「ペロッ・・・ これは・・・青酸カリ！！」

「信用を得るには長い時間がかかりますが、失うのは一瞬のようですね」

『犬のみぞ知る　ＤＯＧ ＫＮＯＷＳ』

"It takes a long time to gain trust, but just a second to lose it"

"DOG KNOWS"

I think that the first historical mysteries I've read were the Roma Sub Rosa novels by Steven Saylor. They were recommended to me by my Greek/Latin teacher and I really did find them amusing. Sure, Saylor's writing style seems to swing between good and not-so-good at times and the detective plots miss the grandeur of the Great Classics, but they were really fun for those interested in the Roman Empire. The adventures of Gordianus the Finder were full of little (and big) references to the grand empire and I absolutely loved Roman Blood, the first novel, for its detailed plot concerning the Sextus Roscius Patricide case, the first big case Cicero handled as a laywer. I liked that Cicero a bit more than the Cicero I had to read and translate for my exams.

The historical mysteries by Paul Doherty seem to have been a popular topic of mystery bloggers the last few months. Which is why I picked up one of his books I happened to find at a second hand bookstore. Yes, I said I wasn't going to buy books this month, but hey, I was forced to spend a couple of hours waiting for some documents to be returned to me, so I thought I might as well spend my time reading under the sun in the park. The book was also signed, I discovered later. I assume that it's Doherty's signature. Not sure though.

The Devil's Domain is an entry in The Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan series by Doherty. The time: the late fourteenth century! The place: England! The titular Brother Athelstan is a Dominican friar in St Erconwald’s in Southwark and the secretarius of Sir John Cranston, the King's Coroner. Together they fight crime! This time, the dynamic duo are forced to solve a case of international importance. Five French sailors have been caught at sea and are held captive in Hawkmere Manor, awaiting their release when the ransom money from their families arrives. Their host/warden is Sir Walter, who does not bother to hide that he really dislikes French men. But still, he is responsible for his prisoners and according to the international treaties, he is supposed to treat these hostages (relatively) well. And then one day one of his prisoners is found dead, poisoned in his cell. But how was the man poisoned? There are no signs of injection on the body, the man had only eaten and drunk foodstuffs his fellow-prisoners had also eaten/drunk, his prison room was locked and nobody could have entered through the barred window. And as killing of hostages is considered rather rude and it might also endanger an English-French treaty in-the-make, Sir Cranston and brother Athelstan have to work fast to protect England's face.

I have to admit that I know next to nothing of English history. Ancient Rome, Greek, Egypt I have covered. Depending on the period, I'm also comfortable with Chinese and Japanese history. I really have no idea of medieval England, except for the standard images. In fact, the only thing I knew that came even remotely close to the setting of The Devil's Domain was... Discworld. Yes, that was the closest thing I have in my arsenal of random knowledge. But I have to admit: Doherty writes in a pleasant style and he manages to describe the place and period in a way that never feels overwhelming, yet informative enough to avoid falling into the trap of just describing a Generic Medieval England. I could hardly pretend to have become an English history expert by reading this book, but it was certainly educative.

With historical mysteries, the same as with books set in another culture than your own, there is always the problem of how to position the factors of time/culture in your book and what to expect from the reader. Address the topic too lightly and you risk the danger of writing about a Generic Time/Period that is little more than a stereotype. Address the topic too detailed and you risk the danger of being too overwhelming. Footnotes/explanatory notes don't even help that much, as few notes just don't help, while many notes have the tendency to pull the reader out of the actual narrative.

I was less enthusiastic about the impossible poisoning story though. There are some other sub-plots in the story by the way, which were entertaining and tied up nicely with the main story in a Judge Dee-style, but the main puzzle, the poisoning of the prisoners (yes, plural!) in Hawkmere Manor was less satisfying. The set-up is certainly good: Hawkmere Manor forms an excellent (and gloomy) background to the horrifying fact of prisoners not being safe in their cell. But I don't think the solution lives up the set-up. Throughout the story, allusions are made that the poisoning was not possible unless circumstance X is true. Then Sir Cranston and Athelstan have some adventures and at the end of the story, it is revealed that *gasp* circumstance X is true. Not because of an ingeneous trick the murderer came up with or something like that. It is just true. It almost feels like saying that only a ghost could have commited the murder, only to reveal that ghosts exist. It is a whole lot less ridiculous than that and it is only part of the bigger picture, but still, the solution to the puzzle is just not as satisfying as when an actual trick has been used. In fact, there are variations on this solution that actually rely on a trick instead on invoking circumstance X, which are a lot more fun to read (the one that comes up in my mind is one of the short stories in Conan).

I already said that Discworld was pretty much my only point of reference and if we're talking about an impossible poisoning story in Discworld, then we're talking about Feet of Clay, part of the City Watch subseries. And yes, I kept comparing The Devil's Domain with Feet of Clay in my mind as I was reading the first, that was just something that couldn't be avoided. And Feet of Clay is definitely the better impossible poisoning story of the two. It has an awesome trick, smart hinting and it's funnier too. The Devil's Domain is good on a narrative/writing level, but the solution to the main problem is just not nearly as satisfying as that of Feet of Clay.

I might sound very negative, but I did like Paul Doherty's writing style and the setting, so I might try another book in the future (another Brother Athelstan or maybe another series). This is one of those instances where I think I just happened to have picked out the wrong book and that the writer deserves a second chance.

「これは事故か。殺人か」

「私は信じます。いつか必ずくる事故のない未来を・・・・」

『アクシデンツ -事故調クジラの事件簿-』

"I believe that one day it will come. A future with no accidents..."

"Accidents - The Case Files of Accident Investigator Kujira")

Still no new books, but I at least have new detective games! Kamaitachi no Yoru 2 is going to be awesome! I am just one hour in the game and we already have a grand meta-setting, a secluded island, a curiously designed mansion (ex-prison) and even a warabe-uta (cf. nursery song) that is definitely going to be used for the murders!

