Magic of the Word

Magic of the Word

大丈夫　もしどんな明日に辿り着いたとしても

君の言葉ひとつで強くなれるから

「Magic」 （ 愛内里菜）

Magic of the Word

It's okay, it doesn't matter what kind of tomorrow we'll arrive at

I can become stronger with just a single word from you

"Magic" (Aiuchi Rina)

I usually write the introducing paragraph as last and it is only now, at the very last moment, that I remember that the TV drama Trick features too features a magician detective rather prominently...

Many moons ago, I wrote a review of Awasaka Tsumao's Kijutsu Tantei Soga Kajou, a short story collection featuring a female stage magician. Unlike Jonathan Creek, Soga was not mostly occupied with impossible crimes, but it was still an enjoyable book. This was partly because the world of stage magic really came alive here: Awasaka was a prolific stage magician (who even won prizes for his performances!) and he made great use of his knowledge when writing the Soga stories. Today's book has a similar history: Clayton Rawson's The Great Merlini: The Complete Stories of the Magician Detective collects all of the short stories featuring The Great Merlini, a stage magician and amateur detective often called in by the police in impossible crimes. Rawson too was an amateur magician and you can feel the influence of that in each and every story in this collection.

I was kinda surprised I already had a Clayton Rawson tag on this blog, as I was convinced I had never read anything by him. But I had indeed read something by him, but written in his function as editor of EQMM. I think this was the first and only time I added a tag for an editor.

When I first looked at the table of contents of The Great Merlini: The Complete Stories of the Magician Detective, I was quite surprised at how many stories it featured. But then I discovered that many of these stories are actually very short stories, some just a few pages. They are quite amusing though and I can absolutely appreciate how minimalist these stories are (I don't love Q.B.I: Queen's Bureau of Investigation for nothing!), but it also means I'm not even going to try to discuss these stories separately: they are just too short and I'd give away too much even with a short description. In general, these stories feature one simple problem and the solution usually hinges on just one single hint or mistake by the murderer. Nothing deep and they feel a bit like Encyclopedia Brown stories at times, but like I said, I quite like this format some times. For those interested, the titles of the stories are: The Clue of the Tattoed Man, The Clue of the Broken Legs, The Clue of the Missing Motive, Merlini and the Lie Detector, Merlini and the Vanished Diamonds, Merlini and the Sounds Effects Murder, Merlini and the Photographic Clues and The World’s Smallest Locked Room.

From Another World is the first 'normal' short story and features that famous variant of a locked room murder which has been sealed with tape from inside. A wealthy financier obsessed wih ESP conducts an experiment with a psychic in his office, which has been sealed off with tape to make sure nothing could interfere. That kinda troubles the subsequent investigation in the man's death though, who was found murdered inside the taped room. The solution... is actually always the very first one I think of when I think of the taped locked room trope, so that was kinda disappointing. There are some minor details that make it a bit more interesting, but in general, this is a rather simple story. I haven't seen that many examples of the taped locked room that really impressed me, now I think about it. Heck, at the moment, I can only remember Arisugawa Alice's Malay Tetsudou no Nazo, and that was just an okay one.

I heard Off the Face of the Earth often mentioned as a fantastic impossible disappearance story and it is! A self-proclaimed alien (who looks like a normal human being) claims he can foretell the future and prophecies the disappereance of a girl, who actually does disappear at the stated day and time. The alien then prophecies another disapperance, that of Judge Keeler, whom has been the subject of a corruption investigation. The police keep the judge under constant observation and on the exact day and time foretold, two policemen see the judge enter a phone booth at a train station. But the man doesn't come out and when the policemen go check, they discover the judge is gone, even though they kept their eyes on the booth all the time! Very well plotted and constructed impossible mystery that very much feels like stage magic being performed. Easily the best of the volume.

Nothing is Impossible, the title says, but aliens entering to an locked office, killing one man, stripping another man of his clothes (without messing up their arrangement) and then walking out through the walls is kinda improbable. But it does seem like that's what happened at first sight. Of course, the Great Merlini shows there might be another possible explanation for this all. That explanation is a bit improbable too however, as it means a risky plan with a rather low effort/gain ratio for the murderer. The fundamental ideas (yes, there are multiple plans going on here) are sorta okay, but they don't seem to be used to their full extent here.

Miracles—All in the Day’s Work has Inspector Gavigan be a fortunate, or unfortunate witness to a locked room murder (he was just on his way for some days of rest), when his friend is found murdered inside the office. The biggest problem of this story is that the solution seems way too obvious from the beginning. Yes, there is more to this story with an ingenious plan of the murderer (ahem) with tricks and gimmicks and gadgets and all, but all of that is meaningless if you can figure out the murderer by just asking a very fundamental question that I'm sure anyone would ask themselves.

All in all, I'd say that The Great Merlini: The Complete Stories of the Magician Detective is a decent story collection. Off the Face of the Earth is a keeper, and there are some okay short shories. I'm actually more a fan of the short shorts in this collection than of the 'normal' short stories, but anyway, I certainly enjoyed my first encounter with the Great Merlini and I hope to tackle the novels soon.

Deep Blue Bloom

Blue,over the Blue

すべては変わりゆく

だから今は叫んでいい

それは やさしさへと 

「Blue, Over the Blue」 （『探偵神宮寺三郎 Kind of Blue』より）

Blue, over the blue

Everything changes

That's why it's okay to cry out

Towards gentleness 

"Blue, Over the Blue" (From: Detective Jinguuji Saburou: Kind of Blue)

Oh, wow, I just realized I've now gone through all main entries of the Detective Jinguuji Saburou series!  I still remember when I first discovered the series: I happened to be in Japan in the summer of 2007, just when the 11th game was released and I picked it up in a whim. Have been a big fan of the series since. I have reviewed a lot, but not all of the games on the blog, so I might write a big master post about the series and all the games in the future.

Tantei Jinguuji Saburou series
The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case (1987) [Nintendo Famicom Disk System]
The Unfinished Reportage (1996) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn]
At the End of the Dream (1998) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn]
Before the Light Fades (1999) [Sony PlaySation]
Innocent Black (2002) [Sony PlayStation 2] 
Kind of Blue (2004) [Sony PlayStation 2]
The White Phantom Girl (2005) [Nintendo GameBoy Advance]
Ashes and Diamonds (2009) [Sony PlayStation Portable]
The Red Butterfly (2010) [Nintendo DS]
Rondo of Revenge (2012) [Nintendo 3DS]

Business has not been well for the Jinguuji Detective Agency in the four months after the events of Innocent Black, which separated private detective Jinguuji Saburou from his assistant Youko. One day, Jinguuji is hired by Imaizumi, a young captain of the Kantou Meijigumi crime syndicate and long-time personal friend of Jinguuji. Imaizumi hopes to get some dirt on Gamou, a veteran gangster who recently returned to the crime syndicate after serving seven years in prison for murder. Gamou was expecting an instant-prison-promotion, but because things are not going as fast as he had hoped, Gamou's been making a lot of trouble lately, under the name of the Kantou Meijigumi. Jinguuji is to find out what Gamou's been up to and get Imaizumi some leverage to get Gamou out of the way. Meanwhile, Jinguuji is also hired by the elderly members of a jazz band: their leader Eddy is in the hospital and he has been mumbling a certain song in his coma. The members want to find that song and let Eddy hear it one last time. The search for the legendary song "Blue, Over the Blue" in the 2004 PlayStation 2 videogame Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Kind of Blue ("Detective Jinguuji Saburou: Kind of Blue") is a lot more difficult than expected though and full with encounters with new enemies and old friends.

