Death TV

「私に言わせれば、すべてのホラー現象はほらに過ぎない。超常現象を恐れてはならない。 Don't be afraid! どんと来い、超常現象！」

『TRICK』

"I say that all the horror phenomena in this world are nothing more than nonsense. Don't fear supernatural phenomena. Don't be afraid! Come on, supernatural phenomena!"

"TRICK"

I usually begin a post with a little paragraph on something not (directly) related to the main topic. Why? Because I think it's too confronting to go to the core of the story right away. Or something like that. I just like it when there's a little buffer between the start of a post and the main story. Aaaaaaaand that was today's introduction.

The Armchair Detective is a mysterious entity dressed like Doctor Doom who lives purely to deduce. Whenever he is summoned, he teleports all important actors involved in a mystery to his realm, and shows with absolute logic who the murderer is in any given crime. Ever since the Armchair Detective helped the clairvoyant Ashida Luna solve a serial murder case that had baffled the police two years ago, Luna is thought to have real supernatural powers. This time, she is asked to do a live psi trailing session in the TV show Friday On Air, to discover the whereabouts of the missing student Sanjou Miyabi. And the production team behind Friday On Air praise the gods for their decision to use Luna in their show, because the dead body of Sanjou Miyabi is discovered only thanks to the psychic's amazing powers. But then Ashida Luna is killed before she gets a chance to use her clairvoyant powers to find out who killed Miyabi. Can the viewer solve the murders on Miyabi and Luna before the Armchair Detective appears to reveal the truth in Anriku Isu Tantei On Air ("The Armchair Detective On Air")?

Anraku Isu Tantei ("The Armchair Detective") was a TV special series which ran irregularly from 1999-2008. The show was written by veteran puzzle plot writers Ayatsuji Yukito and Arisugawa Alice and designed to be the ultimate challenge to the viewer. Each episode consisted of two parts: the 'problem' part, which introduced the murders, all the suspects and most importantly, all the necessary hints to arrive at the solution, was broadcast in the first week. Viewers were then encouraged to send in questionnaires with 1) whom they think was the murderer, and 2) how they arrived at that conclusion. The 'solution' part was then broadcast in the second week, usually baffling the viewer with lenghty deduction chains presented by the supernatural being the Armchair Detective. Anraku Isu Tantei On Air was the sixth production, originally broadcast in 2006.

The format of the Anraku Isu Tantei shows is obviously inspired by so-called guess-the-criminal (hanninate) scripts. These scripts are more like pure logic puzzles than 'proper' literary stories: there are unwritten rules like a Challenge to the Reader, 'there is only one murderer', 'strength of motive is of no real consequence' and 'all the hints necessary to solve the crime are in the story' (therefore, nothing/no person outside the world described in the story exists) and most of these plots are solved through a Queen-esque elimination method: determine an x amount of characteristics the murderer must have (i.e. must have been left handed, must have had access to the room, must have etc.) and see who fits (or does not fit) the profile. Some might think Ellery Queen's novels feel a bit artificial with the challenge to the reader and all, but these guess-the-criminal scripts are really taking this game-element of detective fiction to the extreme (see also the game Trick X Logic, which takes the same format to a videogame).

And slightly off-topic, but writing these kinds of stories is a pretty important activity in the Kyoto University University Club: one member would write a story, while other members would try to solve it. All the stories that have been published within the club are written on the wall of the club room, and when I was there two years ago, there had been around 400 stories done ever since the tradition started. My name and story is also somewhere there on the wall, by the way.

Anriku Isu Tantei On Air is the first time I watched the show. I love it for its experimental format as a detective show that tries to involve the viewer in an active manner, but it also shows why this format might not be the best for a TV show. Normally, you'd go through a guess-the-criminal script once and then go back in the pages to check up on everything. For example, you'd find out the murderer had to be left-handed at the end of the story, so you'd go back and flip through the pages to see who was right-handed and who left. A good guess-the-criminal script will have several characteristics for a murderer (and play with that too), so it's important to go back and forth to check on all the facts.

