Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmès

「そのころ、東京中の町という町、家という家では、ふたり以上の人が顔をあわせさえすれば、まるでお天気のあいさつでもするように、怪人「二十面相」のうわさをしていました」

『怪人二十面相』

"In every neighborhood and in every home, whenever people came together, they would, as if talking about the simply weather, start swapping out rumors about the Fiend with Twenty Faces"

"The Fiend with Twenty Faces"

The amount I read and wrote about Edogawa Rampo's Shounen Tantei Dan ("Boys Detective Club") series this week this week is a bit more than should be considered healthy, but I still love it. It made me realise that we need more stories about master-detectives versus master-criminals. Yes, we have the crossover stories between Arsène Lupin and a thinly disguised Sherlock Holmes, but as those stories are written by Lupin's Leblanc, Holmes' depiction is never completely fair. And on the topic of Holmes, he and Moriarty are indeed an example, but Moriarty's appearance in the original canon is so brief and sudden that his impact is less than you'd expect it to be. No, we need more of the rivalries like Conan vs KID! Kindaichi vs Hell's Puppeteer! Q Class vs Pluto! Ranko vs Devil's Labyrinth!

Writing this also makes me realize that these are all Japanese examples. There are probably non-Japanese examples, but I can't think of one right now. Anyway, for the Japanese examples, it's pretty easy to point to the Shounen Tantei Dan series as the grandfather of the trope. Edogawa Rampo's legendary series about master-detective Akechi Kogorou, asssisted by young Kobayashi and the Boys Detective Club and the confrontations they have with the master-thief the Fiend with Twenty Faces pretty much shaped the model for both children's mystery fiction and for stories about master-detectives and master-criminals and it is tempting to think that without this series, we'd never have something like the rivalries mentioned above.

Edogawa Rampo's works never age, so they keep getting remade for all kinds of media. Akechi Kogorou tai Kaijin Nijuu Mensou ("Akechi Kogorou VS The Fiend with Twenty Faces") is a 2002 TV special produced by TBS. The story is a mix of several stories of the Shounen Tantei Dan series (and some non-Shounen Tantei Dan novels featuring Akechi), but also features an original take on the characters. Set in postwar Japan, the bulk of the story is naturally about the Triforce of Akechi, Boy Detective Club (represented by Kobayashi) and Twenty Faces, but the scriptwriter also added a subplot that links Akechi Kogorou and Twenty Faces personally. Because that's more fun, right? When Things Get Personal?

No, wrong. The Personal Subplot That Is Supposed To Make The Rivalry Significant is one of the many problems with this special. The subplot renders the Fiend with Twenty Faces to a poor victim of the war. But that's not the real Twenty Faces! He is supposed to be a genius criminal with the air of Arsène Lupin, he should be grand, he should be invincible! Twenty Faces is a criminal in a children's series, he is supposed to be nothing more than a (pleasant) evil! Making Twenty Faces a poor misunderstood war-victim is just an amateuristic way of trying to make the story more suitable for adults, but that is totally missing the point of Edogawa Rampo when he created the character!

Part of the problem is created by Edogawa himself though. He used the character of Akechi in all kinds of stories, from the Shounen Tantei Dan series aimed children to his work for adults. As a result, Akechi appears in both light-hearted and darker stories, which makes him an ambiguous character at times. Twenty Faces however is different, he was always meant as a children's character. The special mixes up several scenes from different Shounen Tantei Dan novels and it is clear that those spectacular scenes are in fact aimed at children, with a certain boyish naiveness to them. The "dark" subplot with Twenty Faces and Akechi really feels out of place.

Another problem is the casting. I love Tamura Masakazu. Really. Yes, he pretty much acts the same way in most of his roles, but in a good way. But if you put him in the role of a dandy gentleman detective dressed in black, I will think he is Furuhata Ninzaburou. Not Akechi Kogorou. Yes, I admit there are some differences (as Akechi, Tamura at least seems more sincere than Furuhata), but the two characters are just too similar. The other problem is Beat Takeshi, who plays the Fiend with Twenty Faces. There are just too many things wrong with this. Age is one thing (like I said, Twenty Faces should be more like youthful Lupin). The second problem is... is that he is called Twenty Faces. Because he is a master of disguise who is forgotten his own face. Why would he run around the whole time looking like Beat Takeshi then?!! There is a reason that the masked Twenty Faces is the most 'accepted' visual image of him! In fact, the movie K-20, based on an original novel by Kitamura Sou, had a really kick-ass suit for Twenty Faces. Actually, K-20 had a much better Akechi Kogorou vs Fiend with Twenty Faces story than this special, especially the more light-hearted approach is a lot more enjoyable.