Kind of Blue is the ninth game in the Detective Jinguuji Saburou series, and the direct sequel to Innocent Black (2002). In fact, these two are the only games in the whole series that were designed right from the start to form a set and some plotpoints from Innocent Black are not resolved until Kind of Blue, which is unique in the series (the games usually features standalone stories). The story of Kind of Blue however is not as tightly planned as that of Innocent Black, I think. Like most Detective Jinguuji Saburou games, the plot starts out fairly innocently: the investigation into Gamou's side-business and looking for the song "Blue, Over the Blue". But then the plot suddenly tries to tackle a very big problem (probably the biggest in the history of the series), only to back out at the last moment. I'm almost certain that because of Developer Circumstances and Budgets, a large portion of the original plot was cut, because it was rather obvious they were working towards something really big, only to finish it with a very short "oh, by the way, remember that one thing? It's solved". The rest of the game revolves mainly around the search for "Blue, Over the Blue", which is definitely a great tune, but this investigation is rather slow (even if it does involve murder later on). The overall mystery plot is captivating though (even with the slow pacing) and despite the rather bleak, hopeless tone at the start of the story, Kind of Blue manages to leave the player with a good feeling at the end of the game.

Innocent Black (2002) was very controversial because the plot writers somehow thought that sending Jinguuji's assistant Youko away would be fun. Youko, who is just the second-most important character in the series and had been around since the very first game in 1987. Her return in Kind of Blue was thus not very surprising. But now that I know what happens in both Innocent Black and Kind of Blue, I think it's obvious the writers sent Youko away in Innocent Black, in order to tell the story of Kind of Blue, which really has a blue and sad atmosphere. But sadly, this also involved writing Youko as a character not at all like she was portrayed in earlier games and the end result is not nearly as neat as the writers had hoped for, I think. I'm just glad she's back for the rest of the series.

Innocent Black was the first game in the series developed by WorkJam and I mentioned in the review I thought the game a bit too linear. Kind of Blue is an improvement in that respect. The money system is not even worth mentioning (it's basically an unneccesary system), but Kind of Blue was the first game in the series to introduce the Talk Profile System: an interrogating mechanic where you need to coax people in giving you information, for example by sweet-talking them, threatening them, or pointing out contradictions in their tales. Every opppenent requires a different approach, and it is actually really fun finding out how to get everyone to spill the beans. It really makes you feel like you're one of those hardboiled detectives who outwit their opponenets with fast talking and thinking, coupled with a slight hint of Holmes' observational powers. Since its first appearance in Kind of Blue, the Talk Profile System has appeared on-and-off in following Detective Jinguuji Saburou games.
 
The soundtrack of Kind of Blue deserves a special mention. While jazz has always been a big influence on the Detective Jinguuji Saburou games, this is the first time the story also involves jazz and the title song "Blue, Over the Blue" is truly a great number. You'll hear it a number of times in the course of the story, as you slowly find more bits and pieces of the composition, but the song never bores. The game does feature a lot of tracks taken from Innocent Black though, strenghtening the idea that these two games form one set together.

Overall though, I think Innocent Black is better than Kind of Blue though. While Innocent Black was less 'gamey' (as in: fewer game mechanics), I thought the overall story and pacing was better than those of Kind of Blue. The one thing that Innocent Black really has against it is the fact the plot is incomplete, as it was obviously produced with the sequel in mind to resolve some plotpoints. Kind of Blue is better than Innocent Black as a videogame (more interesting game mechanics) and manages to restore the faults of Innocent Black's plot, but the main story feels incomplete, and the elements that did make it have very slow pacing.
 
Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Kind of Blue definitely managed to improve at some points compared to the previous game, but story-wise, it was not as tightly plotted as Innocent Black and also less coherent. Taken together, Innocent Black and Kind of Blue form an interesting set within the long-running series, as I will agree that the developers did had the guts to try something new with the status-quo of the protagonists in these two games, though I can't say it was done successfully. I think that in my mind, Innocent Black and Kind of Blue will forever remain games that will be labeled "interesting stories, that sadly enough were heading for the wrong direction".

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵神宮寺三郎　Kind of Blue』

Turnabout Showtime

「お化けにゃ学校も試験なんにもない」

『ゲゲゲの鬼太郎』 （熊倉一雄）

"Ghost don't have school, exams or anything"

"Gegege no Kitarou" (Kumakura Kazuo)

My memories of the school festival at Kyoto University two years ago can be summed up with: sitting in a small room selling club magazines and books, eating fried icecream and crocodile meat. Was probably doing something wrong.

After witnessing the suicide jump of her classmate, 17-year old Machiko moves back to Tokyo and enters the famous Tezuka Academy. She had hoped to get away from all the sad memories, but there's no rest for Machiko: already on her first day at her new school one of her classmates dies after being hit by a car. Machiko is quite shocked to overhear a conversation of the police saying it was not an accident and just as she thinks of looking more into the case, another of her classmates dies under very suspicious circumstances. Who is killing off Machiko's classmates and why? Machiko and her boyfriend's investigations go through twists and turns until all is revealed at the school festival in Akagawa Jirou's Shisha no Gakuensai ("School Festival of the Dead").

Akagawa Jirou is an extemely prolific mystery writer, specializing in light-hearted, light mystery novels. His most famous series is the Calico Cat Holmes series (which stars a cat as a detective!) and his work is often translated to small screen adaptations (and other media, including film and videogames). Shisha no Gakuensai is one of his juvenile mysteries: it's a rather straightforward, simple mystery novel more enjoyed as 'a story' rather than 'a mystery'.

I know there's a film adaptation of Shisha no Gakuensai (starring Fukada Kyouko), though I am not sure whether this novel was written for the film or not. Anyway, the book does feel like a film: the story makes quick cuts, the reader is always witness to the final moments of each murder victim, there's a small love story and especially the ending at the school festival feels incredibly made-for-film (you'll have to read it yourself to understand it though). As a mystery novel, there's absolutely nothing clever about it, and as a reader, you're just along for the ride as you follow Machiko's misadventures, as practically nothing is properly clued.

But considering that I saw that one reviewer on Amazon mentioned (s)he already read the novel in elementary school, I guess that that the novel wasn't aimed at me in the first place. If I was a much younger female in elementary / early middle school, I might have loved it. But then again that's a lot of ifs there. As a mystery though, Shisha no Gakuensai isn't really worth mentioning and even if the ending does have a surprise for the reader, it kinda comes out of nowhere and can not be considered really interesting in terms of mystery plotting. For younger readers, this might be fun though as it is sorta thrilling and all...

