Running On Fumes

" It is probably speeding on its way thither at the present instant as fast as steam can take it."

"The Adventure of the Second Stain"

This reminds me I want to try Steam Detectives one day...

It's finally time for Ema to start thinking about her future and decide on her apprenticeship. In an age where highly advanced steam and aether engines have made everything possible in this world, the future is bright and possibilities are unlimited. And while following her father's footsteps sounds alluring, travelling across the world as the captain of a flying aether-engine ship, her mind is set on becoming a detective, like the highly esteemed private detective Murie. She manages to arrange to be taken on as Murie's apprentice when her father returns to the metropolis from an important scientific mission: their airship moved to the atmosphere to research outer space for a while, but the expedition returned with a very odd capsule, which seems to hold a boy of Ema's age. She accidently opens the capsule, releasing the boy, but he appears to be normal boy. He is put in Murie's charge while Murie becomes involved in an investigation related to the space expedition and the mystery of why the boy was in the capsule, but meanwhile, Ema and the boy Yuujin get involved in all kinds mysteries that happen in the city, from with a locked room murder in a hotel where a scientist is knocked on the head with a rock to a man being stabbed with a knife while standing in the middle of a long corridor made completely of glass, with only Ema and Yuujin nearby and nobody else who could've approached the victim unseen. What they don't know is that they're about to uncover an insidious plot in Ashibe Taku's Steam Opera (2012).

Sometimes you come across a novel where you just know that the author not only greatly enjoyed writing the work, but also that the book was perhaps not so much written for a certain audience, but mostly for the author themselves. That's definitely the case with Steam Opera, which really feels like a book where Ashibe just went loose and decided to tackle all kinds of themes he himself likes. Of course, that's always been his forte to a degree: his bibliophilic tendencies is usually very prominent featured in his stories with lots of reference to literature and history, and often his plots also go deep into these themes. But Steam Opera feels like it was completely built upon Ashibe's personal interests, which is not a bad thing, mind you. 

When you're reading this mystery novel, with a steampunk alternate universe setting (with steam-powered trams, escalators, everything!) and written like a Jules Vernes-esque adventure novel with a distinct light novel-ish tone, with a young girl detective as the protagonist, it almost like you're ticking off a list of themes Ashibe likes. His love for late nineteenth century adventure novels is something you clearly see in his other works, as is his interest for the female detective protagonist as a trope, and the last years he's also been dabbling in light novel writing, so Steam Opera is really a book where he just throws together. And for the most part, it does work. The opening chapters of the book are exciting, as they introduce the reader to a steampunk world with aether engines and other familiar tropes of the steampunk genre and you know this distinctive universe will also be the setting for some interesting mysterious cases. Ema is pretty fun as the strongminded and usually quick-minded protagonist and the story combines the tropes of the classic science fiction adventure novel with more distinct light novel-conventions like the banter, but resulting in a world that you're not likely to find in many other mystery novels. That said, personally, I would've preferred a little more focus on the mystery side of the story, as sometimes the adventure-ish sides of the story don't seem to go anywhere than just to show off the characters.

Soon after the return of Ema's father's ship however, several mysterious murders occur in the steam-powered capital. They are of an impossible kind and the experienced reader of course knows that because we're now in a world with highly advanced steam and aether engines, solving the mystery will a be a lot trickier than let's say a mystery set in our own world. The first murder in that regards is perhaps a bit disappointing, about a man who's knocked on his head with a heavy stone in a locked hotel room, though it does utilize elements unique to this world. The situation in the Crystal Palace gardens is far more interesting: a man is stabbed by a knife in a corridor made completely of glass, allowing everyone around to have a clear view of the victim. With the victim standing in the middle of the curved corridor and Ema and Yuujin on either end of the corridor, nobody could've approached the victim to stab him, and yet there's a knife sitting neatly in the victim's body. I kinda had an idea what was likely the trick behind this murder, because the first case gave me a hint, but I think it's ultimately worked out really neatly in this novel. Speaking of which, the book builds to a climax that makes great use of the unique steampunk setting, but it also fits the almost fantasy-like story premise with a boy found in space. It's a grand conclusion that didn't quite manage to surprise me as much as it probably should have, because by mere coincidence, I had played with a similar idea but more as a joke theory, but Ashibe manages to convincingly work out this idea to write an ambitious work of steampunk fantasy mystery, but I don't think that everyone will like it: like I said, I first thought of it as a joke theory because I thought it'd be funny in such a novel and some might even find it unfair. If you didn't see it coming, it will hit you like a rock, and then you'll realize that you could've seen it coming, but it's a conclusion that really could've only worked in this specific steampunk world and it's a memorable one.

I do think that Steam Opera would perhaps have worked better in the form of something like an anime series. It already has the light novel atmosphere, but I also think that the steampunk world itself could've also used more time to really settle, as sometimes the set-up for some relevant elements of this world feels inadequate, whereas more runtime would've prepared the viewer more thorougly. The novel itself isn't really short, so but a more deliberate episode-by-episode structure would've made this a better experience.

Steam Opera is a book that's obviously written by Ashibe, for Ashibe, but that doesn't mean it's not amusing on its own. While the mystery subplots take a bit of time to really take off, the book does work to a conclusion that's memorable because of the way it utilizes the unique steampunk setting to present a mystery that you won't find anywhere else. That said, the storytelling at times feels more focused on the comedic steampunk adventure-side of the story, so if you're just reading this for the mystery, things will be a bit slow and longwinded perhaps.

Original Japanese title(s): 芦辺拓『スチームオペラ』

The Secret in the Stars

夜空を見上げ一人ほうき星を見たの

一瞬ではじけては消えてしまったけど

「ほうき星」（ユンア） 

Looking up at the night sky alone, I saw a comet

But it appeared and was gone in a second

"Comet" (Younha)

First time I read something by Kurachi, but certainly not the last!

While he may have been morally right, Sugishita Kazuo knew there would be consequences for the undiplomatic, and especially physical manner in which he dealt with his abusive superior. He liked working at the marketing company, so he feared he'd be fired, but surprisingly, he was "only" moved to a completely different part of the company to give the whole deal some time to die down. Given that he liked marketing, he wasn't especially happy with his appointment to the new and small entertainment section, but it was better than losing his job. Sugishita is made manager-in-training (basically just a personal assistant) of Hoshizono Shirou, a "star watcher" and popular television personality who's been making women crazy with his handsome looks and romantic talks about the stars and constellations. Sugishita develops an instant dislike for the arrogant and showy Hoshizono, but the day after they first meet, he's already forced to go on a trip with him, as Hoshizono has been invited by the boss of a big land development company. This Iwagishi has recently bought a run-down campsite in the mountains. The original owner was a lover of camping, and wanted people to come down here in their caravans and spend a nice time in the nature, but financially, this wish was just not feasible and Iwagishi got the whole campsite, complete with ten log houses and a main building, for a dime and nickle. His plan is now to develop this campsite into a kind of leisure facility with the stars as the theme, as the location in the mountains make it perfect for stargazing. 

