Tantei Gakuen Q / Detective School Q Volume 2 (F6-13) Review

 The Tragedy of Kirisaki Island Murder Case

The first volume of Tantei Gakuen Q introduces us the five young main characters of the series, each with their own unique quirks to them that they use to their advantage in almost supernatural manner (the main characters have extremely good luck, strength, memory, sight, hearing, deductive reasoning and general knowledge or skills with digital material). The protagonist, Kyu is attempting to become the greatest detective in the world in a classic shounen fashion, and to do that he decides to join the Dan Detective School. The first volume deals with the first two parts of the entrance exams to the school and the last three chapters of the first volume take us to Kirisaki Island where a classic murder mystery setting takes place for the final part of the exam.

Our main characters that are attempting to solve a case of a Jack the Ripper ripoff that happened 50 years prior to the beginning of the story on Kirisaki Island to pass the exam but then something horrifying happens as three kitchen knives and a key to a shed disappears. One of Dan Morihiko's assistants journeys back to mainland to get a copy of the missing key, and when the group enters inside the shed, they find a gruesome scene with a corpse of one of the participants being found cut in half like 50 years ago. What's more, the key to the shed is found inside the shed which reveals that the it all happens inside perfect locked-room setting with not just one but two locked rooms in the way. Where did the other half of the corpse disappear to and how? That would only be the beginnining of this "serial murder case".

In this volume the storm around Kirisaki Island - storm which was foreshadowed in the first volume - gets worse. In such a weather no one can take out the boat in this type of storm which means that the squad won't be getting off the island for a good while even though this 3rd Jack the Ripper is on the same island. Anyone could become the next victim. The setup for the case itself is pretty alright as the body is found behind two locked rooms inside a hut on the top of a roof. At high up there's a window in the shed that only goes dozens of meters down the cliff of the island, so there's no possible way to leave or enter the hut. The cause of death this time is being stabbed in the heart with a sharp object and dying on the scene from blood loss. The victim was then cut in half with a chainsaw of some kind, and the other side of his body is still missing. The chainsaw used was most likely stolen from Kirisaki Island's tool shed and the estimated time of death is late last night after 2 am.

The volume does a pretty bad job at introducing the case cast to us at first. We sort of know who the the five main characters, Dan Morihiko and his assistant and coroner is, we know who the victim is, we know there's a girl named Yukihira who just wants to write mystery stories instead of solve gruesome cases or get to be part of them. The rest of the case cast (13 people on the island) are kind of iffy for a while, and it's hard to remember who is who as none of them except the main characters are memorable at all. I guess that was the intention though as it is a really long case that's just beginning 4 chapters in (Detective Conan cases are usually finished by the 3rd chapter).

This gruesome murder case on Kirisaki Island is the job of Dan Morihiko and the school workers to solve but he also asks if there are any other people on the island willing to risk their lives to catch Jack the Ripper. To save the students, they need to catch Ripper as fast as they can, however they don't know anything about the murderer's identity or motives or goals, and if one tries to solve the case, they may very well become the next targets for the killer. For anyone not willing to risk their lives, DDS will prepare a room that's as secure as possible, while for anyone who wants to help them solve the case are allowed to take the DDS Badge which is the symbol of the school itself. Of course our protagonist is the first one to grab a badge and announce that he'll be participating in the deadly investigation.

The Second Murder 
 
The first chapter of the 2nd volume ends with the mystery continuing as we get a sneak peek to another victim, this time the victim was sliced in two from the waist, as if he was chopped apart by a guillotine and another knife is also found on another portrait that showcases a famous detective's painting being also sliced from the waist. There is more mystery as to why the culprit would do something like destroying paintings like that, is it to scare the students or something?
According to the coroner the 2nd victim's type of death is the same as the first; stabbed by a sharp weapon and died from blood loss, this time only around 2-3 hours prior to being found.

The Third Murder

Yet, the murder case won't end there as soon after a character on a painting also gets both its arms and head cut off as the third knife is on the painting. In the empty building to the west from where the group resides is a room with lights on and a bloody hand is shown for a bit until it gets pulled back suddenly. The squad (except Megumi with her photographic memory) goes to the apartment  to see two arms in a plastic bag, a head on bed and rest of the corpse on the floor.

The Mystery of the Slashed Portraits

So, when the first victim was killed, the portrait of Sherlock Holmes from the story 'The Final Problem' was slashed vertically in two.
When the second victim was found, a portrait of Lawrence Wargraves from Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' was cut in two horizontally.
And when the third victim was found, a portrait from Ellery Queen's 'Egyptian Cross Mystery' was slashed in a way that there were cuts to both arms and the neck.

The question is why would the culprit go out their way to cut the portraits in the same way as the victims.

I gotta say that I kind of wanted this series to have more short stories like Detective Conan but this entire 2nd volume of the series continues the events that transpired in the last three chapters of the first volume, a story that takes place in the generic inner circle setting on an island like what we're familiar with in the Kindaichi series. But there are some notable positive things to this whole case as well. First of all, it all flows naturally from chapter 1 of the series to this case as this case simply continues the exams to get into Dan Detective School, but what's more, in the first volume of the series we got introduced to a guy named Saburou who went to the same research centre for skilled children as our pink-haired main girl Megumi. In this second volume Saburou is the first victim found brutally murdered in the shed. It all flows pretty well, even though I must say I didn't realize the victim was this overarching character at first since he didn't leave any impact - you have a hard time telling these side characters apart in this case.

The mystery of the key in a double locked room is alright I guess, it's not really something the reader can figure out and the clues aren't that well presented or realistic but it has some aspects to it that are somewhat logical that has to do with the rats on the island.

There were some problems with the pacing here. I'm not sure if all the chapters were necessary, the first 2/3 of the case itself is kinda mediocre for its length (11 chapter long case), the solutions are not terrible as there are some iffy revelations and some decent ones.
The best aspect of this case is the connection with the first and last murder, the connection is cleverly done as it uses more than just the portrait trick to manipulate you into thinking how something was done. I'm sure this trick with older bodies has been used numerous times before but it seems to work pretty well most of the time. I recall for example the Kawanakajima Murder Case in Detective Conan had a similar trick to it.

There is this one aspect to the case that is just really badly presented however: it's the fact that the kitchen was messed up. When the answers to the cases are given they try to explain it to make it into a situation in which the culprit was trying to make it seem as if there was a hungry lunatic on the loose while the culprit is just trying to hide the fact that he took some butter and flour from the kitchen. My biggest problem with this is that it really didn't feel like the culprit was trying to make himself out to seem like a hungry outsider. There is massive disconnect with how things are presented and explained in this case and it doesn't flow well at all, even though the overarching connections with these cases does flow well. Definitely disappointing story in that aspect.


As for the characters, Megumi gets more fleshing out as a character in this case as her nigh supernatural skill of photographic memory makes her see anything she sees once (even if it's a slight peek), forever. It's as if the images are burnt into her eyes and she is unable to forget ever seeing such horrible murders unfold. We also get to know that there's some kind of deeper reason why she wants to become a detective but we don't get to hear what it is yet.

The genius programmer main character Kazuma also showcases that he's created a detective program in which he stores data of the cases that happen. His program's software is used to compile information on all difficult and mysterious cases that have happened around the world. The computer program estimates the trick that was being used once Kazuma writes down the circumstances of the murder on it. But Kazuma doesn't want to let others see what the program estimates the trick to be as he still thinks the case is about winning or losing to get into DDS. It's nice that we get to see our protagonist call Kazuma out for acting so strangely: even though someone got killed, Kazuma is acting like it's all just a game.