A Very Good Year for Murder

「すいません、キムチ丼大盛り、ご飯抜きで」

『クビシメロマンチスト 人間失格・零崎人識』 

"One extra large kimchi rice bowl please, hold the rice."

"Strangulation: Kubishime Romanticist"

Two game reviews in one week!?

Sometimes, it's just the mention of a setting that is enough to lure me in. Case in point is the topic of today's review, the visual novel Suhoshin (PC, 2022), released by developers No More 500 earlier this week. When I first saw the artwork a few weeks ago and noticed the description said it was a mystery set in the medievel Joseon period of Korea, I knew I had to keep an eye on it, because it seemed just such an original setting. I will admit right away I know very little of pre-modern Korean history in general: due to the East-Asian Studies courses taken in university, I have dabbled a little into pre-modern Korean history and literature, but those were very, very brief trips away from my Japanese major, but still: I have read quite a few mystery stories set in medieval times of various locations from Europe to Japan, which were awesome, so why not one Korean peninsula? Interestingly enough, this is not the first time I have discussed mystery set in Joseon Korea: in the past I've discussed the 2011 film 2011's Joseon Myungtamjung : Gakshituku Ggotui Bimil ("Joseon Great Detective: Secret of the Wolfsbane Flower"), which has the international title of Detective K: Secret of the Virtuous Widow and the novel Arang-un Wae ("Arang, Why?"), which featured literary research into a famous folktale set in the Joseon period, but still, it's far from a common setting, so I decided to try out Suhoshin when it was released earlier this week on PC.

Suhoshin starts with the return of protagonist Yuri to his home village of Yangdong. He was sent to capital Hanyang (Seoul) three years ago and after passing the national exams to become a civil servant, was trained as a guard and learned to conduct criminal investigations. Now his training has been completed, and to his surprise his first official posting is back in his home village Yangdong, a peaceful place quite far removed from other cities. Yuri longs to see childhood friends Soo Ah and Yun Bok, but is also happy that once in Yangdong, he'll be able to thank his patron Mr Kim, a local yangban (gentry) who sponsored the orphan to be able to be educated in the capital. Upon return, Yangdong seems as serene as the day Yuri left and after relaxing with his old friends, he prepares for his new tasks as a guard, but the following day, the village head informs Yuri that a murder has taken place in Yangdong, a crime which hasn't happened in the village for decades! The poor victim was brutally mutilated in her home, where she was discovered. Because of Yuri studied criminal investigation in Hanyang, he's given the task to find out who the killer is. Yuri starts out with confidence, as he has seen quite some crime in the capital, but more and more people in the village are killed almost each night and not even the walled-off segment in town for the yangban is safe. But who is this cruel killer who is able to get into each and every corner of the village without raising any suspicion of its victims? Time is running out for Yuri with each passing day, and perhaps he has to learn that some times, it were his own actions that led to more tragedy.

Some people might recognize the art style from the screenshots right away, though I myself only realized it when I read the description and went: "Oooooh, that's right!". Yep, Suhoshin features character designs by Kageyoshi, who also did the designs for the neat novel game Raging Loop (stylized in Japan as Rei-Jin-G-Lu-P). That was a game that cleverly used the Werewolf/Mafia party for its story structure, but it also told a very interesting story with deeply fleshed out folklore which was fictoinal, but still borrowed a lot from actual indigeneous Japanese nature religions and mythology and the anthropological side to those subjects. Suhoshin is quite different from Raging Loop in many ways, but it has a similarly "educational" side to it, as the game does a lot to explain its historical setting. Key terms in Korean are highlighted in red and recorded in an index, and these terms do a lot to "sell" the historical setting of Joseon to the player. Some words you probably have heard of, like kimchi, but there are plenty of other words that will not ring a bell, and it's a great way to present a setting a lot of people will simply not be very familiar with. 

Gameplay of Suhoshin is what you'd expect of a mystery novel game with a flowchart function. For non-gamers, few games will be as easy to play as these kinds of games, as you are just reading the text and once in a while you'll be presented with story-changing choices that allow the narrative to branch out in various routes and endings, basically the same as a Choose Your Own Adventure book. In a way, the set-up in Suhoshin is also similar to Raging Loop in how it sometimes forces you down particular routes first, before allowing you go back in the flowchart and offering you a new, unlocked choice that gives access to a different route. This means that ultimately, you do read the various routes and endings in a fairly set manner, which is a shame, because it kinda takes away the illusion of actor freedom in this game. Take 428 Shibuya Scramble for example, a similar novel game that does force you to take certain routes first to allow you to proceed, but because that game presents the player with a lot more choices throughout a game of which you are never quite sure which one will be an important, story-changing one or not, the illusion of actor freedom is much greater. Suhoshin is of course a game of a much smaller scale (I finished it within 5 hours), but it would have been nice if there would be a few more bad ending/optional ending branches a player could reach, just so the player doesn't feel like they are just doing all these endings/routes in a set order.

As a mystery story, Suhoshin has a lot of the right building bricks ready, and ultimately, I did enjoy playing this game, but I feel like it could have been much more if they had fleshed out the core plot. The first half of the game feels a bit slow, with Yuri investigating each crime scene but often not being able to come up with very interesting theories simply because each of the murders is fairly "open" and the conclusion is basically "well, anyone in the village could've done it given the opportunity". It's only in the second half of the game a very, very important clue is introduced, but the way the clue is presented is fairly cheap (the equivalent of random person showing up the clue), and from that point on, basically the whole mystery is solved. Once that clue has been presented, even the game doesn't pretend there's much left, because the narrative basically moves on immediately to theorizing on that clue and identifying the killer on its own, without any player input. But what I think is such a shame is that I think there was so much potential to make this a more engaging whodunnit, with the exact same clues/foreshadowing the game already has. Some scenes are really cleverly laid out in hindsight, but a lot of these scenes stood out like a sore thumb because of the limited playtime of Suhoshin, and with only a handful of viable suspects in the game in the first place, it felt like the events of this game were not laid out evenly: very little happens in the first half of the game besides people dying, and then when a genuine clue is discovered, suddenly everything moves at mach speed. If the mid-section had been fleshed out more, with more suspects/a more comprehensive view of Yangdong and more theorizing by Yuri too, Suhoshin could have been a much more engaging whodunnit even if it had ultimately used the same clues. I mentioned before that I would have loved to see more minor branching storylines in this game: this would have gone well with a more fleshed-out mid-section allowing the player to choose more angles in the investigation, introducing more suspects and also a better way to introduce the scenes with foreshadowing more naturally in the narrative. Some might not like the direction this game ultimately took in terms of the mystery by the way, but I think it fits pretty well with the setting, and I myself didn't mind the concept at all, though as mentioned, the decisive clue could've been introduced more steadily I think.

Though I have to repeat, I did have a lot of fun playing Suhoshin, it's just that I think the plot held a lot more potential than the end product, especially as the clues etc. are already fine as they are in the game now, but missing just a little bit more time and space between the planting of the clues and the finale of the game. But overall, I think Suhoshin was an entertaining experience. People who are looking for a mystery game set in Joseon Korea probably don't have much choice anyway, but Suhoshin is definitely worth checking out if you're looking for something in that direction.

When the Cicada Calls

あなたは今どこで何をしていますか？

この空の続く場所にいますか？

「You」（雪野五月）

Where are you right now? What are you doing now?

Are you somewhere beneath the far-reaching sky?

"You" (Yukino Satsuki)

About the title of this post: isn't it insane that there's a Scooby-Doo show with a Higurashi: When They Cry-inspired episode?