The camp is still in its original condition, but Iwagishi has invited a few guests who he thinks can help make his stargazing leisure facility a success: besides Hoshizono, he has also invited the highly successful romantic novelist Kusabuki Akane as well as the famous UFO expert Sagashima Kazuteru. The three guests (and their assistants, as well as two female companions) are to spend a night here at the camp with Iwagishi, to see what suggestions they may have for the facility and whether they would be could involved in some way, like having Kusabuki write a novel set around the location. The initial talks about the facility during dinner are good, but the following morning, Iwagishi is found murdered in his log house at the camp. The camp has no phone lines however, and when Iwagishi's assistant tries to drive down the mountain, he finds that the heavy snowfall of last night has completely blocked off the road. The survivors realize they are trapped by the snow on the campsite with a murderer on the loose. To Sugishita's great surprise however, he learns that Hoshizono is actually a lot sharper than he pretends to be, and together, the starwatcher and the assistant start investigating the murder on Iwagishi in the hopes of preventing more murders in Kurachi Jun's Hoshifuri Sansou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Mountain Lodges beneath the Shooting Stars" 1996).

I have mentioned quite often on this blog that the logic school of mystery writing, as seen in the works of novelists like Ellery Queen and Arisugawa Alice, is my favorite. Some might prefer the 'flash of inspiration' style of writers like Agatha Christie and to a lesser extent John Dickson Carr, where a small clue is supposed to tip off the detective or reader on the whole crime and you're expected to "just" suddenly see how everything fits, but I always have been a fan of the slower, and more deliberate manner of the logic school, where you add up a lot of minor clues like 1) the murderer was right-handed, 2) the murderer had to know fact X because they did action Y, 3) the murderer only learned of fact X after time Z, 4) the murderer is not one of the characters who were at A, etc. to eventually find out who the murderer was and how everythhing fits together. I spent a whole post trying to explain why I love this kind of clewing and my feelings on this have not changed: I love how this kind of plotting tries to really make mystery fiction like a game, because it makes the process more fair. This kind of whodunnit-focused novels often have you identify a list of characteristics of the murderer and compare them to the known suspects. These stories feel fair because as you slowly start to cross off suspects on the list, you usually figure out for yourself you're still missing one or two identifying conditions: perhaps you already know the murderer must be right-handed based on Scene 37, and you know they had to know about the clock in Scene 23, but it's only when you're left with three suspects and go over the story again that you realize the fact two of those suspects didn't take sugar in their tea was significant!

Hoshifuri Sansou no Satsujin is a fantastic example of the logic school of mystery writing. It might have a rather familiar story setting, with a group of people trapped in the mountains due to heavy snowfall and the murders are certainly not committed in a spectacular or baffling manner, but it's completely focused on offering a puzzle that challenges the reader to logically infer who the murderer is. The reader is actually made aware of this the moment they open the book, for this book has a very unique chapter naming convention. The chapters are not really titled: they always open with a two, three sentence notice that summarizes the contents of said chapter and notes what's important or not. For example, the first chapter literally opens with the notice that the protagonist of the story will appear there and that "The protagonist is the narrator and the Watson. They share all information they learn fairly with the reader and are not the murderer." The next chapter, where Sugishita meets with Hoshizono for the first time too starts with a notice that "the detective becomes involved with the case by pure coincidence and is not the murderer", while in a later chapter where Hoshizono and Sugishita discuss the murder and they focus on several important facts, the chapter opening states that these observations made by Hoshizono are indeed correct. The whole book is playing the game open and fair from start to finish, and it's almost surreal to see little post-its by the writer that say what's important and whether some incident was just a coincidence or not. They do make Hoshifuri Sansou no Satsujin an exciting read though, because at the same time, you know it really won't be that easy and that Kurachi is trying to present a puzzle that will surprise the reader with how the murderer will be identified in the end. It's also fun to go over the chapter introductions again once you're done with the book: some of these notifications might seem a bit too cryptic the first time you read them, but they make more sense once you know everything and some of them are quite clever! I played Umineko: When They Cry after reading this book, but the chapter 'titles' here are somewhat similar in idea to the concept of Red Truths in that game.

And yep, the whodunnit puzzle is pretty ingenious even with the help of those chapter openings. If you love early Ellery Queen or for example The Moai Island Puzzle (disclosure: I translated that book), you're in for a treat, because Hoshifuri Sansou no Satsujin is exactly what you're looking for! Finding all the clues that will eventually lead you to the identity of the murderer is very tricky, but never unfair: each time one of the identifying conditions is mentioned, it's likely you'll have noticed (part of) it, and even if you didn't, you're sure to realize that they are very convincing logical conclusions drawn from what you have seen at the crime scene and in other parts of the story. It's of course ultimately combining all these facts together to form an image of the murderer which will prove to be difficult: I for one had a good idea about who the murderer was, but I really couldn't find the clues that could logically exclude everyone else besides the person I had set my eyes on, as I always would end up with other suspects based on the clues I had found! It's at these moments I love this kind of mystery fiction, where I have to decide whether I'm just on wrong track, or simply missing some kind of clue or misinterpreting a clue that would allow me to logically arrive at a different person. You'll need to identify quite a few conditions to be able to cross off all the names save for the murderer and that does mean some of these conditions are a bit easier to identify than others (and some of them feel will probably feel familiar as they're popular ideas in mystery fiction), but getting all of them is difficult and some of them are pretty clever that make good use of this particular story setting, like strange circling mark in the snow as if made by a rotating UFO's expulsion device.

In terms of appearances, Hoshifuri Sansou no Satsujin might feel a bit too familiar, with its tense closed circle situation in the snow, and the familar story beats like the surviving people becoming suspicious of each other, attempts to get through the snow to find help and more, but I think Hoshifuri Sansou no Satsujin is a great showcase that it's possible to write a great tale of mystery and logical reasoning even when using familiar building blocks: Hoshifuri Sansou no Satsujin is easily one of the best mystery novels I've read this year, because it's so dedicated to offering a solvable logical puzzle, where the reader is rewarded for activally thinking along and trying to figure out whodunnit by carefully considering the clues and considering the precise implications of each action of all the characters. Some readers might feel this book feels a bit too like a puzzle, but for me, this is exactly the kind of mystery story I love. 

Original Japanese title(s): 倉知 淳『星降り山荘の殺人』

Last Note of the Golden Witch

安らかに眠れ、我が最愛の魔女ベアトリーチェ

Sleep peacefully, my beloved witch Beatrice

Aaand like I had hoped, I managed to finish this post just before the Famicom Detective Club remakes release next week!

A few months(!) ago, I started playing 07th Expansion's very, very long mystery visual novel Umineko no Naku Koro ni ("When the Seagulls Cry"), released in English as Umineko: When They Cry. I knew beforehand that playing through all eight episodes of this game would take a long time, so I decided to add a playthrough memo to the blog to write down my theories/ideas per episode and at the end of March, I also wrote a post on Umineko when I had finished the first four episodes, putting me on the halfway point. The eight episodes of Umineko are split across two story arcs: the first four episodes form the Question arc, presenting the main problems for the players to solve, while the last four episodes form the Scatter arc, which doesn't explicitly spell out the complete solution, but does provide the player with many important answers which can be used by the player to fill in the remaining gaps. In a way, this post, and the previous post on Umineko also form one set together too. In the first post, I mostly wrote about the concept of Umineko: When They Cry as a product, the basic story and the mystery elements that stood out to me in the first four episodes. In this post I'll try to look at Umineko: When They Cry more closely a piece of mystery fiction, so I'll skip a lot of the basic information regarding the games here. 