The fact that the only enjoyable parts of this special were the parts that were lifted directly from the original novels says something about the strength of Edogawa's writing, but this was really an example of how not to do a TV adaptation of Edogawa Rampo's work.

Original Japanese title(s): 『明智小五郎対怪人二十面相』

「心に並べても未完成なパズル 」

「事件に大きいも小さいも無い」

『踊る大捜査線』

"You don't judge cases by their size"

"Bayside Shakedown"

Welcome to another entry in Short Shorts. Or wait, this is actually the first Short Shorts. Am I really going to call this Short Shorts? Hmm. Anyway, this is where I post things that aren't nearly interesting enough to justify a whole post on their own, but are somewhat acceptable if thrown in with some other bits and pieces. The bits and pieces are unrelated, but who cares?

I bought Speak of The Devil over a year ago and decided yesterday to finally read it. Speak of the Devil was a radio drama (this being the script) written by John Dickson Carr and is basically an enhanced version of She Slept Lightly (which is collected in 13 to the Gallows). A historic mystery where a man is haunted by his desire to meet a girl who is supposed to have been hanged some years earlier, but the mystery is rather light and the sappy love story really asked a lot of tolerance of my part. Speak of the Devil and She Slept Lightly are also extremely similar, so there is actually no need to read both stories. Are there actually scripts available for Suspense? Carr had some interesting stories there, which would have been much more enjoyable to read than Speak of the Devil.

Reverse Thieves has a pretty interesting segment where they discuss homages / parodies to detectives in non-related anime/manga series. To name some of my own favorites: The Serizawa Family Murder Case, a chapter in the classic Golgo 13. In fact, Golgo 13 is a name that might be mentioned more often from now on. The titular Golgo 13 is the world's number one professional assassin. And that's pretty all to the story. The stories often involve international politics in the background, but most of the interesting stories are when Golgo is forced to make an impossible snipe. Thieves like Lupin might be experts on how to make a seemingly impossible theft, but Golgo 13 is an expert in overcoming the odds and assassinate people in seemingly impossible situations. You know, the more I think about it, the more I think I really should write something more extensive about Golgo 13 sometime.

But anyway, The Serizawa Family Murder Case is might be an origin story for the perfect assassin. The story has a slow start, but presents the reader with a very interesting impossible disappearance halfway through the story. A woman is seen entering a hotel room, shortly after followed by a man. Police officers have all exits under surveillance. After some time however, the man exits the room, complaining that the woman still has not come! The police has no idea what's going on: they swear they saw the woman enter first, but the man says she was never there and simply thought that she was late. A search of the room shows that she has really disappeared from under the police's nose. The solution is a pretty suprising one if you weren't expecting a locked room mystery in your Golgo 13.

Another locked room mystery I had totally forgotten about is in King Ottokar's Sceptre, the eight album in the Adventures of Tintin series. I will refer to Tintin as Kuifje (his Dutch name) from now on by the way, because Tintin just feels strange. I haven't seen the new movie (and I seem to be the only one who genuinely enjoyed the videogame), but rewatching the 90's TV series reminded me of the locked room mystery in King Ottokar's Sceptre. In it, the titular sceptre disappears from a guarded room, with the only person inside being knocked out. While the solution is pretty simple and arguably maybe a bit childish, it's still a pretty entertaining story.

For me, reading/watching detective fiction is something I usually do on my own, so I naturally keep all my thoughts I have to myself. Occasionally I cry out some incoherent stuff, but it's usually a silent process. As I watched some episodes of (the awesome) Game Center CX however, I realized how strange it is to hear someone else think out loud while confronting a piece of detective fiction. In episodes 105 and 113, section chief Arino challenges the two detective games Hokkaidou Serial Murder Case - Disppear to Ohotsk (sequel to Portopia Serial Murder Case) and Kamaitachi no Yoru. While in episodes with action-based games, most of the fun of the show is derived from seeing how Arino struggles to progress in the game, these two episodes show a surprisingly sharp Arino trying to solve the murder cases in those games. Most Game Center CX episodes are filled with expressions like "Aaah, game over!", "Jump!!", "Need more lives!!", but as these kind of tensions are usually not present in detective games, Arino is forced to think out loud, to voice his deductions in order to fill out the 60 minutes of the show.

