Remote

"It is what it is."

"Sherlock"

The start of the academic year in Japan is in April, which is also when new students are likely to be ambushed here and there on campus by... all kinds of clubs and circles hoping to entice you into becoming their newest member. I still remember that first Friday afternoon in Kyoto University: I had just arrived as an international student in Kyoto and had already made up my mind of joining the Kyoto University Mystery Club as their activities pertained to my academic studies too. As the all-preparing student I was, I had already checked their website of course, and learned they'd have introduction meetings for people considering to become a member, where they'd explain the club activities and give a glimpse of what they do. So that first Friday, I went back to my room after finishing my business at campus in the morning and returned in the afternoon for the Mystery Club's introduction meeting. I hadn't expected that the campus would be crawling with countless of clubs trying to lure you to them. The moment people sensed you were new on campus, they'd try handing you their flyers and invite you to come along to the numerous introduction parties (where the existing members pay for your food and drinks!) scheduled for held that night. The next few weekends were the same, with all clubs hoping to get a new dose of fresh blood at the academic year to make sure the club would live on.

One of the main activities of the Mystery Club is writing short whodunnit stories for other members to read during meetings. These stories consist of a "Problem" and "Answer" part, and people usually get about thirty minutes to read the story and figure out who the murderer is. If you think you got it, you can go check with the writer by telling who the murderer is and more importantly, what the clues are, or if you don't get it, the answer is handed it at the end of the session, and then the members discuss what was good or not about the tale. In the introduction meetings at the start of the academic year, prospective members are usually handed gems from the previous years. I myself vividly remember the one I got back then, and it was really good, exactly the type of mystery story I like in terms of how the clewing worked. These stories are part of the DNA of the club, and have helped shaped writers like Ayatsuji Yukito, Abiko Takemaru, Norizuki Rintarou, Maya Yutaka, Van Madoy and more during their time at the club. I think there have been around 500 whodunnit sessions since the club started, and each of them (title/writer) have been written on the wall of the club room. I'm actually somewhere on that wall too...

With the current health situation around the world however, it's obviously not advised to find new members by surrounding them in a crowd and taking them to restaurants etc. But still, as a club you still want to make sure you have enough new members this year to at least offset the number of graduating students. So this year, the Kyoto University Mystery Club tried something new: they have published a whodunnit story temporarily online for everyone to read, to give you an idea of the activities of the club. It's been years since I last read one of these stories, so I jumped on the occassion to get back to good old puzzle solving. For those interested, you can find the links via the Twitter account of the Kyoto University Mystery Club, and the story'll be available until the first week of May 2020.

Ansatsu Genei Nanaban Shoubu ("The Seven-Game Match of the "Mirage" Assassins") was written by Kamiya Takayuki (I'm not at all sure about the reading of that name by the way) and originally unveiled at the May 17th 2019 meeting of the Mystery Club. We are introduced to Shino, a young woman travelling with the young man Yuunosuke. It turns out that Shino is in fact an assassin who once belonged to the Mirage Assassins, an organization consisting of... assassins. We learn that the Mirage Assassins are now after the traitor "Phantom", but with a twist: if Phantom is able to defeat all seven assassins this time, the Mirage Assassins will give up. Crimson, Enforcer, Fear, Inferno, Depths, Darkest and Silence all have different specialities, which make them very difficult enemies to handle. Shino and Yuunosuke find themselves ambushed, and after getting seperated, Shino ends up chased into an abandoned lab facing a cliff together with Hitomi, a lost ruins explorer caught up in the battle. The building is one giant trap, with the assassins waiting for Shino, but after Shino manages to either shake off or defeat a number of them, Shino, Hitomi and a Fear who has given up on the mission come across the dead body of Darkest in one of the hallways of the building. But with the lab facing a cliff and all the other the Mirage Assassins stuck on the other side of the cliff or gone, who could've killed Darkest?

