And On the Eighth Day

「だが、殺人者が、君を殺しにくる可能性もある」

私は最悪の事態を危惧した。

「だったらその時には、黎人宛てにダイイング・メッセージを残しておいてあげるわ。あまりむずかしくないのをね」

『聖アウスラ修道院の惨劇』

"But the murderer might come to kill you."

I feared the worst case possible.

"In such a case, I'll be sure to leave you a dying message. An easy one."

"The Tragedy of Saint Ursula Convent"

You would almost think I read Nikaidou Reito's Nikaidou Ranko series in the weirdest order possible on purpose, if you look at it closely. The following list is of the books I've read of the series so far:

(1) Jigoku no Kijutsushi | The Magician From Hell
(2) Kyuuketsu no Ie | House of Bloodsuckers
(3) Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki | The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent
(4) Akuryou no Yakata | Palace of Evil Spirits
(5) Yuri Meikyuu | Labyrinth of Lillies
(6) Bara Meikyuu | Labyrinth of Roses
(7a) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany
(7b) Jinroujou no Kyoufu  - France Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France
(7c) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective
(7d) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion
(8) Akuma no Labyrinth | The Devil's Labyrinth

And for some reason, I've read the books in the following order: (2), (6), (7a), (7b), (7c), (7d), (8), (1), (4), (5), (3). The only books I've read in order are Akuryou no Yakata and Yuri Meikyuu, and Jinroujou no Kyoufu (the individual books of this story have to be read in order, except for maybe 7a and 7b). Akuma no Labyrinth I have read in relative order, after Jinroujou, but in terms of publication history, I still didn't read them in order and chronologically  Jinroujou and Akuma no Labyrinth are set the other way around, just to make things even more confusing. For many series, this isn't really of importance, but Nikaidou Reito has the habit of refering to his earlier books /  adventures, so it is actually better to read them in order. That's why I am stuck in Ayatsuji Yukito's Yakata series at the moment however: the one I'm reading now is almost as long as Nikaidou Reito's Jinroujou no Kyoufu. Which is very, very long.

Brilliant and beautiful detective Nikaidou Ranko (and her brother Reito) return in Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent"), where they are asked by the head of the Saint Ursula Convent to solve the mysterious death of a student one year ago. The girl had been found dead at the foot of a tower and because the door to the room where she had spent her last living breath was locked from the inside, the incident was considered a suicide. Of course, the police conveniently ignored the fact that there were definite signs that she was attacked by someone there. And that around the same time, a headless corpse was found hanging upside down near the convent. And there was something with a strange message the victim left behind. Anyway, something strange has been going on in and it is up to our dynamic duo to solve the arcane mysteries of the Saint Ursula Convent.

Jigoku no Kijutsushi was an interesting take on Edogawa Rampo's novels, Jinroujou no Kyoufu is the world longest locked mystery story and Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki is... chaotic. A locked room mystery and a headless body and a secret code can work together in theory, but the individual elements aren't very strong and while they work better together (as often in such stories), the complete picture is still not nearly as entertaining as Nikaidou Reito's other books pre-dating Jinroujou no Kyoufu (and he moved towards somewhat... stranger places after Jinroujou no Kyoufu). I do have to note that most of Nikaidou Reito's novels are absolutely packed with detective fiction tropes (c.f. my review of Akuryou no Yakata), which usually works out OK (although, sometimes just barely). It works this time, but Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki is the weakest link of Nikaidou's Ranko novels up to Jinroujou no Kyoufu.

The locked room problems are better suited for a short story for example and the actual discussion about the headless body, which even in Japanese detective fiction is usually not a convention used just for fun, takes no more than a couple of pages (of a 600 page novel). Nikaidou tries to string everything together by presenting everything as a mitate murder (naturally after the bible, considering the setting of this story), but it is hardly convincing, because the way the murders are supposed to be mirroring biblical events is really weak. No way a reader is going to figure out that before Ranko points out the fact, and even after the reveal, the reader still won't be convinced it is a mitate murder, because it's barely related!

The setting of the convent is used mostly in a very predictable way. Creepy atmosphere, secretive nuns, secret rituals and stuff, considering Nikaidou has always used a lot of esotoric history and conspiracy theories in his novels (Jinroujou no Kyoufu had the Spear of Longinus and Nazi-Werewolves, Akuryou no Yakata witches etc.), so you can guess how Nikaidou uses the convent. The ending does bring something interesting, but it is more of an extra than really part of the detective plot.

