Wataru's personality takes over each time Mamoru's slapped in the face. Wataru's a lot sharper than Mamoru and Asahina, and he quickly solves the case of the theft, even though Mamoru seems not to be aware of Wataru taking over his body and has no recollection of solving the case (he thinks Asahina did it). Asahina and Mamoru/Wataru's paths cross more often, and their encounters only make Asahina more interested in Mamoru and Wataru's odd relationship.

The first tale, Meitantei, Misshitsu ni Arawaru  ("The Great Detective Appears in the Locked Room"), introduces us to the main characters of Asahina, Mamory and Wataru, and also shows a bit of Koigakubo Academy's Mystery Club, which we have seen previously in the second Kirigamine Ryou short story collection. The problem involves a theft from a club room: the club members all saw how the manuscript was left in a locker in the room and they left the room together, saw how the padlock was put on the door and one of them returned the key to the teacher in charge. The key is specially made and can't be copied, and the teachers keep club room keys in a room with camera surveillance, so it appears only Mamoru, who took the key the following day, could've stolen the manuscript in the morning. Asahina presents a few fairly simple theories which are discarded fairly easily, which is perhaps also why the actual solution to the conundrum is also fairly simply: this solution is basically of the same level Asahina could and should have presented herself, and should've been shot down too. So to have the mysterious Wataru appear only to point out a simple solution.... 

Satsujin ga Misui Datta Hanashi ("A Story About an Attempt at Murder") starts with Asahina hearing the shocking news a student of Koigakubo Academy had been assaulted the previous night. The girl had been to a concert of Tamaranzaka 24 and had been on her way home, crossing a grove near the station, when she was attacked and stabbed in her stomach. She was found by a classmate who quickly called the emergency line. Because the girl's a classmate of Mamoru, Asahina decides to use him as her Watson to learn more about the case. They visit the mother of the victim, and learn the daughter didn't quite get along with the mother's boyfriend, but he has an alibi for when the girl was assaulted. While the actual truth behind why the girl was attacked is not very surprising or original on its own, I love the deduction chain Higashigawa laid out for the reader. The clue that leads to the revelation of how it was done is really good, and expertly hidden, and easily one of my favorite clues of the whole book. 

Asahina Reika is the honorary student council president, which means she supervises the board meetings once in a while (when she feels like it), and the other members just have to dance to her tune. the day after another meeting, Asahina visits the board office to use her locker there, when she notices a window was left open. She then realizes someone has moved some of her books in her locker, so she summons Mamoru (and Wataru) to help her find the insolent person who dares go through her stuff in Seitokaiyakuinshitsu no Koubou ("Offence and Defence in the Student Board Office"). After a good slap, we see Wataru's observations of a few clues that ultimately lead Asahina and Wataru to a rather surprising discovery, which shows there was something far more sinister going on in the student board office than just a theft. Not a huge fan of the story to be honest: the first half the mystery-solving is more focused on reverse-engineering Wataru's deductions about the intruder's actions, rather than doing that ourselves and in the second half, we investigate a mysterious message that... probably would have been more interesting in a visual medium, but not in a prose form.

Tenshi wa Poolside ni Ukabu ("Angels Floating at the Poolside") is set during a summer evening: students are still around at school because of two events: geography teacher Ikegami is supervising a group to watch the stars (she herself is actually a huge believer of UFOs), while another group of students are playing night baseball on the school grounds. A guard meanwhile is making his rounds, when he senses something's wrong with the school's pool. While the fence is properly locked and barbed wire ensures nobody can climb inside (or as some swimming club members say, it's to prevent members from fleeing training), the guard still can't shake the feeling someone is inside, so he unlocks the pool gate and has a look around. His attention is drawn to one of the diving boards, so he climbs the ladder. He's nearly at the top when he suddenly feels something hard hit his head, and he falls of the ladder, hits his head on the ground and is knocked out. But just before he passes out, he's sure he saw a winged angel flying in the sky above him... The guard is later found by students passing by. Asahina of course can't help herself and decides to investigate herself (with Mamoru/Wataru as her Watson). This is another story where I think it would've been better had it been created in a visual medium. While I think the solution on its own is okay, I think asking the reader to deduce it based on the hints is a bit too much, while it would've been much more natural if the story had been told in a visual format. The attack on the guard (which is kinda impossible because he was hit on the head while climbing up the ladder and he didn't see anyone on the diving board before he was knocked out) is connected well to the guard seeing floating angels, but it's still a story that has trouble feeling really satisfying. 

The final story, Chashitsu ni Kieta Shoujo ("The Girl Who Disappeared In the Tea-Ceremony Room"), has Asahina wondering whether he should tell Mamoru about Wataru taking his body over each time he's hit on the head, but before she can make a decision, she and Mamoru stumble upon a new case, and a very personal one too: Asahina sees a brown-haired girl rummaging through her desk in the classroom! Asahina and Mamoru give chase, and they eventually find the girl running into a remote part of the campus, which is walled off and ends in a cul-de-sac where the tea-ceremony room is, a small building used by the tea ceremony club. Mamoru is sent inside the room by Asahina, but it appears there's only a tea ceremony club member inside, who is far too tall to be the girl Asahina saw. A swift look across the room also shows there's no place for the brown-haired girl to hide inside. Asahina then decides to check behind the tea-ceremony room too (she makes sure Mamoru goes the other way around the building), but they only find a delinquent student trying to smoke in secret. But as this part of the campus is completely walled-off, how did the girl escape if she's not in the tea-ceremony room nor behind it? Impossible disappearances are pretty much a staple of the mysteries set at Koigakubo Academy, as other books also feature them (especially the Kirigamine Ryou series), and even with that in mind, I'd say this is a pretty good story. The solution is very simple, but also quite clever: it would have been pretty interesting on its own as it makes good use of the unusual setting, but Higashigawa manages to tie a very unique clue to it too, giving it another level of depth. Just don't come here expecting some real resolution regarding the Mamoru/Wataru plotline.

Overall though, I'll need to be honest and say that Asahina-san to Himitsu no Aibou is probably my least favorite short story collection set at Koigakubo Academy until now. I love the Kirigamine Ryou stories with the overly-enthusiastic Kirigamine and the weird disappearances and other impossible crimes(?) she encounters, and I was really surprised by how fantastically Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda was set-up with multiple meta-level stories, but in comparison, the plots of Asahina-san to Himitsu no Aibou seemed a lot simpler, with less finesse going on in regards to how the mysteries were planned. And I guess I never got really invested in the Ranma 1/2 / Touch-esque subplot of Mamoru and Wataru (hmm, now I think about it, it does have a Shonen Sunday vibe to it), so that wasn't really something that kept me interested. I'm always in for more stories set at Koigakubo Academy, and it was fun seeing familiar faces pop up in the background, but I guess I did expect something more 'grand' for the twentieth anniversary of the setting. Let's hope the next one is more memorable.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉『朝比奈さんと秘密の相棒』：「名探偵、密室に現る」/「殺人が未遂だった話」/「生徒会役員室の攻防」/「天使はプールサイドに浮かぶ」/「茶室に消えた少女」

Murder, She Wrote

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, 

Moves on 

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Verse 51, Edward FitzGerald translation)

Oh man, this cover is gorgeous! Definitely a contender for the best cover of the year.