I don't read a lot of Akagawa Jirou, but it seems like most of his works feature young female protagonists, very often with an older love interest. This book has 17-year old Machiko and her college student boyfriend, Tantei Monogatari too consisted of the odd couple Naomi and Tsuchiyama. Akagawa Jirou's Sanshimai Tanteidan ("Three Sisters Detective Club") naturally also features female protagonists and Calico Cat Holmes is also female. Most of Akagawa's books I've read are a bit old too, so his somewhat idealized young female protagonists (who juggle between love and detection) can feel quite outdated at times.

I think Shisha no Gakuensai works okay as a mindless mystery-type of story for children, but it's quite bland for most of the time, with only the titular school festival at the very end to make any impression. I'm obviously not the intended public for this book, but I might have enjoyed it reasonably had I been at elementary school, I think. I don't mean that in an insulting way; the publisher actually states that the book is kinda intended for the upper classes in elementary school, I noticed just as I was writing this last paragraph of the review. Ah well, sometimes it's good to read something meant for young and flexible minds!

Original Japanese title(s): 赤川次郎　『死者の学園祭』

Memory of Butterfly

"Ah, this is kinda relaxed. So hard to turn of my brain. I have to stop thinking. Starting.....now! ........ Hey, it worked! Oh, no, that's thinking..."

"Make Room for Lisa" (The Simpsons)

Doesn't the word "cocoon" actually kinda resemble one? With the round forms and all...

Writer Alice series
46 Banme no Misshitsu ("The 46th Locked Room") (1992)
Dali no Mayu ("Dalí's Cocoon") (1993)
Russia Koucha no Nazo ("The Russian Tea Mystery") (1994)
Sweden Kan no Nazo ("The Swedish Mansion Mystery") (1995)
Brazil Chou no Nazo ("The Brazilian Butterfly Mystery") (1996)
Eikoku Teien no Nazo ("The English Garden Mystery") (1997)
Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken ("The -Castle of Screams- Murder Case") (2001)
Malay Tetsudou no Nazo ("The Malay Railroad Mystery") (2002)
Swiss Dokei no Nazo ("The Swiss Watch Mystery") (2003)
Nagai Rouka no Aru Ie ("The House with the Long Hallway") (2010)

Doujou Shuuichi was not only known as the owner-director of a jewelry store chain, but also as a great admirer of Salvador Dalí. He owned several of Dalí's art objects and he even sported the same distinctive mustache! But just enjoying art is sometimes not enough to relieve stress, so Doujou also owned his own floating tank, which he used for meditation and rest. Little did he know that he would be falling in eternal rest inside his 'cocoon'. After Doujou missed a meeting at the office, his brother and some employees go looking for him at his house and discover him murdered inside the floating tank. But the crime scene is full of oddities: a clothes basket was overturned, Doujou's clothes are nowhere to be found and most striking: his distinctive Dalí mustache was gone! Himura Hideo, assistant-professor in criminology, once again heads out to the crime scene for his 'fieldwork', together with good friend and mystery writer Arisugawa Alice to solve the mystery of the missing mustache in Arisugawa Alice's Dali no Mayu ("Dalí's Cocoon", 1993).

This was the second book featuring Himura and Alice, released just one year after their debut in the amusing locked room murder mystery 46 Banme no Misshitsu. While the fourth novel in the series also featured an impossible crime, Dali no Mayu is more like a classic Queen story, featuring a strange crime scene (as you can guess by the fact that the author and the narrator share the same name: Arisugawa is influenced by Queen). No clothes on the crime scene! A missing mustache! I quite liked this premise and was hoping for something baffling with long Queenian deduction chains like Arisugawa had written in other novels like Kotou Puzzle.

And I really shouldn't have that high expectations. Dali no Mayu is not a bad mystery novel, but very bland comparing to other novels in the series, or specifically the ones before and after it. The initial premise is good, but the plot feels like it had several loose ideas strung together in a rather uninspired way. A lot of the mystery is already resolved halfway through the book not through the power of the mind, but sheer luck of the police and the rest of the book feature red herrings that feel a bit too much like red herrings: as if they were just written to pad out the story, rather than to improve on the story. There were at least two distinct moments where I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Was that really believable?! Would anyone really have done that?!  There are some good ideas in Dali no Mayu for an excellent mystery novel (I especially like the idea behind the role of the murder weapon, though that again is burdened by something really unbelievable), but it feels like every idea is just executed at just half of what Arisugawa could have done with them.

Oh, and a quick trip to Japanese fan-culture: it's been a while since I read the first novel in the series, so I can't remember whether the Writer Alice was like this from the start, but man, this second novel already feels strongly aimed at fujoshi with Himura and Alice's interactions. I had always thought that the shift towards catering to the fujoshi public came later, but putting Himura and Alice in situations that causes the fandom to squeal in pleasure was apparently already present this early in the series. Heck, nowadays I have the feeling that Arisugawa Alice only writes really good mystery novels for his Student Alice series, while he leaves the less complex plots for the Writer Alice series, which simply sells because of its fujoshi public. There's a reason why those audio dramas of this series (reviews here, here, here, here and here) are produced by Momogre. Not that I'm not trying to be antagonistic or dismissive of a rather big group of fans or something, I just wished the mystery plots wouldn't seem to play second fiddle to fandom pandering... True, there are some good and even great novels in the Writer Alice series, but in general, the level seems much lower than the Student Alice series.

Dali no Mayu is a slightly disappointing entry in the series. It might have become like this because it was released so soon after the first novel, but both the first and third novel are so much better than this one. Not that Dali no Mayu is bad, but I do have the feeling this could have been much more, as it does feature some good ideas. Maybe good as a light snack.

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖 『ダリの繭』

Papillon Rouge

夕暮れの風と紅く染まる街並 

何かを思い出させる切ない景色

「tell me something」 （Garnet Crow）

The wind at dusk, the city bathing in crimson

A sad scenery that reminds me of something

"Tell Me Something" (Garnet Crow)

I'm not really sure what to think about these covers for old Dutch Judge Dee books: they're so bad they're almost good. Almost.

Bad weather forces Judge Dee and subordinate Ma Joong to change their route back to their own district and make a detour through Paradise Island, a place built on man's cravings for drinking, gambling and prostitution and the govenment's cravings for tax money. The judge has a chance meeting with his esteemed collegue from the district, who asks the judge to help clean up a case of suicide here as he himself has other urgent business to attend to elsewhere. The victim died inside the Red Pavilion, which was locked from the inside, so it seems like an obvious case of suicice, but strangely enough, a similar suicide happened thirty years ago at the same place. And Paradise Island has more secrets in store for the judge: the number one courtesan Autumn Moon seems to have some connection to the suicide and seems rather keen on getting to know the judge really well, while Ma Joong discovers that the suicide of thirty years ago wasn't all what it seems either. And so the judge stays put in Paradise Island until he has solved all the mysteries in Robert van Gulik's The Red Pavilion (Dutch title: Het rode paviljoen, 1961)

The Red Pavilion is the seventh original Judge Dee novel by Dutch Sinologist Robert van Gulik and the second book to feature a more free style: the first five books (among which The Chinese Maze Murders and The Chinese Gold Murders) were heavily styled after the original gong'an detective stories, with a large cast and the formula of three intertwining mysteries for the judge to solve each story. From The Haunted Monastery on, van Gulik greatly reduced the cast (often by sending the judge away traveling with just one or two subordinates) and did not follow the formula set in the original stories so rigidly anymore. The books were still as enjoyable as ever, brimming with atmosphere like only van Gulik could conjure up and as it became less formulaistic, the stories also felt more fun to read as it was harder to guess what would come.