I have to admit that I read this book in a record speed though. As a whole, the plot... well, I certainly won't say this is gold material, but by keeping throwing all these elements at you at a steady pace, Nikaidou does keep the reader hooked for most of the book. It's definitely written as entertainment, and I have to admit that it mostly works as such. The whole outshines the individual parts and while not a classic, it's not really horrible (not really praising it either). If you like Nikaidou Reito and can get Sei Urusula Shuudouin no Sangeki for cheap, it's an okay read, I guess. I mean, I paid more for Nikaidou's Zouka Hakase no Jikenbo and that was absolutely horrible. I wouldn't recommend reading Nikaidou Reito starting with Sei Urusula Shuudouin no Sangeki though.

Original Japanse title(s): 二階堂黎人　『聖アウスラ修道院の惨劇』

Ten Days Wonder

"But while you are doing this important and rewarding work, Mr. Queen, I ask you to keep in mind always a great and true lesson. A truer lesson than the one you believe this experience has taught you."

"And which lesson is that, Professor Seligmann?" Ellery was very attentive.

"The lesson, mein Herr," said the old man, patting Ellery’s hand,"that is written in the Book of Mark. There is one God; and there is none other but he."

"Cat of Many Tails"

In a world where everybody is talking about the upcoming PlayStation4 and XBox One, the one thing that left the greatest impression me this E3 was the inclusion of the Villager in the new Super Smash Bros. Villager!? [/not related to detective fiction at all]

Norizuki Rintarou's Futatabi Akumu ("The Red Nightmare, Once Again") starts with introducing us to Hatanaka Yurina, an idol who has been on the rise lately. She has managed to secure her own group of fans despite still being a minor star in the world of idols and she is rumored to be the main actress in the next movie of a famous director. One night, after a late night radio broadcast recording, Yurina is attacked by a lunatic fan in a storage room of the broadcasting studios and stabbed in her stomach. Or least, she is sure she was stabbed, but when she came to, she found herself to be alive. Not sure what happened, Yurina seeks the help of Inspector Norizuki (and his son Rintarou), but things become messy when they discover that in the park outside the broadcasting studios, a man was found stabbed to death. Indeed, the man Yurina thought had killed her. Was it Yurina who killed the man instead of the other way around?

A difficult book to recommend, mainly because it more or less requires you have have read Yuki Misshitsu and Yoriko no Tame ni and it would also be very nice if you have read Ellery Queen's Cat of Many Tails (and having read Ten Days Wonder would also be to your advantage). Of course, you could go straight for Futatabi Akai Akumu without any knowledge, but you will be spoiled to crucial plot points of all those books. So I really recommend you doing your homework before you start with Futatabi Akai Akumu.

I've mentioned it many times now, but Norizuki often addresses what he calls Late Period Queen problems in his novels. To quote myself:

Norizuki is also a Queen-reseacher who specializes in what he calls 'the Late Period Queen problems': meta-problems concerning the role of the detective in fiction, as addressed by Queen himself in many of his later novels. To reduce it to two main points: the detective (and the reader) can never say with absolutely certainty that he has access to all of the hints and clues that lead to the truth. Except for the (meta) explanation that the writer at one points abritrary decides that the story should end and thus isn't going to offer any new hints. So the solution the detective offers at the end of a story can never be guaranteed to be correct. The second point is that the detective himself is not a omnipotient figure with no relation to the murder drama: his presence alone already has presence on the actions of the other players of the tragedy and who is to say that the real murderer hasn't calculated for the interference of a detective through the use of false hints?

Futatabi Akai Akumu deals with the second point: at the start of the story Rintarou has severe trauma about how he (mis)handled the case in Yoriko no Tame ni, wondering whether things wouldn't have turned out better without his interference. As a result, he's lost most of his self confidence (and he's also suffering from a writer's block). Rintarou initially does not want to get involved with Yurina's case, but with some urging from his father, he finally tries to get over his problems. I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the angsting detective (I already noted that in my Cat of Many Tails review) and it can become a bit too heavy at times if you're just looking for bloody murder. Good material for those interested in postmodernism though.

The plot of Futatabi Akai Akumu is not particularly clever. The main problem is about figuring out what happened to Yurina that night and who really killed the victim and while the puzzle itself is okay (very Gyakuten Saiban-esque, I have to say), it definitely is not strong enough to carry a complete novel of 500 pages. It might have been better for the main 'trick' to have been used for a short story in my opinion. Okay, there is another subplot that has to do with a murder that happened in Yurina's past to help the book fill its pages, but the solving of that murder is based solely on intuition and the solution is just dropped on the reader. There are also some parts where characters have long monologues about subjects that don't seem particularly related to the main topic, their function seem to be little more than boring padding.