Higashigawa Tokuya's short story collection Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda ("I Have A Mystery I Want You To Read", 2020) brings us back to Koigakubo Academy: a quaint private high school in Kokubunji-shi, Tokyo which offers both a curriculum for 'normal' students as well as a special curriculum for students in the entertainment industry like idol singers. It's April and our unnamed narrator has just started his new life as a high school student. Hoping to join the Literature Club, the boy finds himself in front of a prefab container building hidden in the shadows behind one of the school buildings. Knocking on the door with the sign LITERATURE CLUB, he's promptly ushered inside by a beautiful third year student with long straight black hair, who introduces herself as Mizusaki Anna, club president of the Second Literature Club. It turns out there are two literature clubs at Koigakubo Academy and that the sign outside does say "Second" in very, very small print. The 'normal' Literature Club is where they talk about literature, while the Second Literature Club has a more prestigious goal, as the amateur writers here all focus on making a professional debut themselves as an author. Another shocking realization is that Mizusaki Anna is actually the only member of this club. But things were already set in motion the moment our narrator knocked on the door and stated he wanted to become a member of this Literature Club. Anna locks herself up with the narrator inside the club room and kindly allows the newest member of the Second Literature Club to read her works of fiction: a series of short detective stories starring Mizusaki Anna, a beautiful, talented, brilliant yet kind high school student of Koigakubo Academy who solves all kinds of murders and other impossible crimes set around the school...

Higashigawa Tokuya is best known as a writer of humorous detective series, which combine snappy dialogues and slapstick comedy with cartoonish characters with surprisingly well-plotted puzzle mysteries that brilliantly use comedy as misdirection. I've enjoyed all the series I've read by him a lot, like Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de ("Mystery Solving Is After Dinner") which was a multimedia hit about the female police detective Houshou Reiko, who was in fact the stinkin' rich heiress of the Houshou Group. Her sharp-tongued butler Kageyama always manages to solve her cases (while totally belittling his mistress), but he waits until after dinner to explain the mystery. And then there's the series set in the fictional town of Ikagawa-shi, about the (mis-)adventures of the private detective Ukai and his assistant Ryuuhei who always end up involved with impossible murders despite... well, perhaps because their best 'efforts' to stay out of trouble. But my personal favorite series has always been the stories set around Koigakubo Academy. Up until now, Higashigawa had two connected series both set at this school: the two Koigakubo Academy Detective Club novels were about Tamagawa, Yatsuhashi and Akasaka of the titular Detective Club, a club for people who want to become detectives (not to be confused with the Mystery Club of the same school, where they write mystery novels). The three are 'talented' in getting involved with murders set around the school. The Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni (After School, Together With Mystery) books on the other hand focused on the adventures of Kirigamine Ryou, the vice-president of the same Detective Club, who not only has the talent to miraculously avoid running into the characters of the main series, but she also gets involved in a lot of comedic, non-murder related mysteries set around the campus, like theft cases at the school or students getting knocked out at school by unknown figures. Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda introduces a new angle to the Koigakubo Academy setting, with the two members of the Second Literature Club as its focus. While we don't see the main characters from the Detective Club in this book, we do see a few familiar faces (like teachers) and other names dropped throughout the short story collection, so for fans of the Koigakubo Academy books, Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda is a must-read! I myself wasn't even aware this book was going to be published until two, three days before the release, but I knew instantly I needed this book as soon as possible.

Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda is a short story collection, where each story features a story-within-a-story. The narrator runs into Anna every two, three months at which point she makes him read one of her mystery stories featuring the sliiiiightly fictionalized "Mizusaki Anna", the best-thing-since-slice-bread club president of the wonderful Second Literature Club who in all her modest glory manages to solve murder after murder at Koigakubo Academy. The name of the fictional "Mizusaki Anna" is written differently from the real Mizusaki Anna in Japanese by the way. The thing is: Anna's stories have room for a lot of improvement. Anna's always waiting for neverending praise whenever the narrator's done reading, but he usually showers her with tons of comments about how messy the story is: from the lack of explanation for the motives to incorrect details, unfounded character motivation or even questions about the viability of the murder schemes. The weak excuses Anna spouts during these sessions seldom convince the narrator, but as the year passes by, he becomes more and more interested in reading Anna's farfetched mystery stories, even if they are as ridiculous as ever.

The opening story, Bungeibuchou to "Ongakushitsu no Satsujin" ("The Literature Club President and The Murder in the Music Room"), introduces the reader and the narrator to Anna, who offers the narrator "The Murder in the Music Room" to read from her Koigakubo Academy Case Files 20XX (Tentative Title) series. One Spring afternoon long after school hours, "Mizusaki Anna" decides to return a book she borrowed from her Literature teacher and visits him in his classroom in Main Building A. She's told that that he had borrowed it from the music teacher and peeking outside the window across the inner court, they see the light in the music room in Main Building B is still on. Anna's asked to return the book straight to the music teacher, so our beautiful and kind protagonist makes her way across the inner court to the music room, where she's promptly tackled by a dark figure fleeing the room. Inside the music room, Anna finds the strangled, lifeless body of the music teacher. Anna quickly notifies her Lit teacher and they also get a hold on everyone hanging around in the inner court, which includes some suspicious figures. But how did the assailant disappear from the school grounds without being noticed by anyone in the inner court?

This is a weeeird story to rate, and that holds for all the stories in this collection. For this story-within-a-story is deliberately written by Higashigawa to be full of little mistakes, unexplained parts and leaps in logic. Anna's story has to feature all kinds of things that allow the narrator to comment upon later on, so "The Murder in the Music Room" is by design a mystery story that feels sloppy. That said, the core idea of how the culprit managed to escape the inner court is fun, and well-clewed too, but you definitely have to roll with it, because like the narrator at the end points out, there are plenty of unaddressed plotholes. And that's usually the case with this series: the core ideas of each story can be used for interesting mystery stories, it's Anna who can't make the best use of them.

It was already the rainy season by the time the narrator crosses paths with Anna again in Bungeibuchou to "Nerawareta Soukyuu Buin" ("The Literature Club President and The Targeted Handbal Club Member"). Anna's "kind" enough to lend an umbrella to the narrator, but not before they swing by the club room first, where the narrator is forced to read The Targeted Handbal Club Member. In this story, the ever-wonderful "Mizusaki Anna" leaves the club room late, only to find a student lying unconscious on the ground near a tree on the school grounds. The handbal club member had been waiting for the rain to stop all this time inside the handbal club room, but when the rain finally stopped and got out to leave for home, he was knocked out from behind by an unknown figure. He did manage to grab a button from the assailant's shirt though before he fell, and miraculously, the two people still at school at this hour (a student and a teacher) both miss a button from their shirts. The problem soon focuses on which of these two could've attacked the victim: the victim left the club room soon after the rain stopped, but at that time, both suspects were busy with club activities, with other people as their witnesses. Anna however is convinced that one of the two is the assailant.

Interestingly enough, this second story already feels more fleshed-out than the first one in terms of writing, as if Anna took the earlier criticism to heart. Anyway, both the reader and the narrator's comments on The Targeted Handbal Club Member are more than justified (Anna for example didn't realize that it's very unlikely both the teacher and the student had the same shirts with the same button, so a simple comparison of the buttons should suffice), but as for the core ideas, I do really like the mystery presented here. Both suspects seem to have a perfect alibi for the time of the crime, so how did they manage to attack the victim? The idea itself is pretty simple, but it's fleshed out adequately to give a reason for why the trick was used and ultimately how it connects to the attack on the victim. The funny thing is that Higashigawa obviously could've used the same idea to write a more robust, tighter mystery story, but he purposely choose to have Anna write an imperfect mystery story. Like I said, this book is a weird experience, as all the stories are intended to attract criticism.

