『なぜベストを尽くさないのか』

「時が経つことに怯えて泣いてた変わりゆく人の心に」
 Garnet Crow, 『夢みたあとで』

"Scared of the passing of time and of how people's hearts change, I cried"
Garnet Crow, "After seeing my dream"

Ignoring whether the product is good or not, you'll have to admit that Japanese companies are quite good at cross-marketing their products. When the Detective Conan movie was released, some convenience stores had special Detective Conan promotions, while other chains sold exclusive Conan DVD's. The upcoming Odoru Daisousasen movie is accompanied by a videogame and probably more stuff.

And strangely enough, to promote movies based on television drama, they usually broadcast a special episode, which is nearly as long as the movie they're supposed to be promoting. The previous Trick special was as long as the Trick movie it was supposed to promote, and about the same for the Galileo special and movie. They might as well release two movies. Or two specials.

Anyway, I had seen the awesome Trick movie earlier this week, but the Trick week was still not over as the second Trick TV special was broadcast yesterday. Which was OK. It was definitely a Trick story, even more so than the movie, with a more contained story and less big action scenes. But that was the 'problem' maybe, having seen the grander scale story of the movie, I just couldn't help being somewhat underwhelmed by the special. If I'd seen the movie and the special in reverse order, I would've liked it more. I should've watched it in the special-movie order, I gathered from the dialogue, but that's strange as the movie debuted a week before the special was even broadcast.

And then there was the Trick game for the DS. Having played the horrible, horrible DS game of Galileo, I was kinda weary to purchase this game, until I discovered WorkJam had developed the game, the developer responsible for the current Detective Jinguuji Saburou games. Which are awesome.

So with a relieved heart, I purchased my copy of Trick DS and I am glad I did. As it was truly a fun game. Short, very short, but it was like playing an episode of Trick myself. The dialogue and story, while not written by the original writer, feel like they were lifted out of the series. The music is in fact the same as the series and the game even has the same opening animation. The story progress mimics the Trick tradition perfectly, with lots of problems which are solved one after another in relatively short time, but which together make up one big problem.

And the sleuth system... is actually quite interesting. In my years of gaming, I have seen my share of translating detectives to games. Games like Detective Jinguuji Saburou hardly let you think, but focus on telling a story. A game like Detective Conan - The Mirapolis Investigation tries letting the player deduce the culprit, but fails horribly by being so easy. The Keyword system in Detective Conan & Kindachi Shounen no Jikenbo was OK, but the story progression was not always as good (as well as the Conan-part being longer, but more tedious). The system Trick uses is somewhat similar to the system of the latter game, but a lot more fun.

It works by offering a problem that needs to be solved ("How did the killer get away?"), which can be solved by a combination of key elements (Items, circumstances, location, persons). The cool part is that every time you combine elements, a hypothesis is made. While most hypotheses are just unbelievable, others are at least plausible and thus make you think. You then bring your hypothesis to the confrontation scenes, where you'll have to defend your hypothesis; this being different from the system in Detectve Conan & Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, as you have no idea whether your ideas are correct until you've actually tested them in the confrontations. In terms of difficulty, the system is somewhere near the Gyakuten Saiban system, the latter being more difficult as it does not offer hypotheses, but it's still an interesting system.

Translating detectives to games is not always easy and while I think the Gyakuten Saiban series does it excellently, I'm very content with this system of WorkJam and I really hope to see it more often in their games. I'm also very surprised to see such a fun system in a game based on a drama, but as I'm a big fanboy, I'm just very pleasantly surprised.

Now make me my Furuhata Ninzaburou game, WorkJam. Do it.　

Original Japanese title(s):　『TRICK 新作スペシャル2』、 『TRICK DS版 ～隠し神の棲む館～』、『名探偵コナンと金田一少年の事件簿　めぐり合う二人の名探偵』、『逆転裁判』

「お前のやったことは、ぜんぶ全てスリッとお見通しだ！」

「通信教育で空手を学んでいたんだ」
『トリック』

"I learned karate through correspondence courses."
"Trick"

Having deleted several drafts of this post in a row, I give up on trying to write a comprehensible summary of the Trick franchise. What started out like a comedic detective series is nowadays more a bizarre comedy with detective-elements, but it's still, together with Furuhata Ninzaburou, my favorite Japanese drama. As a detective drama, it's somewhat like Jonathan Creek as it features a magician solving crimes, but that's as far as the comparison goes. Trick is all about comedy, with just a bit left for mystery. You shouldn't even think too much about the mysteries.

What's so difficult to explain about Trick is in fact the bizarre comedy. Besides the 'normal' comedy derived from text and story, the screen is so much an element of Trick's distinctive flavor, with crazy angles, cuts to other scenes and running jokes in the background, it's something you have to see to understand. And this year is the 10th anniversary of the Trick franchise and a new movie was released some days ago. Which I had been looking forward to ever since I saw the trailer.

