Tantei Gakuen Q / Detective School Q Volume 4 (F22-30) Review

Kamikakushi Village Murder Case

Volume 4 of Seimaru Amagi's and Fumiya Sato's Detective School Q / Tantei Gakuen Q series continues the Kamikakushi Village Murders Case that started in the beginning of the third volume and end in the second to last chapter of the 4th volume. The case deals with people looking for a Japanese War Treasure in the Kamikakushi village where seven people have gone missing in the past 10 years. The legends of the neighbouring village, Hyotan, as well as Kamikakushi village, say that these people have been Spirited Away for not wearing the holy masks that represent smallpox disease.
What's more, as our main characters, Kyu and co., visit the villages, people start to go missing but at the same time our main characters immediately figure out what's happening and manage to trace the location of where the bodies have been dumped. But the main theme is that the culprit is trying to make anyone who attemps to find the Japanese War Treasure, vanish, or become 'Spirited Away'.

Because of certain symbolistic rules between the Kamikakushi and Hyotan villages, the case cast is split into two between these two places. Megumi and Ryu investigate the Kamikakushi village while Ryu, Kinta and Kazuma stay in Hyotan village. In both villages bodies turn up and there seems to be a closer connection with the events but the most likely culprit is hiding behind a strong alibi.

In this volume we learn that the Japanese military used to create biological weapons in the villages in the past, but that doesn't really give us much more than insight to the motive of the culprit. The Kamikakushi village has a priest named Kyoso-sama who is the ringleader of a cult honoring a god named Ekigami-sama. Kyoso-sama is not only hiding his face but also mysteriously talks with sign language and wears gloves. Ryu and Megumi suspect the priest to be the culprit (as the priest seems to be able to foretell when murders happen) but as the priest is living in a house in the village and no one has seen him leave the Kamikakushi village (even if they don't know the priest by face there are guards by the tunnel). The way the priest is handled makes for an interesting case of the authors circumventing Megumi's photographic memory ability.

The Third Victim
Unlike the first and second victims, the third victim is not spirited away. Instead he is found stabbed right in the heard by a kitchen knife in the Hyoutan village. The trick behind how the culprit did this murder is the main thing about this case and it's about creating an alibi with a grander scale misdirection. I've known the answer to this trick since the case began in the 3rd volume but trying to figure out the right suspect is still fun in this case as it doesn't flat out imply one character to be able to do it. There were more hints to the culprit than I thought but personally wasn't really feeling it from a realistic standpoint. 

Here are my thoughts about the Kamikakushi Village Murders Case that took place for nearly two volumes:
1) The answer to the ancient army war treasure was interesting but I kind of didn't get where it's supposed to be at all. (It seems to be a triangle instead of a "8"?)
2) The answer to people being Spirited Away was cool enough and it was found out halfway through the case pretty much. I like these spirited away horror folk stories like what happened in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni due to their rural atmosphere.
3) The answer to the mystery of the disease cult was okay.
4) The answer to making the 2nd victim fly before being spirited away was ok with cool aspects to it. I think that assuming everything to go down so perfectly just to keep up the idea of people being spirited away is way too coincidental and unnatural, but the way the kill itself was done after the trick is kind of nice idea, it's different but simple.
5) The mystery of the two villages was something I immediately saw through when the case began because of how my mind works, so I can't properly rate it, but I thought it was neat, but there was too much foreshadowing to it back-to-back, the hints should have been more spread out as it's the big reveal of the case.
6) The identity of the culprit and the killer's motivations were not that great, but it's whatever. It was properly done for what it is but not realistic at all. The culprit moving victims around and the disguise stuff were iffy as well. The alibi trick was uninspired but the mystery of the two villages being used for it was the best part of the case. However I will say that at least the motivation was different from what the norm, but maybe there's a reason for that as it's more of a hit or miss type of motivation that was used here. I think it missed for me.
7) The history of the villages and the biological weapon were interesting but mostly because of the Corona virus outbreak in the world that's going down at the moment. In this case we deal with a government creating the Smallpox virus .
8) The last stretch of the case was kind of too long for my taste and seemed to repeat what was already said. The case was honestly too long. Nearly two entire volumes were used for it. Some chapters should have been trimmed down. I think we didn't learn anything new for 3 whole chapters at the end, that's Kindaichi level pacing (yes I know the author is the same).
9) I think Ryu should have had more to do with the ending.