Interesting and original story setting, an assassin being killed during a confrontation between all kinds of assassins! I have to admit I had no idea how to tackle this story, and most of it flew over my head. Usually, you have some idea about what is probably a clue and what isn't, and what segments probably warrant a second reading, but I had nothing but very vague suspicions. I thought the diagram of the lab was a bit confusing though and the circumstances of the room of the crime scene a bit unclear: usually you can go and ask the writer themselves questions about parts you think are written unclearly, though this time not, obviously. But ultimately, it's just part of the mystery of course. Like always, these stories revolve around the process of identifying the murderer, which you usually do by crossing off suspects. Character A was here when the murder was committed, so that's one of the list, etc. The process as seen in this story is pretty good, forcing you to first figure out when Darkest was killed and then trying to find out which of the names on the list have an alibi/was physically possible to murder Darkest in that room. The biggest leap expected from the reader was fun: the kind of writing you expect from people in this particular Mystery Club (I'm not talking about quality, but the type of idea often seen in the stories written in this club). Perhaps the culprit could've been obscured a bit more (I think a lot of people may guess who it is, even without the proper reasoning), but it's definitely a story that makes good use of its premise. Anyway, it would've been interesting to have done this story real-time and hear everyone's reactions to it.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the names: I don't know the author personally, but it's obvious they got their inspiration from Detective Conan. The Phantom of Baker Street, The Crimson Love Letter,  Zero the Enforcer, Full Score of Fear, Sunflowers of Inferno, Strategy Above the Depths, The Darkest Nightmare and Quarter of Silence. Requiem would've been an awesome assassin name too by the way, Lost Ship not so.

Anyway, if you're in Kyoto (you don't need to be enrolled in Kyoto University) and thinking about joining, or if you're simply interested to see for yourself what kind of stories are written in the Kyoto University Mystery Club, be sure to check the Twitter account of the Kyoto University Mystery Club for the links to this story. Usually, these stories are meant only for members of the club, but there have been five "Whodunit Best" anthologies published by the Mystery Club for sale at the university festival, with a selection of the best stories written by the members (I discussed Houjou Kie's story included in Whodunit Best Vol. 5 earlier this year).

Original Japanese title(s): 神谷貴至『暗殺幻影七番勝負』

The Wrong Shape

ちりばめられた嘘　本当は見抜いていた

パズルみたい　もうだめ　全然ハマらない

「パズル」 （倉木麻衣)

The widespread lies, I had already seen through them

Like a puzzle gone wrong, we don't fit together at all

Puzzle (Kuraki Mai)

I think I once read that jigsaw puzzles coupled with detective stories were a thing back in the 1920s~1930s, but I can't remember where I read that. Heck, it might be just something I remembered incorrectly (-> very possible). Anyway, today is one of the rare recent jigsaw puzzle and detective story releases.

Benjamin Eddyworth was once a renowned professor on the brain and he in particular was interested in the recognition process of the human mind. Normally, man memorizes all he has seen in a simplified matter, but Eddyworth's theory of the 'mirror world' poses that certain people might memorize everything they have seen 'as is'. He died without the recognition of his peers however and Eddyworth left his vast fortune to his adopted daughter and his brother. The brother is given some puzzle pieces and is told that if he wishes to get the money, he needs to cooperate with his niece (who isn't able to talk). Hoping to cut the middle man girl and get hold of all of the money himself, the brother hires two private detectives to help find the remaing puzzle pieces and solve the message within in the Kyoto University Mystery Club's Kagami no Kuni no Juunintachi ("People of the Mirror World").

Some might raise an eyebrow seeing the name Kyoto University Mystery Club. Isn't that the club where writers like Ayatsuji Yukito, Abiko Takemaru, Norizuki Rintarou, Van Madoy and Morikawa Tomoki, amongst others, come from? Isn't that the club I was a member of during my year at Kyoto University? Yes, and yes. And that's the reason I bought the puzzle.

For I saw a big part of the early creation process behind Kagami no Kuni no Juunintachi from the sidelines, which was released in 2013. It was a project brought to the club by Small Shuppan (Small Publishing), who wanted to release a mystery-themed jigsaw puzzle: the puzzle would be shipped together with a novelette, and the puzzle would serve as a crucial clue to the detective story. In the end, one of the more prolific members of the club decided to take on the project and did most of the work (though every version of the text was looked through and edited by members of the club too, as I think I saw new versions lying in the club room every time I went there). Anyway, that's why the author is credited as the Kyoto University Mystery Club.