 And it's actually really fun, hearing how someone tackles a detective story. When you watch a detective show with someone else, you'll occasionally voice your deductions, but in these two episodes, Arino has to talk constantly because he is the only person in front of the camera and he has to pull the viewers in. It is really strange to follow a person's complete train of thought while playing a detective game, or engaging in any kind of detective fiction, but it's really interesting to see how people's way of thinking and deducing differ, even if the input (the story/clues) are the same. It's more fun that simply comparing solutions, because here we see the complete picture of how Arino progresses through the story and changes his ideas as he encounters new evidence. And sometimes bumbles around. Greatest moment of the Kamaitachi no Yoru episode? When the protagonist in the game exclaims he know who the murderer is, while Arino exclaims in return that he has no friggin' idea who the murderer is.

Thus ends this short short. I'll probably forget about the existence this type of post.... by the end of next month and will probably invoke it again in six months or so. That increasing pain in my head is also probably trying to tell me I should sleep now.

「分かってんだよ、自分でだって。本物のヒーローになんかなれないってことぐらい」

「花園絵里香です」

「おー、いい名前だね。うん。花園・・・　ちょっと待った。花園って・・・その、花園一家の花園？」

「え、まぁ」

「整理すると、君はその花園一家の親分のお嬢さんで・・・」

「次女です」

「で、さっきの２人は学校の送り迎えをしてくれる、その子分の人・・・」

「あり得ないですよね。２０歳を越えた大学生に、送り迎えなんて」

「うん。で振り切って、こう逃げてきたと。で、途中で俺をこう巻き込んだと」

「巻き込んだっていうか、一緒に逃げてくれたから」

「あぁ。分かった。よし。車降りよう」

"My name is Hanazono Erika"

"That's a nice name. Yeah. Hanazono.... wait. Hanazono... Hanazono of the Hanazono Clan?"

"Yeah"

"So let me get things straight. You are the daughter of the head of the Hanazono Clan..."

"Second daughter"

"And those two gangsters were the ones protecting you on the way from school..."

"Can't believe it, right? A student over 20 years old being protected on the way to school..."

"Well... so you shook them off and fled. And then got me involved..."

"It's more like you fled together with me..."

"OK. Got it. Get out of the car"

It's a bit worrying that three of the six posts until now this week have the tag Higashigawa Tokuya. It's getting really skewed now....

I've been writing this often about Higashigawa Tokuya's work lately, because it's fun of course, but also because his popularity in Japan really grew last year with the Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de novels and the TV drama based on that series. Last year, short movies and audio dramas were also made based on his popular novels. Having all these adaptations and such, makes it really tempting to try something by Higashigawa. And it does help that his work is usually really fun. Earlier this week, a TV-special was broadcast based on Higashigawa Tokuya's Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai ("I Won't Kidnap Again"). The original work is one of the few non-series stories Higashigawa wrote, but Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai is of course a comedy-mystery like all of Higashigawa's other works. The TV-special follows the original story reasonably accurate as far as I know, with some minor changes in for example the ages of the protagonists. Because Arashi's Ohno does not look like 20. Just no. Aragaki Yui might have passed for a high school student, but her character also had her age bumped a bit.

Anyway, the story starts when Hanazono Erika (played by Aragaki) bumps into the lost-in-life Shoutarou (Ohno) as she is fleeing from two gangsters. Shoutarou helps her in her flight, but discovers that Erika is in fact the second daughter of the head of the Hanazono Clan, the main tekiya in town. Erika wants to raise money for a hospital operation for her half-sister (by her mother who left Erika's father / the clan), but because she does not think that her father will give her the money, Erika plans to pretend like she has been kidnapped to get the ransom money. She convinces Shoutarou and his senior Koumoto to help her and the three of them actually manage to pull off the heist. Which is all good and well, until they find out the next day after receiving the ransom money that someone has gone off with the money, that someone has left a dead body (of someone of the Hanazono clan) on their boat and that the police was tipped off.

