「草の名は 知らず珍し 花の咲く」

"Well, let's not discuss the future. I've found that the future generally gets where it's going despite every effort of mere Man to arrest its progress."
"Halfway House"

 
I read a lot of manga. Really a lot. But the only series I read regularly, that is to say, the only series I'm up to date with and of which I buy every new volume the second they are released, are Meitantei Conan ("Detective Conan") and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Casefiles of Young Kindaichi"). Which are, no surprise, detective-manga. Which naturually is one of my favorite genres within the manga medium.

I read other detective manga besides the two mentioned above though, though true orthodox detective manga are, well, not really rare, but if you mainly read detective manga, you'll go through them quickly. So I was happy to see that last a year a new series was released. Well, techically, the series had alreadly begun in 2008, but with an irregular release scheme for its chapters, the first volume was released only last year.

The best feature of Houkan Tantei Sharoku ("Houkan Detective Sharoku") has to be its setting. Set in the early years of Showa Japan, it tells the story of the houkan (taikomochi, male geisha, entertainer, whatever) Sharoku. Though he is supposed to entertain guests with his arts and smooth mouth, Sharoku has a bad history with liquor and he usually ends up insulting everybody. He has a patron despite all that, the young master of the Wadasou family (though that might be because Sharoku is kinda blackmailing him). In true orthodox detective style, the two of them come across crimes rather regularly and it's at these times that Sharoku shows his brilliant mind for understanding his fellow man. Sharoku and his young master Soujirou share a relation comparable to the one of Conan and Kogorou in Meitantei Conan; while Sharoku is the one who solves the cases, he always allows Soujirou to take the credit for all it. Or more precisely, Sharoku always gives the credit to his master, while Soujirou has no idea about what is going on. In the end though, Sharoku always makes sure his masters returns the favor by taking him out drinking.

Like said, the most interesting of the series is the setting. Sharoku being a houkan, most of the cases are set in the Japanese high-culture entertainment world, so it involves topics like kabuki, high-class food and other geisha. For a manga set in the 1920s, after the Great Kanto earthquake, it is pretty interesting to see how it focuses not on the modernization of Tokyo, but on the more traditional entertainment-forms.

The series, as a detective manga, shows some potential, but isn't quite there yet. Now it focuses a lot on the solving of codes (usually in the form of Japanese poems), which is appropiate to the setting, but not particularly exciting. And I'm bad at code-breaking. The few times a 'normal' crime occurs, the plot/problem/solution is either not interesting, or just not fair.It's the opposite of what I feel about the series Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou ("Q.E.D. Quod Erat Demonstrandum"), which is probably the most succesful of the detective-series that aren't called Conan or Kindaichi, but I don't feel Q.E.D. offers something original with its story-setting, while it does offer interesting traditional puzzle stories. At their current level, both of these series aren't interesting enough for me to follow religiously, like I do with Conan and Kindaichi Shounen. Those two will probably remain the kings of this particular genre.

Ah, how I lament I can't go the theaters next week to see the new Detective Conan movie! For the first time in 3 years! Ah, how fun it was last year! Well, maybe next year. I guess this year, I'll have just to do with the new live-action special...

Original Japanese title(s): 青木朋（画）, 上季一郎（作）『幇間探偵しゃろく１』

「どうですか、一度ここらで巻を閉じて、瞑想一番、犯人を指摘してごらんになっては。」

「それですよ。私は一度コントラバス・ケースの中へ入ってみたことがあるですが、きれいに立って入れたんです。探偵作家がどうしてあれを利用しないのか、－　やはり御存じじゃないでしょうね」
「「蝶々殺人事件」あとがき（「探偵小説　昭和２２年７月」）」

"Exactly that. I once went inside a contrabass case and I could fit right in. Why won't detective authors use that.... you wouldn't know, right?"
"Afterword to The Butterfly Murder Case (Detective Fiction, July 1947)"

It seems like I was one of the few, but I liked last year's Epic Mickey for the Wii. The theme of the Disney was surprisingly dark, as it told the story of Disney characters which have been forgotten by the public and even by Disney-mascotte Mickey Mouse himself. Most of them just tried to live out their lives, with some  characters cherishing the time they had with superstar Mickey, while other resented Mickey for just moving on without looking at Disney's past.

Anyway, so while I knew Yokomizo Seishi had written non-Kindaichi Kousuke detective novels, I thought they were either non-serial novels, or torimono chou, detective novels set in the Edo period like Okamoto's The Curious Casebook of Hanshichi. I was wrong. It seemed that before Kindaichi Kousuke's debut in 1946,  Yokomizo had been writing stories starring Yuri Rintarou, an ex-police officer-turned-detective.He was assisted by the narrator, a newspaper reporter called Mitsugi Shunsuke, who would use his connections to help the Yuri-sensei.

And I mentioned it already in my Honjin Satsujin Jiken review, but Yokomizo released two novels in 1946, right after the war. One was Honjin Satsujin Jiken, starring newcomer Kindaichi Kousuke, and the other was Chouchou Satsujin Jiken ("The Butterfly Murder Case") starring Yuri. Both novels are similar in the sense that they are orthodox Golden Age-styled detective novels, signifying a break with the dominant pre-war detective genre in Japan. Of the two, Kindaichi proved to be more popular though and nowadays Yuri Rintarou is not a particularly well-known fictional detective. You hardly see him mentioned in fiction or secondary literature.  I like to think he is living in his own little world now, plotting the death of his more famous, younger brother.

