Mystery of the Glowing Eye

"His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh. You know of what I speak, Gandalf: a great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame."

"The Fellowship of the Ring"

Some years ago, I reviewed the animated film Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum, and I started the post by saying how weird it was I was going to explain what Doraemon was. Doraemon has been so immensely popular for decades not only in Japan, but the whole of South-East Asia, so having to explain what it was, was basically the same as having to explain who Mickey Mouse. In a way, having to explain GeGeGe no Kitarou today feels the same. GeGeGe no Kitarou is a series created by manga legend Mizuki Shigeru and has been very popular since it was created in the late 50s. Or is it the 30s? Originally, the story of Kitarou, a young boy with otherworldly roots who fights supernatural evil, was created in the thirties by Itou Masami and Tatsumi Keiyou as kamishibai, a form of street art where storytellers would use illustrated boards to tell serialized stories while selling candy. After World War II, Mizuki Shigeru, a talented kamishibai illustrator, was asked by the original publisher to continue the series known as Hakaba Kitarou. He would later also create comics-for-rent starring Kitarou of the Graveyard and eventually, Mizuki was given the offer to do a serialized manga series in Shounen Magazine in the late 60s, which came with the new title GeGeGe no Kitarou it is best known as now. 

While there are differences across the various iterations of the series, the core remains the same: Kitarou, born at a graveyard, is the last of the Ghost Tribe and together with his father (who after some hardships in life is now a walking & talking eyeball), the two of them help humans in need whenever they face supernatural danger. With his remendous supernatural powers and the help of other friendly ghouls & ghosts from mainly Japanese mythology, Kitarou faces youkai who prey on helpless humans and want to disturb the balance between the human and supernatural world. The series led to a genuine youkai boom in Japan at the time, reacquainting children with "old" Japanese youkai and mythology. GeGeGe no Kitarou is one of the earliest anime series to be made, but has never been gone from the Japanese pop culture consciousness since: new anime series are created every few years and multiple generations have been brought up with the knowledge Kitarou and his posse have always been there protecting them.

As GeGeGe no Kitarou is of course all about the supernatural adventures Kitarou and his friends have, I honestly never expected I'd be writing about this series here, as the franchise honestly doesn't even aspire to anything even remotely close to a detective.... until late last year. For in November 2023, the animated film Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo ("The Birth of Kitarou ~ The Mystery of GeGeGe") was released to commemorate what would have been Mizuki Shigeru's 100th birthday and it turns out this film is actually.... a detective film. Up to a degree!

Set in 1956, the viewer is first introduced to Mizuki, an employee at the Imperial Blood Bank who desperately wants to climb the corporate ladder. When he learns that Ryuuga Tokisada has passed away, he knows this is his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Mizuki is in charge of the account of Ryuuga Medicine and close to Ryuuga Katsunori, the president of Ryuuga Medicine and Tokisada's son-in-law. Mizuki expects Katsunori will become the new patriarch of the Ryuuga clan, controlling the vast fortune of the family, so he decides to travel to the very remote lake village of Nagura to convey his condoleances to the family, but more importantly, to secure himself a comfortable place in Katsunori's pocket. Arriving at the village, Mizuki meets Katsunori's daughter Sayo and her weakly cousin Tokiya, who have never left the village and dream of seeing the great capital Tokyo. Mizuki is allowed to attend the reading of the will, but to everyone's great surprise, it's not Katsunori who inherits everything, but Tokisada's son Tokimaro, a recluse with a few screws loose in his head. The will also stipulates that in the case of Tokimaro's death, Tokiya will inherit everything. The following day, Tokimaro is found brutally murdered, but the mayor and his men soon arrest a wandering stranger, who refuses to say his name, though Mizuki comes to call him Gegerou. The mayor wants to execute Gegerou on the spot, being convinced this stranger is the killer, but Mizuki insists the police should investigate Tokimaro's death properly. Gegerou eventually confides to Mizuki that his wife disappeared many years ago and that he has been looking for her since: sources have revealed to him she was seen in this village before her disappearance. Meanwhile, more people within the Ryuuga clan are killed in horrid manners, but while Mizuki is at first convinced the police must handle these incidents, he soon learns via Gegerou that supernatural powers are at play here, and while Gegerou turns out to be in possession of tremendous spiritual powers himself, solving these murders and the mystery of his missing wife is no easy task...

Let me temper your expectations right away: the finale of this film is not a denouement where Gegerou and Mizuki use logic to solve all the murders: it's all about youkai and other supernatural powers and there are more than a few battles where the combatants all have inhuman powers. This film is not really created as a fair-play mystery film, so don't come in expecting exactly that. That said, I did really enjoy this film, which delves into the story of Kitarou's father before he became a walking eyeball and as a buddy film with Mizuki and Gegerou, Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo is honestly a great watch with a fantastic dark atmosphere. Don't let the poster with Kitarou fool you: while this film is technically tied to the sixth anime series in terms of character designs/voice actors, this film can be surprisingly gory and it's definitely meant for an older audience than the core audience of that series (in fact, it is PG12 in Japan I believe, whereas the series is probably for all ages).

But on the whole, it is clear the production team behind Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo had Yokomizo Seishi in mind and certainly the first half of the film, you could honestly be fooled into thinking you were watching a film based on Yokomizo's work. The remote village is a familiar trope from the Kindaichi Kousuke novels, and the reading of the surprising will in the manor with all the family members all coveting a large share of the pie is very similar to the famous scene from Inugamike no Ichizoku, as well as the unique conditions of the will which seems to spark a series of gruesome murders among the family. The incredibly dark atmosphere, the horrifying underlying motive behind the murders and the whole "something is off about this family and the community" vibe and the sense of how everything slowly seems to crumble as more and more murders are committed, is done splendidly in this film, and I would love to see this team work on an actual Kindaichi anime adaptation, because they absolutely nailed the atmosphere they should be going for. But again, Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo however is not meant to be a fair-play mystery using those elements: it's not like youkai X having this or that power is meant to be a clue about how a certain murder was committed, nor does it expect you to deduce a certain youkai's identity based on the supernatural happenings in the film, so in that sense, it's very different from the other supernatural mysteries I discuss here. But the film's plot structure and main story is taken straight from a mystery story and it's fantastic in its execution of those elements. Guessing who the murderer is, might not be very difficult, but I do love some of the folkloristic clues given in the film, and of course, with talk about youkai and other religious visual imagery going on, at times you're also reminded of the work of Kyougoku Natsuhiko (who has worked on the GeGeGe no Kitarou franchise) and Mitsuda Shinzou, and that's never bad company when it comes to mystery stories involved folklore!