Kagami no Kuni no Juunintachi ships in a box with a 300 piece puzzle, a novelette (and some glue). You're supposed to read the novelette up until the Challenge to the Reader, try your hand at the puzzle (there's a clue hidden within) and then see if you're right.

Overall, I think the idea is more fun than the execution though. It's not bad, but the novelette for example is just a softcover booklet with staples in the spine, as if it was just an afterthought. The puzzle itself is... probably alright in terms of difficulty, but the picture is so...blue...and whaley...and wavey....and blue and absolutely boring to make. The accompanying detective story accomplishes what it should do in the limited amount of pages, but the instructions for the puzzle are kinda vague (you're supposed to pick a certain amount of pieces out and figure out something with them). I wasn't able to solve the detective story, but I felt that was more because the exact rules of the game weren't explained to me, rather than me losing at a fair game.

I like the idea of presenting detective stories in new ways though. The way we handle books hasn't changed much since modern times (post-industralization), but that doesn't mean the detective story has to stay the same. Combining stories with objects outside of the book is of course just one idea. 'Traditional' fans of the detective genre miss a lot in the field of videogames, I think, because one can find quite a few interesting game mechanics combined with good detective stories (the choose-your-own-adventure detective which is Kamaitachi no Yoru, or the zapping system in Kamaitachi no Yoru X3 for example). The Professor Layton games tend to go a bit too far with that (with everything reminding the good professor of a puzzle), but can be done quite well.

Kagami no Kuni no Juunintachi is mostly fun for those who seek that niche fix of jigsaw puzzle and detective stories, but as it is, I don't think it's strong enough to really just recommend to detective readers. And I am not very knowledgeable on jigsaw puzzles, so I have no idea whether this was a good one or not.

Oh, and note that on this blog, both the tags Kyoto University Mystery Club and Mystery Club usually refer to the same: the former is just a lot longer and I can only use 200 characters for the tags for each post...

Original Japanese title(s): 京都大学推理諸説研究会　『推理小説　X ジグソーパズル　鏡の国の住人たち』

Mystery Incorporated

「君　どんなの読むの？好きな作家でもいいから」

推理小説どころか、フツーのも読まないんですけど！！

「・・・・・コ・・・・・コナン？」

「ドイルか？王道好き？」

ドイルって誰よ！

『みすけん！』

"So, what do you like? Writers are also fine!"

 - I don't read at all, let alone detectives!-

".....Co...... Conan?"

"Doyle! So you like the classics?"

-Who the hell is Doyle?!-

"Misuken!"

Those familiar with manga and anime, might have heard of the series Genshiken. Genshiken, short for Gendai Shikaku Bunka Kenkyuukai (The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture), is a fantastic meta-series about a college club for otaku. The series features a great cast of members, all with their own field of interest, ranging from fighting games to figures to cosplay, but also includes members who are just lightly into things like anime and manga (or, in a bizarre twist of fate, one person doesn't like otaku hobbies at all, but is forced to hang around because of her boyfriend). As such Genshiken is a very educative, and funny view on Japanese college club culture, as well as fan culture.

People who have been following this blog for a while, might know that I was member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club, a college club where we talk about, and write detective fiction. So we were quite surprised when we heard of the limited series Misuken! by Sakataki Arata. Misuken!, short for Misuteri Kenkyuukai (Mystery Club), stars Aiba Chisato, trying to enjoy her first year at a university in Kyoto. And she decides that a boyfriend is necessary to enjoy college life, and that the handsome Kagemori Kiyomasa should be the lucky one. Trying to get close to him, she decides to enter the same college club as Kagemori, not knowing it's a Mystery Club. Chisato is a bit overwhelmed by the almost maniacal love these people have for detective fiction, especially because she hardly reads herself, but she slowly adjusts to the club and starts to genuinely enjoy detective fiction herself too, while she is still trying to get Kagemori to notice her.

Oh, and yes, this is a shoujo (girls) manga. Oh,and note that the mystery in Mystery Club refers to detective fiction. The first time I used the term Mystery Club (the 'official' English term for the club I was at), people were thinking more in terms of Scooby Doo's Mystery Incorporated, I think.

