Death of an Author

Gimme Love Gimme Love 君は doubt

 酷くチャチなこのトリック

「真っ赤なlip」 (Wands)

 

Gimme love / Gimme love / Doubt about you

What a horribly shoddy trick

"Brightly Red Lips" (Wands)

Back in September, when I discussed volume 102 of Detective Conan and while waiting for the home video release of The Bride of Halloween, I mentioned perhaps discussing a few anime originals again, but for some reasons this took months...

Detective Conan anime original episodes
Scenario by Ochi Hirohito:
21: TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case of The Television Drama Filmed on Location
88-89: Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken ("The Villa Dracula Murder Case")
184: Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly")
379-380: Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken ("The Case of the Furisode of the Hot Spring Hidden In The Snow Darkness")
596: Tenraku no Alibi ("The Alibi of the Fall")
603-605: Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room")
905-906: Nananengo no Mokugekishougen ("Eyewitness Testimony, Seven Years Later")

Scenario by Hashiba Chiaki
203-204: Kuroi Ikaros no Tsubasa ("The Black Wings of Icarus")
208: Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari ("The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Giant Statue of the Heavenly Maiden")

Scenario by Mochizuki Takeshi
210-211: Gosai Densetsu no Mizugoten ("The Water Palace of the Legend of the Five Colors"
214: Retro Room no Nazo Jiken ("The Mysterious Case in the Retro Room")

Scenario by Saitou Kenji
159-160: Kaiki Gojuutou Densetsu (The Legend of the Mysterious Five-Storied Pagoda)

Scenario by Mikami Koushirou
730: Kanpekisugita Figure ("The Figure That Was Too Perfect")
753: Share House no Shikaku ("The Blind Spot in the Share House")
859: Kurayami no Sangaku Route ("The Mountain Route in the Darkness")

Scenario by Yamatoya Akatsuki
971: Glamping Kaijiken ("The Curious Glamping Incident")
1050-1051: Morikawa Goten no Inbou ("Intrigue at the Morikawa Manor")

The previous time I discussed episodes that were originally written for the anime adaptation of Detective Conan (so not based on the original comic by Aoyama Goushou), I think I found a format that worked for me: focusing on specific scenario writers and picking a few episodes out that stood out to me for one reason or another. Most of the single episode anime originals are usually a bit too lean on the meat in terms of mystery, simply because they are quite short with about only twenty minutes of runtime. Sometimes they have interesting ideas here and there, but it's just difficult really developing those ideas fully in the runtime, so often I end up watching an anime original thinking it wasn't really all that bad and that there were parts here and there that were promising, but it's only a select few that I think are truly worth a recommendation as a must-see, and most of them I have already discussed here in previous posts. So now I just pick a few of the shorter episodes that might not be really must-sees, but might have interesting points here and there, and worth watching if you've already seen the truly major anime original episodes.

Episode 21 TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case of The Television Drama Filmed on Location") is one of the earliest anime original episodes of the series and originally aired on June 24th, 1996. On its own, it's not a particularly memorable anime original to be very honest, save for the anime of the script writer: Ochi Hirohito, or Ochi Koujin as he is currently called, was already credited in earlier episodes as episode director and storyboarder, but this was the very first episode he wrote a story for. He would move on to write a few of the best anime original episodes for Detective Conan, most notably Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room"), and while episode 21 is nowhere as good as those classics, I thought it'd still be interesting to take a look at his first original Conan story.

The episode opens at Beika Temple, where a television crew is busy filming the mystery drama The Threat Laughing in the Darkness, starring none other than Okino Youko. Mouri Kogorou, Ran and Conan are also present, because Kogorou has been hired as a consultant for the mystery parts of the story, and as a big fan of Youko, he of course wouldn't refuse the job. Some of the crew members include the scripter Taeko, whose family runs Beika Temple, her fiance and assistant director Yuuji and a sleazy camera operator called Anzai. Once the day of filming has ended, Kogorou and the kids are invited to come along to the inn the crew is staying at for dinner, though one of the actors, Nachi Shingo, who is very keen to repeat to you he plays the handsome roles, refuses to stay at the "shabby-looking" inn. Early in the night, Anzai is seen leaving the inn, and after a while Ran, Conan and Youko also go out to visit the convenience store, but as they pass by Beika Temple they see a suspicious figure, and when they enter the temple grounds, they find Anzai lying dead on the ground. There is however one big clue: a dying message left by the victim. But what does the message "komainu" (the lion-dog statues seen at temples) mean?

Funny trivia: this is the first time the character of Takagi Wataru appears in the series. He's still unnamed, but he has the same design and he is voiced by voice actor Takagi Wataru, after whom the character is named because in one of the later episodes, the voice actor had to ad-lib one time as the 'unnamed recurring police detective' and said his own name.

I can almost hear readers lose interest now because I mention it's a dying message... and to be honest, it's not like this episode has a super original angle to the trope of the dying message. While it's almost painfully obvious who the killer is and what has been done in order to evade suspicion, I will give the episode credit for trying to fill the relatively short run time of approximately 20 minutes with a few twists, even if they are telegraphed too clearly. It is not just one single thing that is done here, but it's clear Ochi tried to fit in a few more surprises here and there to flesh out the mystery, and while ultimately, the result is fairly average for an early Detective Conan anime original, it might be worth watching it after viewing the other Ochi episodes, just to see how truly great he can be.