But to get to the topic of today. I don't consider myself a fan of the mangaka Yamada Takatoshi, but the fact is that I do enjoy his works very much. It would be easy for example to raise the fact that he made a really neat three-volume manga adaptation of several Shounen Tantei Dan stories. Or the fact that he wrote Dr. Koto Shinryoujo ("Dr Koto's Clinic"), one of my favorite series. It is not really ontopic for this blog, but to make a small introduction: the series is set on a small island in Okinawa, where young doctor Koto takes charge of the island's only medical clinic. It takes hours by boat to reach the nearest large island (with hospitals), so doctor Koto's clinic is pretty much the only place to get medical care for the inhabitants of the island. The story revolves around our young idealistic doctor trying to gain the trust of the inhabitants (who have very bad experiences with their local doctors), mixing humor, human drama, Black Jack-esque emergency operations and even social commentary regarding the Japanese health system. Totally recommended (there is also a TV drama version, which is arguably better than the original manga!)

But I still don't consider myself a Yamada Takatoshi fan. I just like his works. My first Yamada Takatoshi manga was Accidents - Jikochou Kujira no Jikenbo ("Accidents - The Case Files of Accident Investigator Kujira"), which is actually a great manga too. But pretty much unknown outside Japan. Probably even within Japan. Accidents is pretty much what the title says it is: a series about accidents. The protagonist, Kujiragi Yuu, nicknamed Kujira (whale), is a special investigator of accidents appointed directly by the cabinet. Kujira appears whenever strange accidents happens, from exploding planes to people being dragged away by trains and spontaneous exploding brides, using his authority and expert knowledge to find out how the accident happened and how they can prevent it from happening again. And of course, not all accidents are just 'accidents'...

I'll mention right away that this is not an orthodox detective manga like Detective Conan or Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo. This is not about giving the reader a challenge, not about presenting a puzzle plot with carefully laid out clues and such. And it was never meant as such. So why discuss it here? Well, it is often pretty close to an orthodox detective and it is just a very entertaining series. Most of the stories are about Kujira detecting his way through the aftermath of a terrrible accident, trying to find out what caused it. Which is not very much far away from a normal orthodox detective set-up, right? In fact, most of the stories are actually fairly clued and it is often theoretically possible to solve the cases yourself. Theoretically, I say, because most of us will not have expert knowledge on satellites, the inner workings of airplanes and the way motor engines are built. I think. Or specialist knowledge about geology. These cases are usually not easy to solve (there are some more normal cases though, that turn out to be murder cases and not just simple accidents).

But luckily, it never gets too difficult. Like with medical manga like Black Jack and Dr. Koto Shinryoujo, all of the technical information is presented in a easy-to-understand way, never overwhelming the reader. (Freak) Accidents are also something you often see in the news and thus the subject material in Accidents never feel too unfamiliar to the average reader. Compare to Higashino Keigo's Galileo series: those stories are also often about (rare) natural phenomena causing seemingly impossible situations, but the sitations there never feel familiar enough to the reader and they end up feeling unfair because those stories always refer to expert knowledge no average reader would have. In Accident, the expert knowledge is applied to familiar situations, feeling less detached from the reader's imagined world. In fact, this is also a highly educational manga, as it shows how just a little careless mistake or oversight might cause a bigger accident through natural phenomena and how everything is related to each other. It is certainly not bad to take note of the information presented in Accidents.

And I don't know whether this is a typical Yamada-thing or not, but Accidents contains a lot of social commentary like Dr. Koto Shinryoujo. The latter obviously takes a critical look at the medical health care on faraway islands, the aging of the local population and life on islands in general. Accidents takes a look at the modern society. It's of course easy to criticize large companies who cut corners that lead to large scale accidents (which is also done in this series), but Accidents also looks at the bigger picture, at how man has become reliant on technology which is not as perfect as we might think it is. Yamada does not see technological advancement as a bad thing though: he just wants to remind the reader that we should always watch for accidents and should learn from our past mistakes (accidents), so we can prevent them the next time.

By now it might seem that this is a very heavy, serious series, but that's actually wrong. There is, despite the heavy subbject matter, actually quite a bit of humor in this series (mostly provided by token cute girl Hiiragi) and most stories appeal to the human-drama/feel-good feelings of the reader. In that respect, it is very similar to Dr. Koto Shinryoujo.

Anyway, at ten volumes, this is a neat, short series that should appeal to fans of detective novels / manga. Some might criticize the lack of something like a main storyline, but Accidents is certainly educative and entertaining and you know what, it deserves to be known a bit more.

Original Japanese title(s): 山田貴敏 『アクシデンツ -事故調クジラの事件簿-』

Orient X Occident

夢の楽園を探しながら

走る君を見つめていたい

誇り高く汚れを知らない

君を信じていいですか

『Will』 米倉千尋

I want to look at you running

As you search for the heaven of your dreams

With pride and without any blemish

Is it alright if I believe in you?

"Will" (Yonekura Chihiro)

I really should tidy up my books one of these weeks. Most books are easily accessible, but the times I need a book that is not accessible, well, I really need to work to retrieve it. Carefully constructed towers of books will fall, occasionally on me and it takes ages to get everything back in place. This does not seem that farfetched a scenario actually.

But to go to the topic of today. Judge Dee! Is there a need for an introduction (we always have Wiki)? Seeing I already have a neat little tag for it, means I have written about him in the past, but that concerned a slightly different topic. Namely, Dee Gong An, a 18th century Chinese detective novel, translated by Dutch orientalist / diplomat Robert van Gulik. The novel starred a fictionalized version of the magistrate Di (Dee) Renji. What was special to Dee Gong An, was that it actually resembled a Western detective novel, whereas most Chinese detective novels of the past were less about detecting, but more about bringing an ethical (and ideological) message (thus featuring an emphasis on the punishments of the criminals who went against the order of man/empire). Ghosts and spirits also made appearances as hint-giving plot devices, something that naturally does not fit with the rational Western detective model. Dee Gong An was different, but in a good way.