This time, a locked room mystery lays at the core of the story, multiple even, all happening inside the titular Red Pavilion (which also functions as Judge Dee's lodgings on Paradise Island). I have to say, I was very disappointed with the locked room mysteries: the solutions are basically Locked Room Mysteries 101 and while I wasn't expecting something too fancy, I was still hoping for something more complex than what was presented here. There is one part of the locked room mystery that is actually very neat though, which makes very good use of the setting and that what saves this part of the mystery for me. 

The Red Pavilion reminded me very much of Yokomizo Seishi's Jooubachi (1952) by the way, which also featured a mysterious death commited inside a Chinese-style room locked from the inside. Even the solutions have some similarities. I actually wonder if van Gulik actually read the book: they are not really similar, so I'm definitely not suggesting foul play or anything, but I could imagine van Gulik having read Jooubachi and then using very vague, broad elements of that story for The Red Pavilion.

Like with many of the Judge's stories, the bulk of the mystery is made out of intertwining storylines, where a discovery in one storyline, leads to another in a different storyline etc. The books are best enjoyed for seeing these plotlines slowly unraveling, rather than for the challenge of solving the mystery yourself. In general, I quite liked the setting of Paradise Island, but I thought the plot a bit disappointing. Judge Dee stories have a tendency to resemble each other and with a lot of plot twists I had the feeling I had seen them already in earlier books and certain tropes are repeated much too often to be surprising anymore (the Old Mysterious Man for example).

Overall, I found The Red Pavilion to be a slightly underwhelming mystery. The setting is enjoyable, but the mystery plot is a bit predictable and never impresses. The Haunted Monastery, released in the same year, is much more enjoyable overall in comparision, I think.

Sunny Girl

いつまでも信じていたい

最後まで思い続けたい

自分は生きる意味があるはずと

「Poison」（反町隆史）

I want to believe forever

And keep thinking until the end

That there's meaning to my life

"Poison" (Sorimachi Takashi)

I wonder whether there are English-language blogs out here discussing Korean mystery fiction?

Because she failed in getting into an international school, Ahn Chae-yool is forced to make a late transfer to Seonam Girls High, but her very first day at school starts out as a complete disaster. She has just made a couple of steps outside her home when she is assaulted by "the biting man", a creepy man who has been leaving his teethmarks in the wrists of students of Seonam Girls High. And as if that wasn't enough, Chae-yool is also targeted by a different kind of dangerous entity at school: the Seonam Girls High Detective Club led by spectacled Yoon Mi-do has set its eyes on Chae-yool as its newest and fifth member and won't stop at anything in order to coax Chae-yool into joining the club and help catch "the biting man" terrorizing their school (actions include lying, fabricating evidence and basically stalking Chae-yool). In the course of the series, the Detective Club builds a reputation of being a group of nosy busybodies who do actually sometimes help their classmates and solve cases, while Chae-yool slowly uncovers a secret revolving around her literature teacher who seems a bit too interested in her in the South Korean TV drama Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan ("The Seonam Girls High Detective Club", 2014-2015).

Yes, it's the series that most people will probably know as "the series that featured the first onscreen lesbian kiss on South Korean television".

Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan is a 14 episode series, based on the novel with the same title by Park Ha-ik. I haven't read it, so no idea how faithful an adaptation the series is though. The series is probably best described as a school drama mystery, as Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan has a lot in common with 'normal' school drama series, like Great Teacher Onizuka. Many of the stories deal with themes often seen in that genre, like bullying at school, the gap between children and their parents, the reputation of the school and simply the things that come up when you grow up. These themes often form the background for the cases handled in Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan, which gives this series a distinct social school flavor, as it addresses the problems of society (and in particular the relation between students, their school and 'outside' society). In general, Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan does a good job at doing the school drama genre, helped by a fairly strong cast of young actresses.

As a mystery show, however, Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan is a fairly weak show however. The plots are very easy to guess and don't invite the viewer to think along with the protagonists. Admittedly, only two of the seven cases really lend themselves for whodunit couch-sleuthing (one about a photographer being shot at a gallery show and a case where a special order of delicious bread for Seonam Girls High was spiked with laxatives), but these cases are not challenging at all. The other cases too are not particularly surprising in the mystery department, and should more be enjoyed as whydunits, because as said, the cases do relate strongly to the school drama themes mentioned above. But seriously, the mystery plots themselves are sometimes incredibly chaotic and ask for every one involved to act in the most roundabout ways for no valid reasons (Looking especially hard at you, "the biting man" case!).

That said though, I did really enjoy the members of the titular Seonam Girls High Detective Club. It's a diverse group of girls who have enough enthusiasm to make up for their lack in finesse and experience. Like similar groups in series like the Koigakubo Academy Club Detective Club and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, the Seonam Girls High Detective Club is basically a group of misfits who want to play detectives (as opposed to Detective/Mystery Clubs that talk about detective fiction). It's fun seeing the members goofing around as they try to solve the case and are definitely what is most entertaining about the series. Also: I have no idea how life is at a all-girls' high school in South Korea, but man, I have the feeling that it's a scary place.

One thing though, Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan loves going all over the place in the comedy - human drama spectrum. The series will have cheap slapstick comedy in one scene, and in the next scene you're given tear-inducing speeches about bullying and suicide. Sure, a good balance between smiles and tears is always good, but Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan makes rather sudden and drastic jumps between cartoon-like comedy and "oh, mankind is so dark" drama, which can be a bit unsettling. Also, I don't know if this is the standard for South Korean TV dramas, but 70 minutes an episode is really long for the amount of story they had. A lot of scenes rather drag for a while.

Oh, and one little thing that really bothered me throughout the series: how many coats do these girls have?! Every case (every two episodes) they have a whole new wardrobe, it seems!

I did enjoy Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan, but mostly for its take on the school drama and the comedy. While I am fairly familiar with Japanese school dramas, this was the first time I saw a South Korean one, so that was an interesting experience (though they don't differ that much). As a mystery show however, Seonamyeogo Tamjungdan has rather weak plots. Even if you look at the show as a social school mystery, the plots sometimes make barely sense. I really did like the characters and I'd certainly watch a sequel series, but if I look at the show's 'merits' as a detective TV show (which is the idea behind this blog at the least), I can't say that this is a very captivating example of the Korean detective story. If you're interested in a school drama with a hint of mystery though, try it out.