I have to admit, I was once again fooled by Higashigawa. Like always, he manages to lure you into a false sense of security, in a false sense of 'ha, your story is simple and consists of nothing more than humor, so no way you are going to surprise me'. I should really learn to be more suspicous whenever I feel like this when reading Higashigawa, because it always comes back to bite me. You'd think I'd have learned by now, but no. The story starts out very predictable and it takes quite a bit of time before the actual ransom-handover scene starts, but the great stuff only starts after our protagonists have retrieved the ransom money. And after the dead body has been discovered.

The first half of Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai is about how the three protagonists plan to retrieve the ransom money, which is pretty interesting on its own, but in the second half the heroes have to solve a crime they didn't commit and escape from the police and the Hanazono Clan, making things a lot more exciting. And even at this point, most viewers will just think that this is 'just' a standard mystery special, but then Higashigawa reveals something big that will definitely surprise most people. I have to admit that the main trick of this story is very much like the main trick in Higashigawa's debut work, Misshitsu no Kagi Kashimasu, but that doesn't make it less fun. It did caught me by surprise, maybe because it was so similar (even though I did solve it when I read Misshitsu no Kagi Kashimasu.... which is weird).

As a stand-alone work, the characters in Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai were surprisingly different from other Higashigawa characters. The protagonists in his series are usually simultaneously both incredibly genre-savvy and ignorant, which results in very interesting (and funny!) narration and conversation. This was not the case with Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai and I have to admit I didn't nearly laugh as much as with other Higashigawa stories. Maybe the fun conversations were cut from the story for the running time, maybe it was like this in the original story too. The TV-special had a certain pleasant light-heartedness to it and was definitely made to leave a typical drama-esque good feeling with the viewers, but does make me wonder how the atmosphere of the original book differs from this special. On the other hand, I doubt I'll ever read the book now I've seen the special... The main surprise is fun enough, but the rest of the story is not as interesting as Higashigawa's other stories.

Oh, and there was of course a small Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de guest appearance, seeing both TV shows are based on books by Higashigawa and feature Arashi members as the main roles...

And totally digging Gakki's short hair look. Yep. Liked it better in the Ranma 1/2 special, but still.

Original Japanese title(s): （原作：東川篤哉）　『もう誘拐なんてしない』

『霧ヶ峰涼の放課後』

「探偵は犯人を選べないが、犯人は探偵を選ぶものである」

『学ばない探偵たちの学園』

"A detective can't choose his criminal, but a criminal can choose his detective"

"The School of the Detectives who Don't Learn"

Another translation within a month?! Sometimes, the best way to get your mind off of things is to shut down your own brain and mindlessly translate detective stories you like. Or something like that.

This time a special kind of translation. For this is actually a translation of the radio drama of Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, produced for NHK's Youth Adventure series last year. Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni is a spin-off series to Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series, featuring the vice-president of the titular club as the protagonist. Kirigamine Ryou is a passionate vice-president, but sadly enough usually not smart enough to be the actual detective in the story and usually has to settle with a Watson-like role in the stories. The stories are all very light-hearted, as the mysteries Kirigamine tries to solve are just the cases she encounters at school (people usually do not get murdered in locked rooms et cetera at school), but that doesn't mean that they are not interesting.

I chose the short story Kirigamine Ryou no Houkago ("Kirigamine Ryou's After-School Hours") to translate, because it is a fun little story that kinda reminds of Ellery Queen's famous short story The Mad Tea Party. The school-setting also feels the most natural in this story compared to the other stories collected in Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni. This story has also actually been made into a short movie, that is available at the 'official' Koigakubo Academy website. Also note how I am trying to tell you nothing about the contents of the story.

It was interesting doing this though. I have translated short stories before, but as I didn't have a script to this story, I had to type down everything as I was listening to the radio drama (which are episodes 6 and 7 of the 10-part series, by the way). Which requires a very different way of working. There were some spots I just couldn't pick up, so I totally winged my translation at those points. Luckily, those moments were few and very short. Translating from an actual text is a lot easier!