Bungeibuchou to "Kieta Seifuku Joshi no Nazo" ("The Literature Club President and The Mystery of the Vanishing Girl in Uniform") is set during the summer holiday, when the narrator notices Anna is making use of the school pool all by her own. While she's off swimming, he's handed her tablet with the story The Mystery of the Vanishing Girl in Uniform. On a summer day, "Mizusaki Anna" runs into a few acquaintances at campus: the Theater Club president Narushima and the (First) Literature Club president Tanada. They're having a chat at the rest area, when they notice the figure of Kurihara Yuka, a member of the swimming club, walk into the pool dressing room across the rest area. This is soon followed by a scream, which attracts the attention of the three club presidents. They see a girl in an unknown school uniform flee the dressing room, and inside they find Yuka as well as the dead body of the club captain. Realizing the girl who has just escaped must be the murderer, Anna darts out out together with Narujima, and finally spot the girl in the unknown school uniform running inside the shared club building. They're just a few seconds behind, but inside, they can find no trace of the mysterious girl: while there were a few people in their own club rooms inside this building, including girls, they were either dressed in the Koigakubo Academy school uniforms, or not girls at all. And considering how close Anna and Narujima were, none of the girls could've gotten dressed in another uniform anyway. So where did the murderer disappear to?

One of the better-written tales of this collection, even if you consider the fact that Anna's stories are meant to be full of little mistakes. The story does remind me a bit of one of my favorites from the first Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni volume and like the narrator points out in the story, the reason behind the disappearing act of the girl is a bit farfetched, but I like the trick: while it's fairly complex in terms of what is done by the culprit, the necessary puzzle pieces to put you on the right path are presented without too much smoke and mirrors to the reader and to be honest, I always have a weakness for school/university-based mystery stories set in club rooms/buildings. Again, this is a story that could've made for a tighter, more convicing mystery story with some minor re-writing, but it's not written in that way on purpose. I personally love the whimsical tone of these stories, but I can't deny that these stories are full of things that make you wonder: "Hey, but this was written here, and now you say that... That doesn't make any sense!" Some might find it distracting, though having something to bug Anna about is part of the charm.

The Koigakubo Academy fall school festival is ongoing in Bungeibuchou to "Hougannage no Kyoufu" ("The Literature Club President and The Terror of Shot Put"), and an unlucky fall brings the narrator to the nurse's room, which is now occupied by... Anna, who is assisting the school nurse, who is now out on the field treating someone's injury. In the meantime, Anna decides to give the narrator something to read: The Terror of Shot Put is set not at Koigakubo Academy, but at nearby Ryuugasaki High: the beautiful, unfallible, beloved "Mizusaki Anna" had brought the members of the Second Literature Club to Ryuugasaki High to mingle with their Literature Club. The meeting was  a huge success and now Anna was still hanging around in the school library with Kitahara Shiori, Ryuugasaki High's Literature Club president and Anna's bestie. Outside on the wet sports ground, they notice Ichikawa, a not very well-beloved member of the Track & Field Club, crossing the pitch, when suddenly, from behind the sports equipment storage, a black round projectile flying through the air. It hits Ichikawa right on the head, who falls to the ground. It takes a few seconds before people outside notice Ichikawa lying on the ground, but they find he has been knocked unconscious. The projectile turns out to be a put (the ball from shot put). Anna soon gathers her witnesses, but is stumped: she and Shiori saw the projectile coming from behind the equipment storage, but the people who came from that direction lack the strength to be able to throw a put 10 metres through the sky and hit Ichikawa that hard. Meanwhile, the person who could've thrown the put so far was nowhere near the place from where it was thrown, so who did throw the put at Ichikawa?

Funny little references to the greater Koigakubo Academy setting here, with Ichikawa very obviously being Ryuugasaki High's counterpart to Koigakubo's Adachi Shunsuke, the not very popular track & field member. The Terror of Shot Put also reminded me of the second Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni volume, which had two stories focusing on similar concepts. Anyway, I think this is one of the best examples of why this collection works: the idea behind how the put was thrown is pretty ridiculous and it would not have worked in a serious mystery story. Any reader will be able to raise dozens of objections regarding the workability of the trick as it's really just not doable. But, it works here because of the story-in-story-structure, with Anna always writing stories that leave a lot of room for improvement. She always has some basic idea that can work in a mystery plot, but which is also a bit silly, but by making these tales stories-within-stories and having the narrator and Anna argue about the 'little details', Higashigawa is able to use such an idea despite its sillyness.

His first year at Koigakubo Academy is almost over and he hadn't seen Anna for some months now, so while the narrator won't admit it, he's quite happy when he spots Anna before she graduates in the final story: Bungeibuchou to "Ekkusuyama no Alibi" ("The Literature Club President and The Alibi on Mt. X"). Anna tells him she's going to show what she's been working on for these last months and shows him The Alibi on Mt. X, the last story in Koigakubo Academy Case Files 20XX (Tentative Title). This story starts with "Mizusaki Anna" returning home late one evening. There's a shortcut through a thickly overgrown hill which locals call Mt. X (Ekkusu) and while it's dark, Anna has a flashlight in her bag, so she decides to take this path anyway. However, Anna finds a woman lying on the ground and when she tries to help the woman get up, she realizes the woman's been stabbed with a knife. The woman utters the name "Ogiwara Yuuji" before her consciousness fades. After calling for an ambulance and the police, Anna learns that the woman's called Miho and that she had been on a movie date with Masaki Toshihiko, whom she met at the restaurant where she works. After the date, she got off the train at West-Kokubunji Station alone, which is just a ten-minute walk away from the place where she's found. It turns out that her boss at the restaurant is called Ogiwara Yuuji, and that this man had been interested in Miho too. However, Ogiwara has an alibi for the stabbing: he was in his regular pachinko parlor at the time Miho got off the train and walked into Mt. X. Anna however is convinced Ogiwara did it despite his perfect alibi.

The core trick behind the perfect alibi of Ogiwara (yes, he did it, Anna explicitly tells the narrator he's really the one) is one that should sound familiar, as it's usually seen as a 'not-viable' solution or just a joke solution. In any other mystery story, you would dismiss it as being either cheap or unfair, but it works here in this volume due to the presentation: this final story has an extra surprise in store for the reader and the narrator that works in conjunction with the alibi trick, and I have to say: I like the big surprise! It's really well-hidden and the misdirection planned by Anna and Higashigawa is truly devious. The stories in this volume were released seperately first before being bundled, but due to the references to past stories in this tale, it's definitely recommended to read these five stories in one go and in order. If it was just the story-within-the-story, this would've been a rather mediocre mystery, but it's the overarching story with the narrator and Anna arguing about the stories and life outside the stories that really make this a memorable end to the volume.

I still have trouble identifying what makes Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda such a fun read though. Anna is definitely a great character, who starts out as a mysterious, but hilarious character and whose fictional counterpart is even funnier to follow because of her portrayal in the stories is incredibly positive. These slightly larger-than-life characters are of course Higashigawa's bread and butter, but Anna's certainly a character I'd love to see more. The stories-within-stories are quite odd to read, because they're full of plotholes and wouldn't have worked if they had been presented as is, but with the narrator constantly pointing out those plotholes and commenting on how the stories don't work logically in each subsequent story, I have to admit I slowly moved to Anna's side of the discussion. So what if there are minor plotholes? So what if it's not realistic? Ultimately, mystery fiction is just fiction, it's supposed to be plain entertainment and yes, Maximus, I am entertained! The core concepts and plots of Anna's fictional works are fun even if not realistic, and they do make for some highly amusing and captivating mystery fiction. In a way, Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda is a secret love letter to the mystery genre, showing how ultimately, mystery fiction may be about deductions and logical reasoning and puzzles, but that it also has to be entertainment. The way these stories do make you want to read the next one even though you already know you'll be nitpicking every plothole is a weird sensation. Unlike anti-mystery novels like the infamous trio Oguri Mushitarou's Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken (1934), Yumeno Kyuusaku's Dogura Magura (1935) and  Nakai Hideo's Kyomu he no Kumotsu (1964), Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda has a very positive outlook on the mystery genre while it also clearly shows that a mystery story will never be perfect in all its details.