So Misuken! is basically the Genshiken for detective fiction. So it's not a detective story, it's about detective stories. It is loosely based on the Kyoto University Mystery Club (though the 'proper' abbreviation for that club is Mysteryken), as it is also set in Kyoto and shares the same main club activities (reviewing and writing fiction; there are other university Mystery Clubs in Kyoto, but especially writing is an important part of the Kyoto University Mystery Club). But everything is a 'bit' more sparkly and cleaner here. Seriously: I can guarantee you the club room of the actual Mystery Club is not, and will never be even close to being so tidy and big as the one in Misuken!. Also: I am pretty sure that few members of the club entered to find a boyfriend / girlfriend. The part about having a fairly high rate of flunking students. Well, that's slightly more close to the truth. Playing mahjong is definitely real.

But ignore that for a bit and what do we have? A series that tries to do well, but fails in that. The start is very stereotypical for these kind of series, with the protagonist finding about the wonderful world of [insert topic], but I guess it works here. The story eases you into the topic, with every chapter featuring introductions of major titles / writers of the genre, helping protagonist Chisato (and the reader) on her way. I have to admit though, like so many series featuring a hobby or activity, it does sometimes feel like brainwashing. Just like how Captain Tsubasa's Tsubasa managed to convince brainwash everyone of the wonders of soccer, just like how Slam Dunk's Hanamichi slowly starts to understand is getting taken over by basketball, Chisato's sudden 'jump' to detective fiction in the first chapter, thanks to Ayatsuji Yukito's Jukkakukan no Satsujin, is a bit scary.

In subsequent chapters, Chisato gets to learn the other members a bit better, including their own motives for joining (the funniest being someone who not unlike Chisato, joined the Mystery Club, because he watched the drama version of Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de. Because it starred actress Kitagawa Keiko). There is also a bit on 'Guess the criminal' stories, and a fun story about members of the club doing a 'pelgrimage' to the sights described in Van Madoy's Marutamachi Revoir (for those who happen to be visiting Kyoto: you can also do one for Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital!). And of course, every story has a nice amount of references to detective fiction.

The problem here, is that this is a limited, one shot series and the two main objectives of the series: 1) Chisato getting close to Kagemori and 2) giving the reader a glimpse of the club activities and members of a college Mystery Club, are hardly achieved: There's just too little that can be done in just four chapters, and the series 'ends' with almost no sense of fulfillment, you only get 'oh, they might get close' and 'oh, she learned to like detective fiction'. It is a bit of a shame, because I do think there are quite some topics left untouched that should have been included (more about book collecting / buying, more indepth on writing fiction, more characters with distinct preferences etc.). There is just no sense of conclusion here, and you're left with the feeling of 'was this all?'.

The topic of detective fiction Mystery Club is a fun one though and often seen in Japanese detective fiction. This is also partly because many writers debuted as students, and members of university Mystery Clubs. Ayatsuji Yukito's Jukkakukan no Satsujin and Arisugawa Alice's Gekkou Game, two major titles of the New Orthodox movement, feature university mystery clubs heavily for example. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo and Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy series in turn feature the high school variants. Assuming that genre readers are on average relatively meta-conciousness, having a Mystery Club in a detective story has quite some positive points, as the characters can act more 'smart' because of their meta-knowledge, as well as to convey the author's own, reflexive thoughts on the genre. The difference with Misuken! being that in Misuken!, there is no mystery, it is really only about the activities of an average Mystery Club. It's definitely something I had never seen before. Misuken! also a lot more accessible for precisely those who aren't too familiar with detective fiction, but want to learn more.

The series also shares a bit with series like (the highly underrated) Kingyo Used Books, which manage to convey the feeling, the love people have for books and the culture behind it. Because most of detective fiction is indeed in the printed medium, this shouldn't seem strange, but while you often see book collectors and such in fiction (hello, Ellery Queen!), 'normal' love for books and the average reader don't seem to have a place in fiction, which is a shame. Sometimes, finding a book that reminds you of something, or buying a book because of its nostalgic smell or something like, is just as interesting as finding that first print of A Study in Scarlet. Misuken! might not be as fluent in conveying those feelings as Kingyo Used Books, but it definitely did it right.