While the murders are the main worry of the people in the Ryuuga clan, Gegerou is of course more interested in the disappearance of his wife, and while this part follows familar mystery tropes less faithfully, I do have to say I really appreciated how this plotline ties back to important themes in Mizuku Shigeru's works, themes that are also partially reflected in the fictional character of Mizuki (who is not meant to be Mizuki Shigeru per se). The film is its own original story by the way, but does take cues from the very first Hakaba no Kitarou story from the rental comics, which tells the story of how Kitarou was born at a graveyard. Because the film features a mostly original story, set before the main GeGeGe no Kitarou series (which doesn't really have a strong chronology anyway), the film can be watched without any prior knowledge of the franchise, I think. The book-ending parts are set in the present with Kitarou, but these parts are short, and other references to the main series in the story set in the past are minor.

I doubt I will ever be writing about GeGeGe no Kitarou on this blog again, but that is also why I decided to discuss Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo this time, because it's just such a unique work within the franchise. I saw the film quite a few months ago, and initially I wasn't planning on writing about it, but after some reflexion, I thought: why not, actually? The film is without a doubt in essence the kind of mystery film I do like to see. It got the atmosphere down perfectly and setting aside the matter of it really being a mystery film or not: As an animated film, it's a visual and auditory delight and the relaxed Gegerou and really stressed out Mizuki work great as reluctant buddies working together. Definitely a must-see for fans of the Kindaichi novels!

Original Japanese title(s): 水木しげる（原作）『鬼太郎誕生 ゲゲゲの謎』

Moonlight Madness

「お　お　か　み　が　く　る　ぞ 　！！」

『レイジングループ』

"The wolves are coming!"

"Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P"

It's been a good year in terms of gaming for me, I noticed. I seldom play the newest releases right away, so I do have the luxury to carefully pick the games I want to play in any given year, which could be a new game but also one from twenty years earlier, but this year has been surprisingly good, with basically no real duds.

Fusaishi Haruaki finds himself riding around aimlessly on his motorcycle after a break-up with his girlfriend, until he realizes he has absolutely no idea where he is even though it's very late at night, in the middle of rural, mountainous Japan. He tries to make his way to the nearest town, but crashes on one of those small mountain paths. He is found by the girl Chiemi near a river, and she decides to bring the new visitor to her home: Yasumizu Village, hidden deep within the forests of the mountain. Yasumizu is a tiny and incredibly poor farming/hunting community with barely ten inhabitants, ruled by the belief in the mountain deity Shinnai. Yasumizu is controlled by the more prosperous Fujiyoshi Town on the other side of the mountain, which occasionally uses Yasumizu as a 'trash can', as sometimes 'unneccesary' people from Fujiyoshi find themselves banned to Yasumizu. The people of Yasumizu therefore stick with each other and dislike outsiders, so Fusaishi's plans are to fix his motorcycle and leave again, but it seems the mountain has other plans for him, as a sudden thick mist consumes the whole of Yasumizu, and it is only then that he learns about an ancient legend passed down here in Yasumizu, and the horrifying ceremony related to that. Here in the mountains, the people believe that whenever Yasumizu is enveloped by mist, a number of werewolves from the underworld are revived who will disguise themselves as one of the villagers of Yasumizu. Each night they will kill one villager, until they have wiped out the whole of Yasumizu in revenge for what the villagers did to them many centuries ago. In order to fight these werewolves, the mountain deity allows the villagers to execute one villager (a person whom they suspect is a werewolf) every day. The werewolves will win when they have killed all the humans, while the humans win if they manage to execute all the werewolves.

At first, Fusaishi thinks it's all just religious nonsense, and can't believe people will just starting killing each other because of the mist, but already after the first night he finds that someone has been eliminated in a seemingly supernatural manner for violating the mountain rules, and he is witness to how the whole village slowly starts to take the deadly werewolf game seriously, with both the humans and werewolves killing persons every day and night. But Fusaishi has one big advantage over the others: he mysteriously gained the powers to 'rewind' to the beginning of all this with all of his memories intact whenever he dies. This allows him to learn from each experience and make new choices to change his own future. Making use of these time-loops Fusaishi needs to survive the lunatic werewolf game and find out why this supernatural ceremony exists in the first place in the videogame Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P (2015).

Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P is a horror-mystery videogame developed by Kemco and Dwango, and originally released on iOS and Android in 2015, and later ported to other devices like PS4, Vita and Switch. I hadn't heard about this game until a few months ago, when it ranked into Japanese game magazine's Famitsu's fan-voted popularity poll for adventure games. Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P was standing very bravely next to giants in the mystery adventure genre like the Kamaitachi no Yoru series, Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney series and the Danganronpa series, so you can guess why my interests were piqued. The theme was also quite alluring: While I myself have never played the Werewolves game myself, I am quite aware of the popularity of the role-playing party game (which is also known as Mafia) and its ties with the mystery genre, so a mystery game which would use the Werewolves game as a motif was basically an instant-buy for me. From what I know, Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P has most of common ideas from the party game: a number of werewolves have infiltrated among the participants of the game, with the werewolves killing one of the human participants each night, while the humans (among them also the undercover werewolves) voting on persons whom they suspect are werewolves in order to execute them during the day. In most Werewolves games, there are also special human characters with powers to help the humans (like being able to check the true identity of one person each night), and this is also replicated in Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P..

Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P is a novel adventure game, which is basically a digital Choose-Your-Own-Adventure: most of the game is a lineair experience like a old-fashioned novel, but once every while the player themselves need to make a choice about what to do, and these choices influence the further outcome of the story. You might for example be given the choice to ask a certain question to someone, which could give you new information, or perhaps agitate someone enough for them to kill you. In ye olde days of actual paper Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, making choices also meant flipping through the pages a lot, as each choice would bring you to another page, but all of this hassle is of course streamlined in videogames, allowing for complex branching storylines but with a simple interface (usually, like in this case, in the form of a flowchart that shows exactly the result of each single choice). Rei-Jin-Gu-Lu-P however adds something interesting to the formula. Fusaishi gains the ability to be 'rewound' to the start of his ordeal every time he dies, with the preservation of all of his memories, which allows him to make choices at times he couldn't at first. For example, according to the rules of the mountain deity Shinnai, each and every night all villagers must cleanse their bodies, remain in their own dwellings locked from the inside, and go to bed early while the mist lasts. The first time Fusaishi dies is when he goes wandering outside during the night, where he is killed by a werewolf-like being. Thanks to his powers of rewinding though, he 'learns' the lesson of obeying the rules he thought nonsense, this time giving him the choice to go outside at night again, and the new option of remaining inside. In Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P it's thus often necessary to die on purpose, in order to learn new information that you can take back with you in time to avoid the same death a second time. Exploring all the choices and their outcomes, even if you know you might die, is a cornerstone of this game, as even death can be helpful for later rewinds.

Most of the story however is presented in a lineair fashion, and what you get is a very suspenseful mystery tale. Early on in the story, Fusaishi remarks that the werewolves ceremony is basically a strategic communication game, and that's precisely what it is. The villagers are randomly assigned their roles as humans/humans with special abilities/werewolves, and during the day, all the villagers must discuss together who they think is the most likely to be a werewolf. Some people might be suspected of being a werewolf because they appear to be acting differently from usual for example, while the way one person is trying to cast suspicion on someone else might be suspect on its own, as the werewolves among them are obviously trying to steer the discussion in a way as to kill of a human and not one of their own. And of course, there's the majority who at first doesnt' believe in werewolves, but are slowly but surely pushed in a position where they finally have accept they'll have to kill themselves or be killed. Add in the creepy background of the mountain forests and misty Yasumizu Village and you have an excellent closed circle mystery tale, with a good dash of supernatural elements for flavor. The supernatural elements are mostly about providing a background to keep the game fair for both the werewolves and the humans. They are what we'd call "rules" in the party game version of Werewolves and the supernatural only interferes with the pure logical/realistic side of the game if someone violates the rules.(i.e. the werewolves are only allowed to kill one person in the night, and are punished for that if they don't obey the rules). So at the core, the werewolves game is a purely fair whodunnit game, of humans trying to figure out who the werewolves are based on both psychological and physical clues. What is interesting is that Fusaishi, due to his rewinding powers, actually manages to change the game drastically several times. The roles of humans/werewolves are distributed randomly once the mist hits Yasumizu Village, but thanks to Fusaishi's rewinding shenanigans, the identity of the werewolves and humans are changed a couple of times. A person who is revealed to be a werewolf in Fusaishi's first loop might turn out to be a human in the second loop, and vice-versa. It's through these various 'versions' of the story that the player learns more about the various characters, as they all show different sides to the player through subsequent loops. But no matter who's who in the current loop, Fusaishi's goal remains the same: surviving the game and figuring out why this game exists in the first place.

While the background story of the revived werewolves and the mountain deity Shinnai are obviously fiction, I have to commend how fleshed out the religious side to the tale is. It borrows a lot from actual indigeneous Japanese nature religions and mythology, but also includes the anthropological side to religion. For example, a lot of attention is paid to the system of "adapting" older gods and deities into newer religions, which is a practice that has happened often in the history of Japanese religion. In a faraway past, I took several semesters on Japanese religion, and especially on how for example religions like Buddhism or state-led Shinto 'absorbed' other religions to gain legitimacy, and that's exactly one of the bigger topics mentioned in Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P. I think readers of writers like Kyougoku Natsuhiko and Mori Hiroshi will have a blast with the background story of this game, as it is fleshed out really well, with many ties to how religions actually developed in Japan.

It is therefore such a shame the last loop/scenario, which explains everything about the werewolf ceremony and the reason why Fusaishi is able to rewind in time is rather disappointing. Up until the last loop, the game did an excellent job at both using the above mentioned supernatural/religious elements in conjunction with the more realistic, anthropological explanation to underlying religious elements, but in the last loop, they are used in basically the least interesting manner possible.The ending basically tries to be both supernatural and realistic/logical, which can certainly be done, but the way it's done in Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P feels rather like an easy way out, resulting in something that never feels as satisfying an experience like earlier loops. What I do have to admit is how smart the clewing was in regards to the identity of the true mastermind behind everything. The hinting was really clever and subtle, but oh-so-obvious in hindsight.

Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P does add a very innovative feature after you beat the game, and it's something I have never ever seen done in mystery fiction before. In the Exposed Mode, you can replay the game from the start, but new lines of dialogues and inner monologue are added for all characters, not only protagonist Fusaishi. This means you can see what happened at a certain location while Fusashi wasn't around, but also what other characters (including the werewolves!) were thinking at certain points in the story. It gives a lot of insight in all the characters, showing things from their POV. In mystery fiction, you sometimes see something similar when the culprit has revealed their true colors, explaining what they were doing and/or thinking in earlier scenes, but in Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P's Exposed Mode, you get to see additions to practially every single scene, as well as for almost all characters. It's also a great way to explain some of the smaller questions about character motivation and events that happened throughout Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P, without slowing down the main story. I wish more story-based games had a mode like this! The whole game has voice acting for all the dialogue and inner monologue lines by the way, and that includes the Exposed Mode. I didn't like the voice actor of protagonist Fusaishi at all though, and his character (personality) was also far from my favorite, but the story itself, as well as the other characters were enough to get me hooked.

So all in all I did really enjoy Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P despite a somewhat disappointing ending. While it does not allow much room for the player to deduce much themselves (unlike for example Kamaitachi no Yoru, which was also a novel game), the story presented is a fantastic gripping tale that smartly utilized the rules of the Werewolves party game with a very richly thought-out background story revolving around the mountain deity Shinnai and other supernatural elements. It is a story where one can get really immersed in thanks to the gripping atmosphere and dramatic developments and it's certainly become one of the more interesting adventure games I've played this year. Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P apparently also has some links to another adventure by the same developers titled DMLC: Death Match Love Comedy, which I might try out in the future (as far as I know it's not a mystery game though, so it won't be discussed here probably).

