Ever After

 Made from a tree, 

But he's like you and me!

"Pinocchio: The Series"

Now I think about it, I have probably seen much more of Pinocchio: The Series (the Tatsunoko anime) than the Disney adaptation...

Don't forget: Netflix will be releasing the adaptation of the first book Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau ("And On Her Way, Little Red Riding Hood Met A Corpse" 2020), and it's directed by the person who also did 33pun Tantei!

After safely delivering her basket and solving a couple of murders along the way, Little Red Riding Hood returned home to her mother. One day, she happens to pick up a wooden arm lying by the road, left by two cats and a fox who were struggling with something inside a bag. To Little Red Riding Hood's big surprise, the arm can actually move on its own, and when she gives it a pencil, the arm starts to communicate: the arm belongs to Pinocchio, a wooden marionette who dreams of becoming a real boy, but some foolish life choices later he was sold off to a circus to do a living wooden puppet act: the fox and cats Little Red Riding Hood saw earlier were actually dragging Pinocchio back to the circus after a failed escape attempt, and his arm was accidentally left behind. Little Red Riding Hood's mother, quite aware of her daughter's rather sharp mind, tells her daughter to help the poor boy and get him out of the circus. And so Little Red Riding Hood's off with an arm in her basket as she travels the world to retrieve Pinocchio's body and help him become a real boy, but the way to the end of their quest is long, and along the way, she of course encounters fantastical murders she has to solve in Aoyagi Aito's 2022 short story collection Akazukin, Pinocchio wo Hirotte Shitai to Deau ("And After Picking Up Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood Met a Corpse").

By now, you should now the drill with these Once Upon A Time short story collections by Aoyagi. Akazukin, Pinocchio wo Hirotte Shitai to Deau is the fourth book in the series. The first and third books, titled Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Was A Body", 2019) and Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Yappari Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Really Was A Body", 2021) respectively, had Aoyagi turn well-known Japanese fairy tales and fables into puzzle plot murder mysteries, where the magical and fantastical of the original stories were used in surprising ways to present wonderful detective stories. The second volume however was about Western (European) fairy tales and fables and also had a slightly different set-up: whereas the "Japanese" volumes featured short stories which were not related to each other besides their themes, the four stories found in Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau ("And On Her Way, Little Red Riding Hood Met A Corpse" 2020) all formed one larger narrative together and featured a recurring detective character in the form of Little Red Riding Hood, who was travelling with her basket and who usually had to solve the murders along the way so she could continue with her journey. The fourth volume in this series follows this same set-up, with four stories (+ one intermezzo) that form one narrative about Little Red Riding Hood and (parts of) Pinocchio travelling together as they try to retrieve the marionette's body and make him a real boy.

Mokugekisha wa Deku no Bou ("The Eyewitness is a Wooden Boy") starts with Little Red Riding Hood finding Pinocchio's arm and learning about his predicement, so she quickly stuffs his arm in her basket and makes her way to the nearby town, where the circus is. She eventually watches the show and sees how Pinocchio (without one of his arms) is forced to do an act, but when she demands his release, Little Red Riding Hood is thrown out of the circus tent. She returns home with Pinocchio's arm to contemplate their next move, but the following day, Little Red Riding Hood is visited by the police, as the fox Antonio has been murdered in one of the circus tents last night, and there was an eyewitness who states Little Red Riding Hood was the killer. And this witness happens to be... the head of Pinoccio, a boy who can't lie or else his nose grows. And thus the weird situation arises where Pinocchio positively states Little Red Riding Hood is the killer of Antonio, even though she's here to save him. I have to admit I have never read Pinocchio or seen any adaptation completely, so I only know bits and pieces, a scene here and there. But while the idea of Pinocchio, a boy who can't lie, stating Little Red Riding Hood (our protagonist) is the killer, is a pretty funny to use pre-existing elements. In this story, we learn that Pinocchio had been taken apart as a punishment for messing up his act earlier in the day, and a series of accidents led to his head being in the tent just as Antonio was being killed, but so much of this mystery plot, about how Pinocchio could've "witnessed" Little Red Riding Hood commit the murder, hinges on elements that, as far as I know, don't come directly from the original Pinocchio story, so you can easily guess that these original elements will feature in the mystery one way or another. Which makes it a rather simple story, and where you also feel the story strays too far from the original Pinocchio story, taking away a lot of the charm. So I thought the opening story rather weak.