Misuken! is definitely a flawed short series. It's nowhere close to a masterpiece like Genshiken, even as a series on its own it's just barely achieving what it should do. The concept is great though, so you might want to read it if you're into detective fiction and want to learn a bit more about what they do at mystery clubs. Because unlike as seen in Jukkakukan no Satsujin, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo and the student Alice series, Mystery Clubs in general are not coming across murders on a regular basis. It's really short too, so it doesn't even take that much time to go through it. Oh, and I gathered that this year, the Kyoto University Mystery Club had a significant rise in new, female members. Dare we call it the Misuken! effect?

Original Japanese title(s): さかたき新　『みすけん！』

「フィルムの中のアリバイ」その２

「そりゃ確かに暇だけど、だからぼくって退屈は嫌いじゃないんだって」

『クビシメロマンチスト』

"Yeah, I have a lot of time to spare. But I don't dislike being bored"

"Strangling Romanticist"

Where I once again pretend I am making a meaningful post by showing a picture of my current backlog.

Actually, it's a bit less than what's on the picture: I have seperated my bookcase in an 'unread' shelf and 'finished' shelf, but the finished shelf is already full. I should sell something or send something back one of these days. So it ain't that bad.

But yes, the reason I haven't posted anything in two weeks is simply because I have not finished one single book in these two weeks. Which is really rare. I have been juggling between two books that should result in interesting reviews, but it might take another week at this rate. Also because the Mystery Club is busy with the annual publication that is to be sold at Kyoto University's November Festival.

(Oh, and I did write my very first mystery-esque story. In Japanese. Of only one page long. Because there is also a part in the publication where every member has to write something very short according to a common theme. It doesn't have to be a mystery, but I tried. As far as I could get within one page and not writing in my native tongue. In fact, it isn't that good a story. If you can call a one page thingy a story.) 

And to sum up the last few weeks in fairly random sentences nobody will understand: I have been following a course on manga that has surprisingly become helpful for my thesis on Japanese detective fiction. The karaage from the ramen restaurant Takayasu (of which the interior is way too fancy) are the size of half a chicken (why didn't the cook warn us?). The expensive strawberry icecream and the cheaper one are reverse versions of each other. Having a girl explain enthusiastically about TokiMemo is funny. Lost Dutch tourists still think I'm not a native Dutch speaker when I explain the way back to them in perfectly fine Dutch. Pineapple cakes from Taiwan arrive at the best moment possible. And I have been walking up and down the post office way too often the last few days.

But yeah, maybe I should go read a book.

Psychological Recovery...6 months

「でもこうやって部屋に置いたままにしていたら、それこそ犯人にとって思惑どおりっていうか　―　これだと被害者側から自ら、被害に遭い続けるようなもじゃないですか」

 (...) 

「僕は先輩のいうことも分かります。殺人事件で言えば、死体にあたるものですから。汚いからってすぐに捨てちゃうのもどうかと」 

「嫉妬事件」

 "But leaving it here is precisely what the culprit wants! It's like the victims themselves choose to continue to be victims!" 

(...) 

"I do understand what he means though. If this was a murder case, this would be the body. We can't just throw it away because it's filthy..." 

"The Jealousy Case"

Following the example of many, many Japanese students, I tried to study in a restaurant yesterday. Partly because I hadn't eaten anything besides cookies around two thirty, also because I had always found it strange to see so many student studying in a restaurant. Wouldn't it be more effective to study in a place more quiet?

In my case: yes. It is much more effective. Studying in a restaurant does not work for me. A result which I had expected already actually, considering I can't even study in an university library.