Original Korean title(s): 박하익 (original novel) "선암여고 탐정단"

Five Little Pigs

This little piggy went to market, 

 This little piggy stayed home, 

This little piggy had roast beef, 

This little piggy had none, 

And this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home 

Seriously, today's book has a pretty bad cover. I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I think that in day and age, publishers should put some effort in covers. A book isn't just the story inside, it's a physical product, and that includes the cover, so I'd appreciate it if they wouldn't treat cover art as an afterthought.

The winter of Sparta, New York feels even more ruthless this year, as the town is haunted by a mysterious serial killer calling him(her?)self HOG. The murders and the victims all vary: from a highway sign crashing on a car to what at first seemed like a trip of a staircase, from little children to the elderly, nobody is safe. And HOG derives pleasure from taunting the police with Dear Boss-esque letters that show how utterly helpless they are. Private investigator Ron Gentry also becomes part of the hunting troupe and he in turn is asked to contact his mentor, Professor Niccolo Benedetti, the world's most renowned detective. Whimsical (and freeloading) as Benedetti may be, even he feels that there's absolutely evil at work in Sparta and puts his own name at stake to find the serial killer in William L. DeAndrea's The HOG Murders (1979).

Oh, how often I heard people praise DeAndrea's The HOG Murders! I don't have a special interest in serial killer stories to be honest, but still, Queen's Cat of Many Tails is quite good, so there was always the little note in the back of my head, to read The HOG Murders. Of course, too much expectations could work in its disadvantage, so I kept those in reasonable check, and I went in the book with no more knowledge than that 1) this book was about a serial killer and 2) it was supposed to be good. How did it turn out?

Well, it certainly didn't disappoint! This was my first DeAndrea and I want to read more now! The serial murders that form the core mystery are gruesome, terrifying and seem only to shock and awe the reader into accepting The HOG Murders is just a crazy serial killer story, but this is actually a well-clued, absolutely fair orthodox mystery novel. And a good one too. Pick up the hints and turn your head the right way and you can spot HOG in time (I didn't pick up on the hint, but my Gut Instinct and Meta-Knowledge did give me the right person. But that's cheating). The one little problem I have with the solution is that a lot of orthodox mystery stories that feature serial killers kinda revolve around the same concept and The HOG Murders is no different: if you have read other puzzle plot mysteries with serial killers, there's a good chance you have a rough idea what to look for. I guess it's the same for most tropes in the genre, but I haven't seen that much variation in the concept with the serial killer trope, though that may be perfectly be the fault of my skewed reading diet.

There's more to The HOG Murders than just the serial murders though and I in particular liked two parts of the story that I thought feel quite Queenian: first is speculations around what HOG actually means and the wordplay reminds of Queen's dying message stories with many, many possible solutions that what seems a simple word (the 'solution' is presented in a rather arbritrary way though). Second, there's a very strange crime scene around three-quarters in the story, with someone who froze to death. The strangeness of the scene and the way the hints to the solution were laid out (as well as the 'sort' of hints) are classic Queenian stuff and I really loved it.

Not a big fan of the detective Professor Niccolo Benedetti though, but that's more on a character level. The HOG Murders does suffer a bit from a few too many 'detective' figures in the story: I get why DeAndrea went for that and it allows him to keep the momentum by jumping to moments with story developments, but still, it's a bit crowded with a great detective, a private detective, a police inspector, a reporter and a criminal psychologist to follow. It would be bit different if they were rival detectives, but they actually work and quite often move together in little groups.

I have to admit though, I do prefer less open mysteries in general. There's just something more thrilling and enjoyable with murders commited in more intimate circles, rather than an 'everyone in this town can be a victim!' type of plot. Even with a fair play puzzle plot where you can detect the criminal in advance, I can't say that I'm a very big fan of these open mysteries. That said, I still think The HOG Murders is great, but I just don't read that much orthodox mysteries with serial killers.

Anyway, The HOG Murders is a great detective novel that combines the serial killer motif with a puzzle plot in a succesful manner. Recommended reading for everything and I'm definitely going to read of DeAndrea in the near future to see what more surprises he has in store.

Black Coffee Rag

「雪だ・・・」

『探偵神宮寺三郎 Innocent Black』

"It's snowing..."

"Detective Jinguuji Saburou: Innocent Black"

I listen to a lot of videogame music, but usually only from games I've actually played. I think that Innocent Black's soundtrack is one of the few I knew inside-out years before I even got to experience the game. It's that awesome.

Tantei Jinguuji Saburou series
The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case (1987) [Nintendo Famicom Disk System]
The Unfinished Reportage (1996) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn]
At the End of the Dream (1998) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn]
Before the Light Fades (1999) [Sony PlaySation]
Innocent Black (2002) [Sony PlayStation 2]
The White Phantom Girl (2005) [Nintendo GameBoy Advance]
Ashes and Diamonds (2009) [Sony PlayStation Portable]
The Red Butterfly (2010) [Nintendo DS]
Rondo of Revenge (2012) [Nintendo 3DS]

Private detective Jinguuji Saburou is hired by Ninomiya Akio, a distressed father who wishes to find his daughter Hazuki who has run away from home. When Jinguuji finally manages to trace Hazuki, he finds out she ran away because she witnessed a very strange happening going on in her father's hospital, and she suspects the vice-president of the Ninomiya General Hospital might be stealing medicine as a side business. Jinguuji starts a new investigation at the hospital, where he finds another client: an elderly mother recently lost her son, who had gone missing two years ago. She never saw him alive anymore, because he recently died of breath failure in a park, and his body was brought to the Ninomiya General Hospital. The mother wants to know if her son really died of breath failure and what he had been up the last two years. Digging deeper, Jinguuji discovers that the son's death and the medicine theft are in fact connected and h starts to realize that some horrible secret ties together the Ninomiya General Hospital, a group of homeless people and a local crime syndicate in the 2002 PlayStation 2 videogame Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Innocent Black  ("Detective Jinguuji Saburou: Innocent Black").

I've been a big fan of the Detective Jinguuji Saburou videogame series for years. The series started on the Famicom Disk System (a peripheral of the Japanese NES) in 1987 and saw its most recent installment in 2012, making it actually one of the oldest game franchises still active. The basic setting has not changed since the first game: every installment the player is presented a hardboiled detective story starring private detective Jinguuji Saburou, his capable assistant Misono Youko and police detective Kumano, usually set at the edges of underworld of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Occasionally we see more of an extended cast, like the forensics expert Miyoshi Shiho or local crime syndicate captain Imaizumi, and sometimes the story moves to locations outside Shinjuku, but the player can always expect a very story-driven experience with a plot that deals with realistic social problems and the people who are stuck between 'normal' society and the underworld.

 
The Detective Jinguuji Saburou series got a big blow in 2000 however, after the release of the seventh installment of the series. Data East, the original developers of the series, went bankrupt and many thought that this meant the end of the series. Fortunately, the company WorkJam bought the rights to the series (and still owns them), and WorkJam's first own Detective Jinguuji Saburou game was 2002's Innocent Black. This game is thus seen as a turning point for the series.