The last two months, the posts on this blog have included short updates on my progress through 07th Expansion's long mystery suspense visual novel Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ("When the Cicades Cry"), released in English as Higurashi: When They Cry. If you've been into anime and manga these last twenty years, it's very likely you have at least heard of this monster hit. Higurashi: When They Cry originally started as a 8-volume doujin (self-published) PC game, with the first chapter released in 2002 and the concluding chapter in 2006. Since then it has grown into a behemoth of a multimedia franchise, with several manga and anime adaptations (the most recent one was broadcast last year!), drama series, live-action films, pachinko machines, everything. It's been a part of Japanese pop culture especially after the first anime adaptations in 2006-2007. As it was a very big mystery-themed franchise, you'd think I would have gotten started on this a lot earlier, but I always found myself an excuse not to: while the anime was easily available since back in the days, I tend to prefer the original work if possible, but I don't really like to play novel games on my PC either, especially not if it meant having to read 8 chapters each about 8-12 hours long. The games have out in English on PC for a long time now by the way, so I think a lot of the readers here do already know Higurashi, either in game form or for example via the anime. Anyway, I kinda missed out on it in the second half of the 2000s, and then for a long time, I eyed the DS version, but that was kinda expensive because it had been divided into four different releases, but with added content. But with the current Switch/PS4 release titled Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou ("When The Cicades Cry - Offering"), I finally found a release that had everything I wanted of the franchise (both the original 8 chapters, as well as extra material and console-exclusive chapters), and for a modest price tag too! So it took me a while to get to it, but I finally understand all those Higurashi memes!

Anyway, last year, I played through the memorable mystery novel game Umineko: When They Cry, which is from same creators (07th Expansion). Because I knew beforehand it would take me a while to get through Umineko, I decided to write down any thoughts I had on the mystery on a special blind playthrough memo page on the blog. I liked how it kept me engaged with keeping an eye on clues and what I thought the solution would be. So after having fun with both the game of Umineko and the playthrough, I decided I'd finally play Higurashi: When They Cry this year and after asking commentators here, it appeared keeping notes to guess the solution to the mystery as I was going through the individual chapters would be feasible here too, so I decided to do the same this year. Those who have already played, seen, or read Higurashi: When They Cry might find it interesting to see how my ideas changed (or not) as I played through the chapters. I don't usually do long projects with multiple posts on this blog (because experience told me I don't really like doing them), but these playthroughs were pretty fun!

So what is this gigantic mystery franchise about? Higurashi: When They Cry introduces us to the village of Hinamizawa in June 1983. Hinamizawa is a small rural community with just about 2000 villagers and lies deep in the green mountains. Teenager Keiichi has recently moved to Hinamizawa with his parents and also attends the local school, which is so small all the children of all ages are put together into one class. Keiichi becomes close friends with his fellow members of the after-school game club: Rena (who also recently moved back to Hinamizawa), Mion (the heir of the most prominent family in the village), Rika (the young daughter of the clan of priests which tend to the local shrine) and her bestie Satoko. The change from life in the city to the slow, calm life in the countryside is of course big, but his friends make Keiichi feel welcome in quaint Hinamizawa. Far removed from the hustle and bustle of the big cities, Hinamizawa is like perhaps not exactly a paradise on Earth due to some inconveniences like not having facilities like supermarkets or public transport, but its certainly a peaceful place. Times flies by for the friends and eventually it becomes June, which is when a local annual festival is held: The Watanagashi Festival is a tradition, celebrating and thanking Oyashiro, a local deity believed to watch over Hinamizawa. In recent years, the festival has grown larger and even people from neighboring towns come to attend the festivities. It's at this point we learn that for the last four years, Hinamizawa has always seen one death, and one disappearance on the night of the Watanagashi Festival. While few people talk about this out loud and efforts have been made to silence the fact that these deaths and disappearances have been occuring at an annual rate now, villagers believe this to be the Curse of Oyashiro and some even whisper that 1983 will be the fifth time the Curse of Oyashiro will take its victims. But is there really a supernatural curse at play in Hinamizawa, or is there something else going on beneath the facade of this seemingly peaceful village, and how are Keiichi and his friends involved in this?

 

Higurashi: When They Cry is a novel game, so the type of game that is focused on presenting a story visually, featuring very little interaction nor does it ever test you with quizzes on your deductions or anything like that. You just read the story as it unfolds, and the "interactive game" element lies outside the actual game: it challenges you to solve the mystery of what happened. The original PC release of Higurashi: When They Cry consisted of 8 chapters. The first four chapters, titled Onikakushi, Watanagashi, Tatarigoroshi and Himatsubushi form one set together commonly known as the Question arc. As you can guess from the name, these first four chapters basically set-up the mystery for the reader, providing them with the questions that need to be answered, as well as the clues necessary in order to solve the mystery of the series of mysterious deaths and disappearances in Hinamizawa. There is a distinct, unsettling atmosphere that builds in these Question chapters that is really great: what starts out as the story of a young boy settling into a completely new environment and finding new friends, slowly turns into something much grimmer, as slowly he starts to stumble upon glimpses of a Hinamizawa he never knew existed, and he is not sure what to think of a lot what is considered "normal" and "tradition" in Hinamizawa, and as events unfold, he learns that perhaps, he never wanted to know. The final four chapters, Meakashi, Tsumihoroboshi, Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi, in turn form the Answer arc together, with each of these Answer chapters providing answers to mysteries seen in a corresponding chapter (i.e. Meakashi provides answers to the events in Watanagashi), but also offering answers in regards to larger, overarching mysteries that played throughout the Question arc. Similarly to how events played out in the Question chapters of Umineko: When They Cry however, the chapters in Higurashi's Question arc are in essence telling variations of the same basic story about the horrible events that occur after the Watanagashi Festival in 1983, but each of them is executed in completely different ways. The reader is given different "parallel versions" of the events of June 1983 that all build on the same basic set-up, but each time, events play out differently after the Watanagashi Festival, leading to different people dying and other bloody events to occur. Each of the Question chapters basically culminate in a completely different horrible tragedy, even though they all have the same starting point, using the same characters. 

That however is exactly how the game challenges you to solve the mysteries in Higurashi: When They Cry. The reader has to guess why all these horrible events are happening by examining all these "parallel versions" and figure out why they can end up so differently even though the basic parameters are the same. Why did that character do that in Onikakushi, while she didn't in Watanagashi? Why did those events happen both in Tatarigoroshi and Onikakushi, but not in Watanagashi? It's like trying to complete a bigger picture using pieces coming from different sets of jigsaw puzzles, and it's something you don't often see used in mystery fiction. Mystery fiction that deal with parallel universes, time travel stories or games with branching storylines like Kamaitachi no Yoru do utilize similar concepts, with stories unfolding in different manners depending on a story-changing choice made, which therefore forces you think about the underlying meaning of that choice. But like Umineko: When They Cry, Higurashi: When Thy Cry uses eight novel-length puzzle sets and asks you to see which pieces from the different sets, can also be put together to form one extra, hidden picture. Each chapter also tends to focus on different core narative characters and provide extra background information that are relevant to all the chapters. For example, Watanagashi is the second chapter and tells its own version of the June 1983 tragedy, but it also focuses more on the history and folklore of Oyashiro in the village of Hinamizawa, an aspect of the story that was not touched upon nearly deeply in the opening chapter Onikakushi. And the third chapter Tatarigoroshi focuses more Satoko's home situation, which is only briefly touched upon in earlier chapters. Each of these elements spread across the "parallel versions" thus form puzzle pieces that not only address the mystery of the respective episode, but also the broader picture. Because the chapters do build on the same basic setting, earlier parts of each individual chapter do feel kinda samey (even if they focus on different parts of the story), but once the Watanagashi Festival occurs, the uneasiness really starts to settle and each chapter slowly builds to a dramatic, catastrophic finale.