Original Japanese title(s): 『レイジングループ』

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』

Summer Time Gone

「この世には、不思議なことなど何もないのだよ、関口君」

『姑獲鳥の夏』

"Nothing strange occurs in this world, Sekiguchi"

"The Summer of the Ubume"

Still alive, still alive. Just really slow at both reading and writing (reviews) lately...

1952. Japan is recuperating from World War II and started its first steps in what would be called the post-war economic miracle. All look towards the future. Or do they? One day, the writer Sekiguchi visits his old friend Chuuzenji Akihiko, also known as Kyougokudou, the name of his bookstore, to ask him the question, "Is it possible to be pregnant for 20 months?". The question refers to the unlikely, but very real ordeal that seems to be laid upon Kuonji Kyouko. With rumors of disappearing babies surrounding the Kuonji Clinic, Kyouko's husband having disappeared from a locked and observed room just before the pregnancy and other strange events, one is tempted to believe in a curse by an ubume (a youkai /Japanese ghost/demon born from the regret of a mother dying in childbirth). Kyougokudou, who also works as an exorcist, however answers that there is nothing strange in this world and proceeds to remove the mysterious veil that seems to cover this case in Kyougoku Natsuhihiko's Ubume no Natsu ("The Summer of the Ubume").

Oh, and let me make it clear at the start of this review: The Summer of the Ubume is available in English, so no "but it's in Japanese, so I can't read it anyway"!

A long time ago, I reviewed the audio dramas of Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Ame and Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Kaze, which were about the (mis)adventures of private detective Enokizu Reijirou (who has the power to read people's memories). Both dramas were based on two short story collections that are part of Kyougoku Natsuhiko's Hyakki Yakou ("Night Parade of a Hundred Demons") series. Ubume no Satsu is the first novel in the series (and Kyougoku's debut novel), introducing all the main characters and elements of the series. Not only do we meet bookshop-owner/exorcist/detective Kyougokudou and private detective Enokizu for the first time, but also other series regulars like narrator Sekiguchi, the policeman Kiba and Kyougokudou's sister Atsuko. And more importantly, we are shown our first glimpse of the wonderful world of youkai ('ghosts', 'demons').

The use of youkai in this series might be a bit different from what you'd expect if I said this was a detective series about ghosts/demons. Unlike series like Scooby-Doo! or novels with impossible murders that seemingly only could have been commited with help of supernatural powers, youkai are treated as a highly scientific and rational device. By which I don't mean that youkai actually exist as supernatural beings, but that the cultural construct of youkai is actually real. Youkai are treated as a cultural and social construct, a device invented by the people of yore to explain certain circumstances and happenings. The existence of a youkai itself might be irrational (is it?), but the ideas, the background of a youkai can all be examined rationally. In Ubume no Natsu, Kyougokudou explains a lot about the history of youkai (and in particular the ubume) from sociological and folkloric points of view and this is absolutely a treat for those into Japanese folklore. For those into mythology and urban legends, this is fantastic stuff and I enjoyed these parts enormously. The way Ubume no Natsu connects to youkai folklore isn't really by suggesting an ubume did it, but by mirroring the history and cultural functions of the ubume to the events in the story. And this is done really well.

I personally love detective stories where you learn more about the history of 'supernatural' beings / urban legends and where the folkloric/sociological functions are actually of importance to the plot. Gyakuten Saiban 5 / Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies has an interesting story for example, and the game Hayarigami - Keishichou Kaii Jiken Files ("Hayarigami - The Metropolitan Police Department's Strange Case Files") also features scenarios where you learn more about urban legends themselves (the contents), as well as the folkloric functions they have in society.

But writer Kyougoku obviously really, really likes writing about these kind of things and even more fields of science, like philosophy and it can be hard for those who 1) just want to read a mystery and 2) aren't interested in folklore. The first 100 pages of the story for example consist of a long discussion between narrator Sekiguchi and Kyougokudou about conciousness, the mind and perception, and while the topic does relate back to the main story, one can't deny that 100 pages is a bit long. This isn't a short story, and it's also not always a focused story and the somewhat pedantric tone of the story (mostly Kyougokudou who acts as a surrogate for writer Kyougoku) isn't for everybody.

The main problem of the story, the disappearance of Kyouko's husband from an observed locked room twenty months ago is... not really fair, though it does fit the atmosphere of the story, as well as the hints laid out throughout the narrative. There are also some more twists and turns to baffle the reader besides the locked room (though to be honest, I got most of the story except for the locked room). I am definitely not fan of the trick as is, but it does work in conjunction with the themes of the story and while I might really hate if it had been done by another writer, I'd say that Kyougoku does pull it off (the trick in the sequel, Mouryou no Hako ("Box of Mouryou") is similarly a bit disappointing as is, but great as a thematic device).

Ubume no Natsu, together with Mori Hiroshi's Subete ga F ni Naru - The Perfect Insider, forms the start of the so-called second wave of the Japanese New Orthodox/Authentic detective novel school by the way (Note: I normally use the term "orthodox" here, but because I mainly used "authentic" in my MA thesis, I might use both terms here at times). The New Orthodox school is both a revival, and reconstruction of the classic detective novel. Ayatsuji Yukito's debut work Jukkakukan no Satsujin is seen as the start of the New Orthodox movement and novels of the early writers in the movement like Abiko Takemaru, Norizuki Rintarou and Arisugawa Alice all showed strong influences from classic novels, but also deconstructive and reconstructive elements to the genre (thus making it "New" Orthodox, as opposed to just a copy). The second stage of this movement however, as envisioned by genre critic/scholar Kasai Kiyoshi, represented by novels like Ubume no Natsu and Subete ga F ni Naru - The Perfect Insider on the other hand, while still more-or-less classic puzzle plots, tend to be 1) very long novels and 2) 'a bit' more pedantric, which explains the different fields of sciences and more information being jammed between the pages.

