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.

Tantei Gakuen Q / Detective School Q Volume 3 (F14-21) Review

Kamikakushi Village Murder Case

The second volume of Tantei Gakuen Q ended with Kyu and co. figuring out the case that happened on Kirisaki Island. The perpetrator there was actually Dan Morihiko himself and the case itself was simply the final part of the entrance exam. Figuring out the case allowed our main characters Kyu, Ryu, Megumi, Kazuma and Kinta to join the legendary retiring detective Dan Morihiko's Dan Detective School, and what's more, all five of them get to join the Q-Class (Qualified Class) which is directly taught by Dan Morihiko himself as he plans to find himself a worthy successor out of one of the five members of the Q-Class.

The first chapter of the third volume focuses on introducing us to the school's structure of DDS and the beginning of the volume also happens to build up to the next big case that lasts up to the 2nd to last chapter of the 4th volume. I like how well the overarching story has flown so far from case to case.
The Dan Detective School is actually a massive apartment with different classes, however the Qualified Class is in the woods, in the middle of nowhere nearby. The classroom for Q-Class is in an old apartment that's almost like a haunted house, but there's more to the story as the old worn-out apartment was the office of Dan Morihiko 40 years prior when he left the police force to become a private eye.
The Qualifies Class's classroom has a lot of sentimental value with Dan Morihiko himself as he remembers the times a skilled detective used to assist him as a partner and they solved many dangerous cases. Dan says that during a criminal investigation this skilled detective died, and if he were alive this day there would be no Q-Class as that detective would be his successor instead.

The second real case in the series is then referred from the police to Dan Morihiko, who then asks the Q-Class to solve it. The case is another intriguing one as it happened in a small, isolated village where several students went to, but suddenly one of them disappeared. The scene left was baffling as this student vanished into thin air on the spot. To solve this case is the first job of the Q-Class, and if they're not able to do it, the A-Class would get the case. Dan himself had already figured it out but he uses it as an exam in the school.

In DDS there's a Simulation Room with a slide project and models that are used to recreate the crime scene in the room. Sometimes the school uses a moving background to create the scene a more realistic feel. What's more, there is also a dojo where students train to defend themselves with martial arts like karate and judo. There's also a Computer Room with the latest models (like Windows 95 computers or something.. lol), and a Makeup Studio where the students practice disguising with rubber masks and wigs, a forensics lab with a fake corpse that is used to estimate the time of death.

The Kamikakushi Village Disappearance case

Some people may be aware of Kamikakushi from series like Higurashi no naku koro Ni. It means to be spirited away or disappear without a trace all of a sudden. It's part of Japanese folk tales. The authors are making the name of the village symbolize the case itself in which the student disappeared.

Anyway, in Kyu and co. get to become more familiar with the disappearance case in the Simulation Room. According to the police files, the friend of the missing student took pictures in Kamikakushi Village and sent them to the police. The DDS will use those photos with a projector to simulate the case.
The village has paddy fields that haven't been planted and it's very isolated place. The photographs show footprints that go to the middle of the muddy fields only to disappear in the middle of the field without a trace of going further.

The footprints started from underneath the window of the missing student's room. It's as though someone lured him out to the middle of the field and then snatched him from the heavens. When the footprints were discovered, the student's disappearance was not yet confirmed so no reports to the police were made yet. However the villagers started saying that "another person was spirited away because he violated the Taboo."

The footprints to the paddy field were first discovered at 7 A.M., before breakfast. Last time the student was seen was at 10 o'clock the previous night. The farmers went to the field by dawn at around 5 A.M. and didn't notice a thing.
Could it be that the student was murdered and the culprit intentionally created this disappearing footprint setup in order to make it seem as if the student was 'Spirited Away' if the villagers are so superstitious folk that they believe old legends? 

More hints to the case are the disappeared student's luggages which contained the following: a compass, thermos, cell phone, swiss army knife, a flashlight, a book of treasure hunting & guide, rrope, a camera, a shovel, a safety jacket, a folded rubber raft with plastic oar and a pump and a sleeping bag.


After figuring out how the footprints were created the Q-Class are given the DDS Detective Notebook. The notebook gives the students authorization to enter any crime scene. The notebooks have the D.D.S. logo and symbol on it and it would be bad if it got stolen or if it disappeared. What's more the notebook has more to it: it contains an area for notes as well as seven tools: a fingerprint kit, a multipurpose knife, a database for deciphering simple passwords, lock picks, etc.
The reason why the students are given the notebook is because their first task as students of DDS is now to leave for Kamikakushi Village and its neighbor, the Hyotan Village in which 7 people have disappeared in the past 10 years. To get to Kamikakushi Village, one has to walk from Hyotan Village for 30 minutes through a tunnel.
So, along with the disappearing student case the Q-Class has to figure out what happened to six other disappeared people- who and why did they get "Spirited Away."