I am not sure who designed the cover for Inui Kurumi's Shitto Jiken ("The Jealousy Case"), but people might be pissed upset if they bought this novel based on the cover alone without reading the description. 'Casue it is is about something quite different. 1984, a few days before Christmas. Jourin University's regular classes have ended and most clubs have also entered their winter break. One of the few clubs still active in this time is the Mystery Research Club. This small club dedicated to the detective novel has a tradition of a 'Guess the Criminal' event, where one of the club members writes a short detective story which the other members have to solve. If well-received, the story is included in the annual magazine the club publishes. This particular day however, the 'Guess the Criminal' event is cancelled because of unforeseen circumstances. Because as the members of the club assembled in their club room, they noticed something terrible. Horrible. Grotesque. On top of the books on the top row of one of the bookcases in the clubroom, some unknown person had placed... human feces. Who did this, and why?

This might sound a bit disgusting, but reality is stranger than fiction, for this is actually based on a real incident that happened within the Kyoto University Mystery Club. Many, many years ago, someone did really leave human feces on top of some books in the Mystery Club's BOX room. And it remains an unsolved case. It happened before members like Ayatsuji Yukuto and Abiko Takemaru joined the club, but even they confirm that this was an actual incident. The case was made 'famous' for outsiders through the following passage of Takemoto Kenji's Ouroboros no Kisoron ("The Foundation Theory of Ouroboros"):

「ええ。まだ僕が入学する前の話らしいんですけどね。あるときミステリ研の部員がボックスに言ってみたら、本棚に並んでいる本の上にうんこが乗っていたんですって」
「本の上に」
僕はやっぱり笑ってしまった。綾辻君は身振り手振りを加えて、
「ええ。こう、何冊が縦に並んでいる上に。それも人の背より高い本棚、上から二段目だったかな。その上の横板との隙間もそんなにないし。だから、何冊か本をゴソッとひっぱりだして、その上にウンコをしておいて、またもと通りきちんと直しておいたと考えるしかないんですよ」
『ウロボロスの基礎論』　（竹本健治）

"Yeah. It happened before I got into university though. A member of the Mystery Club went into the BOX and found shit on top of the books in the bookcase there"
"On top of the books"
I sneered. Ayatsuji started to add gestures to his talking.
"Yes! Like this, on top of some books standing next to each other. And on the second shelf from the top of a bookcase larger than anybody. So there was hardly any space between the books and the shelf above. So the culprit must have taken out some of the books, placed the feces on top of them and then placed them back"
"The Foundation Theory of Ouroboros" (Takemoto Kenji)

Neither Takemoto nor Shitto Jiken's Inui originate from the Kyoto University Mystery Club, meaning they must have heard the rumors from other members. Inui's take on the case is like the summary suggest a fictionalized version of the incident, with the members of the club trying to deduce whodunnit. In true 'Guess the Criminal' fashion, based on the process of elimination of who could have entered the room, when and for what cause the material was placed on top of the books. And while most of the thinking is done by the members of the mystery club, the role of the detective is actually reserved for outsider Tendou Tarou, the binding factor of Inui's Tarot series (Shitto Jiken is the fifth book in the series by the way, which features stories with (vague) references to tarot).

The subject matter might seem a bit strange, but Shitto Jiken (which incidently means Jealousy Case, but sounds like Shit Case) is quite fun to read. It's not really a daily life mystery, but the case is less horrible than a dead body. Or is it? In some ways, it almost seems more horrible than a stiff. I mean, having to investigate a dead body for hints or... that for hints... The conclusion is also a bit darker than one would expect and not what one would have expected after the somewhat silly discussions on how one would have to act to actually put feces on top of books and whether people who love books would be able to do this.

Two little points I didn't like though: the final deduction of Tendou is kinda comes out of nowhere and even though he points out one important hint in particular, no normal reader would have been able to pick that up. The second is the length of the story, which falls a bit between a long short story and a short long story. I would have preferred it shorter.

Because of the somewhat strange length of the story, Inui added an original story for the paperback release, which is actually the 'Guess the Criminal' script which was cancelled because of the shit case. Mittsu no Shitsugi  ("The Three Questions") feels like an orthodox Kyoto Mystery Club 'Guess the Criminal' script, with a puzzle which can be solved mostly through the process of elimination, but it also includes a particular trick I have seen quite often now, in English and Japan, but I still get fooled by it. One of these days, I will actually learn from my experiences.