You'd best read the other Umineko: When They Cry article first if you aren't familiar with the concept yet, but to put it very simply: a series of locked room or otherwise seemingly impossible murders occur on the island of Rokkenjima, where the Ushiromiya clan has gathered for an annual family gathering. It appears the murders of the Ushiromiya family members and the servants are part of a ritual to revive the Golden Witch Beatrice and indeed, she rises as the last people on the island die. Battler Ushiromiya, one of the victims, however refuses to believe in magic and witches, which amuses Beatrice. She decides to play a game of wits with Battler: she creates a 'new' version of the closed circle murders on Rokkenjima, which Battler and Beatrice observe from an parallel universe. Beatrice's position is that the impossible murders are made possible through her magic, while Battler has to prove that these murders are not the result of magic, but committed by a real-life person. They go through this twisted game again and again, resetting the 'chessboard' of this insane fantasy mystery game again each time, with the two discussing the various murders from a meta-level, and Battler struggling every time to come up with a comprehensive human explanation for the events.

I finished the final episode about two weeks ago, but honestly, it took me a long time to sort out my thoughts on the game. Mainly, because it's really long and grand in scale. While the eight episodes form one story overall, the first four episodes Legend of the Golden Witch, Turn of the Golden Witch, Banquet of the Golden Witch and Alliance of the Golden Witch are each basically a whole mystery novel on their own. The following episodes End of the Golden Witch, Dawn of the Golden Witch, Requiem of the Golden Witch and Twilight of the Golden Witch also feature some murder mystery elements, though less elaborate and they are usually just used as a kind of case study that function as hints to solve the mysteries in the first four episodes. But even so, there's just a lot going on here, and I do have to say that if you ever want to start playing Umineko: When They Cry, you do need to plan it out it a bit because it's time consuming, with each episode taking about 8-10 hours.

This makes Umineko: When They Cry a tricky mystery story, because from the start, it simply tries to overwhelm you with sheer volume. At the end of the first episode, the Golden Witch Beatrice revives and no real explanations are given regarding the murders that occured. From that point on, the player and Battler are thrown in the game of the ever-repeating Rokkenjima murders, meaning you have the previous series of murders to solve, as well as newer iterations, as none of the murders are solved in the first four episodes. Nearly twenty people die in each iteration of the Rokkenjima murders, often in locked rooms or seemingly impossible situations because everyone has an alibi, so the number of individual murders you need to solve quickly becomes rather hard to keep track of. This wouldn't be a problem on its own if not for one characteristic of Umineko: When They Cry: writer Ryukishi07 isn't economical with words. While every scene may have a certain purpose, some only apparent with the power of hindsight, the writing is extremely longwinded, with each seperate conversation going on for like thirty, forty lines even though it'd only take four lines to convey the main message of a certain scene. So it's not just that the main murder mysteries and the relevant background stories take on a grand scale in Umineko: When They Cry: all of this is also buried in so much text it's just tiring to get through at times. Because there are so many murders in each episode, sometimes you think of a theory and want to check up on/compare to an earlier dialogue, but more than often I just didn't do it because I knew it'd mean having to dig through a haystack, even though I knew precisely what kind of needle I was looking for.

That said, the concept of having to piece the truth together by viewing various alternate versions of the Rokkenjima murders was very entertaining. While in each episode, the Rokkenjima murders are quite different, with changing victims and murder circumstances, the underlying basic story and interpersonal character relations at play remain the same: only the specific events that occur on 1986, October 4 and 5 on Rokkenjima differ each time. This means that while the player has to solve different murders each time, there are always connections between the 'parallel universes' and these allow you to solve the mystery. An event that occurs in Legend of the Golden Witch might take on a different meaning after seeing a scene in Requiem of the Golden Witch for example, or perhaps you notice something that happens in the first episode, actually turns out to be a pattern that repeats across all the episodes. Figuring out how these pieces that are apparently from different sets of jigsaw puzzles do actually fit together is something you don't often see in mystery fiction. Mystery fiction that deal with parallel universes, time travel stories, or games with branching storylines like Kamaitachi no Yoru have similar ideas at times, where stories unfold in different manners depending on a story-changing choice made, which therefore make you think about the underlying meaning of that choice. This however never happens at the scale of Umineko: When They Cry, with complete novel-length stories as its puzzle pieces. While I was jotting down my ideas for each episode in the playthrough memo, I'd always try to see how the events we saw in an episode could also apply to previous episodes, and whether I could see patterns emerging. It did actually put me on the right track, which was really satisfying. At first you have all these scattered points that seem miles away, but as you progress, you'll be able to connect all the dots and draw clear lines between them.

One of the core themes of Umineko: When They Cry is whether you give in to the fantasy solutions the Golden Witch Beatrice offers you, or whether you try to find a 'realistic' explanation. The player and Battler observe each version of the Rokkenjima murders from a parallel universe, but through a 'filter' of Beatrice, who actively tries to push her 'fantasy' solutions. The result is that as the player, you'll often see grand fantasy battles between the warriors and monsters summoned by Beatrice and the murder victims: these are the 'interpretations' of Beatrice of how the murder occured, while Battler and the player have to try to figure out how these locked room/impossible murders could've happened without interference of the supernatural. You could simply enjoy Umineko: When They Cry as a fantasy story by the way, believing in the story that witches suddenly appeared inside a room to horribly torture a victim, but I already declared we'd be talking about Umineko: When They Cry as mystery fiction here. The merits of Umineko: When They Cry as mystery fiction do definitely lie more on the overarching storyline than the individual murders though. Not that they are bad, but often a lot of options are left open on purpose when it comes to the impossible crimes. Some locked room murders are basically only "impossible" if you choose to believe that some characters aren't accomplices or lying, something often pointed out in the episodes themselves. This is usually done purposely as to not tip the balance in favor for a fantasy or mystery solution, but because many options are kept open/vague, sometimes the mystery seems to lie mostly in the fact that the reader isn't given enough specific information regarding each murder scene. Seeing how these murders eventually link together though is good though, but it's clear Umineko: When They Cry is best enjoyed at the macro level.

Umineko: When They Cry starts in an overwhelming manner, with the lengthy narrative and then explicitly showing off the 'magical fantasy solutions' of Beatrice to confuse the reader who's looking for a human explanation for the events, but as you go through each episode, you'll slowly piece together an internal logic of the game, which can be both fun and frustrating. At various moments in the story, the game will make it clear that the mystery is solvable based on the hints it'll provide and that there are certain rules it will adhere to make this a fair and solvable mystery, but it expects the player to figure out these limitations themselves. Which adds another layer of mystery to solve for the player, but which can feel a bit unfair, because the player can never be sure whether 1) the game and the player are really playing according to the same rules and 2) whether the rules won't change midway. The game has an inherent advantage from the start, so by making the rules part of the mystery too, it's only tilting the balance even further. It's unclear for example at first how 'much' of the information seen in each individual episodes actually apply to all the other episodes. It demands a lot of dedication of the reader to not only engage with the core plot, but with the meta rules too, so that's quite tricky and doesn't always feels fair.