So using my Ueda-like powers of persuasion, I dragged my own self-proclaimed beautiful and talented magician with me to the theater to see Trick: Psychic Battle Royale. Like the title subtly implies, the story revolves around several (self-proclaimed) psychics who fight for the title of the shaman kamihaeri. Among them are psychics who can not die, psychics who can read the future and psychics who can cast curses. And self-proclaimed magician Yamada, who once again tries to get her hands on money by pretending to be a psychic and as a magician herself, is capable of seeing through the tricks of the other fakes. And the scientist Ueda is of course there to... do stuff. Nothing new here.

Which is good. Trick has never been about doing something completely new, it's about strange people interacting with each other, with a mystery-subplot beneath. And this movie did it the best of all the Trick movies. The mystery subplot was not very impressive and some other stuff have been left unexplained, but that doesn't really matter. Even if you solved the mystery the moment it's shown on screen, you'll still get goosebumps when Yamada points her finger at the culprit to proclaim she has seen through all. Trick is just that awesome.

It is in fact quite amazing the bizarre comedy saves this from being just a casual detective with no redeeming qualities whatsover (yes, I am looking at you, Yonshimai Tanteidan) and actually transforms it in a fantastic series.

Oh, and the tie-in at the end to first episode of the first season? What. Was. That?　

Original Japanese title(s): 『劇場版TRICK 霊能力者バトルロイヤル』

「でも、アイスクリームは・・・甘いんだぜ!！」

Divide and Conquer

While we tried to make a date to go in a group to see the new Detective Conan movie, the group kept growing and growing (last count was near the 1o) and everybody had different classes at different times, so in the end we decided to use the good old Scooby-Doo (TM) tactic of "Let's split up, gang!".

We had already held a general repetition last week when too many people crammed into my room to watch last year's Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser, so I was really looking forward to this year's Detective Conan: Lost Ship in the Sky.

Which was... difficult to classify. This time keywords are to be never eaten okonomiyaki, epic falling, skateboards, footballs and bandages and bio-terrorists, but the movie featured no real detecting (not even a murder!) and it was mostly like any hijack movie. It's still leagues ahead of Detective Conan: Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure, but it lacks immensely in the detecting department. Well, I might as well say there is no detecting at all. Which is something you'd expect from a series called Detective Conan.

But Arsene Lupin-expy Kaitou KID also appears in the movie, and that just saves EVERYTHING . I was really all set to hate this movie, but somehow, the interactions of KID with the other character (especially Ran!) saved the movie. And this time there were no weird unsolved threads of plot.

Funny thing was the fact that there was almost nobody in the theater. Differences with last year are two days and the fact we went to the 15:00 viewing, but it was totally different from last year's packed Ikebukero experience. (C.f. with Liar Game - The Final Stage, which I also visited on a weekday, in the afternoon, which was packed). People here don't like Conan?

And damn you, Detective Conan Movie Committee! Now I'll have to come back next year again to catch the 15th movie...

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン 天空の難破船（ロスとシップ）』

Danse Macabre

"Y'see, this is where you and everyone else give up. You're making the big mistake of sticking to what's likely rather than what's logical."
"Danse Macabre"

In the timespan of one year, there is usually ridiculously little to look forward to for me regarding detectives. Classic mysteries are not written as often as they used to be and in the end I tend to only pick up older books. Even here in Japan, where there orthodox mysteries are still written relatively often, I tend to pick up books over 5 years old (mostly because of prices though~).

The only detective-related thing I every year can look forward to is the Detective Conan annual movie. For which I've already gathered a band of wannabe detectives to go together with. And also for the new Trick movie. For which I have also gathered a band of wannabe psychics to go together with. But this year, I had mostly been looking forward to Easter. Not because of a new Doctor Who series (well, maybe also because of that), but mostly because a new Jonathan Creek special would be shown. Last year's special, The Grinning Man was, ignoring some pacing problems, quite entertaining and in the meantime, I had been watching the original series.

Jonathan Creek tells the story of the titular magic act designer, who is always getting involved in (seemingly) impossible crimes. Locked room murders, disappearing people, appearing dead bodies, the classics of yore. And even though it sounds like a throwback to good old times at this time and age, the show feels surprising refreshing, with its witty writing and often solid plots. Often, but not always though. Writer Renwick seems to have trouble maintaining a standard for the series, especially the later seasons suffer from it and the series stopped in 2004. But with the disguised revival pilot 2009 special The Grinning Man he and Creek seemed back on track.

Seemed. Because if The Grinning Man reminded me of the earlier Creek seasons, The Judas Tree was definitely reminding me of the later seasons. I really wanted to like it. And I admit, the setting was quite good, similar to The Grinning Man with a haunting past and a truly spooky feeling. And then comes the ass pull, which, as the name implies, was totally uncalled for and not fair. Add in an admittely amusing, yet "What did he just say?! in a negative way" solution to a crime in the past and it left a bad, bad aftertaste. That and I really, really don't like Creek's assistent.