Umineko: When They Cry revolved around a series of impossible murders occuring on an isolated island, with the Golden Witch Beatrice claiming these murders were made possible through magic, while protagonist Battler tries to defy her by finding rational answers to the impossible murders. Whereas the series features witches, monsters and other supernatural elements and focused on the theme of magic vs rationality, Umineko: When They Cry drew very heavily from classic mystery fiction in a meta fashion, quoting Van Dine and Knox freely and very much focusing on discussions about how the impossible murders could have been committed by a human murderer using sly tricks we know from mystery fiction, or whether it really was all just magic. Higurashi: When They Cry, while still a series that poses a mystery to the reader and challenges them to solve it, is less firmly built on the traditions of classic mystery fiction and offers more open-ended mysteries for the reader to solve. People who liked the locked room murders and more from Umineko: When They Cry therefore might be a bit disappointed how "mundane" the murders in Higurashi: When They Cry are: don't expect locked room murders or people disappearing from observed spaces or anything like that, more often than not these are murders that could've been committed by anyone in the village or feature other open-ended aspects. The focus therefore lies less on the direct dynamics of how specific each murder is committed, but much more on the macro-level mysteries: what are the underlying circumstances/factors that make it so that in each version we see of June 1983, it always ends in a tragedy? What are the factors that caused the tragedy to unfold in this particular way in this chapter, but in a different manner in the other chapter? I think this makes Higurashi: When They Cry a lot easier to solve than the more technical Umineko: When They Cry and probably also more accessible. Umineko: When They Cry had a lot of meta-level discussions about mystery tropes (like I mentioned in the Umineko reviews, a lot of mystery fans actually get into mystery fiction via Umineko), whereas Higurashi: When They Cry is much easier to enjoy as a suspenseful thriller with a mystery to solve, and I think the clewing in Higurashi is telegraphed more clearly. 

I did enjoy tackling the puzzles in Higurashi: When They Cry. While I can imagine some readers might think the mystery in Higurashi: When They Cry isn't really fair, it's certainly possible to make educated guesses about the most important parts of the secrets Hinamizawa and its residents hold. In my review of Umineko: When They Cry, I noted how the mysteries at the micro-level there were not as impressive as the mystery at the macro-level. That holds even more so in regards to Higurashi: When They Cry, where a lot of of the individual events seem pretty straightforward and even the murders are often just "what you see is what you get", but the focus here lies on how you are going to put each event in the context of the larger mystery: why are these events happening, and how does that relate to the other chapters? In a way, it's like seeing several playthroughs of a board game being played out in front of you. You don't know the game and the rules yet, but by observing several playthroughs, which may have different outcomes in terms of game flow and winners and losers, you still slowly start to see what the game rules are, because you saw connections between the playthroughs. Imagine a person not knowing chess, and observing the pieces across several games. Perhaps the first time they think the Queen can only move 2 spaces diagonally because that is the only move the Queen did in that game, but in a subsequent game she might move across the whole board, and another time she moves across straight lines. And eventually, the person will deduce the exact move range of the Queen. This approach results in a very different kind of mystery to engage with, compared to most detective novels you'll be reading, and I personally like these kinds of unexpected approaches to the genre. But to bring up my last Umineko: When They Cry comparison: Higurashi: When They Cry is also much clearer in its Answer arc in regards to the happenings in the Question arc. Umineko: When They Cry basically gave you a "key" in its Answer arcs, and then asked you to use that key and clear up any questions you have about the Question chapters yourself. Higurashi: When They Cry on the other hand explains the events in the Quesion chapters rather clearly in comparison (basically: "and that's what happened"), again a reason why on the whole, Higurashi is a bit easier to "engage" with than Umineko: When They Cry.

 

Writer Ryukishi07 of 07h Expansion is not an economical writer by any means, and besides the mystery, Higurashi: When They Cry spends a lot of time on characterization and fleshing out the background of Hinamizawa. Considering the focus of this blog, I will mostly concentrate on the mystery-side of Higurashi here, though I know a lot of fans of the franchise are probably more interested in the various colorful characters the series has. It's not something I'll be discussing here, but I do want to make a special note that there is a lot to enjoy about Higurashi: When They Cry beyond the mystery and the way it tackles some sensitive themes, like the issue of child trauma and how to cope with these problems, is quite memorable and it's clear that Ryukishi07's own history as a civil servant had a tremendous effect on Higurashi. As for themes that may interest the reader of mystery fiction more: the idea of an isolated village community with powerful old clans and old folklore comes straight out of a Yokomizo Seishi-style novel of course, and I think that people who liked The Village of Eight Graves especially will find a lot to enjoy in Higurashi: When They Cry. Similarly, the concept of the local deity Oyashiro, the surrounding folklore like the Watanagashi Festival and inferences into the real meaning of Oyashiro's curse, the festival and the history of the village Hinamizawa as a whole is the kind of theme you'll see in Mitsuda Shinzou's Toujou Genya novels, that deal with local history and folklore, murders occuring during traditional ceremonies and "hidden truths"  behind local folklore. If you're into these kind of themes, Higurashi: When They Cry is definitely worth looking into to. 

 

As mentioned earlier, I played the Switch/PS4 version titled Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou, which does play a bit differently than the PC version. Most importantly, this release, like previous console/handheld releases on PS2/DS/PS3/Vita, has a few extra console-exclusive chapters that collectively tell a side-story focusing on other characters. This release also presents the various chapters of Higurashi in "sets of chapters", which are all connected as a flowchart. You can only move on to the next flowchart if you have finished the previous one, but that meant I couldn't actually only play the original eight chapters of Higurashi: When They Cry, because each "set" of chapters includes both the original PC chapters as well as the console-exclusive chapters. While most of those console-exclusive chapters are not directly connected to the happenings in Hinamizawa (mostly set in the nearby Kakiuchi City), they do provide with additional clues that pertain to the events in Hinamizawa, so they do make it easier to solve the main mystery in Hinamizawa. It's a shame they force you into this playing order, for I originally planned to play the original 8 chapters first before moving to the extra stories, but that's not possible (unless you use the additional quiz game to unlock all the chapters in advance, but that requires you to... answer questions about spoilers, so option is that's only for people who already know the story). I like that Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou has all the content and I like the console art assets/voices too, but it does force you into experiencing Higurashi's story in a very specific manner, which might not be the best one to be honest. Oh, and while I have finished the original Higurashi finale Matsuribayashi, I still haven't finished the console-exlusive finales (the two Miotsukushi chapters) and there's a lot of fan disc content I haven't touched yet either, but I'll get to that some other time...

As with my review of Umineko: When They Cry, my focus in this post was on Higurashi: When They Cry as a mystery story, and while it is not as firmly settled within "meta mystery fiction lore" like Umineko: When They Cry and is less "by a mystery fan, for a mystery fan" in that regard, I still enjoyed my time in Hinamizawa a lot. The way the game challenges you to make connections between the various chapters and try to find some connecting tissue that explains both the mystery in the respective chapter, as well its relation to other chapters is simply something you simply don't see often in mystery fiction, regardless of medium, and while I do think Umineko; When They Cry, as a kind of spiritual sequel, did improve upon the idea, Higurashi: When They Cry was still enjoyable to me. It is by no means a "perfect mystery story", but it is an excellent example of how diverse the mystery genre can be, not just in subject matter but also in the manner in which a mystery is presented and how it challenges the reader/player to interact with it. For those who play on PC in English, I believe the first chapter (Onikakushi) is available for free at the various storefronts like GOG and Steam, so how about a little trip down to Hinamizawa?