It's a shame though. Chouchou Satsujin Jiken offered me some elements I hadn't expected from Yokomizo, which were quite pleasant. But Yokomizo also didn't disappoint in coming up with a great case with its particulars. The story begins with Mitsugi visiting Yuri after the war, requesting  some documents. For Mitsugi has been asked to write a detective-story and Mitsugi feels that the so-called Butterfly Murder Case is the best case to write about. For who could forget that case?  The case were the dead body of "Madame Butterfly" herself, Hara Sakura, primadonna of the Hara Sakura troupe was found dead covered in roses, stuffed inside the case of a contrabass? Who could forget the mysterious note in her bag, seemingly a sheet of music? Why did she disappear the moment she arrived in Osaka for a performance? Did the members of the troupe that arrived the day after have something to do with it? What about the death of Fujimoto Shouji, a popular singer some time ago? Didn't he had some sheet music too when he died?

As I've read Kindaichi novels by Yokomizo before, I was much surprised how... open this book was. Whereas most of the Kindaichi novels are set in kinda desolate places, this book alternates between Tokyo (where a certain familiar police officer makes an appearence) and Osaka, Yuri and Mitsugi walk around hotels, appartments and trains. It's distinctly modern and lively compared to the Kindaichi novels. Also, the way the book is mostly written from the viewpoint of Mitsugi as the narrator (occasionally from the viewpoint of Sakura's manager Tsuchiya) makes the dialogue and writing-style of Yokomizo a bit livier. It was a nice change!

From a structual point of view, this is familiar terrain though. Like always, Yokomizo's plots involve many strange happenings piled on each other, with multiple parties working against/with each other that make his books so enjoyable to read. This time though, it's a bit busy though, with really a lot of happenings going on and a lot of traveling (note: in that time, going from Osaka and Tokyo took _a lot_ longer than the 3 hours Shinkansen nowadays). I lost my interest a bit in the middle, as there was no clear goal the story was aiming for, but it luckily picked up at the end. The solution to the problem is a good one, though you won't hear me raving about like I did about Honjin Satsujin Jiken. The main problem has a neat, well executed solution, that is a bit easy to see through though with the clues lying about. It is a solution though that is very fitting to the feel of this book and just won't have worked that well with the closed space Kindaichi usually encounters. The second problem/solution set was a bit more vague though and it's too bad it seems almost added in the story as an afterthought. Oh, and writers will always please me with a Challenge to the Reader! First time I saw this in a Yokomizo work and I hope I'll see it more often in his books. And as I totally write this as I'm going, the urban setting, the theater, the odd place of the dead body, the challenge, the more I think about it, the more Queen this book seems.

The introduction of Chouchou Satsujin Jiken was also quite interesting, seeing as Mitsugi says he was asked to write detective novels as a medium to promote logical reasoning to the Japanese people. Which is exactly what a lot of detective writers/magazine editors were aiming for already in the pre-war period in Japan. Detective novels as the sign of modern logical reasoning is of course an important topic in a lot of historical genre-studies, but this was the first time I saw it so explicitly referenced in a Japanese novel.

It seems this book wasn't nearly as popular among detective readers in Japan as Honjin Satsujin Jiken. According toYokomizo, Honjin appealed more to detective readers, while Chouchou was better received with "normal" readers who also liked detectives. I can see how the more suspenseful and glamorous story of Chouchou would appeal to a more wide audience. While I personally also prefer Honjin, I will say clearly that Chouchou is a fine book, it just had the bad luck of being released so close to Honjin. Yuri as a detective also misses the look Kindaichi has. Everyone knows Kindaichi just by looking at his silhouette. You can't do that with Yuri. Interestingly though, actor Ishizaka Kouji has played both Kindaichi Kousuke and Yuri Rintarou and is considered by many fans as the definite depiction of both detectives in the screen.

Still, I'm all for a pastiche where long-forgotten detectives plot the demise of their famous counterparts. Make it so.
  
Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史、『蝶々殺人事件』

「なんじゃこりゃ」

"On the main railway line to Kagoshima there is a small station called Kashii, three stops before the city of Hakata. From the station, the road inland, in the direction of the mountains, leads to Kashii Shrine; in the opposite direction, it goes down to the seashore from where Hakata harbor can be seen. 

Directly in front of the beach a narrow strip of land called Umi no Nakamichi extends in the sea like a sash, and at the end of it the island of Shika appears to float on the water. Off to the left lies the island of Noko, barely visible in the misy dis-tance. It is an exceptionally beautiful spot.

The stretch of seashore is called Kashii Bay. In olden times it was known as Kashii Inlet. In those days Otomo no Tabito, a government offical, was inspired by this same scene to compose the poem that appears in the manyoshu, a famous eight century anthology:

At low tide though our sleeves may

get wet, let us hunt

after sea herbs for breakfast in 

Kashii Bay."