The meta-gaming element of Umineko: When They Cry is also prominently shown with its concept of Red Truths introduced in the second episode: a statement made in red is true. Beatrice might for example show victim X being killed by a monster in a locked room, which the player and Battler can choose to not believe, but if Beatrice states in red that X was killed and The door was locked from the inside and the only key was found inside the victim's pocket, at least these facts are true and no further evidence needs to be provided to support these statements. The Red Truths are the main game-like element of Umineko: When They Cry which otherwise doesn't feature any gameplay elements which allows the player to direct interact with the mystery and, personally, I love the Red Truths. They function like third-person narration in mystery fiction, because a fair-play mystery novel should never blatantly lie to the reader in the third-person narration. Beatrice is most definitely a subjective and unreliable narrator, but any statements she makes in red are true regardless of her status. In a way, Red Truths can simplify a situation because it gives you some certainties regarding an otherwise confusing situation: by stating X was killed for example, the player doesn't need to worry about X faking their own death. Of course the Red Truths are also used to further confuse the player, as it often leads to interesting dynamics to the deduction battles between Beatrice and Battler, as Beatrice can sometimes kill off a complete theory of Battler just by making a red statement that contradicts a fundamental premise. Like Obi-Wan, Beatrice is also good at stating truths that are true from a certain point of view though, so often, you need to be careful to the exact meaning of each Red Truth. But it's quite fun to come up with a theory that manages to wiggle its way through all the various relevant Red Truths and definitely one of the best ideas of Umineko: When They Cry. It reminds of the plotting technique often shown in the logical reasoning school of mystery fiction, where a long line of reasoning changes when a new fact is introduced. In Umineko: When They Cry too, Battler and the player have to constantly adapt to new Red Truths being introduced. Sometimes you have a working theory up until the very end of an episode when Beatrice suddenly decides to make a new Red Statement that kills your hypothesis and now you have to reconsider how that new fact changes things. I think the Red Truths make this notion a lot more tangible for mystery readers, making it instinctively easier to understand how deductions can and sometimes have to change with the introduction of new facts.

It's a shame though that the game make it harder than necessary for people to approach Umineko: When They Cry's story from a mystery angle. The game introduces a lot of Red Truths starting from the second episode, some applying to specific murders, some applying to the overal storyline, but even though the game has a special menu for character profiles and so-called TIPS (extra background information), the game for some reason does not provide a kind of database or list that collects all the Red Truths for you, nor can you look up details for each crime scene afterwards. If you want to read up on specific Red Truths again, you need to be lucky and remember in which scene they were mentioned, because that's the only way to find them again  (and that brings us back to the problem of Umineko not being economical with words). For a game that so often explicitly challenges the reader to solve the mystery, it's a complete enigma why it doesn't allow the player to look up Red Truths in a simple manner, especially when sometimes you have situations where a Red Truth is mentioned that also applies to previous episodes, and it just becomes a hassle to look things up again between episodes.

Whereas the first four episodes of Umineko: When They Cry offer you the main problems to be solved (the four different iterations of the Rokkenjima murders and the underlying circumstances that led to the murders), the last four episodes form the Scatter arc: these episodes do not explicitly say who did it how and why, but are like allegories that hint very strongly a some of the major answers, and once those answers have put you on the right track, you should be able to fill in most of the remaining questions yourself. I mentioned in the other Umineko post that the concept of a work of mystery that doesn't actually reveal the truth at the end reminded me of Higashino Keigo's Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita ("One of the Two Killed Her") and Watashi ga Kare wo Koroshita ("I Killed Him"), which both don't reveal who's ultimately arrested for the murders in those books, nor is a detailed explanation given to the reader as to how the detective managed to identify the killer. I'd say Umineko: When They Cry is a lot more generous with its hints than those books though (though the scale of Umineko does make it more difficult). But by the time you get to Requiem of the Golden Witch (episode 7), it's basically only not dotting the i's for you and with the hints and answers provided there, the attentive reader should be able to figure out the details for themselves. The way how especially End of the Golden Witch and Dawn of the Golden Witch (episodes 5-6) use new variations of the Rokkenjima murders to not only present new murder mysteries, but also to act as hints to solve the previously seen murders in other episodes is brilliant though! You're basically shown easier murder cases that utilize elements from the mysteries from previous episodes, so if you manage to solve these 'easier' versions, it will help you on the way to figure out how the murders in first four episodes were committed. The game also starts throwing Knox and Van Dine around to players who aren't really familiar with mystery fiction, and while I think I know finally understand why people into Umineko often seem to consider Decalogue and the Twenty Rules to be far more important than they actually are for good mystery fiction, I guess at least Knox and Van Dine do give unexperienced mystery readers something to hold on to. But the way these episodes use an oblique manner to guide the player to the solution without explicitly showing it is great, and I think the execution was good: I was somewhere on the way to the solution myself by the time I started on episode 5, but they really helped me focus in on the solution without actually explicitly telling me the answers.

The grand solution that ties all the various iterations of the Rokkenjima murders together is quite satisfying too, using an interestingly thought-out background story and characters to allow multiple 'parallel universe' versions of the Rokkenjima murders to occur. I really like how the answers to whodunnit, howdunnit and whydunnit are very closely related, meaning that once you figure out one angle, you're likely to solve the rest too. Once you start seeing the big picture, you'll also see how the macro concepts can apply on the micro-level and in turn how each individual murder could've been committed. Some scenes also take on a completely different meaning knowing what's really going on, and the player is even challenged to take a good look at some Red Truths again: sometimes they seemingly clash with the answer, but after a little bit of thinking you'll see how you could fit the Red Truths in without creating a contradiction. I sometimes mention the theme of synergy in mystery fiction here, how a mystery plot often feels more satisfying if it doesn't have discrete "blocks" of mysteries/murders, but where things are interconnected and elements work because of the existence of other elements, and I think Umineko: When They Cry does a good job at tying up the whodunnit, howdunnit and whydunnit together in that regard. I think that's also a reason why Umineko: When They Cry can get away without explicitly stating the solutions in the game. That said, some aspects of the solutions to the many, many murders that occur throughout the narrative do feel a bit easy, some almost coming down to "Ha, X lied at the time, they did commit the murder!". But seen from a macro-level, the mystery is definitely entertaining enough, though I do wonder whether it really needed eight lengthy episodes to tell.

While Umineko: When They Cry has the confidence to not overstate the various solutions of the mystery, it oddly does not have the same confidence in its themes though. Umineko: When They Cry can easily be consumed as a character drama, as it spends a lot of time fleshing out the various characters, both human and from the witch world and the characterization is ultimately also necessary to set the motives up, but the game is really, really intent on making you understand what it thinks about the theme of fantasy vs. truth and its impact on the characters. I'm sure a lot of people love the character-focused approach of Umineko, but if you're mainly here for the core mystery, you'll find this an extremely slow mystery story.