However, this is hard to do with a TV show. The video format is not really made for a viewer to go back and forth to check up on everything. And I can assure you, it's impossible to solve the complete puzzle in Anraku Isu Tantei On Air in just one session. If you really want to get to all details, you'd have to watch the first episode at least two, three times and that's only if you already have a good idea about who did it. The DVD of Anraku Isu Tantei On Air does a reasonable job at assisting the viewer, as all the chapter stops are set at moments with crucial information ("X's Alibi", "Y's Alibi" etc.). But even then, you'd need to watch the episode several times. For the viewers who watched this live, they had to have taped the episode, or else they'd never been able to solve the case. Oh, and for your information: when this episode was broadcast in 2006, 19566 people had sent in answers: 6,5% of the respondents (1271) had guessed the correct murderer, while only a mere 0,3% (58) also presented the correct logical arguments to support the suspicion. And people complained the Ellery Queen TV show was too difficult!

But I still think this is really worth a viewing though. One of the reasons I love mystery fiction is because of the puzzle element, the game element behind it and I have never seen a detective TV show treat that aspect as interesting as with Anraku Isu Tantei. The solution is fantastic, with a grand deduction chain leading up to the reveal of the murderer. The plot of this particular episode also makes impressive use of its format as a video: while I admit some of the hints are just barely fair (Maybe a second in a ninety minute show is hardly fair!), there is one amazing hint that could only have been pulled off this convincingly because it was a TV show, and not for example a novel. That said, it's also quite complex, maybe even too complex for a TV show. To put things in perspective: whereas a 'normal' detective TV drama might spend ten, maaaybe twenty minutes on explaining the crime, Anraku Isu Tantei On Air's solution episode takes over an hour to go through all the evidence and logic chains to reach the murderer. I loved how they did it, complete with "quoting" specific scenes to build their arguments, but I can imagine that the casual viewer might not appreciate stories this complex.

I really did like Anraku Isu Tantei On Air, but it's also quite easy to see its flaws. It's a great experiment of a game puzzle-esque detective show on TV and the plot itself is great, as expected from big names like Ayatsuji Yukito and Arisugawa Alice. On the other hand, it might be a bit too complex, as you really need to watch the episode several times if you want to even think about solving the murder yourself. The scale of the story and the impressive logic behind the plot are something seldom, if ever seen in a detective drama, but Anraku Isu Tantei On Air also shows why this is probably wouldn't work for most viewers. Definitely one for the more dedicated mystery fans.

Original Japanese title(s): 『安楽椅子探偵 On Air』

The House of Lurking Death

Ons exemplaar van dit boek is niet meer toonbaar. Toen wij het, in de vacantiegemeenschap aan de plassen, op tafel lieten liggen, maakte een acute leeswoede zich van het gezelschap meester. Men ging met Manuel in 't bad, nam hem terluiks mee om te zeilen, canoën hengelen (sic) men koekeloerde met hem in de avondzon en bij het petroleumpitje verslond men hem zwijgzaam, der wereld afgestorven.

Algemeen Handelsblad (September 20, 1935)

Our copy of the book is not in a presentable state anymore. When we left the book on a table at the resort near the lakes, a sudden lust for reading took hold of everyone. People took baths with Manuel, secretly took him along to sailing, canoeing and fishing. They watched the setting sun with him, and silently devoured him next to the gas burner, gone from this world.

Algemeen Handelsblad Newspaper (September 20, 1935)

Language shenanigans on this blog: I've read Edward D. Hoch and Anthony Berkeley mostly in Japanese. I have read Freeman Crofts only in Japanese, never in English! And I've read Maurice LeBlanc's Lupin novels in English, German and Japanese. But never in French (even though I can read that...barely) and Dutch. And today, reading a Dutch novel in German...

I wrote in December about Dutch actor / radio play writer / translator / mystery writer Jan Apon's Een tip van Brissac, a classic puzzle plot mystery that I thought was great. I had first read about Jan Apon in a 1958 Japanese essay on European detective fiction, in which Inaki Katsuhiko praised Apon's second novel, Een zekere Manuel ("A Certain Manuel", 1935). Looking through some old reviews, it seemed it was received quite well in the Netherlands at the time. So I had been looking for the book for a while now, but Jan Apon's books don't appear often on the Dutch used book market, it seems, so in the end, I had to settle with Ein Gewisser Manuel, the German translation. The story is set in Sicily, in Castello Maro, home of the marquess Montebellini and her family. Narrator Dirk van Baalen is hired as a private teacher to the marquess' grandson and while he had at first looked forward to living in a Sicilian castle, the dark and gloomy atmosphere makes him regret his career choice. The place is isolated from the 'civilized' world and there are of course also (violent, bloody) legends surrounding the tower of the castle. But not only his new home is getting on van Baalen's nerves: the members of the Montebellini family and their many guests all seem to have their share of secrets and plans. One night, van Baalen overhears a conversation where two people conspire to kill "Manuel", because he is too dangerous. Van Baalen has no idea who Manuel is, but when one of the two conspirators is found dead one morning, van Baalen is convinced it was a counterattack by the intended target. But who is this Manuel?