Overall, Innocent Black is a well-made entry in the series and a great hardboiled detective game. Gameplay-wise, it's the same old command-style adventure it's been for over 20 years. As expected from the Detective Jinguuji Saburou series, Innocent Black features great character designs and most importantly, fantastic music. All installments of the series have been praised for their catchy jazzy tunes and Innocent Black definitely upholds that tradition and brought some of the best songs of the whole franchise. Illustrator Terada Katsuya's designs look great too and in the visual and auditory departments, this game is really remarkable. Story-wise too, Innocent Black manages to do most things very good: as always the story starts with a small case for Jinguuji (locating Hazuki who ran away), but manages to grow out to something much bigger, without feeling too farfetched. The plot of most Detective Jinguuji Saburou are often best described as social school stories, as they are often rich in social commentary, but it definitely works for the series and Innocent Black features one of the more devilish schemes I've seen in videogame plots. I think that I can wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone who wants to play a detective game on the PS2 with a catchy story.

Is it all perfect? Well no. One thing I thought very disappointing was that compared to the three previous games (Mikan no Rupo, Yume no Owari ni and Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni), Innocent Black was a much more linear experience. Note that the series has always been somewhat linear: you usually advance in the story just by talking to the right people or being at the right place at the right time. The mentioned titles however all experimented with more interactive presentation, like parallel narratives that allowed you to experience the story with multiple characters, or giving the player certain deadlines in which he needed to move the story forward. In comparison, Innocent Black is incredibly linear, as you simply move from hotspot to hotspot to advance forward. I don't find linear games bad per se (in fact, depending on the plot, it sometimes works out better), but the above mentioned titles were the Jinguuji Saburou games I played most recently, so the sudden change was very detectable. This linear direction has been maintained in practically all of the Jinguuji Saburou games WorkJam has developed, with two notable exceptions: Shiroi Kage no Shoujo (the player needs to make deductions every now or then that can potentially lead to a game over) and Ashes and Diamonds (branching storylines).

Innocent Black is also a rather controversial topic among longtime fans of the series, because it tried to do something surprising about the longstanding relation between protagonist Jinguuji Saburou and his beautiful and capable assistant Youko.Without going into spoilers, I can tell you that I too was not pleased at all with what WorkJam was going for and in fact, they had to fix that in the next game, Kind of Blue, probably not in the least because of the negative backlash. Kind of Blue is the only Jinguuji Saburou game I haven't played yet, but I hope to, because Innocent Black did leave a somewhat bad aftertaste because of this particular, but important plotpoint, that didn't even had proper development.

Innocent Black is a game that does a lot right and features a really captivating detective story. It is however also a very linear experience, even compared to earlier installments of the game, and I think that for longtime fans, Innocent Black also feels incomplete with its successor Kind of Blue, because a significant problem is not resolved within Innocent Black's narrative. In that respect, it is an unsatisfying experience, perhaps. But overall, I thought the plot to be interesting and the fantastic music definitely helps.

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵神宮寺三郎　Innocent Black』

番外編： The Decagon House Murders

No quotes as an introduction? A post title that isn't a reference? Yes, this is one of those rare service announcements on the blog. Prior announcements included messages about me writing prefaces or having translated short stories, so this time...?

One of the most referenced novels on this blog has always been AYATSUJI Yukito's The Decagon House Murders ("Jukkakukan no Satsujin", 1987), a novel inspired by And Then There Were None, about a group of students with nicknames like "Ellery", "Carr" and "Agatha", who are targeted by a murderer during a stay on a small, deserted island with a strange ten-sided house. The Decagon House Murders showed that it was still possible to write good puzzle plot mysteries decades after the so-called "Golden Age" ended. In fact, the release of the book was like a traffic light turning to green, as many writers followed in Ayatsuji's footsteps, hailing in a renaissance of puzzle plot mystery novels in Japan (the shin honkaku, or "new orthodox" movement).

Publisher Locked Room International will be publishing the first English-language version of The Decagon House Murders this July and I had the pleasure of being the translator of the book. It's a book I always wished more people would read, but of course I had never dreamt I'd have the chance to translate it. But sometimes, the stars align at just the right time. It's one of the most influential mystery novels of the last thirty years in Japan and SHIMADA Soji wrote a special introduction for the English release, so this is a release no fan of detective fiction shouldn't miss. Which is something I say not as the translator of the book (okay, partly, I do), but as someone who has been a fan of the book since many years ago and who went all the way to Kyoto and joined the Kyoto University Mystery Club mostly because of how much I enjoyed The Decagon House Murders.

Publishers Weekly gave The Decagon House Murders an early positive starred review and selected it as one of their Best Summer Books 2015 line-up, which is certainly not a bad start! My own review of the book can be read here. It dates from a few years back and long-time readers might have noticed that it was around that time that I started to blog more consistently/often about Japanese detective fiction and that's no coincidence.

Anyway, The Decagon House Murders will be out in a bit in less than two months, so True Believers, keep an eye out for it.

Loose Truth

"Oh, you mustn't ask me that yet. I shall have to chew it over a lot more before I can make a connected and logical story of it. Besides, the best detectives always hold up their brilliant solutions for the most effective moment (surely you know that)."

"Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery"

I might not know much about graphic design, but I'm pretty sure that a white font on a light-blue background for a cover isn't the best of ideas.

Mystery writer, amateur detective and Daily Courier correspondent Roger Sheringham and his cousin Anthony change their holiday plans when Roger is sent by his newspaper to Ludmouth Bay, Hampshire, to report on the investigation of Inspector Moresby. Moresby is investigating the death of Elise Vane, who was found beneath the cliffs in a less-than-living state. While most people think it was a mere suicide, Moresby's presence alone shows that there might be more behind the death of Mrs. Vane, but Moresby's very careful with what he says and tells Roger and Anthony nothing newsworthy, so the two have to investigate the mystery themselves. They soon find out that the victim (?) was not a very nice woman and there were not just a few persons who had reason to bump her off. Off the cliff. And so Roger and Anthony work together to solve the crime and outsmart Moresby in Anthony Berkeley's Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery (1927).

Okay, was I the only one who read the title and expected a mystery revolving around a weather vane?

Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery is the third novel in the Roger Sheringham series, of which I have reviewed the later The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) and Jumping Jenny (1933). Those two novels were fantastic novels that explored the limits of the Great Detective as the bringer of truth, revealer of all, with multiple solutions and other shenanigans confusing both reader and Roger. Depending on your point of view, you could even consider those books anti-mystery novels, as they undermine the idea of that a detective novel could bring the truth. Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery is in comparison quite tame, but is definitely written in the same spirit as The Poisoned Chocolate Case and  Jumping Jenny.

Unlike one false solution after a false solution after another set-up of the latter two books, Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery's plot is fairly straighforward, with Roger and Anthony arriving in Ludmouth's Bay and slowly uncovering more about Elise Vane's death, occasionally bouncing off theories with each other and Inspector Moresby. The latter is a rather plain policeman, who is simply doing his work in the best way he knows and his plainness works well opposite Roger Sheringham's "great detective. Those who have read more books in the series, can probably guess how this rivalry will end, but still, it's fun.