Should Creek retire? Maybe. Still, I would want a better special to be the final Creek episode...

Today's song: Camille Saint-Saëns [Arranged by Julian Stewart Lindsay] - Danse Macabre (Theme of Jonathan Creek)

『Ｋｉｎｄ Ｏｆ Ｂｌｕｅ』

"Tragedy of errors.... When you look back over the case, it was a tragedy of errors for nearly everyone involved. The whole world is a tragedy of errors..."
"The Tragedy of Errors"

Ellery Queen's "Tragedy of..." series, of which to make things confusing, "The Tragedy of Errors", is not part of, rank amongst the best of Queen's work. The works are quite popular in Japan too, with several novels and anthologies named after the series. And of course, Queenian writer Norizuki Rintarou has his own "Tragedy of" series too. While I own the books already, they're back in the Netherlands, so I opted this week to listen to the radio play of Ni no Higeki ("The Tragedy of Two"). Because Queenian radio plays are always fun.

Ni no Higeki was, in retrospect, a decent story, but nothing more than that. It's very similar to a short story by Norizuki, in which the reading of a diary and the following deductions forms the main story. The style closely followed early Queen, that is, something was observed, deductions were made and then new development come along that prove or disprove the previous deductions, allowing new deductions to be made. Which is all fine and well, but because this was a 10-part radio play of 15 minutes, every 10 minutes something new came up, which was kinda annoying. Despite the many developments, the scope of the story was quite small, so the story quickly came to a Love Dodecahedron plot and nobody was who they should've been.

This is the simple version.

But was it worth a listening? Sure it was. I do think the story would've worked better in short story form and while the solution was kinda lame (which I suspect is resolved slightly less suddenly in the original novel), it did work in the frame of the story, which ends on very tragedic note. Which is something you of course should expect from a story with "The Tragedy of Two" as its title. It is no match of Queen's Tragedies in terms of detecting, but the title is a lot more fitting.　

Original Japanese title(s): 法月 綸太郎　『二の悲劇』

「まさに人類の宝って奴さ。俺のポケットには大きすぎらぁ」

"The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic." 
"The Blue Cross"

It's funny how one of my favorite detectives is in fact a criminal. Arsene Lupin from Maurice LeBlanc's novels is the quintessential gentleman thief. He will politely inform you he will rob you. Heck, Lupin will even offer a chance to the victim to send all the items Lupin wants to him beforehand, just so he doesn't need to go to through all the hassle. Strangely enough, there is a strong sense of justice in him too, so he'll not let evil (greater than him) go wild. Especially when there's women involved.

While I've read all of the English translations available of the Lupin stories, there are still some not available in English and so I had been holding them off. I could, in theory, go read them in the original French, but it's not something I would look forward to. Thus, I was quite surprised when I found several Lupin novels at the local bookstore as new releases of this month. Now I know that Lupin was (is?) quite popular in Japan, but to have a re-release in this day and age? And a smile forced its way on my face, a smile I always get when reading Lupin, when I found out that I hadn't read several of these novels yet. The reading backlog is gigantic anyway, so what difference are two or three books going to make?

Midori Me no Shoujo ("The Girl with the Green Eyes"), which is the translation of La Demoiselle aux yeux vert, is a Lupin novel, so experienced Lupin readers should immediately know what kind of novel this is. While the Lupin short story collections are more classical detective stories, the Lupin novels are more adventure stories with detection in it and are of more epic scale. In this novel, Lupin is victim of a train robbery, as well as witness to a murder commited by said robbers. The murder victim turned out to be a female thief, not unlike Lupin himself, while it at first seems that the murderer is a green-eyed girl. Because attractive girls can not possibly be murderers (according to Lupin), he tries to help the green-eyed girl and uncovers a plot of several parties all surrounding the poor girl. And he solves the murder somewhere along the way. And makes a fool of the magnificent bastard secret agent Marescal.

While the story is not a Lupin epic like 813 or the Teeth of the Tiger, it's certainly a nice read. Lupin does what Lupin does best: being a magnificent bastard and hero at the same time. I also feel this book had a bigger influence on Miyazaki Hayao's magnificent Lupin III movie, The Castle of Cagliostro, compared to the similarly named Countess of Cagliostro (people who say otherwise, probably haven't read the books).

I at first had my reservations about reading Lupin in Japanese, but after realizing I had been reading them in English instead of French anyway, I though that wouldn't make that much a difference. However, the translation is somewhat dodgy at times, after a quick comparison with the original text. While it's not a re-write, it seems that the translator did change bits and pieces here and there, like expanding certain passsages or for example actually using the name of Lupin instead of his alias Baron Limezy in the text. It's an old translation too.I love the retro design though! Cool art in on the cover as well inside the book, including maps and art for every named character in the novel!