The last chapter of the 4th volume takes the Q-Class back to Dan Detective School where they get praises and lectures from Dan Morihiko. One of the interesting aspects of this is when Dan tells them to never show off the DDS notebook (which gives them authorization to enter any crime scene), the reason being that any criminal would most likely target them if they knew a real detective was on the case. The last chapter also introduces us a new interesting character named Kotaro Nanami. A man with a white suit and a hat who seems to be good at disguising and deductions. Nanami has been trailing the Q-Class in the Kamikakushi Village case. The volume ends without continuing to the next volume this time. Hopefully we'll get some breather short cases next after such a loooong case.

Going Back to Rokkenjima of October 5, 1986 - Journey to the Golden Land

More than ten years ago my journey with the When They Cry franchise began. I was in last years of high school when I decided to immerse myself into visual novel series. I can't remember how I got to know of this weird medium and how it all began for me exactly, but I've been a huge fan of mystery fiction all my life and my favourite series consists of detective fiction series - in fact I'm aiming to become a mystery author myself one day and I love to get inspiration from series like this. I'd like to create a long-running series every half a year for about ten volumes, but instead in a way that's much different from anything else, for example instead of the story looping I could create multiple individual cases in different settings.

 I recall watching the Higurashi and Umineko anime series and then just wanting to get my hands on the original source material. This was before the original Umineko series was even over. 07th Expansion uploaded new Episodes ever half a year. I also remember loving the Motion Graphics and getting hyped over the next one, but I recall a certain natural disaster - a tsunami - took the lives of some of the creators.

First of all, When They Cry franchise consists of horror/mystery-fantasy visual novel series such as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Umineko no Naku Koro ni as well as the newest series Ciconia no Naku Koro ni. The series written and created by Ryukishi07 and rest of 07th Expansion development group.

The series used to get flack for its art style (drawn by Ryukishi07) but I never had a problem with it personally. However when in 2013 they announced Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru: Nocturne of Truth and Illusions, I was incredibly excited to experience the journey again one day.


It's somehow been hella long since the original series ended but I still remember the story and its characters well. The main character,  Ushiromiya Battler, is an obvious Phoenix Wright 2.0 so now that I've played the Ace Attorney games I'll be making some heavy comparisons. I am now actually getting back to this story in its full PS3 glory. I'm waiting for the best time to start the game though as I want to immerse myself as best as I can.

Ahh, I remember following this series for a good few years. It was incredible in a way. Chilly days, fun days, summer days. Always back in Rokkenjima. I've read the first episode of Umineko so many times as I liked the generic Agatha Christie-styled manor case it set up. Anyone who is familiar with long-running detective fiction series from any medium is more than familiar with this type of setting. Even the side characters feel very similar to those from Poirot stories.
Now that I think about it, the feel I got from following this series must be similar experience I'm sure many are getting from following Final Fantasy 7 Remake until its finale for many years now.

What I really liked about this series were the immersive parts - characters of course brutally die and it leaves one to question about what's going on. The music is fantastic and helps to elevate the experience. I loved to just look at the menu with the blood splattered avatars everywhere and read the information on characters. Of course now that I'm more experienced with the genre I can see that this series has some ridiculous pacing issues as it barely progresses over 8 Episodes of visual novels, similar to Higurashi (which has far more extra parts though).

I'm not expecting the PS3 version to change anything about the story but presentation is actually a very key aspect about any story. Dialogue, background, framing, lighting, everything matters. The PS3 version is definitely going to be a new experience for me in a way.

In its core Umineko is basically a Zero Escape game with Phoenix Wright dealing with a generic manor case, which then develops into this overworld war against witches, dealing with dimensional layers and multiverse theories as visual novels often seem to do. Umineko however did pull it off very well. The Schrödinger's Cat theory is a fan favourite for any mystery series and visual novels often tend to find many ways to focus on it so I'm interested to see how many times it's referenced in this series again. 

Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2019)

2019 has been a fairly very talked about year when it comes to animated TV series. One of the most influential manga's fifth adaptation, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (part 5), continues from 2018's winter season, multiple popular shounen manga series are getting their adaptations such as Fire Force (Soul Eater author's current work), Dr. Stone (shounen post-apocalyptic series) and right now we have Ufotable's (known for Fate/ series anime adaptations) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba airing weekly as well as My Hero Academia season 4 and Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods (season 3) anime series of extremely popular shounen manga airing in the fall of 2019. So it's clear without a doubt that this year stands out merely from those weekly shounen series adaptations alone (most popular manga magazines in Japan), but there are other stand-out and much talked about series that have been airing and will air in 2019 such as the second season of One Punch Man (admittedly the hype has died down massively in comparison and the adaptation is not living up to the first season in quality), Attack on Titan season 3 part 2, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Dororo (remake adaptation of one of the legendary Osamu Tezuka's works) as well as an adaptation of a very popular seinen manga series, Vinland Saga, coming up later in 2019 for a whole 24-episode run. I'm interested in how Wit Studio will handle that adaptation for sure.

The reason why this post exists however is because I've wanted to check out the more highly acclaimed romance series for a while now as I don't dislike romance in the series I read i think it's important to get a taste of what people like to see. I've been reading Domestic na Kanojo (taboo romance manga) and 5Toubun no Hanayome (one dude meets five identical sisters) and I'm looking forward to Chihayafuru season 3 and Fruits Basket to air. Just last week I asked for recommendations and people mentioned this romance-based series that aired just earlier this year and that's what we're here to talk about today.


Kaguya-sama: Love is War by A1-Pictures is an adaptation of a romcom manga by a very similar except longer name Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai - Tensai-tachi no renai zunousen, or in English, Kaguya Wants to be Confessed To: The Geniuses' War of Love and Brains, created by Aka Akasaka. A-1 Pictures and I go a long way. They usually adapt series that have great original material such as Ace Attorney, Magic Kaito 1412, Black Butler, Erased, Seven Deadly Sins and many others tend to get filler endings with contrived writing, really bad animation and off-character designs as well as very, very rushed pacing, adapting over 100 chapters a season, for SDS for example. So I've never thought that A-1 is the ideal studio that I'd want to take over any of my favourite series, but sadly, they seem to mass produce a decent amount of anime every year, which I assume is the reason for their low-quality series. They sometimes do have an eye for what is a well written plot to adapt in order to pull in audience though.

However Kaguya-sama is one of A-1 Pictures' best adaptations ever when it comes to what a group of animators can do to enhance the original series.

This narration-heavy story starts off by introducing the watcher to the concept of what this series will be about: when it comes to the ideology of the show, two people who love each other are technically constantly at war with each other as relationships, according to the narrator, consist of a person who reigns supreme and controls, in other words a "winner" and a person who becomes a "loser" and obeys the winner.
Although that type of over-the-top introduction and the hype from the series' fans calling it the "Death Note of romance" might make you feel as if this show will have some supernatural mind games or heavy drama, there is literally none of what you'd expect. The first episode of the anime surely shows some potential to showcase psychological aspects well, but the show dusts that off right away and stays a simple romantic comedy series about a limited cast of characters in a limited setting.

Shuchi'in private academy is known to be one of the more special academies in Japan with a long-lasting history going back to the era of nobles and samurai. Nowadays the academy works to graduate the children from rich families so that those children will grow up to become the new leaders of Japan.
In Shuchi'in academy the school assets and love lives of the students are being handled by the student council, which our main characters are part of. 

Kaguya Shinomiya is the character that the show is based upon so we can assume she's the main character, however there are two equal characters in this show that can be called the main lead and the deuteragonist. Kaguya Shinomiya is the vice-president of Shuchi'in academy's student council as well as the daughter of a man named Gan'an Shinomiya who is a multi-trillionaire. As a person with such heavy family history, Kaguya has trained to be multi-talented, perfecting the art of many different subjects from music to martial arts, and became known as a so-called genius in the academy. 

However there is a person who Kaguya has not yet surpassed when it comes to exams.