Episodes 203-204 form a two-parter titled Kuroi Ikaros no Tsubasa ("The Black Wings of Icarus") penned by Hashiba Chiaki, who also wrote episode 208 Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari ("The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Giant Statue of the Heavenly Maiden"). To be honest, I thought I had already written about this episode on the blog because I have the feeling it's one of the better known anime originals, but I guess I never got around to it. The story, originally broadcast on August 14th and 21st, 2000, starts with Kogorou, Ran and Conan arriving at a hotel located in the mountains near a lake, as Kogorou was lured by the local beers. Arriving at Hotel Arimori, they are pleasantly surprised to see the twins Minaho and Honami there, whom they previously met in the anime original Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly"): the two are now working at this hotel.  A fellow guest at the hotel is the haughty actress Bizen Chizuru, a demanding woman who is especially good at aiming her inherent anger at the employees of the hotel, while her husband tries to soothe things and apologizes for his wife's behavior. Her husband, Shiromoto Hidehide, is a nice enough businessman, though he has plans to develop the land in this area, despite a nearby mountain plateau being the home to many rare butterflies and plants, so the plans for land development naturally worries the people of the hotel. The list of guests becomes one person longer when the president of a production company begs Chizuru to give up an upcoming major role promised to her and allow a younger (bigger) actress to take the role instead, a plea which doesn't help Chizuru's temper. The following day, the president and Shiromoto go for fishing, while the hotel manager and the cook join Ran and Conan to visit the mountain plateau, while Mouri remains at the hotel watching television, and the twins attend to the hotel. Chizuru herself also stays cooped up in her room as she's still furious about having to let go of the role. Everyone goes around minding their own business that day, but at the end of the day, when everybody returns to the hotel, Shiromoto realizes Chizuru doesn't react at all to him knocking on her room's door. They unlock the door with the master key, but the door-guard blocks the door, so they are forced to break it down, only to find Chizuru dead, hanging from the ceiling. At first this seems to be a suicide, something Chizuru had threatened to do earlier, but a close examination of the scene quickly tells Conan, and the police that this wasn't a suicide, but a murder, committed in a locked room. But while some of the suspects have fairly solid alibis, like being on the mountain plateau the whole day, some others have less clear alibis, so which of them is the murderer?

You know what's funny about these episodes? This story not only references Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") through its reappearance of Honami and Minaho, it also contains a reference to TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken! In one scene, Kogorou is watching a re-run of a television drama special starring Okino Youko, and it's indeed the one they were filming in TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken. Ochi Hirohito in fact storyboarded the story and directed the first episode of the two-parter, so it's funny how he managed to stuff this episode full with references to his own stories.

Anyway, the fake suicide in a locked room is solved rather quickly, and the trick is rather rudimentary, so that's obviously not the big focus of the episode. It's also painfully easy to guess who the murderer is because there's basically only one person with a really strong alibi at first sight, which of course going by mystery meta logic means they did it. The basic idea of the trick the murderer used is telegraphed too obviously too (like... a major hint is basically spelled out with giant letters in front of you at two seperate times in this two-parter...), but you know, the dynamics and all of that of the trick are actually quite good. In a way, the story slightly reminds of two Agatha Christie stories: the main one is Evil Under the Sun, with the actress being killed, people in a hotel all loafing around somewhere else during the day and the matter of alibis being a focal point of the story, while the main trick of this two-parter vaguely reminds of the main trick of another, less major Christie work, only... better? They're not similar enough to be really 1:1 parallels, but the underlying concepts are fairly similar, though transformed into a different "mode" as it were to suit this particular story, but this story builds more on the same premise, adding more elements to make it a more complex, deceptive mystery and making the whole alibi trick a much stronger one. Small touches like having Kogorou, Ran and Conan pass by a road construction site in the very first scene of the first episode, and having those construction workers also function as witnesses to some of the alibis is also nicely done. Some of the clues that lead Conan to the truth are quite good, like the one regarding the state of the hotel room, though the truly decisive clue pointing to the murderer is of the type I personally don't really like because this type of clue often feels a bit... too much like they are planted by the writer of the story to have a decisive clue. While I don't think this two-parter is as strong as Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room"), it sits comfortably in the category immediately below those masterpieces and is definitely the best anime original to be discussed in today's post.

Going back to an Ochi-written episode brings us to episode 596, Tenraku no Alibi ("The Alibi of the Fall"), originally airing on November 20th, 2010. One evening, Kogorou, Ran and Conan are visiting Orion Planning, a production company specializing in planning and producing television programs, commercials and other events, as the company wants to work with Kogorou on a mystery puzzle book. As arranged, Kogorou calls his contact Higashiyama on his extension upon arrival, as he's located in the annex behind the main Orion Planning building. While Kogorou is on the phone with Higashiyama however and he gazes outside the window towards the annex, he sees a body fall in front of the window. The victim is Takahata, an event planner at Orion, who seemingly committed suicide from the main building, jumping down the window (and passing in front of Kogorou on his way down). A suicide note seems to confirm this was no accident, but a few clues uncovered early on lead to the conclusion this might actually be murder. Suspicion falls on the two Orion employees in the building, but both seem to have iron-clad alibis: Higashiyama was on the phone with Kogorou in his office in the annex building during the fall, and was crossing from the annex to the main building by the planning employee Sunagawa, while Sunagawa herself welcomed Kogorou and the others in the office only moments before the fall, and couldn't have made it up and down the fourth floor from where the victim fell without being seen by the people who were repairing the broken elevator in the main building, and back to be seen by Higashiyama as he crossed the skyway to the main building. But as the episode title suggest: one of them must've have used some kind of alibi trick.

For a single episode, this story is fairly packed, which is perhaps why it starts off fairly quickly. We have the first part of the police and Conan figuring out why it wasn't a suicide, and how the murderer could've rigged things to create a false alibi, but then there's a second part where Conan, and the viewer, has to determine how the culprit actually secured a solid alibi for the moment the fall occured, as the trick Conan figured out still requires the murderer to be relatively close to the victim at the time of the fall. The way the episode seems to focus a lot on a certain prop quickly gives you an idea what was used to accomplish that feat, but I think the trick itself is pretty clever, and has a nice visual clue to it too. The episode has a few smaller details that on their own don't say much, but are clearly also included to facilitate the mystery, so I think it's a pretty solid mystery considering the short run-time, and if you compare it to TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken, you can definitely tell Ochi's plotting developed a lot, even within the single episode format. Note by the way that in the episode itself, Ochi is credited with the name Uonji Chiko. (O-Chi Ko-Ji-N = Ochi Koujin).