People of Kamikakushi & Hyotan Village

This is not a normal rural area. Rumours say that because of a strange cult that believes in the God of Disease of epidemics as well as a legend about an old treasure from the Japanese Army, the Kamikakushi Village has become a popular topic to be talked about online.
Hyotan Village on the other hand is filled with TV program personnel who are included as the case cast. To enter Kamikakushi village everyone is forced to wear white masks with holes in them or they're risking themselves of being spirited away.

The Case Cast of the Kamikakushi Village Murders case

A group of people with white masks with holes in them play a prank on Kyu and co. to scare them. Ryu explains to us that the masks are supposed to showcase Smallpox disease. Smallpox is a plague that's been around since ancient times and it causes the victim's body to be riddled with pus-filled lesions. Most people inflicted by Smallpox die. Even though the disease was beaten in 1980's with the Smallpox vaccine apparently many large countries have still used the virus as a biochemical weapon. We also get to learn more about Ryu's character as he explains that researching diseases and poisons is his hobby. In this case we get properly introduced to the cast of characters to get to know them. The cast has personnel from the 'Adventure' program and goes as follows:

Azegami Rio (25), TV Reporter
Iwashimizu Hiroki (42), TV Producer
Anzai Kunihiko (29), TV Director
Oowada Susumu (32), TV Cameraman
Kagami Rei (25), Assistant Director

Each of the TV personnel are there to hunt for the legendary treasure and tension riles up between each of them as they consider each other rivals in the hunt.
But there are also more case characters of course:

Kuruzumi Kogoro (58), the Owner of Ryozanbaku Inn who explains that not even the villagers of Hyotan are allowed to enter Kamikakushi Village if they don't wear those creepy white masks the TV personnel used to scare our main characters.
Fuma Mio (17), Ryozanbaku Inn Hostess
Kirihara Masae (60), Ryozanbaku Inn Hostess
Kuruzumi Ryou (25), Branch Manager of Ryozanbaku Inn

What I like is that now three volumes in the story we finally get reminder name plates for the same case-only characters in multiple chapters.

So, the Q-Class this time has to figure out the mysteries including a small villages with a disease cult that wears a strange mask, a japanese army treasure, and the mysterious disappearances in Kamikakushi Village. The latest victim disappeared from the Ryozanbaku Inn annex in Kamikakushi Village, and that village itself is isolated from outside world and only accessible through a tunnel connecting from Hyotan Village.
Things of course aren't going to be that simple as the actual murders of the case begin, but before the first victim falls to the killer attacking her with a sickle, we get to learn of a clue showing the Infinity sign, or the Moebius Strip sign, that is supposed to be a hint towards the treasure or the missing student. Later on, the group manages to find the first victim hidden, buried in a grave with a skeleton, and then it doesn't take longer for another person to vanish - to get Spirited Away. The common line between all these disappearances and murders is the fact that they know the truth behind the mystery of the villages and the treasure before meeting their fate.

The third volume to the Kamikakushi Murder Case ends with the second murder being shown. It's a really intriguing one: one of the TV personnel is filming himself trying to find the legendary war treasure but as he was passing the fields, all of a sudden the camera shows the ground getting further and further away as if he started flying.'

Is the second murder a person being spirited away or just a person being lured into a deadly trap so that his body would never be found?

The third volume is a decent collection of numerous classic mysteries although we only got an answer to the first missing footprints mystery in the build-up case to the Kamikakushi Village Murders Case, and this case is a reeeally long one. In total it takes up almost two volumes. I'm not really the biggest fan of cases that are this long as the novelty does wear off but I hope the next volume brings something interesting to the table.
The most notable mysteries in the Kamikakushi Murders Case include the mystery of the ancient army war treasure, the mystery of people being spirited away, the mystery of the disease cult and the mystery of how the 2nd victim was made to fly.
I actually immediatelly see through the trick that's being done with the Hyotan and Kamikakushi villages, the foreshadowing makes it too obvious, but I hope the rest of the mysteries and how it all connects together will impress me. The mystery of the villages is actually something that would impress people who don't think of it as it's a cool trick in of itself. A similar type of trick was done in Zero Time Dilemma which is the final game of the Zero Escape trilogy.

