A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts

――拝啓探偵さま。事件です――

 さあ奇天烈（きてれつ）怪奇の幕開けよ

『モノノケミステリヰ』（てにをは）

--Dear Detective. It's a case--

Raising the curtains of a strange surprise

"Mononoke Mystery" (Teniwoha)

I wonder whether people outside Japan recognize the word mononoke from Princess Mononoke. Confession: I'm not a fan of Princess Mononoke, which I think is just a less interesting version of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (the manga version).

If there's something strange in the neighborhood, who are you going to call? In Tokyo, you'd be calling the Tsukioka Detective Agency. At first, you might be surprised to see the agency is being run by three children, but their detective agency is without the best in its particular field. Which is dealing with youkai: ghosts, ghouls, and goblins that roam Japan. Most of these supernatural beings do little harm to humans nowadays, but there are occasionally youkai who still like to interfere a bit with human lives and that's when Harutari, Yahito and Utsuhi come in action. In Teniwoha's Mononoke Mystery ("Monster Mystery", 2014), the threesome is hired by a local railway company to solve the appearance of a ghost train which has been causing some disturbance among the local population. Their search for the spectral line doesn't take long though, as the train appears several times out of nowhere trying to run the three over. Who is behind the ghost train and why is it running wild in the city?

A while back, I wrote about Teniwoha's Girl Student Detective series, a novel series based on a song. Mononoke Mystery is similarly a cross-media project. Its origins lie in the song Mononoke Mystery, voiced by the famous Hatsune Miku Vocaloid (voice synthesizer software). The imagery of this song in turn are explored in the novel, as well as in a manga series. The world and characters of this so-called Youkai Boys Detective Club series are thus explored across music, books and comics.

The Girl Student Detective series was a normal (if a bit uninspired) detective series, but Mononoke Mystery definitely has an interesting concept: in the world of the Youkai Boys Detective Club series, youkai do actually exist and can cause real harm to people. Youkai are not an unfamiliar concept in detective fiction: Kyougoku Natsuhiko for example is famous for the use of youkai in the Hyakki Yakou series, but there youkai are considered a folkloristic and psychological concept that have influence on the mind and therefore actions of humans. It's the idea of youkai that is of importance there, and no actual supernatural beings are running around in that series.

But as we've seen in various examples on this blog, supernatural or unrealistic phenomena don't mean a mystery plot can't be fair or fun. It's the way supernatural phenomena are presented and used that is of importance (see for example Cat Food, Snow White, Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney and The Caves of Steel for fair, but unrealistic settings). So I was quite curious to see if Teniwoha managed to do something exciting with the concept of youkai in Mononoke Mystery. I'm actually quite interested in youkai, and there are a lot of them in Japan, all with different abilities that could really work well in a detective novel.

Mononoke Mystery however barely shows the potential of actual youkai in a detective story. It is first of all a comedy-action series, focusing on the antics of Harutari (a rather arrogant, but capable detective), Yahito (the cool, level-headed brains and brawn of the group) and Utsuhi (token cute and energetic girl). A lot of the plot is made up by their banter, which I didn't think particularly inspiring. There are also some action scenes where the three use their special powers to take the criminal youkai, in a fairly predictable anime-esque fashion (out-thinking and out-maneuvering the enemy with their specific powers). It is standard-fashion though and even as a comedy-action series, it is not very memorable.

There are some parts that were genuinely inspired though, but never executed in a completely satisfying way. Mononoke Mystery is not a fair-play puzzle plot mystery, but there were neat segments where the three had to deduce what kind of youkai they were facing (which would make their battles a lot easier). Despite being supernatural, fictional beings, youkai are actually very well documented and appear in many documents of several centuries old, and I think most people actually know a fair number of them, so I'd say that the reader has a good chance at catching the hints. I think that this was good concept: it allows for supernatural stuff in the plot, but yet offer fair play in the sense that the reader can logically deduce the identity of the youkai based on the hint. But the way it is done in Mononoke Mystery is rather limited and a bit too obvious and not nearly as entertaining as it could have been.

I think that Mononoke Mystery has an interesting concept, but I guess that Teniwoha is very aware of how to catch the most listeners/readers with his music/books/manga, and he obviously designed the whole Youkai Boys Detective Club series to be a very accessible action-comedy serie with slight mystery elements, rather than something which would satisfy the more genre-specific fans. This first book of Mononoke Mystery also leaves some important questions unanswered, which will probably be addressed in following volumes, but I don't think I'll ever read them, as I very much doubt Teniwoha will push this series in the direction I'd love to see it go to, as I do think the basic idea is catchy. I have the same feeling with Teniwoha's Girl Student Detective series, but that one at least tries to give me some puzzle plot stories.

Original Japanese title(s): てにをは 『モノノケミステリヰ』

The Singing Detective

ダメダメいけませんわと涙

輪廻の根黄表紙　

とうとう最終章『しょっ』

『古書屋敷殺人事件』（てにをは）

No, no, you shouldn't, I say with tears

The root of the cycle of reincarnation and a yellow book cover

Finally the last chapter (sho)

"The Old Books Mansion Murder Case" (Teniwoha) 

I have written a lot about detective fiction in various media, from books, TV series and films to games and even musicals. I'm pretty sure however that this is the first time I write about something that started as a detective song.

