Tantei Gakuen Q / Detective School Q Volume 8 (F57-64) Review

In the previous volume of Tantei Gakuen Q, two of our Q Class members - Ryu Amakusa and Minami Megumi - happened to get a mission to infiltrate a high school institution meant for the most intelligent as the Dan Detective School got wind of rumours being spread on the internet about an unknown "Collector" who collects snuff films, in other words video tapes in which a real murder is being committed. Almost the entirety of the previous volume - Volume 7 - aside from the first two chapters was spent on this case in which Ryuu & Meg attempt to identify the Collector's true identity. But as they do that, couple of bodies start to drop while getting filmed. The culprit is basically creating a snuff film setting to trick the characters into looking at the time of death which are present on the videos. 

In previous volume's review I mentioned how although this case has some nice serious tension to it at the time when the first murder was committed, it didn't feel like there was much going on, most of what's happened has been kind of uninteresting and uneventful. The only interesting thing's been the culprit's hinted connection to the criminal organization Pluto which sells murder plans to clients for a great price (though even that dream was crushed by the end of this case. Spoiler: there is no connection to Pluto even though the perp knew the duo was from DDS and somehow knew to break Megu's wristwatch when the perp kidnapped her...).
So far, the case is alright but literally could've been trimmed in half and I wouldn't notice.

Volume 8 continues the Murder Collector Case with the explanations of who the culprit is and how they managed to trick the "time" which was taped on the videos to get themselves an alibi (obviously the culprit killed the victim at different point in time in reality as we've been constantly hinted at). We get the revelation of the culprit from a slip-up that no culprit would really make, and the main trick used to create the fake alibi with the taped murder was something I already knew of because I could swear I've seen this exact same trick before. The trick consists of knowing about the existence of a certain type of hidden material that has no actually proper foreshadowing in this case aside from subtle circumstantial evidence that still won't make one aware of the existence of such material, so it's not really that good of a twist either. While I didn't 100% suspect the real culprit, he was my most likely suspect of the bunch so I'm not shocked to learn of their true identity... but this slip of the tongue the culprit made to get cornered is quite disappointing. It's one of those things that sometimes are slip-ups and sometimes aren't as there was a transitional time jump to that moment where the characters were gathered when the slip-up happened, so the reader won't know if it's a slip-up or not for sure as we won't know for sure what they talked about, but we have to think about it and then realize what our main characters logically could have said to pin-point the fallacy in the culprit's words. Which is more work than most people're willing to put into working out a case as the translations of a foreign series could be terrible.

There is a somewhat nice twist relating to motives at the very end of this case. The motive for the first murder is quite basic at first but gets revealed to be a massive misunderstanding caused by the anonymity which internet offers to us, while the motive for the second murder is 50/50 as it's quite coincidental but I do like how it has to do with just murdering a person who figured out the truth in order for the culprit to hide their identity, rather than just killing everyone because of a tragic past. Although looking back it does feel like the twist for the first motive might've been pulled out of a hat, but at least it works to give an extra punch related to the theme of internet anonymity that this case presented us.
It's odd though as the case ends in a way where the culprit had zero connection to the criminal organization Pluto, even though that was sort of hinted at as a reason Megumi was kidnapped during this case again. I guess it's whever.

After the mysteries've been solved the Q Class returns back to DDS where they get introduced to a new character, a transfer student who is on the level of the best of DDS. The new Q Class member to attempt to become the heir to the legendary detective Dan Morihiko, Tooya Kuniko, who is actually a case-only character from the 'Collector' murder case. Previously Kuniko was a timid and shy personality who went over a complete make-over in a way that she's not even recognizable anymore. She'd come to DDS because of a strong crush towards Ryuu. The case ends in a comedic note as we move on to the next story...


Mystery of the Home Economics Classroom Case

We are almost 60 chapters into this series filled with tense adventures about the Q Class of Dan Detective School. Just before the end of previous case in which Tooya Kuniko joined the Q Class, the class had only five members who all aim to become the successor to the legendary detective Dan Morihiko. These five members are our main characters; the protagonist Kyuu, the trusty and physically strong side-kick Kintarou (Kinta), the semi love-interest Megumi (Meg), the antagonistic but not really Ryuu and the nerdy Kazuma. Or that's how it was supposed to be but hasn't actually been as although Kazuma is part of the big five (apparently now big six due to Kuniko joining) amateur detectives of the Q Class, he hasn't had any screentime whatsoever. In the beginning of this series, in the very first volume, he was introduced as this rich-brat heir to some company. Kazuma is a genius inventor who uses his computer to find important data to solve cases... but so far he hasn't actually really been useful, nor have his gadgets. I was intrigued at first about him because he was kind of an asshat for talking about murders as if they were a game, but that interest has long since dissipated.
Kazuma's solved no cases, but that would be O.K. as neither did Kinta until just two volumes ago, but there's a bigger problem relating to Kazuma than that: he's the only one out of the five who's not even been a useful part of any crime solving up to this point. He's failed constantly at everything due to needing his computer, and his moments have amounted to like two panels of looking through the net for information that we could've got via other means. He's been freaking irrelevant.

