Game, Set, Murder

"“It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played—all over the world—if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I was one of them! I wouldn’t mind being a Pawn, if only I might join—though of course I should like to be a Queen, best.”"

"Through the Looking Glass -- And What Alice Found There"

Back in November, I wrote a short post on trying some mystery board games: while I play a lot of mystery video games, I had never really played board (tabletop) games of the mystery variety, but luckily the two games I tried then (Decktective and MicroMacro: Crime City) were both amusing, and the latter even ended up on my list of favorite mystery fiction of last year. I think most reader could've guessed I'd try out more of these games, and it didn't take long for me to do some more exploration into this medium.

I have a feeling the best-known mystery board game besides Cluedo (Clue) might be Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, a game which was originally released in 1981 but has since seen several (revised) releases and is currently being sold as Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders and Other Cases (and there are several sequels). I had known about this game long before I even started looking into mystery board games, and I had even already played a form of this game: there is a video game adaptation, based on the cases in this board game, and I had played it in the past. So I was already somewhat familiar with the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders and Other Cases before I actually started wtih the original board game last month. This game is perhaps best explained as a kind of gamebook (Choose Your Own Adventure), though it takes on a format that allows for both more, and less freedom than an usual Choose Your Own Adventure story. In the game, you take on the role of a Baker Street Irregular, and "compete" against Sherlock Holmes himself to see who will solve the case the most efficient (spoiler: you'll never, ever be able to beat Holmes in a fair way).

When you unpack the (fairly large!) box, you'll find it holds a map of London, the London Directory, a set of newspapers and ten case books, one for each of the cases ("campaigns") you can play alone or with up to about 8 people (though I think 1~4 players is probably the best). Each case is dated (allowing you access to the newspaper of that day, as well as any older back numbers that may be available) and opens with a short introduction to the case (written in the style of a Holmesian story), which briefly explains what the mystery is, the major characters involved and after that, you're on your own! In a "normal" Choose your Own Adventure, you'd usually now be presented with choices like "If you want to visit A, go to page 110" or "if you want to visit Lestrade at Scotland Yard, go to page 220". None of that here. Instead, the game offers you the London Directory, which is a booklet which lists the addresses of all characters, facilities, shops and much more. Every person or place you can visit has a specific address, and by looking up the address you want to visit in the case book, you'll find another story entry which will tell you what happens there. For example, the introduction tells you Mr. A. Victim was killed, so you look up A. Victim's addresss in the London Directory, find out it's 1EC (East Central), so then you look up "1EC" in the case book to read what happens at this address and what clues you might learn there. So unlike a conventional gamebook, which presents you a number of choices, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders and Other Cases challenges you to figure out yourself which places you should, or perhaps more importantly could visit to find the clues necessary to solve the mystery, making it much more challenging. Some addresses are easily found, some not at all, and often, you'll just come up empty-handed at an address you were sure was going to be important. Once you think you have gathered enough clues, you go to the back of the book to find a few questions you have to answer, and finally compare notes with Sherlock Holmes himself, to see who needed fewer leads to solve the case (It's ALWAYS Holmes, so don't even bother to compete with him, he's a psychic).

The game can be played with one player or more, and while this game is reminscent of a gamebook, it definitely also works as a multiplayer game, because it can be pretty hard to figure out where to go next on your own and it helps to have more people thinking along. The cases start out easily enough, asking you to look up the address of a name mentioned in the introduction in the Directory and then looking up the addresses of any characters or locations that happen to be talked about at that location, but it quickly becomes much more challenging. That's where the map of London, the newspapers and the list of informants come in: sometimes you have to actually look at the map to figure out a certain address to visit (for example, something is mentioned about a neighbor and if you look at the map, you'll notice there's only one other house on that street) and the map is also important to determine whether people's alibis actually hold, by noting the times of their alibis and their distance to the crime scene. Newspapers are a treasure cove of information too: at first glance they just look like pieces of paper with "flavor" news articles and advertisements, but you'll soon realize they too are a valuable resource. Sometimes a person you are looking for happens to be mentioned in an advertisement, or you notice an article with some familiar names who happen to be member of some club or something like that. What's fun is that you not only have access to the newspaper of the day of the case, but also of back numbers, and sometimes you come across an article in an older newspaper (used in a previous case), which suddenly turns out to be relevant to a more recent case. The game thus offers a lot of ways to hint at which addresses you can visit, but the more vital ones are hidden in rather clever ways, making this a surprisingly challenging game, which can be great fun if you play it with multiple people as you can all check different sources and discuss what to do next ("Hey, didn't that guy over at B. Witness say something about a restaurant? What if we visit that restaurant...?"). Other times, you'll get to the list of questions at the end of the book, only to find out you missed a lot of the story because you didn't think of visiting location X or Y, or never managed to find the address. 

A major difference with a conventional gamebook however is that each case is presented in a completely non-linear format. You, as the player, can choose what places to visit in what order, which means "story developments" are not really possible, as the game never forces you visit one specific location before another.  Therefore, there are never moments where your actions as a player have direct influence on the story or where "something" happens to change the story. This is quite different from a normal gamebook, because that will always be able to present a story in a certain, chronological manner and thus introduce story developments. To those who do play video games, I think Her Story makes for a good comparison: in Her Story too you have the freedom to choose how to proceed in the story (finding clips) in a non-linear fashion, and it's up to you to piece all the clues in the clips together, but depending on the order chosen and whether you managed to think of specific keywords (addresses in Consulting Detective), you can figure out the mystery much sooner or later.

I have only played about three of the ten cases in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders and Other Cases at this moment, but I can definitely recommend it! It's a game that really challenges you to write down every clue and carefully consider where you should go next, and the writing is pretty good too, invoking a Holmesian atmosphere (which is also aided by the newspapers and maps!). While each story entry tied to the addresses is pretty short, the characterization is surprisingly okay, especially for the recurring characters like informants whom you can visit in each case. In the end, I think it took me well 60-90 minutes for each of the cases I have completed already  The official site has a whole case you can try out for yourself (or with others) by the way, as well as the material necessary for remote play, so have a look if you're interested!