"Points and Lines"

While there is a noticable gap in English translation of Japanese detective fiction, Matsumoto Seichou is one of the few authors who is relatively 'known' outside of Japan. Several of his books have been translated to English and reviewers always seem to be quite enthousiastic about his writing-style, praising his realistic depiction of the Japanese post-war society, the tension between classes and the workings of the Japanese justice system. Matsumoto is the starting point of the so-called shakai-ha ("social school") of Japanese detective fiction, a post-war movement that moved away from the fantastic plots found in orthodox Golden Age fiction, towards crime novels set in contemporary times, addressing contemporary (social) problems. Gonda (1993) (see the attic) quotes Matsumoto saying "[I] want to take detective novels outside the "haunted house"". Matsumoto was not a full-time crime writer by the way, but he's mostly remembered for being the whole starting point of the dominant post-war movement in detective fiction till the 80's. Which is kinda understandable.

And I don't really like it. I want imaginative plots and tricks!  I want a locked room, an intricate alibi trick, headless bodies and ancient curses! In fact, of all the Matsumoto novels I read until now, the only one I truly liked was Ten to Sen ("Points and Lines"). And I'll admit it's partly because the murder scene is set in Kashiihama, Fukuoka. See introducing quote. But it is a decent detective novel on its own, though I can imagine very well the solution is rather bland in this time-and-age. The trick doesn't age well.

So why did I buy the short story collection Kao? I'd like to know that myself. I think it had something to with 2009 being Matsumoto's 100th birthday (he is dead though). As he was from Kita-Kyuushuu, his books and movies were promoted quite heavily that time all over Fukuokan bookstores. Or at least, in the bookstore across my dorm. And it had won the Japanese Detective Writers Assocation Price! And it was released in the cool black-cover Japanese Detective Writers Assocation Price winners series, of which actually features great novels and secondary literature. So I kinda got swept away by the promotion. But note that while I bought the book in 2009, I've only read it now.

The short story Kao ("Face") starts the collection and is one of Matsumoto's most famous stories. It tells the story of a young stage actor, who is slowly getting more popular. He gets gigs in movies and before he knows it, he is seen as the next rising star of the silver screen. The problem is... he doesn't want his face to get known all over Japan. Or more exactly, he doesn't want to show his face to one specific person. Ishioka. Ishioka is the only witness who saw him that fateful day many years ago, when he was in the train with a girl he killed. Ishioka is the only person alive who can connect him to the murder. So he decides what every murderer would do, he tries to kill the witness. It is pretty decent as a thriller and I enjoyed it on that level, but I have no idea why Matsumoto won a price for detective novels with it.

Satsui ("Murderous Intent") is also rather disappointing. Here a judge examines the court records of a certain poisoning case. But what initially looks like a howdunnit, ends in a whydunnit. Which kinda took me by surprise. All my musings about how the poison was administred or who did it were pretty useless, as a bit for the finale the judge kinda decides rather arbitrary what the solution is and then asks himself the question why. The motive is not an original one though and while you might say it is interesting looking at it from the whole Japanese post-war economic miracle society angle, I won't.

Naze "seizu" ga hiraiteitaka ("Why was it opened at "star chart"?) is slightly more orthodox. A teacher was found dead in his study by his wife. The man had a weak heart from the start and had just come back home after several days of hunger strike at school, so there was nothing unnatural to his death, but because of his involvement with the strike, the police decides to look in things more thoroughly, just to be save. It seems the man was looking something up in his encyclopedia when he died, and the book is still opened at "star charts". Does it has anything to do with his death? Yes, it does and I guess the solution isn't too bad, but Matsumoto really had trouble making the problem relevant. The way the police suddenly decided that the open book had a) to be a clue and that b) it was intentionally opened at "star charts" was just weird.

My favorite story of the collection is Hansha ("Reflection"),  an inversed crime story very much like Edogawa Rampo's Shinri Shiken ("The Psychological Test"). A man comes up with 'the perfect plan' to kill his lover, steal her money and hide it where the police won't find it. To be exactly, in a bank. To be even more exactly, at several banks. In different accounts. And it works, the police somewhat suspects him, but they have no decisive proof nor any clue of where the money is. But like the protagonist in Edogawa Rampo's story, this man might have been too smart for his own good. And also like Edogawa Rampo's story, this is a good story, which I enjoyed very much. It was the only one in this collection though.

Shichou Shisu ("Death of the Mayor") is a bit like Naze "seizu" ga hiraiteitaka, in the sense that it is kinda like an orthodox detective story, only written more blandly and not particularly original. The mayor of a small town and several members of the town council were on a business trip in Tokyo, but on the way back, the mayor said he had somewhere to go and took a different train. Much later, the mayor is found dead in a small hotel in a town far away. Why did the mayor go there? I could say something about confusion casued by the war, the opening of the country due to economic prosperity or something like that, but I'll just say that the solution is a neat, simple one and more interesting than the story itself. It's not really original like I said earlier, but I have to admit I fell for it.

There was nothing to fell for in Harikomi (Stake Out) though, as this was .... I'm not sure what kind of story this is. Was there something? Anything? Like the titles suggest, the story is about a stake out of a woman, who used to be the lover of a wanted man. He is on the run, but the police suspect he might go look for his old lover. The woman is married now, lives in Kyuushuu and has several children. So the Tokyo police send a man to keep an eye on her. What follows is a long description of her daily routine, the wanted man showing up and taking the woman on a bus and the police capturing their man. The end. Maybe the twist was that there was no twist. Maybe I should focus on the working woman in post-war Japanese society as depicted here. Maybe I should really stop with reading Matsumoto.

Ah well, at least I got this over with.