Miyuki Shirogane is the show's deuteragonist and a young man known for his exceptional intellect and wisdom as the person who scores the best in mock exams out of anyone in Japan, always getting maximum points and the first spot. Unlike Kaguya, Miyuki is not as well versed in multiple different talents, however since he is the greatest academic, Miyuki Shirogane's exemplary behavior was what earned him the spot as the student council president itself.

Both Miyuki and Kaguya are very prideful people who would never date anyone below them and not under any circumstance be the person who would make the first move if they were to get into a relationship. The story opens up with both of them pridefully assuming that the other would come and ask them out, but that never happens and in the first chapter half a year already passes by without anything happening. That time steel's their resolve so that they only want to focus on forcing the other confess them. That is the war between lovers that the show promises, but is it handled that well? Ehh. Not really.

The show is about the so-called mind games in which Kaguya plans a certain situation out and prepares it in which she will try to trick Miyuki to acknowledge her/ask her out/say he loves her in even the most ridicilous situations, and Miyuki also tries to think ahead on how to counteract and make Kaguya to ask him out instead or say she loves him or such. As the storytelling in this show is mostly episodic, you can instantly tell that this type of writing would get old and fast. And it does. The student council's secretary, the big-breasted Chika Fujiwara, is what usually breaks the mold and turns the planning the two do upside down and sideways, however Chika does that far too often so that gets tiring as well. Aside from Chika there is really only one more notable side character called Yuu Ishigami, a computer-savvy student who fails grades constantly. Yuu Ishigami appears rather late into the show since it's only 12 episodes but the episodes he appears in tend to be the funniest out of them all. The comedy of Kaguya-sama is not that great in general. There is an episode focusing on grade-schooler level wiener jokes and it excuses those jokes by saying that Kaguya's dark humour is grade-schooler level. It's kind of sad and bland to watch and the original mind game aspect of the lovers also seems to quickly lose its oomph just couple episodes in, the story becomes a pretty shallow romcom that doesn't lead anywhere.

The anime itself feels like it's been done by Shaft. The presentation of this show is very good. Character models look decent but the clever ways of showcasing what's going on are the best aspects of this show. The framers transform and many different styles of wide variety are used in quick succession to make almost everything that happens in the show look and sound much more interesting than they actually are. The soundtracks are fine but nothing special. The voice actors are okay and they handle some comedic scenes well.

The worst aspects of this show that really make watching the mere 12 episodes of it tiring for me is the lack of substance, the cast of characters and the settings in which the story takes place. For an episodic story, it seems to only pull jokes or try to do tricks instead of setting up a real short-story. I did not feel any presence of life from majority of the episodes and they seemed The pacing of the show felt off for me on many occasions.
When I say that the cast of characters is what make the show tiring for me I mean that I personally did not like any other characters than Kaguya, Miyuki and Yuu. And if I did try to find someone else, there was barely any left. This show lacks characters heavily. You'd expect every episode to show one-off and overarching characters but the show only focuses on what's going on around the main cast - and what is going on around, is not much and that brings us to the third point.
I have a problem with the characters being sold to us as geniuses that play mind games when they don't act like ones and act more like the shy teenagers that they are rather than the mind-controlling geniuses that they wish they were.
The settings of this show are bland at best. Majority of it takes place in the student council room, dealing with the exact same characters doing similar types of jokes that have to do with romance. For an episodic series I really do loathe when the setting stays the same with how easy it should be to change it around.

Thus it's clear that basically all the problems of Kaguya-sama come from the original manga series instead of the anime adaptation by A-1.

To wrap this all up, as I mentioned Kaguya-sama reminds me of Shaft's Nisio Isin works in how it spams dialogue and presents itself, making it seem like there's a lot going on in a frame, but those moments are mostly used for gags and there is rarely anything to talk or theorize about, it's essentially mindless fun. It is not a downright bad anime, the animation studio does many favours for the original series to make it more bearable for me, and people who care more about superficial aspects such as presentation rather than anything with substance can understandably love this show quite a lot, as there is a huge fan base for this series. However the show is not something that I'd expect from what sells itself as the "Death Note of romance."