Van Gulik later wrote his own (original) Judge Dee stories, based on the characters (Judge Dee) of Dee Gong An and continuing with the Western detective story model. Occasionally, the cases were based on actual court records from ancient China, at other times they were completely original. Like Dee Gong An, van Gulik's stories are set in Tang China (when the real Di Renji lived), but contain mainly elements from the later Ming dynasty. Van Gulik also employed a certain plot-device often seen in ancient Chinese detective novels in his own Judge Dee novels: the judge is often busy with several cases (usually three) at the same time, in constrast to the Western detective who usually is concentrating on one single case. Finally, Van Gulik also made illustrations for his novels mimicking the style of ancient Chinese illustrations (which are really neat!).

Fun fact is that van Gulik wrote his stories in English first, with (his own) Dutch translations being published later. The Dutch 'translations' are actually quite fun to read in this time and age, having a sense of... dated Dutch that is less apparent in the English texts. To me, the dated Dutch kinda feels similar to the 'strange' English one sometimes sees in translations of old Chinese texts, adding a layer of 'authenticity' to the texts (in a very inappriopiate way, I admit. But hey, I can't help how I feel about texts!). And yes, this explains why I use both Dutch and English covers in this review.

Van Gulik was a celebrated Orientalist from Leiden University (which makes him my senior... I guess) and was thus an expert on the topic. It is difficult to write realistically and convicing about a different time and place, but van Gulik was one of those persons with both a talent for writing as well as excellent academic knowledge about the topic he wrote about it. Who could have been a better guide to Tang/Ming China than van Gulik? His books are thus interesting and funny detective stories set in a 'foreign' setting that nonetheless never feels strange or wrong.
 
Magistrates (who acted as mayor/judge/detective/jury) in ancient China were appointed to their location of occupation, changing cities once in a couple of years. Van Gulik used this for his novels, with his Judge Dee going to new places (where he meets new friends/enemies/etc.) once in a couple of stories. In this post I will discuss the stories of the Judge Dee canon set in Peng-Lai, where Judge Dee first made his name as a master-detective (the stories were not written in this order by the way).

The Chinese Gold Murders starts with Dee's very first appointment as a magistrate. The city of Peng-Lai is situated near sea, close to the Korean peninsula. Until just a few years ago, China had been at war with the Korean states and Peng-Lai is thus an important strategic point, with a military base to keep the borders in check, but also a lot of trade coming and going from Japan and Korea. Dee's appointment to this city was actually very sudden, because the position became available because the previous magistrate was murdered! He was poisoned in his (locked) library, but the official emprial inquisitor was not able to find out what happened, leaving our rookie magistrate with a huge case. But the judge is also burdened with a smuggling case and even the disappearance of one of his senior clerks, resulting in some very hectic first days as the magistrate in Peng-Lai. Oh, and there is something about the ghost of the previous magistrate haunting his old house...

This is a very entertaining story, which really shows what a great writer van Gulik was. The way he builds up his story is just fantastic: from the map to the city of Peng-Lai to the descriptions of everything that goes on in the city, everything appears alive in this novel. The descriptions of the 'underworld', the international relations with Korea, heck, even a visit to a local restaurant manages to be absolutely captivating. And like I mentioned earlier: despite the 'alien' setting, it never feels too alien for the reader. Everything feels amazingly familiar and never too orientalist foreign (though I have to admit that having read Journey to the West, Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin and The Investiture of the Gods, I might be a bit more used to the setting than most people). The locked room murder of the previous magistrate is a much more ingenous variation of a problem seen in the original Dee Gong An and really good: the problem is just that the solution of the problem definitely deserved more attention; now it is sorta mentioned as side-note (a treatment the trick really doesn't deserve!). The other cases are not as interesting on their own, but van Gulik manages to keep everyone on their toes by masterfully weaving in and out of the storylines (and also by tying up the storylines a bit). The multiple storylines also help by conveying an idea of all the things a district magistrate has to do, as compared to the Western detective who has the leisure of working on only one case. But anyway, this is really a worthwile read!

The short story collection Judge Dee At Work features another three short stories about the time Judge Dee's time as the magistrate of the city of Peng-Lai. The first of them, Five Auspicious Clouds, is set just a week after The Chinese Gold Murders and revolves around the apparent suicide of the wife of an important business man. Technically, this is just a clock-based alibi-trick story, which isn't that great actually. The idea of a clock-based alibi trick set in ancient times is interesting, I concur (no, it's not even based on a sand-clock or sundial). But the trick is rather easy to see through and we all have all seen the mistake the murderer makes way too often to be impressed by it.

It seems that The Red Tape Murder is not very well liked, but I have to admit I have a soft spot for it. Incomplete documents force Judge Dee to visit the military base of Peng-Lai. Some days ago, a murder happened at the base, though that falls under military jurisdiction and not civil (Dee's) jurisdiction. Dee's lieutenants Ma Joong and Chiao Tai however tell him that the suspect arrested really isn't the kind of person to have commited a murder (even though he was the one in the perfect location to have commited the murder) and the judge therefore tries to find out more about the case, without upsetting the people at the base. The bureaucracy is an amusing element of the story, but the most interesting element has to be the actual murder, which features a trick so absurd and farfetched, that it actually seems plausible. It's an original trick and as I write this, I actually have to chuckle because I keep having mental images of the trick in my head. Something that has to be read.

He Came With the Rain on the other hand seems to be a well-received story that I personally don't really care for. Judge Dee happens to hear about a murdered man in a tower occupied by a deaf-mute girl in the marshes outside town. A man was caught red-handed (literally) in the marshes, but the judge is not sure whether that's the man they are looking for. The deaf-mute girl tells the judge about a demon who comes with the rain, but it seems that this is not just nonsense. The one good point of the story: information about folklore. The rest of the story just doesn't interest me. At all. Heck, I really had no recollection of this story as I was rereading this and I think I will forget it again in just a few days.