Original Japanese title(s):『ひぐらしのなく頃に』「鬼隠し編」/「綿流し編」/「祟殺し編」/「暇潰し編」
『ひぐらしのなく頃に解』「目明し編」/「罪滅し編」/「皆殺し編」/「祭囃し編 」

The Magician's Secret

 “For certain, neither of them sees a happy Present, as the gate opens and closes, and one goes in, and the other goes away.”

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Finished the answer chapter Tsumihoroboshi as well as the Advanced Story arcs Yoigoshi and Tokihogoshi of Higurashi: When They Cry, and have added my thoughts on their consequences for the mystery on the memo page for my playthrough of Higurashi: When They Cry. Still a lot to do, but I guess I'm slowly approaching the finale of this long, long tale of human drama, suspense and mystery!

Yep, it's finally time for this book today!

Nikaidou Ranko series  
Jigoku no Kijutsushi ("The Magician from Hell") (1992)  
Kyuuketsu no Ie ("House of Bloodsuckers") (1992)  
Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent") (1993)  
Akuryou no Yakata ("Palace of Evil Spirits") (1994)  
Yuri Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies") (1995)  
Bara Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Roses") (1997) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany") (1996) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - France Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France") (1997)  
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective") (1998) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion") (1998)  
Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth") (2001) 
Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King") (2004) 
Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Case of the Double-Faced Beasts") (2007)  
Haou no Shi ("Death of the Ruler") (2012)  
Ran Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Orchids") (2014)
Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken ("The Giant Phantom Mammoth Case", 2017)

The Houshou Clan has been one of the most influential families in the city of Hakodate for decades, so when not one, but two of them appeared at the night club Black Lizard one evening, everyone's eyes were fixed on them. Shibahara Etsuo, accompanied by his beautiful fiancée Suzuhara Tomoka, might "just" be a member of the branch family, but still a well-known face around town, but it was his beautiful cousin, Houshou Kimiko and her fiancé Takioka Takashi who had everyone at the tables around them mumble to each other. The two cousins had not expected to meet each other here, but the four decide to share a table and watch the show they had come for: a magic show by the Sorcery King Mephisto, an illusionist who's had a fantastic run abroad and recently in Tokyo too. After some introductionary magic tricks, Mephisto invites both Kimiko and Tomoka on the stage. Kimiko is put inside a box, while Tomoka is placed on a bed. When Mephisto brings out a chainsaw, everyone gasps for a moment as he slowly brings the loud machine down on the bed where Tomoka is lying. But as the audience hear Tomoka's horrific cry as blood spatters all around on the stage and on the face of Mephisto, they slowly start to realize... that this is not a magic trick! After cutting Tomoka in two in front of a live audience, Mephisto then proceeds to tie his assistant to the guillotine on stage, removes the safety and decapitates her on the spot. Everyone is in a panic and tries to flee the club, while Mephisto disappears backstage. It's only by the time the police arrive it becomes clear how grave the situation is: not only has Memphisto killed Tomoka and an assistant on stage, another assistant was killed in his dressing room and Kimiko has gone missing. But while Mephisto's bloody footprints show how he went backstage and killed his other assistant there, there is no trace of him in the building, even though all doors and windows are locked from the inside. Takioka and Etsuo soon receive a letter from Mephisto, who asks for ransom money for Kimiko, but it also soon becomes clear that Mephisto has a grudge against the whole Houshou Clan and that he is after the three family jewels: the Blazing Eye, the White Fang and the Black Heart, which are connected to a secret of the Houshou Clan. The police try everything to protect the members of the Houshou Clan from Mephisto, but the mad illusionist manages to pull off the impossible everytime: spiriting people out of secured hospital rooms, disappearing from a house surrounded by snow without leaving footprints and steal a jewel from a guarded room. The police inspector in charge soon realizes only one person will be able to help them: the brilliant detective Nikaidou Ranko, but she is busy working on another case in the south of Japan now, so they'll have to hold the fort until she can clear this case up in Nikaidou Reito's Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King" 2004).

I'm finally done! Nikaidou Reito's Nikaidou Ranko series was one of the earliest series I started to review on this blog and especially in the early years of this blog, our young protagonist Ranko and her brother/Watson Reito had frequent appearances here. While I didn't read the books as regularly the last few years, it remained a series I have fond memories of: I started reading them early on in my Japanese studies, so they had always been a kind of indicator for me for my studies. And they were also the first "big brick" books I read: most of the novels in this series have really high page count, so especially early on in language studies, those bricks can seem rather intimidating. And I haven't even mentioned Jinroujou no Kyoufu yet, which with four hefty volumes is probably still the longest locked room murder mystery. While I'll be the first to admit that I did not enjoy all the novels in this series as much as I would have wanted do, finishing this series still feels a bit sad. Well, I say "finish" now, but in reality the series hasn't officially ended yet, it's just that I have read all the books currently published, and new volumes only come very, very rarily nowadays. Oh, and I think I mentioned in an older Ranko review already, but I have basically managed to read this whole series out of order! The only ones I read in publication order are Akuryou no Yakata and the short story collection Yuri Meikyuu, as well as the four volumes of Jinroujou no Kyoufu, though the latter doesn't really count because the four books form one story.

I once described early Ranko novels as Carr on crack: the books are oozing with dark atmosphere, set in the seventies and featuring many (MANY) locked room murders and other impossibilities committed in creepy mansions, often against a backdrop of family curses, Western esotericism and medievalism. After the epic Jinroujou no Kyoufu however, Nikaidou shifted the story style significantly by introducing the Labyrinth saga with the 2001 novel Akuma no Labyrinth. This book introduces us to an enigmatic and very dangerous murderer called Labyrinth, who served as the archenemy of Ranko. Their battle would last for four books, ending with Haou no Shi in 2012. Unlike the earlier novels however, the Labyrinth novels were styled more closely to the henkaku horror mystery stories by Edogawa Rampo: these tales were lighter on the mystery, and much heavier on adventure, horror and grotesque story elements, reminiscent of the 20s-50s pulp science-fiction novels with evil scientists and things like monsters, bloodthirsty murders who commit their crimes in the bloodiest/horrific manners possible and elements like secret codes and hidden treasures. To be honest, I didn't really like these novels: Akuma no Labyrinth wasn't bad per se, but it was basically just two short novellas that felt a bit lacking, while Soumenjuu Jiken was just straight-up mad scientist sci-fi horror, and the final story Haou no Shi also didn't stray too far from that model. I understand this was the kind of story Nikaidou wanted to write now with Ranko, but it wasn't really what I wanted to read, so it took me quite a while to finally finish the Labyrinth saga with Majutsuou Jiken, which is actually the second novel in the Labyrinth saga.

Reading things out of order also meant I already knew about the murders in the night club, because they are mentioned in the third novel Soumenjuu Jiken. Majutsuou Jiken and Soumenjuu Jiken take place around the same time, and this is relevant to this book's plot. After solving a murder committed by the Sorcery King in Tokyo (but failing to trace his whereabouts), Ranko travels to Kyushu hot on the trail of Labyrinth. These are the events of Soumenjuu Jiken, but during that story, Ranko also happens to read a newspaper article about the gruesome murders that happened at Black Lizard in Hakodate, which she suspects is related to Labyrinth too, but she can't leave right now as she is busy with her current case. This is also why Ranko and Reito don't appear in Majutsuou Jiken until the end, as they were occupied. That also means that the Sorcery King Mephisto is free to do whatever he wants until the end of the story, and he sure does!