For example, the fact Yurina is an idol provides a legitimate reason to insert segments commenting about Japanese idols, which I really think is an interesting topic on its own. But it has to relate to the story. A list spanning ten or so pages just summing up the major events related to idols (who debuted when, what singles came up etc.) is a) not a story, and b) not related to the main problem at hand at all! It's always a fine line you have to walk when including 'extra' information in a story and I can understand why a writer wants to show he did his homework for a story, but I personally didn't like how it was done here (might be different for another reader though).

Futatabi Akai Akumu is a book I find hard to recommend. It has too many requirements, and I don't really like its themes.If you liked Yoriko no Tame ni though, you're probably going to like Futatabi Akai Akumu though. The heavy atmosphere of the Angsting Detective and the intuitive mode of detecting are similiar and the stories are directly linked. I definitely liked Tasogare a lot more though, which was a very different kind of detective novel with its many logical deductions, despite being the same series.

Original Japanese title(s): 法月綸太郎　『ふたたび赤い悪夢』

「ぶっこわせ そうパズルね！」

"Weet jij het ook?"

"Inspecteur Netjes"

"Do you know too?"

"Inspector Netjes"

I am not a creative writer, so I had no experience in writing fiction before I wrote my guess-the-criminal story in March. Writing it in Japanese was a challenge, but the 'good' thing about guess-the-criminal (hannin-ate) stories are that they aren't really stories, in the sense of 'literary stories'. They lean more towards puzzles and as a writer, you actually want people to solve it. There are therefore written so people can solve them. Constructing such stories means pushing the readers' thoughts towards the solution through hints, without being too obvious. If a guess-the-criminal story is impossible to solve because there are too few clues pointing to the solution, then you can hardly consider it a succesful one (as anybody can construct an unsolvable puzzle).

Nikaidou Reito's novels tend be long. Very long. 600 pages seems to be a minimum for him and heck, his Jinroujou no Kyoufu is still probably among the longest, if not the longest locked room mysteries in existence. So when I came across a short story collection called Zouka Hakase no Jikenbo ("The Case Book of Dr. Zouka"), I was both surprised and excited. These short stories were very short, and I loved Ellery Queen's QBI - Queen's Bureau of Investigation, so I hoped that this book would be similarly awesome. Also, it featured doctor Zouka, Nikaidou's parody of John Dickson Carr's doctor Fell ('Fell' can be written as fueru in Japanese, which means increase. A synonyme for that word is zouka). Just look at the cover! A gigantic man who needs not one, but two walking sticks to support himself! Heck, he is even joined by a policeman called Hatori (= Hadley) in these short shorts featuring locked rooms and dying messages.

Too bad it's a total mess. The problem does not lie in the fact these are short shorts (5~10 pages long): QBI is an example of how it can work. But the twenty-or-so stories collected in this book are really nothing more than puzzles which don't even feel satisfying! To have the solution of a dying message story rely on some obscure fact or specialist knowledge, is usually already vexing enough, but there is no fun to be found at all in this book, because practically all dying message stories feature such, almost cheating, solutions. Many of the solutions can only be solved by someone who is cramming for a high school exam on history, because that's the only time you'll hear about those names and events! It's like Nikaidou just picked a random page of an encyclopedia and wrote stories using the topic of that page.

In some stories, he doesn't even try. The most ridiculous ones are the one featuring the truth and lie club: members of the truth club must tell the truth, the members of the lie club must tell a lie. Yes, these 'stories' don't even move past the realms of the logic riddle. Heck, they are less than that, because the solutions literally don't require logic: the three suspects each tell a story, and doctor Zouka tells you who hid a factual lie in his story. This isn't detecting, this is just an examination of facts!

I personally am not against such detective quiz stories. I loved them as a kid, and I have bought the more recent ones under the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo imprint. But I definitely expected more from Nikaidou Reito. Especially the dying message stories don't work. In a classic dying message story, the author presents several interpretations of the message, which are discarded based on logic, after which the correct interpretation (plus accompanying reasons) is presented. Here, Nikaidou gives you a few interpretations which are never thrown away convincingly, and he the presents the Super-Obscure-Interpretation-Nobody-Could-Have-Thought-About and then decides this was the correct solution (without any justification). The 'stories' collected here might be nothing more than puzzles, but even the solutions should be presented more convincingly: now you're left with a puzzle constructed in a way it is impossible for the reader to solve. 