Like with Een tip van Brissac, finding information on the contents on Een zekere Manuel was difficult. In fact, I could only find Japanese information on it. So once again, I wasn't sure what to expect from this pre-war Dutch mystery novel, but I was indeed quite pleasantly surprised with the story. The story moves at a steady pace, Castello Maro serves as a great setting for everybody to act as suspicously as possible, and while not perfect, I think the conclusion has some interesting points. Of course, a semi-closed circle situation in a dark castle with its own bloody legends, suspicious guests, a mysterious, yet sinister name that drives the mystery plot and multiple murders are elements that make me quite happy, so the book gets a lot of bonus points for that, especially considering that a lot of Dutch mystery novels seem to be more 'realistic'. The fact writer Jan Apon translated a Van Dine novel, gives a small hint to what kind of detective fiction he liked, I suspect, and it shows in his work. Looking back at my review of Een tip van Brissac, I see I said the same: a great collection of classic tropes that, even though not particularly original, are implemented well and they appeal to me personally.

The plot of Een zekere Manuel does rely a lot on coincidence though. Van Baalen just happens to overhear that conversation with Manuel's name, and just stumble upon several crucial hints, which is a bit of a shame. The gear-change of the plot near the end, in an effort to wrap the story up before it reaches the last page is also quite sudden, with crucial hints falling from the sky upon van Baalen. Also, the conclusion is not completely fair, but I do like what Jan Apon was going for. A bit of rewriting could have made Een zekere Manuel in completely fair play whodunnit I think, so it does feel like a missed opportuniy. That said, I did enjoy reading the book and I think I agree with Inaki's comments from 1958 saying "the complexity of the plot, the way it develops and the surprise factor are all excellent". But unlike the Algemeen Handelsblad's reviewer I quoted at the start of this review, I didn't take the book with me to the bathroom.

I do think it's interesting to see we have a real amateur detective as the narrator in a Dutch detective novel for a change. Most (classic) Dutch detective novels seem to feature either police inspectors (or magistrates in China or Japan...), or maybe other professionals with some relation to crime fighting (law, ex-policemen), so a biology-scholar-turned-amateur-detective as the protagonist was quite refreshing. Jan Apon's series detective Raoul Bertin is a ex-cop-turned-private-detective, so he too kinda falls in the first category... Oh, and unless they did something really funny with the German translation, Raoul Bertin does not appear in Een zekere Manuel, despite multiple sources saying he does.

I also find it amusing to see Jan Apon's books are all set abroad (i.e. not the Netherlands). At least, I have only read Een zekere Manuel and Een tip van Brissac, but I think I can sorta assume that the rest of the Raoul Bertin series is also set in or around France... Not sure why Apon is avoiding the home country though. Might have to do with a bit of romanticism, I think.

Anyway, Een zekere Manuel was certainly an interesting detective novel, especially if you look at it from the context of Dutch classic puzzle plot detectives, I think. But it's an amusing read 'as is' too. And heck, this one isn't just for that rare breed of Dutch readers, as there's a German translation too! That means there's a bigger chance any given reader could actually read Een zekere Manuel, compared to most of the Dutch mystery novels I've discussed here, right?

Original Dutch title(s): Jan Apon "Een zekere Manuel" 

Lesson of the Evil

「しょせん私と君は決して交わらない平行線、だが平行線は交わりこそしないがいつも隣にある。まるで双子の兄弟のようにね」

『金田一少年の事件簿　露西亜人形殺人事件』

"We are like two parallel lines, never to run across each other's path. But even though we never cross, we're always right next to each other, like twins"

"The Case Files of Young Kindaichi: The Russian Doll Murder Case"

I mentioned in an earlier review I couldn't get used to reading novels of a screen. That was three years ago, so what I do think now, in these days of digital publishing and all?.... I still can't get used to it. Oh, and in other news, there's a new TV drama based on Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo coming! Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo NEO will be produced by the same team behind the TV specials of the last two years, and I quite liked this year's one, so looking forward to it!