And while the plot does have its share of twists and turns as it nears the last page, including some false solutions, it is not nearly as anti-mystery-esque as other books and I think this book leaves a less cynical aftertaste (that is, it's  Roger Sheringham, so of course it's still quite cynical, just not so over-the-top as later books). Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery does not try to undermine its own premise too hard and is thus easier to enjoy than the later novels.

I do like that once again, the core mystery (the death of Elise Vane) is actually a very simple one. Trial and Error and The Poisoned Chocolates Case had at the core fairly simple deaths as the starting point, which only became more and more complex as new evidence showed up which allowed for new theories to be developed. Berkeley's critique of the infinite possibilities of evidence and theories feels more acceptable as the case itself becomes more and more simple: even the most featureless situation can be blown up to the most incredible story just by imagination deductions.

Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery is an enjoyable detective novel that might not be as memorable and ambitious as later books in the series, but certainly no less fun. Considering it's less crazy, it might even be a better entry point in the series.

Seven Days A Week

Hello Mr. my yesterday 云っておくれよ 

"夢叶うその瞬間にまた逢える"と 

「Hello Mr. my yesterday」（Hundred Percent Free)

Hello Mr. my yesterday, please say to me:

"We'll meet again the moment your dream comes true"

 "Hello Mr. my yesterday" (Hundred Percent Free)

Some Japanese pockets feature some great cover art, but there are also the 'artsy' ones I almost never understand, or like (like this one). Todays cover is not horrible and I get the weekday references, but still... what is it?!

The death of mystery writer Raiki Raito left behind quite some questions. He may have died in his own study (locked from the inside), but was it really suicide? What about the rumours of him having been working on a new book the year before his death? And most important, what did he mean when he claimed to have discovered "the ultimate trick"? These questions also fly around in the heads of the participants of a monitoring panel for a hotel event: the hotel owns Raiki's house, the Mystery Mansion, and is planning to use it as the stage of a murder mystery event and has invited several people to try out their game. A magnificent reward awaits the winner: the location of Raiki's "ultimate trick". Among the participants are Ishizaki Kouji, our protagonist and mystery fan, and the two high school students Miria and Yuri, who were invited as representatives of a high school mystery club (little did the hotel know that the club is a fake club, only set-up to receive financial benefits for club activities from school). Can these three solve the murder mystery event and figure out what Raiki Raito's secret was in Ishizaki Kouji's Nichiyoubi no Chinmoku ("Sunday Silence", 2000)

This book was the debut novel of Ishizaki Kouji and the winner of the 18th Mephisto Prize (for more about the award and the type of novels that win, see this post). As with a lot of the Mephisto Prize winners, this is a fairly meta-conciousness novel; mystery writers killed in locked rooms, the "ultimate trick" (reminiscent of the ultimate locked room trick in Arisugawa Alice's 46 Banme no Misshitsu) and this time, a very literal game-approach to the mystery, as most of the story is about the murder game organized by the hotel. And of course, be ready for countless of references to other mystery novels (a great number of them also originating as Mephisto Prizes).

This is a very lighthearted mystery. This is because of both the characters and the plot. To begin with the characters: the real detectives in this story are Miria and Yuri who act most of the time as stereotypical high school students who just wanna have some fun and like to make fun of everyone and everything. Heck, they only accepted the invitation for the event because of the free stay and food, not because they have an interest in detective fiction. Ishizaki Kouji (the character in the story, not the actual writer) is usually the victim of Miria and Yuri's jokes and this atmosphere of joking and teasing stays from start to finish. Miria and Yuri are also written extremely alike and there's almost seems there's no reason for them to be two different characters, though they have been split into two as to avoid the romantic implications of a thirty-ish Ishizaki Kouji and one high school student hanging out together for three days in a hotel.

But they also turn out to be a bit more intelligent than seems at first and they have a great hand in solving the mystery event, as well as figuring out the secret behind Raiki Raito's death. For most part, the mystery consists of a missing link story, where the participants of the event have to figure out what the (staged) murders are hinting at. This is solved at about two-thirds of the novel, leaving the rest for solving the secret of Raiko Raito and the 'ultimate trick'. 'Both' plots are... not bad per se, but a bit light... The first plotline is a fairly doable missing link story and actually has several layers of solutions to it, making it quite enjoyable (some solutions are kinda silly, but there's a perfectly good explanation for them). But the second missing link plotline is almost impossible to solve because it's so farfetched, making it not fun at all. Also, the secret of the 'ultimate trick' is kinda disappointing for something ultimate, making the last third of the novel not nearly as entertaining as the first two thirds (the two parts also feel a bit distinct, instead of feeling like one whole story).

Overall, Nichiyoubi no Chinmoku is entertaining enough, but it's not nearly enough to really fill one's stomach. It needed a bit more impact to really make an impression. Miria and Yuri are fun though and I gather that Miria, Yuri and author-avatar Ishizaki Kouji return in other stories too, so I might try those some time.

Original Japanese title(s):  石崎幸二『日曜日の沈黙』

Beware the Beast from Below

自分勝手に思い込んで

裏目に出ることよくあるけど

生きてゆきたい今日より明日へ

「ひとりじゃない」（Deen）

When I'm selflishly convinced about things

They often tend to backfire on me,

But even so I want to live on, more for tomorrow than today

"Not Alone" (Deen)

 
By now, I might as well rename the short shorts posts. The idea was to do shorter reviews on multiple things in one single post, but nowadays it's just the most recent volumes of Conan and Kindaichi Shounen every four months.

April is always a big month for Detective Conan. A new volume is usually released together with the annual film, and occasionally extra merchandise is released too. Last year had a new 3DS game for example. No games this year though, but a new volume was released mid-April (+ shipping and stuff usually means I'm two, three weeks behind with my review). Detective Conan 86 obviously does not have the impact the previous volume had (which was basically catharsis after many years of world building), but overall I thought it was an okay volume. The volume starts off with the conclusion to A Mystery Sunken in A Midsummer Pool, which started in the previous volume. The mystery of a dead body suddenly appearing in a hotel pool is surprisingly easy to solve, as I am absolutely sure I have seen the same basic idea at least two different times in other detective manga also. Nothing more than a filler story, even if we get another hint at the 'main' story, as it seems that everyone's favorite female high school student detective apparently has some (never before revealed) ties with one of the main characters of the series.

The second story, The Boy and the Nice Lady, has the Detective Boys discovering a dead body (when don't they!) in her apartment room. A little boy who had become friends with the victim was asked by her to keep an eye on her door as she was expecting three different visitors who could mean trouble. And she was right, for she was found hanging from the ceiling. The story is a bit more complex than the usual three-suspects-which-of-them-was-it and I definitely enjoyed it for that, though I was not that big a fan of the overall story (which seems overly convoluted).

The Inn With the Kamaitachi has Hattori and Kazuha join the regular gang as they investigate a photograph of a kamaitachi, shot at an inn in the Nagano Prefecture. The youkai appears to be running over a hot spring in the picture, which would definitely mean something supernatural is going on. Things start to get really creepy when people are indeed attacked by an unseen 'wind sickle' and finally, the old owner of the inn himself is killed by an actual sickle (the Grim Reaper kind of sickle). I have a feeling Hattori & Kazuha often appear in stories featuring ghosts, and they are usually fun. This one is OK; the main trick of the kamaitachi running over the hot spring is pretty ingenious, even if a bit unlikely and the overall atmosphere is good. The final story, The Kawanakajima Murder Case will continue in the next volume, but already shapes up as an interesting cop-killer story, as the members of a detective unit are killed one by one, with as most likely suspect, the one-eyed police detective Yamato.