Because Majutsuou Jiken is a suspenseful, incredibly pulpy thriller like we know from Edogawa Rampo, with a creepy, insane murderer with a goofy villain name who goes around hurting or killing people in the most horrific ways because, well, he can and he's evil. There's a certain cartoonish element to this which I can appreciate, and I have to admit: I think Majutsuou Jiken is the best of the four Labyrinth novels, as it does what it's supposed to do in the best manner, without feeling too gimmicky like Soumenjuu Jiken. Go in expecting a pulpy adventure similar to Rampo's The Black Lizard or The Dwarf, and you're okay. The story is basically a string of events where the Sorcery King constantly manages to baffle the police and endanger the lives of Kimiko, Etsuo and the others in the Houshou Clan. The mysteries basically never stop piling up. The book opens with a mysterious murder by the Sorcery King, where he stabs someone in a room while observed by a witness, but then the room disappears. Ranko quickly solves this riddle, and I think many readers will have an inkling of what happened too, but then the narrative switches over to Hakodate, and there the Sorcery King is absolutely unchallenged. A few things that occur while Ranko's occupied: a woman is trapped inside an old stone structure that doesn't even have an entrance, a patient is spirited away from a hospital room while a police guard had been standing at the door all the time, a trapped and shot Sorcery King manages to escape from a house even though there was snow around the building and no footprints can be found, threatening letters from the Sorcery King appear inside the Houshou manor even though there's police security in and outside the house and the Sorcery King makes a whole room disappear from a building. The police and the other involved people like Etsuo are constantly baffled by the impossible disappearances/appearances by the Sorcery King, and it is only in the last quarter of the book that we see Ranko.

But the solutions to most of the mysteries we see in Majutsuou Jiken also betray the pulpy nature of the book. A lot of the trickery employed by the Sorcery King is rather simple and more often than not, these "set pieces" in the story are just there to look impressive, even if there's not really a reason for the culprit to do so. In fact, during her explanation of the events, Ranko even states a few times the Sorcery King only did certain things just to scare the wits out of the people involved. There's also a lot of horrifying moments that mostly just there to creep you out, which also sometimes results in weird moments, like the Sorcery King managing to make Kimiko disappear from her hospital room, thus showing how he can make the impossible possible... but at the same time, we also learn he casually killed a nurse and a guard elsewhere in the hospital. So you have this super criminal who manages to commit impossible feats, but who also just slashes and kills rather casually, There are more moments where we see a lot of violence, which again puts this book firmly in the pulp corner, though Nikaidou does make good use of the more horrifying moments for the mystery plot at some moments. Some events in the story however ae really just there to make the story more suspenseful or to drag things out a bit like a serial adventure story, but I don't think it benefitted the story. The book is really, really long (the pocket paperback version is split in two volumes), but having a pulpy, Rampo-esque story at this size is pretty tiring, as it's one cliffhanger after another, and all the protagonists can do is gasp at every new trick the Sorcery King does. I think the book would've been more fun at half the length, because some parts really feel dragged out. Even the summation by Ranko at the end is strangely lengthy, with Ranko constantly using roundabout comparisons first before she uses twice as many words as necessary to explain each and every mystery. Most of the impossible disappearances feature elements that won't be unfamiliar to a fan of the genre, and will even feel a bit too simple. I do have to say the mystery of the vanished boy, who was spirited away from a house even though the police had arrived outside and there were no footprints in the snow around the house, was surprisingly good, and definitely a highlight of the novel.  The more adventure-esque part of the story near the end is something your mileage may vary on, I didn't really like it but I kinda knew it was coming due to the Rampo inspiration and references in other novels.

Oh, by the way, this story is also book-ended by a discussion between Ranko and Reito about Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and both Ranko and Reito propose theories about the unfinished mystery (with Ranko absolutely convinced her theory is right), so people interested in the Drood mystery might also be interested.

I should note that my expectations of Majutsuou Jiken were definitely not high. The Labyrinth novels never really worked for me, and the two middle books, Majutsuou Jiken and Soumenjuu Jiken seemed to have had mediocre reception, an opinion I certainly shared concerning Soumenjuu Jiken. But you know, perhaps it's me having more "experience" with the Labyrinth novels now, or me becoming more accepting of what Nikaidou wanted to do with these novels, but I think Majutsuou Jiken is actually the best Labyrinth book of the four. It sets out to present a Ranko story in the format of a serialized, pulp thriller like we know of Edogawa Rampo, and it does that in a perfectly fine manner. The book is certainly a bit too long, but there are some good ideas here and there in terms of mystery in this book, and Majutsuou Jiken I think is also the best at really showing the concept of Ranko VS a superhumanly intelligent and vicious insane murderer (with a Scooby Doo villain name), especially compared to the other three books in this saga. So while I think the best Ranko novels are those that predate the four Labyrinth novels, Majutsuou Jiken is the one book you'll want to read if you do want to try out the Labyrinth storyline (and if you don't mind reading things out of order). Anyway, with that, I'm finally done with the Ranko series, at least, for now. I hope Nikaidou Reito will go back to the style of the older books in future Ranko novels, if more are to follow, but no matter what will come, I will probably read it!

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人『魔術王事件』

Cross Purposes

「本当のことを言わねぇのが人間だ」

『羅生門』

 

"It's human to lie."

"Rashomon"

Finished the console original arc Kageboushi (the Answer chapter to Someutsushi) of Higurashi: When They Cry, so added my thoughts on how it involves the main mystery to the memo page for my playthrough of Higurashi: When They Cry. The chapters are only getting longer and longer now and I've been reading Higurashi for over a month now, so I'll probably slow down a bit now, because it does take up a lot of time... I do hope I'll be done with the main story by the time Haru Yukite Retrotica (The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story) releases in May...

There are prolific writers, and then there was Nishimura Kyoutarou. He is a household name in Japan when it comes to mystery fiction, which isn't strange onsidering the massive media output that is associated with his name. His Wikipedia page records nearly 650 books (!!!) And that includes short story collections, so that's even more stories, and anyone who's been in a Japanese bookstore, especially the used bookshops, will probably recall those long, long rows of Nishimura books you'll always find there. But that is not all: there have been countless of adaptations of his work for television, ranging from series to television films and there was a time where you'd find his name every week in the television schedule, as there'd always be a rerun of an old Nishimura Kyoutarou television film somewhere in the early afternoon. Even gamers will know the name, as there have been several games based on his work, especially in the Famicom (NES) era. It's simply impossible to not have heard of Nishimura Kyoutarou if you've been into Japanese mystery fiction somewhere in the last 40, 50 years, and even people with no interest in mystery fiction will know the name: so much has his name become part of "normal" Japanese popular culture. 

The unbelievable quantity of his output of course also influenced the quality of his work:  a lot of those nearly 650 books feel very samey and uninspired. There's a reason why everyone associated Nishimura with Stereotypical Nishimura Kyoutarou Story: a story starring Inspector Totsugawa and his team of detectives like Kame investigating a murder which will require Totsugawa's men to travel by train to a faraway destination and/or the victim/culprit used the train and the detectives have to figure out how the use trains is connected to the murder (alibi tricks etc.). If you do the association game with "Nishimura Kyoutarou", nine out of ten times you'll get "Trains" as the response. But while the bulk of Nishimura Kyoutarou's output is often assumed to be uninspired, by-the-numbers stories that just retell the same ideas in a slightly different way, his earlier output can be quite interesting. Koroshi no Soukyokusen was genuinely fun as an And Then There Were None-inspired novel and the crossover series with Ellery Queen, Maigret, Poirot and Akechi Kogorou is always entertaining.