In the previous post about board games, I also asked for mystery board game recommendations, and a commentator mentioned having played, and enjoyed Suspects recently. At that time, Suspects wasn't released locally here yet, but to my surprise I saw it was released here last week, so I decided to pick that one up too. One of the things that piqued my interest was one name in particular: The game hails from France and was designed by Guillaume Montiage, but of the three cases inside the box, one was written by a Paul Halter. I don't actually know if it's the Paul Halter, but given that this is a French mystery, I'm going to guess...probably? In Suspects, all the players (1-6) take up the role of female detective Claire Harper, an adventerous traveler who was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford. Set in the 1920s, each case (probably taking about 60-90 minutes, also depending on number of players) has Claire take on a mysterious death in a world inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, which is by the way also visualized by the gorgeous artwork of this game. As a board game, I'd say that Suspects too is very much like a gamebook/Choose Your Own Adventure, even though it uses cards to present its story. A lot of cards!

Like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, each case begins with a short introduction explaining the basics of the mystery and the primary characters. Additional documents are also provided, like floorplans or family trees. And at the end of the introduction, the main questions are asked which you'll have to solve at the end of the game (culprit, motive etc.) From there, the game allows you pick your own route through the story of the game. Each action you can take within the game is tied to a card in the deck with a specific number: for example, the husband of the victim might be Card 1, and if you look at the floorplan, you'll find each room also has a corresponding card number, for example the Library being Card 34. To take a certain action, you simply take the corresponding card, flip it around and read the story section written on the back. Usually, a card will also point you towards other cards: on the first card with the husband, he might tell you about his alibi, but it might also mention follow-up cards you can read where they talk about their wife, or about the other suspects. The latter cards especially do help with fleshing out the characters. At times, you will also stumble upon physical evidence (cards) or other important information and the game actually uses nifty little tricks to actually incorporate the actual, physical cards into the mystery solving process, asking you to put cards together to make certain connections etc. It's a fun idea that helps strengthen the feel you are playing a physical board game. As you read more and more cards, you'll learn more of the story, slowing making connections between testimonies and physical clues and hopefully figure out whodunnit.

Suspects, at a glance, feels quite similar to Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, as far as the free-form Choose Your Own Adventure style goes. Like in Consulting Detective, you are mostly free to choose what to investigate in what order, but instead of using a case book and a London Directory, everything is written on numbered cards, and you're only allowed to pick a card that has been referenced on a card you have already read. A difference would be that many cards in this game can only be read after reading certain preceding cards, allowing for some kind of  linear story developments). But where the two games do differ greatly is the objective: In Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, you are challenged to follow the least number of leads in order to solve the case, thus asking you to read as little of the game. In Suspects, you will always read all of the cards available, after which you'll be allowed to open the sealed solution to see how well your deductions fared. However, Suspects does ask you to try to answer the main questions early. Once you have read about half of the cards in the case, you can make your first guess, and you get another turn at about 75% in, and one final time once all the cards have been read. You earn points for every correct answer you have at the end of the game, but you earn more points the earlier you made the correct guess. It's of course easier to make a correct guess at the end of the game, once you have all the information available, and the game does allow you to change your answers midway, but the better sleuths will still earn more points because they'll be able to make the correct guesses earlier, when there are fewer cards/information available. I do like that the game doesn't "punish" you for reading all the cards eventually, as opposed to Consuting Detective, where you are supposed to read as little as possible to "win". This point system leads to an interesting multiplayer experience with Suspects: you discuss with each other which card to read next and read the contents together, but you can choose whether to make the guesses together, or have everyone make their own guesses, adding a competitive element. If you play alone, the points are used for the simple multiple ending system (very short, one sentence epilogues that change depending on how many points you got).

At the moment, I have only played the first case of the game, and I have to admit it was a lot trickier than I had expected at first! It was an enjoyable session though, as neat things were done with the cards. The game also feels quite fair: the sealed solution doesn't just say "The killer was X!", but refers to all the relevant cards, allowing you to re-read the cards and see how the clues were laid out. And of course, I'm quite curious to see what the final case will bring, written by a Paul Halter of whom I am not completely sure whether he's Paul Halter. Perhaps that will become more clear once I've actually played it!

As mentioned before, I don't play board games in general, but I think that both Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective and Suspects are very enjoyable experiences that should appeal to fans of the mystery genre. These two in particular have a lot in common with gamebooks (and Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective in particular uses very prosey writing), so they also feel closer to a traditional mystery novel than say MicroMacro: Crime City, so perhaps these games are easier to ease into for fans who usually only read.These games do a great job at allowing the player to try and solve things on their own and making them work for it, while also being accessible enough to not require you to 4D chess your way towards the solution. Anyway, if you have played these games, or even better, have more suggestions for mystery board games, please leave a comment, because I'd love to try out even more in the future!

The Adventure of the Red Circle

「この世のどんな出来事であっても、それが文章になってしまった時点で、それはフィクションでしょう。小説というものは、すべてフィクション。ノンフィクション小説、というのはそれだけで自己矛盾、自家撞着してしまうのではないかしら」

『QED ベイカー街の問題』

"Everything that occurs in this world becomes fiction the moment it is written down. Novels are always fiction. Non-fiction novels are by name alone self-contradicting oxymorons."

"QED The Problem of Baker Street"

I don't consider myself a true Holmesian (Sherlockian), but I am fairly familiar with many of the major Holmesian discussions. No idea where I pick these things up.

Since a year or so, I've been reading the manga series Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou by Katou Motohiro semi-regularly. Some people might not be aware that there is also a completely unrelated mystery novel series titled QED, written by Takada Takafumi. I only read the first novel in the series a long time ago, so I am not very familiar with the series, but in general, this concept of this series is that it tackles both 'real-time' mysteries as well as historical mysteries, regarding historical events, famous persons or literature. The first novel for example had a famous Japanese poetry (waka) collection as its theme and in order to solve the 'real-time' mystery, it was also necessary to solve a mystery hidden within the ancient poems. The detective of this series is Kuwabara Takashi, nickname Tataru. He's an eccentric young pharmacist (specialized in Chinese medicine) who is quite knowledgeable about err, a lot, but especially literature. His assistant Nana is one of Tataru's very few college friends and while she too is a pharmacist, she works in a Western-style pharmacy.