Takatoo Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Young Takatoo"; official English title Kindaichi Case Files: Takato's Side) is a spin-off one-shot series starring Takatoo Youichi, the arch-nemesis of Kindaichi Hajime of the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series. In the main series, Takatoo appears as a genius magician who sees crime as art: he offers his magic to those with murder in their hearts in the role of a crime consultant; thinking out the complex murder plots, but never actively engaging in the crime himself. In this spin-off, we see a young and slightly more innocent Takatoo, having just entered an elite school with top marks. He's invited to join the school's magic show club and slowly starts to get used to normal school life. Until one night, the members of the magic club are invited to witness a sick magic show with the decapitated head of one of the club's members, which disappeared from a locked room. Everyone thinks it's just a stupid joke, but the next morning, they discover that the member has really been murdered. Who is the Death God Magician who performed the 'magic', and why did he murder the poor victim?

Kindaichi Case File: Takato's Side was serialized in Kodansha's MangaBox app, available for no charge at all (and also in English, by the way). So even though I don't really like reading of a screen, I could hardly ignore the series, considering it was free of charge. A normal paper volume will be released too, by the way.

As a detective story, Takato's Side was pretty disappointing though. The murders may be shocking and bloody and all (though not by series standard), but with the story revolving around stage magic, and the way the murders are presented, it's very easy to make an educated guess at what happened behind the scenes. As such, Takato's Side is definitely just a very mediocre story, even disappointing (especially if you consider the fact that Amagi Seimaru wrote the ending of the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo 20th Anniversary series just before this story!).

Also, the story is basically the same as the famous Seven School Mysteries story of the main series, which was also featured as the very first story in the anime and live action series continuities: both Hajime and Takatoo enter a school club; a upperclassman dies, the body disappears for a while from a locked room. It's really the same, and while I get the idea of them wanting to present Takatoo as a darker version of Hajime, giving him a similar background story, as if he was an evil mirror clone, this is a bit too much of a rehash in my opinion. The only thing good is the ending, which is because unlike Hajime, Takatoo won't guilt-trip the murderer or try to convince him he's wrong, but it's too little to really matter.

I was actually quite surprised I was so disappointed with this story myself: there have been other Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo spin-off stories (featuring the genius Super Intendent Akechi Kengo of the series), but they worked much better both as character studies as just standalone detective stories. This was just a mediocre story.

Kindaichi Case File: Takato's Side is just fanservice for those who want to see a bit more of the genius criminal, but it's nothing special as a detective story. But then again, here I am complaining about something I didn't even pay for.

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸 (原） さとうふみや (画)  『高遠少年の事件簿』

Light That Doesn't Shine

「だが、空が、白んできていた。開けぬ夜はない。そう、俺達の追跡も、事件の全ても、そこで終息を迎えるはずだ。俺は確信していた。決して開けない夜はないのだ。そう、決して」

『探偵神宮寺三郎　灯火が消えぬ間に』

"But I could already see first daylight. No night lasts forever. Our chase, the whole case was heading towards its conclusion. And I knew. No night lasts forever. Never."

"Detective Jinguuji Saburou - Before the Light Fades"

Posting a review on a day that is related to the topic of the review always excites me slightly. Slightly (and I'll be the first to admit that I do sometimes shuffle with the order of my posts backlog to have certain posts appear on certain days. Just because).

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

The 1999 PlayStation game Tantei Jinguuji Saburou -  Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni ("Detective Jinguuji Saburou - Before the Light Fades") starts on the night of April 27, and shows us a familiar sight: private detective Jinguuji Saburou sitting in his office in Shinjuku, Tokyo, accompanied by his assistant Youko and jazz music. Business has been slow lately, but the sudden arrival of the young man Masataka at his office (followed by a group of angry yakuza thugs) marks the start of a new adventure. Jinguuji is asked by both his old friend Inspector Kumano of the police force, and the Kantou Meijigumi yakuza family to investigate the smuggling of customized pistols in Shinjuku, a threat that could endanger the balance of power in both the 'light' world as well as the underworld of the city (because the Kantou Meijigumi isn't down with guns in their turf). Tasked with this heavy job, but also some other smaller investigations, Jinguuji makes his way once more through the human jungle of Shinjuku.

Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni is the seventh game in the long running Tantei Jinguuji Saburou series, and the last in the series to be developed by the original creators of the series, the company Data East: Data East went bankrupt in 2003, and the Tantei Jinguuji Saburou series has since then been developed by WorkJam / Arc System Works. Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni can therefore be considered the last of the 'original' series. And what a game it is! Data East had been developing the hardboiled detective adventure game series since 1987, and Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni combines the best elements of all previous entries. This is overall my favorite Tantei Jinguuji Saburou game I've played until now, and I have played practically all of them, including the mobile phone spin-off series! (I still need to play PlayStation 2's Innocent Black and Kind of Blue though).