So yep, Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda is definitely one of my favorite reads of this year. It has such a unique angle to the mystery story, and I absolutely love the protagonist Anna: both the "real" Anna who appears out of nowhere in front of our narrator as well as the highly fictionalized Anna who appears in The Koigakubo Academy Case Files 20XX (Tentative Title). The individual stories can be quite silly and like the narrator, the reader is likely to be noticing one plothole after another, but Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda's greatest accomplishment is that in the end, you won't care about that, because man, this volume is fun!

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉『君に読ませたいミステリがあるんだ』：「文芸部長と『音楽室の殺人』」/「文芸部長と『狙われた送球部員』」/「文芸部長と『消えた制服女子の謎』」/「文芸部長と『砲丸投げの恐怖』」/「文芸部長と『エックス山のアリバイ』」

Turnabout Academy

「へえ、容疑者が三人かあ。ちょうどいい数だね。それ、教えてよ」

「いいけど、『ちょうどいい』ってなんだ？　なにが、『ちょうどいい」んだ？」 

「霧ヶ峰涼と瓢箪池の怪事件」

"So there are three suspects. Just the right number. Tell me who they are"

"Okay, but what do you mean with just the right number? The right number for what?"

"Kirigamine Ryou and the Strange Incident at Gourd Pond"

Of course, now I regret not having waited with posting my translation, but for those who want to get into a Chrismas detective mood, I recommend my translation of Oosaka Keikichi's short story, Kan no Yobare I posted two months ago. It has Santa Claus disappearing in the snowy sky, what more do you want?

Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series
Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen ("The School of the Detectives Who Don't Learn")
Satsui wa Kanarazu Sando Aru ("Murderous Intent Always Comes Three Times")

Spin-off series
Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni ("After School, Together With Mystery")
Tanteibu he no Chousenjou - Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni 2 ("A Challenge to the Detective Club - After School, Together With Mystery 2")
 

Higashigawa Tokuya might be best known for his Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de series, which has also been made into a succesful TV series, motion picture, but it's not my favorite series by him. Nor is it his Ikagawashi town series (which is also being made into a TV series). No, my favorite is the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series. Or to be precise, the spin-off series of that. I absolutely loved the misadventures of high school girl Kiragamine Ryou in Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, and by now I have written reviews of the NHK radio drama, the Momogre audio drama, the stories that weren't adapted and even made translations of two stories (here and here), in case you hadn't noticed I had a weak spot for the series. So when I heard the second volume, Tanteibu he no Chousenjou  - Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni 2 ("A Challenge to the Detective Club - After School, Together With Mystery 2"), was released, I knew I had to read it immediately. Like the first volume, Tanteibu he no Chousenjou is a short story collection starring the vice-president of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club, Kirigamine Ryou. And make no mistake: the Detective Club is not a club where they read and write mystery fiction (like the Kyoto University Mystery Club), but a club where the members try to solve real-life cases (they don't really have results, so the school just barely acknowledges them as a club though).

The main Koigakubo Academy Detective Club follows third year students Tamagawa (club president), Yatsuhashi (fake Kansai dialect speaker) and second year student Akasaka Tooru (duped into becoming a member) as they get involved with murders and other heinous crimes (they never manage to solve the crimes themselves though). The Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni spinoff series however has less bloody crimes: Kirigamine Ryou's misadventures all spring forth from non-bloody, normal school activities. The first volume had fellow students assaulting each other, people disappearing from hallways and more of these (mostly) non-violent, yet not less mystifying puzzles. Tanteibu he no Chousenjou continues this tradition with another set of impossible school mysteries.

The first three stories are set in the fall, with school activities like the sports festival and the school festival on the mind of both students and teachers. In Kirigamine Ryou to Watarirouka no Kaijin ("Kirigamine Ryou and the Phantom of the Passageway"), (self-proclaimed) superstar of the trackfield, Adachi Shunsuke, is once again knocked out by someone, this time in the middle of a covered hallway connecting two buildings. The hallway also divides an inner court in two, and because the exits into the buildings were locked, the assailant could only have fled into either side of the inner court. The problem: witnesses on both sides say nobody fled through there, and footprints on the wet ground proof that. How did the assailant get away? The solution is a bit difficult to deduce, maybe, but it works because of the school setting of this series, as well as the humoristic tone of the story and the characters. Not the best of Kirigamine's impossible capers, but fun.

Kirigamine Ryou to Hyoutan Ike no Kaijiken ("Kirigame Ryou and the Strange Incident at Gourd Pond") is a special story, even if only for the fact that this is the first time the vice-president of the Detective Club actually meets the protagonists of the main series! Like they comment: 'they must have just missed each other all those times they were involved with cases'. The case itself involves a student infamous for his aggresive love life being assaulted by a girl during the school festival. The members of the club happened to witness the incident and they all swear the victim was attacked with a stick-like object, yet the victim has distinct cutting wounds, and no weapon was found despite the assailant having fled without anything in her hand. Where did the weapon go? The idea behind the disappearing murder weapon is great and really fits the setting of the story (the school festival), but pulling off the trick seems much more a hassle than worth it. The final story of the collection, Kirigamine Ryou to Oreimairi no Nazo ("Kirigamine Ryou and the Mystery of The Getting Even Tradition") is very similar as it also features a disappearing weapon (with a teacher being assaulted by a graduating student as a way of 'getting even' for the past three years), but this one works better because of the better hinting and foreshadowing (though it lacks the chaotic antics of having all members together at the school festival).

And the school festival is a very popular day for cases, because immediately after the Gourd Pond incident, another one pops up! In Kirigamine Ryou he no Chousen ("A Challenge for Kirigamine Ryou), our heroine is fooled into entering the Koigakubo Academy Mys-Contest. Not Miss Contest. Mys-Contest. As in Mystery Contest. Kirigamine Ryou has made a name as a (self-proclaimed) detective beauty, but she'll have to fight for that title now, as she is being challenged by the club president of... the Mystery Club (i.e. the school club where they read and write detective fiction, as opposed to the Detective Club, where they solve crimes). Can Kirigamine Ryou solve the locked room murder (it's murder because the student playing the victim has a piece of paper on him saying he's dead)? Is it a fair mystery? Yes... and no, but this story once again shows that Higashigawa Tokuya is really good at combining humorous storylines with good detective plots with well-written hints and foreshadowing. The competition element only adds to the fun of this story. This is done again in Kirigamine Ryou he no Nidome no Chousen ("The Second Challenge for Kirigamine Ryou), where Kirigamine Ryou is challenged to solve the murder on her fellow member Akasaka (once again, he's dead because he is holding a piece of paper saying so) and a variation on the footprints-in-the-snow puzzle. Once again hard to say whether this was a fair story, and the solution is not particularly original (in fact, I am pretty sure I've seen a variotion on it in another Higashigawa story before), but the whole rivals element does make it one of the more memorable stories in the collection.

In Kirigamine Ryou to Juunigatsu no UFO (Kirigamine Ryou and the December UFO"), a priest is knocked out in the middle of a muddy church court, with no footprints but that of the two first on the scene, Kirigamine Ryou and her geography teacher, Ikegami (who still has that obsession for aliens). With no footprints and a witness saying she saw something fly away, it seems like an UFO might have been responsible... Very similar to the first story in the collection in idea, yet very different in execution and pretty funny too (especially because of the enigmatic (foreign) sister, whose Japanese is... very interesting). A trick that would only work because of the setting and atmosphere of this series, but it works well because of it.