Nishimura Kyoutarou sadly enough passed away earlier this month at age 91, so I decided to pick up one of his earlier, and better received puzzlers: Shichinin no Shounin ("The Seven Witnesses", 1977) is an Inspector Totsugawa novel, though it feels nothing like a Totsugawa story in terms of set-up. The book opens with Totsugawa waking up with an enormous headache, and he finds himself... in a recreation of a street, built in the middle of a small island. The intersection of two streets has been meticulously recreated here, complete with all the stores (with store inventory), parked cars and apartments. Totsugawa finds seven people who had also been knocked out the previous night and brought here: some of the people actually live or work along this intersection and can even show Totsugawa their rooms or shops, while others don't live here, but they do remember this place: one year ago, a murder took place around midnight at this intersection, and all seven people (besides Totsugawa) were witnesses in that case. Their testimonies eventually put young hoodlum Sasaki Nobuo behind bars: some of the witnesses had seen him have a fight with a fellow customer in a bar, others saw him stab the victim outside on the street with his own knife and yet others saw him flee the scene with the knife and the victim's wallet. It is at that point that an elderly man reveals himself to the eight persons on the island: Sasaki Yuuzou is the father of Nobuo. He had left Nobuo and his mother when Nobuo was young and had been working in Brazil, where he had been succesful, but upon return to Japan last year, he learned his son had died in prison, but that Nobuo had always maintained that he did not commit the murder, despite the testimonies of the seven witnesses. That is why Sasaki used his fortune to meticulously recreate the entire intersection on this small island and abducted the seven witnesses: he truly believes his son had been innocent, so there must be a mistake in the testimonies and he wants the witnesses to go over their own testimonies once again, with Totsugawa acting as a referee. The rifle held by Sasaki leaves the seven witnesses little choice, even though each of them swears their testimonies at the trial were accurate, but Sasaki's done his homework and little by little, he manages to point out little contradictions in each testimony. But while the party is going over the old testimonies, one of them is killed, and because they're all alone on this small island, it is clear that the murderer has to be one of them. 

Someone not content with the original verdict abducting witnesses to do a non-official reexamination/retrial? Yep, that reminded me of Settled Out of Court. Which reminds me I should really read more by Henry Cecil...

Shichinin no Shounin feels nothing like what I would expect from a Totsugawa novel: no trains, instead of an urban setting we have a closed circle situation on a small island and ultimately, Totsugawa can't even do much but look on while Sasaki's forcing everyone go over their testimonies again and pointing out contradictions in their stories. In fact, it wouldn't really take that much of an effort to rewrite this story to leave out Totsugawa's presence. It's definitely not the book I'd tell you to read if you wanted to read a Totsugawa novel, but I'd definitely recommend you to read Shichinin no Shounin if you were interested in Nishimura's more interesting mystery novels, as this one defnitely is one.

With Sasaki and his rifle cross-examining each witness' testimony and slowly poking small holes in each of them, I was of course reminded of Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney games while I was reading this book, and I think that is also why I feel the execution of this book doesn't quite match the potential of the premise. The book is set-up in "testimonies", with Sasaki going over each of the seven testionies in turn. So he starts in the bar, where the owner of the bar and another customer saw how Nobuo had been arguing with the later victim and how after the victim left the bar, Nobuo went out too. As Sasaki listens to them, he reveals he had used this year to investigate the witnesses and the exact circumstances of that fateful night, so he then slowly reveals information that contradicts the witnesses' testimonies at specific points, usually not very important on its own, but having consequences for later testimonies. So then he moves on to the next witness (for example, those who saw him leave the bar and go after the victim), rinse and repeat. And the way Sasaki does this is fairly entertaining, pouncing like Columbo on very small points to pull out a bigger revelation. But the problem is: Sasaki is at an advantage here. The reader doesn't learn the new information Sasaki has uncovered, until he reveals it to everyone and confronts the witness with his findings/his suspicions, and Totsugawa too can only listen to whatever theories Sasaki has. Ultimately, Sasaki is proven correct on all his small points, slowly changing the testimonies of each witness, and while seeing this happen is fun, it's a bit frustrating the reader is never allowed to take on the puzzle themselves. You never get a chance to figure out the contradictions yourself because the relevant information isn't given to you beforehand, so all you do is watch Sasaki do all the heavy lifting. The contradictions ultimately are pretty solvable for readers if the relevant information had been presented beforehand in some manner, so it's a shame we never get a chance to solve the thing ourselves, especially as it's quite satisfying to see how all the smaller contradictions add up to something bigger. The type of contradictions and the "difficulty level" is about what you'd expect from one of the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney games, which is exactly why I felt this was a missed opportunity: even with the exact same story and contradictions, the book could have been written in a more interactive way, rather the rather passive mode it now has. This extends to Totsugawa's role in this book, who most of the time is just standing there and listening to Sasaki's theories just like us.

Sasaki is focused on slowly poking holes in the testimonies and trying to find a way to prove his deceased son's innocence, but the witnesses also get a few breaks in between, and it is during one of this breaks, when everybody is somewhere else on the island, one of the witnesses is killed. Obviously, everyone suspects Sasaki did it to get revenge on the witnesses for putting his son behind bars and ultimately "killing" him, but Sasaki denies the crime, and Totsugawa too at least feels there's not nearly enough evidence to implciate Sasaki alone. But they are alone on this island, meaning the murderer must be one of the witnesses then, but why would any of them want to kill another of the witnesses, as the seven people basically don't know each other and only saw each other once, at the trial. It's here Totsugawa finally gets something to do, as he tries to protect Sasaki from the other witnesses, and the other way around. There are some interesting deductions regarding the "current" murderer near the end of the book, like about the motive and the murder weapon used, but there's also a large part of the story that is basically just Totsugawa making wild guesses and the only reason the current murderer is caught in the end is because they decided to react to Totsugawa's baseless accussations rather than just ignoring him, so the ending feels a bit weak/forced, There are some moments where the current murder ties in to the murder one year ago in interesting ways, but the focus is definitely on the past case.

Overall though, I think Shichinin no Shounin is an amusing courtroom drama-style mystery novel in the same vein as 12 Angry Men, Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney or something like Columbo, even if the book is not actually set in the courtroom. Seeing how a lot of smaller contradictions add up to one bigger reveal is always satisfying, and this book is no exception. It's just that I think this book could have been even more fun if the plot had been presented in a more interactive way, allowing the reader some time to contemplate the evidence and figure out the contradictions themselves too, instead of just listening to Sasaki playing the great detective. But still, this was a good early Nishimura novel and one I'd recommend if you'd want to read a detective novel by Nishimura that doesn't feel like just a standard formula.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎『七人の証人』

The Adventure of the House of Darkness

Deep into that darkness peering

"The Raven"

Started with the Answer chapters of Higurashi: When They Cry! First one up is Meakashi, and it appears I was on the right track! Added my thoughts/inferences about that episode (and previous episodes) to the memo page for my playthrough of Higurashi: When They Cry. I'll have to do a few console-exclusive chapters first before moving on with the original Answer chapters though...

Man, the covers of these rereleases are really gorgeous!

Disclosure: I translated Ayatsuji Yukito's The Decagon House Murders.