The two episodes above where picked because of the writer of the script, but that was not the case when I decided to watch episodes 1050 and 1051, Morikawa Goten no Inbou ("Intrigue at the Morikawa Manor"), originally airing on July 17 and 23, 2022. Kogorou, Ran and Conan are brought to the private island of Morikawa Yuuzan, a man built an empire on soft ice. The island actually has some of its hills shaped like soft ice, and in the private rooms in the manor all have their own soft ice serving machines. Soft ice emperor Morikawa is dying however, and he hopes the famous detective Mouri Kogorou's insights can tell him which of his three sons is best fitted to inherit the company and his fortune, as all of them have some obvious flaws: the oldest son having interest in soft ice and research, but not in actually running a company, while the two younger sons seems a bit too eager to want to become the big boss after their father's death. The three siblings obviously don't get along, to the despair of the head manager of the house, Yuka, who as the daughter of the previous head manager, actually spent most of her childhood growing up with the Morikawa brothers. At dinner, one of the brothers doesn't appear however, and the following day, another one is not seen at the breakfast table, which worries the others. They go to the rooms of the two missing brothers, using the master key to open the door, but they find the youngest brother lying dead inside his own room: his own room key is lying inside the room, and as the master key was kept secured in a special box, it appears this was a locked room murder. Kogorou wants to alert the police immediately, but the family lawyer reminds Kogorou he signed a contract that his duties to his client take priority and that he needs to determine the best heir. Kogorou intends to do that job, but also decides to investigate this curious death, but it doesn't take long for more murders to occur in the Morikawa manor...

This was a surprise in two ways. First of all, the title seemed interesting on its own, combined with the fact it was a two-parter, but I hadn't really expected a Yokomizo Seishi-inspired story. But yeah, a wealthy elderly man on the verge of dying and his will leading to a series of murders happening are obviously taken from Inugamike no Ichizoku (The Inugami Clan), and the way the second murder is discovered is directly inspired by Akuma no Temariuta, but in a slightly more... comical way. And that ties in to the second surprise: after the episode ended, I took a look at the credits to see who penned this episode and it was... Yamatoya Akatsuki. The man (who also works on Gintama) who wrote an excellent Tantei Gakuen Q anime original with a locked room set in a sunken ship... but who also wrote Detective Conan episode 961 Glamping Kaijiken ("The Curious Glamping Incident"), which may be the most insane Conan episode ever. In fact, in retrospect, Yamatoya's hand explained a lot, as the third murder has a rather ridiculous clue which allowed Conan to identify the killer which I initially just let slide, but knowing this was written by Yamatoya now, it suddenly clicked: yes, this was the kind of insane logic that Glamping Kaijiken also had. And the whole focus on soft ice is in hindsight a bit silly too. But I think the episode was pretty interesting as a Yokomizo Seishi-inspired episode, especially as the unique setting is used in a clever way for the first and second murder. Well, in the case of the second murder, it's just that it works really well to sell the discovery of the murder (I'm not talking about a clever murder trick here), but the first murder definitely has interesting ideas to it, even if it's not really realistic. I also think it needed one extra hint to be completely fair, but overall, I think the concept behind how that locked room murder was created was quite interesting, especially as it blended well with the whole design of the Morikawa manor. I wouldn't say this two-parter is a must-see, not even in the insane manner Glamping Kaijiken was, but still, if you have seen most of the must-sees already, this two-parter sits right halfway the utterly crazy Glamping Kaijiken and the very conventional puzzle plot Tantei Gakuen Q episode Suishin 30m - Kaitei Misshitsu Satsujin Jiken.

Anyway, these were another six anime original episodes of Detective Conan. Save for clear exception Kuroi Ikaros no Tsubasa, I wouldn't place them near the must-see category, but as I am now focusing more on specific scenario writers I think these episodes did have their share of interesting elements, which is why I decided to write a bit about them. Any anime originals you want to recommend? There are plenty I have seen, but not discussed here, but obviously, there are many, many more I simply have not seen yet and if there's an anime original you think really deserves watching, please leave a comment!

Original Japanese titles: 『名探偵コナン』21話「TVドラマロケ殺人事件』,203-204話「黒いイカロスの翼」, 596話「転落のアリバイ」, 1050-1051話「森川御殿の陰謀」

The Twin Dilemma

「もう全部あいつ一人でいいんじゃないかな」

『時空英雄仮面ライダー』

"Man, he can probably do everything all by himself."

"Heroes of Time and Space Kamen Rider"

When the releases of the Detective Conan manga slowed down last year, I decided to look at a few of the episodes written exclusively for the anime series (so not based on the manga by Aoyama Goushou). I haven't written reviews on all the episodes I've seen, which in turns means that the episodes I did write about, were stories worth writing about. Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken in particular were absolutely fantastic pieces of mystery fiction, among the best visual mystery stories I had ever seen. Both these stories were written by Ochi Hirohito, who is also credited at times as Ochi Koujin and Uonji Chiko for his work on Conan. Ochi is an important figure for the animated Detective Conan series, as he has multiple roles. Storyboarder, artist, episode director and screenplay writer: he's done it all (and for some episodes, simultaneously). With both volume 97 of the manga and the home video release of the 23rd theatrical movie Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire scheduled for somewhere in October or perhaps even later, I decided to watch a few more episodes with screenplays by Ochi while I wait for the fall releases.