The New Orthodox school is by the way most often seen in terms of the history of the Japanese detective novel. Kasai Kiyoshi for example looks strongly at it as a development stage for the detective novel, while writer/critic Shimada Souji also looks at it as a culturally specific movement in the history of the genre. Actually, in general, most of the genre critics/scholars (including bloggers) seem to be very focused on genre history (if it isn't that, than it's using detective novels as an object to discuss other discourses, like gender studies / political /religious fields etc.). Personally, I am not that interested in genre history an sich. Longtime readers will have noticed that I often write about the use of tropes in novels, so it shouldn't be surprising when I say that when I wrote my MA thesis on the Japanese New Orthodox school, I focused on the tropes that made up the school, rather than placing it in a genre history / comparing it to English genre history. Anyway, this is the reason you'll seldom see 1) publishing years in my reviews, 2) the term 'Golden Age' (as it historizes things) and discussions when/if it died/revived/etcetera here. I have considered writing a short history of Japanese detective fiction for this blog several times actually (to help contextualize things for readers), but as I am not a fan of that, and as I figured that as long as I focus more on tropes, a history isn't really needed...

Ah. I got distracted. Ubume no Natsu. Yes. A wordy mystery, with deep conversations on a wide variety of topics and a somewhat strange locked room mystery. If you're into Japanese folklore, go for it. If not... go read it anway because it's one of those rare cases that it's actually available in English. 

Original Japanese title(s): 京極夏彦　『姑獲鳥の夏』

Justice ~Future Mystery~

FIRE AWAY 心解き放つ

研ぎ澄ました瞳で

全ての謎を解き明かす

胸騒ぎの未来を今

"Justice ~Future Mystery~" (Two-Mix)

Fire away and release your heart

Solve all the mystery

With your sharp eyes

Can you feel the thrilling future now?

"Justice ~Future Mystery~" (Two-Mix)

I thought getting my Professor Layton vs Gyakuten Saiban review out on the net three days after the release was fast, but apparently, I can write/play games even faster. Hmm.

The legendary attorney Naruhodo/Phoenix Wright was disbarred eight years ago for a crime he didn't commit. He promptly escaped from maxi He passed some years as a poker player / pianist, but has now returned to the law world in Gyakuten Saiban 5 (to be released as Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies in the near future). And things have changed in eight years. Dark times are upon the legal world. The public has lost its trust in the legal system. Even attorneys and prosecutors themselves don't believe that justice is served in court anymore and feel forced to fabricate evidence themselves to ensure they reach their goals. Heck, things have gone so crazy that even prosecutors convicted for murder, can still stand in court and proceed their work! Naruhodo, backed up by his two subordinates Odoroki and Kokone, once agains stands in court to turn this grim situation around like he has done so many times in the past.

A new Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney game! Longtime readers know that I am a big fan of this courtroom drama game. I wrote my bachelor thesis based on the script of Gyakuten Saiban 3. I have discussed the game mechanics, the manga, the musical, the movie and spin-off titles like Gyakuten Kenji 2 and Professor Layton vs Gyakuten Saiban in the past on this blog. But a new title in the main series? It's been many years since Gyakuten Saiban 4, so I was very excited. Heck, I bought my Nintendo DS for the original Gyakuten Saiban, and my current Nintendo 3DS mostly for Gyakuten Saiban 5 (and Animal Crossing, of course).

As a detective game, I still think that the Gyakuten Saiban series is undefeated. There are many ways to translate detective fiction to a game, but the method original creator Takumi Shuu introduced in the world many years ago was just brilliant. The player had to find contradictions in testimonies in court, which in turn lead to new testimonies (with new contradictions), and it was by this process that the story progressed, because each new testimony brought you new information. What is so great about this system is, is that works as both a gameplay mechanic and detective fiction. A flawed detective game like Sherlock Holmes and the Silver Earring for example just forces you find a lot of evidence, and then suddenly everything is explained for you in a movie without any interaction. This might work in a book, but is boring as hell in a game. In the Gyakuten Saiban games however, every testimony gives you that distinct great feeling when you solve a mystery, and it makes you feel like a brilliant (but struggling) detective when you finally see the big picture of the case. Add in quirky humor, a great music and HOTBLOODED FINGERPOINTING, and there you have Gyakuten Saiban in a nutshell.

Last year's crossover title Professor Layton vs Gyakuten Saiban felt really fresh, because a slew of new mechanics and a unique world setting, brought us a new way to enjoy the courtroom. Witchcraft in a trial? This game made it work, and mechanics like mob testimonies kept the player on their toes. Gyakuten Saiban 5 however is set in the real world and does not differ in principle much from the previous games. Yes, there is that new mechanic based on psychology where you look for contradictions between a witness' testimony and his emotions, which actually works out quite well, but for some reason feels less 'organic' to the trial parts, than the magic tome and witchcraft rules in Professor Layton vs. Gyakuten Saiban. There is too much of a gap between parts where they keep hammering on the fact you need evidence in the court, and you then talk about how it is a contradiction that someone was feeling glad even though she should've been sad.

But more of the same of Gyakuten Saiban, is still quite good. There are some interesting cases to be solved here, including one that seems to be committed by a youkai (a supernatural being), for it was committed in a locked room where the seal on an ancient monster has been removed. Great stuff, as　the story 1) actually plays on the youkai boom in Japan that started several years ago, and 2) the theories and legends surrounding youkai are actually of vital importance to the plot, in a Kyougoku Natsuhiko way. Though I have to admit, the case also reminded me of a certain Mori Hiroshi story too. The case in the game is short, and you figure out who the murderer is quite fast, but the way the twists and turns are plotted, is very good.

Another case is set at a law high school with special attorney/prosecutor/judge classes. What makes this case so memorable is that it ties in well with the overall theme of the game, the so-called dark times of the law, without being too obvious so. The problem is addressed through the teaching goals of several teachers at the school (some think it' okay to forge evidence to get your client off the hook), but it never feels like they rubbing it your face. The case itself, where a teacher is killed in the same way as a mock trial scenario written by a student, is fun too, as it combines the school setting and the murder-according-to-a-scenario in an interesting way.