It is a four hour drive from Tokyo to reach Usakino, a location deep within the luscious green mountains that's perfect for recreation... or at least, that's what project developers and investors had hoped for, but things didn't quite go as planned and in the decade or so that has passed since everybody realized this wasn't going to be a hit, nature has not troubled by tourists very much. One of the people who got burned by the project falling through was by the uncle of Yuuki Takuya, who bought a second home here with the expectation that the location would be developed further, but now he just has a house in the middle of nowhere. Takuya, a university student, asks his uncle if he could use the small house during summer, as he has to read and translate a German book for his thesis, and the house would be ideal to force himself to focus on his project. On the day Takuya is driving to the house, his car accidentally lightly hits a boy who came running out of the woods onto the road. The young boy, around ten years old, is soon followed by another boy who is not only about the same age, but looks very similar. Takuya learns that the two handsome boys are Enjouji Mado and Miya, two brothers who are in fact not twins. They live in the Enjouji Manor, basically Takuya's neighbor (even if it's a modest walk from one house to the another through the forest) and are living there with their mother, their aunt and a tutor during summer. Takuya drives the boys back to their home, where he meets their father, a very strict man who seems to have forgotten that boys should enjoy their time as boys, before becoming adults, Takuya also meets with Haruka, the boys' tutor and a nurse-in-training, who takes care of the mother. The following day, Takuya is visited by Haruka, who confides with him that she's actually here with an ulterior reason: her friend had been the previous tutor of the boys here, but she died in some freak accident in the forest, but strangely enough her hair had been cut short. Haruka thinks something's wrong about the Enjouji Manor, which Takuya also feels: the boys, who seem to have grown to like the newcomer, are very secretive, but seem to have been meeting with someone in the forest before they got in the accident. Takuya agrees to support Haruka during his stay here and go poking around himself too, but then new deaths occur in the forest, and it appears that Mado and Miya are found at the center of things in Ayatsuji Yukito's Kurayami no Sasayaki (1989), which also has the English title Whispering in the Dark on the cover.

Kurayami no Sasayaki is the second book in the Whispering series, which Ayatsuji started after writing the first three books in his House series that started with 1987's The Decagon House Murders. The concept behind the series was that Ayatsuji wanted to fan out, so these books are actually more horror than detective, Nowadays, Ayatsuji is known for both his mystery and horror novels, and he has also written a few hybrids, of which Another is undoubtedly the best known worldwide. But his first published steps into the horror genre are found here. Last year, I read the first book in this series, Hiiro no Sasayaki ("The Scarlet Whispering" 1988), a slasher mystery that was greatly influenced by the famous Dario Argento giallo film Suspiria. But while the focus in that novel definitely lay on the gruesome murders and the suspense arising from those murders, there was also an okay whodunnit mystery plot there and while as a detective novel, Hiiro no Sasayaki wasn't going to blow your mind like an axe to your head, I found it an amusing read and I wrote in my review that I enjoyed it as a palate cleanser, and that I'd probably read the other two books in the series too.

I mentioned in the other review that I am not a fan of the horror genre per se: I do read horror manga once in a while, mostly thr work of Umezu Kazuo and Itou Junji (not the most original choices, but they're really good!!), but I don't watch slasher or horror films at all for example. I am of course familiar with horror (film) tropes of course through other media, and many mystery novels do often incorporate horror elements. So even I managed to recognize the "creepy twins" trope in Kurayami no Sasayaki, even if Mado and Miya aren't really twins. But they are described as being rather handsome for their age, and that coupled with their otherwordliness due to their isolated upbringing within the Enjouji clan and the fact they keep mostly to themselves, it's clear that the two brothers aren't quite normal, giving the reader (and Takuya and Haruka) a distinct feeling of uneasiness. And the fact creepy, often gruesome murders around these boys probably doesn't help either. For the faint of heart: the murders in Kurayami no Sasayaki are on the whole not as bloody as in Hiiro no Sasayaki, but the plot device of the murders in this book is definitely not to function as a focal point in an investigation, but to function as suspenseful plot devices, so the descriptions are written in a way to get some visceral reactions.

Oh, and about gorey murders, the books in the Whispering series aren't really connected save for the theme (so no characters carrying over, or at least, not in the first two books), but apparently, this book is connected to another horror novel by Ayatsuji, Satsujinki. I haven't read that one, and I also don't know exactly how "tight" the connection is, but apparently events described in the prologue of Kurayami no Sasayaki are worked out in more detail in Satsujinki. So if you have read that book already, it might be worth it to take a look at this book too.

But the most important thing to write about on this blog is of course: can Kurayami no Sasayaki also be read as a detective novel? Just like Hiiro no Sasayaki, the book does take on the format of a mystery story most of the time despite the focus on the horror elements: we learn early on in the book that Haruka is investigating the death of her friend, and the reader also learns that other mysterious deaths have occured in this region, all with a common, yet unexplicable link: for some reason all the bodies had some part of them removed, like their hair. Takuya too knows there's something the boys are hiding from the adults, but breaking their defenses is rather hard, as Mado and Miya do seem very intent on keeping their secret a secret. Ultimately though, you won't find a detective character summing up all the clues and logically proving who the murderer was by combining fact A, B and C and overturning that one perfect alibi. Like Hiiro no Sasayaki however, there is a twist somewhere in the book that makes you realize you had been looking at the facts in the wrong way and that the truth had been staring you in the face all that time, but I'd argue that the twist, seen solely as a "mystery plot twist" was better in Hiiro no Sasayaki, compared to its sequel. Kurayami no Sasayaki, when read as a mystery novel, feels not as fair as the first novel, nor is the clewing as good. There's no way you're going to figure out why the bodily parts have been removed for example, you just have to accept the explanation because it's basically impossible to deduce the truth based on the clues you get. The "big" twist is better, but still feels not as fair in set-up as the one in Hiiro no Sasayaki.

Overall though, I think that if you liked Hiiro no Sasayaki, you'll like Kurayami no Sasayaki too. Like the first entry, a lot of the horror touches of this second novel will feel familiar, purposely so, invoking familiar tropes from horror films. The plot is designed as a mix of these horror films, with some of the plotting and twists we know from Ayatsuji's work and in that sense, I'd say Kurayami no Sasayaki is definitely recognizable as one of his creations. I do think the first one was better if read with a mystery cap on, but I'm still interested enough to also want to pick up the last volume in the series in due time.

Original Japanese title(s): 綾辻行人『暗闇の囁き』

Secret Seven Mystery

Seven little Soldier Boys chopping up sticks;  

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six

"And Then There Were None"

A series about a number of buildings built by the same architect that were designed to be used in murders? Well that sounds familiar...

Xeno is a young man who was once found lying passed out on the street, but when he woke up in the hospital, the doctors learned two things. First was that Xeno had lost all memories of his past and nobody knows where he came from or why he's now suffering from amnesia. The second thing they learned was that Xeno was a brilliant detective: the moment he woke up, he managed to solve a case involving one of the doctors present in the room just by looking at him. With the help of some sponsors, Xeno has now managed to set himself up as a detective, and a succesful one at that too, because there are few people in Imperial Japan who can claim to have never heard of the detective with amnesia. During the investigation in a baseball stadium into an impossible murder on a pitcher during a game, Xeno learns that the criminal mastermind who had been acting as a crime consultant he had been hearing rumors about is in fact the famous architect Kai Shichirou, Kai reveals to Xeno that he has secretly prepared seven of his creations in such a way they can be used to commit inexplicable, impossible murders like locked room murders and he challenges Xeno to solve all seven of his locked murder rooms. With the help of his newly recruited assistant D-Zaka Eira, a former assassin, Xeno travels across Japan to solve Kai's devious death traps in the manga Tantei Xeno to Nanatsu no Satsujin Misshitsu or Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms, written by Nanatsuki Kyouichi and illustrated by Sugiyama Teppei,

Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms is a manga series which was originally serialized in Shonen Sunday (alongside Detective Conan) between 2018 and 2019, and ultimately collected in 8 volumes. I first learned of its existence through those publisher's pamphlets you always get with new manga releases (in my case, the most recent Conan volume at the time) and while the premise sounded interesting, I never really got around to it, and when I heard it had ended at 8 volumes, I also assumed its run wasn't anything exceptional, because... well, the title says The Seven Locked Murder Rooms, so either you'd have about one murder room per volume/10~11 chapters and very little room to do anything else (like the Kindaichi Shounen series), or each murder room story would have to be relatively short, which worried me in a different way because then it seemed the locked murder rooms wouldn't be as important as the title would suggest! At 8 volumes, I doubted Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms would be a mind-blowing series, and going in with those expectations... Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms was on the whole entertaining, even if not without its flaws.