Umineko: When They Cry also has distinct 'anti-mystery' themes by the way, and obviously takes inspiration from the famous four Japanese 'anti-mystery' novels, Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken ("The Black Death Mansion Murder Case"), Dogura Magura, Kyomu he no Kumotsu ("Offerings to Nothingness") and Hako no Naka no Shitsuraku ("Paradise Lost Inside A Box"). It shares especially a lot of themes with the latter two. Umineko does not try to be like a tightly plotted Queen-like mystery novel where logic will prevail and clear all mists, but embraces themes from the mentioned novels like the unreliable narrator/observer/presentation, murder as entertainment, investigations into narratives-within-narratives, meta-discussions on mystery fiction, mysteries at multiple story levels (micro and macro) and an open-ended approach to the notion of "truth" with multiple solutions and characters not discussing the truth, but a possible truth. The more character-focused approach of Umineko in particular seems to be direct reaction to one of the major themes of Kyomu he no Kumotsu and I do think that if you like Umineko, it's worth taking a look at Kyomu he no Kumotsu and Haka no Naka no Shitsuraku or vice-versa. 

Considering its length, one could probably tackle a review of Umineko: When They Cry from a lot of angles, perhaps delving more into the characters or the overall themes of the game, but as I'm writing this post for this blog, the focus is on Umineko: When They Cry as a mystery story, and I am happy to say I'm glad I finally got around to playing it after hearing so much about it. It is an ambitious mystery story, using several parallel versions of the 'same' Rokkenjima murders to weave a complex web of storylines and while at the start, things can be overwhelming, the moment you start to see the connections and patterns and slowly work your way to the solution, you'll see Umineko: When They Cry is quite unique as a mystery story due to its enormous scale, though length is definitely also one of its more frustrating points. Sometimes you'll just have to roll with the story and accept characters doing this or that, but on the whole, I think Umineko: When They Cry manages to present an interesting fantasy story weaved by the Golden Witch Beatrice, which can also be seen as a complex mystery story by the reader as long as they are willing to engage with the various murders and mysteries. Umineko: When They Cry is worth a read if you're into Japanese mystery stories (as it's obviously written within a context of shin honkaku fiction), but on the other hand, I do have to repeat it's really, really long, so it's a reading project you'll want to 'plan' ahead. Oh, as a final note, I'll probably keep the playthrough memo page where it is, because I've been linking to it in various posts anyway. If you are going to play Umineko or if you have already read it, it might be interesting to compare notes.

Original Japanese title(s): 『うみねこのなく頃に散』 「End of the Golden Witch」/「Dawn of the Golden Witch」/「Requiem of the Golden Witch」/「Twilight of the Golden Witch」

On the Trail of Trouble

気づけば懐かしい川原に来てみたり

「忘れ咲き」（Garnet Crow）

 

By the time I noticed it, I found myself again at that nostalgic riverside

"Wasurezaki" (Garnet Crow)

I still remember the first time I went to Nakasu... which in hindsight was weird. I had just arrived in Fukuoka, and a classmate I had only met one time before invited me that evening to go out for some noodles with some Japanese man he had met somewhere, so he drove us to Nakasu. Now I think about it, and realize I never was told how that classmate got to know random Japanese man and why we ever stepped in his car. 

Chaya Jirou is a well-known travel writer with several succesful books on his resume, but he also has a reputation as an amateur detective who tends to stick his nose into cases at his travel destinations. Sometimes however, cases find him. One morning, one of his assistants arrives late at the office, bringing with her the young woman Fukami, who is dealing with a rather odd problem at the moment. The woman in her mid-twenties tells Chaya how about one year ago, she started a relation with an elderly man. Itoshima Suehiko had moved to Tokyo from the west, but never talked much about his past to Fukami, but he was always incredibly kind and thoughtful. Two weeks ago however, he had to go to the hospital due to a stroke. She had been caring for him these last few days, keeping an eye on his apartment and bringing fresh clothes to the hospital, but five days ago, he disappeared from the hospital. It doesn't appear like Itoshima just disappeared because he couldn't pay the bill, so what had prompted him to disappear, or was there some third party responsible for his disappearance? Chaya suspects that it's something from Itoshima's past that caused his disappearance, be it voluntary or forced upon him, and he learns that Itoshima moved several times over the course of just a few years, starting in Fukuoka and slowly moving towards Tokyo. It appears Itoshima originally lived in Fukuoka, so Chaya decides to travel there, which is convenient as he also needs to write a new column on famous rivers, and the Naka River and the Nakasu entertainment district on the bank between Naka and Hakata River are perfect material for his series. When he arrives in Fukuoka, Chaya discovers that Itoshima used to be a police officer and it just so happens a police officer was killed in Nakasu... Can Chaya find Itoshima and learn what caused his disappearance in Azusa Rintarou's Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken ("The Hakata - Naka River Murder Case" 2019)?

I always try to read at least one mystery book set in the city of Fukuoka (Hakata) every year, but this year, I even managed to do two! A few months ago, I reviewed Yoshino Izumi's Tenohira Astral, but I also happened to stumble upon Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken around the same time. I had never read anything by Azusa before, and never even heard of the Chaya Jirou series, though it's fairly lengthy and even had a television drama adaptation. The character himself sounds familiar though, as he follows the pattern we know from Uchida Yasuo's Asami Mitsuhiko series: both series about travel writers who solve crimes at various tourist destinations as amateur detectives. In fact, I already read an Asami Mitsuhiko novel once set in Fukuoka. I'll be honest and admit my expectations were not very high when I first started this novel: I occasionally read these type of travel mysteries by other prolific travel mystery writers like Nishimura Kyoutarou, Uchida Yasuo and Yamamura Misa, and they are often more about enjoying the trip and seeing all kinds of tourist destinations, and the core mystery plots often tend to be rather simple, and seldom manage to really make a lasting impression. Great if you just want to read about murders set all kinds of famous places, but after a while the plots kinda tend to blend in your mind.

Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken at least didn't betray my expectations. It's basically exactly what I thought it would be. Once Chaya makes his way to Fukuoka, he starts asking questions about Itoshima's past life in Fukuoka. Some people clam up, some people tell him what they know and point to other people who might know more, Chaya digs even deeper in Itoshima's life, etc. The plot is completely focused on the investigation of Chaya, which is occasionally hindered by the local police who don't want a Tokyo writer poking around in the running investigation of the murdered police officer and in the past of former police officer Itoshima. There's no real puzzle element, you're honestly just in for the journey, which barely has any surprising twists waiting. You can practially guess for each story element what its significance is the moment it is mentioned.