The final story of Judge Dee's time as magistrate of Peng-Lai is The Laquer Screen, but that story is not set in Peng-Lai, but in a neighbouring district. The judge and his lieutenat Chiao Tai visit the nearby town of Weng-Pei on their way back from a conference as a short holiday. A courtesy visit to the local magistrate Teng makes the judge suspect something strange is going in the household of Teng, but thinks it is none of his business. After some events, Judge Dee and Chiao Tai are mistaken for criminals and they end up in the headquarters of the local underworld, led by a person called the Corporal. It is through these connections that the judge finds out that the wife of magistrate Teng was murdered. Upon questioning him, Teng tells Dee the horrifying story of how his life has been eerily similar to a four-piece laquer screen he had purchased and that the final screen shows how a man killed his beloved wife: Teng then tells Dee that he must have murdered his own wife in a fit of insanity. Dee however refuses to believe that and starts his own investigation.

Like the other Judge Dee novels, The Laquer Screen contains three cases, but they are really deeply intertwined and they might as well be considered one big case. This is overall not as interesting a story like The Chinese Gold Murders. Sure, this book offers something different, with just one lieutenant to support the judge in a town (where he has no jurisdiction). There is a glimpse of the underworld we usually never get to see. The story of the laquer screen is also quite creepy. But there is little room for a real mystery as it has quite a small cast and with several coincidences influencing the way the story develops, it never feels as rewarding a mystery as The Chinese Gold Murders.

Of the stories set in Peng-Lai, The Chinese Gold Murders is definitely the most fun one and actually a great novel to start the series with (though it was not the first Judge Dee novel written). The other stories are fun if you're interested in the series, but not really interesting on the merit of just their plots. And I am not sure whether I will do more Judge Dee reviews in the near future, though I am definitely playing with the idea.

Hmm, in my head, I imagined this post to be quite a bit better than how it turned out to be. Ah well. I am not going to rewrite this again (long story).

Problem at Sea

"Why must people die? Why must the living die? Or rather, why must they live....simply to die?"

"Phoenix: Karma"

I. Need. New. Books. I really want to read something I haven't read yet! Aaaaaargh. These two months, I have read like... three new books. Two of those, I didn't even really wanted to read: it's just that I don't have anything else left here! Another month, another month...

As I am slowly going crazy, I picked up another book from my emergency pile. Which mostly consists of Uchida Yasuo books. I definitely picked up too many of his books that one time they sold books at university here, without really finding out if these were interesting or not. I have read a couple of his books now, but I am still not sure what to think about Uchida. On one hand, I do like the atmosphere in his particular brand of travel-history mystery novels. Uchida usually spins an entertaining yarn combining domestic tourism, popular history and folklore. His settings are usually very interesting and quite educational. On the other hand, Uchida is not that gifted a puzzle-creator. As a big fan of the puzzle-school writers like Queen, Norizuki and Arisugawa, the simple (detective) plots of Uchida's stories almost always feel disappointing, especially as his well-researched settings usually have great potential. It are the settings that really keep me glued to the pages of his books. If not, I would have given up on Uchida a long time ago. Well, now is an emergency though.

I reviewed two Inspector Iwao (the Shinano Columbo) novels last month, but Uchida's main/most famous series is the Asami Mitsuhiko series. It is an immensely long series that has many, many TV adaptations, audio drama adaptations and even videogames. I reviewed the first Asami Mitsuhiko novel in a faraway past, but to give an idea of the series: Asami Mitsuhiko is a freelance writer for a travel magazine, specializing in local history and folklore. He naturally has to travel a lot for his work and he has a knack for getting himself involved with murders that happen at the tourist spots he investigates. He also has a talent for getting himself into the position of important suspect in those cases. That is, until the local police find out that Asami Mitsuhiko is in fact the younger brother of the Director-General of the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the National Police Agency (Mitsuhiko hates people finding that out though). The best point of the series is precisely what Uchida does best: mixing tourism, folklore and local history with a detective plot. The character of Mitsuhiko provides a perfect vehicle for that (better than inspector Iwao, actually) and there is quite a large extended cast that provides for some entertaining moments throughout the series. This is strengthened by the literary agent aspect of the series: within the Asami-universe, there is a detective writer called Uchida Yasuo who bases his stories on the adventures of Asami.

Kumano Kodou Satsujin Jiken ("The Old Kumano Road Murder Case") starts with writer Uchida Yasuo asking Mitsuhiko to come along to Kumano in the Kii Penisula. Uchida's friend, professor Matsuoka of T University, has asked his help in trying to prevent his assistent Takeno and his students from reenacting an old Buddhist ritual in Kumano. The ritual is called Fudarakutokai, which means 'crossing the sea to Potalaka'. It seems that it has been believed in Japan that the Potalaka Mountains, where the Buddhist deity Kannon resides, are located in Kumano. However, to cross over to the Potalaka mountains, you have to get into a boat and let the sea bring you there. The ritual of Fudarakutokai consists of going out on sea on little boats. That's it. You either die at sea, or reach Potalaka to achieve enlightment. Many monks have actually tried this in the past since the Japanese middle ages, until it was banned in the Tokugawa period. It is probably fair to think that at least the majority of those people died.

Matsuoka's students want to recreate the ritual as a form of experiment despite Matsuoka's protests. Matsuoka's assistent Takeno has already signed up to be the one in the boat. Fearing that something bad might happen, Matsuoka wants Uchida on the scene. Uchida thinks he might use the fudarakutokai ritual for one of his books and agrees, taking Mitsuhiko along with him. On their way to Kumano however, the pair gets involved with the mysterious death of a woman who seems to have been following them. When they discover that the woman is linked to the fudarakutokai ritual, they begin to suspect that professor Matsuoka's feelings about the ritual might have been right.