The first two novels in this series were related to Japanese history, so the theme of the third novel might surprise readers, even if the title gives everything away: QED Baker Gai no Mondai ("QED The Problem of Baker Street", 2000) is of course about modern, British literature: Sherlock Holmes. One day, Nana runs into her college friend Yukiko, who turns out to be a Sherlockian. She's a member of the Baker Street Smokers, a Sherlockian club created by restaurant/club owner Hotta Soujirou. The Baker Street Smokers consists of four members and usually has small private meetings, but Yukiko explains they'll be holding a party on the sixth of January to celebrate the third anniversary of the Baker Street Smokers, as well as the hundredth anniversary since Sherlock Holmes returned to the land of the living in The Adventure of the Empty House. All members can invite people to come along, and the four regular members will even perform a little theatre play based on a Holmes story. Nana and Tataru are invited as Yukiko's guests, and Tataru even turns out to be a pretty dedicated Sherlockian, who can't wait to discuss a certain Sherlockian matter with other people. The party comes to an abrupt end when Sakimaki, one of the BSS members, is killed while getting dressed for the play. He was found lying on a table, stabbed in his stomach and holding a piece of paper with some incoherent writing on it. Given that few people at the party knew Sakimaki, suspicion naturally falls upon the remaining three BBS members, but it also appears Sakimaki's death may have to do with Tsukiji Natsuyo, a woman who was going to become a member of the BBS, but committed suicide some months earlier and who was doing research on a certain Sherlockian problem.

I am no expert on Japanese poetry, but I am familiar with Sherlock Holmes and Holmesian problems, so it was relatively easier to get into this novel than the first in the QED series. For those to whom the terms Holmesian/Sherlockian sound unfamiliar: it's a kind of game where people accept the Sherlock Holmes stories as written by Dr. Watson as having actually occured and discuss anomalies and other contradictions in the stories ('mistakes') with the premise that the events and characters mentioned in the stories are all real. For example mistakes in dates in the stories etc. are not 'mistakes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle' but mistakes by Dr. Watson, or Dr. Watson had a reason to lie about the date, or there's some other in-universe reason. By the way, in Japanese, the preferred term is Sherlockian (like in the US), as opposed to Holmesian, which has my personal preference to be honest. Some might also remember the manga Sherlockian! I once discussed, which was actually quite informative.

Anyway, so QED Baker Gai no Mondai is about a murder committed among Holmesians, and meanwhile Tataru's also occupied with a Holmesian problem that bothers him: why was Sherlock Holmes acting so differently before and after the events of The Final Problem and The Adventure of the Empty House? While the novel does give brief explanations and summaries about all the relevant Holmes stories mentioned, it's clear that this novel is best enjoyed if the reader has some affinity/prior knowledge of Sherlock Holmes, or else you'll just be wondering why everyone is making such a big deal about a fictional character (blashpemy!). To be honest, the Holmesian mystery is far more interesting than the actual, real-time murder. In fact, the death count doesn't stay at one in this novel, but the other death isn't that interesting either, even if it involves a dying message with a Holmesian twist. But while the murders themselves are rather straightforward, in order to solve some parts of the mystery you need to have rather specific knowledge about medicine that isn't mentioned in the story until the denouement and basically, it's the 'anyone could've committed the murder, so let's focus on motive' type of story.

The motive behind the murders of course ties to a Holmesian problem, and I found that part far more interesting. Over the course of the novel, the reader will be presented various types of Holmesian problems of varying importance, but the most important is of course the one that's on Tataru's mind. The ground he treads with his theory is not particularly unknown, but it's fairly entertaining and well within the realms of what you'd expect of a Holmesian theory. And as you may expect from this series, aspects of Tataru's literary theory are also mirrored in the real murders, so it's necessary to solve the literary mystery in order to arrive at the motive, and even partially the modus operandi behind the actual deaths. I do like this linking idea, but in this particular case, it becomes a bit too artificial, with a lot of coincidence having to happen to create such a nicely mirrored situation in motive and actual murder.

I'm not even actually sure what to make of QED Baker Gai no Mondai. I definitely like the Holmesian background theme and it goes just deep enough to entertain me as a moderate Holmes lover, without feeling too detailed, but it's also very... vanilla-flavored in terms of the main murder mystery plot. The literary side of the mystery is far more interesting and while there are some interesting ideas like the dying message left by a Holmesian (can you guess what he did?), I thought the 'real' side of the mystery so plain and nondescript, I'm sure I'll have forgotten the details in a few months, while I am sure I will remember Tataru's Holmesian theory. QED Baker Gai no Mondai is a very safe read if you like the Holmesian theme, but on its own, it's hardly a stand-out mystery novel.

Original Japanese title(s): 高田崇史『QED　ベイカー街の問題』

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

空を自由に飛びたいな

「はい、タケコプター」

「ドラえもんのうた」（大山のぶ代）

I'd love to fly freely in the sky

- Here, a Bamboo Copter!

(The Song of Doraemon) (Ooyama Nobuyo)

Huh, I never had expected to be writing about Doraemon here. And I'm even now really weirded out by the notion I even have to explain him. For in essence, it's like having to explain Mickey Mouse. Doraemon is a long-running children's comic and cartoon that has not only found succes in Japan, but in the whole of South-East Asia. It's immensely popular there and several generations have grown up together with the blue robot cat. So it feels weird to have to explain such a cultural icon, a figure everyone knows by sight. I mean, Doraemon is so intertwined with Japanese culture he was appointed a special ambassador for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (Remember seeing him in the closing ceremony for the 2016 Olympics?). Anyway, for the people who don't know Doraemon: Doraemon is a blue robot cat from the future, who has been sent to the young boy Nobita. Nobita's a failure at everything he tries, who always gives up and cries the moment things go wrong and that's a habit that sticks. His great-great-grandson Sewashi therefore decides to send his robot cat Doraemon to his great-great-grandfather in the hope Doraemon can help Nobita shape up and change his and his family's future. Doraemon has all kinds of fantastic secret gadgets from the future hidden in his pouch, like the Anywhere Door which can open doors between any location. Many episodes are about Nobita (or his friends Shizuka, Gian and Suneo) coming to Doraemon asking for some gadget to help them out (for example, because they forgot to make their homework) and the kids eventually abusing the gadget until it backfires. While the television series is a comedy series, the long-running theatrical releases take on more epic forms with long adventures. One of my favorites is Doraemon: Nobita no Parallel Saiyuuki (Doraemon: Nobita's Parallel Journey to the West, 1988), where monsters from the Chinese classic Journey to the West take over modern-day Japan, and Nobita, Doraemon and their friends must fight the monsters as the Monkey King and his allies.