Considering the series ran next to Conan in Shonen Sunday, it's more than tempting to compare the two series, especially as storytelling-wise, the two do feel similar. Unlike Kindaichi Shounen's long stories, Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms in general did seem structured closer to Conan, with short stories about four chapters long, though Detective Xeno has more direct connections between each story, with events in one story often being directly used as the set-up for the next story.  When it comes to mystery plot however, there's an obvious difference in style of plotting, and it's one of the weaker points of Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms: a lot of the individual stories revolve around one single idea, which makes them feel very empty. The first of the Seven Locked Murder Rooms Xeno and Eira encounter for example is the Tombstone Manor, where a man is seen to be stabbed with the murder weapon, but no attacker is seen, suggesting the presence of a ghost, a ghost who later in the story is even able to throw policemen out of the windows! But the story is really short, and ultimately, it's all made by possible by the secret death trap-like idea Kai Shichirou has installed inside the Tombstone Manor and once you figure out what that is, you have solved everything, as there are basically no other mysteries in the plot. Clewing is also fairly sparse in these stories, so you don't even feel really rewarded for figuring these stories out: you either happen to think of the death trap, or not, as the clues are so little and uninspired, they don't really work as a guide for those who try to piece the things together based on the presented clues. And that's how the stories mostly are in this series: a mystery (often impossible) that is just one trick that's being played, and once you solve that, you know everything. In Conan, even the shortest stories often consist of multiple minor tricks strung together, not relying on one single idea but stringing a few together to make what could've been a minor story into something much more rewarding, but Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms very, very seldom does that, making a lot of the stories feel like one-trick ponies.

But I did say I did ultimately enjoy the series. The atmosphere, while often comedic, is at times also darker than Conan and I think that most of the Seven Locked Murder Rooms, even if they are all built around one gimmick, are pretty fun, in the "okay, that's just silly and in the real world that'd be impractical, but guys, this is fiction and man, that' s fun!!" sense of the word. The murder gimmicks Kai has built in his seven buildings are like the ideas you'd expect from early Shimada, so like the ideas seen in Murder in the Crooked House. Things moving around, gigantic mechanisms, the kind of ideas that are absolutely grand, over-the-top, but oh-so-memorable and the kind of things that remind you detective fiction doesn't need to be realistic to be entertaining. The ideas behind the first two Locked Murder Rooms we see, the Tombstone Manor and a music university campus, are really silly but deliciously entertaining as mystery fiction for example. I do have to say some of the Seven Locked Murder Rooms don't actually... create locked room murders. Only about half of them have tricks that create locked room/impossible murders, while others are just elaborate death traps that make it very obvious what happened to the victims: the traps would not leave the scene in a way that'd seem "impossible" to the police, only as "implausible" that something like that would've happened... So that's a bit disappointing. Luckily. the series doesn't revolve solely around the main Seven Locked Murder Rooms: there are a few shorter stories in between, and some of time are interesting mystery stories, even if they too are often written around one single idea. One involves a mercenary of a PMC who wants Xeno to explain how how his unit got annihilated in Kabul: this style of a person talking about a past incident that Xeno explains by reinterpreting the events reminds of the type of storytelling found in Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou and C.M.B. and while very simple, the story is quite enterrtaining. Another story involves a female fashion designer and her stalker, and this short, but memorable inverted story feels like it could've been in Sherdock or a similar series. Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms will seldom truly astonish the reader, but the presentation is fine and the ideas, even if they could've been developed more, can be fun.

I do think the series is at its best from the start up to the mid-way point. At first the series seems like it will focus on the Seven Locked Murder Rooms, but it introduces a lot more diversity with the shorter stories (like the two I mentioned above), with different kind of mysteries for Xeno to solve, and more characters appear too. This builds up to a major case about half-way the series, which involves Xeno and Eira travelling to Kai Shichirou's paternal island, where his wealthy family (his father Kuga Ichizou and his half-brothers of the Kuga family) still reside. While technically, the series divides all the events that occur here as seperate stories, they all happen one after another and are interlinked, so basically form one large story in the style of Kindaichi Shounen. For example the story opens with a person being stabbed by a knife in the waiting room of the ferry that's going to bring Xeno and Eira to the island, and it's here where they first meet with Kai Shichirou's niece Kuga Manami. On the island, Xeno and Eira get involved in a case involving the disappearance of Kuga Ichizou from his personal retreat, a series of (attempted) murders on Kuga family members and a secret tied to the island's past, and on the whole, the story is pretty amusing, even if the individual mysteries do feel very "isolated" from another (i.e. it's really a series of seperate events strung together, even if they do form one narrative together).

However, while the series had been dropping hints about links between Kai Shichirou's Seven Locked Murder Rooms and Xeno's own forgotten past from the start, it appears that after the mid-way point the writer got a note from his editors to start wrapping things up, and suddenly we get info dumps and reveals out of nowhere, and the story starts sprinting towards the finale from that point on. This is when the Seven Locked Murder Rooms become less interesting, though the murder gimmick in the fortress in the bay of the imperial capital was one of the better ideas in the series. But the story has to wrap up too many things in too little time, so the concept of Eira, a former assassin who's acting as Xeno's assistant (and voice of reason, and source of comedy) feels a bit underdeveloped, like she should have been given one or two more stories focusing on her to really wrap her story up, and some characters suddenly make a surprise apperance near the end, as if they were established, beloved characters when in fact they had appeared only once before: they probably would've been developed as more interesting recurring characters had the series been longer, but now their later appearances feel like cameos rather than triumphant returns. The mysteries do feel a lot less interesting in the final half of the series in general, which is a shame, as I do think the first half showed a rising line in terms of mystery, with the series slowly introducing more diversity (inverted stories, psychological mysteries, "situational" mysteries) and a grander world with each subsequent volume and then it suddenly becomes very narrow again.

For me, Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms is perhaps a perfect example of "Yes, but...". If you ask me whether I enjoyed reading it, it's a definite yes, because I read it in just four or five days, so that definitely means I felt the series brought me more entertainment than frustration and there are some fun, memorable murder tricks shown off in this series, but... yeah, it's undeniable a lot of the cool ideas feel like they could've been developed even further into something much more, and because of the relatively short run of eight volumes, the story has to start preparing for the finale soon and a lot of characters and storylines come out rather rushed because of that. There are plenty of series that feel complete and completely developed within a very limited number of volumes, but you can definitely feel that Detective Xeno And The Seven Locked Murder Rooms has a set-up for a series that was supposed to be longer, and that's why a lot of ideas don't go anywhere ultimately. I'd try to read until the long story halfway the series, and if you like it up to that point, you might as well read the remaining two volumes for the hasty closure it brings. I'd be interested in seeing more of the world (but not focusing solely on a story-related gimmick like the Seven Locked Murder Rooms), but I doubt this series will ever see a sequel.

Original Japanese title(s): 七月鏡一（原） 杉山鉄兵（画）『探偵ゼノと7つの殺人密室』