Overall a decent volume with two amusing stories, though I have to admit that the last, incomplete story caught my attention the most. But with Aoyama's recent hiatus (because of an operation), I guess the release of the next volume, and the one after that, might take a while.

And as always, a new volume Kindachi Shounen no Jikenbo R ("The Young Kindaici Case Files R") followed right after Detective Conan's latest release. Volume 5 surprisingly starts with The Student Akechi Kengo Case Files, a short story starring series regular Superintendent Akechi in his younger years. In the past, Akechi has also starred in his own spin-off series in his high school, as well as his early police days, but this time Akechi appears as a second year university student. Akechi visits a university festival to find Rena, his old upperclassman at high school and nowadays a popular radio personality of the university radio club. Their old teacher is worried that Rena might be in some trouble and hopes Akechi can help her. Sadly enough, he's too late, as a corpse is found at the festival and Akechi suspects that Rena killed the victim to get out of said trouble. However, Rena has a perfect alibi: she was presenting a live radio show during the murder.

The story is short, but good. I thought the trick was quite ingenious, even if a bit predictable because it is not the first time Kindaichi Shounen has featured such a scheme (so it might be a bit easy to see through). The semi-inverted approach is something we often see in the shorter Kindaichi Shounen stories, though those are usually a lot more funnier too (this one is not particularly laugh-inducing). Oh, and two points: for those interested, Akechi Kengo is also starring in a currently-running spin-off series, but illustrated by a different artist. Two: This particular story had a rather big problem when it was originally serialized: due to the paper and ink quality, a large of part of the solution was actually unreadable in its original publication in the magazine Shounen Magazine (it was written on a blackboard, so white on black background). Not sure if someone got fired for that mistake, because readers probably would want to know the explanation of a murder plot.

The rest of the volume is filled with a good part of The Antlion Trench Murder Case, which has Hajime, Miyuki and newsreporter Itsuki trapped in basically the most ridiculously designed building ever in the middle of a desert. Seriously, the Kindaichi Shounen series has featured quite a lot of weird buildings For The Sake of Plot, and I can appreciate a well designed building, but I can't even start to enjoy this story because of how little sense the building makes. And the story does have some interesting points, with a professor doing research in fears and traumas and machinery monitoring everyone's vital signs. But just looking at the building makes my head hurt. Anyway, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R 5 has a good start with a short, but good story, but the longer one is just not as amusing.

And that was it for this short short. Hmm, I have the feeling these short shorts aren't as short as they used to be, so I might have to rework this corner the next time. 

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第８６巻, 天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）　『金田一少年の事件簿Ｒ』第５巻

Bloody Murder

ただ人は振り返るもの

巡りあえた景色をそっと 

消えぬように とどめてゆく

「忘れ咲き」（Garnet Crow)

But people always look back

And stand still at the sceneries they've come across

Hoping they don't disappear

"Wasurezaki" (Garnet Crow)

Edogawa Rampo is commonly seen as the father of the Japanese detective story, but it was Kuroiwa Ruikou (1862-1920) who paved the way for the now succesful genre industry. Kuroiwa was a newspaper journalist/editor, writer and translator in a time of transition for Japan, who might have less 'name impact' than Rampo nowadays, but his name is still one you can't ignore. As a newspaper man, Kuroiwa had a clear political agenda and he also set up his own newspaper (the Yorozu Chouhou, one of the earliest gossip newspapers, aimed at the masses), which did quite well not only because of its accessibility and social criticism, but also because Kuroiwa published serial fiction in the newspaper, which drew quite a public.

Kuroiwa's translations were freely rewritten translations and often used to present his own political ideas. Among his serial translations are for example Dumas' Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (famously translated as Gankutsuou, "The King of the Cavern", still a common Japanese title for the book) and Hugh Conway's Dark Days, which became Houtei no Bijin ("The Beauty in the Courtroom"). He published over a hundred translations, many of them of detective novels, which is why Kuroiwa is considered one of the most important names in Japanese detective fiction history.

Kuroiwa eventually also started to write his own stories and Muzan ("In Cold Blood", 1889) has the honour of being not only Kuroiwa's first original detective story, Muzan is actually the very first original Japanese detective story (The alternate title is Sansuji no Kami, Tantei Shousetsu ("Three Strands of Hair, A Detective Story")). The short story starts with the discovery of a severely wounded corpse in a river in Tsukiji and two policemen are set on the case: veteran cop Tanimada and the rookie Ootomo. Based on the nature of the wounds and the knowledge he gathered in his many years in service, Tanimada deduces that the victim was killed in a row by a woman and quickly heads out to find la femme. Ootomo on the other hand focuses on the three strands of hair clenched in the victim's hands and using scientific analysis and logical reasoning, arrives at a different conclusion than Tanimada. Which of them is right?

I will admit right away that I think Muzan is more interesting as the first Japanese detective story than as 'a detective story' on its own, but it does has its interesting features. First of all, I find it extremely interesting that this story features not one, but two police detectives as the detectives. I had kinda expected a Great Detective and his Assistant in the spirit of Dupin and Holmes, but here we have two common cops, just on another case. Amusing is how Ruikou places the two detectives against each other: one veteran cop who 'knows' the world and takes on each cases trusting his own instincts, and a rookie cop, who despite his lack of experience, has a very sharp and keen mind and basically uses forensic methods to detect. The trope of two 'rival' detectives is one I have always appreciated, especially if both parties use different techniques to detect, and this is done wonderfully in Muzan. Ootomo is interesting as he has more in common with Great Detectives like Dupin and Holmes in terms of method, but still obvious just a man within the organization who needs to the support of his superiors to act. Tanimada on the other hand is not portrayed as just a hardheaded cop though, even in the juxtaposition with 'modern techniques', Tanimada shows that experience is indeed also necessary. Setting these positions as equal is something I had not expected and I was pleasantly surprised.

With Muzan, you'll also get a bit of the melodrama Kuroiwa was famous for in his (translated) novels. The ending consist of a long, a very long confession and explanation of how everything came to be and how the victim turned into a corpse and I have to say I thought this was quite boring, especially as it takes up a not unconsiderable amount of the total page count.

As a detective story in its own, I find Muzan an okay story, but nothing more than that. I like the concept of the two detectives, as said above, but the deductions feel a bit forced at times (especially those surrounding the three strands of hair!) and the ending is rather anti-climatic.

Muzan is interesting as a point in detective history because of its existence, rather than for its contents, but for anyone interested in Japanese detective fiction, I think it does provide an amusing short read. You can read the text at Aozora Bunko (the Japanese Project Gutenberg), though those who have never read Meiji-period literature before might find it a bit hard to get through.

Original Japanese title(s): 黒岩涙香　「無惨」