It would take until the thirty-third movie until Doraemon would try its round hands at a mystery-themed story in the theaters though. 2013's Doraemon: Nobita no Himitsu Dougu Museum, which also has the English title of Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum, starts with the theft of Doraemon's cat bell by Phantom Thief DX. Desperate to find the bell (actually a secret gadget), Doraemon has Nobita wear the Sherlock Holmes Set, a set of detective-related secret gadgets. With the help of the Clue Lens (which can show clues for any mystery you want to solve), the duo learns the bell is somewhere in the Secret Gadget Museum in the twenty-second century, an institution that exhibits all kinds of secret gadgets and their history. Doraemon receives an invitation for the museum from his sister Dorami, and Nobita, Shizuka, Gaian and Suneo all join to help Doraemon find his bell. Arriving at the museum, the gang are given a tour by Kuruto, a young boy and aspiring gadget inventor who works at the museum. They learn that Phantom Thief DX has struck here too earlier, stealing a secret gadget from the museum. When the following day Phantom Thief DX announces they will steal more gadgets from the museum, the gang prepares to catch the thief and retrieve all the stolen gadgets.

A somewhat odd Doraemon movie as it's set in 'just' the Japan of the future and mostly inside a museum too, instead of some parallel or magical/fantasy world like in most of the other (older) movies. While I am reviewing this movie here on the blog, I wouldn't want to disappoint people, so let me emphasize first that this is mostly a comedy-action movie like you'd expect from Doraemon, and not some kind of hidden mystery gem that will go into the annals of modern mystery fiction. That said, the mystery plot is really not that bad considering this is at the core a children's/family comedy film  and overall, I did enjoy the Sherlock Holmes Set-wearing Nobita vs. Phantom Thief DX story, as it's a genuinely fairly played mystery plot.

Speaking of the Sherlock Holmes Set, you'd think it's a total cheat right? It consists of some nifty gadgets that come in handy when working on a case, like the Radar Stick (falls in the direction of the culprit), Clue Lens (shows clues of the mystery you're trying to solve) and the Detective Hat (gives the wearer a spark of inspiration that solves the case by flipping the rim of the hat). It's not nearly as much as a cheat as you'd think though, as like many of Doraemon's gadgets, they are err... somewhat behind on maintenance, so it's not like Nobita would be able to solve the case within the first five minutes of the movie (in fact, the set was featured in the manga in the past, where Doraemon explicitly said the gadgets were all broken). The whole movie is full of wonderful gadgets which don't exist in the real world though. The Anywhere Door, Big Lights (a flashlight that enlarges the thing it enlightens), Gulliver's Tunnel (shrinks the person who walks through the tunnel), they are of course all items don't exist in the real world.

Yet, the mystery plot of Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum is fair: like any good supernatural/fantasy/science-fiction mystery story, it might have an unrealistic setting with items and tools that don't exist (yet), they are properly introduced to the viewer and all explained, so they are used fairly in the mystery plot. In fact, that was the thing that surprised me the most about the movie: it does a great job at introducing all kinds of Chekhov's Guns and other hints in a completely natural manner in the first half of the movie, which all come back in regards to the mystery plot in the denouement. Nobita uses the Detective Hat to solve the case and guess who Phantom Thief DX really is, but the viewer is capable of doing that too without Nobita's handy gadget, as all the essential clues were shown on the screen to the viewer (who only has to remember how the fantastical secret gadgets can be used). So I'd say Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum is an entertaining example of how to do a proper science-fiction mystery story, even if it's clearly meant for children. There's even room to do some misdirection, and the first half does a good job at keeping things just mysterious enough to make sure the viewer won't be able to solve everything too soon.

The movie also has quite a number of Sherlock Holmes references by the way, and even opens with a sequence of Nobita dreaming about the Sherlock Holmes vs. Lupin movie he saw the night before. As a 'possibly-first-movie-for-kids-that-talks-about-Sherlock-Holmes', it's pretty decent, and there are some funny references here and there hidden that only fans will pick up, so you can tell the screenplay was written by someone who likes Holmes. As a Doraemon movie too, this is fun to watch. It focuses more on the friendship between Nobita and Doraemon compared to other movies in the series and even has a flashback scene to when Doraemon was first brought to Nobita by his great-great-grandson Sewashi.

Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum is on the whole an amusing Doraemon movie that features a simple, but properly presented mystery plot and is likely to amuse fans of Doraemon that also like mystery fiction. It's unlikely I'll be discussing Doraemon here on the blog any time soon again, but this one side trip with the robot cat was certainly no disappointment.

Original Japanese title(s): 『ドラえもん　のび太のひみつ道具博物館（ミュージアム）』 

A Case of Identity

「友達じゃない」

『ミス・シャーロック』

"She's not my friend."

"Miss Sherlock"

Huh, I've used the Sherlock Holmes tag at least once every year since I started this blog, even when I wasn't really writing about mystery fiction.

I think my own introduction to Sherlock Holmes was the series of Austrialian TV cartoons based on the novels (with Peter O'Toole as Holmes, though I watched them dubbed in Dutch), and while I don't consider myself a Holmesian by any means, Holmes has been a series close to me since. Holmes is in fact a being close to a lot of people in this world, as evidenced by the ridiculous amount of appearances he still makes nowadays in various manners. Be it in a confrontation with Dracula or Cthulhu, in the twenty-second century with a robot Watson, or reimagined in the form of a mouse or dog, creators always reach back to Holmes. I have to admit that I can be a bit of a cynic when it comes to "new" interpretations of Holmes, and I still can't see how a confrontation with Dracula could work out in a positive and entertaining manner but sometimes, I'm pleasantly surprised. For example, I really didn't see the use of having a Sherlock Holmes series set in modern times, but I loved BBC's Sherlock right from the very first episode, and who could've guessed that a videogame where Sherlock Holmes is always making the wrong deductions would actually be an excellent and unique interpretation of the beloved character?

That said, the first time I heard of the 2018 drama series Miss Sherlock, my expectations were really not that high, as the premise of a Sherlock Holmes-inspired show with two female leads in modern day Tokyo wasn't particularly exciting. The gender swap was something I could shrug at, as I don't really care either way, but the concept of "modern day Tokyo" was enough to sound the alarms, because I had a feeling that this drama would not be inspired by Sherlock Holmes, but by Sherlock. It reminded me of the TV drama adaptation of Arisugawa Alice's Writer Alice/Himura Hideo series a few years back. It was an excellent mystery show on its own, but oh man, all the cues it took from Sherlock in terms of direction.... It's hard to not see Sherlock if the protagonist is dressed in a long coat while having semi-maniacal fits and words are projected on the screen.