And really not sure what to think about this book. I am pretty sure that my overall negative feeling is right, even though this story is not without its merits. Which is mostly concentrated in the fudarakutokai ritual. I don't have a spiritual interest in Buddhism, but as I have taken courses on Japanese religion and am a big fan of Tezuka Osamu's work, I have seen my share of interesting Buddhist rituals. I was already familiar with a ritual like instant Buddhahood (sokushinbutsu), of which fudarakutokai is a surprising variant. There is also a bit on the legend of Kiyohime and it are these elements that gave this story great potential.

I for one was expecting a locked room murder: here we have a little boat (more like a box), with someone locked inside it, going out on sea. Perfect situation for an impossible crime, right? It really screams for a scenario where the person in the boat gets brutally murdered even though the boat was in the middle of the sea with nobody in the neighborhood. And I admit, the story does develop sorta along those lines, but in the most unimpressive way possible: the person inside the boat is poisoned. Uchida then tries his hand at an impossible poisoning story, but it never really works out because it is almost painfully clear how it was done. Why not have the person killed in a more impossible way? Like dismemberment or something like that. That would have laid more stress on the impossibility of the situation.The strange thing though, the boat as a locked room situation is actually used in another situation in this story, but the impossibility of that situation is only explored after Mitsuhiko explains the trick and why it was seemingly impossible. I was utterly confused by this tactic of Uchida of first not making better use of a locked room situation and then creating an impossible situation which he doesn't explore as such. Seriously. What was he thinking.

There are definitely more problems with the story, from too much coincidences in the plot to a competely useless car chase at the end of the story that seemed written for a thrilling and exciting TV adaptation. The book also suffers from really bad pacing. The book is quite short (250 pages), but the first (and most boring) murder doesn't happen until past the halfway point. The conclusion also takes up almost 50 pages, leaving quite little for detecting. Which would seem sort of relevant. In fact, there are two major problems to solve in this story, but the only time the characters discuss those problems are when they are actually solving it. So the problem is followed immediately by the solution. With stories of writers like Queen and Norizuki, we are usually fed mid-term deductions throughout a story, just to keep us going to the conclusion. Here the puzzle plot is only mentally explored when the detective is explaining his deductions.

I am still not sure what to think about Uchida. I really loved the background setting of Kumano Kodou Satsujin Jiken, but the detective plot was quite a mess. Surprisingly, the tricks he did end up using in this novel were actually OK, but the way those 'puzzles' were incorporated into the plot was just horrible. I have to admit though, that the other three novels I read of Uchida were not nearly as bad as this book (they were all OK-ish), but this one was really disappointing.

Aaah, new, interesting books. I need them.

Original Japanese title(s): 内田康夫 『熊野古道殺人事件』

The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario

"THIS ROOM IS AN ILLUSION AND IS A TRAP DEVISUT BY SATAN. GO AHEAD DAUNTLESSLY! MAKE RAPID PROGRES!"

"Ghost'n Goblins"

Man, Super Ghouls'n Ghosts is difficult. Really difficult. Like, really really difficult. When I first saw Game Center CX's Arino struggle with the franchise, I thought that it was mainly because Arino isn't good with these sort of games, but that was not the case. It's like every enemy spawning point and every enviromental hazard is placed just so you will jump into it. Which either means you lose your armor, or your life (only two hitpoints in the game). And when you finally beat it, they tell you you have to go through the game twice to get to the real final boss! But I finally cleared the game! After a week of relentlessly replaying every level until I knew where every thing was located (and even then it's really difficult, looking at you stage 7 bosses). I probably died more often in one single level in this game than I usually do in a complete game.

But, now for something completely different. Another short shorts (short pieces on unrelated topics), because, well I have nothing I want to write extensively about. I did just realize a major flow with short shorts: there is a big chance that the things I don't want to extensively about are in fact things I don't like that much. Meaning that there is a quite a chance that the overall tone of a short shorts post can become very negative. This time: three adaptations: Moujuu tai Issunboushi, the TV special of Kamaitachi no Yoru and the first episodes of the anime Gosick. And a bit of Kindaichi Shounen.

A while back i read Edogawa Rampo's Issunboushi ("The Dwarf") and the next day I watched Moujuu tai Issunboushi ("Blind Beast vs. Dwarf"), a 2001 film by Ishii Teruo. Like the title suggests, this movie combines the plot of Rampo's Issunboushi with another of Rampo's famous novelettes, Moujuu ("Blind Beast"). These two stories originally had nothing to do with each other except for some repeated themes: both stories deal with a pyshically challenged person committing crimes (involving cutting up people and spreading the parts all across town) . And to make it even more confusing, there is also a bit based on Rampo's Odoru Issunboushi ("The Dancing Dwarf"), but this was originally an unrelated story about a different dwarf. The 1969 film of Moujuu made an impression on me, and I liked Issunboushi, so I was quite interested in this movie. For more details on the stories, I refer to their respective reviews.

I can tell you that this movie is not worth a view though. Where to start, where to start? I know it was filmed on a budget and Ishii manages to sneak in one or two nicely done shots, but the film is overall very bland, which is strengthened by the fuzzy visuals (as it was filmed on video tape and not on film). Despite the 'versus' in the title, the two 'monsters' don't actually confront each other, they only fight for screentime. The two stories develop on their own terms in the movie, with only the private detective Akechi being the only link (as he is investigating both crimes). The Moujuu-based part is inferior to the 1969 film, while the Issunboushi part is only interesting because of Rampo's original story, the audiovisual add next to nothing to it. This is certainly not a way to make an adaptation

And the same can be said of Kamaitachi no Yoru ("Night of the Kamaitachi"). This was a two-hour TV special made to promote the release of the videogame Kamaitachi no Yoru 2. I loved the first videogame and the description of the special really piqued my interest. In the original game, a guest is murdered in a ski pension and the survivors aren't able to get help because of a snowstorm. And unless the player solves the murder, more and more people will get killed. In the TV special, a group of fans (who happen to have the same names like the characters) of the videogame Kamaitachi no Yoru gather in a little pension and one of them gets murdered. The survivors aren't able to get help because of a storm. More and more people get killed. Yes, this is meta-fiction. Which actually works well for Kamaitachi no Yoru, as even within the original game itself there are alternate scenarios of the story that delve into meta-realms.