Onnatachi no Dokuringo on the other hand stays much closer to the source fairy tale and is also much more fun. It is a kind of inverted story, where we first learn about Hildehilde, a beautiful girl born in a village of witches, but who had no talent for witchcraft herself. She eventually ran away from her home village, with her mother's magic mirror, which allowed her to see anything she desired. Hildehilde eventually married the king of the Apfel Kingdom, who already had a daughter Snow White from a previous marriage. While things were good between Hildehilde and Snow White eventually, things soured after the king's death, and now Hildehilde sees no other way but to kill Snow White. However, the hunter she hired to kill Snow White betrayed her, and now Snow White is living with the seven dwarves in the forest, a fact she learned through her magic mirror. She now still plots Snow White's death. Little Red Riding Hood, having retrieved Pinocchio's head in the previous story, is still after the rest of his body as it was stolen at the end of the story, runs into one of the seven dwarves, and is invited for a meal at their home. Hildehilde witnesses all of this through her mirror, and eventually comes up with a plan to poison Snow White with a poisoned apple, but how will her plans go? This is a funny inverted-type of mystery, where we follow both Hildehilde and Little Red Riding Hood. In the Hildehilde side of the story, we see how the queen uses information she sees via her mirror as clues to come up with her poisoning plot, while in the Little Red Riding Hood parts, we follow a plot where first one of the dwarves is killed and Little Red Riding Hood slowly realizing what is going on. Telling more would be spoiling the best parts of the story, but this is a huge improvement over the first story, for while things like Hildehilde's backstory and everything may be original inventions, the core mystery plot makes good use of familiar elements like the magic mirror and the poisoned apple to present a fun 'battle of the wits'.

Little Red Riding Hood's quest then brings her to Hamelin in Hamelin no Saishuu Shinpan ("The Last Judgment of Hamelin"), where 45 years ago, the Pied Piper took away the town's children after the town refused to pay his reward for saving them from a plague of rats. The Pied Piper however was caught, and kept imprisoned in the town prison all this time because the laws don't allow for a death penalty. The Pied Piper has since then always played the mandelin every evening from his prison cell (they don't dare give him a pipe instrument). The people in Hamelin also always play music day and night, a kind of superstition as they are afraid of the same tragedy happening again so the idea is they'll drown out the Pied Piper's luring music. There is still a kind of curse hanging over the town though, as there are still next to no children born natively to the town. Little Red Riding Hood arrives just in time for the Hamelin Music Festival and becomes friends with some of the town council members, when on the first evening, everyone is warned: the Pied Piper has somehow escaped his prison, and killed a guard on his way out. Little Red Riding Hood has to figure out how the Pied Piper managed to escape his prison and how to catch him next. While this story is set decades after the original story, it still builds really well on the lore of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with a town that is still visibly affected by the fact all the children were spirited away by an eerie tune almost fifty years ago. The mechanical explanation of how the Pied Piper managed to escape his prison isn't really impressive, but the explanation of why now, why he escaped after 45 years of imprisonment is good and is a good continuation of the original story.

The final story, Nakayoshi Kobuta no Mittsu no Misshitsu ("The Three Locked Rooms of the Three Little Pigs"), brings to Oinkburg, a town founded by the three little pigs. The town is divided in three sections with buildings made of straw, wood and bricks, as originally the three little pigs each built their own houses using those materials. And the whole town is full of factories, where.... other pigs work. Or technically, these are humans turned into pigs. The three little pigs have teamed up with a witch, turning humans into pigs and having them work as slaves in their straw/wood/brick factories to pay back their debts. You're supposed to be changed back into a human once you have paid back your debt, but of course, nobody has ever managed to do that. To the outside world however, the three little pigs pretend to be good businessmen who have started their own town with a good running economy, so they try to play nice to the tourists visiting the town, like Little Red Riding Hood. At least, that is only at the beginning, for Little Red Riding Hood soon notices there's a rift between the three little pigs, three brothers in fact, about how to run the town, and when one of the brothers is found dead in a straw house, she immediately suspects it's a locked room murder even though to the others, it seems just like an unfortunate accident of the victim falling on a knife. This isn't the only murder to occur in the town however, for soon a locked room murder follows inside a wooden building, and another in a brick building... This is a story that shares a lot of the points I didn't like about the opening story, in that while the idea of three locked rooms in buildings of different materials is fun, a lot of how these mysteries are resolved hinge on elements completely original to this specific story, which means they stand out and make it really easy to solve them. Both the straw and wooden locked rooms are solved within seconds, and even the brick one, which involves a brick wall being made in front of the (inward-opening) door) is solved rather too quickly, and that one is also clewed rather sloppily. There's more to this story in regards to mystery, as this story also involves the climax of the whole Pinocchio storyline, and Little Red Riding Hood herself is put in mortal peril as she's forced to confront the person who stole Pinocchio's story. This is similar to the finale to the previous collection, which also has Little Red Riding Hood having to use her wits to escape a dangerous situation, and while it's fine as a finale to the collection, it still feels a bit underwhelming in terms of surprise and cleverness. 