Detective Conan episodes with scenarios by Ochi Hirohito:
88-89: Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken ("The Villa Dracula Murder Case")
184: Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly")
379-380: Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken ("The Case of the Furisode of the Hot Spring Hidden In The Snow Darkness")
603-605: Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room")
905-906: Nananengo no Mokugekishougen ("Eyewitness Testimony, Seven Years Later")

Episodes 379-380 form the two-parter Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken ("The Case of the Furisode of the Hot Spring Hidden In The Snow Darkness"), originally broadcast on November 22 and 29, 2004. Conan, Ran and Kogorou have a little family trip to the Kotoya Inn, a traditional Japanese inn in the mountains with hot springs. Following the local tradition, all the rooms of the inn are decorated by splendid furisode (long-sleeved kimono). Legend has it that many centuries ago, a woman in the village called O-Hana helped an injured samurai, who gave O-Hana beautiful furisode as a gift. The jealous daughters of the village chief however coveted these furisode, and succeeded in arranging for O-Hana's execution through slander. Thus they manage to steal O-Hana's furisode, but they weren't able to enjoy them for long: one night, both daughters were found dead, wrapped in and covered by the furisode they stole. Fearing it was a curse, the village people decided to worship O-Hana as Furisode-sama to watch over the village, though she also has a vengeful side as a diety as Furisode-Hannya. The village still has a large shrine dedicated to Furisode-sama, but the Kotoya Inn has a small Furisode-sama shrine in the garden too.

At the Kotoya Inn, Kogorou runs into a producer of Nichiuri Television (Kogorou often appears in their programs) and the producer reveals to the gang that they are working on a drama adaptation of a story by the romance novelist Akechi Eri. The producer, Akechi and her publisher's editor have a small meeting here at the inn, together with the three actresses who are to star in the movie: the succesful model Shibasaki Asuka, award-winning artist Anzai Ema and upcoming singer-songwriter Fukatsu Harumi, who all graduated from the same university. Harumi wants a private conversation with Kogorou, and reveals that a friend of her was once accused of drugs dealing and that she committed suicide. However, it appears she was framed and that the real dealers were in fact her two new co-actors in the upcoming drama. She wants Kogorou to investigate the case, but fate strikes first: that night, both Asuka and Ema are murdered under impossible circumstances: Ema is found stabbed lying on furisode in the garden shrine of Furisode-sama, but the only footprints in the snow leading to the shrine are those of Ema herself. The murder weapon meanwhile is found in the hot spring below, together with the body of Asuka, floating in the water surrounded by furisode. In order to enter the hot spring however, one has to pass by the recreation room, which was occupied by Conan and the gang, meaning an invisible murderer must've killed Ema first, left the shrine without leaving footprints in the snow, somehow made it past Conan unseen, and enter the hot spring to kill Asuka, but how's that possible?

While not as strong as Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken, this case is pretty good, though I have to say I liked it a lot better the second time I watched these two episodes. As with most episodes by Ochi, the whodunnit aspect is somewhat weak, more like an afterthought with some lucky clue that points directly to the culprit, but the main problem is almost always an impossible one. Two in fact this time: the footprints-in-the-snow problem of Ema's murder in the shrine, and how the murderer managed to get past Conan, Ran and Kogorou to enter the hot spring to murder Asuka. I'm going to use my pet phrase 'synergy' again from my review of Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken, because that's what Ochi's doing here once again. We have to two distinct situations, but he manages to tie the underlying solution to both problems to one, central idea and use that in several ways to strengthen both impossible situations. Once again, we have two impossible murders that are possible because there are two of them, because both of these situations exist. It's a notion that so very few mystery authors to manage to do right, but Ochi's done quite a few of them by now for Detective Conan. The main idea that ties these problems is at the core very simple and seems even unoriginal at first, but the way Ochi uses it to really integrate the solution to the two impossible situations with the overall story and atmosphere is fantastic, resulting one of the better plotted anime original stories.

Ochi Hirohito wrote another two-parter last year with episodes 905-906, originally broadcast on June 23 and 30, 2018. Nananengo no Mokugekishougen ("Eyewitness Testimony, Seven Years Later") bring Conan, Ran and Kogorou to the Dove Flute Lodge, a small guest house that lately has become popular thanks to the recommendation by the "Beer Prince" Minakitaya Ootarou, an entertainer with an extraordinary love for beer. The unique selection of beer offered by the Dove Flute Lodge makes it a paradise for beer lovers like Kogorou and it's no wonder they aren't the only guests there and the Beer Prince himself happens to be one of the other guests that day. During a conversation with fellow lodgers, an old sentai show called Masked Comet Byun is mentioned. Seven years ago, the show became news when two robbers wearing masks of characters from the show killed a man.

After dinner, the lodge is visited by the police, who found a corpse earlier that day down the river that passes behind the lodge. It is unclear whether the man died because of an accident or by the hands of another party, but he carried a card with Masked Comet Byun, and when shown a picture of the victim, Minakitaya identifies the man as Shuujirou, his old comedy partner before they dissolved their duo three years ago. Shuujirou was working as a shady entertainment reporter nowadays and had visited the lodge too, asking about Minakitaya. Later that night, the lounge room of the lodge is ransacked by someone. The commotion wakes everyone but Minakitaya, so they all go to his room. When they finally break the bolted door open, they find the corpse of Minakitaya lying on the floor, surrounded by empty beer bottles and bottle caps. While he might've simply slipped and fallen on his head, the drawing he made on the floor with his blood, reminsicent of the logo of Masked Comet Byun, suggests foul play. But how could the murderer have bolted the room from the inside, and what has Minakitaya's death to do with the death of his former partner Shuujirou?