Original Japanese title(s): 松本清張 『顔』,「顔」/「殺意」/「なぜ「星図」が開いていたか」/「反射」/「市長死す」/「張込み」

"Lord, what a relief it is to have been wrong for once! You don't know the monotony of infallibility!"

Wang: Let out one more small detail, Mr. Twain. Who victim?

Twain: Is the. Is the. Who is the victim? That drives me crazy.

"Murder by Death"

Maybe writing a review of this book now isn't the best idea. It's been almost a month since I read it and I've read many books in between. It's all a bit hazy. The headache I have isn't helping too much either. Well, you might even say it is kinda hindering my faculty to write in semi-proper English. But as waiting even longer probably isn't going help my foggy memories of the book, I'd better write it down now.

Topic of today: Leo Bruce's Case for Three Detectives (1936).  Ah, yes, that famous detective pastiche. And it starts with all the classic themes. Mary Thurston is found dead in a locked room in her mansion. The doors were bolted from the inside, of course. The windows don't lead anywhere. The knife that killed her is found outside the mansion. And there was a weekend party going on, so the house was full of suspects. But no fear, for the mysterious murder attracts not one, not two, but three famous detectives. Lord Peter Wimsey Simon Plimsoll, Monsieur Hercule Poirot Amer Picon and Father Brown Monsignor Smith. The three of them all come up with a brilliant solution. Brilliant, but all wrong. Luckily, Sergeant Beef is here to save the day.

I am not sure how I feel about this book, actually. It is a very well structured novel, with a neat solution to the locked room. As a Queen-reader, you'll always catch my attention with a multi-layered solution. And this book has no less than four, all deviously logic and clever. In short, it is a good detective.

Yet, it is also clearly a parody on detective novels in general, featuring three slightly familiar detectives. The three are parodied very amusingly, all acting like their counterparts. Bruce, through the voice of narrator Townsend, also sneaks in some wonderful witty remarks regarding the detective genre. I would totally quote an awesome line from the book, if I had taken notes. I usually forget to take notes whenever I read in the train...

And I like parodies. A lot. The 'problem' is that I love my parodies to be... slightly extreme. They have to exaggerate the theme. Even if it's a detective. Higashino's Meitantei Tenkaichi ("Great Detective Tenkaichi") series is a hilarious parody of the genre, which presents classics like the locked room or alibi tricks in a 'possible-yet-totally-bizarre' way. My favorite, 33pun Tantei ("33 Minutes Detective"), is a Police Squad!-styled TV-drama which parodies everything of the genre, all the way to the very essence of the genre (while every case is solved within the first 5 minutes of the show, the detectives forcefully pads out the show with crazy, impossible deductions in order to fill in the total length of the show). The manga Shoujo Tantei Kaneda Hajime no Jikenbo ("The Casefiles of Girl Detective Kaneda Hajime") features a ventroquilist-pathologist (yes, he uses dead bodies) and killer-snails.

Case for Three Detectives is just too tame as a parody. And I suppose I could just look at it like a normal, neutral pastiche, like Nishimura Kyoutarou's Meitantei ("Great Detective") series with Akechi Kogorou, Poirot, Ellery Queen and Maigret. But the fact that those three detectives appear (with those names), as well as all those sharp observations put the book, for me, more in the parody genre, where it kinda fails because it is too much like a normal detective. Don't get me wrong, though, this is a great book. But I can't really 'shoehorn' it in my comfy categorial bookcases in my head and that makes my feelings about the book somewhat ambiguous.

But maybe it's just the headache talking. I might say something totally different on a clear mind.

「克子死ス 金田一氏ヲヨコセ」

「そう考えたとき、私は急になんともいえぬほど嬉しくなって来たものです。犯人は『密室の殺人』という問題を提出しｔ、われわれを挑戦して来ていえ るのだ。知恵の戦いをわれわれに挑んで来ているのだ。ようし、それじゃひとつその挑戦におうじようじゃないか。知恵の戦いを戦ってやろうじゃないか」
『本陣殺人事件』

"And when that came into my mind, I became unbelievably happy. The criminal gave us a locked room murder as a problem and challenged us! He challenged us with a battle of wits! Well, let's take this challenge then! Let us fight this battle of wits!"
"The Daimyou's Inn Murder Case"

When reading secondary literature and meta-fiction, you sometimes come across spoilers for detective novels. And while spoiling some plot-twists might be considered 'safe' in this time and age (is it possible to spoil... King Kong?), spoilers are usually marked and even an academic will usually first introduce the title of the work before going into the spoiler-danger portion of his story. So a reader has the choice of reading the spoiler, or not. With detective novels, a lot of the fun derives from the fact you have to deduce the facts yourself, so spoilers are usually avoided.

Unless, of course, you don't actually think you'll ever read the book anyway and thus don't really care about a solution being spoiled. So when I many, many moons ago read a detailed summary of Yokomizo Seishi's masterpiece Honjin Satsujin Jiken ("The Daimyou's Inn Murder Case"), with no prospects of a translation in a language I could read, I didn't really care about the spoiler. Who would've guessed I'd do another bachelor course after the first one, this time in Japanese studies, resulting in a new-and-improved me who is actually able to read the novel in Japanese?