And Miss Sherlock sadly enough turned out to be indeed a series that draws major inspiration from Sherlock. I mean, the coat and the projected words and stuff don't even seem that bad, but when you consider that even Miss Sherlock's theme music seems to be inspired by Sherlock's main theme, it's really hard watching this without being constantly reminded where most of the ideas came from.

But okay, if you can get past the extreme Sherlock-ness of Miss Sherlock, what do you get? Well, it's a reasonably entertaining Sherlock Holmes show. Miss Sherlock starts with the return of doctor Tachibana Wato (because: Wato-san) from Syria, where she worked as a volunteer surgeon (considering Japan has a Self-Defense Force, a logical change). She was wounded in an explosion in Syria, prompting her return to Japan. Upon arrival in Japan, she's welcomed at the airport by her old mentor and friend, but a mysterious internal explosion blows up the stomach of Wato's mentor, killing him on the spot. In the ensuing police investigation, Wato learns that Inspector Reimon has called in the consulting detective Sherlock, a rather rude and self-centered, but also brilliantly sharp woman (she took on the name "Sherlock" after a certain incident). More people are killed in the same way as Wato's mentor, but Sherlock manages to solve the case with the help of Wato, who has to move in with Sherlock as Wato's own accomodations had had a rather unfortunate mishap.

What follows is a show that is a decent and fairly amusing, but not remarkable interpretation of Sherlock Holmes. Some episodes of Miss Sherlock are more heavily inspired by the original stories than others, while others feel more like they were inspired by Sherlock. There's an episode heavily based on The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire for example, but the extended twist at the end works  well enough as a way to really make it feel like a real story set in modern day Japan and a good example of a reasonably good adaptation of the original source story, followed by some original material of the production team. The episode based on The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor has a nice twist that actually feels Holmesian, though it seems rather silly to go through all that trouble for that goal. Another early story feels quite Holmesian with a seemingly meaningless act (a vandalized painting) at the start that builds up to a story of larger crime. The emphasis on the "modern" can be a bit much though, with deadly new viruses and poisons becoming the McGuffins of the episode a few times.

Eventually, the story will also build up to something larger as it approaches the grand finale. I think most people can guess that Sherlock will eventually face a "Big Bad" at the end of the series. Your mileage may vary here. I thought the concept behind the Big Bad was not only far too obvious, but also reminiscent of the lesser parts of Sherlock and I couldn't really take it serious. By the way, I have seen far too many Japanese productions with some link to Sherlock Holmes now with characters whose names are based on Moriarty....

As depictions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, I think Miss Sherlock's Sherlock is more inspired by Sherlock's Sherlock than the source!Sherlock Holmes, but Wato works quite well in the context of the series. She's not an army surgeon like other depictions of Watson, but a private citizen, a doctor who suffers from PTSD after her experiences in Syria, and she works well as a humanizing factor, though admittedly, this also means she kinda ends up as the 'says or does something that helps Sherlock solve the case' character, with little else to contribute to the investigation.

Miss Sherlock is undeniably a Sherlock-inspired series, and that brings a certain burden. The series can be a bit uneven, and I think the first half, which is more firmly rooted in the source material, is more entertaining than the second. It works reasonably as a Sherlock Holmes-in-the-modern-day adaptation, and the gender/location changes too work well enough as something different once in a while. But while the series can be fun, Miss Sherlock has little truly original to offer, and most of the time, you'll have the feeling you have seen this already in one form or another. It's a decent series, but misses just that extra oomph.

Original Japanese title(s): 『ミス・シャーロック』

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

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

"His Last Bow"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Private Eyes' Requiem

ゆるぎないものひとつだきしめたいよ

誰もがそれを笑ったとしても

「ゆりぎないものひとつ」

I want to embrace one thing I can keep counting on

Even if everybody laughed at that

"One Unwavering Thing"

Man, I don't even look for them, but I'm pretty sure I read at least one Holmes pastische every year. Oh well, this is technically a Lupin pastiche... Oh, and I didn't manage to add even a fair amount of the tags at the end of the post, because of limitations on the number of characters. Please use the links in the body of the text if necessary.

Shinsetsu Lupin tai Holmes ("The True Tale: Lupin VS Holmes", 2000) is a short story collection by Ashibe Taku, crammed full with pastiches featuring famous detectives from both East and West. It's the first volume in a series dubbed The Exhibition of Great Detectives, and I already reviewed the second volume last November. This first volume is, in the essence, the same as its sequel. The stories often feature several famous literary characters together (like the titular Lupin and Holmes) in a story that is expertly written in the style of the original works. Most of these stories also feature an impossible crime. The opening story for example, Shinsetsu Lupin tai Holmes ("The True Tale: Lupin VS Holmes"), has gentleman-thief Lupin revealing the true story of his meeting with Sherlock Holmes. In the prologue, Lupin reveals that the adventures as written in 1908's Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmès were made-up, as shown by the fake Holmes name. The true meeting between the French thief and the English detective happened in 1900 during the Paris World Fair, when Lupin had only started making a name for himself. Lupin succeeds with a daring theft of a necklace from a Japanese theater troupe, but then a priceless Buddha statue is stolen from the Maison du Japon under impossible circumstances, followed by disappearing film reels with footage made in Japan. Lupin is accused of anti-Japanese sentiments and Holmes is hired by the Lumière brothers to retrieve the films. And so both Holmes and Lupin try to figure out the truth behind the disappearing Buddha statue and the true culprit behind this series of thefts.

This opening story does really read like a Lupin serial, with a dynamic story and a focus on adventure. The impossible disappearance of the Buddha statue is not incredibly surprising, but it does impress as it's firmly set in "reality", with a basis in actual history. This holds for all these pastiches actually, but especially this story is great in mixing fiction with real history. The Paris World Fair and the Lumière brothers are just some of the real world elements mixed with the Lupin-Holmes narrative, and the way it's used is actually fairly natural. There's even a guest appearance of that one Japanese author who ALWAYS gets to meet Holmes in pastiches like these. Unlike Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmès, the confrontation between the two giants feels a bit more fair too. The motive behind the crimes is rather surprising though.