There are one or two instances, where events of an earlier case, are mirrored in a not-very-obvious way in later cases: this is excellent plotting: it shows that the writers didn't just brainstorm a couple of cases and stuck them together. The youkai case for example addresses issues which wll be of importance in the last case Naruhodo has to solve in this game, but it is luckily done subtle and shows how to do a proper storyline that consists of seperate, but related cases. In Gyakuten Kenji, this was done by tying up the storylines of the seperate cases through an overlapping entity, but I much more prefer this thematic mirroring done in Gyakuten Saiban 5. One problem however is that there were quite a few instances of cases in Gyakuten Saiban 5 mirroring events of earlier games: at some times does give the player a feeling of deja vu, because it is basically presenting the same case in a slightly different jacket. This is not foreshadowing or thematic mirroring, this is just reusing an old plot.

Oh, and this has always been a series that has its share of interesting murder settings, which include film studios, the prosecutor's office, courtrooms, an amusement park and an airplane, but even I was surprised they skipped 'water' and went straight for... outer space (in a way). Overall though, it does feel like Gyakuten Saiban 5 was made a bit 'safer' than spin-off title Gyakuten Kenji 2. The latter for example featured an Ellery Queen-like search in a prison and a much more tightely structured overall plotline. Gyakuten Saiban 5 is more or less what you'd expect, both in gameplay mechanics as in cases, and that is not a bad thing, but makes it hard to distinguish from other games in the series.

It's definitely not a perfect game though. It in fact suffers a bit from having too much legacy: the return of Naruhodo, the 'dark times of the law' and a bloated cast of returning characters in the final case which means nothing to someone who has never played a Gyakuten Saiban game before. It's not incomprehensible, but its hard to get into for a newcomer. Which is a shame, because it's one of the best detective games on the 3DS at the moment. Oh, and this has become a pet peeve of mine lately, but like in The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, this game has problems with presenting a coherent narration: the game keeps changing the point of view, going from this character to another. And at times, the character narrating (in the first person) isn't even the same as the character you're playing, mirroring the weird Watson/Holmes problem I encountered last week.

As someone who loves detecive fiction, would I recommend this game? Yes. And yes. The feeling you get when you slowly, but surely solve little contradictions in testimonies until you manage to turn things around in the courtroom, is something only this series can provide. There are some great cases in this game and thematic mirroring between cases is something what should be done more often in detective series. It is the fifth entry in a series though and builds upon that past, so you should play the previous games first.

As a Gyakuten Saiban fan, would I recommend this game? Yes. And yes. It feels at time very much as a reaction, to the (sometimes somewhat negative) reception of Gyakuten Saiban 4, but it does that mostly well, in my opinion. Music and animation are top-notch, the story addresses some serious themes that can be seen as a natural result of all the major cases Naruhodo has solved until now and there is quite a bit of fan service. It does give you a deju vu feeling at times though, and I don't think the way the new character Kokone is implemented in the story is correct (i.e. she comes off to me as a Mary Sue), but hey, it's a new Gyakuten Saiban 5 and we've all been waiting for this.

Original Japanese title(s): 　『逆転裁判５』. TBR as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies

Mystic Antique

ゲッゲッゲゲゲのゲー　夜は墓場で運動会

楽しいな　楽しいな　お化けは死なない　病気もなんにもない

『ゲゲゲの鬼太郎』 （いずみみたく）

Gegegege no ge Nights are spent on a graveyard sports competition
Oh what fun, oh what fun, ghosts don't die and don't become ill
"Gegege no Kitarou" (Izumi Mitaku)

It's been very cold here lately, but that also means that it is perfect weather to lie all tucked up in bed listening to audio dramas with my headphones.

And like I said I would in the previous post, I listened to the audio drama adaptation of Kyougoku Natsuhiko's Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Kaze ("Bag of Hundred Random Demons - Wind"), the sequel to Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Ame. Kaze is like Ame a collection of three stories featuring the private detective Enokizu Reijirou, who has the power to read people's memories, and his entourage of sidekicks (slaves?) and other acquaintances who one way or another will get in trouble because of Enokizu's rather eccentric personality. The stories are light mystery adventures and always have some kind of connection to youkai (spirits/demons/ghosts) and other Japanese folkloristic entities, a field author Kyougoku specializes in. For slightly more on Kyougoku Natsuhiko and the Hyakki Yakou series, I refer to the previous post. Actually, I recommend reading that review before reading this one anyway, because this review is really just a continuation of the previous one...

Kaze repeats the experience I had with Ame: it was fun to listen to, but I have to admit that it does not really deliver on the mystery side of things, despite the fact that the stories always feature two-layered mysteries: the cases themselves and the enigmatic behaviour of Enokizu (and bookshop owner Kyougokudou), seen from the eyes of narrator Motoshima (an ex-client who keeps crossing paths with the gang). But the stories are quite simple, despite the double layers of mystery and the charm to the series is purely derived from the references to youkai/folklore and the crazy characters.

In Gotokuneko - Bara Juuji Tantei no Gaizen ("Gotokuneko - The Determination of the Rose Cross Detective"), Motoshima happens to overhear the name Enokizu as he was out buying a maneki-neko. The girl mitsuko wants to hire Enokizu to help her with a big problem: she has been working for many, many years in the service of her master and has not seen her mother for twenty years. Recently, she snuck out to meet her, but her mother, to Mitsuko's great surprise, says that she is an imposter and that her daughter has been living for years with her now! Because Mitsuko saw a cat (that should have been dead many years ago) running around her home just before she visited her mother, she suspects that a cat-demon might have taken the place of her mother and wants Enokizu to help her get rid of the monster.

To spoil the story: it was not the work of a real cat-demon. And it does not take a genius like Enokizu or Kyougokudou to see what's going on here. Apparently, narrator Motoshima doesn't read Sherlock Holmes, or else he would have guessed the solution almost immediately. I have to admit that the trap Enokizu and Kyougokudou laid to catch 'the cat-demon' was really fun and original though, but it only proves the point that these short stories are mostly carried by the characters and not the plot. Though it is not a bad plot.

The events in Ungaikyou - Bara Juuji Tantei no Zengi ("Ungaikyou - The Doubt of the Rose Cross Detective") are a direct result of the last case and starts off with the kidnapping of narrator Motoshima by a bunch of gangsters, as an act of revenge on the Rose Cross Detective Agency. Shuntou, the guy in charge of the gangsters (who in turn works for The Big Boss) though admits that Motoshima is not really part of the Rose Cross Detective Agency and agrees to let him free. They have to pretend that Motoshima breaks free, wounding Shuntou in the process, or else his underlings might tell the Big Boss that Shuntou let Motoshima go. Motoshima escapes, but he hears later that Shuntou was found murdered, at the exact place where he pretended to have stabbed Shuntou during his escape. Motoshima hopes Enokizu will help him, but it seems that a spirit detective Kannazuki, who uses a magic mirror to read the truth, has challenged Enokizu in a deduction battle.