And now's hoping they're going to re-release more of the novels. I still want to read the The Revenge of Cagliostro and all the other Lupin novels not available in English!　

Original Japanese title(s): モーリス・ルブラン　南洋一郎　『青い目の少女』

The Origin of Evil

"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings."
"Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There"

One Japanese writer whose work I've been enjoying all along is Norizuki Rintarou. The first work by him I read, was "An Urban Legend Puzzle", which was translated in Passport to Crime, an international crime story anthology. It was an excellent story on its own merits, but what really attracted my attention was the fact that it was a Queenian work. Here we have a writer called Ellery Queen Norizuki Rintarou, who writes about a fictional writer called Ellery Queen Norizuki Rintarou, who helps his father, police inspector Queen Norizuki with cases. And of course, all cases are solved through sheer logic.

Afterwards, I explored the short story bundles Norizuki Rintarou no Bouken ("The Adventures of Norizuki Rintarou") and Norizuki Rintarou no Shin Bouken ("The New Adventures of Norizuki Rintarou"), which besides Queen-ish titles, contain very Queen-ish stories and highly recommended to everyone interested in classical detectives. And Japanese detectives. And any mix of those two.

And this week, I finally read the novel that started it all. Norizuki Rintarou debuted with Mippei Kyoushitsu ("Airtight Classroom"), but his second work (and first as a professional writer) introduced us to the Rintarou and father duo. Yuki Misshitsu ("Locked Room in the Snow") has a straight-in-your-face title, which is quite nostalgic. Murder on the Orient Express. Death on the Nile. Mrs. McGinty's Dead. Yes, the story does involve a locked room. In the snow. No surprises there (note the snow on the cover).

The book revolves around inspector Norizuki, who heads out to a mansion (in the snow!) being invited by a woman called Shinozuka. Who gets killed. In a locked room cottage. And of course everyone had a motive for wanting her dead. The inspector begins his investigation, gets stuck and tries to get help from his writer and amateur detective son, who of course has a deadline for an upcoming book. Very classic stuff indeed, in fact, Yuki Misshitsu is amongst the first wave of novels that brought forth the "New Orthodox" detective wave in Japan.

With its focus on the inspector's work, the motives behind Shinozuka's murder, a challenge to the reader and some other scenes, this work in more than one way reminds me of Queen's own debut work, The Roman Hat Mystery. Both works also have their faults, but the writers of both series certainly improved with following works. The locked room is not very original, but the 'padding' story is quite well done (especially the epilogue which functions as a prologue, makes for a nice piece of misdirection).

Another Queen-ish work was Arisugawa Alice's 46 Banme no Misshitsu ("The 46th Locked Room"), which also happened to be a starting point. In this novel, Arisugawa Alice introduced us to the character of Arisugawa Alice (yes, I'm seeing a pattern here), a detective writer. And he has a friend, the criminologist Himura. They fight crime. And with they, I mean Himura. Arisugawa is just a device to spew out as many detective references as possible.

The titular 46th locked room referes to the final locked room mystery the "Japanese Carr", Makabe has decided to write. Wanting to go beyond the boundaries of the detective novel (and having written several mediocre locked room novels in succession), Makabe decides that he'll quit being the Japanese Carr after the publication this book. Which is a surprise to the detective writers (including Alice) and editors invited to his holiday villa for the Christmas holiday. What also surprises them is a series of strange "presents" they find in their rooms. But what surprises the most, is that Makabe gets killed. In a locked room. Oh, and another unknown person too. In another room. But in the same way, that is, burned in the fireplace in a locked room.

So two locked rooms. In a house full of detective writers and detective story editors. Yes, it's an enjoyable book.

The locked room was not Queen's specialty (The Chinese Orange Mystery is just... incomprehensible...), so in that aspect, the novels mentioned are more Queen-ish in format than in actual content, but the beginning of the book feels Queen-like and even if the author hadn't told us, you'd know it's very The Finishing Stroke-ish. And The Mad Tea-Party-ish. No, not the Alice in Wonderland one. Though the short story of course did reference it heavily. And of course, Arisugawa Alice's logo is a Cheshire Cat with the words Alice in Mystery Land.

Oh, and Alice is male. 

Original Japanese title(s): 法月綸太郎　『雪密室』/有栖川有栖　『４６番目の密室』

(And somewhere in between I also read Sherlock in Shanghai, a short story collection of the Huo Sang detective stories by Cheng Xiaoping. Ignoring the fact that Sherlock in Shanghai is a horrible title, it contained amusing stories, but none I really get excited about. Star of the collection is not Huo Sang however, but the Lupin-esque South-China Swallow. )