And the plot relies on coincidence too. Most of Chaya's investigation is focused on past events (the past of Itoshima and why he moved out to Tokyo), which can be okay segments if you like to see how points and lines slowly come together, but the real-time occurences (like the murder on the police officer in Fukuoka) do need a bit of help of Lady Luck: some events only happen to be occuring almost simultaneously because of coincidence, not because there's an actual cause-and-effect relation, and Chaya never would even have arrived at the trail of most of the plot if coincidence hadn't caused these events to occur so close to each other. I mean, just a difference of a week or two would have made Chaya's investigation less focused already, so it does make the whole novel feel rather contrived.

But then again, I only read the book because I wanted to read a mystery novel set in Fukuoka, and in that regard, it didn't disappoint. The story is mostly set around Nakasu, the iconic entertainment district of Fukuoka, but Chaya's investigation also brings him closer to the residential areas near Hakata Station. There's of course some discourse on Fukuoka and Nakasu too like you usually see in travel mysteries, so this book does what you'd expect it to do. Nakasu is also a major setting in Nishimura Ken's Hakata Detective File series by the way, and while it's not solely focused on puzzle plot stories, I'd say that series is definitely more rewarding if you're looking for Nakasu-based mystery stories.

So yeah, not a very enthusiastic review about Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken, but I don't feel too disappointed because the book basically met my expectations: it's a slow detective story that focuses on the investigation of Chaya in a person's past and on the setting of Fukuoka, but as a mystery story it doesn't do one thing that will make it stand out in a crowd. And the crowd is really, really large. So only recommended if you, like me, want to read mystery stories set in Fukuoka.The book's merits are definitely just that it does exactly what you may expect from a travel mystery novel, never going below the line of expectations, but never rising above it either.

Original Japanese title(s): 梓林太郎『博多 那珂川殺人事件』

The Problem of the Phantom Parlor

"Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, love"

"House on Haunted Hill"

Isn't it about time they started developing a live-action series based on Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo with Doumoto Tsuyoshi? We should have enough material by now for one cour...

The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case started at the very end of volume 7 of Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Kindaichi, Age 37") and finally ends in the recently released volume 9 of the series, so time to look back. And some might even remember I wrote a short preview of this story already. Otowa Black PR is hired as a subcontracter by the big PR company Denpoudou to help out in a project to develop a Scottish manor into a pension. The manor was moved brick for brick from Scotland to Japan thirty years ago, but had fallen in disuse and now Denpoudou wants to redevelop it into a tourist spot. Denpoudou wants to preserve the current vibe of the manor however, so no renovations have been made yet. A test pilot is organized to see how guests enjoy a stay at the manor, and Hajime and Marin (of Otowa Black PR) are sent to assist in the pilot, basically doing all the menial work while the capable manager Shiratori Reo from Denpoudou and her assistant supervise the project. When they moved the manor to Japan though, they apparently also moved the poltergeists to Japan too, as there are rumors of ghosts and other supernatural beings. And indeed, the party has only just arrived in the building when they are greeted by candles in the hallway suddenly lighting up on their own and falling wineglasses. And it doesn't take long for supernatural murders to occur, like a poisoned arrow in the parlor which decided to fly straight into a victim's neck or a woman being attacked by a suit of armor inside her locked bedroom. The perfect moment for our middle-aged Hajime to show he's more suited to be a detective than an event planner!

The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case is also honestly one of the least interesting stories I've ever read in this franchise. In my preview, I mentioned how uninspired and boring the clue gathering scenes where in this story: Hajime and Marin spend a whole chapter just visiting each crime scene, Hajime immediately noticing an important clue and realizing how the impossible murder was committed, then off to the next room where Hajime does exactly the same, rinse and repeat. It was basically a grocery list of the necessary clues which writer Amagi decided to present in the most literal and straightforward manner without any intention of making it feel natural even remotely. This uninspired approach is felt throughout this story basically, with the murders and most of the mysteries presented being rather dull. The murders and the tricks behind ghostly pranks basically all occur in a vacuum, with tricks that are not related to each other. Which isn't a bad thing per se, but each of these tricks can barely be called variants on the classic locked room murder tricks and none of the ideas shown will impress: you'll have seen the same basic ideas elsewhere, even within the Kindaichi Shounen franchise, only as better or more original variations. I mean, 17-old Hajime saw plenty of tricks that use the same basic ideas, only in better adapted versions. The trick behind the flying arrow features the most original approach (relatively speaking), but even then it's not enough to make this a truly memorable story.

The only part of the mystery plot that I did enjoy was the elimination process, where Hajime slowly crosses off suspects of his list. The last part is genuinely clever, with a fantastic set-up for the decisive clue that allows you to identify the one murderer. Honestly, there's only one thing you need to remember of this story, and that's this part, as it's a great idea that makes fantastic use of the unique setting of this story and also a fantastic example of how mystery fiction can basically use anything, even or especially the objects you yourself use every day without much thought, as a brilliant clue or part of a mystery plot. What's done here is easy to overlook, but in hindsight it's an idea that works perfectly in this franchise.

In fact, it's the first three chapters of the next story included in this volume that seem much more promising. In The Ayase Serial Murder Case, we are reintroduced to a familiar face from the past: Kindaichi Fumi, Hajime's cousin. And no, that's not a spoiler as she's featured prominently on the cover. For the reader, it's been about three years since we last saw her in The Kindaichi Fumi Kidnapping Murder Case in the finale of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R, but in-universe it's been twenty years for Fumi too. Twenty-nine year old Fumi now works at a detective agency, but she's also been dabbling with writing mystery fiction (based on Hajime's cases) and at the start of the tale, Fumi informs her cousin that her novel Hinokawa Legend Murder Case, written under the pen name Kaneda Hifumi, has actually won one of the Osokawa Mystery Awards. Using this connection, Hajime manages to get the job for his company to organize the award ceremony, where Hajime and his assistant Marin also meet some of the other winners like the young debuting student Fuyuki Agatha and Osokawa editors. The grand award goes to Setokura Ryou and his The ABC Murders-inspired The Ayase Serial Murder Case, but Setokura disappears before he is handed the reward and instead a creepy video is shown where a man is murdered inside an abandoned building in a city block named Ayase. Hajime quickly realizes that this murder is exactly the same as the first murder in The Ayase Serial Murder Case. Fumi, her boyfriend (a mystery author), Agatha and an editor manage to track down the building shown in the video and indeed find a dead body there. When a new murder video is mailed to Setokura's editor, everyone of course fears that the murderer is copying the murders in Setokura's book.

But we'll have to wait until the next volume to see how this story develops further, as we're only three chapters in. But I have to say I liked the set-up of this story much better than the previous story already. Admittedly, it's partially because of the appearance of familiar faces like Fumi and Makabe (again), but the story pattern is also quite different from the usual Kindaichi story and I'm really curious as to what will happen next.

Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo's The Poltergeist Manor Murder Case (volumes 7-9) is definitely not one of my favorites in the current series, even if it has some minor points I liked. Which is perhas also partially the reason why I was so pleasantly surprised by the first three chapters of The Ayase Serial Murder Case, which is definitely a must-read for the long-time fans due to the return of Fumi. The next volume is scheduled to be released in June already, and while the last few volumes were all delayed slightly from their announced release frames, I hope we'll see the next volume soon and find out what happens next!