You know, this is all I can write about Zouka Hakase no Jikenbo. There is really nothing positive about to say about the contents. But the cover is really awesome though. I am not even being sarcastic or anything, I really love that illustration. But that's the only thing likeable about this book.

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人 『増加博士の事件簿』

Strawberry Jam

「クラーク博士は北海道大学の学生に『紳士たれ』という言葉を残したというけれど、ぼくと小佐内さん も似た信条を持っている。「紳士」によく似ているけれど、それよりはもうちょっと社会的階級が低い。『小市民たれ』。これ。日々の平穏と安定のため、ぼくと小佐内さんは断固とした小市民なのだ。もっとも、その表れ方はちょっと違う。小佐内さんは隠れる。ぼくは、笑って誤魔化す」

『 春限定いちごタルト事件』

"Professor Clark had told the students of Hokkaido University to 'be a gentleman'. Osanai and I had a similar principle. Similiar to "be a gentleman", but ranked a bit lower in society. 'Be a petit bourgeois'. That was it. We decided firmly to be petit bourgeois, for the sake of tranquility and stability. But we executed our beliefs differently. Osanai, she hides herself. And I, I laugh and pretend"

"The Spring Special Strawberry Tart Case"

One thing I'm definitely not missing about Kyoto: the tsuyu rain and the unbelievable heat!

I usually read several books at the same time and that means books sometimes takes ages to be finished: one of these was Yonezawa Honobu's short story collection Shunki Gentei Ichigo Tart Jiken ("The Spring Special Strawberry Tart Case"). Introducing Kobato Jougorou and Osanai Yuki. He is an ordinary boy with a fairly good set of brains. She is a small small girl with a love for sweet things. They are both first year students at Funato High School. And they try to live their lives in the same way: as what they call the petite bourgeois. Just go with the flow of society. Don't stand out. Don't go looking for trouble. Be one of the many. Just one of the many, yet crucial cogs of the machine that is society. These two, neither lovers nor dependent on each other, just try to be what they believe is the best way a person can live. Their classmate, Doujima Kengo however, always seems to get Jougorou (and to a lesser extent, Osanai) in trouble. Not because Kengo is a bad person: in fact, Kengo is usually a good enough a person to want to help others. But helping people, getting involved with other people's problems is another way of standing out. And so our petite bourgeois-aspiring duo contineously have to decide whether to do the good thing, as a contributing member of society should do, or try to ignore trouble, as a contributing member of society should do.

Shunki Gentei Ichigo Tart Jiken is, like Kanou Tomoko's Nanatsu no Ko, an 'everyday life mystery'. No bloody murders, no mysterious locked rooms. Just little mysteries that you and I might encounter, or might have really have encountered in our daily lives. A stolen bike. A purse gone missing. Like I mentioned in my review of Nanatsu no Ko, I am not really a fan of this subgenre. I'd rather have the bloody murder and the mysterious locked room. Not that a everyday life mystery is always bad though. And I think that Shunki Gentei Ichigo Tart Jiken is one of the books that can prove this case.

For while the scale of the mystery might seem a bit small, one shouldn't underestimate the scale of the deductions Jougorou makes about these everyday life mysteries. The best story in the collection is Oishii Cocoa no Tsukurikata ("How to Make Delicious Chocolate Milk"), where Jougorou and Osanai try to figure out how Kengo managed to make delicious chocolate milk with a limited amount of cups. Yes, this intellectual problem might sound very, very uninteresting, but the way the duo think about all the possibilities and shoot down each other's suggestions is what you'd expect in a Queen-style novel, not 'just' an everyday life mystery. But it works wonderfully here and the solution is in the same light-hearted, yet satisfying style.

The short stories collected in Shunki Gentei Ichigo Tart Jiken are written to form one, bigger story, with hints and events happening in earlier stories all coming together in the final story. Osanai's bike is stolen rather early in the collection (together with the last Spring Special Strawberry Tarts available that year she had left on her bike), which is rather troublesome because a petit bourgeois can't go around getting involved with the police (even if it wasn't her fault). But the way Yonezawa placed the hints in the earlier stories is excellent and the deductive chain shown here is quite impressive, especially I hadn't seen such the deductive reasoning approach used in a connected short story collection before (like Mari Yukiko's Futarigurui for example).