I had quite some fun with this book, as it is so strongly related with 'my' club, but it also conveys quite a realistic image of a Japanese mystery club I think and despite the nasty contents, the story works out as a fairly entertaining detective story. Which manages to be more horrible than a story with a bloody, cut-up corpse. And yes, walking in the club's BOX this morning was kinda scary, having read this book yesterday. The BOX room is still pretty much the same as it used to be all those years ago: a number lock on the door, the inside a bit cramped because of all the bookcases full of books and manga inside it. But luckily no nasty surprises today.

Original Japanese title(s): 乾くるみ 『嫉妬事件』:  「嫉妬事件」 / 「三つの質疑」

"The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic"

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

This post is slightly better then posting a picture of my pile of unread books, but only slightly. Yes, I am still reading books, but not so fast. Now I think about it, I really should buy a nightstand lamp one of these days.

So I've been a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club for a little shorter than a month now, but it is been a blast. And oh-so-relevant to this blog. Like I mentioned before, many important writers in the New Orthodox movement of detective writing originate from this club, having honed their writing (and deductive!) skills through the club activities and is thus considered an important breeding ground for future talent too. Famous old members include Ayatsuji Yukito, Norizuki Rintarou, Abiko Takemaru, Maya Yutaka and Ooyama Seiichirou, and that is when I limit myself only to writers whom I have discussed in the past already! And even more interesting, many novels of the writers mentioned above are actually based on stories originally written within the Mystery Club. So I thought it might be interesting for those outside of the club to hear about how story publication activities work within the club.

The writing activities of the Mystery Club are roughly divided in three kinds: the 'Guess the Criminal' original stories, original stories published in the internal Mystery Club Communication magazine and the annual publication Souajou (also known as Souanoshiro), which is sold at the november festival of Kyoto University. The last week, the new members were challenged with some of the older 'Guess the Criminal' stories, which are probably exactly what you'd expect them to be. Members are given a short story (fewer than 10 pages) including a Challenge to the Reader, which they have to solve within an hour. During that hour, members can go to the writer to check whether their deductions are correct. If incorrect, the writer might give some hints to push the reader towards the right direction. At the end of the session, everybody is given the final part of the story featuring the solution. It is also the time for the readers to comment on the story, so the writer can learn from it. For reference, Norizuki Rintarou's Yuki Misshitsu and Abiko Takemaru's 8 no Satsujin amongst others were originally Guess the Criminal scenarios.

And it's friggin' awesome. We did two stories this week (which I won't discuss in detail as I assume these stories are meant for members-only), but they were really good stories. As in really really good. Considering the history of the club, it shouldn't surprise that the set-up of these stories were very classic, invoking all the right tropes, without feeling dated. It was fun to see my fellow members scribbling on the pages, underlining suspicious utterances and pieces of text. Heck, it sometimes even pays off to bounce off ideas with other members! My opinion of the stories we did last week might be a bit skewed because both of them felt very Queenian, with especially Friday's one being a classic puzzle based on deducing all the characteristics the murderer had to have, but even without my Queen glasses, these stories should be considered great in set-up, hinting and writing and in my opinion could have been published as proper stories. Just imagining that the Mystery Club has a whole database of these Classic stories that non-members will probably never see is just strange. By the way, I solved both stories only partly. Yes, I definitely want to solve at least one story before I leave Japan.

I do have to admit that these Guess the Criminal scenarios are also the things that are keeping me from reading books here: it's not like I don't read detective stories anymore: only that I can't really post about them.

I am less familiar with the two other publication activities of the club (hey, I've only been here a month), but the Mystery Club Communication is a members-only magazine, featuring short essays on the genre and stories by the members. It also seems like it is a sort of an excercise for the annual publication Souajou, which also features essays and stories by (all) the members, but is naturally also subject to much harsher editing, with the word Shuraba (field of Asuras; bloody battlefield) apparently being the default term for the crunch-time leading up to the publication. With the harsher editing, it shouldn't come as a surprise that many of the famous writers' stories are also based on the stories they managed to publish in Souajou (including Maya Yutaka's debut work, several of Norizuki Rintarou's short and longer stories). In fact, publishers also seem to be interested in Souajou, as they might be able to discover a new writing star!

There are some other regularly repeated activities at the club, but I might write about them at a later stage.