Overall, this story is not nearly as intricately plotted as the previously discussed one. There's quite a bit of coincidence working in the background, as unsurprisingly, almost all the characters present are revealed to have some connection to the deadly robbery seven years ago and they just happen to be here at the lodge at the same time. The death of Shuujirou isn't really important, only acting as a motive. The main problem, the murder of Minakitaya in the locked room, is okay: it has a neat solution that is hidden from the viewer through nicely thought-out misdirection, while the hints that point in the direction of how it was done (the direct means and the clues that originate from the way this means was obtained) are somewhat standard in spirit, they work well and give the viewer more than enough of a chance to solve it themselves. It's also a locked room trick that works well in the visual format. The identity culprit is unsurprising however, and as often with Ochi's stories, the clue chain that leads to the murderer is a line separate from the howdunnit line, which is something I find really disappointing considering the care Ochi shows when doing the howdunnit angle. In comparison, his whodunnit reasoning chains always seem like an afterthought, like "oh, better make sure the culprit also makes this one unneccesary mistake after pulling off a super complex plan, a mistake that points directly at them or else Conan can't solve it". The dying message too is rather rough.

Of the two stories discussed today, Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken is definitely the better one. While not as strong as Ochi's best two efforts (Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken), this two-parter still provides a well-plotted impossible murder mystery that once again sets an example of how to do multiple mysteries within one story to create synergy. Nananengo no Mokugekishougen is not as strong, but is entertaining enough if you just want to see an anime original story.  As far as I know I have seen all episodes with screenplays by Ochi by the way, though I haven't reviewed all of them. Episode 22 (TV Drama Roke Satsujin Jiken / "The Television Drama On Location Murder Case"), episode 596 (Tenraku no Tenraku / "The Alibi for the Fall") and episode 665 (Giwaku no Initial K / "The Suspicious Initial K") are a lot simpler and smaller in scale compared to the other Ochi stories I reviewed, but for those interested in Ochi's writing, it might be worth checking those episodes out too.

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン』379-380話「秘湯雪闇振袖事件」, 905-906話「七年後の目撃証言」

Turnabout from Heaven

"Heaven or Hell!"

"Guilty Gear"

Back in April, I reviewed two multi-part episodes from the Detective Conan animated series, which were not based on the original comics by Aoyama Goushou, but written especially for the anime. An important reason why I decided to watch those older episodes in the first place was a lack of new material: volume 94 had been released in December 2017, but various circumstances led to a short hiatus in the serialization of the comics. Usually, a new volume is released in April (to coincide with the annual theatrical release), but with the delay, I decided to fill the April gap with those episode reviews. For the moment, my real return to Conan appears to be within reach, as both volume 95 and the home-video release of the 2018 theatrical feature, Detective Conan: Zero The Enforcer are scheduled for October.

But as those two releases are still a bit more than a month away, I figured I might as well look at a couple more of the anime original episodes of Detective Conan, and to keep it to a theme: today I'll be reviewing two stories with an impossible crime. First up: episodes 88-89 presented the viewer with a story with a very alluring title: Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken ("The Villa Dracula Murder Case"). The "Sleeping Detective" Kogorou, Ran and Conan are on their way to the villa of renowned horror author Torakura Daisuke, better known as "Mr Dracula". The nickname is not only based on Torakura's own name, but also on the fact the novelist mostly writes about vampires, and he even wears the stereotypical suit and cape as his usual get-up. At arrival at the Villa Dracula, Kogorou, Ran and Conan first meet with several of the other people staying there, like Torakura's assistant, his editor and a folklore researcher consulting Torakura's collection. Torakura meets in private with Kogorou, explaining he wants to hire the Sleeping Detective to investigate his wife's adultery, and invites him to stay in the villa for the night. Torakura himself retreats to his study for the night, as he has a deadline coming up. The study itself is almost completely seperated from the main house: it looks out over a cliff and the only way there is through a single, long corridor that leads right into the living room.

When Torakura doesn't answer the phone at midnight however, the people in the living room start to fear something might've happened to the man who doesn't sleep, so the gang makes their way through the corridor, to the locked door of the study. They go around through the outside balcony, but when they get inside the room, they find Mr. Dracula staked to the wall, like a vampire!  What baffles Kogorou and Conan however is that the study door was locked from the inside, and that the corridor to the study was being watched from the living room all the time. The murder weapon (a prop from a vampire movie) had been taken from the storage room in the main building, which means the murderer must've taken the weapon, passed through the living room to get to the corridor and the study, all unseen! Considering that's utterly impossible it seems the only other way in is through the balcony overlooking a cliff and the sea, but that means the culprit must've flown to the balcony, as if they were a vampire!

Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken was written by Ochi Hirohito, who's also the writer for Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken. Those stories I praised for being fantastic stories that are excellent examples of synergy in mystery fiction, where various elements like backstory, motive, murder method and clues are all intricately connected, with each factor strengthening, but at the same time also depending on the other factors. Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken is a relatively older story, and while one can easily recognize Ochi's hand here, it's also clear that this episode is not as insanely tightly structured as those later genre masterpieces. In essence however, the main mystery plot of Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken is very similar, revolving around a clearly-defined impossible crime situation, with a special prop object featuring at the crime scene (in this case the stake prop from a vampire film) that serves as a second focal point of the plot. At one hand, Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken is certainly a well-plotted story. Sure, it's awfully easy to guess who the murderer is, but like with Ochi's other stories, it's the how that stars. It's here that Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken shows it's a very capable, but ultimately lesser attempt of what Ochi would perfect in later stories: the various elements of the story feel less strongly connected and dependent on each other and the result is oddly enough a very good impossible crime story that has some good visual clewing going on too, and any other writer would've been absolutely pumped to come up with something like this, but Ochi would go on write stories that I personally feel are some of the best thought-out mystery core plots ever, making these two episodes feel less impressive (luck has it I saw these two episodes last too). Note the attention to character movement (floorplans!) and the exact order of events in these two episodes by the way: these are also staples of Ochi's mystery plotting and also visible in his later masterpieces. Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken is an excellent impossible crime story on its own, with various good ideas strung together to create a really alluring crime, but it's definitely overshadowed by Ochi's later work for the series.