This is the first story where a murder is actually the main focus, instead of a side-dish and with the narrator as a suspect, this story also feels a lot more exciting and interesting than the other stories. The spirit detective also spices things up, but the actual detective plot is once again not particularly complex. It is easy to guess what happened, even without the power to read memories like Enokizu, which is true for actually all these Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro short stories. They are fun to listen to, but they hardly need someone with special powers (Enokizu) or an excentric genius detective (Kyougokudou).

Motoshima has been avoiding the Rose Cross Detective Agency because of his kidnapping in the previous case, but it seems that cases reach him even then. Menreiki - Bara Juuji Tantei no Giwaku ("Menreiki - The Suspicion of the Rose Cross Detective")  starts off with a friend of Motoshima, living in the same building telling Motoshima that he was burgled. Or that is maybe not the right word: the 'burglar' actually left something. A box. With a mask in it. A cursed mask. Of course, you only get cursed when you put that thing on your fac.... oh, what, Motoshima's friend put it on his face before reading the warning? Oh.

There are more events in this story, but it comes down on the same formula: Kyougokudou and Enokizu figuring things out almost immediately who proceed to lay a trap for the masterminds behind the case, while the narrator Motoshima runs around cluelessly. The mystery is easy to solve, but the characters once again manage to keep things interesting enough for me to listen all the way to the end of the case. Although I have to admit that ninety minutes per story is a bit too long. Judging by the page count of the books, I guess each story would have been slightly shorter than 200 pages, which is relatively long, but it is weird to listen to an audio drama based on a story of 200 pages that is actually longer than a drama based on a story of 300~400 pages. These stories could have been 45 minutes shorter and would have resulted in more focused and better storytelling, I think (though I loved the little segments in between that provided more information on youkai and the characters from the Hyakki Yagyou series).

I definitely wouldn't recommend either Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro books/audio drama series on the merits of the detective plots, but the characters are fun and the underlying themes of youkai and folklore are really interesting. This set, Kaze is better than the previous set though, with more interesting stories as well as benefiting from a (kind of) storyline that binds the three stories.

Original Japanese title(s): 京極夏彦 『百器徒然袋――風』: 「五徳猫 薔薇十字探偵の慨然」 / 「雲外鏡 薔薇十字探偵の然疑」 / 「面霊気 薔薇十字探偵の疑惑」

Antique Mystic

ゲッゲッゲげげのゲー　朝は寝床でグーグーグー

楽しいな　楽しいな　お化けにゃ学校も試験も何もない

『ゲゲゲの鬼太郎』 （いずみみたく）

Gegegege no ge, mornings are spent in bed going goo goo goo

Oh what fun, oh what fun, ghosts don't have schools or exams!

"Gegege no Kitarou" (Izumi Mitaku)

I have read quite some books from a range of authors these last few years, but there are still notable blind spots in both my Japanese and non-Japanese readings. One of my major Japanese blind spots is Kyougoku Natsuhiko. Kyougoku is known as a youkai (spirit/monster/demon) expert, which is actually a really interesting field. I have to admit that my knowledge of youkai comes mostly from comic series like Gegege no Kitarou and Inu Yasha, but there is something.. magical to the whole world of supernatural beings with their own characteristics and such. Heck, I actually reviewed the English-language youkai guide Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide here. I should have started reading Kyougoku ages ago! Though I have to admit that the sheer length of his novels does kinda scare me. Those bricks are big!

Kyougoku's main series is called the Hyakki Yakou ("Night Parade of Hundred Demons") series, set in postwar Japan. The series' detective is Chuuzenji Akihiko, who has the nickname Kyougokudou, which is the name of his bookstore (the series is therefore also refered to as the Kyougokudou series, but Kyougoku himself does not seem to like the name). Youkai don't actually appear in the series, but the cases Kyougokudou handles are always related to youkai and other folkloristic customs. Which makes this series really interesting for people interested in anthropology, I guess. And because there is both a film and an English translation of the first novel in the series, Ubume no Natsu ("Summer of the Ubume"), I really have no excuse for not trying this series. Heck, by all means, I should have started this series with Ubume no Natsu, considering all those ways to experience the story!

And yet, my first encounter with Kyougoku Natsuhiko is an audio drama of his novellete collection Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Ame ("Bag of Hundred Random Demons - Rain"). This is a supplement installment to the Hyakki Yakou series, with the main protagonist being Enokizu Reijirou, a private detective of the Rose Cross Detective Agency and friend of Kyougokudou. But can we really call Enokizu a detective? He doesn't investigate. He doesn't deduce. He just solves cases. Which is partly helped by his power to read other people's memories, partly helped by his overblown self-confidence, partly helped by his charisma and partly helped by his assistant. Enogizu is not particularly smart, but he somehow manages to solve every case he takes. But it usually takes some explanation from Kyougokudou himself before anybody even knows what happened.

This is a really weird series. Judging from the (cool) covers on the Kyougoku novels and the length of those books, I had always thought that they were very serious, dark novels. And I don't know much about the main Hyakki Yakou series, but Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Ame is a straight comedy book. It is really a character-driven series, with Enokizu dominating every scene he is in. The fun of the stories is derived from seeing Enokizu doing seemingly random stuff and Kyougokudou acting all mysteriously from the eyes of the narrator, only to have everything to the narrator explained at the end. Enokizu does not seem to be handling many murder cases though and the three stories here evoke at times the feelings of some of the Holmes stories, where enigmatic and puzzling situations (but not criminal per se) perplex the narrator, until the detective explains everything.