If we look at the archetypes our main cast of characters has been created through, we can see that it's actually like a group of Beyblade characters down to a T. I could swear that Kazuma was created just to fill in the nerdy computer-using slot for the main cast with the treatment he's gotten from the authors...

So, when I saw this next story, the Mystery of the Home Economics Classroom, begin with the focus on Kazuma and his middle school life, I knew I could finally at least breathe a sigh of relief for the first time regarding this character.

This case is about Kazuma's middle school class.  Although Kazuma is known as an overconfident and annoying kid as he loves to show-off his family's wealth and his own intellect, he does have his weaknesses. For example we learn that he has sort of crush towards the homeroom teacher Tachikawa Hitomi (23) and seems to does what she asks of him, such as telling others in the class where the next class is being held. Hitomi herself is new in the school  (she wears short skirts etc. to school as well...) and thus has problems working along with her seniors, such as the bossy music teacher Ebe Kyouko (29). And since Hitomi's young and new as a teacher there are other teachers who flirt with her such as the science teacher Iwadome Morihito (32).

Kazuma's middle school

The lectures at Dan Detective School sometimes overlap with the lectures our middle school student main characters have in their normal schools. You see, the DDS students go to two schools at the same time, so their schedules sure are busy. But as DDS takes priority, Kazuma is one of those characters who skip class in middle school and head to DDS. Not this time though. In fact, it's the complete opposite in general what happens in this case: As our main cast are waiting for he class to start at DDS, it gets cancelled as new serious cases came up suddenly so the homeroom teacher Hongou also has to head over there to solve cases. Kazuma stayed until middle school was over and even finished cleaning up on the 6th period because of his crush towards teacher Hitomi, so it's time to hurry towards DDS as he's late and doesn't know that the DDS class is cancelled. But before that, Kazuma heads to his classroom to get his phone he forgot behind (he also hopes that Hitomi-sensei is in the classroom as well). On his way to the class we get to see some kind of sixth sense type of stuff from Kazuma as he feels something weird after opens the door to the classroom in which the lights are still on.

In the room, a microwave seems to be on or at least contain some items, while Hitomi-sensei is on the ground in pain with a poisoned dart on her leg. Hitomi was sitting on her bench as she was hit by the dart that assumedly came from a blowgun that the vice principal brought to the school after visiting an amazon tribe for folklore investigation. The blowgun had been put in-between a closed door and the wall. It doesn't take long for Kazuma to analyze that the poison is quite lethal, but that doesn't matter as it's time to confront the culprit as a member of DDS - there is nowhere the perp could have escaped to other than the kitchen or the home economics classroom... but obviously the perp is nowhere to be seen and Kazuma has to use his authority as a DDS student with a DDS notebook to order the teachers to call the police as he preserves the crime scene and attempts to solve the crime that also includes a legend of a moving object in the classroom.

This is actually another short two-chapter case. It's technically a 'who-of-the-three', but pinpointing the criminal by thinking of how relevant (or more like irrelevant) the other suspects are to the case is surprisingly easy. The case has this atmosphere of a proper mystery, and although I guessed the form of the trick that was used here with the blowgun and the dart... I wished the trick which, while a great as an idea, was used better. The way the culprit pulled this murder attempt off really does feel kind of haphazard - it feels like it could be taken straight from scooby doo..
However! I do think this case is considerably better than Kintarou's case which was before the previous case. Kinta's case also had a silly answer to it but this case feels more fleshed out despite both being just as long. This Kazuma's case just has the air of a more classic mystery... and most importantly the ending was Amazing. I knew it would happen yet still I loved it as a character moment. This is the case Kazuma deserved to shine, to get to act like a hero in his own way. It's in clear contrast with the type of character Kazuma is. [I listened to a fitting Persona 5 song while reading this moment as well.]


Let's Board the Alibi Train! Case

This time around we have an inverted case where we see the culprit in action.
Kinta and Kyuu are on a mission. They got a request from Dan Detective School to meet up with a client on a train. As the duo spends a lot of their time talking about food, eating and bickering, they get introduced to Minazuki Kaori (32) who works as a picture book author who doesn't have pure intentions as we learn that her aim is to steal either Kinta's or Kyu's contact information in one-hour's time before the train arrives at Toyatori terminal. We learn that Kyu used to read a lot of her books in his younger, like pre-school, days. The woman then starts to pretend that she gets a call and has to leave and asks the duo to keep watching over her bags as her call is going to "take a long while".

After leaving the room she sprints out of the train on the nearest station and hops on a car she'd prepared there (as she claims to have rehearsed this event numerous times so that it will work). Then, she meets up with a man named Taga Kenji (30), the Otowa Editorial's member who got a fake threatening letter from Kaori claiming that she will crush Kenji in the place of all the new authors he's destroyed. Kaori had asked Kenji to meet up with her in the middle of nowhere. As Kenji tries to say something to Kaori she pulls out a kitchen knife and stabs him in the stomach... all because Kenji had dumped her in place of Kaori's assistant and because he'd called her drawings "old-fashioned"!