Taikun Satsujin Jiken ("The Tycoon Murder Case"), which also carries the subtitle The Polish Paste Mystery, is the second story in the volume, and as "Tycoon" has six letters in it, and it's followed by "Murder Case", you can safely guess it's a Philo Vance story. Prosecutor Markham asks dilettante detective Vance and his attorney Van Dine to accompany him to the murder scene of a publisher of pulp magazines. He's been offed of, as they say, in the apartment of his star writer Ramon F. Kimmel. The victim left a dying message fingering Kimmel, but the problem is that there are three Kimmels: three ghost writers published under the pen name of Ramon F. Kimmel under the guidance of the victim. The testimony of a neighbor based on a radio performance appears to be decisive clue for this mystery, but probably not in the way Markham had expected. This story reminds of me of the episode The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader from the Ellery Queen TV show, in the sense that it deals with pulp publishers and the men behind a collective name. The solution to the mystery is good, with a clever, hard-to-notice clue and a lot of focus on material evidence. The writing style of this pastiche is also very reminiscent of Van Dine (including the end notes!) and the story also features multiple guest appearances of other famous detectives (one of them is rather obvious based on the subtitle, I think). 

Hotel Mikado no Satsujin ("The Hotel Mikado Murder") is set in San Francisco. Hawaiian police detective Charlie Chan's stay in Hotel Mikado, a Japanese-run hotel, ends up in murder when a gunshot rings through the hotel.  A highly ranked military official staying secretly at the hotel is discovered inside his room, apparently having committed ritual suicide with a sword. Inside his room is also the corpse of a mysterious woman. Private eye Sam Spade also arrives at the scene, as he had been hired by the first victim for a certain job. But the case is revealed to be very different from what it appears to be by a mysterious Japanese boy working at the hotel. The motive behind this crime has similarities with that one featured in the first story. The mystery itself is okay, but the real 'surprise' is the other detective who makes a surprise appearance. At least, I think a lot of readers familiar with Japanese mystery fiction will correctly guess who that is, as the reference is rather obvious, but I did like how the story built towards revealing the fact.

Tasogare no Kaijintachi ("The Fiends of Twilight") is a straightforward Edogawa Rampo pastiche, where the Fiend with Twenty Faces is accuses of murder after the theft of a sword. Akechi Kogorou however beliefs the Fiend when he swears he does not take lives and the detective agrees to find out who else could've committed the murder inside a closed-off part of town, where only the victim and the Fiend were found. There are some interesting Rampo cameos here, but the solution behind the impossible crime (a murder in a place where only the victim and the Fiend were) is a bit childish. Though I guess it works for this pastiche, because it's based on a series for children.

Tadokoro Keibu ni Hanataba wo ("A Bouquet for Chief Inspector Tadokoro") puts Chief Inspector Tadokoro in the spotlight. Chief Inspector Tadoroko is a character who connects the worlds of Chief Inspector Onitsura and amateur detective Hoshikage Ryuuzou, both creations by Ayukawa Tetsuya. Tadokoro is the one character who has worked with both these men, and he tells his public an amusing tale about how the two detectives both had trouble solving a crime: Chief Inspector Onitsura had no idea what to make of a locked room murder (the specialty of Hoshikage), while Hoshikage Ryuuzou was paining his head about an alibi trick using the railway (the specialty of Onitsura). The solution to both problems is a bit simple, but as a story that gives a minor character a moment to shine, I'd say this story is one of the best in the volume. I really enjoyed this one.

The following two stories I didn't find particularly interesting. Nanatsu no Kokoro wo Motsu Tantei ("The Detective With Seven Minds") is not a pastiche of any characer in particular, but one of styles. The narrator is called to come over to a crime scene, and then the narration style changes constantly, from 'hardboiled detective narration' to 'dilettante amateur detective narration' and 'experienced cop narration' etcetera. The story is simple, and mostly serves as a theme for this showcase of styles, and it basically is all written to prepare for the punchline. Kidan Kuuchuu no Zoku ("A Detective Story: The Thief in the Sky") is a detective story written in the style of Kuroiwa Ruikou. The writing style is really old, which makes it hard to read (pre-war Japanese) spelling and the whole story is presented as an adaptation/translation of an existing, Western story (most of Kuroiwa's works are 'free' adaptations of Western crime fiction).

Hyakurokujuunen no Misshitsu - Shin Morgue Gai no Satsujin (The 160 year Old Locked Room - New Murders in the Rue Morgue") finally features Ashibe's own series detective Morie Shunsaku, who is asked by a mysterious figure to solve a locked room murder involving a mother and her daughter who were killed in the most brutal way. And yes, we're talking about Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Whereas previous stories mimicked the style of the original works, this story is more like meta-mystery, as Morie examines the original text and arrives at a new solution to the classic tale. The biggest surprise however is the identity of his client though.

Shinsetsu Lupin tai Holmes is on the whole an entertaining collection of pastiches. Ashibe is usually at his best when he can let his bibliophilic urges go free. He mixes real history with fictional history in an engaging way, and showcases great knowledge about the subject matter, as he manages to mix in all kinds of little trivia about the characters in his stories which are all written in distinctive, recognizable styles. The stories can sometimes feel a bit gimmicky though, because a lot of the charm of these stories basically comes down to 'fanboying'. I'd say the opening story, the Philo Vance and the Ayukawa Tetsuya stories were the highlights of this collection.

Original Japanese title(s): 芦辺拓　『真説ルパン対ホームズ』: 「真説ルパン対ホームズ」 / 「大君殺人事件　またはポーランド鉛硝子の謎」 / 「《ホテル・ミカド》の殺人」 / 「黄昏の怪人たち」 / 「田所警部に花束を」 / 「七つの心を持つ探偵」 / 「探偵奇談　空中の賊」 / 「百六十年の密室　新・モルグ街の殺人」

It Is What It Is

'There's an east wind coming, Watson.' 
- 'I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.'
"His Last Bow"

It was a deliberate choice on my part to not write individual posts on the episodes as they were airing, but I couldn't have imagined my enjoyment of the episodes could vary so much even within the same series.

Has it already been so many years since Sherlock first started? I remember I was living in Japan in 2010, and I had picked up some tidbit that some sort of 21st century take on the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson was about to start on BBC. I had very little expectations of it, but I managed to errr... somehow watch the first episode in Japan and was thorougly impressed by it. From the acting to the fast-paced script to the game-inspired visuals, it was all more than just a pleasant surprise, and while it was obviously not always (or seldomly) a faithful adaptation of the original material, the series was simply great entertainment. And as we now know, it became a hit, moving from some obscure summer TV slot to a prominent New Year's Day slot starting with the second series in 2012, followed by a third series in 2014 and a special in 2016. The fourth series of Sherlock started on New Year's Day 2017, bringing three new adventures with the consultant detective and the brave doctor.