This TV special did manage to recreate the disturbing, suspenseful atmosphere of the original game (as the story continues, everyone gets a bit hysterical) and the meta-humour works quite well actually, but the second half (well, the denouement) is such an unbelievable mess... The fact that the first half was so entertaining made the second half feel even worse. It poses to be an actual, orthodox mystery (like the main storyline of the original game), but ends up with a supernatural explanation for things. Which makes no sense at all (which is pointed out in the special itself (!), but handwaved way). Even as an alternate scenario, this story would rank as the worst. As a promotion for the second game, this is really weird (though it does incorporates elements of Kamaitachi no Yoru 2), as the main storylines of these games are really orthodox detectives. And not supernatural horror stories.

I also finally cleared all scenarios in Kamaitachi no Yoru. There are some great little hidden stories there (not all mystery stories though) and I really should pick up the second game someday. But a fantastic game. I actually like Kamaitachi no Yoru a lot more than the widely praised 999 - Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors, as there is a lot more to do in Kamaitachi. And it's better written, and more interesting and funnier and...

Gosick, written by Sakuraba Kazuki, is one of the few mystery light novels that is also available in English, but for some reason I never got around to it. And then an anime was made of it last year. And for some reason I never got around to it. Which was partly because of the premise. I have watched anime since I was a child, but I. Just. Can't. Get. Into. This. Moe. Stuff. It is really hard for me. With NisiOisiN's Zaregoto series, there's at least fantastic writing (and you are not constantly confronted with moe characters), but the cute little doll-like super-detective Victorique who acts so tsundere with transfer student Kujou? I had doubts about the series ever since I heard about it. The setting, Interbellum Europe, was interesting though and as there are few mystery series with nice visuals (no, I still haven't watched Another) and I had nothing better to do, I finally tried the first three episodes of Gosick, which were based on the first novel of series.

I think I have to give up on this series. The whole Kujou/Victorique angle is hard to handle anyway (so Kujou only wants to protect Victorique... because she is a girl and therefore needs protection? From him... because he is a Japanese man? Ha?!), but if combined with a predictable, boring plot... The story starts with a locked room murder (with the most obvious solution being the right solution) and then a series of murders on a ghost ship, but we've all seen the tricks and stuff in other series before and done much better too. There is absolutely nothing to the plot of these three episodes to surprise you. I suspect that this is not solely a problem of the original story, but I also think that the director of this series isn't used to doing a proper orthodox detective series. Anyway, there was absolutely nothing appealing to me in these three episodes, something I really regret as there are just too few orthodox mystery anime series.

Though the two kings are still doing good. This week brought us news that there will be a new Conan live action special this special (with the same crew as the TV drama series), starring Shinichi and Hattori. On the Kindaichi Shounen side of things, it was announced that Kindaichi Shounen will back to a fixed seralization schedule from March on! Since the restart, the series has been serialized unregularly, with one or two story (10~15 chapters) a year, but from now on it will run regularly again (weekly/monthly?). It's been twelve years since the ending of Kindaichi's serialization, so something to be happy about!

A while back I read Kindaichi Shounen no Suiri Miss ("Young Kindaichi's Deduction Misses"), a little book compiled by the Setagaya Trick Research Club. Like the title suggests, this book looks at the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series, going over the deductions made by Kindaichi and other utterances made by characters in the stories to see if they are logically correct. Yes, this is a book by fans for fans. Kindaichi Shounen no Suiri Miss collects a great number of short essays, concerning the first 10 volumes of the manga, which means it ends somewhere around the Foreigner Hotel Murder Case (with the Santa and the red chamber). Sounds neat, right? I am actually pretty bad at these kind of logical exercises, but that makes it all the more interesting to see what other people make of it.

Too bad that few of the essays actually concern 'deduction misses young Kindaichi' makes. Most of the essays concern plotholes... on a plotting-level (that is writer Kanari Yozaburou's department) and not on a logical-deductive level (like the title suggests). And I could live with that if not for the fact that about 80% of all these essays concern plotholes that aren't really plotholes and actually a great many of them end on a tone of: 'well, I guess it can be logically handwaved away if you say this or that'. The irony being that it is being handwaved like that in the story (thus negating points raised in the essay to moot) and most of the 'plotholes' aren't even really relevant to the mystery. Which, you would think, be the focal point of such an excersive.

Maybe I should start looking for new reading material....

Original Japanese title(s): 戸川乱歩（原）　『盲獣対一寸法師』 / 『かまいたちの夜』 / 桜庭 一樹 （原）『ＧＯＳＩＣＫ』 /　世田谷トリック研究会　『金田一少年の推理ミス』

TWO-MIX

「その謎を解けるのは、彼らしかない」

『名探偵コナン＆金田一少年の事件簿 めぐりあう2人の名探偵』のＣＭ

"Only they can solve the mystery of that island"

"Detective Conan and The Young Kindaichi Files: The Chance Meeting of the Two Great Detectives" Commercial

I'm re-reading books, so I might as well replay videogames, right?

Readers of this blog might have noticed that I like the two manga Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo. I like them very much, as the two are pretty much my introduction to the world of Japanese detective fiction and both series definitely played a big part in my 'education' of the genre.More generally, these two series are easily the most popular orthodox detective manga series in existence and are considered household names in Japan. And in 2008/2009, someone had the great idea of mixing the two series. Which is pretty big, considering that both series are from two different publishers (Shogakukan and Kodansha). At first, the collaboration of Conan and Kindaichi consisted of a magazine that reprinted old stories of the two series together, which wasn't exactly the things fans wanted, I think. We did get coffee, a Conan and Kindaichi branded The Game of Life and somewhat weird crossover art though.