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸（原）、さとうふみや（画）『金田一37歳の事件簿』第7, 8, 9巻

Timetable Affair

「レールの上を走れる電車は走らない電車よりもいい電車」

『クビキリサイクル』 

"A train which runs on rails is still better than a train which doesn't run at all."

"The Kubikiri Cycle"

This is a very odd (e-book) cover: it has the text you usually find on the back of a book, on the front!

Disclosure: I translated Ayukawa's short story collection The Red Locked Room. Advertisement: if you haven't bought the book yet, please do!

As a Japanese puppet state located in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, Manchukuo had a very international population, which of course brought its own set of troubles when it came to fighting crime. Inspector Onitsura is one of the many Japanese police detectives who has been posted in the city of Dalian and one day, he is put on the case of the murder on the Russian Ivan Petrov. The man lived all on his own in a secluded place, but was known to be quite wealthy. He had no family of his own, but his deceased siblings all had children, and he has taken good care of his three cousins Anton, Nicolai and Alexander. But as of late, things didn't go smooth between the three cousins and their uncle, as Ivan was a far too-proud Russian and wouldn't allow for his cousins to marry non-pure Russians. This obviously gave all three of them a good reason for killing the old man. At first, Onitsura may think it's an easy job, but to his great surprise he finds that all three cousins have perfect alibis for the time of the murder: Anton was travelling across the country by train and was seen several times by various witnesses, Nicolai went to collect research materials at a local farmer and Alexander had been on a date with his fiancée the whole day. One of them must be lying, but who? That is the question that drives the plot of Ayukawa Tetsuya's debut novel Petrov Jiken ("The Petrov Affair" 1950).

If you have read the introduction by Ashibe Taku in Ayukawa's The Red Locked Room, you might remember there's quite a tale behind the debut of Ayukawa, a person who would become one of the most important figures in the history of puzzle plot mysteries in Japan. Ayukawa had been brought up in Manchukuo, as his father worked for the Manchurian railways. He had written his first novel (Petrov Jiken) there, but his family had to flee Manchukuo when World War II intensified, and he lost the manuscript during that chaos. And even after re-writing the story and winning a competition with it after the war, luck still wasn't on Ayukawa's side, as financial problems at the publisher again proved to be an obstacle. But after all of that, Petrov Jiken finally did get published, and it's very much a story like you'd expect from Ayukawa.

For when you think of Inspector Onitsura, you think of mystery stories revolving around perfect alibis that need to be cracked, and that's also true in Onitsura's first appearance. All three of Onitsura's suspects have perfect alibis that depend on very different elements, so not only does he need to figure out which of them could've been faked, he also has to dig deeper to see whether the fact a person faked an alibi also means they killed old Petrov. The story's setting is definitely what makes Petrov Jiken an interesting read: not surprisingly, this is the very first novel I've ever read that is set in Manchukuo, and the region around Dalian makes for a captivating locale. The fact that Ayukawa grew here is definitely noticable, and the city truly comes alive within the pages of this book. Dalian has a very international population, and one of the earliest scenes that stands out involves local policemen not being being able to speak all of the many languages used around here: some may speak Japanese, but no Russian or Chinese, and the customs and 'common sense' of the various people living here is also of importance to the mystery plot: some of the minor mysteries Onitsura manages to solve depend on unspoken, yet important cultural differences which create interesting and even ingenious problems. None of this is necessary knowledge to solve the big questions, so as a reader, I just thought it was educational and amusing to see such ideas pass by. There's some cultural stereotyping here, but on the whole Ayukawa portrays an interesting international cast in an international setting that is now nothing but a memory of the past, as Manchukuo doesn't exist anymore of course (the cities themselves of course still exist).

One of the witnesses's alibis depends on his trip by train, and of course: everyone associates Ayukawa with trains nowadays. In this case, the most interesting note to mention is that Ayukawa apparently made use of actual railway schedules of that time while planning out this character's trip across Manchukuo. I like mystery stories that incorporate real railway schedules, like Matsumoto's Ten to Sen. The little maps of the railways and Dalian itself in the book also help you in making you imagine how the setting must've looked like. Oh, and in case you thought I spoiled something substantial by mentioning fake alibis and trains here: not only is it Ayukawa's MO, let's say everyone has something to hide here and there's definitely more here than just 'haha, his alibi was fake because he took another train.' It's certainly not only the character on the train who has a perfect alibi that is not really perfect.

Though that brings me to the point of the length of the plot. As a novel, Petrov Jiken is definitely not long at all. But it does feel very slow, too slow even. Perhaps it's the very methodological structure that reminds of Crofts (Ayukawa was obviously inspired by Crofts), where you have a chapter about the investigation of X's alibi followed by a chapter about the investigation of Y's alibi followed a chapter about the investigation of Z's alibi, and then again with chapters about Onitsura trying to break each alibi in subsequent chapters. But I also have the idea that some ideas seen in this novel would've worked better as a short story. Perhaps it's because I'm more used to seeing Ayukawa as a short story writer (though I have read a few of his railway novels), but especially the core idea of this novel would've perhaps make even more of an impression if it had been standalone and with a more focused plot. In Petrov Jiken, it appears Ayukawa had an interesting core idea for a perfect alibi, but then tried to be even cleverer than his own idea: the final solution ultimately falls a bit flat because Ayukawa's attempt at outsmarting the core idea doesn't really work and doesn't feel satisfying after all we've read until then. Perhaps this is because it was Ayukawa's first novel and he wanted to outsmart everyone, even himself, but I think the novel would've been more satisfying if he had more confidence in the core trick he came up with and gone 100% with that.

Petrov Jiken is everything you'd expect from an Inspector Onitsura story by Ayukawa, featuring unbreakable alibis and a very original setting, but you can also tell it's his debut novel, as some of the concepts shown here are that of a person who is perhaps too eager to be cleverer than everyone, including himself, resulting in an ending that isn't nearly as satisfying as some of the other ideas he has shown in the book earlier. Obviously, I read this book after translating The Red Locked Room, but I have also read a lot more Ayukawa stories/novels besides the ones I translated, and I think that's perhaps for the best. Petrov Jiken is not a bad mystery by any means, but it's not as keenly thought out or focused as some of Ayukawa's other output. Interesting read if you're already into Ayukawa and want to see how he started!

Original Japanese title(s): 鮎川哲也『ペトロフ事件』

Countdown

Neunundneunzig Luftballons

Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont 

"99 Luftballons" (Nena)

Oh, I finished Twilight of the Golden Witch earlier this week by the way, so I'm now done with Umineko no Naku koro ni. Due to the type of story being told in that episode, I didn't add much to the my Umineko no Naku koro ni playthrough though. Now to find some time to organize my thoughts...