Storywise, it's what we'd had learned to expect from the series: a hardboiled detective story with here and there hints of social commentary, all set in Shinjuku. Mikan no Rupo dealt with immigrant workers and discrimination; Yume no Owari with drug dealing and this time, the investigation into the gun smuggling brings Jinguuji in close contact with the darker sides of urban migration and the underworld of Shinjuku (and even abroad!). Of course, it would be kinda heavy if it was only about these themes, so as always social commentary just serves as a background for the events that happen, which are as captivating and exciting as ever. Suffice to say that Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni's story belongs among the best of the series.

The previous two games, Mikan no Rupo and Yume no Owari ni, featured a so-called zapping system, which allowed the player to 'zap' between protagonists, with each character providing a different view on the case. Jinguuji would for example shadow a suspect, while Youko would do research in the library; both storylines would come together at certain points, but they also would offer their own unique insights on the case, with the parallel stories complementing each other. Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni surprisingly did away with the multi-layered narrative, instead opting for a fairly straightforward presentation. I say fairly, because it wouldn't really be Tantei Jinguuji Saburou if they didn't try something new with it.

Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni features a time-element not seen since the original game (where sometimes you had to smoke to allow time to pass): in this game, movement between the various locations costs time, and sometimes you can only visit certain locations during the day or night. The day-and-night cycle is also connected to a date-system, and each chapter (or case) has a certain time-limit. For example, the first case involves the tracking of a daughter who has gone missing, and you have three days to complete the investigation. You have to visit the right locations at the right time, or else you'll run out of time for your investigation. Sometimes, you'll choose a wrong place or time for finding witnesses, forcing you to wait a day. This time-management system adds a sense of urgency to the game, as you obviously will want to solve each case before time's up, but also allows you to get more into the skin of a private detective, as a real investigation probably does feature a lot of useless questioning and just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Though it's not all just stress. You can assign your assistant Youko to do certain tasks every morning, and sometimes she'll provide information needed to progress in the game, even if you happened to have missed it yourself. The chance of that happening does rely on the task you gave Youko though, so it does involve a bit of strategy. It's funny how they added this system in Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni though: it's the first time in a detective game featuring an assistant where they actually make such a character part of the gameplay in a meaningful way. A later installment in the series, Shiroi Kage no Shoujo, actually did something similar, where you could 'nurture' your own assistant in an RPG-style by choosing right answers to questions: an assistant with better statistics was able to help you out better in case you got stuck. Kinda wondering why other detective games never did something meaningful with the assistant (looking hard at Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games now: they really need fixing the narrative problems there with Watson and Holmes...).

And sidetracking here, but I really want to address the infamous issue of the assistant Misono Youko. She has been there ever since the very first game, but for some reason, they just can't stick to one character design for her. Look at this little graph I made of her appearances in the main game series: it's like she goes to the plastic surgeon between every game!

But Data East certainly did their best with the rest of the game. For a Tantei Jinguuji Saburou game, it's actually quite long, featuring thirty different endings (most of them bad endings if you didn't manage to finish a case on time). The music is, of course, fantastic, with amazing jazz lounge tracks that never bore (it's a game, so music tracks tend to loop often, but that's never a problem with the Tantei Jinguuji Saburou games). Art design is based on the previous game, Yume no Owari ni, which is definitely a great thing: I might not be a fan of the character design of Youko here, but the rest of the game looks amazing. And it's also nice they cleaned the user interface, so you can actually see much more of the screen compared to previous games! 

Okay, this review has become waaaaay to long, but to conclude: Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni is a fantastic hardboiled detective adventure game, that can easily be considered the pinnacle of the series. Older Jinguuji games tended to be more fun as stories than games, but Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni works as both a story and a game.

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵神宮寺三郎　灯火が消えぬ間に』

The School Days

普通にやればたった5分で終わる超簡単な事件を

正味33分の放送時間いっぱいまでなんとかもたせる名探偵

『３３分探偵』

These super simple cases normally only take five minutes to solve ,

But this great detective will somehow manage to fill all 33 minutes of the show's broadcast time

"33 Minutes Detective"

I still think the TV drama 33pun Tantei ("33 Minutes Detective") was one of the most brilliant shows ever. Premise: they always find the murderer within the first five minutes of the show, but to fill out the thirty three minutes of the scheduled TV program length, the detective comes up with the most outrageous deductions showing someone else might have done it. And after twenty minutes of crazy deductions, it turns out to be the first person anyway. The parody show borrowed heavily from Police Squad!, and that's never a bad thing. And today, another detective with a time limit!