Yokomizo Seishi was a detective writer with quite some similarities with Edogawa Rampo. In the pre-war (WWII) period, both writers started out as orthodox detective writers, only to change to un-orthodox detective stories, as these were the norm in pre-war Japan. Following the Second World War (during which the publication of detective novels was forbidden), both writers returned to the orthodox detective novel. Edogawa Rampo poured his energies in essays and criticism, while Yokomizo Seishi finally wrote the orthodox detective novels he always wanted to write.

He published two novels in 1946, of which the more famous one is Honjin Satsujin Jiken. The novel is commonly seen as the first Japanese orthodox (authentic) Golden Age-style detective novel. A symbol of the change between the pre-war un-orthodox novels and post-war orthodox novels. It plays a big role in influential critic/writer Kasai Kiyoshi's orthodox detective theory (on which I'll someday, someday will write something. But not now). It's also considered a very Japanese novel, a novel only a Japanese, living in a Japanese setting could have written.

But most importantly, for me, it's a great detective novel. Not even knowing the solution already could spoil this experience. I'm not going to say anything new in a historical context about this book, so I'll just rave about this novel.

While the novel is called Honjin Satsujin Jiken ("The Daimyou's Inn Murder Case"), it's not set in a honjin. Which is an officially appointed inn for daimyo to stay in while traveling (because of sankin koutai.) during the Edo period. But the Ichiyanagi family did run a honjin during the Edo period and while the family have moved away from their original location since then, the Ichiyanagi family is still a wealthy and influential family in 1937, nowadays living in a big mansion (complete with annex) in rural Okayama. While the class-structure has been abolished for many years now, the villagers are still looking up to the marriage of the eldest son of the Ichiyanagi family, Kenzou, as though they were peasants to their lord. But tragedy strikes! The night of the marriage a scream and the eerie sound of a koto being played is heard at the Ichiyanagi mansion and when members of the family go take a look at the annex where Kenzou and his new wife Katsuko are staying, they find the married couple dead, slayed by a sword. But how could have the murderer have escaped? The sliding doors of the annex were all fastened from the inside and what's more, there were no footprints in the snow around the annex! The only clues left are some bloody fingerprints of somebody with only three fingers... Genzou, the uncle of Katsuko sends out a telegram asking his wife to send his protogé Kindaichi Kousuke to him.

Yes, Honjin Satsujin Jiken is the first novel to feature famous detective Kindaichi Kousuke. As this novel is set before the war (all the other Kindaichi novels are actually set after the war), Kindaichi is here still a young, bright boy (though he has been to America by now, and was addicted to drugs for a while too), but his trademark long hair, his out-dated clothes and his stuttering are all there. And he is as bright as always. He solves the locked room murder through sheer logic and it's no wonder this book set off such a boom in orthodox detective novels (and Kindaichi fans!).

Yokomizo's also a genius in creating atmosphere.  The creepy sound of a koto in the night, a ghost from the past (the man with three fingers), the small rural (Okayama) village setting, head and branch families, the upper/lower classes, the occasional use of dialects, elements that are unmistakenly deeply connected with the Kindaichi Kousuke novels were all introduced in this novel. The war, a theme that plays a big role in the background in many of the Kindaichi novels is not as visible, as it's set in before the war, but in return, the focus shifts a bit more to class differences, something also decidedly present in the Kindaichi novels (though not as 'visible' as the war).

Strangely enough though, this book seems to be parodied not as much as other Kindaichi classics like Gokumontou ("Prison Gate Island"), Inugamike no Ichizoku ("The Inugami Family") and (of course) Yatsu Haka Mura ("Eight Graves Village"). Even though it has its own set of memorable scenes like the koto, the dead cat body and the three fingered man!

The solution of the novel is a very memorable one, ingenious enough to be called a classic, though it is a bit hindered by its complexity. While not as improbable as The Chinese Orange Mystery, it's still a very complex one with many factors to consider, but the way the locked room is a) set and b) how it's made possible, makes this one of the Grand Titles in Japanese detective history, a must-read for anyone interested in how in the genre has developed in Japan. It's also much more satisfying than Edogawa Rampo's D-Zaka no Satsujin ("The Murder at D-Slope"), Japan's first locked 'room' murder mystery.

The novel feels very much as meta-fiction too. Yokomizo longed to write a detective novel during the war, having spent much time reading them and he makes many references to the authors who have inspired him. In the first chapter, for example, he mentions Leroux' Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune, LeBlanc's Les dents du tigre, S.S. Van Dine's The Canary Murder Case and The Kennel Murder Case, Carr's The Plague Court Murders and Scarlett's Murder Among the Angells, while halfway the novel, Kindaichi Kousuke and third son of the Ichiyanagi family, Saburou, talk about the workings of locked room murders and in the end, the author pats himself on the shoulder gloating about how his carefully chosen words were a hint on their own.

I don't read Kindaichi novels often, as they take some time (though this one was surprisingly easy, taking only three days), but actually own many of them and every time I do read them, I can only rave about how awesome they are. I really, really should read more.

But then again, I say that also about Edogawa Rampo, Norizuki Rintarou, Ayatsuji Yukito, Shimada Souji, Arisugawa Arisu, Nikaidou Reito, Maya Yutaka, American/English writers, secondary literature...

Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史、『本陣殺人事件』

「この世には殺す人間と殺される人間がいる。自分は前者だ」

「胸の奥に深く響いているのは、クラスメイトたちの楽しい話でもなければ、家族と交わす暖かい言葉でもなかった。まるでそれらはチューニングのあっていないラジオの雑音のようにしか聞こえない」
『GOTH』

"What resonated deep within my body, was not the fun chatter of my classmates, nor the warm words I exchanged with my family. Like a radio that wasn't tuned right, it all sounded like interference"
"GOTH"

While most of the books I read (and therefore buy) are detectives, I occasionally buy other books. Some might be about the Japanese language, some about videogames and once in a blue moon, I actually buy fiction that doesn't belong to the detective genre. Though I don't go through them fast. Maybe I should continue with the second chapter of Ningen Shikkaku ("Failure as a Human") by now, I think I finished the first chapter almost a month ago...

I also have some books by Otsuichi, a popular light novel writer who mainly writes horror-stories, as far as I know. I had heard about him before, as some of his novels are also available in English. But I learned most about him when Otsuchi was discussed in class once as an example of the Japanese Generation Y, and we also read/watched some of his works there. And his stories seemed interesting enough. And very, very graphic. In words. I don't know what's worse, to see such graphic things as images (i.e. manga) or just reading it in detail. At any rate, the stories left an impression. So I picked up some books by him. In the mindset that these were horror-stories. Which was not completely correct.

So I think this is the first time I'm going to write about a book, I hadn't even considered to review. I always thought Otsuichi's GOTH, also available in English, was just a horror story collection, so I was very surprised to read on the back-cover that GOTH had won the third Honkaku Mystery Taishou (Orthodox Mystery Price), beating something like Norizuki Rintarou's Norizuki Rintarou no Kouseki. Which was a great book. It also got second place in the Kono Mystery ga sugoi (This Mystery is Great) rankings. GOTH was probably the first light-novel that moved into the big-leagues (in the detective field).  So GOTH quickly moved from my 'other'-pile (which shrinks at the rate of one book every two months. If things are going well), to my 'detective'-pile (which goes at around a book a week, sometimes two).

GOTH tells the story of the narrator, a high school student and his classmate Morino Yoru, a girl always dressed in black, who actively investigate strange happenings in town. But not as 'boy detectives'. The two just have an interest in the macabre. Gruesome murders are much more alluring to them than just chatting about what was on TV yesterday. The narrator's 'hobby' is walking around crime scenes and meeting murderers. They just want to seek the darkness within man from close by. They have no interest in 'justice' or helping out other people. They just want to see blood.

While the English version of GOTH is a single release, based on the hardcover release, I got the paperback version, which is split up in two books. I'll discuss only the first one here. Mainly because I haven't read the second one yet. And because splitting up reviews makes me seem more productive. GOTH - Yoru no Shou ("GOTH - Yoru's Chapter") is the first book and consists of three short stories. It seems like the story order is slightly different in the paperback version, but that doesn't really matter.

In Ankokukei (GOTH) (Dark Type: GOTH), Morino has picked up something what seems to be the notebook of the serial murderer prowling around lately, who dissects his victims, high school girls, in countless pieces and leaves them in the mountains. Using the diary, they manage the body of a girl that hasn't been discovered yet and they wonder whether they could get contact with the murderer. After a while, Morino starts to dress and act like the third victim, but she too disappears, only leaving a text-message saying "help".

In Inu (Dog), the narrator investigates the disappearance of dogs in the neighborhood, after his sister came across a pit hidden away beneath a bridge with the remains of said dogs. In a parallel story-line, a girl and her dog are planning to kill her mother's boyfriend because they keep getting abused.

Finally, Kioku (Twins) (Memories: Twins), Morino has trouble falling in sleep, saying she needs to put a rope around her neck in order to fall asleep. She also tells the narrator about her dead twin sister. The two of them used to pretended to be death to scare people, but one day, her sister Yuu accidentally hanged herself. The narrator travels to Morino's hometown to investigate about the twin sisters' past.

All of these stories feature some kind of 'surprise' ending (though I doubt any experiences reader of the genre will truly be surprised), and while the stories feel more like horror-stories than detective-stories, these endings and the, in hindsight, fairly well plotted stories do make it a suitable book to discuss here. Especially the first story features a nice conclusion in an almost Queen-ish logical argument solution. Which was quite surprising. Though I wouldn't say this book was better in the orthodox mystery subgenre than Norizuki Rintarou no Kouseki, I do have to say I'm fairly (pleasantly) surprised by this book. But most memorable is the darkness in these stories. These stories are quite dark, with graphic violence and just creepy. Which was kinda what Otsuichi does, I remember from my class. He pulls it off quite good. So yeah, I think I'll start with the second book soon. 

[ADD: Review of the second book]

Original Japanese title(s): 乙一　『GOTH - 夜の章』「暗黒系 Goth」 /「犬 Dog」/「記憶 Twins」

「古畑任三郎でした」

「赤い洗面器の男の話。ある晴れた日の午後道を歩いていたら、向こうから赤い洗面器を頭にのせた男が歩いてきました。洗面器の中にはたっぷりの水。男はその水を一滴もこぼさないように、ゆっくり、ゆっくり歩いてきました。私は勇気をふるって、「ちょっとすいませんが、あなたどうしてそんな赤い洗面器なんか頭にのせて歩いているんですか？」と聞いてみました。すると男は答えました。この話の続きは番組の最後で。中浦たか子のミッド・ナイト・ジャパン、午前4時までお付き合い下さいませませぇ」
『さよなら、DJ』

"A story about a man with a red wash basin. On a clear day, I was walking in the afternoon, when a man carrying a red wash basin on his head came walking this way. The wash basin was full of water. The man was walking slowly, very slowly, so not even a drop of water would fall out. I gathered all my courage and asked him: "Excuse me, but why are you walking around with a red wash basin on your head?" And the man answered.. The continuation of this story will come at the end of the program. This is Nakaura Takako's Midnight Japan and please accompany me until 4:00 AM!"
"Goodbye, DJ"

If my habit of using introductory quotes was stolen from Ellery Queen, then my inability to write a post without an introductory, contextualizing paragraph comes from Furuhata Ninzaburou. I need start-up time before I get into the main topic. I just can't go straight into the reviews. I just can't.