Gee, it's been a while since I last read a new Detective Conan volume, I thought after volume 99 was delivered. Looking up the release date of the previous volume explained things, at it's been exactly a year since volume 98 was released. While the Detective Conan release schedule hasn't been regular for some years now, the one constant is that they'll release a new volume in April to coincide with the annual Detective Conan theatrical release. Last year's volume 98 was released to accompany the scheduled April 2020 release The Scarlet Bullet, but that film first got delayed to the summer and then all the way to April 2021. And while Detective Conan 99 was originally slated for a Winter 2020 release, they decided to push that release back to April 2021 too (for the new The Scarlet Bullet release), so that means we only got one Conan volume last year. Interestingly, the release of volume 98 was announced first by Aoyama himself... on his Animal Crossing: New Horizons island, months before the official listings came!

The Truth Behind Poisons and Drugs started in the previous volume, where Ran, Sonoko and Sera are invited by their classmate Yumi to her joint birthday party with her older sister Remi, a succesful model. The party is held at a small restaurant where an old classmate of Remi works as a cook, and among the other guests are also people in the modeling and entertainment industry, including the sleazy (but talented) hair artist Hanasaki, who's infamous for trying to hit on all the models, including Remi and her sister Yumi. After the birthday cake is brought to the room, the lights in the restaurants are dimmed for a short slide show while everybody is given cake, but Hanasaki cries out at that moment. At the same time, the projector suddenly switches off, leaving the room in total darkness. After the lights go on, they find Hanasaki lying dead on the floor, with the words "Heavenly Punishment" written on his head with permanent marker. The victim's piece of cake was apparently poisoned and afterwards, the murderer wrote something on his forehead. While the layout of the room and other circumstances limit the number of suspects to Remi, Yumi, Remi's manager and Remi's old classmate/the chef, none of them seem to have been able to do it for various reasons, like Yumi having a permanent marker, but sitting too far away from the victim to have poisoned his cake, to the chef who could easily have poisoned the victim's piece of cake, but not being in possession of a permanent marker.

It's the familiar poisoning story in Conan, which seldom really disappoint. It's not a bad story, but after 99 volumes, it's pretty easy to see how Aoyama structures these stories, by combining smaller tricks in a calculated manner to make the mystery seem more baffling than it actually is, but if you can identify the two 'core ideas' you can see that the individual problems can be solved fairly simply and that also makes the identity of the murderer obvious. That said, this story is definitely worth a read for long-time fans who follow the big storyline, because as the poisoning case in the restaurant unfolds, Sera also reflects on past events, which include some pretty big reveals and also introduces a very neat tie-in to an earlier story that I hadn't expected! Great to see how Aoyama reveals how some past stories we read like 10 years ago turned out to be a puzzle piece in current storylines.

The Tragedy at the Farm is a very unique story in comparison to the first story, as it follows a slightly different story format than the usual ones. The Detective Boys and their two elementary school teachers Kobayashi and Wakasa are riding a bus to visit a chicken farm outside of town. Teitan Elementary's pet chickens have recently died, but the owner of Hatoyama Farms has kindly offered two chickens to the school. In the bus, they also meet a few other people who also get out at the same stop, but they seem to have some business in the woods around the farm. The kids and their teachers arrive at the farm only to find it completely deserted though, and the chicken coop outside is damaged with a big hole in the side, with not one chicken inside. They split up in two groups and explore the farm, but Ayumi is taken hostage by someone claiming to be the brother of the owner of the farm, and he locks the group up in a cellar, where they find the body of Hatoyama himself. Meanwhile, the other group of Haibara, Genta and their teacher Wakasa is still roaming outside, but they too stumble upon hints that something odd is going on at the farm, but what?

An interesting story because the tale really focuses on presenting a mystery that doesn't seem to make very much sense. Why is there a body in the cellar? Why did the man lock them up in that same cellar, and didn't he kill the kids and Kobayashi? What are those men on the bus looking for? Why are the chickens gone? As things develops, things slowly come together to reveal a fairly unique story, with an original background story to the motive. The story is in some ways similar to other "Detective Boys in the woods meeting new people" stories, but the way the story is told is different from the usual pattern. Meanwhile, this story too has some ties to the overall story, as Kazama of Public Safety is also involved as he's tracing a stolen load of explosives, but that too leads him and his superior to a curious connection to another major storyline in this series.

The Locked Room Murder in the Attic starts with Kogorou in desperate trouble in his own office bathroom: there's no toilet paper, but he is too embarrassed to ask for paper because his beloved idol Okino Youko is in the office, with a new case. Youko recently went on location scouting with the network producer Heijima Wanya for a detective drama with a ghostly theme. They eventually found the perfect villa to film, which is also the holiday villa where the producer's older sister disappeared from a few years ago: the villa is owned by his brother-in-law Baba Nukiyasu. Nukiyasu happened to be staying at the holiday villa together with his younger brother Fuugo and his wife Himi, and both Heijima and Youko were offered to stay for the night. During the night, Youko woke up hearing odd noises and she found a trail of blood in the hallway, which stopped suddenly. The others woke up too, which was when they noticed that Nukiyasu was nowhere to be found. They all started looking for him, but there was no trace of Nukiyasu, until he sent a picture to Fuugo's smartphone, of a curious formation of playing cards. Heijima and Youko stayed longer to search for Nukiyasu, but on the fourth day, Fuugo recalled he and his brothers used to play cards in the attic when they were children. When they try to pull down the attic door however, they find it locked so the police was finally informed. The police broke through the attic window at the front of the villa, where they found a dead Nukiyasu, with a crossbow arrow in his back. But how could Nukiyasu have been killed with a crossbow inside an attic which was locked from the inside when they found the body?

A story that often feels a bit weird, though that is calculated. The howdunnit of the locked room is relatively simple, but it does lead to an interesting whydunnit: a lot of the actions of a certain character could make the locked room possible, but at first sight it doesn't seem to make any sense for that character to have act in that manner. The story ultimately does a reasonably good job at providing an explanation as to why the character would take those actions despite them not making any sense initially, which makes for a nice switch in dynamics in the solving of a locked room mystery. There is a part that doesn't make any sense at all though in terms of time: two middle-aged characters refer to a certain nickname they used as children based on a certain acronym, but two people who are middle-aged now, could never have used that word when they were children. I know Conan has a sliding time period, where "the present" in the earliest Conan stories use mid-1990s technology etc. while current Conan stories uses 2021 technology, even though in-universe, not even a year has passed in these 99 volumes. But still, I'm mostly used to "modern" technnology and concepts showing up in "present" Conan stories, not "modern" technology and concepts being introduced in segments that are clearly set several decades ago.

The final chapter in this volume is the first in Kudou Yuusaku's Detection Show, which deals with a series of locked room murders across the country, a television special starring Kudou Yuusaku where he's going to reveal the truth behind these murders and.... a very ill Kudou Yuusaku who can't possibly appear on television, and it seems like it's going to be a fun story, but we'll have to wait for the next volume for confirmation on that!

Detective Conan 99 did not have any 'big' stories, though Aoyama did make sure to insert segments in the smaller stories that do tie in to the current storylines in the manga and especially the first story has some of the major story puzzle pieces finally falling into the right place. The announcement pages at the end of volume 99 have volume 100 scheduled for a fall 2021 release, which I really hope they'll make this time. And I guess that the special occassion is a great excuse to do a special Conan-themed post around that time... anyone any ideas? 

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第99巻