Anyway, I think it speaks for itself. The text in italics is from the narrator (Kirigami Ryou herself), SOUND is of course for the sound effects in the radio play. The story's also quite easy to read and short because it's mostly conversation. Anyway, this is Kirigamine Ryō’s After School Hours:

霧ヶ峰涼の放課後

著者：東川篤哉

脚色：福田卓郎

Kirigamine Ryō’s After School Hours

Author: Higashigawa Tokuya

Script: Fukuda Takurō

「時の流れには逆らえず、色褪せてゆくものもあり」

さすが巨匠。当たり前だが、なんでも知っているので・・・

有野：　「巨匠。これ・・・巨匠に聞くのもおかしいと思うんですけど、犯人誰ですか」　

『ゲームセンターＣＸ』 #105

As expected of the Master. He naturally knows everything about the game, so...

Arino: "Master, it... it is kinda awkward to ask you this, but... who is the criminal?"

"Game Center CX #105"

We were just a week in January and I've already reached my monthly quotum! Yay! And it's even nicely rich in variety with games, manga and novels. Like I totally planned this.

Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken ("Portopia Serial Murder Case") is one of those games any self-respecting (detective) adventure gamer should have heard about. It is often seen as one of the earliest examples of the Japanese visual novel and has inspired many game creators afterwards, for example Metal Gear's Kojima Hideo. But then again, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken is created by one of the greatest names in games history: Horii Yuuji. Whose name is probably most strongly connected to Dragon Quest. Apparently, Horii wrote and programmed the whole game on his own in six months. It was released for the PC in 1983, apparently the first original Japanese PC adventure and the very first detective adventure. It was later ported to the Famicom by Chunsoft and was a huge success in Japan. Whereas the original PC version featured an old-fashioned verb-noun parser system (where the player had to manually input commands), the Famicom version featured command buttons, a feature that can be considered to have defined the way detective adventures looked like on the Famicom and later. For example, on the Famicom itself, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken's success resulted in similar detective adventure games like Famicom Tantei Club and Tantei Jinguuji Saburou, but even now the command-style adventure is very common (and even parodied). In short, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken is detective gaming's The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Set in the city of Kobe (which explains the name Portopia), the story is played in a first-person perspective, with the player assuming the role of a police officer in charge of the investigation into the murder of Gouzou, a wealthy man who was found with a slit throat inside his (locked!) study. You're assisted by your subordinate Yasu, who funnily enough forms the link between the player and the game-world: all the commands are in fact orders you give to Yasu for him to perform. The two of you thus start investigating, coming across a wide variety of suspects, false leads and red herrings and because the title of the game says it is a serial murder case, there will be more murders. Yep.

To be honest though, time has not been kind to this game. The lack of music and the simple graphics, that is something I can live with, but this game has some really frustrating moments. A gigantic first-person maze for example, with no map or clue to how the complete maze looks like (yes, there is the hint to get to one room in the maze, but there are actually two rooms in the maze and there is no hint to that). Famicom Tantei Club 1 also featured a maze at the end of the game (probably as a homage), but there was actually a hint to how the maze looked like. There are also several instances in Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken where you have to manually look for clues on the screen, although there is no hint, no sign that something might be hidden there. So you just have to guess that something is there. Which is frustrating. And like in its spiritual sequel Hokkaidou Rensa Satsujin Jiken: Okhotsk ni Kiyu ("Hokkaidou Linked Murder Case: Disappear to Okhotsk"), Horii also programmed several instances where the player needs to fumble around before the story continues. So you have to aimlessly select commands until you have fulfilled a certain condition ('choose all commands once', or 'go away once and then come back'), which is again not linked with the story an sich, only way to frustrate the player.

Thus as a standalone game, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken is not so memorable, but there is no denying its importance in Japanese (detective) adventure gaming. It was apparently the first game on the Famicom where the story was actually the main course. Not just some lines about saving a princess or stopping an ancient evil before the action started: the plot was the game itself. It also featured some form of non-linearity, with multiple conversation trees and optional dialogue and background information. The game also allows the player to make arrests, and with several fake endings / 'solutions', it is up to the player to judge who to arrest and when. In this sense, it is a revolutionary game that, together with its command-style input, definitely forms the foundation of the modern visual novel. In fact, Chunsoft, the company that ported this game to the Famicom, was probably strongly influenced by this (and they have of course strong relations with Horii), as Chunsoft was the company that invented the sound novel genre. And their second sound novel was a mystery game too! Metal Gear's Kojima said that it was the story-telling and characterization of Portopia that made such an impression on him, and while we can definitely argue whether Kojima hasn't gone to far with his story-telling, it is clear that Portopia stands symbol for a shift from pure action-based console games to more story-oriented console games.