And as I don't seem to use my Furuhata Ninzaburou tag as much as I should, a short introduction: Furuhata Ninzaburou was a Japanese TV-drama, penned by playwright Mitani Kouki, that ran for well over a decade. The show was very much like Columbo, where the thrill came not from finding out who did it, but from guessing how the detective would catch his culprit. Tamura Masakazu played Furuhata Ninzaburou, a Japanese police lieutenant. Assisted by bumbling subordinate Imaizumi (played by Nishimura Masahiko) (and in the third season, also by smart, but short, sidekick Saionji (Ishii Masanori), Furuhata would use his keen mind (and utterly irritating habits which would annoy every living being) to confront his murderers, played famous Japanese people (Ichiro, SMAP, Ishikawa Kouji, Shoufukutei Tsurube and  Karasawa Toshiaki to name a few).

Every show would begin with a short introduction, before the opening themes, were Furuhata would talk about some non-sequitur. Like vending machines or alarm numbers or the moon or dogs....But in fact, these little stories would often turn out to be hints pointing at the solution of every case. The stories are, as said, very much like Columbo. Furuhata would lock on every single contradiction at the crime scene or testimony and try to find the truth behind it. Not seldom would he give his suspects a chance to explain themselves, only resulting in them burying themselves in more lies till they couldn't get out. Also, in a nod to the Ellery Queen TV drama, Furuhata would always address the TV audience just before the final act, asking them whether they knew where the murderer had slipped up or how he would trap the murderer.

And yes, this is a great show. It's my favorite Japanese TV-drama (well, shared with Trick) and while Trick is more a bizarre comedy set in a mystery, Furuhata Ninzaburou is just everything a fan of the genre can wish for. And more.

Scenario-writer Mitani Kouki was mostly known for his comedic stage productions (some of which have been made into movies), and has also directed movies himself in recent years (for example Welcome Back Mr. McDonald, The Uchouten Hotel and The University of Laughs). Mitani is quite a prolific writer, as he also pens essay-books and novels. But I am actually not sure what moved him into creating Furuhata Ninzaburou. You do see a lot of his background in Furuhata Ninzaburou though. Situation comedy plays a big part in the show (you might chuckle when watching Columbo, but Furuhata Ninzaburou is actually _funny_) and I can't help but think that the small casts and the focus on fast dialogue also comes from the theater.

But anyway, the novelization of the first season of Furuhata Ninzaburou was actually penned by Mitani himself. As he writes in the afterword of Furuhata Ninzaburou - Satsujin Jiken File ("Furuhata Ninzaburou - Murder Case File"), usually scenario-writers just lend their names to ghost-writers for TV drama novelizations, but as Mitani is a honest man, he wrote it himself. The book was to be released before the final episode would appear and because of that, Mitani was only able to make novelizations of 10 episodes (of a total of 12 episodes).

As a man of the theater, Mitani didn't see the novelization as just a novelization, but more like how it works with a play. Every time a play is performed, the playwright learns something new, he sees something that needs to be changed and so the novelization differs at some points with the TV drama. Mitani deleted some scenes/lines he felt obsolete, added scenes/lines that had been cut at first. Most importantly, Mitani shifted the perspective of the stories from Furuhata, to the criminal. Furuhata Ninzaburou in the TV show is, thanks to Tamura's acting, a very recognizable character, with dozens of habits and pet-peeves (Regarding hamburgers: "One pickle in the middle, surrounded by four pickles!"). You'll see him a lot in monomane shows. In the novel however, Mitani tried to erase as much of Furuhata's presence as much as possible. And as we only see him through the eyes of the criminal, it almost seems like Furuhata is a ghost. Appearing before the eyes of the murderer after the crime, solving it, and then leaving. Because of the shift of perspective, subordinate Imaizumi was deleted from the stories entirely, which is a bit sad, but I admit it's needed if Mitani wanted to write it like this.

But onwards to the stories.

In Omedetou Ari sensei ("Congratulations, doctor Ari) [TV-version: Episode 3, Waraeru Shitai ("The Laughing Corpse")], psychologist Ari kills her lover, but sets things up to make it seem like self-defense. The fact that the corpse seems to laugh makes Furuhata thinks otherwise though (Memorable moment: Furuhata smoking through a panty, something he had hoped was impossible.). Both the way Ari killed her lover, as well as the solution are amusing, though the solution is slightly... well, not unbelievable per se, just a bit unlikely.

Rokudaime no Hanzai ("The Sixth' Crime") [Episode 2, Ugoku Shitai ("The Moving Corpse")] is about a murder committed by a kabuki actor. Besides the kabuki theater setting though, the story has no real particulars in my opinion. Not counting Sakai Masaaki playing the murderer in the TV-version.