Fourth period has just started at school. Everyone's outside for PE class. Everyone? No, three students are still in the classroom. Well, two students and one dead body. Our dead body is Tae-Gyu, the troublemaker of the class, who isn't making that much trouble anymore because he has been stabbed multiple times in his heart. Well, Tae-Gyu as a person may not be causing much trouble, but his dead body is kinda a problem for Jung-Hoon, ace student of the school: he had opportunity (he is in the classroom), motive (the two had a big fight earlier) and means (he is in fact holding a bloody knife in his hands). So he kinda panics when his classmate (and wallflower) Da-Jung enters the classroom, finding a dead Tae-Gyu and a literally redhanded Jung-Hoon. Da-Jung however 1) beliefs Jung-Hoon's innocent and 2) is a detective fiction maniac, so the two decide to solve the case before the class will return (to find the body) after the fourth period in the South Korean 2009 movie 4 Gyosi Churiyǒngyǒk ("4th Period Mystery").

And to make it more confusing, the movie is also known in English as The Clue and Detectives in Forty Minutes. I'll just stick with the original name.

When I first read about this movie, I got kinda excited. A high school murder mystery? That's usually reserved for Detective Conan or Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo (you wouldn't believe how many murderers and victims studied at Fudou High). Count in an amusing premise (solving the murder before fourth period ends) and you can safely say that my interest was piqued.

And it ended in disappointment. A lot of disappointment. 4 Gyosi Churiyǒngyǒk is just... boring. As a detective movie, you'd expect a bit more... deductions, but there are literally just two deduction scenes in the whole movie, and while they're supposed to be impressive, they're 1) incredibly basic and 2) faulty. Which is kinda bad if you're doing a detective movie, and base all plot developments on those faulty deductions. Like the deductions, the presentation of the hints to the viewer also feels very arbitrary, especially the game-changing, all-important hint that literally comes falling down out of nowhere (rendering about 40 minutes of the movie completely useless too). There are also two extended chase scenes in the movie, which felt out of place, messing up the pace of the story. By the way, there is absolutely no way a chase can take over ten minutes within the confines of a school complex!

There was definitely potential for something interesting though. 4 Gyosi Churiyǒngyǒk sets up a great closed circle for example, as security systems and a closed community (students and teachers) kinda prevent outsiders from getting in (or out!) the school unnoticed. But it never goes beyond setting it up the closed system, while it could have been used for much more (students seen far away from their classroom, a 'The Invisible Man'-esque story, alibis dependent on footsteps heard in the hallway etc.). Granted, Norizuki Rintarou's debut novel Mippei Misshitsu, similarly a high school murder mystery, also kinda avoids going really deep with the whole closed community thing, but heck, that novel had a full-fledged locked room murder and meta-discussions on the detective genre to fill the time with, 4 Gyosi Churiyǒngyǒk just bad deduction scenes. And a high school love story that isn't really convincing. And a half-hearted attempt at social commentary on the competitive nature of South Korean education. Half-hearted, so no shakai-ha (social school) tag for this review!

And one little note, but why wasn't the fourth period exactly forty (real-time) minutes in the movie, but slightly longer? The whole time limit thing was the whole premise of the movie, so I was kinda expecting them to do that in real time, instead of taking fifty minutes. It doesn't ruin the movie, but I think it's a missed chance...

4 Gyosi Churiyǒngyǒk was nothing more than a disappointment for me, to be honest. I asked a friend from South Korea about the movie, and she seemed to think it was a horror movie, so maybe it was marketed as such in South Korea, though it's really just a whodunnit mystery movie. And a bad one at it. The only thing I can say about the movie is, move along, nothing to see here.

Original Korean title(s): "4교시 추리영역"

Lonely Goodbye

「貴方を愛していいかしら」

『河原町ルヴォワール』

"Is it alright if I love you?"