So all in all, I thought Akazukin, Pinocchio wo Hirotte Shitai to Deau was actually the least entertaining collection of the four released until now. While I love Little Red Riding Hood as a protagonist, and I think the middle two stories are really good at staying close to the source material while also spinning a good mystery story out of it, the opening and finale stories just feel just a tad too distant from the source fairy tales/fables, adding too many original elements that stand out, making it far too easy to guess what the story will do with those elements. Whereas the Snow White and Pied Piper of Hamelin stories stick closer to the source material and build on elements already seen in the original stories, which mean these elements don't stand out nearly as much, making them more surprising when you do see how they were used to facilitate the mystery. I'll still read this series as long as Aoyagi keeps on writing them, as on the whole, it's an entertaining series, but this one was clearly not as strong as previous entries.

Original Japanese title(s): 青柳碧人『赤ずきん、ピノキオ拾って死体と出会う』:「目撃者は木偶の坊」/「女たちの毒リンゴ」/「ハーメルンの最終審判」/「なかよし子豚の三つに密室」

Don't Monkey With Murder

"Now is the time for the ultimate in Monkey Kombat!" 

"Escape from Monkey Island"

So I've been running behind with writing some of my reviews... I wrote this post eight months after reading this book...

After Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Was A Body", 2019) and Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau ("And On Her Way, Little Red Riding Hood Met A Corpse" 2020), Aoyagi Aito returns again to the world of fables and legends in his third short story collection in which he retells famous fairy tales as mystery stories. Whereas he made a trip to Western fairy tales in the second volume, the third volume titled Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Yappari Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Really Was A Body", 2021) returns to Japan, presenting five short stories that will sound very familiar in a way, but also very different as each time, Aoyagi manages to add completely new twists to stories that everyone knows. The impressive part of this series has always been that Aoyagi manages to make splendid use of the supernatural and magical themes of each of the stories, while preserving the fair-play spirit of the puzzle plot mystery story. Magical tools, houses made out of candy, wizards: all the stories embrace the supernatural motifs of the original fairy tale, and make excellent use of them to bring utterly original mystery stories, which at the same feel very familiar because most of us will be familiar with these fables. The second volume featured an overarching storyline involving Little Red Riding Hood travelling the world with her basket full of delicious food, but the third volume is closer in set-up to the first one, once again opting for (mostly) disconnected stories.

Taketori Tantei Monogatari ("A Bamboo-Cutter Detective Story") is of course based on the story of the Bamboo Cutter and Princess Kaguya, probably one of the best known Japanese fairy tales outside of Japan, for example due to the anime film The Tale of Princess Kaguya. This story is narrated by Shigenao, a bamboo cutter who one day finds a baby girl inside a bamboo shoot. He takes her home and raises her as his own daughter with the help of Yasu, an old friend. To their surprise, the girl Kaguya not only grows up into a beauty, but she also does that incredibly fast. Eventually, five suitors appear who all want to marry Kaguya, but she seems not very interested. She announces that the five suitors must each find one mythical item, ranging from a jeweled branch from the island of legends Hourai to a robe of Chinese fire-rat skins. They are to return in one year, and the person who has found his item will be found suitable to marry Kaguya. One year passes and Shigenao, Kaguya and Yasu see the five suitors appear in town again, all claiming they have found what they had been tasked with. The showing is to be held the day after, but during the night, Yasu's home catches fire. Shigenao and Kaguya try to save him, but find the house locked from the inside. When the fire is over, they go inside, and find Yasu dead, but he did not burn to death, but was already stabbed to death prior. But how could the murderer have escaped the locked hosue? Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise the various magical items mentioned earlier become relevant here, and once again Aoyagi manages to present a really entertaining story by using familiar motifs of the original story and utilize them in a genuine mystery story: we see Shigenao and Kaguya theorize which of these items could have been used to create the locked room murder, something you'd never have thought of when you first heard the fairy tale. Not only that, but Aoyagi manages to add in multiple false solutions in this relatively short tale and even has a bigger surprise in store by recontextualizig the whole fairy tale of Princess Kaguya at the very end, making this a fantastic opening story that basically pulls off everything this series should always strive for.