Shunki Gentei Ichigo Tart Jiken is a really sweet short story collection. Half daily life mystery, half youth comedy and it works. In a way, this book is like the opposite of Otsuichi's GOTH, both featuring high school students with a particular look at life. This one is more happier and sweeter and cozier, but that really doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Original Japanese title(s): 米澤穂信　『春期限定いちごタルト事件』

Cards on the Table

白露に風の吹きしく秋の野は 

つらぬきとめぬ玉ぞ散りける

文屋朝康

Through a gust of wind the white dew on the autumn grass

Scatters like a broken necklace

Funya no Asayasu

Things I do when I don't write about Japanese detective fiction: write detective fiction in Japanese.

The title of Takada Takafumi's QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu ("Q.E.D. - The Curse of Hyakunin Isshu") refers to a famous anthology of Japanese poems (waka) compiled by Fujiwara no Teika. As the anthology's name suggets, the collection consists of 'one hundred persons, one poem each'. The poems of Hyakunin Isshu are also for the traditional uta-garuta (poem card) game, which consists of two sets of cards. The first set, the yomi-fuda, contains cards with the first line of a poem, which are read aloud. The second set of cards, tori-fuda, are placed in front of the players and have the second line of the poem written on them. Players thus try to obtain the correct tori-fuda to the yomi-fuda being read. And it was a yomi-fuda, with the first line of the poem quoted above, which was found in the dead hands of wealthy Hyakunin Isshu karuta fan Masakaki Dairoku, murdered in his own mansion almost a year ago. The case seemingly ended with the suicide of his daughter not long afterwards, but the police still think the murderer is out there. In need of information, reporter Komatsuzaki seeks the help of his old friend Kuwabara Takashi (whose name sounds like a traditional phrase to ward off evil), who besides being a pharmacist, also happens to be knowledgeable about Hyakunin Isshu.

I am not interested in history per se, but I've always had a weakness for ancient conspiracy plots/untold history/folklore etcetera. So Takada Takafumi's Q.E.D. had been on my reading list for a long time, as his books were precisely about linking history with detective plots. QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu is the first novel in the series and while it has interesting points, I can't but be a bit disappointed by it. The main problem of the book is that it seems like Takada had a whole bunch of interesting ideas, but couldn't find a way to connect all these dots together in a convincing way. The reader is presented with a misty cloud of which the complete form is just vaguely clear.

For example, we are first introduced to the series detective Kuwabara, because he is an expert on Hyakunin Isshu and he might thus deduce the meaning behind the card the deceased had in his hand (spoilers: it was a dying message!). This is a semi-logical relation (I say semi, because I am not sure why Kuwabara was created as a pharmacist who happens to know literature, instead of, I don't know, an expert on literature). And yes, having Kuwabara explaining a bit on the origin of Hyakunin Isshu is also still relevant. But what Kuwabara (and thus writer Takada) does, is not just explain a bit. What Kuwabara does, is hold a complete lecture course on the subject, including presenting an admittedly interesting theory behind the selection process of the poems of the Hyakunin Isshu, but of which only ten percent is relevant to solving the dying message.

Don't get me wrong though, what Kuwabara in the end discovers about the Hyakunin Isshu is quite interesting and it shows the research writer Takada did for the book, but it has too little to do with the murder. Reading QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu is like reading two barely related storylines. The individual storylines are fine on their own, but there is no reason to force them together in one story. Half of the book could have easily been scrapped (especially as the 'final hint that led Kuwabara to the truth' was something already said early in the grand lecture, the rest was just further exposition...) and you'd still have a coherent dying message story.

So let's look at the two storylines seperatedly, because that makes more sense to me. The secret behind Hyakunin Isshu definitely surprised me, but it requires quite a bit of knowledge on classical Japanese literature and history, which aren't exactly my fields of expertise (I am more of modern literature and history). Fun to read, but written a bit clumsily perhaps, with parts written too theoretically and other parts too repetitive (no, there is no need to give five of six examples, two or three are enough; yes, I see where you're going, you don't have to explain it for five pages...).

The actual murder was... better, but maybe not fair. There is also a kind of impossible situation present besides the dying message and the (weak) link with Hyakunen Isshu does provide a hint to the dying message, but only barely. The solution was sort of funny, in the sense that I was first afraid that it would require specialist knowledge on classical literature; I was spared this, but instead of that, you do require specialist knowledge of psychology and medicine. Which is something I don't have. You might know those stories where all kind of hints lead to a conclusion someone was colour blind, well, those I usually get quite quickly nowadays, but a similarly hinted story for some obscure psychological disorder? How is the average reader supposed to pick that up?! It's even disappointing, because the basic premise / concept behind the impossible situation is interesting, also in the way it links with the Hyakunen Isshu, but the execution...