Ochi's episodes are often mentioned when talking about the best of the anime original episodes of Detective Conan, but another one that is often mentioned is episode 208 Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari ("The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Giant Statue of the Heavenly Maiden"), which was an one-hour special originally broadcast on October 19th, 2000. Kogorou, Ran and Conan are this time heading for Mt. Tenbu in the Shizuoka Prefecture. A giant statue of a Heavenly Maiden was erected in the mountains many, many moons ago, but as of late, Doumoto Tourism has been aggressively developing the Mt. Tenbu region as a tourist destination. The colossus is the main attraction of course, so there's a hiking promenade that leads up the mountain right to the statue, and despite the protests of the local people, Doumoto Tourism even built a ropeway to the top of Mt. Tenbu, which goes through a mountain tunnel dug right beneath the Heavenly Maiden statue. Kogorou is invited to attend the the opening ceremony of the ropeway, but also to keep an eye out on Doumoto Eizou, who fears the ceremony might also be the perfect time for someone to get even with him, as some local people say that the wrath of the Heavenly Maiden is sure to get him for making that ropeway. To celebrate the opening of the ropeway, Doumoto Eizou has several other people join the first ride up the mountain, including some local journalists as well as Kogorou, Ran and Conan. As the carriage goes through the mountain tunnel however, the lights suddenly go out, followed by a cry in the dark by Doumoto Eizou. When the ropeway carriage makes it out of the tunnel, right behind the back of the Heavenly Maiden statue, they find that Doumoto Eizou has disappeared from the carriage, and to their great shock, they see his dead body lying in the palm of the colossus!

An impossible disappearance from a locked carriage mid-air this time, and the almost immediate appearance of the body in the hand of a gigantic statue: one can certainly not accuse Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari of having a boring premise! This one-hour special is of perfect length, with enough runtime to build up a proper mystery, though one could say it has very room for fluff or red herring side-plots. To be perfectly honest, I think it's rather easy to guess how most of the magic was done: one character in particular stands rather out with their actions in this story, and from there it's really not that difficult to make an educated guess about how the impossible teleportation was pulled off. In essence, I think this episode features ideas that shouldn't be too surprising to someone who has read some mystery, or even someone who only watches Conan: this episode however does manage to present a very unique setting to pull these ideas off, and the result is a story that might not be completely original in terms of core plot, but which does hit the right notes when it comes to execution.

Anyway, for those who want to try out more of the anime original episodes of Detective Conan, I think these two stories will be good picks. No, they are not as brilliant as Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken, but those are exceptional episodes, not only just as Detective Conan episodes. Both Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken and Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari however should entertain any fan of the genre as solid mystery stories. For the moment, I think I'll reserve my next Conan review for the two new October releases, but I might return to some other anime original episodes after that.

Original Japanese titles: 『名探偵コナン』88-89話「ドラキュラ荘殺人事件」, 208話「迷宮への入り口 巨大神像の怒り」

The House of the Nightmare Witch

君のいない未来が

ただ大きな闇に見え

死んでしまえば生きなくていい 

「Holy Ground」（Garnet Crow）

A future without you

Only looks like a looming darkness to me

I might as well die so I wouldn't have to live on anymore

"Holy Ground" (Garnet Crow)

Okay, when I said it might take a while for my next Detective Conan review, I meant a review of the manga of course, as it'll take while for volume 95 to be even officially announced. But there's nothing stopping me from doing more reviews on the animated series.

After enjoying the Detective Conan special episode Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau, I decided to check out some more episodes which were not based on the Detective Conan comic source material, but original stories created especially for the anime series. I decided to focus on episodes with a screenplay by Ochi Hirohito, as he wrote the story for Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau. Ochi's a busy bee for Conan by the way, because he's not only a screenplay writer for Detective Conan, but also episode director and storyboarder. Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau was in fact one of the rare occassions where he's responsible for all three tasks for the same episode. When I checked which episodes he had written the screenplay for, my eyes were immediately drawn to episodes 603-605, which formed a three-part story titled Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room"). While three-episode long stories aren't a rarity in Detective Conan in general, Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken was actually the very first anime original three-parter, even though the series had been running for nearly 15 years by then, with many, many anime original episodes. These three episodes originally aired on January 29th, February 5th and 12th in 2010, which in hindsight means I was actually living in Japan at the time and that I could've seen these episodes in real-time. But I didn't. 

Kogorou, Ran and Conan find themselves lost after taking a wrong turn and seek refuge in a creepy mansion in the forest. The three are met by a suspicious crowd wearing robes, but are surprised when they recognize the face of Nichiuri TV assistant-director Yatsukawa, whom they first met a few adventures earlier. The lot, Yatsukawa explains, are members of the fanclub of Miyahara Kira, a cosplay idol-model and aspiring actress who died one year earlier in a car accident, even though her body was never retrieved. Other people here include Utakura Shouko, an upcoming idol herself, Mifune Ryuuichi, a photographer who helped Kira become an idol and Kani Yutaka, a figure sculptor who's a very big fan of Kira. The house is the home of Hirasaka Reiki, who is not only a fan of Kira too, but also a popular horror manga author who created the hit series The Blackmagic Girl, which was scheduled for a live-action theatrical film release starring Kira until her death put a halt to the project. This night, these Kira fans plan to hold a séance, as lately rumors are making the round that Kira has come back as a witch from the underworld to take revenge on those who wronged her in life, just like the protagonist of The Blackmagic Girl. The rumors vary from harassment of other idols to even murder, as two weeks ago, Hirasaka Reiki's editor was murdered in his own apartment, leaving the dying message "Kira".