Nanakaime no Omusubi Kororin ("The Seventh Time the Rice Ball Rolled") is based on Omusubi Kororin, a story I myself didn't know beforehand. It follows old Soushichi, who is jealous of his neighbour Yonehachi, who became rich after chasing his rice ball rolling down the hill and found himself inside a hole inhabitated by mice, who offered the man a feast and a treasure. Soushichi tries to do the same, so he too rolls a rice ball down the hill and rolls down after it, and indeed, he finds himself shrunk and inside a gigantic underground network inhabitated by mice, who thank him for his rice ball and treat him to a feast. The old man is rather impatient though, and tries to get the part where he's given a treasure, but during dinner, one of the mice is found murdered in the food storage, but the storage had guarded, so it's a mystery how the mouse was killed. The old man then ends up dead... only not really, because he wakes up at the top of the hill again with his rice ball intact. He tries the thing again, and slowly realizes he must be in some kind of time loop, as the mice don't seem to remember he came earlier. Eventually, the mouse-murder occurs again, but once again, Soushichi's fixation on just leaving the cave a rich man eventually results in his death.... and he wakes up again at the top of the hill. Eventually, he guesses that the murder is involved with his Groundhog Day experience and he decides to solve it so he can finally leave this place. The impossible crime element of this story is quite clever, utilizing the original motifs of this fairy tale to present a mystery story that really could have worked in the world of mice. I wasn't that big a fan of the execution of the time loop aspect though. The "rules" behind the time loop are quite complex considering the length of the story, and they feel very arbitrary, with a lot of specific rules that only seem to be there to confuse the reader. That is why the "reveal" at the end doesn't feel really satisfying, because it's based on time loop rules that seemed to change after each story section.

Warashibe Tajuu Satsujin ("The Multiple Murders of the Straw") is a story is very tricky and complex considering the length, but the manner in which it utilizes the Straw Millionaire story doesn't become apparant until very late in the story, making this story somewhat difficult to rate. As on one hand, it is a definitely a good detective story, but its connection to the base fable isn't as strong as in other stories in this book. The story starts with the three deaths of the very same man: the mystery man Hachiemon turns out to have been living a double, nay, triple life as a mountain thief, merchant and money-lender, but for some reason he managed to be killed by three people in his three personas on the same night! Eventually the investigation into his murder leads to the home of the famous Straw Millionaire, a man who started with a piece of straw and with the guidance of bodhisattva Kannon trades himself up the world. Saying more would just spoil too much, but it's honestly a good story, just one where you feel the link with the fable is kinda weak and almost feel like it was added in later.

The final two stories, Shinsou: Sarukani Gassen ("The Truth Behind the Monkey-Crab Battle") and  Saruroku to Bunbuku Koukan Satsujin ("Saruroku and the Boiling Murder Exchange") form one story together, with the first story setting up the motive for the second story. The first story is a kind of folkloristic analysis of The Monkey-Crab Battle, a folklore tale where a monkey and crab get into a fight for a rice ball and the monkey ends up killing the crab. Friends of the crab then conspire to kill the monkey in his home. In this tale, the son of the murdered monkey tells someone about this tale, but then explains the famous tale isn't the truth, as there was a much bigger plot hidden beneath the version everyone knows. In a way, it's similar to other folklore-centric detective stories I have read in the past, like Professor Munakata, the Toujou Genya series and the Three Ballets series, where motifs of well-known folklore tales are examined and shown to have a hidden origin/meaning. In this story, the motifs from the original tale like the chestnut, cow dung and mortar who all conspired to kill the monkey, are shown to have been something else, though still firmly set in "fairy tale logic". It's a fun story that on one hand "analyses a folktale and shows the underlying meanings of certain motifs" while at the same time still remaining firmly set within the fairy tale world itself, resulting in a rather unique reading experience. The twist at the end basically sets-up the last story in the volume, which tells us of the mastermind monkey behind everything and who has been in hiding ever since, fearing revenge.

So in Saruroku to Bunbuku Koukan Satsujin ("Saruroku and the Boiling Murder Exchange"), we learn the monkey Nantenmaru has been fearing revenge for quite some while now, and he is living on an small island right at the centre of the territory of a large monkey clan, whose leader fortunately is fond of Nantenmaru and who has been keeping Nantenmaru save on that island. The island is surrounded by a thick, muddy swamp that will swallow anyone trying to get in, and there are no high trees around the island, making Nantenmaru's boat the only way to cross to the island. One day, Saruroku ("Sherlock") and his assistant visit the monkey enclave and there's also a feast that night. After the party, Nantenmaru returns to the island that night, but the following day, he's found murdered in his boat, his head stuck in the muddy water of the swamp. But who could've made their way to Nantenmaru's home on the island? As a locked room murder story, this one makes good use of the fairy tale setting to present a solution that is only acceptable in this specific world, but I think the merits of this story especially lies in the way it interacts with the previous story: this is really the 'second half' of the story, and a lot of the more clever revelations and twists are built on the set-up of the first story. 