One funny thing I noticed is that after the first corpse is found in the grave, we got police to arrive to the crime scene to investigate but they just disappear without doing anything in this volume.

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.

Tantei Gakuen Q / Detective School Q Volume 1 (F1-5) Review

This time I'll be writing volume reviews for Detective School Q  (Tantei Gakuen Q, 2001), a 22-volume manga series from Seimaru Amagi and Fumiya Sato who are known mostly for their Kindaichi Case Files / Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo (1992) detective fiction manga series. Tantei Gakuen Q enjoyed a rather decent run on Kodansha's Weekly Shounen Jump (you can see some WSJ shounen tropes in this series but nothing detrimental to the series). The Tantei Gakuen Q series also got a 45-episode animated TV series adaptation by Studio Pierrot.

The story follows a boy named Kyu Renjo. Kyu and certain other wannabe detective students aim to join the Dan Detective School which was founded by a man named Dan Morihiko, a legendary detective who in his active days was the only detective in Japan that was allowed to carry a gun and is now aiming to retire and find a successor to himself. All the graduate detectives from the Dan Detective School become elite detectives that actively work globally and even the students who by chance manage to join the school are respected by the police. The students of DDS are sometimes even called to solve major murder cases!
But of course there's a problem to joining this type of school: every single year more than a thousand people attempt to take the entrance exam and only handful are chosen. But there's more, the DDS has a "Special Class" which is going to be nigh impossible to get to as Dan Morihiko himself personally is going to choose the members for this year's DDS's Special Class.

The exam to get into the Dan Detective School is quite interesting. In a hall with countless people we get to see a crime scene on the big screen. The scene that is showed for the exam was taken from an actual homicide case, but the photo taken was the only clue that was left behind as the victim took the photo with his last remaining strengths right after the culprit left. In the photo we see tissues and a cigar jar on the floor, an open door to the woods, and there's also a backpack on the ready.

The explanation for the DDS exam case on the photo is as follows:
The crime took place near K Lake in the S District, in a one-room cottage on a resort.
There is another photograph showing the scene when the police arrive. Everything else seems normal except the cigar jar and tissues are on the table this time.
The victim was a cameraman named Fushimi Kenzoushi (28). Mr. Kenzoushi held a first degree judo belt, was 170 cm tall and weighed 72 kilos.
In the clear weather following heavy rains, he came to the plateau resort to take pictures in -10 celsius and below temperatures.
On January nineteenth at 2:30 PM he was reported to have checked in. His body was found on the bed the next day, the 20th, at about 11:15 AM.
The cause of dead was being stabbed with a sharp weapon at around 1:00 AM. It was predicted that after the attack Mr. Kenzoushi lived for 10-20 minutes and then the picture was taken.

Six people (staff of DDS) arrive on the stage while emulating the six suspects in the case. All 6 of them were staying at a hotel by the lake, two kilometers away from the crime scene. All suspects had a motive at the time, and none had an alibi.
The hotel at where the six were staying had a public phone, and the police found evidence that there was a call to the victim's cottage.
After questioning, the suspects were taken into custody for further investigation.

All six of the suspects had injuries on their eye, arm or ankle. They all claimed that the injuries occurred in accidents before the murder.
Suspect one is left handed with a cigar.
Suspect two has an injured right arm.
Suspect three's left ankle is hurt.
Suspect four looks like he's in high school and has an injured eye.
Suspect five doesn't really stand out; he's short and fat.
Suspect six is an old man with a walking stick so he couldn't possibly kill a man who knows judo?

Just from that information on the case our main character knows who the culprit is.
The rules for clearing the exam are interesting as the participants have to follow the suspect they think did it. The place where the suspect is is where the 2nd part of the exam takes place. The answer to the mystery does make sense but there are other possibilities you'd come up with.


The Cast of Characters
Right off the bat we learn that the main character, the third-year middle school student Kyu was saved and taught by a skilled "detective" in his like elementary school days which was when he started to get this superhuman perception. The writing style of Tantei Gakuen Q is the most shounen out of any other true soft boiled detective fiction manga and anime series out there, mostly the reason for that is the magazine in which the series was printed in. It was a rather long-running series on WSJ which is known to mostly publish manga that strictly follow certain writing styles. There are a lot of shounen tropes in this series that are still somehow made to fit a realistic setting. The series wouldn't be as rich as it is if the cast of characters weren't written the way they are.
One other thing I gotta mention is that in series like Detective Conan and Kindaichi Case Files, there are no characters with pink/green/blue/red etc. unnatural colored hair. In Tantei Gakuen Q there however are so you can immediately tell that it has aspects to it that aren't meant to be completely realistic. Furthermore the characters have quirks to them that are amplified from how other series present certain talents.