But then suddenly a crossover Nintendo DS game was announced and all was forgiven. February 2009 was the month the world was given the first and only true crossover between Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo in Meitantei Conan & Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Meguriau Futari no Meitantei ("Detective Conan and The Young Kindaichi Files: The Chance Meeting of the Two Great Detectives"). Few things can defeat the smile that appeared on my face when I first saw the trailer. I still don't know who came up with the idea of making a crossover between the series, but you have my eternal thanks.

Also because this was quite a decent game. The story starts when Edogawa Conan (and his entourage consisting of Kogorou, Ran and the Detective Boys) arrive at Dusk Island to investigate a series of kamikakushi (people being 'spirited away') that happened on the island. At the same time however, Kindaichi Hajime,  not-really-girlfriend Miyuki and Inspector Kenmochi arrive at Dusk Island, as an old classmate of Miyuki begged them to help prevent a horrible event that was about to happen at Dusk Island. The two detectives each start their own investigations on the island, but Hajime and Kenmochi end up... being spirited away! Miyuki joins up with the Conan-troupe, hoping to find Hajime. Meanwhile, Conan manages to solve a murder that happened on Dusk Island, only to hear that the murder has something to do with a tragedy that happened 25 years ago on Dusk Island, that started with a unsolved murder in the library. Back to Hajime and Kenmochi, who wake up in a place that kinda looks like Dusk Island, but... different. Almost as if... this was the Dusk Island as it was well, roughly 25 years ago. And then the duo is forced to solve a murder in the library to clear their own names...

As can be guessed from the above, the story is split in two distinct Conan and Kindaichi chapters. Conan's chapters are set at the 'normal' Dusk Island, where a series of crimes seem to be related to a incident that happened 25 years ago. Kindaichi's chapters are set at the 'past' Dusk Island, where he is forced to solve the precise murders that turn out to be the whole tragedy of 25 years ago Conan is trying to investigate. The seperate chapters are about seperate cases/investigations, but the main storyline is naturally also explored during these chapters (with the final chapters finally putting Hajime and Conan together). A (plot) device allows the two great detectives to communicate, so we occasionally see the same scenes played out from two different perspectives (once from the Conan-side, once from the Kindaichi-side).
 

The main story is told quite competently and is surprisingly quite long (I think I came near the 20 hours the first time I played it). The seperate cases aren't that difficult, though passable for these kind of adventure games. Conan made the worst deal for this game though. Despite the fact that he manages to get rid of the Detective Boys in return for Kindaichi's Miyuki and Superintendent Akechi (which is a very good trade), his cases are quite boring, mostly dealing with a mad bomber on Dusk Island. A lot of Conan's story revolves around the defusing of bombs and a couple of race mini-games, which was simply boring. Hajime on the other hand has to deal with the Detective Boys in the past Dusk Island, but in return gets the most interesting sub-cases in the story (including multiple locked room murders), a great adventure set at the past Dusk Island that doesn't need bombs to be suspenseful and also the best role in the final part of the story, when the two great detectives reveal the truth behind the incident of Dusk Island. I guess this is to mirror the characteristics of the two series, with explosions definitely being something more of a (movie-)Conan thing, while locked room murders more of Kindaichi thing, but still, I can't help help but feel sorry for Conan.

As a detective game, this is entertaining, but also very predictable. It is standard adventure-fare with a lot of talking and location-hunting. You accumulate keywords during the story-part of the game, which are used as items. At times, you are asked to combine two keywords (items) to make a deduction and at the end of a case, you are asked to fill in a flowchart with keywords through questions like 'who was the victim', 'what was used by the murderer for the X trick', 'who is the murderer', which leads into a confrontation scene with the murderer. There you are prompted several times with questions to show you understand what the trick is (and also includes some things like finding contradictions in testimonies), but it is all quite easy if you know what's going on.

A problem with these games is that most of the cases are quite easy to solve, especially as you are often asked very specific questions (which in turn change in hints themselves). It is a problem inherent to the combination of videogames and detective fiction, I guess. You can always continue in a book whether you solve the murder yourself or not, but this is counter-intuitive to videogames. Most of these adventure games are still built on the premise of finding keywords and then asking 'check' questions to see if you really get it. As a inherent part of game-design, it is normal that all of the keywords you collect are relevant and that usually steers your ideas to a certain thought (= the solution). This is supported by the 'check' questions you always have at the denouement scene in these kind of videogames. The biggest problem here gamers face is usually just how to find all keywords, not the actual process of deduction.

The same team that developed this game also made the Nintendo DS game Meitantei Conan Aoki Houseki no Rondo ("Detective Conan Rondo of the Blue Jewel"), with practically the same game engine and it sadly enough has the same problems like this game. The stories can be entertaining, but the game pretty much forces the solution upon the player, instead of letting him free.

A much more natural change from novel to game is the sound novel, like with Kamaitachi no Yoru. There the story indeed changes based on the input of the player, so if a player doesn't know what is going on in a case, he usually ends up with a bad ending. It is a lot harder to improvise yourself through those games. The 'downpoint' is that those games need massive writing resources, as the writer has to come up with a great number of possible deductions (=storylines) the player may have that may or may not lead to bad endings.Of course, I have written things about detective adventure games in the past already, but as someone who likes games and detective fiction (and apparently as one of the few people actually interested in the combined topic), I am always inclined to comment on this.

But crossover magic does make this a game worthwile to play if you like the two series. It is really fun to see Hajime and Conan working together on a big case and there is enough fanservice available to make you forget the sometimes rather easy game. The cases are not among the best the two great detectives have seen, but the seperate cases, the main storyline of Dusk Island and the little references to the two series work cumulatively to become a enjoyable work for fans (and it is an OK detective game too). I for one would certainly see a sequel to this game!

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン＆金田一少年の事件簿 めぐりあう2人の名探偵』

「戯言だよな・・・」

広いこの世界に自分はたった一人しかいない。

別にいい。

孤独は好きだ。

虚勢ではなく。

虚勢でも。

『クビキリサイクル 青色サヴァンと戯言遣い』

I am all alone in this wide world.

But I don't care.

Because I like loneliness.

It's not a bluff.

Even if it is a bluff.