In the end, QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu just left me with a great pile of questions. Why force these two storylines together? Why are the parts on the Hyakunen Isshu and the murder part so different in tone? Why does the interpretation of the dying message feel weak/ not conclusive enough? Why a pharmacist if you need a character with knowledge on literature? Why the need for an extra assistent/sidekick role in the story in the form of the fellow-pharmacist Nana, if you already have one in the form of the reporter? Deep in its core, QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu has some promising elements, but it just doesn't work in the way it is now.

Original Japanese title(s): 高田崇史　『QED　百人一首の呪』

「DL6号事件を忘れるな」

"One can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place”

"The Sins of Prince Saradine"

Of course, even though I have all my books now, the problem just shifted from 'no books to write about' to 'I read books, but for one reason or another I never actually write the reviews'. I've only just started reading and I already have a backlog of reviews to write...

A Aiichirou series
A Aiichirou no Roubai ("The Discombobulation of A Aiichirou" AKA A For Annoyance)
A Aiichirou no Tentou ("The Fall of A Aiichirou" AKA A Is For Accident)
A Aiichirou no Toubou ("The Flight of A Aiichirou" AKA A For Abandon") 

Awasaka Tsumao's A Aiichirou no Roubai ("The Discombobulation of A Aiichirou"; alternate English title by publisher Tokyo Sogen: A For Annoyance) is a short story collection I had been planning to read for a long time now. It is the first short story collection to rank in the Tozai Mystery Best 100 list, and several stories collected have been named as serious candidates for the title of best Japanese impossible crime story, so that partly explains why I wanted to read the book. Partly I say, because another reason was because Takumi Shuu, of the Gyakuten Saiban game series, named Awasaka Tsumao and the A Aiichirou series as a major influence on his works, which was something I couldn't just ignore.

I have reviewed Awasaka's short story collection Kijutsu Tantei Soga Kajou Zenshuu- Hi no Maki in the past already; longtime readers might remember me mentioning that Awasaka was a stage magician: stage magician + detective fiction is usually enough to gather the attention of readers of the genre. I was mildly positive about the collection, so I started with a modest amount of expectations in A Aiichirou no Roubai. What I got, was a classic! No wonder so many people stated this as one of the best collections in Japan. A Aiichirou no Roubai is sometimes compared to the Father Brown stories; this is naturally partly because of the titles of the books (mirroring titles like The Innocence of Father Brown etcetera) and the intuitive mode of reasoning of Aiichirou, but the sheer ingenuity found in the relatively short stories is also reminiscent of the Chesterton's classic. 

A Aiichirou is young, handsome photogrpaher who has the habit of arriving at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or being the right man at the wrong place at the wrong time. He seems to come across murder quite often (and because of his somewhat strange nature, the police usually suspects him from at least a little bit of foul play), but he always manages to clear his own name by pointing out the real murderer, usually by making enigmatic statements in the spirit of Father Brown. Oh, and because any post on A Aiichirou should mention this: the series detective was given the even in Japanese quite rare name of A Aiichirou by Awasaka, because this name would end up to be the first entry if a lexicon on (fictional) detectives would be published.

The stories in the collection can be divided in roughly three kind of stories. Awasaka's debut short story, DL2 Gouki Jiken ("The Flight DL2 Incident"), is a good example of the first kind, which mainly serves to showcase A Aiichirou's intuitive reasoning. Here Aiichirou is witness to a man who seems to stumble on a staircase on purpose, which might seem strange, but nothing more than that, right? So imagine the surprise bystanders, as well as the reader, experience when Aiichirou correctly foretells an attack on the man's driver based on the fact his master faked a fall! The solution might be a bit hard to deduce a priori to the solution, but the hinting and plotting is really solid actually. The same holds for Magatta Heya ("The Crooked Room") and Kuroi Kiri ("The Black Fog"), which both feature enigmatic, yet not criminal situations per se, but Aiichirou shows that there is much more than meets the eye. Because of the intuitive reasoning, it might be hard to deduce the solutions completely beforehand (especially Kuroi Kiri goes a bit far), but the stories work and the reader won't be disappointed.