As Kaori had finished the deed she heads over to the next train station, to hop back on the train where Kyuu and Kinta are watching over her bags. With 40 minutes left she thinks believes that the rest'll be smooth sailing, however, the tunnel she must drive through is blocked by a fallen rock. If she can't use that tunnel, she'd never make it in time for the train. But she stillbarely manages to make it while driving and running at full speed. Her perfect alibi deed is now successful, the only thing she needs are the addresses of her so-called witnesses, our main characters' addresses, that is. So! It's time for us to see Kinta and Kyuu figure out she'd even left the train let alone killed anyone.

By sudden whims of fate we learn that the client of  Kinta and Kyu was actually the person Kaori had just killed, and what's worse the duo sees that the client's photo is on Kaori's mobile phone, and even that turns worse as blood stains got splattered on an envelope Kaori has due to the victim touching it right before he fell to the ground. But no problem as she's an artist she quickly manages to draw over the blood splatters to hide evidence.
As Dan Morihiko caught up on the client's death mere 15 minutes after he was murdered, Dan calls Kyuu & Kinta to tell them to head over to the crime scene and figure out who the perp is, however that doesn't seem to be necessary as Kyuu seems to have already figured out who the murderer is somehow at the end of chapter 62. Chapter 63 on the other hand focuses on how Kyuu and Kinta manage to trick the perp to expose herself.

The case is fine. It's obviously a filler case but manages to be entertaining enough. It does a really good job at being a solid inverted murder mystery meant to waste time and be forgotten right after. While there are no big twists or anything here, the case also doesn't fall on its own stupidity by having a ridiculous answer to the main trick. In that sense this case is more solid than the other two-chapter cases we've had in the past few volumes (Kinta's Case & Kazuma's Case), however, this case also didn't really try to flesh out our main characters nor did it have anything memorable to it.
This whole thing about our main duo going to the train, meeting up with the culprit, us seeing the inverted murder and the culprit managing to pull off the alibi & Kyuu realizing who the culprit is, all happened in one mere chapter. Safe to say this might be the most eventful chapter in the series so far. There have been chapters like some of the first few Q vs. A deduction battles where we had like two deduction battles in a single chapter. Those were really condensed as well. I'm impressed. Interestingly enough we learn here that Kyuu's father had passed away when our protagonist was but a lad.


The Beauty Trio, Crisis!

Volume 8 ends conclusively this time (in other words there is no story that continues over to volume 9). We have a case at a girls-only high school, which obviously means that any males who go to investigate are going to be called out as perverts. But worry not, as the perfect fix for this problem is the beauty trio heading out: Megumi of Q Class, Yukihira of A Class and our new Q Class member Tooya Kuniko reporting for duty! (Reminder that Kuniko joined DDS at the end of Murder Collector case due to her crush on Ryu.)
Just like the previous case, this one-chapter quick short story is also train-themed.

 Meg and Yukihira have conflicting personalities and Kuniko is completely antisocial which causes problems in their team spirit. But on their way to the high school the trio meets up with a challenge they must face against together as on the train trip a pervert molester attacks Kuniko (who doesn't want to tell anyone she's being attacked due to her personality). Anyway, Megumi managed to catch that the man has a green shirt and a watch on his right hand. Megumi even remembers how the man in his suit looked like from behind. The girls then manage to pinpoint one man who could've been the perp and take him to the police station to be questioned, however the crux of the issue here is to prove that this man traveled on the train when Kuniko was being molested, as the man offers a different kind of solution (and by that I mean, he has a trick to claim he's innocent). The case is over very quickly however and through it we learn that Kuniko's father's an aikido martial arts master and she's also been training aikido enough to one-shot adult males if she so wishes, despite her timid personality telling a different story. Don't judge a book by its cover.

This case was just ok. I wasn't really interested in trying to remember anything about this case. It does do an okay job at using visual clues to let the reader figure at least parts of the alibi trick the culprit pulled off, but other than that it's a very short filler story focusing on the three girls of Dan Detective School.


Last rites

 Not a bad volume to say the least. While there was nothing that jaw dropping here, I felt that 'solid' is the best word for I can come up with. The volume began with the last three chapters of the Murder Collector case which told us a story about a supposed snuff video creator and the case also utilized internet to create motives. It was a creepy story with tense atmosphere (though not as tense as Kamikakushi Village Murder Case), and the answer to the alibi trick was decent, however it was too long of a case for its own good in my honest opinion.  
Home Economics Classroom Case or in other words Kazuma's Case had a lazy/dumb answer to its main trick, but it also had a really great ending to it and rest of the case actually felt properly crafted as a short story. It's the first time Kazuma was actually relevant to a case, and here he actually got to completely solve a case by himself and act as a hero in his own way.
Alibi Train case told us an inverted story with a murderer trying to make it by using the train and its passengers to create an alibi by leaving and boarding the train at different stations. It was a properly crafted filler story (as in it didn't show us anything new about the overarching story or its characters) that however didn't have the same impactful ending that Kazuma's case had.
The Beauty Trio case also had the theme on trains and its schedules but was a much shorter story meant to show-off our main three girls together as they expose a molester on a train. It was an okay filler story.