Teniwoha's Jogakusei Tantei to Henkutsu Sakka - Kosho Yashiki Satsjin Jiken Zenya ("The Girl Student Detective and the Eccentric Writer - The Night Before The Old Books Mansion Murder Case", 2014) has a rather long, yet very to-the-point title. The titular girl student detective is Hibari: an active girl and longtime fan of mystery fiction. While not actively pursuing a caree as a detective, Hibari has the luck (?) of occassionally getting involved with murders and other mysteries and in true amateur detective fashion, she does not give up until she's solved the case. The titular eccentric writer is Kudou Renma, a mystery writer and longtime family friend/customer of the coffee shop of Hibari's father. While eccentric, Kudou is also quite the talented amateur detective: he just has no interest in actually using his powers of observation, prefering to simply not sticking his nose in other people's business. And occcasionally giving Hibari hints so she can solve the case instead of him. This first volume in the Girl Student Detective series collects two novelettes and one short story.

The Girl Student Detective series is a media mix concept conjured by Teniwoha that finds its origin in... music! Hibari and Kudou Renma were first introduced in the popular song Kosho Yashiki Satsujin Jiken ("The Old Books Mansion Murder Case"). The lyrics are strongly influenced by detective fiction (Hibari singing about how the case is too difficult) and the song is sung by Hatsune Miku, the famous Vocaloid (voice synthesizer software) who has been taking over the (music) world the last few years. Teniwoha not only produced the song, but also wrote novels that further explored the world of Kosho Yashiki Satsujin Jiken, resulting in the Girl Student Detective series, which is probably the only detective franchise to consist out of music and books. The volume discussed here is the first in the series and the prequel to both the song and the novel Kosho Yashiki Satsujin Jiken, hence the subtitle The Night Before The Old Books Mansion Murder Case.

The book opens with Akebi Kou Okujou Toushin Jiken ("The Akebi High School Rooftop Jumping Case"), which not only introduces us to the characters and the postwar setting, but also gives us an impossible situation: one morning, Hibari discovers the body of a classmate on the roof of the school. Her classmate barely lives, but is unable to answer two important questions. One: what is the meaning behind the "dying" message "X" she left with her own blood? And two: how come her wounds indicate she had thrown herself of a building, even though she was on top of the school roof and there was no higher building in the neighbourhood?

The result is a rather basic detective story that is easily solved when the hints are set on stage. Actually, the moment one certain thing is mentioned, I think everybody can guess what happened. The setting of a school in post-war Japan is interesting though. I love the setting, but most books set in those times (like the books of Yokomizo Seishi, Takagi Akimitsu and Kyougoku Natsuhiko) don't deal (much) with students and school life. The girl detective and the antics at school (as well as the impossible crime angle) reminded me of Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series, though sadly enough never as good plotted or as funny.

Tantei Himatsubushi Yuugi ("A Detective's Time Killing Game") is a very short story where Kudou Renma refuses to rewrite a manuscript (half-eaten by rats) for his publisher, unless Hibari manages to solve his riddle: she has to guess which book he wants to read with just three hints. In this story, the lighthearted character of the series and the relation between Hibari and Renma is used much better than the opening story and while not perfect (it's not completely fair), this story is most ambitious and original of the three stories in the volume, despite being much shorter than the other two. It does spoil a  certain (famous!) book, but mentioning that book by title kinda gives away the whole picture.

Ryougoku Yuurei Yashiki Satsujin Jiken ("The Ryougoku Ghost Mansion Murder Case") has Hibari and Renma acting as delivery girl/man for an antiquarian bookshop, owned by Renma's friend. The book (a study on ghosts) is to be delivered in the mansion of a well-known amateur researcher on the folklore of ghosts in the Ryougoku neighbourhood in Tokyo. When they arrive at the mansion though, Hibari and Renma, together with the daughter of the family, find the ghost researcher in a rather dead state. A lack of footprints around the garden indicate that the poor man committed suicide with one of his rifles, but both Hibari and Renma suspect there's more to it (especially as they were about to deliver a book the man had been wanting for years).

This last case in the volume is the biggest and most 'traditonal', with a spooky mansion and stuff... but not really. The title might say ghost mansion, the characters might be talking about a ghost mansion, but there is not an inkling of a scary atmosphere. The trick behind the murder (No, it was not suicide. The title spoils it) is not bad, but the inclusion of a map would have helped make the mystery more fair and fun. I think the basic idea behind the murder is alright, but the story itself is rather bland and boring. Definitely the most disappointing of the volume.

I have to admit, I am not sure who the exact target market is for the Girl Student Detective series. Simply as a detective book, Jogakusei Tantei to Henkutsu Sakka is nothing special. The plots are not really bad, but not very inspired either and often quite basic. I'll be honest here and say I had expected something much better than this. Especially as I like the setting of a girl student detective and post-war Japan. For fans of the song and the characters introduced there, Jogakusei Tantei to Henkutsu Sakka probably has more to offer: the constant bickering between Hibari and Renma is, again, not very inspired, but can be quite amusing at times and the novel obviously has more room to explore the world than a four minute song.

But if Jogakusei Tantei to Henkutsu Sakka is really mostly aimed at the fans of the music, I think it's a missed chance. The media-mix concept with music is interesting, the setting has potential, so I think I should be allowed to ask for more challenging mystery plots. And slightly more engaging writing. I think three books have been released now, the second book being based on the song. I might try that one one day, just to see if the series manages to evolve or not.

Original Japanese title(s): てにをは　『女学生探偵と偏屈作家　古書屋敷殺人事件前夜』