The second set of stories focuses on impossible crimes. A man seemingly commits suicide in a hot air balloon in Migiudeyama Kuujou ("Above the Skies of Mount Migiude"), but A Aiichirou shows it was murder, even though the victim was alone up there in the sky. Definitely the highlight of the collection. A very good second is Shoujou no Ougon Kamen ("The Golden Mask on Top of her Hands"), where a man dressed in a cape and golden mask is standing on top of the hands of a giant statue, throwing pamphlets to the people below on the streets. Unlike Edogawa Rampo's Golden Mask however, this Golden Mask is less of a superman, as he is shot down quite easily, with his body falling on the streets below. The only person who could have shot him is a man in a hotelroom right across the statue, but the only weapon in his possession is so crooked, it was impossible for him to have hit the target across the distance. Really good story, once again made more impressive because of the brevity of the tale. G-Senjou no Itachi ("Weasle on the G-Line") features a taxi-driver who claims to have been attacked by a robber, but when the police find the cab, they discover the dead robber in the car, and only the taxi driver's footsteps in the snow. A simple story, mostly a variant of a famous trope and the intuition needed to pick up the main hint is something I for one don't have. And finally Horobo no Kami ("The God of Horobo"), which is often seen as one of the better impossible crime stories in Japan. On a trip to recover the dead bodies of his fellow soldiers who had died when they had stranded on the island of Horobo during World War II, an old veteran tells (the unnamed) Aiichirou the strange experience he had seen there: the head of the local tribe had been seen entering a small shrine holding the effigy of the local god, the God of Horobo, to mourn the death of his wife, whose body was placed there. The tribesmen had all stood watch over the shrine, but the next day, after hearing a cry, they discover the head shot to death, by a gun held in the dead wife's hands, with everybody swearing nobody had entered or left the shrine! The solution is admittedly quite ingenious, but it is close, though definitely not across, the border between a fair and unfair mystery. One should really read it though, if only just to remind you that such a trick also exists.

The third pattern found in A Aiichirou no Roubai is Horidasareta Douwa ("A Dug Up Fairy Tale"), which features a coded message. I was the least impressed by this story: the code itself is really ingenious and one of the best I've seen in Japanese stories thus far, but the story surrounding it is unneccesary long (the longest in the collection) and not very interesting to begin with. It feels a bit out of place and I can't help myself but asking the question whether Awasaka couldn't have done something else with the solid code.

All in all a solid collection. The standard is quite high, and there are some real classics to be found too. Despite my love for the short story format, I haven't been able to find that many Japanese collections I would call a must read, but A Aiichirou no Roubai (as well as the early Norizuki Rintarou ones) are definitely the ones you'd want to read.

Original Japanese title(s):　泡坂妻夫 『亜愛一郎の狼狽』 「ＤＬ２号機事件」 / 「右腕山上空」 / 「曲がった部屋」 / 「掌上の黄金仮面」 / 「Ｇ線上の鼬」 / 「掘出された童話」 / 「ホロボの神」 / 「黒い霧」

運命の交差点

「怪人が飛べて、探偵に飛べんわけあるか！」

『名探偵コナン　マリオネット 交響曲（シンフォニー）』

"If monsters can fly, there's no reason why detectives can't fly!"

"Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony"

Oh, I finally got my gigantic stack of books! And with gigantic, I mean that if I were to read one detective novel a week, I'd still have enough for more than a year. And that is ignoring the non detective materials. Anyway, it's finally back to reviews of mostly (but not exclusively) Japanese detective novels again! But first, a videogame.

Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony (Nintendo 3DS) is set at Clover Hill, a huge building complex designed after a four clover leaf. The whole of Clover Hill is in a festive mood because of its first anniversary. A foreign prince has come to display a regal heirloom in one of the towers of Clover Hill, the television studios located in another tower report on the event too, etcetera. But not all is well, it appears, as the owner of the buildings wants advice from famous detective Mouri Kogorou on some hush-hush issue. It just happens that at the same time Kogorou, his daughter Ran and their 'parasite' Conan are visiting Clover Hill, high school detective Hattori Heiji is present at the television studios of Clover Hill for an interview, a gang of meddling kids (the Detective Boys) are hoping to discover the truth behind a rumor of a flying man at the same building and phantom thief KID is planning to steal the regal heirloom on display. Considering Conan and the rest of the crew have been attracting murder and other crimes for almost twenty years non-stop now, one can guess that something bad is about to happen. The terrorist group Flowers of Liberation bomb the only bridge to the mainland and take over Clover Hill, with everyone inside as its hostage. The whole Conan gang, though seperated, has to work together to overcome the terrorist attack and solve some murders on the way too.