And of course, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken is still fondly remembered for its denouement and the identity of the true killer. And this sense, it really does not differ much from Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue. Amongst the Japanese internet community, it is actually quite really popular to comment on mystery movies / books by saying The Murderer Is [Name Murderer of Portopia] as a joke. It shows how well known Portopia is, as well as how much an impact the story made on the players. In fact, I also knew who the murderer was before I started this game, as I had seen the comment often enough, yet I can't say I'm really mad for being spoiled. Penny Arcade explains this the best.

Oh, and that mystery movie with Edgar Allan Poe as the detective? Not sure what to think about that...

Original Japanese title(s): 『ポートピア連続殺人事件』

「Ｗｅｌｃｏｍｅ Ｔｏ Ｔｈｅ Ｅｎｄ Ｏｆ Ｔｈｅ Ｗｏｒｌｄ」

「真ん中の時計は現在の時刻を、左の時計は十分遅れた過去の時刻を、右の時計は十分進んだ未来の自国を指していると云われます」

『『クロック城』殺人事件』

"They say that the clock in the middle shows the current time, the clock on the left ten minutes in the past and the clock on the right ten minutes in the future"

"Clock Castle Murder Case"

Sometimes, all the signs in your life come together and urge you to read certain books. It had been on my reading list for years now (and I had actually already the first part), but the planets aligned, the signs came together and I finally decided to actually read and finish Dazai Osamu's Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human) two days ago. Which was very impressive. And immensely heavy. Really heavy. But I'm glad I finally read this classic!

And afterwards, I read 'Clock Jou' Satsujin Jiken ("Clock Castle Murder Case"), which was luckily less heavy. 'Clock Jou' Satsujin Jiken is Kitayama Takekuni's debut work and winner of the Mephisto Prize in 2002. And as always, I discovered the book won a prize after I read it. Actually, I knew next to nothing about this book, which explains why the science-fiction theme the story starts out with was kinda confusing. It is the year 1999. Five years earlier, a sunspot thirty times the size of Earth appeared out of nowhere, messing up the magnetic fields on Earth. Machines started to stop working, communication became impossible. Slowly, human civilization as we know it came to a stop. In this world, it is said that September 1999 will be The End of the World. Minami Miki (assisted by childhood friend Shinomi Nami) is a private detective, even though there is little demand for his services, well, because the Earth is going to end pretty soon. A missing cat or a cheating husband just seems less important in such times. Miki has another talent though: he is able to see and exorcise 'fragments of gestalts', ghost-like appearances. It is because of this talent that Kurou Ruka hires Miki. She is an inhabitant of the Clock Castle and a couple of days ago faces started to appear on the walls in the cellar. Ruka thinks it is the work of Skipman, a ghost that is supposed to haunt the Clock Castle with the power to rip holes in time itself, and she want Miki to excorcise it.

The strange family of Ruka lives in the Clock Castle, far away from cities and (what is left of) society. Clock Castle is divided in three parts that each have their own corresponding clock on the front wall of the mansion. The clock in the middle of Clock Castle shows the current time and is connected to the "Present Mansion", the middle part of Clock Castle. The clock on the left is ten minutes slow and is connected to the "Past Mansion", while the one on the right is connected to the "Future Mansion". Miki starts his investigation in the wallfaces, but it doesn't take long before murders happen. Murders of the decapitating kind. Bodies are found in the Past Mansion and the Future Mansion, while the heads are found in the Present Mansion, but it seems impossible for anyone to have done all this, because the connecting hallway to the three mansions was under constant observation. Was it the work of Skipman?

There is a lot going on in this relatively short novel. Besides the bare-bones detective plot, there is the whole End of the World-thing that plays quite a big part in the story, with two organisations working in the background trying to find someone / something called the Midnight Key, which can either cause or prevent the end of the world. Throw in some more information about sleep illnesses and ghosts ('fragments of gestalts') and we have a lot that is usually interesting, but it at times distracts from the main plot. In my head, these themes also remind me very much of those late-time anime that quickly gather fandom with presumed adult and deep themes, but somehow don't really interest me.Well, at least it doesn't go the whole way to anime-esque themes and storytelling like NisiOisiN did with his Zaregoto series.