Once again, Aoyagi Aito manages to deliver a great fairy tale murder mystery collection with Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Yappari Shitai ga Arimashita. The book perhaps misses the surprise element of the first book, and I liked how the second book had that overarching storyline. In that sense, Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Yappari Shitai ga Arimashita just feels like more of the same, but the stories themselves are always entertaining, and save for the Straw Millionaire one, I think they do a great job at twisting the original story just enough to bring a genuinely surprising mystery story, while also retaining the core fairy tale or fable. Definitely a good one to pick up any time, and I can't wait to see where Aoagi will bring us next!

Original Japanese title(s): 青柳碧人『むかしむかしあるところに、やっぱり死体がありました』:「竹取探偵物語」/「七回目のおむすびころりん」/「わらしべ多重殺人」/「真相･猿蟹合戦」/「猿六とぶんぶく交換殺人」

Murder is no Fairy Tale

"Boys, be ambitious!"

William S. Clark

I love the unique cover art style for these books!

One of my favorite reads last year was Aoyagi Aito's Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Was A Body", 2019), a wonderful short story collection where Aoyagi used famous Japanese fairy tales to tell fantastic tales of mystery. While each of these stories would start in the exact same manner as they have been told for generations, Aoyagi would always add a deadly twist to the tale, transforming the fairy tale into something that was familiar, while also subverting expectations at the same time. What was equally interesting was that Aoyagi embraced the magical fairy tale worlds of each individual tale: mystical crane birds, talking fish and magical tools were all used to bring very unique, but also fair murder mystery stories which made full use of the supernatural imagery from the original stories. To my surprise, the sequel to this book was released very soon after I posted my review of Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita and I didn't notice it until a few months later! As you may tell from the title Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau ("And On Her Way, Little Red Riding Hood Met A Corpse" 2020), this new short story collection presents four fabulous mystery stories based on European fairy tales. Unlike the previous volume however, this book also features an overarching storyline: the titular Little Red Riding Hood is travelling across the world with her basket with food and wine, but on her way, she keeps getting involved with murder cases. Because Little Red Riding Hood is in a hurry, she always finds herself forced to solve the crimes herself so she can continue her journey.

In the opening story Glass no Kutsu no Kyouhansha ("Accomplices of the Glass Slipper"), Little Red Riding Hood meets Cinderella at the river as she's washing clothes, lamenting that her stepmother and stepsisters are going to the ball of the prince, while she has to stay at home. A witch passing by decides to help the two girls out and uses her magic to give Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella wonderful dresses and a pumpkin carriage. On their way to the castle in the pumpkin carriage however, the two run over a man. In a panic, they decide to bury the body besides the road and continue their way to the ball, where Cinderella manages to impress the prince. But then a report comes that a body has been found in the forest and then Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella recall they never cleaned their carriage...

A hilarious opening story, which starts out as an inverted mystery story because it's Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella who run over the man in the carriage and try to keep their murder a secret at the ball. This part serves as an interesting introduction to the 'magical' aspects of this series, as we are clearly shown what the limits are of the magic used, and how it can be used to erase the evidence of their crime in rather simple manners. As the story progresses however, we learn the forest where they ran over the man holds more secrets and that's where this story really starts to shine: many minor events and remarks made over the course of the story suddenly form one connected line together, revealing a plot that had gone unseen until the last quarter of this story. This secondary plotline is also firmly built upon the various familiar elements from the Cinderella folk tale. It's a well-plotted intrige hiding beneath the more hilarious inverted mystery story, where Little Red Riding Hood shows you that she really isn't the young girl who got fooled by a wolf in disguise once.