Kirigamine Ryou to Eigabu no Misshitsu ("Kirigamine Ryou and the Locked Room of the Movie Club") is a varation on a plot that was featured much in the first collection, the disappearance from a building of which the exits were watched. The TV from the Movie Club (they don't just watch movies, they make them) was stolen from the club room and found damaged behind the incinerator, but the two exits to the club room building were under constant observation by the drama club members and a smoking, delinquent student. How did the culprit carry a 40 inch TV out of a building without being seen? Probably the easiest to solve of the whole collection, but even then one has to admit that some of the hinting was done really well.

Like Hoch's Dr Sam Hawthorne series, the Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni series features mostly impossible crime situations in a limited setting (Koigakubo Academy). The way the stories develop is as predictable as the Dr. Sam Hawthorne series, but they do feature similar situations very often. Footprint-less paths, disappearing weapons and disappearances from observed locations cover about 80% of the series, and it can feel a bit tiring. Kirigamine Ryou to Hyoutan Ike no Kaijiken and Kirigamine Ryou to Oreimairi no Nazo for example are extremely similar, and it's like Higashigawa came up with two solutions for the same situation, and decided to use both of them. I would't have minded a bit more variety.

Though I must say this again (I say this every time I do a Higashigawa Tokuya review), but I really, really love how he manages to combine the humorous aspects of a story with his mystery plots. At his best, Higashigawa can show you a vital hint ten times without you even realizing it's a hint, simply because it's so well hidden within the humurous parts of his story. And then you realize that the gag wasn't just a gag. He does it with all his stories, but I've always thought it worked best with the Koigakubo Academy series, because the light-hearted school setting seems the best fit for his style. Some tricks you can only pull off with the energy and imagination of kids.

And this is the first time Kirigamine Ryou actually meets the other members of the club, which is fun, yet a bit strange. Yet, I hope that Kirigamine Ryou's adventures stay as murder-free and light-hearted. I definitely wouldn't want her to appear in the main Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series with 'normal' murders and such, because it doesn't really fit her character. But the ending of this volume really makes me wonder how both this spin-off series, and the main series are going to continue.

Tanteibu he no Chousenjou  - Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni 2 was not as surprising as the first volume, but it still offers a unique experience as a humorous collection of impossible crimes incidents set at a high school. You don't need a corpse for a good mystery, no matter what Van Dine might say.

Original Japanese title(s):  東川篤哉『探偵部への挑戦状　放課後はミステリーとともに２』: 「霧ヶ峰涼と渡り廊下の怪人」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼と瓢箪池の怪事件」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼への挑戦」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼と十二月のＵＦＯ」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼と映画部の密室」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼への二度目の挑戦」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼とお礼参りの謎 」

「真相にタッチ、犯人をアウト」

「ぼくは傍観者ではなく、敗北者だったのかもしれない」

『クビシメロマンチスト』

"Maybe I wasn't just an onlooker, but the loser here"

"Strangling Romanticist"

*looks at last sentence of last post*

I guess I should be happy it only took me three days to read my next book. Huh. And I think I should also be happy that I am up to date with Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series now. This series starrring the titular Detective Club is hilarious and while I have to admit that the first novel in the series, Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen, was not without its flaws, I liked it for the humor and the way Higashigawa managed to blend that humor perfectly with a detective plot, even employing humor to mask hints. There is just something charming to the poor members of the club, who try to be detectives but somehow never seem to succeed.

Anyway, so I finished the second novel in the series, Satsui wa Kanarazu Sando Aru ("Murderous Intent Always Comes Three Times"). Akasaka Tooru, who was tricked into joining the club in the previous novel, is still a member of the detective club, naturally accompanied by club president Tamagawa and the Kansai-dialect using Yatsuhashi. It's almost summer and summer + high school means the Summer Koushien baseball tournament in Japan! The Koigakubo Academy Baseball Club is pathetically weak though, and their Koushien Summer is usually over after just one single match. Of course, everybody hopes this changes every year and this time, the Koigakubo team is having a training match with its rival, Hiryuu High School. And yes, with rival, I mean that both clubs are pathetically weak and that they basically fight to not be the worst team. During the match though, held at Hiryuu High's new baseball field, the dead body of the Koigakubo Academy's baseball match is found behind the back screen of the center field! It's up to the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club to solve this murder! Or is it?

Like its predecessor, I feel that this is a funny, yet flawed novel. The biggest flaw: the main puzzle is better suited for a short story. Too much time is spent on investigating the main problem: the coach was murdered the night before the match, but during his estimated time of death, the field was observed from several angles (and naturally nobody saw something suspicious). The solution is admittedly good one (though I think I have seen it in a different form somewhere else before), but it really didn't need that much pages to work as a detective story. In fact, so much attention was spent on it that it became too clear what the solution was! Near the end, a couple of more murders were thrown at the reader, but the pages alloted to them made it very clear that these later murders were not as important as the first.

I do have to admit that Higashigawa threw in a wonderful misdirection trick in the story and that's certainly his specialty: creating gaps between the observations of his characters that result in a misunderstanding on the part of the reader (and the characters). Higashigawa uses this for his comedy (with conversations that don't mesh right), but also to fool the reader and I always enjoy seeing this in his stories. I wonder whether it is easier to make these kind of tricks in Japanese, compared to English for example. There are also some great ones in the Zaregoto series. It is more common to drop implicitly understood parts of sentences in Japanese (i.e. grammatical subjects, objects that have been mentioned before), which makes these kinds of tricks possible, but I don't think they would feel as natural in English.

And I still enjoy the school-setting of these stories. This time, the focus is more on the extra-curricular clubs of the school (there are very few scenes actually set at school), but the characters and the relations between them are all very recognizable (though it's been quite some while since my high-school years) and suit Higashigawa's style perfectly. I do have to admit that I am not interested in baseball at all, so I had some troubles getting into the right atmosphere. I am hardly a fan of football, but I at least have a slight interest in it, which why I did enjoy the setting of Detective Conan: The Eleventh Striker. I guess that Higashigawa Tokuya is a big baseball fan though, as the protagonist of Houkago Wa Mystery To Tomo Ni is also a big baseball fan.

Like I mentioned in the introduction, the Detective Club members try to be detectives, but never seem to succeed. In fact, this is a pretty interesting point, as this also holds for the supplement volume to the series (Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni), which stars the club's vice-president: the various club members are certainly the protagonists of the stories, but the actual (correct) puzzle-solving is usually reserved for someone else. And I don't mean in a Watson-Holmes way: practically anyone besides the members of the club can turn out to be the detective! The Detective Club certainly does its best and it is not like they are completely useless, but yes, most of the time they are not vital to solving the case. It was Ishizaki, the club's supervising teacher who acted as the detective in the first novel and most of the stories collected in Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, but he is certainly not the only one in the series. The role of main detective in Satsui wa Kanarazu Sando Aru is reserved for a very surprising person and in the end Tamagawa, the detective club's president, makes a sad, yet correct observation that the members of the club were nothing more than onlookers on the match between the detective and the murderer. A very unique position for the series protagonists!

Anyway, once again a funny novel by Higashigawa that blends humor with an orthodox plot, but this story might have worked better as a short(er) story.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉　『殺意は必ず三度ある』

『帰ってこさせられた33分探偵』

「えー、『あの泥棒が羨ましい』 二人のあいだにこんな言葉がかわせるほど、そのころはーって渋いね、菜緒ちゃん、こんなの読んでるんだ」

鞄の中に江戸川乱歩の『二銭銅貨』を忍ばせている女子高生。どうやら僕は高林奈緒子という同級生に対する認識を改めなければならないようだ。この娘、只者ではないのかも。 

「霧ヶ峰涼と見えない毒」

"Hmm, 'That's one lucky thief'. During the time these words which passed between those two.... Hey, that's sneaky, Nao! You read this too!"