The other cast of characters also have different quirks to them to fit the squad of detectives but still stand out. For example at the beginning of the story Kyu gets help from a pink-haired girl named Minami Megumi who has a photographic memory; an ability to remember anything she hears or sees even if it is just for an instant.
There's also Kinta, full name Tooyama Kintarou, a tall boy with luck on his side. He's basically like Nagito from Danganronpa 2 in that he trusts in his luck. But what's more Kinta also has insanely good eyesight; he can see far away clearly, and he's insanely strong (I guess) as he's able to throw Megumi like nothing several meters to the air.
The DDS Special Class also has Narusawa Kazuma, a fifth grade elementary school student who's put out bunch of hit games. He's also known as the Genius Programmer, as well as Amakusa Ryu who is the character that most of the story revolves around.

The idea behind Detective Academy Q is that a group of students join the Q-Class (Qualified Class) which is taught by Dan Morihiko himself. Morihiko is a ripple ex-detective now full-time on wheelchair. He aims to pick the Q-Class and teach them everything they need to know as perfect detectives.

The First Case
Chapter 4 begins the first real case of the series. It's a story where participants go to an old government-own manor in Kirisaki Island to solve a cold case. In 1888 the serial killer Jack the Ripper appeared in a town called East End in England to wreak havoc. Jack the Ripper wore a bowler hat and a long coat and he gave his nickname to himself. His method of killing was tearing his victims to pieces with a large knife. What's more he became known for sending letters to police detailing his crimes in order to ridicule them. The case of Jack the Ripper was left unsolved.
However the story continues as 50 years ago right on Kirisaki Island a similar case happened in which the victim was cut in half. That case happened during World War, and the killer also called himself Jack the Ripper. After killing three victims this second Jack the Ripper disappeared without a trace from behind two locked doors.

The final exam of the Dan Detective School Q-Class entrance exams is to solve the Jack the Ripper case that occurred on the island 50 years prior. No one has solved the case so the teachers don't even know the answer themselves. The investigation into the puzzle of the dual locked room case shall now commence!

The JtR case has intriguing background to it. During the war, Japan's military held British prisoners of war in the prison on the Kirisaki Island. However, as the end of the war drew near, the fights grew worse. The guards abandoned their duty and fled the island with the prisoners.
All that was left were ten people who were left behind because there weren't enough boats. The ten prisoners waited for a ship to come back for them as they shared what little food they had and tried to keep their spirits up. But as the days passed, the remaining people soon lost hope and started fighting with each other in fear of starving to death.
However, then one of them found a boat. It was a wreck, but it was possible to repair it. They regained hope, however, as soon as they fixed the boats they realized a horrible truth; there were ten prisoners but only seven could fit the boat. Three had to be left behind.

As a cold tension ran between the prisoners, a certain event happened. When one of the prisoners went to wake another missing prisoner up for breakfast, they found the corpse of a mutilated prisoner cut in half from waist. Next to the corpse, written in blood, was the name "Jack the Ripper" on the wall. But the case did not end there; the next day one more person was killed the same way, brutally. The prisoners were terrified of the phantom killer, but one of them said... "If one more person dies, we can all ride on the boat..."
As the boat repairs were finished a third mutilation happened inside a locked room of a storage room. The storage room is a wooden shed on the roof of the mansion. However as soon as the group goes inside the shed, they find a corpse cut completely in half inside of it and the bloody words of Jack the Ripper printed on the wall.


The structure of the first Tantei Gakuen Q case is similar to the cases everyone is familiar with from  Kindaichi. The main characters and the case characters gather to an island with a mansion. There's no way to leave the island even if something happens.
Megumi notices with her photographic memory that three hanging knives have gone missing and someone vandalizes paintings of famous detectives with one of them for some reason. Two of the knives stay missing and the storm over Kirisaki Island gets worse. What's more, a key to the shed where the double locked room murder 50 years ago happened disappears and a corpse is found inside the shed while cut in half, emulating the mystery of 50 years ago.
There are thirteen people on the island and one of them must be the culprit.

The last 3 chapters of the first volume consist of the last exam that also deals with this first real case of the series.  The first volume in of itself is pretty entertaining. There's nothing stand-outish in it but it has that proper mystery flare to it with shounen elements in the mix.