In the opening scene of Amai Misshitsu no Houkai ("The Fall of the House of Sweets"), Hansel and Gretel manage to shove the evil witch into the oven in the candy house... and then the two children plot to kill their stepmother, who had been the one who had convinced their father to leave them in the forest. They manage to lure their stepmother to the gingerbread house by lying about money being hidden here and pull a cabinet down on her, crushing her beneath it. The two children return home to their woodcutter father who is delighted to see his children back safely. Little Red Riding Hood, who is travelling through these woods, is invited to stay for the night. But as the woodcutter's wife is gone now, they go looking for her, and eventually, with the guidance of the Guardian of the Wood, they find the gingerbread house, the witch in the oven and the wife beneath the cabinet. Because the gingerbread house was completely locked from the inside, it is suspected that the wife and the witch must have struggled and that eventually, the wife was crushed by the cabinet toppling over her. Little Red Riding Hood soon notices that Hansel and Gretel seem to know more about this house than they should, but how could they have killed their stepmother even though the house was locked from the inside? Again a kind of inverted story, though we don't actually see how Hansel and Gretel manage to lock the candy-house from the inside. The story is focused a lot on explaining on the 'mechanics' of the gingerbread house and the magic the witch used to create it, and at first it does seem impossible that Hansel and Gretel could've locked the delicious crime scene, even if it's made out of magic: the limits of the candy magic used are clearly defined. The solution is perhaps not as surprising as you'd expect it to be, but fair, it certainly is, and the locked room mystery here is certainly unique, as how often are you going to read a mystery about a gingerbread house!?

Nemureru Mori no Himitsutachi ("Secrets of the Sleeping Forest") is a rather unique story as it doesn't seem to have one clear defined mystery at first. Little Red Riding Hood's journey brings her to a land where a beautiful princess has been sleeping for four decades in an abandoned castle due to a curse of a witch who hadn't been invited to the ceremony to celebrate her birth. The royal family is no more, but in their place the Prime Minister is ruling the city-state until princess Aurora awakens again. Little Red Riding Hood happens to help out the Prime Minister who got stuck in the woods in his wheelchair and she is invited to spend the night at the Prime Minister's residence, where she is told the tragic story of the princess. The following morning, the Prime Minister's loyal servant Troy hears his son Melai is being accused of a murder which occured last night, but Melai denies the crime, saying he had been helping with extinguishing a big fire in an atelier in town last night. Meanwhile, a party is sent to the castle to do the monthly check-up on the princess, but they find her gone from her tower room! How are all these events connected? Well, in a convoluted way! This is an entertaining mystery story where you have a lot of threads that don't seem connected at all, but which ultimately are all brought together to form one cohesive storyline, but don't expect to solve this yourself, as while it all makes sense with the power of hindsight, it's pretty farfetched. It's amusing though, with a few semi-impossible elements to the story and there's a bigger secret behind all these chaotic events that make this story feel quite grand. The link with the Sleeping Beauty is at times a bit weak, as a lot of the story takes place in town, revolving around people who don't actually appear in the Sleeping Beauty tale, but at the same time, there are moments where it does make very good use of the unique magical elements of the fairy tale to create the complex plot of this story.

In the final story Shoujo yo, Yabou no Match wo Tomose ("Girls, Light the Match of Ambition!"), Little Red Riding Hood finally arrives at her destination, a harbor town which also houses the headquarters of the famous Little Match Girl's matches factory. However, Little Red Riding Hood's enemies know she's coming, and manage to capture and imprison her. Meanwhile, we also learn the story of the Little Match Girl who managed to climb her way up to the position of the director of one of the best-known match factories, but how are the tales of these two girls connected? The core mystery of this tale is quite different from previous ones, being closer to the strategic thrillers like Death Note or Spiral, as Little Red Riding Hood faces the problem of how she's going to escape her prison, and town, without giving up on the goal of her journey. There's an impossible angle to this mystery, as at one point Little Red Riding Hood does manage to escape her prison without the reader knowing how, but while this mystery is presented in a fair manner, it's still kind hard to solve this yourself. It would probably work better in a visual format. The highlight of this story is definitely the storyline of the Little Match Girl and her link to Little Red Riding Hood, which isn't really a mystery story on its own, but it makes for a great finale of a fun book.

Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau is in a way very similar to the previous volume, but also quite different. While the stories collected here are still wonderful retellings of familiar fairy tales to add a murderous twist while at the same time making fantastic use of the magical elements of those stories, this volume adds an extra dimension by having an overarching storyline with Little Red Riding Hood's journey. The stories are also more varied in terms of style: Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita was definitely more focused on impossible crimes, but here we have inverted stories, mysteries where you don't even immediately see what's the matter and even a 'logic game'-esque story where Little Red Riding Hood has to outwit her foe and manage to escape her prison and still be able to accomplish her goals in town. In terms of plot quality, I think the previous volume is more consistent, but I still enjoyed this volume a lot, perhaps because it is definitely intended to be a bit different from the previous volume despite using the same core format. I for one can't wait for a third volume. I wonder what kind of fairy tales will follow! Arabian Nights?