A female high school student who hides a copy of Edogawa Rampo's The Two-Sen Copper Coin in her bag. It seems like I will have to revise my image of my classmate Takabayashi Naoko. This girl, she might not be just an ordinary person.

"Kirigamine Ryou and the Invisible Poison"

Still alive! I think. Reporting live from Japan. Have I ever mentioned how I always suffer quite a lot of jetlag? The last time I had it this bad... I made my first translation for this blog. It's not that bad this time, but I'm still 'off' a couple of hours from my usual schedule. Anyway, it's been a long time tradition that first days back in Japan include a search for (preferably second hand) book stores in the neighborhood. The closest one I've found at the moment is five minutes away with the bike, so I'll be swinging by often. Unless a storm suddenly decides to visit Kyoto, like two hours ago.

And the first book I bought here... is a familiar one. By now, we've seen Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni pass by at this blog as a radio drama, a CD drama and two translations (based on the radio plays). Which is quite often, considering the original work is just a single volume (and not that big either). But yes, the reason why it is featured here so often is because I absolutely love this short story collection starring the tomboy Kirigamine Ryou, the vice-president of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club who despite being the protagonist of the stories, never seems to be able to solve a case on her own. I am not going to review all the stories again, as I already did that in my review of the radio drama, but I did mention there that the radio drama had left out two short stories from the book. Which is just enough material for a short review.

Kirigamine Ryou to Mienai Doku ("Kirigamine Ryou and the Invisible Poison") has Ryou and her friend Naoko trying to figure out whether somebody is trying to kill old man Kadokura. Kadokura is a distant (and rich) relative of Naoko and she lives with him (and his family) because it is closer to school. Some days ago, a roof tile just barely missed falling on Kadokura's head and Naoko suspects that someone in Kadokura's family, consisting of his son, daughter-in-law and his grandson, doesn't have the patience to wait for the old man to die a natural death. Just as Ryou and Naoko are investigating the case, the old man is poisoned (though he survives!) as he was drinking his coffee. His last words before he passed out were 'poison in the coffee', but forensics show that the coffee wasn't poisoned at all. So how did the would-be murderer introduce the poison to Kadokura's body and who is (s)he?

Like many of the stories in Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de, this story hinges on customs, movements and other little things that are part of what we call 'common sense'. In Higashigawa's stories, the clues often hinge on either a situation that doesn't seem to comply to 'common sense', or even erratic situations that become perfectly understandable if you just apply common sense to it. The same holds for this story, though I have to admit that the story doesn't feel as satisfying as some of the Nazotoki stories.

I had high expectations for Kirigamine Ryou to Ekkusu no Higeki ("Kirigamine Ryou and the Tragedy of X (Ekkusu)"). Why? Higashigawa himself said that it took him ten years to write the short story, as he just couldn't find a way to make his initial trick work. Anyway, the final version starts with a meteor shower party at school, organized by the geography teacher Ikegami. The party is not really a succes, but Ikegami and Ryou suddenly spot a strange flying object that emits a greenish light and flies in an erratic pattern. Ikegami immediately decides that it is an UFO (the alien kind, not the literal definition) and starts chasing it (taking Ryou along with her). The UFO disappears though and in the middle of the field where they last saw it, the duo spot the body of a unconscious woman. The woman presumably lost her conciousness because she was strangled by someone (as seen by the marks on the neck), but the only footsteps on the wet field are those of the woman. The only logical explanation? The UFO dropped the woman off in the middle of the field!

Well, there is another explanation too, of course. I have no experience in writing stories and plotting, but I have to admit that my reaction was 'did this really take ten years to write?'. Which doesn't mean that this is a bad story. Actually, it is a very good impossible crime story that is quite dense for the short page count and the atmosphere of the story is also entertaining. Strictly speaking, the solution is a (much altered) version of a well-known impossible situation, but it's done so well and originally that it really doesn't matter. A very cool story, but it doesn't need the 'ten years' story. I am sorry I brought it up.

I'm still not sure how things will work out with the blog as I'm in Japan now. There is certainly no lack of material unlike the last three months (hoho, books of 800 pages, double columns for 200 yen?), but I need time/intention to read and write. Which might be the bottleneck this time.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉 『放課後はミステリーとともに』:  「霧ヶ峰涼と見えない毒」 /　「霧ヶ峰涼とエックスの悲劇」

『霧ヶ峰涼の逆襲』

「《バックスクリーン直撃の大ホームラン、ただし始球式》みたいなっ！」

『クビシメロマンチスト』

"Like 'a big homerun right into the back screen, but it was just the ceremonial opening ball'!"

"Kubishime Romanticist"

Three translations within two months seems kinda excessive, doesn't it?

And for those new here, there is a nice little link to the translations there in the sidebar. The best stories? Norizuki Rintarou's The Ripper (for Queenian bibliophiles) [NOTE: Story has been removed). And I have a thing for Rampo's Who? because it took me an insane amount of time to go through it. Why at times it seems like I don't proofread that much? Because I don't. But it is also part of a complex plot to discourage people from stealing these translations by purposely leaving mistakes in my texts. But it is mostly because I just do this as a hobby and as long as it's readable, well, meh.

And I decided that I will at most translate two stories per short story collection (for no particular reason), which means that this will be the last time that we will see amateur high school detective (?) Kirigamine Ryou here for the time being. Because Higashigawa Tokuya still hasn't written a sequel to Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni. I am waiting. Anyway, today's story, Kirigamine Ryou no Gyakushuu ("Kirigamine Ryou's Counterattack") is the second chapter of the hilarious short story collection starring Kirigamine Ryou, a high school girl and vice president of Koigakubo Academy's detective club. Too bad she is not very good at detecting. Kirigamine Ryou's Counterattack is a bit of an outsider story as it is not set at Koigakubo Academy itself and the plot has nothing to do with school or school buildings, but does feature an interesting impossible disappearance from an apartment under surveillance!

As with the previous Kirigamine Ryou translation, the translation is based on the radio drama version of the NHK, broadcast last year. Because there is magic in audio dramas. And because it is shorter. And because I don't really own the original book. I translated it a bit loosely and I couldn't pick up one or two words (the one disadvantage of audio dramas!), but the translation is readable and I think Higashino's plot is interesting and funny enough to keep readers hooked, despite my rushed translating-while-having-a-cold-English. This is a really short read, but there is actually something pretty smart going on here too, so have fun with the story. For those not familiar with reading these script-like things: read it like a script. The narration in italics is by Kirigamine Ryou and SOUND of course indicates the sound effects employed in the drama.

霧ヶ峰涼の逆襲

著者：東川篤哉

脚色：福田卓郎

Kirigamine Ryō’s Counterattack

Author: Higashigawa Tokuya

Script: Fukuda Takurō

『霧ヶ峰涼の放課後』

「探偵は犯人を選べないが、犯人は探偵を選ぶものである」

『学ばない探偵たちの学園』

"A detective can't choose his criminal, but a criminal can choose his detective"

"The School of the Detectives who Don't Learn"

Another translation within a month?! Sometimes, the best way to get your mind off of things is to shut down your own brain and mindlessly translate detective stories you like. Or something like that.

This time a special kind of translation. For this is actually a translation of the radio drama of Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, produced for NHK's Youth Adventure series last year. Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni is a spin-off series to Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series, featuring the vice-president of the titular club as the protagonist. Kirigamine Ryou is a passionate vice-president, but sadly enough usually not smart enough to be the actual detective in the story and usually has to settle with a Watson-like role in the stories. The stories are all very light-hearted, as the mysteries Kirigamine tries to solve are just the cases she encounters at school (people usually do not get murdered in locked rooms et cetera at school), but that doesn't mean that they are not interesting.