The original first series ended on a cliffhanger ending (presumably to fish for a second series), but viewers might remember that this cliffhanger ending was resolved in the most laziest way possible when the series returned. Series 3's The Empty Hearse did a hilarious, internet generation-inspired, Berkeley-esque examination of the difficulties of having to come up with satisfying resolutions to cliffhangers which were obviously not planned out at all, but unfortunately, Series 4 too starts off by basically waving away the ending of the third series (as well as the 2016 special), which showed viewers a video message starring crime consultant Moriarty, who was presumed dead after the events of the second series, prompting Sherlock to return to British soil to deal with the apparent return of his nemesis. The Six Thachers proceeds by shrugging its shoulders at this, and continues with a completely different story. For Sherlock, things are the same old, same old as he continues his work as a consulting detective, but Watson been has busy juggling between his life as a loving husband to Mary, father to baby Rosie and ally to Sherlock. During one of their cases, Sherlock becomes aware of a figure who is enigmatically busy smashing busts of Margeret Thatcher.

I won't go as far as saying The Six Thatchers was a rough start of this new series, but it was definitely an uneven episode. The first half of this episode is obviously based on the classic story The Adventure of the Six Napoleons. What sets this apart most from the original story, besides the fact that the statues are now of Thatcher, are the many scenes with Watson and Mary as young parents, and the initial case that brings Sherlock on the trail of the Six Thatchers (which are basically unrelated events). There is an interesting-sounding impossible situation here, where the son of a Cabinet Minister is discovered dead inside a car parked in front of the house, even though he was presumed to be on a gap year in Tibet. The solution is a bit unpolished. I like the premise of how this impossibility came to be, but the way the story basically decides to handwave away the reason why the son died in the first place is at best sloppy.

As often happens in Sherlock, the second half then adds a twist to the original story it is based on. I've seen a lot of people describe this part of The Six Thatchers as James Bond. I am not sure whether I'll go along with that, but there is certainly a shift from problem-solving with the mind, to a much more action-packed formula. Of course, a good mystery story can still be full of action: many storylines in series like Detective Conan or Spiral are about detectives trying to outsmart each other in life-or-death situations. This is not the case in The Six Thatchers though. In the end, the story does come back to what I thought was a decent, even if not particularly original mystery plot about a traitor in the government, that at least had some similarities to the plots of Sherlock episodes in earlier series. The episode ends on a downer note however.

The Six Thatchers left Watson in a very dark place, so it is no surprise that The Lying Detective starts off with a seperated dynamic duo. Watson still hasn't recovered from the shock of the previous episode, while Sherlock has gone back to his drug habits. But then a new case presents itself to him. Based on information offered by the daughter, he has learned that famous entrepeneur and philantropist Culverton Smith is in fact a murderer. Sherlock becomes obsessed with the problem of Culverton Smith as his drug abuse worsens, much to the dismay of landlord Mrs. Hudson who tries to get Watson to look after his friend. As Sherlock's condition becomes worse, accusing Smith of being a serial killer, Watson and Sherlock's other friends start to wonder whether Sherlock has lost it all to drugs.

As the title suggests, this episode is based on The Dying Detective, and people who know that story can probably guess how this story will end. Like series 2's The Hounds of Baskerville, The Lying Detective is a modern adaptation that stays surprisingly faithful to the original story in spirit from start to finish (as opposed to the first half/second half set-up like seen in The Six Thatchers). So in broad terms, The Lying Detective should offer few surprises storywise, but this episode was in fact one of the trickiest, but also most satisfying episodes of the whole series. The Culverton Smith plot is neatly woven with the overarching storyline of the main characters, resulting in good character studies where we see the members of the cast cope with the events of The Six Thatchers, but not at the expense of an entertaining mystery plot. In terms of direction and visual effects, The Lying Detective is also the MVP of this series,  as it keeps the viewer on their toes with flashbacks, tricky directon and more of the videogame-like presentation we've learned to love (which was strangely subdued in this series, save for The Lying Detective). This is a perfect example of how to do a new take on a classic Sherlock Holmes story, but in its own new context (in this case, as a Sherlock episode). The episode with (once again) a cliffhanger ending involving Watson, featuring a reveal I find both neat, and badly done. The facts which are revealed are entertaining (if a bit farfetched), but it also presented as if Watson/the viewer should, or could have seen it coming, but there were definitely no precise, mathematical "1 + 1 = 2" hints to lead to that conclusion.

With the existence of a certain character unveiled in the previous episode, series finale The Final Problem has Sherlock, Watson and brother Mycroft make their way to a maximum security institution in an attempt to make sense of the events that happened of late. They are lured into a trap though, and the three are forced to play in a series of games that play with the very essence of Sherlock as a person.

The Final Problem is a problem case. In a way, it represents exactly the things I don't like about Sherlock. I like the characters of the show, but that does not mean I want to see a series solely about those characters. Sherlock of course always had this tendency, and it became more apparent starting with series 3, but more often than not, Sherlock and Watson were the focal point of the stories. Not just as the main cast, but I mean that they had personal stakes in the episodes. Backstory this, character development that. They are fictional characters and of course the world is built around them, but that doesn't also need to be the focus of the series, I think. Not every story has to be personal, not every story has to be related to about character development. Using the "Now it's personal" card every time weakens things. Just let me see the characters interact as they are working on something else. But The Final Problem is this problem in extremis. Sherlock is at the center of the universe, everything revolves around Sherlock, everything only has meaning because of Sherlock. The whole plot of this episode is about a character so obsessed with Sherlock they come up with the most convoluted plan? bullying? scheme ever and then organize a small scale Batman: Arkham Asylum and Saw crossover to show to the viewer what kind of character Sherlock is. Seriously, most of the Saw challenges involved don't even ask much of Sherlock's brain, but are just there to show off sides of his personality. It is the ultimate example of having a story revolve around the main character in such an absurd and exaggerated manner possible (one could argue that a character like Moriarty did the same; however he had other motives besides just messing with Sherlock). I have seen people being very positive about this episode precisely because it's all about Sherlock and it's emotional investing and stuff, but to me, this was going way too far into this character-moe territory.

To me, episodes like The Sign of Three and the aforementioned The Lying Detective were good examples of still doing character-focused stories, without sacrificing a mystery plot that could also stand strongly on its own merit. Ideally, these episodes should be the standard for 'character-focused' stories in this series I think, with the 'normal' episodes obviously less involved, focusing more on the mystery plots. The Final Problem in comparison is a story with Sherlock, about Sherlock, for Sherlock. It's a development I also see in for example the Ace Attorney game series, which started out as basically a courtroom mystery short story collection featuring a defense attorney as its protagonist, but has slowly become a courtroom mystery game about the main cast.