I wasn't too much a fan of last year's Detective Conan: Prelude from the Past, so I was not particularly enthusiastic when Marionette Symphony was first announced, but then the trailer mentioned Spike-Chunsoft and the inclusion of the Zapping System and I was on board. Chunsoft (who merged with Spike last year) is the developer behind videogames like Kamaitachi no Yoru, Danganronpa and 428, which rank among the best adventure games ever. The Zapping System is one that has features in several Chunsoft games, and has the player zapping between several protagonists on the spot, with actions performed by one protagonist, having influence on the world of another protagonist (i.e. protagonist A steals protagonist B's car; protagonist A is able to proceed, but protagonist B is left without a car, resulting in a game over for that particular character). Chunsoft had already used the Zapping System for the fairly orthodox detective game Kamaitachi no Yoru X3, but it was the first time such a system would be used for a Detective Conan game (for a more detailed explanation, see the 428 review).

The system is a bit different in Marionette Symphony though. This time, Conan, Ran, the Detective Boys, Haibara, Hattori and KID (and several other characters) all make use of the so-called Truth Card system, which is basically an application which allows the characters to share information. Characters have to use this shared information to overcome their own problems. For example, early in the game the Detective Boys want to listen in on a group of terrorists in the room next door, but they can't just walk in the room. However, another character happens to receive information about the airducts being wide enough for children to get into and shares that through a Truth Card, allowing the Detective Boys to crawl through the airducts to reach their goal. The player has to manage the information flow between all the characters and sometimes you'll be unable to proceed with a certain character, because you haven't acquired the necessary information with another character.

Another new system is the so-called Detective Time, where you'll find yourself in a pinch. You're given limited time to decide on the right action to undertake (while accidently choosing wrong actions will result in a time loss). A slightly cheap way to invoke thrills, but nevertheless effective. The moment the music starts, you will feel tension and it does match the slightly more action-based, movie-like setting of the story to have such moments. Other changes are the exclusion of the minigames and quizes found in the previous two games and the inclusion of an AR mode, where you take pictures of a Conan come alive through a augmented reality card (which also functions as a hint mode for when you're stuck in the game).

As a game, it is at times a hit and miss. The system forces you to zap way too often, sometimes from one character to another in the same location at the same time, which has no practical use at all! I couldn't care less whether I am seeing the same situation from Kogorou's or Ran's point of view, especially if neither of these characters are able to interact in meaningful way with said situation! Watching the same scene from a different angle can be interesting at times, but only if something new is offered. Not the case here. Story progression is also very linear, despite the possibility to jump between perspectives.

The story too at first feels a bit generic, but it becomes really good as it nears the end. The previous two Conan games (Rondo of the Blue Jewel and Prelude from the Past) both featured several seperate cases, which were only loosely tied by a main storyline. In Marionette Symphony, the terrorist attack is the most important aspect of the story, with the murders you have to solve in between (yes, the detectives find time to solve murders even during a terrorist attack) almost feeling like a sidequest (though still very relevant to the main story). It takes a while for the story to get momentum, but when it's on a roll, everything works. And Marionette Symphony has one of the greatest endings of detective fiction I've seen in the last few years: I don't mean that in the sense of most surprising ending, a suddenly revealed narrative trick, or a complex logical chain or anything like that: but the moment the person responsible for everything is revealed, the intention of the creators, everything they wanted to accomplish with this particular game becomes clear. Points I thought strange suddenly made sense and I can only admire what Spike-Chunsoft tried to do with this game and the way in which they accomplished that. Their own Super Danganronpa 2 had something similiar, but as a whole, I'd say that Marionette Symphony did it better.

Marionette Symphony is also great as a Detective Conan game, because the characters act like you would expect to them to do. The Detective Boys are very different characters from Ran, and the way they cope with the terrorists are naturally also not similar at all. The way everybody has a bit to contribute invokes a movie-esque atmosphere, which is absolutely fine for such a game. In fact, the story feels quite suitable for a movie and you wouldn't see me complaining if it was remade/rewritten for a special or movie...

Short story: definitely a must play for Detective Conan fans and those who have played Chunsoft's adventures. The game is naturally more fun if you know a bit of the Conan-lore, but it is a decent adventure on its own and shouldn't be ignored just because it is based on a license.

Original title(s): 『名探偵コナン　マリオネット交響曲（シンフォニー）』