"The Deheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Talker"

I am still holding out quite well without new books, I think. It's been almost two months now and I still manage to update semi-regularly. For those wondering, this situation will continue for still another couple of weeks. And it will make sense in hindsight.

I'm still not sure whether I'll proceed in Nisioisin's Zaregoto ("nonsense, babbling") series, but I can sure go back! It's been a while since I read the first volume, Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregotozukai ("The Deheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Talker"), so it was about time to fresh up on this quirky locked room mystery. Wet Crow's Feather Island is the home of Akagami Iria, who has been effectively exiled by her family to the island. As things can get boring on a secluded island, Iria has the custom of inviting geniuses to her island (even paying them to come!) to enjoy their company. Genius artists, genius researchers, genius cooks... she collects geniuses from all fields. This time, the young IT-specialist Kunagisa Tomo is also invited, with her friend the narrator being dragged along too to the island. The narrator has a hard time living with all these geniuses, but the relative peace of the place is disrupted horribly when one day Kanami Ibuki, the genius painter, is found murdered in her room. Decapitated. Iria suggest to wait for the arrival of another guest, Aikawa, who is supposed to be genius in all fields, including detecting, but the narrator and Kunagisa have no intention of staying longer on the island than is needed (mainly because Kunagisa hates to change her schedule), so the two try to solve the murder themselves.

As this novel was originally conceived as a mystery light novel featuring moe characters, I have to admit I find it hard to just recommend this to readers. People familiar with anime, manga (or Japanese popular culture in general)? No problem. People who mostly read classic, traditional mysteries from the Western world without an inkling of Japanese popular culture? This might not be the best first choice for you. You might have trouble keeping up with the outrageous and over-the-top characters, the pop-culture references and the seemingly hyper-active storytelling. The simultaneously immensely dark, but humorous tone of the novel might even seem schizophrenic. As a light novel, this is heavily targeted at (Japanese) adolescents, and some might have trouble getting into that mindset without any background information.

If you manage to get that mindset though, you'll come to the conclusion that Kubikiri Cycle is awesome. The mystery, which features multiple locked room murders (and decapitations!) set at an secluded island is certainly enjoyable, if admittedly not very original. There are some interesting twists and turns in the story though and the reason for the decapitations is pretty horrifying (and therefore memorable). It is a very modern way to look at a reason for a decapitation in a detective story and you'd wonder whether NisiOisiN read critic Kasai Kiyoshi's seminal works on (Japanese) detective fiction to come up with such a reason, but it will stick in your mind. Actually, now that I think about it, there is a tendency visiblewith all of the murders in NisiOisiN's Zaregoto novels I've read until now that builds strongly on this idea. NisiOisiN keeps on exploring the ideas utilized in the murders in Kubikiri Cycle in the subsequent novels in this series.

Spoilers for Kubikiri Cycle, Kubishime Romanticist and Kubitsuri High School!! (Select to read):
The human body is reduced to a pure object (of convenience) in the first three Zaregoto novels, lacking any notions of 'humanity': in Kubikiri Cycle a body is used as a 'step', in Kubishime Romanticist the human body is used as a vessel to carry something around and in Kubitsuri High School part of the human body is used as a simple doorkey.
End Spoilers

But the biggest mystery of Kubikiri Cycle is the narrator. The unnamed narrator (one of his nicknames is Ii-chan, but his name is never made known in the series) transforms a 'normal' mystery story into something amazing. The narrator seems to describe himself as a Watson to Kunagisa's Holmes, but I don't think Watson was as unreliable a narrator as Watson. As a person, the narrator is an exeggaration of what probably what many young adolescents at times feel (I at least do!), being the ultimate passive person who just goes with the flow of everything, who just agrees (or disagrees) with everything if it allows him to avoid a conflict of any kind with other people. The narrator is smart, but in his attempts to avoid conflicts, he will, without even thinking anything of it, feign ignorance and lie to his friends, enemies, the readers and even himself. Imagine such a person narrating the story. A lot of the time, you will be more interested in seeing what makes this guy tick. By which I do not imply that the murders are boring, but as you see everything through his eyes, you will be asking yourself what kind of person the narrator really is. This is as much a character study as a mystery, but that is certainly not a bad thing.

Kubikiri Cycle also shows what a master of words and thought the writer NisiOisiN is. Most of the story consists of direct dialogue and the way NisiOisiN plays with words and allows dialogues to change from serious investigation to philosophy and other topics in such a free and natural (but often confronting) way is really impressive. I have to admit thought that a lot of the natural feeling to NisiOisiN's writings disappears when read in English. Rereading Kubikiri Cycle in English made me realize that the distinctive switching between dialogue and inner monologue that NisiOisiN utilizes so much is just distracting in English, as well as the fact that whereas speakers of dialogue in Japanese can be made clear through character-specific speech-patterns (i.e. with the help of speech markers, sentence ending particles etcetera), this is hard to accomplish in English and it results in some very confusing dialogue at times as you don't know who is supposed to be talking. Yes, I like writing about role language in translation.

The mystery element of the Zaregoto series weakens as it continues. The second volume, Kubishime Romanticist, moves away from the closed circle situation on an island and replaces it for a story set in the city of Kyoto, but I find Kubishime Romanticist overall the better experience, as the story is much better suited to NisiOisiN's style of storytelling and it also involves a (relatively) more personal story for the narrator. Heck, I consider it one of the most amusing books I read last year! I wasn't too big a fan of the third volume, Kubitsuri High School, but even with the lesser detective plot, it was a good showcase of NisiOisiN writing talent.

So Kubikiri Cycle is an entertaining locked room mystery, that can become really addictive if you happen to like the narrator, but it might be hard to get into for people with no knowledge at all of Japanese popular culture. And for people who compulsively use quotes from books to for post introductions, it is also a treasure chest of highly quotable material. But now I am just talking nonsense.

Original Japanese title(s): 西尾維新 『クビキリサイクル 青色サヴァンと戯言遣い』