The one thing I did like about this episode, was when Featured Character showed how they managed to escape from their holding cell, as that was a great visual trick played on both the characters and the viewers at home. And on a sidenote, why do they keep saying Mycroft is the smart one, if EVERYBODY always gets the better of him and he's made to carry the idiot ball in basically every episode he appears in? Seriously, is there anything he has done that has not backfired in the most obvious of ways possible?

On the whole, I'd say series 4 of Sherlock was the most uneven one until now. While acting was on a high point, I thought overall direction and presentation was a bit subdued compared to previous series, with The Lying Detective being the fantastic exception. The pronounced focus on the main cast is something that I at least don't like as a trend, with The Final Problem being the embodiment of what I didn't want to see from this series. Unlike previous series finales, The Final Problem does not feature any real set-ups for a future series, leading to speculation that this might be the last we'll see from Sherlock and Watson. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Series 4 is to me both a high and low point, so at one hand I'd love to see more of the quality of The Lying Detective, and on the other hand I dread more Final Problems. Series 4 is what it is, but I have no idea what future Sherlock could be.

The Singing Rat

"Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson, ... It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."

"The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"

Aaaand this is the first review I wrote today. Mind you, this review won't be posted online until another six months...

After returning from Afghanistan having served in the British Army, doctor John. H Watson has to make ends meet and decides to share lodgings with a Mr. Sherlock Holmes at 221b Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes is, according to himself, the world's very first consulting detective, who asssists the police in crimes they cannot solve. Not for the glory, but for the sake of the art of deduction. Watson becomes Holmes' partner and starts to write down the adventures they have, and their stories published in Strand Magazine are a huge success all over Great Britain. But Holmes has his vices, and not very innocent ones either. An overdose of cocaine renders the great detective completely mad, and as if it that wasn't enough, an editor of Strand Magazine begs Watson to come up with a new story, while the police informs Watson that Holmes' help is greatly needed because the criminals behind The Red-Headed League managed to escape from the Dartmoor Prison in Princetown, a place thought inescapable. Watson has a lot to do in Shimada Souji's 2015 novel Atarashii Juugohiki no Nezumi no Furai. which also carries the English title New 15 Fried Rats - The Adventure of John H. Watson.

Back in 1984, Shimada Souji wrote a book titled Souseki to London Miira Satsujin Jiken ("Souseki and the London Mummy Murder Case"), a hilarous parody of Sherlock Holmes that also featured famous Japanese novelist Natsume Souseki (Sherlock Holmes also met Souseki in a 1953 story by Yamada Fuutarou by the way, as well as in the 2015 videogame Dai Gyakuten Saiban). And now Shimada has returned to the setting in 2015, even though New 15 Fried Rats is not a sequel to his earlier parody (I don't remember the details, but I think continuity-wise, they don't even match up).

EDIT: It appears Yamada's story is available in English by the way.

As a revisionist look on Holmes history, New 15 Fried Rats has both its high and lows. As often seen in Holmes pastiches/parodies, we have a Holmes with a bit too much love for cocaine, which eventually leads to an admittance into a mental hospital. Left alone is a Watson, who was not only wounded by Holmes, but also has to take care of several problems. The 'easiest' and funniest part is definitely the troubles he has with his editor. Because Holmes' breakdown must be kept a secret, Watson comes up with one lie after another and is eventually forced to write a story not based on an adventure he had with Holmes, but one he invented himself. The result is an entry in the Holmes canon which is indeed a bit strange.

A large part of the story revolves around the famous Holmes story The Red-Headed League. In New 15 Fried Rats, it is revealed that the solution Holmes arrived at was actually a fake solution prepared by the real criminal, with John Clay (who was fingered as the brains behind the operation by Holmes) simply being a distraction. This part has some troubles. Part of the problem is because the true criminal and his plans are already revealed in the prologue of the book. Chapter two of the book then contains the story of  The Red-Headed League as we know it (because it's written from the point of view of Watson/Holmes), but this chapter is basically the same The Red-Headed League as we've known it for over hundred years. I guess this part is needed for people who don't know the story, but for people who do (and let's be honest, most people reading a Holmes parody will be familiar with the Holmes stories), the whole of chapter two is a boring retelling of a familiar story with nothing new to add. New 15 Fried Rats adds an aftermath to this story, with the prison escape of John Clay and others, but the resulting story is a bit unlike any other Holmes story (a love story subplot featuring Watson!) and is more like an adventure novel that relies a bit too much on coincidence.

The final part of the book has Watson trying to figure out how the people behind the Red-Headed League managed to escape an inescapable prison in the first place, and that's where the title New 15 Fried Rats becomes important. Apparently, the phrase "new 15 fried rats" has been going on in the prison for some years now as some kind of song, but the clues show that the phrase also has something to do with the prison escape. I had kinda expected a locked room mystery here, considering Shimada's reputation, as well as his earlier Holmes parody, but I was kinda disappointed when I discovered this wasn't really one. I wouldn't even say this part was particularly clever, even if the way Holmes finally returns to sane society is something to behold.

The biggest problem of New 15 Fried Rats is it's a bit too long, with sections that don't work that well together. Both chapter one and three for example feature events and characters that in this continuity provide inspiration to Watson for several of Holmes' most famous stories. They can be quite funny and sometimes help make sense of some of the inconsistencies in the canon. Yet, they do so little for  the greater context of the book (the Red-Headed League) and I even think those chapters would've been more enjoyable as standalone short stories. The part with the Red-Headed League on the other hand has a very boring beginning (because it's basically exactly the same as the story The Red-Headed League) and the sections afterwards feel a bit un-Holmes-like. On the whole, New 15 Fried Rats is never as cohesive or entertaining as Shimada's own Souseki to London Miira Satsujin Jiken.

I think that for Holmes fans, there are loads of neat references to be found in New 15 Fried Rats and the re-casting of Watson as the hero of the tale is certainly a trick many of us love (I know I do). There are also some interesting elements like the "true" solution to The Red-Headed League and some very comedic parts, but overall, I think that Shimada's 1984 effort into Holmes pastiche/parody was much more enjoyable.

Original Japanese title(s): 島田荘司　『新しい１５匹のネズミのフライ　ジョン・Ｈ・ワトソンの冒険』