"Kawaramachi Revoir"

I've lived for extended periods of time in Japan thrice, and I always get a bit excited whenever I see familiar locations in detective fiction. Big was my surprise when I saw the Tokyo suburb Ekoda in a game, for example. And Matsumoto Seichou's Ten to Sen (Points and Lines) is not just a fun detective story, but the first half is set exactly in the neighourhood I lived in when I was in Fukuoka (Nishimura Ken's Hakata Detective Case Files is also set in Fukuoka by the way). On the other hand, I see 'my' Kyoto neighbourhood quite often when I read detective novels, because a lot of the books I read are written by people who studied in Kyoto, and the two major universities that deal with detective fiction are located quite near each other. The main location of today's book was within my daily living radius: I could actually see the Takano river the moment I stepped out.

Revoir series
Marutamachi Revoir
Karasuma Revoir
Imadegawa Revoir
Kawaramachi Revoir 

Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. From the northern mountains that surround Kyoto, run the Kamo River and Takano River. They join up in the main Kamo River stream, which runs from north to south, right across Kyoto. This blue dragon has been a symbol of Kyoto for as long as people can remember, and its riverbanks are still among the most popular places in the city. The Kamo River Delta, where it splits into the western Kamo River, and eastern Takano river, is also always brimming with people. Except on rainy days. It is not known why Tatsuki Rakka was meeting with her long-lost brother Yamato on the delta that fateful day in the first pages of Van Madoy's Kawaramachi Revoir, but we do know that Rakka was swept away by the river flood and found hours later. Like her name says, she was dead like a fallen blossom. Rakka's sister Nadeshiko decides to get justice done by accusing her brother Yamato of murder not in a court of law, but in the Gathering of the Twin Dragons, an ancient private court with absolute power within the city of Kyoto. However, has Nadeshiko even a ghost of chance against her former boyfriend Rongo, who has gone over to the defense, and the power of the organization behind the Gathering, which seems to be involved in Rakka's murder too?

Kawaramachi Revoir is the final chapter in Van Madoy's Revoir series, which has been a fantastic courtroom mystery series (all named after streets in Kyoto). Marutamachi Revoir introduced us first to the Gathering of the Twin Dragons, a private court where the Yellow Dragon (prosecution) and Blue Dragon (defense) fight for their client's interests. The twist was that because this was a private trial, the Dragons had much more freedom in comparison to a court of law: one could pose the most outrageous and fantastic theories and even use forged evidence, as long as you could convince the judge, and the rival Dragon wouldn't prove you wrong /  a cheater. As such, Gatherings of the Twin Dragons were in fact high-level, high-speed deduction battles, where Dragons would try to twist the evidence and facts constantly to suit their goals. Add in the fact that the series had some really charismatic Dragons, like Rakka who could conjure up evidence from nowhere, Rongo with his meandering deductions, or Tatsuya's pure logic, and you can understand why I love this series. Each entry also did something completely different (Marutamachi introduced the trial, Karasuma focused on the investigation, Imadegawa was about gambling), so the series never got stale. And now, the final chapter.

Which begins quite shocking. I knew I wanted to read Kawaramachi Revoir, so I never bothered to read descriptions of the story before I purchased the book, but to think that Rakka, one of the pivotal characters of the series, would be killed within the first few pages of the book! (It's actually also in the description on the back of the book, so it's not really a spoiler). The rest of the story feels a bit similar to Marutamachi Revoir, as this story too is split into a distinctive investigation and trial part, with all of the action being focused in the trial part (but with plenty of hints hidden in the investigation part). The murder on Rakka seems like a simple case at first, but the imagination of both Dragons bring the case to unforseeable places, which is always the best part of the series (as it's not a court of law, a Dragon's first weapon of choice is a plausible/possible theory, not evidence).

The main trick of the book is something fairly daring, something I have never seen before in a novel. I did think it felt a bit strange, when I caught the first glimpses / hints of the trick, but I was never really able to grasp the whole picture, so when all is explained at the end and all those times I thought "?!" suddenly made sense, that was fantastic. I think that my reaction to the trick was not one of sheer surprise, but more one of delight: to think this was pulled off! It might be a trick better suited for a different medium (games for example), because it does feel a bit strange as you read the book, but it certainly is one to remember. You probably do need a certain mindset to 'get' into the trick though, I think.

Oh, and it was quite interesting to follow Nadeshiko this time. I only noticed it now, but each of the Revoir books not only focused on a different aspect of story, but also featured different protagonists: Marutamachi was Rongo's story, Karasuma showed us more of lively Mitsuru, Imadegawa dealt with Tatsuya's past and revenge, and Kawaramachi is about Nadeshiko dealing with the loss of her sister, as well as having to fight against her own brother and ex-boyfriend. Yet the series does feel like one whole, despite switching protagonists all the time.