Kogorou, Ran and Conan participate in the séance session held in the Chamber of Meditation in the Hirasaka manor, but this séance ends in a dud. The members eventually all retreat for the night, but then everyone is awakened by a text message sent from Shouko's phone, where Kira declares she has come back from the underworld. The search for Shouko ends in the Chamber of Meditation, which they find in disarray, with the dead body of Shouko lying dead on the table in the center. However, they had to break open the door as it was padlocked from the inside, and as the only other exit out of the room is a closed window high up the wall, it seems Shouko was murdered inside a perfectly sealed room. This isn't the only tragedy to happen that night in Hirasaka's home however, as right after this first shocking discovery, they discover that Hirasaka Reiki himself also seems to have died in his own room, which was also locked from the inside!

As mentioned, this was the series very first anime original three-parter, but this story is a gem that certainly needed the space the three episodes provide! It's obvious from his work that screenplay writer Ochi loves his locked room mysteries, and this time he presents the viewer two servings. What makes Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken an exceptional story is synergy. In January, I reviewed Mitsuda Shinzou's Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono as one of the best mystery novels I've read these last few years, and synergy was an important reason for my praise. The story didn't consist of various, independent mystery modules set one after another, but every part was interconnected, each mystery, puzzle and solution strengthening the other elements of the plot. I'd argue Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken is an good example of synergy in mystery fiction too. The second locked room murder for example is, taken on its own, quite simple. In fact, I have to admit I was even a bit disappointed by it, as it appeared even unambitious for someone who created a masterpiece like Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau. But then its connection to the murder inside the Chamber of Meditation is revealed, and every thing changes! Mind you, the way the locked room mystery within the Chamber of Meditation is created is actually very satisfying on its own: it is  highly original and hard to spot, even though the hints are in your face all the time, and it also makes use of some other minor elements to make an ingenious trick on its own stand out even more. Still, I can't even remember having seen a similar trick used in this way, and the fundamental element needed for this trick is integrated exceptionally well in the narrative too.

But you really see the genius behind this story once realize how this locked room and the other locked room are connected. Everything is connected in a meaningful manner: there are convincing reasons for both locked rooms to exist in the first place and while the two locked rooms are constructed in completely different manners, they actually rely on the same core idea, only utilized in another way. Yet the two locked rooms aren't just very oblique variations on the same trick, as there is also a meaningful reason to why there's a connection to them in the first place and why there are two of them, which again goes back to the starting point as to why the murderer needed to create a locked room in the first place. The more I think about it, the more I see how brilliantly structured this whole tale is, and while the story is quite lengthy at over an hour runtime spread across three episodes, I have to say there's basically no unnecessary part: everything is on the screen for a reason, and everything strengthens the core mystery plot.

If I had to voice a complaint, it'd be the same as the one I had for Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau: the culprit is far too obvious. The core focus is obviously on the howdunnit part of the two locked rooms, and that is done so expertly it becomes painfully obvious how... uninspired the whodunnit part of the story is. The hints to the identity of the murderer are crude at best and almost seem like an afterthought, especially as both of them are introduced relatively late in the story. I wonder whether Ochi has written a semi-inverted story for Detective Conan, as I think that might suit his style better: reveal the identity of the murderer right from the start to the viewer, but don't show the exact manner in which the inevitable locked room murder was done. Sure, Ochi'd still need to come up with a convincing way to give the game away, but at any rate, hiding the murderer isn't his forte, so at least it can't feel less uninspiring.

So Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken proved itself to be another excellent Detective Conan anime original penned by Ochi. While the stories are nothing like each other, it's actually very similar to Ochi's other great episode, Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau: both stories may feature a somewhat uninspired whodunnit plot, but the howdunnit behind the impossible crime is brilliant. The locked rooms of Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken are admittedly not as impressive as that of Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau, but in return you get a locked room mystery that is still memorable on its own, but that is turned into something that is way more than the sum of its parts, providing an impressive showcase of how important proper plotting and synergy for a mystery story.

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン』603-605話「降霊会W密室事件」

Mask of the Phantasm

「明るい日差しを感じてモーニン！恋も事件も土曜がスタート！今日はスペシャルミステリー。笑う仮面の鳥肌トリック。たった一つの真実を見抜く、見た目は子供頭脳は大人。その名は、名探偵コナン！」

『名探偵コナン』

"Feel the bright sunlight, good morning! The Saturday starts for both your love and work! Today brings a special mystery. A chilling trick with the laughing masks. Perceiving the one single truth. The appearance of a child, but with the intellect of an adult. His name: Detective Conan!"

"Detective Conan"

A little warning: it might take a while for my next Detective Conan review. Usually a new volume is released in April to coincide with the newest film (this year it's Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer), but author Aoyama Goushou has been on an extended hiatus for his health since the previous volume in December. Serialization will resume in two weeks, but as there's not enough material published yet for a new volume, it will still take several months before volume 95 of Detective Conan will be released.

The animated TV series based on Detective Conan started in 1996, two years after the original comic began its serialization. While the time slot alloted to Conan has moved around since its television debut (at the moment, it airs on Saturday afternoon), the show has been running more-or-less non-stop on Japanese television. More-or-less I say, as the show does skip a few weeks every year due to special programming, a short break or other circumstances. Usually, television shows are scheduled in cour (11~13 weeks) in Japan, but Conan is one of the few rare animated shows in Japan that isn't scheduled in cour, but runs indefinitely across the year, so it's quite usual for it to skip a week once in a while.