I chose the short story Kirigamine Ryou no Houkago ("Kirigamine Ryou's After-School Hours") to translate, because it is a fun little story that kinda reminds of Ellery Queen's famous short story The Mad Tea Party. The school-setting also feels the most natural in this story compared to the other stories collected in Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni. This story has also actually been made into a short movie, that is available at the 'official' Koigakubo Academy website. Also note how I am trying to tell you nothing about the contents of the story.

It was interesting doing this though. I have translated short stories before, but as I didn't have a script to this story, I had to type down everything as I was listening to the radio drama (which are episodes 6 and 7 of the 10-part series, by the way). Which requires a very different way of working. There were some spots I just couldn't pick up, so I totally winged my translation at those points. Luckily, those moments were few and very short. Translating from an actual text is a lot easier!

Anyway, I think it speaks for itself. The text in italics is from the narrator (Kirigami Ryou herself), SOUND is of course for the sound effects in the radio play. The story's also quite easy to read and short because it's mostly conversation. Anyway, this is Kirigamine Ryō’s After School Hours:

霧ヶ峰涼の放課後

著者：東川篤哉

脚色：福田卓郎

Kirigamine Ryō’s After School Hours

Author: Higashigawa Tokuya

Script: Fukuda Takurō

The Adventure of the Three Students

「無理でしょうね、久保先生がいうような軽業は。話になりませんよ。オラヌータンやチンパンジーじゃあるまいに」

「ははは、そいつはいい。真犯人はオラヌータンだったりしてな」

「ははは、馬鹿な。そんな話は、仮にミステリとしても三流ですよ。そんな小説書く人がいたら、みんなの笑い物ですね、きっと」

「・・・・・・・」久保はふと笑うのを止めた。「つかぬことを聞くが、君、本当に探偵小説研究部なのかね」

「え、ええ、そうですよ」

あれ？あれ、なにかマズイこといったのかな

『学ばない探偵たちの学園』

"It's not so easy as you make it out to be, Mr. Kubo. That's just not possible. It's not like you're an orangutan or a chimpansee"

"Hahaha, a orangutan as the murderer!"

"Hahaha, that's just stupid. Even if such a story existed, it would be just a third-rate mystery. Everyone would laugh at someone writing that!"

"....," Kubo stopped laughing. "Are you really a member of the detective fiction study club?"

"Ye...yes!"

Hm? Hmm? Did I say something wrong?

"The School of the Detectives who Don't Learn"

The long awaited continuation of Sherlock was surprisingly fun. While the first couple of minutes were kinda cheap, I thought the story was actually a lot more interesting than the original Scandal in Bohemia (which I don't like that much, thus I had no high expectations for this particular episode). Might write something about all three episodes when they're done later this month, as I don't really feel like doing episodic reviews this time. Looking forward to Sherlock's The Hounds of Baskerville next week!

I've become quite a fan of Higashigawa Tokuya lately. The way in which he mixes humor with actual orthodox detective plotting is simply wonderful. His stories aren't just [detective stories] + [humour], but the humour is actually an integral part of his plots, as humor is often used as either a smokescreen or a hint (or both) by Higashigawa. I also love his protagonists, who usually act as the Watson to the detectives. They seem a bit clueless at times, but are often just genre-savvy enough to come up with surprisingly sharp observations. There's also often a slight gap between the narration of these protagonists and 'reality', which is really funny to see in text. It's the gap between [serious detective story] - [humour], the gap between [narration] - [reality] that makes all three of Higashigawa's series (the Ikagawashi series, the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series and Mystery Solving is After Dinner series) stand out in the crowd.

Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen ("The School of the Detectives who Don't Learn") is the first book in the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series. The titular Detective Club of Koigakubo Academy used to be the Detective Fiction Study Club, but for reasons unknown (to even the president) changed its name to the Detective Club, meaning that their main activity is... to detect. Because the Detective Club's activities are rather vague and irregular (unless you're name is Conan, you are not going to come across a mystery a day), the club is not officially recognized by the school and even though they have a teacher willing to be the club's supervisor, they are not allotted a classroom for their extra-curricular activities. Akasaka Tooru, transfer student and narrator of Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen was actually fooled by this, as he foolishly thought that the people present in the Literature Club room were in fact people of the Literature Club and that he was signing up for that club. Who would be so dumb as to ignore the possibility that the two persons there were actually people from the Detective Club who were 'borrowing' the Literature Club room?

One day, as Tooru, the club president and Yatsuhashi, another member of the Club, stayed late at school discussing how the most suspicious people in a locked room mystery are 1) the one who opens the the locked room and 2) the first one approaching the body and 3) the one who says it was a locked room, they happen to find a student stabbed in his chest in the nurse's room. Which was of course locked. And to make it even more interesting, the three teachers who were present there too did precisely what makes them suspicious in a locked room mystery. Our three students, for the honor of the Club, naturally try to solve the mystery themselves.

The story develops in its own pace with subplots concerning Koigakubo Academy's geinou class (a class for students who work in the entertainment industry as idols, singers, actors etc.) and another locked room murder, but I have to admit that Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen is not as good as other Higashigawa mysteries. It's still very funny, with some great slapstick-esque scenes you'd never expect in a detective and the school setting is, like in Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, something that makes this series stand out, but its problems lie with the locked rooms and the structure of this book. The solution to the first locked room is a bit too farfetched to be credible, while the second is actually quite good, but it is introduced late in the story, resulting in lesser sense of mystery. Furthermore, the solutions to both locked rooms are more of a mechanical type (opposed to the psychological type), which is simply something that doesn't feel as fitting to Higashigawa's writing style. Higashigawa's best impossible stories hinge on some kind of (often humorous) gap between observations of the people involved and that's what is best suited to his funny writing style. The synergy between these elements is not present in Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen, making this feel like a less accomplished Higashigawa work.

The structure forms a second minor problem. Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen, because of its setting, is also a gakuen-mono (school-drama-ish) and it kinda follows the rather high-paced structuring of those works. The detecting method of three detectives (who end up as the Watson to supervising teacher Ishizaki) is quite chaotic and there is a lot going in this relatively short book. It's this chaos that makes Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen feel a lot less polished than the short story collection supplement Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, which excelled in its simple, short brilliance.

I love the Detective Club though. It is certainly not an unique thing, as they actually exist in Japan and are thus often used in (meta)-fiction too. Jukkakukan no Satsujin for example features one heavily, but Kindaichi Hajime and Miyuki are also members of the Mystery Fiction Study club at their school, just like Nikaidou Ranko and Reito. The difference here is that the members of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club are in fact, not really detectives themselves (like Kindaichi en Ranko), nor are they so brilliantly meta like the people in Jukkakukan no Satsujin who spout random quotes from detective fiction and refer to themselves with nicknames like Carr en Queen and act like those detectives. The members of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club are precisely what you'd expect from high school students who are a bit of a mystery geeks: they have a lot of passion for their hobby, but not much besides that. In fact, they are the most human of them all, and certainly feel the most familiar to me.

While a bit disappointing, Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen is still a very funny book that shows that detective fiction does not have to be serious (or realistic even, as this borders on slapstick humor at times) to be offer genuine orthodox detective plots. He doesn't even have to reach out to the old parody-method. Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni is the better installment in the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series, but Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen is certainly recommendable to anyone who wants to laugh while reading orthodox detectives.

And hey, a post title that relates to both the introduction and the main topic of the post?! Rare indeed.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉 『学ばない探偵たちの学園』

"Ah, the days of my youth... Just like the scent of fresh lemon, you see"

「 しかしある先輩が、ぼくにひとつの福音を与えてくれた。それは、名探偵の名前は漢字三文字がよい、ということ。金田一、加賀美、二階堂。そうだ！霧ヶ峰はエアコンなどではなく、名探偵にこそ相応しい名前だったのだ ！」

『霧ヶ峰涼の放課後』

"But then a senior told me something good. All great detectives have three characters in their name. Kindaichi. Kagami. Nikaidou. Yes! Kirigamine wasn't a name for the air-conditioning, it was the name suitable for a great detective!"