With ghosts and exorcisms and stuff, I also had trouble gauging how 'fair' this mystery was going to be. I had read Kitayama's 'Alice Mirror Jou' Satsujin Jiken earlier, and while there were certainly some science fiction / fantasy elements there, it was not as strongly present like in this book. With ghosts and exorcisms and other things, it was just hard to predict how 'Clock Jou' Satsujin Jiken was going to turn out. In the end, it is an orthodox mystery and perfectly solvable without resolving to witchcraft, but the fact that this book has a strong science-fiction / mystery setting will make you hesitate at times and you'll keep that feeling until you reach the end.

With the clocks and the three-in-one mansion and all, 'Clock Jou' Satsujin Jiken is of course a yakata-mono (mansion-story), but like I said, there is also so much going on besides that, that despite the weird architecture, the Clock Castle does not feel as impressive as a mansion as for example the Slanted Mansion or Werewolf Castle. It just gets overshadowed by all the other things. Anyway, a lot of the little plotlines are also left open at the end of 'Clock Jou' Satsujin Jiken and while this might not be a bad thing per se, it does feel like Kitayama might have tried too much in this book.

The main trick of the impossible murders, is sadly enough very easy to see through. While the idea is good, it is just way too obvious and actually the first idea that came in my head. It might have worked better in a shorter story / novelette form. However, I can't praise the reason Kitayama had for the decapitated bodies enough. It fits the theme of the book perfectly and I doubt anyone will think of that reason while reading it. I have seen many reasons for cutting heads of dead bodies in all these years of reading detective fiction, but never have I seen such an impressive and original one. This is really one that is hard to surpass.

I had fun with the book, certainly, but I have to admit that I thought the setting was kinda distracting. A lot of the fluff feels very anime-esque. Which is not something I dislike, except I... don't expect such things in novels.Well, light novels, maybe, but not in serious orthodox detective novels. It's just distracting. The bare-bones plot is quite too easy to see through and not as impressive as 'Alice Mirror Jou' Satsujin Jiken , but Kitayama Takekuni is certainly an author to keep an eye on.

And yes, 'Clock Jou' Satsujin Jiken has one of the most disturbing book covers I've ever seen.

Original Japanese title(s): 北山猛邦 『『クロック城』殺人事件』

The Adventure of the Three Students

「無理でしょうね、久保先生がいうような軽業は。話になりませんよ。オラヌータンやチンパンジーじゃあるまいに」

「ははは、そいつはいい。真犯人はオラヌータンだったりしてな」

「ははは、馬鹿な。そんな話は、仮にミステリとしても三流ですよ。そんな小説書く人がいたら、みんなの笑い物ですね、きっと」

「・・・・・・・」久保はふと笑うのを止めた。「つかぬことを聞くが、君、本当に探偵小説研究部なのかね」

「え、ええ、そうですよ」

あれ？あれ、なにかマズイこといったのかな

『学ばない探偵たちの学園』

"It's not so easy as you make it out to be, Mr. Kubo. That's just not possible. It's not like you're an orangutan or a chimpansee"

"Hahaha, a orangutan as the murderer!"

"Hahaha, that's just stupid. Even if such a story existed, it would be just a third-rate mystery. Everyone would laugh at someone writing that!"

"....," Kubo stopped laughing. "Are you really a member of the detective fiction study club?"

"Ye...yes!"

Hm? Hmm? Did I say something wrong?

"The School of the Detectives who Don't Learn"

The long awaited continuation of Sherlock was surprisingly fun. While the first couple of minutes were kinda cheap, I thought the story was actually a lot more interesting than the original Scandal in Bohemia (which I don't like that much, thus I had no high expectations for this particular episode). Might write something about all three episodes when they're done later this month, as I don't really feel like doing episodic reviews this time. Looking forward to Sherlock's The Hounds of Baskerville next week!

I've become quite a fan of Higashigawa Tokuya lately. The way in which he mixes humor with actual orthodox detective plotting is simply wonderful. His stories aren't just [detective stories] + [humour], but the humour is actually an integral part of his plots, as humor is often used as either a smokescreen or a hint (or both) by Higashigawa. I also love his protagonists, who usually act as the Watson to the detectives. They seem a bit clueless at times, but are often just genre-savvy enough to come up with surprisingly sharp observations. There's also often a slight gap between the narration of these protagonists and 'reality', which is really funny to see in text. It's the gap between [serious detective story] - [humour], the gap between [narration] - [reality] that makes all three of Higashigawa's series (the Ikagawashi series, the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series and Mystery Solving is After Dinner series) stand out in the crowd.

Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen ("The School of the Detectives who Don't Learn") is the first book in the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series. The titular Detective Club of Koigakubo Academy used to be the Detective Fiction Study Club, but for reasons unknown (to even the president) changed its name to the Detective Club, meaning that their main activity is... to detect. Because the Detective Club's activities are rather vague and irregular (unless you're name is Conan, you are not going to come across a mystery a day), the club is not officially recognized by the school and even though they have a teacher willing to be the club's supervisor, they are not allotted a classroom for their extra-curricular activities. Akasaka Tooru, transfer student and narrator of Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen was actually fooled by this, as he foolishly thought that the people present in the Literature Club room were in fact people of the Literature Club and that he was signing up for that club. Who would be so dumb as to ignore the possibility that the two persons there were actually people from the Detective Club who were 'borrowing' the Literature Club room?

One day, as Tooru, the club president and Yatsuhashi, another member of the Club, stayed late at school discussing how the most suspicious people in a locked room mystery are 1) the one who opens the the locked room and 2) the first one approaching the body and 3) the one who says it was a locked room, they happen to find a student stabbed in his chest in the nurse's room. Which was of course locked. And to make it even more interesting, the three teachers who were present there too did precisely what makes them suspicious in a locked room mystery. Our three students, for the honor of the Club, naturally try to solve the mystery themselves.

The story develops in its own pace with subplots concerning Koigakubo Academy's geinou class (a class for students who work in the entertainment industry as idols, singers, actors etc.) and another locked room murder, but I have to admit that Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen is not as good as other Higashigawa mysteries. It's still very funny, with some great slapstick-esque scenes you'd never expect in a detective and the school setting is, like in Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, something that makes this series stand out, but its problems lie with the locked rooms and the structure of this book. The solution to the first locked room is a bit too farfetched to be credible, while the second is actually quite good, but it is introduced late in the story, resulting in lesser sense of mystery. Furthermore, the solutions to both locked rooms are more of a mechanical type (opposed to the psychological type), which is simply something that doesn't feel as fitting to Higashigawa's writing style. Higashigawa's best impossible stories hinge on some kind of (often humorous) gap between observations of the people involved and that's what is best suited to his funny writing style. The synergy between these elements is not present in Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen, making this feel like a less accomplished Higashigawa work.

The structure forms a second minor problem. Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen, because of its setting, is also a gakuen-mono (school-drama-ish) and it kinda follows the rather high-paced structuring of those works. The detecting method of three detectives (who end up as the Watson to supervising teacher Ishizaki) is quite chaotic and there is a lot going in this relatively short book. It's this chaos that makes Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen feel a lot less polished than the short story collection supplement Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, which excelled in its simple, short brilliance.

I love the Detective Club though. It is certainly not an unique thing, as they actually exist in Japan and are thus often used in (meta)-fiction too. Jukkakukan no Satsujin for example features one heavily, but Kindaichi Hajime and Miyuki are also members of the Mystery Fiction Study club at their school, just like Nikaidou Ranko and Reito. The difference here is that the members of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club are in fact, not really detectives themselves (like Kindaichi en Ranko), nor are they so brilliantly meta like the people in Jukkakukan no Satsujin who spout random quotes from detective fiction and refer to themselves with nicknames like Carr en Queen and act like those detectives. The members of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club are precisely what you'd expect from high school students who are a bit of a mystery geeks: they have a lot of passion for their hobby, but not much besides that. In fact, they are the most human of them all, and certainly feel the most familiar to me.

While a bit disappointing, Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen is still a very funny book that shows that detective fiction does not have to be serious (or realistic even, as this borders on slapstick humor at times) to be offer genuine orthodox detective plots. He doesn't even have to reach out to the old parody-method. Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni is the better installment in the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series, but Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen is certainly recommendable to anyone who wants to laugh while reading orthodox detectives.

And hey, a post title that relates to both the introduction and the main topic of the post?! Rare indeed.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉 『学ばない探偵たちの学園』