While the animated series is based on the original comics, the Detective Conan anime also features a great number of anime original episodes. The reason is quite obvious of course: if they'd stick to source material exclusely, they'd catch up to the original comic too soon, leaving nothing to animate. A story of three chapters in the comics usually translates to one single episode in the anime, so that means that on average, the anime only needs one episode (one week) for every story that takes three weeks to get published in the comics. The anime original episodes are written by a varied team of writers: some are specialized screenplay writers for Detective Conan, some are freelance screenplay writers who write for a variety of shows (not only mystery shows) with no fixed attachment to Conan, and then there's the odd one occassionally, like mystery author Ookura Takahiro writing a few episodes because he was also the original script writer for the 21st Detective Conan film The Crimson Love-Letter. I have seen only a few of the anime originals (mostly from the very beginning of the series, so those from the first hundred episodes or so), but the quality of the anime original episodes can vary greatly, though most will agree that that they often fall a bit behind to the stories from the original comic. This is partly because of the restrictions of course, as the anime original episodes are only meant to 'fill the time', and can't introduce important story elements that impact the further flow of the series.

Episode 184 Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") however has not only long been lauded as one of the best anime original episodes ever, it's often also seen as one of the best episodes of Detective Conan, period. It was originally broadcast on March 13, 2000 as a one-hour special (double the length of a normal episode) and quickly gathered a reputation as a fantastic episode. There was a re-run of the episode in 2004, and on March 31, 2018, Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau was broadcast for the third time. As the older episodes of Detective Conan were obviously originally produced with traditional cel animation at a 4:3 standard, the last few years these re-runs of classic Detective Conan episodes also go through the process of digital remastering, and yesterday's broadcast was therefore also the first time viewers were able to see Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau in high definition.

Mouri Kogorou, Ran and Conan have been invited to stay one night at Suou Beniko's manor out in the woods. Suou Beniko is a former singer known as the Canary of the East and head of the Kurenai Promotion agency, who has also been organizing charity events for the children of victims of traffic accidents for the last decade or so. "Sleeping Detective" Kogorou will appear next week at such an charity event, as are a few other celebrities like the "Home-Run King" baseball player Matsudaira and Nagara Haruka, a popular tarot fortune teller, and they have all been invited by Beniko for the evening as her thanks for their appearance. Beniko's manor has a curious design, consisting of an East and West wing that each have their own entrance. A gallery-like chamber provides the only connection between the two wings and the two doors leading to this room, one at each wing, are locked every night at midnight. This room is called the Chamber of Masks, as Beniko's also a collector of masks from all over the world, with most of them displayed in the Chamber of Masks. The stand-out objects in this room are the two-hundred "Cursed Masks" made by the artist Gonzalez: after being betrayed by his own brother, Gonzalez committed suicide, and when he was found in his bedroom, the two-hundred masks were all spread across his bed and room, covered in Gonzalez' blood. Since then, the masks are believed to crave for blood, and previous owners of the masks have all died violently. Conan's curiosity is immediately piqued by this tale, as on their way to the manor, Kogorou found a warning telling him not to go to Beniko's manor, signed by the Herald of the Cursed Masks.

That night, Kogorou, Conan and Ran are awakened from their slumber by a phone call from the Herald of the Cursed Masks. When the group enters the Chamber of Masks, they discover that the two-hunderd Cursed Masks are gone, and after unlocking the door to the opposite wing and making their way to Beniko's bedroom, they find she has been murdered in the most terrifying manner: she was stabbed in her throat, and the two-hunderd Cursed Masks were all spread across her bed and room, their mouths covered in her blood. What makes the murder even more mystifying is the fact that Beniko was murdered inside a locked room: the door to the hallway was locked twice from the inside, the other door to the neighboring bedroom has been sealed for years and the window can't be opened in the first place. So if a murderer couldn't have entered or exited the room in the first place, does this mean it was the curse of the masks which killed Beniko?

I had long heard about the reputation of this one-hour special, but this was the first time I actually saw this episode, and man, this was really one of the best Conan original episodes! First of all, the trick behind the locked room murder is brilliant. The concept is extremely original and I don't think I myself have even seen other variations on this idea before to be honest. It is also an idea that works much better presented in a visual format rather just reading a description (novel) or hearing an explanation (audio drama), so this is also the best medium to portray this trick, for some extra bonus points. The decisive clue is also devilishly subtle: if you're already on the way, it will probably give you that last little push to the solution, but it's not one of those 'afterthought' clues some authors sometimes come up with that give away everything. If I have to complain, I'd say the whodunnit is rather obvious, but that point's moot if you can't figure out how the locked room murder was committed. As a howdunnit locked room murder, episode 184 is fantastic, showing daring originality and very competent storytelling through proper clewing.

Many people who saw the original broadcast of the episode also remember Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau as one of the scariest episodes of the series, and that's true also. The atmosphere of this story is excellent (with many scary masks placed throughout the manor and creepy twin maids!), but the kicker is that the atmosphere also works as a perfect smokescreen to how the murder was committed. As a crash course in how to do a good mystery story in a visual format, making use of the medium's strong points to strenthen the core mystery plot, this one-hour special is a masterpiece. The episode is quite lengthy with its nearly fifty minutes of runtime (it's one hour with commercials), but it reserves the necessary time to not only create atmosphere, but also to clearly explain the mystery to the viewer through handy diagrams projected on the screen and other little, but helpful visual aids. I think I might've perhaps even prefered an extra five minutes to explore the suspects a bit more: like I said the identity of the culprit is rather obvious, which is also because the episode spends little time to the various suspects, but that's a minor complaint.

So I'm glad I finally got to see Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau, as its reputation was more than deserved. While I'm the first to admit that the anime original episodes usually don't really interest me, this one-hour special shows that there are some real gems among them too, that can match the best of the stories from the comic. The digitally remastered episode re-runs of Detective Conan usually focus on the episodes based on the stories from the comic, for obvious reasons, but it's great that they also have room to revisit these anime originals. I really should look up which anime original episodes are worth watching too....

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン』184話「呪いの仮面は冷たく笑う」