The narrator first visits the Rose Cross Detective Agency in Narikama - Barijuuji Tantei no Yuuutsu ("Narikama - The Melancholy of the Rose Cross Detective"). His niece was raped by the son of an influential politician and his friends. The narrator tried to get this story out in the open, but the father of the guilty son managed to hush up everything. Having nowhere else to go, the narrator hopes that Enokizu can give him justice. Which Enokizu gladly gives him. The mystery in this story is mostly in guessing what Enokizu is trying to do with Kyougokudou's help (even using a mysterious rice cooking pot ritual to lure out the gang of rapers to see who deserved the most punishment). This is like a Lupin story with a charismatic protagonist trying to get revenge in the name of a poor girl, but this is hardly a detective story.

The narrator of the previous story returns to the Rose Cross Detective Agency to give his thanks to Enogizu in Kameosa - Bara Juuji Tantei no Uppun ("Kameosa - The Frustration of the Rose Cross Detective") and there he learns about the detective's newest assignment: Enokizu's father wants him to locate a precious pot (kame) and their pet turtle (kame). The narrator, being drawn by Enokizu's charisma, wants to help him and with the help of Kyougokudou, learns about a mansion full of pots where the pot Enokizu is looking for might be. Coincidentally, they also find out that the turtle they are looking for might also be in the neighbourhood. The mystery in this story comes the dual investigation (which seem to be connected in some strange way) and finding out the link between those cases. Once again, the story is dominated by the random actions of Enokizu and the meddling (?) of Kyougokudou (who usually sees through everything rather quickly), with the narrator having trouble keeping up with the two grand forces.

In Yamaoroshi - Bara Juuji Tantei no Fungai ("Yamaoroshi - The Indignation of the Rose Cross Detective"), Enokizu is away from the office for another case, forcing his assistant Masuda to take on a request by a friend of Kyougokudou himself. This friend, a monk, suspects something might be wrong with an old acquaintance of him whom he has not seen in 18 years: when he called his home, they first said that they didn't know the monk and the second time they said that his friend died in the war. Fearing something might have happened to the monk's friend, Masuda and the narrator head to the friend's house, which has been turned into an exclusive haute cuisine restaurant. And luck has it that his own investigations have also brought Enokizu here. Which kinda mirrors the events in the previous story. This is the best story in the collection though. While it does not take a genius to figure out what is going on and there are some really forced coincidences in this story, it is an entertaining adventure for the detectives. There is just little to add to that: this is a story that is fun to listen to, but there is nothing to really praise or critique. The "Ok, that was fun, what shall I do now..."-feeling.

You might disagree with Dine, but a murder in a story does feel a lot better than no murder. The three stories in Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Ame are rather light mysteries that just happen to seem more mysterious, because of the totally random and enigmatic behavior of Enokizu. As mysteries, they might disappoint a bit, but I have to admit, as a character-driven mystery (similar to NiSiOiSiN's Kubishime Romanticist), this is really enjoyable. I also love the anthropological / folkloristic background information to the stories, which really makes me eager to start in the main series.

But I think I'll first listen to the audio drama of Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro - Kaze ("Bag of Hundred Random Demons - Wind"), the sequel to this collection!

Is there by the way a detective series that takes it cues from urban legends? I am naturally familiar with Norizuki Rintarou's An Urban Legend Puzzle and I should really continue with the game Hayarigami, but any other recommendations?

Original Japanese title(s): 京極夏彦（原）　『百器徒然袋――雨』：　「鳴釜 薔薇十字探偵の憂鬱」 / 「瓶長 薔薇十字探偵の鬱憤」 / 「山颪 薔薇十字探偵の憤慨」

「あなたは誰？」

「人間と言うのは本来、醜い面と美しい面を併せ持っているものなのかも知れない。誰でも両方を少しずつ見せたり隠したりしながら生きている。」
『金田一少年の事件簿：殺戮のディープブルー』

"Maybe people by nature hold both an ugly and a beautiful side. Every man lives showing and hiding bits of both sides." "The Case Files of Young Kindaichi: Deep Blue Massacre"

Some things you read or watch because you know what to expect, especially with longer running series. So when I started with Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Satsuriku no Deep Blue ("The Case Files of Young Kindaichi: Deep Blue Massacre"), I was expecting several things. Gruesome murders. A motive rant made by the murderer. Possibly followed by a 'Shut Up Mokuba Hannibal' by Kindaichi. And token catchphrases like "nazo wa subete toketa" ("All the riddles are solved!") and "jicchan no na ni kakete" ("In the name of gramps!"). Because catchphrases are superspecialawesome. And of course, all these things were present in the book. Especially the gruesome murder was quite... gruesome with hearts being ripped out from chests. Nyeh.

The story starts with a terrorist hostage situation, with Kindaichi as one of the hostages and a leader/murderer calling himself King Shiisaa (it took me half the book to realize it was not meant as King Caesar, which in Japan contrary to the English-speaking world, is apparently actually pronounced in the right way). And stuff happens. Blah Blah Blah, Attack mode, Blah. Mediocre story, probably due it being originally meant as a movie set-up. And of course, everyone knows Morse code and everything is online. It felt more like a Kindaichi story by early writer Kanari instead of a novel written by the superior current writer-in-charge Amagi.

But still, as long as I am not robbed of my catchphrases and bloody murders, I tend to be fairly mild with my Brooklyn Rage towards mediocre Kindaichi stories compared to other mediocre detectives. Screw consistency, I have money. Or something like that. The offer of new Kindaichi material has been minimal these last few years (this year it's two Nintendo DS games and one story), but at least it's consistent. Of course, a new drama series based on the newer stories would be superspecialawesome and bound to attract a new audience of fans, if not only because Kindaichi drama always feature Johnny artists as protagonist Hajime and are always widely popular (then again, Johnny's are everywhere.)

On a side note, the book Yokai Attack! - The Japanese Monster Survival Guide makes a very interesting read on youkai, Japanese monsters/spirits and the like. Series like Umezu's Cat-Eyed Boy, Takahashi's Inu Yasha, Tezuka's Dororo and Mizuki's GeGeGe no Kitarou all feature loads of youkai, both by incorporating classic ones or by making new youkai based on classics. From well known traditional youkai like kappa, tengu and onibaba to more recent urban legend-like ones like Kuchisake Onna ("Slit-mouth woman") and Toilet no Hanako ("Hanako of the Toilet"), there all here in one handy guide. If in the least interested in monsters, mythology, Japan and horror (in all possible combinations of the above) this is a must-read. In America.