Original Japanese title(s): 青柳碧人『赤ずきん、旅の途中死で死体と出会う』:「ガラスの靴の共犯者」/「甘い密室の崩壊」/「眠れる森の秘密たち」/「少女よ、野望のマッチを灯せ」

Fairy Tale Killer

ほら ti ta ta ta ガラスの針 

十二回の刻を打てば

 聖なる夜の七頭の影が

 無力な人形に手を伸ばす

「Marionette Fantasia」（Garnet Crow）

Look ti ta ta ta When the glass hands

strick the time twelve times

Seven shadows on the holy night

Reach out to the lifeless figurine

"Marionette Fantasia" (Garnet Crow)

Last year, I read the complete original series of Professor Munakata, which I absolutely loved. The series revolves around legends, fairy tales and folklore, and the anthropological research into the origins of these stories. The stories in this series are often based on actual historical and anthropological studies into the origins of stories of for example the Asian dragon, the archetype fable of the Swan Maiden told across the world and Momotarou, and author Hoshino manages to present these historical studies as very accessible tales that entertain on their own too, even if you're not immediately interested in the idea of historical research.

That said though, sometimes it's also fun to just accept fables and legends as is, and not try find the historical (and often awful) truth hidden within the allegories. And to those who like to indulge in the fantastical, look no further than Aoyagi Aito's Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Was A Body", 2019). As the title probaby suggests, this highly entertaining short story collection is based on Japanese fairy tales, but of course retold with a deadly twist. Everyone in Japan knows the five fairy tales explored in this book by heart, but while the opening scenes of the stories will remain very familiar, Aoyagi adds a twist each time by introducing a mysterious murder. What makes this an exceptionally satisfying read is that each of these variations are firmly grounded within the framework of the original story. So that means, yes, there are fantastical monsters walking around, there are mystical crane birds, talking fish and magical tools in these worlds, but Aoyagi uses these unique elements to create very entertaining, and also very fair puzzle plot mysteries which should satisfy even the most critical of mystery fan, even if it's so heavily steeped in supernatural imagery. Another point of interest is that each of the five stories in Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita is not only based on a different fairy tale, they are also built on different tropes of the genre. One story might be about a locked room mystery, while the other provides an inverted mystery tale. The sheer variety found within these pages is fantastic, making it a must-read.

The opening story Issunboushi no Fuzai Shoumei ("The Alibi of Issunboushi") is a great example how this book subverts expections. The first few sections follow the familiar story of Issun-boushi:  the "one-inch" man who despite his length is quite brave. Trying to defend a princess, he's swallowed whole by an Oni (ogre-like monster), but then defeats the Oni by attacking its from its stomach. The Oni surrenders, and offers a magic hammer, which can enlarge the objects it hits. The mallet's magic changes Issunboushi into a man of over 1,80m tall, he marries the princess and they live happily ever after. Well, not really, for after the wedding, one of the other guards is approached by a man claiming to be from the prosecutor's office, who confides with him that Issunboushi is also a suspect in a murder case. The problem however is that Issunboushi has a perfect alibi: during the period the murder was committed, Issunboushi was inside the stomach of the Oni, and all the other guards were busy trying to get him out of the Oni pushing him back up from the stomach out of the Oni's mouth. So not only is the hero of the fairy tale recast as the villain of the piece, one of the best-known episodes of the fable is changed into the perfect alibi of the culprit! What follows is a very entertaining story in which the real hero of the story tries to break down Issunboushi's perfect alibi, and the trick pulled off is set wonderfully within the framework of this fable. And yes, there's an element of magic/the fantastical involved, but it's perfectly hinted at and the limitations/'rules' behind magic are clearly stated, so it's a completely fair, and most importantly fun tale.

The narrator of Hanasaka Shitai Dengon ("The Blossoming Dying Message") is a dog: the second dog adopted by the old couple that stars in the original Hanasaka Jiisan fairy tale. Their previous dog had found the old couple a treasure, but when their horrible neighbor stole their dog and the dog led him to junk, he killed the dog. In a dream, the dog then told the couple to make a mortar out of the three he was buried at, and the rice put into that mortar turned to gold. The neighbor stole the mortar, but it didn't work for him of course, so he set fire to it. The ashes of the mortar then allowed the old couple to make withered trees blossom again, which pleased the local landlord, but once again the neighbor stole the ashes. It's at this point our dog is adopted by the old couple, but only four days have passed when the old man is found murdered one early morning, lying on a small hill just outside the house. It appears multiple persons had a "grudge" with him, even if most would agree none of that should've led to murder. The only clue available appears to be the plant the old man had grabbed in his dying moments, but what does it mean? On the whole, this story is perhaps not as impressive as the first story: the clue pointing to the true murderer is a bit too obvious (and you know it's not a 'fake' clue as the story tries to ignore it for far too long) and the meaning of the dying message is a bit unfair, but once again, the manner in which Aoyagi uses the fantastical elements from the original story to create a murder situation (including clues and solution) completely unique to this world is immensely fun and it even did a good job at using the dog as the narrator!