Is Kawaramachi Revoir only getting praise? Yes, and no. Kawaramachi Revoir forms a great conclusion to the series, as it brings together a lot of loose threads of plot left in the previous three novels to construct a grand finale. There is even a game-like Final Boss character and by the end of the book, you really feel like it's finally over. But, Kawaramachi Revoir is absolutely incomprehensible if you haven't read the previous books: characters pop up without any introduction, references to past events are constantly made and even smaller details from the previous books prove to be of importance here. I have read the series in order (which is also highly recommended, but because it's been a while since I last read the books, I too had trouble remembering who that one person was, or what that person did in the previous book. Kawaramachi Revoir is fun, but only makes sense in the context of the series.

All in all, I really enjoyed Kawaramachi Revoir as the finale to a great series. People interested in 'special' courtroom mysteries (like Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney) should definitely take a look, but also people who simply enjoy crazy deduction battles. You do need to read the previous three novels to really get Kawaramachi Revoir, but considering they're all fun, that shouldn't be a problem.

Original Japanese title(s): 円居挽 『河原町ルヴォワール』

Retrial

'Take it easy," said the warder, who led Lonsdale Walsh down the stairs from the dock in Court 1 of the Old Bailey, 'you can always appeal.'

"Settled out of Court"

I just realized I managed to write least one post a month on something not from Japan this year. Which is a record for this blog, I think. Other statistics: of all the Japanese books discussed last year, only four were actually bought last year (two of which were only released last year, so I couldn't have bought them sooner anyway): the rest was just backlog...

Lonsdale Walsh had never told a lie. He also couldn't stand hearing people lie. He hated lies. This was not because he was a worshipper of Truth. He simply couldn't stand lies physically and he would get all red in the head just by listening to someone telling an untruth. Modern society wouldn't run smoothly if everyone was like Walsh, and that luckily isn't the case. He was a rarity, and his honesty helped build a trustworthy reputation as a financier. Truth had brought Lonsdale wealth. And it was lies that had gotten Lonsdale Walsh wrongly imprisoned for murder on his rival Adolphus Barnwell. Every witness had commited perjury, just to get Lonsdale convicted. And it worked. But Lonsdale was determined to expose everyone's lies: after breaking out of prison, Lonsdale gathers all witnesses, a judge, a defense attorney and a prosecutor, forcing them to do a second inquiry into the murder. If the lawful roads won't work, then he'll just have to get the case Settled Out Of Court.

Henry Cecil Leon was a County Court Judge and used his experiences, as well as a great sense of humor, to write several books on the British legal system. Settled Out Of Court (1957) is one of those quirky courtroom mysteries, and one I enjoyed immensely. Henry Cecil must have seen a lot of strange going-ons in his courtroom, because Settled Out Of Court is first of all a great parody and satire of the British legal system. The way judges work, the loopholes in the law, the strange ceremony behind each and every trial, Cecil manages to present these (actual) problems of the law in a funny and understandable way. And these critiques never feel too heavy, luckily, always allowing enough room for the main narrative.

Which is also great fun. The secret retrial of Lonsdale's case shows a cast of shady witnesses, who are not sure how to react to these new developments (well, being kidnapped is kinda shocking). The cross-examination of these witnesses are hilarious, and remind somewhat of the witnesses in the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney videogame series, with their obvious suspiciousness and unwillingness to tell the whole truth. But the retrial is also when the reader really gets sucked into the story, as Settled Out Of Court slowly takes on the form of a traditional courtroom mystery, complete with surprising reveals made during examinations. And while we already know that everyone lied to get Lonsdale in prison, it's still exciting to see how defense is going to show that perjury had been commited, in true courtroom drama style.

The extraordinary circumstances of Lonsdale retrial of course remind of other quirky courtroom dramas. I already mentioned the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney game series, but that's actually a fairly traditional courtroom mystery. But Settled Out Of Court is probably closer to something like Anthony Berkeley's Trial and Error, featuring a man who wants to prove his own guilt of a crime. Or what about Van Madoy's Revoir series, which features not a court of law, but a private courtroom, allowing both defense and prosucution much more freedom (i.e. they can come up with the most outrageous theories and lie as much as they like, as long as the other party can't proof that).

Settled Out Of Court is a short book, but it makes every page count. It's funny, it's captivating, it's a little bit silly and also offers sharp observations on the law. Recommended!