Banzuiin Dai, Hashiru ("Run, Banzuiin Dai") [Episode 4, Koroshi no Fax ("The Murder Fax")] is memorable to me, because it's the first Furuhata story I ever saw. Mystery-writer Banzuiin's wife has disappeared and Banzuiin is sent fax-messages from a kidnapper demanding money. But actually, Banzuiin has killed his wife himself and has set his fax on a timer to send the 'messages from the kidnapper' to himself, as this would make him seem innocent in the eyes of the police. Furuhata was called in just in case by his superiors (as Furuhata handles murders, not kidnapping cases), but some sharp observations ruin all of Banzuiin's plans. And it seems even my modern readings are old: I chuckled when reading the line saying using something like a fax for an alibi trick must be unprecedented. Times move fast.

Chinami no Ie ("Chinami's House") [Episode 1 Shisha kara no Dengon ("A Message from the Dead")] I have actually translated. Features a dying message without a message. Or something like that. Read it.

Iguchi Kaoru no Requiem ("Iguchi Kaoru's Requiem") [Episode 6, Piano Lesson] is very similar to Rokudaime no Hanzai. Both stories are set in a 'special'  environment. Where Rokudaime no Hanzai was set at a kabuki theater, Iguchi Kaoru no Requiem is set at a music school. Both stories also feature a solution that hinges the culprit's misunderstanding of circumstances. 

Kuroda Seinen no Yuutsu ("Young Kuroda's Melancholy") [Episode 9. Satsujin Koukai Housou ("Open Broadcast Murder")] is a fun little episode, where the self-proclaimed psychic Kuroda shows his powers to the world in live broadcast show. His 'powers' are quickly proven to be nothing more than mere parlor tricks by a scientist. But just as it looks like game over for Kuroda, he senses and finds the body of a dead man. Live on TV! I actually enjoyed the novelization more than the original TV version; reading it from Kuroda's perspective makes the character a lot more interesting (he has the same character development in the TV-show, but there it's rather sudden). And this time, Furuhata doesn't even make a real appearance, as he only tells the scientist some thoughts he had while watching the broadcast...

Sakotsubo Hisho no Nagai Yoru ("Private Secretary Sakotsubo's Long Night") [Episode 10, Mujun darake no Shitai ("The Corpse full of Contradictions")] feels a bit like those shakai-ha (Social) detective novels. Sakotsubo, the private secretary of a Diet member accidentilly kills his boss' lover as Sakotsubo and his boss tried to convince her to break up with, in fear of a scandal. When his boss orders him to make it look like Sakotsubo had a relation with the woman and that she comitted suicide because he dumped her, Sakotsubo snaps and kills his boss. Or so he thinks. Even though he went through the trouble setting things up to look like a double suicide, he is quite surprised to see the police handling the lover's death as a murder, while his boss wasn't dead, only heavily wounded! And as if that wasn't enough, that annoying police lieutenant keeps rambling about things...

Sayonara Otakasan ("Goodbye, Miss Otaka") [Episode 11, Sayonara, DJ ("Goodbye, DJ")] is one of my favorite stories. Once again a 'special' environment is used, this time a TV/radio station, where DJ Otaka manages to kill her assistent while on-air! The setting of TV/radio station is used perfectly and Mitani would revisit the radio-station setting in the wonderful movie Welcome Back Mr. McDonald,

Nakagawa Gekabuchou no Coat ("Chief Surgery Nakagawa's Coat") [Episode 8, Satsujin Tokkyuu ("Murder Express")] is just fun, because it features a murder on a train. On a Shinkansen to be exactly. With topics like ekiben, yakuza and train manners in Japan, this story is also one of the more cultural interesting ones, I think. 

Kogure Keibu Saigo no Jiken ("Police Inspector Kogure's Last Case") [Episode 12, Saigo no Aisatsu ("The Final Greeting")] is indeed about Police Inspector Kogure's last case. The murderer of Kogure's granddaughter was never convicted by the judge, so Kogure took matters into his own hands. Furuhata immediately suspects his superior, but it seems like he has an iron-clad alibie. This story once again features a solution that hinges on the culprit's misunderstanding of circumstances and I don't really like it, as the solution is rather hard to deduce yourself. It makes sense in hindsight, but it's a bit unbelievable and the whole story is only just memorable for some scenes where Furuhata explains that he never uses a gun (he always pretended to be sick when they had shooting exams) and eating MOS burger.

It's just too bad it ends with this though! I wish Mitani had wrote more novelized versions, as there are great stories in later seasons too. Especially season two's opening episode, Shaberisugiru otoko ("The Too Talkative Man") can be considered one of the better known detective stories in Japan (having Akashiya Sanma as the culprit might help) and in fact, I'm pretty sure that episode is where Takumi Shuu got his inspiration for Gyakuten Saiban from, as it features a case solved in the court and incessant pouncing on contradictions in testimony that is the essence of Gyakuten Saiban.　

Original Japanese title(s): 三谷幸喜『古畑任三郎・殺人事件ファイル』/「おめでとうアリ先生」/「六代目の犯罪」/「幡随院大、走る」/「ちなみの家」/「井口薫のレクイエム」/「黒田青年の憂鬱」/「迫坪の長い夜」/「さよならおたかさん」/「中川外科部長のコート」/「木暮警部最後の事件」