As the title suggests, Tsuru no Toujo Gaeshi ("The Crane's Inverted Return") is an inverted mystery story. It's kinda hard to explain this one, as the whole story revolves around the reader not really understanding what's going on. On the face, this story starts out like the famous story about a crane who wants to return a favor to the man who rescued her by weaving cloths from her own feathers. In this version however, the crane's visit to the man is just moments after he has killed the village headman, who wanted to the man to return the debt of his deceased parents. And when the crane, disguised as a woman, first enters Yahee's house to weave clothing, she's told to never open the closet in the back of the room, but as time passes by and Yahee becomes lazy and dependent on selling the cloths woven by the crane, the happy world of the fairy tale seems to fall apart. I can't really tell more about this, but it's a wonderfully plotted tale that plays with the inverted style of mystery stories and it really invites you read it a second time.

Misshitsu Ryuuguujou ("The Locked Dragon Palace") is based on the tale of Urashima Tarou, a fisherman who saves a turtle and is taken to the underwater Dragon Palace of Princess Otohime in return. The few days he spends at the palace feasting however are more than a hundred years in the 'real' world, and when he returns to his home, he finds time has left him behind. This story starts in a similar manner, with Urashima Tarou being brought by the turtle to the Dragon Palace, where all the sea creatures can take on human forms. He becomes the guest of Otohime, but then a murder is committed inside one of the rooms in the palace. There's only one door to the room (the windows are covered in thick coral), and the door was, of course, locked. Humans are considered to be smarter than fish, so Urashima Tarou is asked to solve this locked room murder, which turns out to be much craftier than appears at first. For this is an excellent locked room mystery with a magical twist, set in a world where fish and other sea life can take on human forms, sing and dance and everything. The solution requires you deduce how certain fantasical capabilities of this world work, but this is clewed very capably and no reader should ever claim this is an unfair story because of its use of magic, as Aoyagi does a great job at setting the solution up. Again a very solid example of how the fairy tale framework is explored in the best possible manner to provide a good mystery story.

Personally, I didn't like the last story, Zekkai no Onigashima ("The Island of Oni in the Distant Sea") that much, even if it's not bad. The story is set on Onigashima, the island of the Oni from the Momotarou fable: some generations ago, a few ruthless Oni from this island attacked the humans across the sea for food and treasure, but the whole community of Oni on the island had to pay for their crimes: the hero Momotarou, joined by his entourage of a dog, monkey and pheasant, arrived on the island and massacred everyone here, taking back everything that had been robbed from the humans. At least, that's how the legend goes, but a small group of Oni survived, and now two generations later, thirteen Oni are still living a peaceful life on Onigashima, though quite aware of what mistakes had led to their current lifestyle and the children especially afraid that Momotarou might return to finish the job for good. And the Oni's peaceful life is indeed halted one day, when one of the Oni is brutally murdered. One after another murder follows, but what puzzles the survivors the most is that the manner in which these murders are committed seems to suggest it's not an Oni, but Momotarou and his henchmen who are killing everyone, even though there's not a single sign of any outsider having arrived on this island. The story unfolds in an And Then There Were None manner, with in the end all the Oni dead on the island, but no sign of the murderer. I kinda like the idea behind the truth of this story, but some of the story development seems far too hasty, making the events feel rather artificial. Had this been a longer story, the build-up could've been much better, though I think novella length (or just a few pages more) would've done the trick, as it's also not really an idea fit to fill a whole novel.

But even though I was less impressed with the final story, I still think Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita is a great short story collection that truly manages to convey a sense of wonder to the reader, by transforming famous fairy tales into something that is at one hand still very recognizable, but also perfectly plotted as a mystery story. It's actually surprising how good these fairy tales lend them for mystery parodies, but I assume it's Aoyagi's writing talent that makes it seem oh-so-easy rather than actually being so simple. The concept seems simple, but Aoyagi really went all-out into working the concept out to a genuinely good mystery story collection. Obviously, the stories are more fun if you're familiar with the original fairy tales, but I didn't know Hanasaka Jiisan myself for example, and it still worked for me, so you can definitely also enjoy this book without any prior knowledge.

Original Japanese title(s): 青柳碧人『むかしむかしあるところに、死体がありました』：「一寸法師の不在証明」/「花咲か死者伝言」/「つるの倒叙がえし」/「密室竜宮城」/「絶海の鬼ヶ島」