"Kirigamine Ryou's After-School Hours"

If I were to exclusively review audio dramas, my post-count would explode, I think! They take no time at all! Hmmm, let's go back to my homework. A paper scheduled for right after New Year is just evil (or: A Lesson In Planning: How To Avoid Doing Everything The Last Few Days).

Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni ("After School, together with Mystery") is an absolute hilarious supplement short story collection to Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series.The series is of course about a detective club at the titular Koigakubo Academy. Note that it is actually a detective club and not a detective fiction club, so the members don't discuss detective fiction there, they actually detect. Or at least, that's what they are supposed to do, but because their activities are rather irregular (despite popular belief, it is not likely to come across a case every day), the club has not been officially recognized by the school yet. And thus the members spend their after-school hours looking for cases to solve around campus. These range from 'simple' theft cases to full-blown murder cases. At school.

As a supplement novel, Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni features a different protagonist from the main series: Kirigamine Ryou, a tomboyish second year student and vice-president of the detective club. Her heart is definitely in the right place, having an almost surreal passion for finding mysteries (especially of the impossible kind) and even already having made her name-card, but she is actually usally not playing the detective part in the stories: she is certainly not dumb, but it seems there's always someone better around her (even though she's the vice-president!).  As a protagonist, she is awesome though, being both sharp and clueless at the same time and she is certainly strong enough a character to carry her own series. The setting is also fun: the mysteries are all set around the after-school campus, with club activities going on. The stories convey an actual school-feeling (without convining it to 'class' situations), which actually few mysteries set at schools manage to do (without resorting to the old school festival setting).

I had actually been waiting for Momogre's adaption of Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, which was scheduled for today, but then I discovered that NHK already did a 10-part radio drama adaption of the book in their Youth Adventure serials earlier this year. I totally digged the Youth Adventure's adaption of Norizuki Rintarou's Ni no Higeki, so I had high expectations for this adaption. Which were totally justified. I love Asagura Aki's Kirigamine Ryou and even though the adaption may seem short, with 10 episodes of 15 minutes each, the pacing of the stories is just impeccable (which is also probably because of Higashigawa's writing style) and never feels too hasty. The original book featured eight short stories, but they sadly enough only adapted six stories (leaving out Kirigamine Ryou and the Invisible Poison and Kirigamine Ryou and the Tragedy of X, the latter being one of Higashigawa's own favorite stories, having spent 10 years (!) plotting this short story). Making it interesting to see what Momogre's going to do.

In Kirigamine Ryou no Kutsujoku ("Kirigamine Ryou's Humiliation"), our hero gets assaulted by a thief in the audiovisual materials room as she visits the E-Building, an annex built in the shape of the letter 'E'. She and some other people she meets on the way chase the thief across the building until they reach the only open exit of the building, but it seems he has disappeared: someone was near the exit the whole time and swears nobody left the building. How did the thief escape from the E-building? The solution might seem obvious, as it certainly invokes a certain mystery in a room of the yellow kind, but that's actually Higashigawa's specialty: making you think that the story's probably simple and easy to solve because it's so light-hearted and funny, but there is usually something deeper behind it. The solution is good, because it really fits the school-setting, something that not many mysteries set at school can say.

Kirigamine Ryou no Gyakushuu ("Kirigamine Ryou's Counterattack") starts with Ryou who comes across a paparazzi camera-man one day after school. The cameraman had been waiting in front of an apartment the whole day, trying to get a picture of a rising star actor and his girlfriend, both of them alumni of Koigakubo Academy. The cameraman is sure both of them entered the apartment (seperately), but needs a picture of them both together. After some events however, Ryou and the cameraman are invited to the room themselves by the woman, who says that she knows what the cameraman is thinking, but that she is not dating the actor and nobody entered her room at all. Ryou and the cameraman search the room and discover that the room is indeed empty. Was the cameraman wrong? Or did the actor just disappear from the room? Once again Higashigawa plays with the expectations of the reader/listener, luring him in a false sense of security and 'ha, I already know this trick', only for him to reveal his layered trap. It has parallels with Higashigawa's own Jisoku Yonjuu Kilo no Misshitsu, both stories featuring a room under observation and an impossible escape, but the latter story is also burdened by a rather hard-to-believe murder trick.

Kirigamine Ryou no Zekkyou ("Kirigamine Ryou's Scream") is the only story adapted that was only one episode long (15 minutes), but it was enough to convey this short, yet fun little story about a student who was attacked on the running grounds of the school. There were no footsteps around him except for his own and the girl who discovered him lying unconcious on the ground (and she couldn't have hit him, as seen from the footsteps), so who attacked the boy and how? A somewhat incredible solution, but it fits the humorous tone of the collection.

Kirigamine Ryou no Houkago ("Kirigamine Ryou's After School Hours") is a really fun misdirection story, that starts out with Ryou and her friend Nao discovering a delinquent student smoking in a little storehouse, but the story develops in rather unpredictable ways from that point on, so I don't want to spoil it. A lot of fun in this story is because Ryou (and therefore the listener) has no idea what's going on. Higashigawa did a very nice job with this story, having carefully clued everything, yet at the same time succeeding wonderfully at hiding the truth. There is actually an official web-movie version available of this story (to be found at the 'actual' Koigakubo Academy website), which I really recommend to people who want to have a taste of Higashigawa's unique sense of storytelling (no subtitles though!). The production is pretty good though and the way they did the first-person narrator thing... is just genius. And cute.

Kirigamine Ryou no Okujou Misshitsu ("Kirigamine Ryou's Locked Rooftop") features something that totally seems like an urban legend: as Ryou and a teacher are on their way back home, a girl falls on top of the teacher. Ryou checks the rooftop right after the girl landed on the teacher, but it finds it empty and the staircase was watched the whole time, so Ryou concludes that it must have been an attempt at suicide. Which the girl (who fortunately didn't die) denies, saying that she was called to the roof and pushed off there. What happened on the roof? Did the would-be murder just disappear in thin air? A somewhat flawed mystery: the solution is rather simple and a bit disappointing even, but the same elements could have resulted in a more impressive impossible crime, which they mention it themselves in the story. On the other hand, the elements that could have made this a more impressive mystery can only be made known the listener after the solving of the crime, or else there is no mystery at all. A conundrum.

Kirigamine Ryou no Nidome no Kutsujoku ("Kirigamine Ryou's Second Humiliation") is once again set at the E-Building, like the first story. And once again features an impossible disappearance. Ryou happens to find a student who was attacked in the art room in the E-Building and is then attacked herself. Her attacker runs back into the hallway of the E-Building and Ryou wouldn't be the vice-president of the detective club if she didn't give chase immediately. Like in the first story, the attacker manages to escape even though all the exits being watched. Despite the story being set at the same place, with the same type of impossible situation, this story is quite different from Kirigamine Ryou's first humiliation, featuring a totally different kind of solution and even features a second, hidden problem and thus feels surprisingly fresh.

All in all a very fun short story collection, that manages to combine humor with orthodox detective plots with great success. It works great as an audio drama too, with a great Kirigamine Ryou voice-actress. Now I'm very interested in Momogre's adaption too: as I wonder how the adaptions of Momogre and NHK's Youth Adventure differ.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉（原作）　ＮＨＫ青春アドベンチャー　『放課後はミステリーとともに』: 「霧ヶ峰涼の屈辱」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼の逆襲」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼の絶叫」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼の放課後」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼の屋上密室」 / 「霧ヶ峰涼の二度目の屈辱」