Detective Conan Episode ONE (2016) - Part Two

The Journey through Tropical Land

| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 

Inside one of the amusement park's towers, Ran is looking outside through binoculars as Shinichi brings her Coca Cola; this is one of the more known scenes of the series as well (Watch Movie 4: Captured in Her Eyes). Afterwards Ran and Shinichi run out as Shinichi starts counting down to zero and water starts to come out of ground in circles around them as Detective Conan opening 4: Unmei no Roulette Mawashite starts playing as Ran and Shinichi spend time in Tropical Land. The scenery is really cool, lovely and all the stuff about the really creepy looking mascots is really hilarious, like Ran running to hug one of them and a pink mascot grabbing Shinichi.
But most importantly I bet that everyone who watches this scene will get a sharp cold feel of nostalgia from listening to Zard and watching it all unfold.

Then Gin and Vodka, the two men in black, now reach Tropical Land to do business with the company president and also potentially get rid of laid out traps.

Shinichi and Ran then go to a roller coaster, the Mystery Coaster, line like they did in the original as Shinichi keeps talking about Holmes and about how Holmes can immediately identify traits from people by merely touching their hands; Shinichi playfully claims to demonstrate this by grabbing the hand of a woman who's in line to the roller coaster with her friends and saying that the woman is a part of a gymnastics team merely from the blisters on her hands, however Shinichi quickly confesses that he just saw unique bruises around her thighs that come from working with uneven horizontal bars as the wind was blowing up the woman's skirt. Then two other people come, a man with a woman all over him, and asks Shinichi and Ran to leave the other two women alone. The man and woman then kiss and Shinichi dreams of kissing with Ran until it's time to go travel the Mystery Coaster.

Gin and Vodka arrive to the scene and Shinichi just keeps talking with Ran about Holmes until she gets pissed off and tells Shinichi to shut up as she just wanted to enjoy the trip. After boarding the coaster Ran says that she just wanted to enjoy Tropical Land with Shinichi and that Shinichi doesn't understand her feelings, but then quickly says that she was joking about it and Shinichi gets all flustered. It's pretty funny to see Ran tell Shinichi that he won't get far as a detective if he falls to something like that., even though the part of looking forward to the trip was true.

Ran and Shinichi enjoy themselves on the roller coaster as Gin and Vodka are on the back seats of the same roller coaster while looking at the company president with binoculars; wondering if there are any traps. Gin sends a message to Chianti and Korn, two assassins of the organization, that there's no need to assassinate the CEO. As Chinti is leaving but Korn doesn't, she wonders if Korn just wants to ride the roller coaster, to which Korn starts, ridicilously enough, blushing.

On the roller coaster a drop of salty water suddenly drops on Shinichi's face while they're inside a tunnel and then bunch of other water start to get splashed all over the place and everyone wonders what's going on - this scene is somewhat censored from the manga as its one of the bloodiest cases in Detective Conan - then Shinichi looks backwards and Gin and Vodka look forward and they get to see a fountain of blood flowing from the neck of a person who's with a screaming woman next to her as the blood splurts even on Ran's face, and what's more, the victim is missing his head entirely.

After making their stop, the police and ambulance arrive and the corpse is taken out the roller coaster. As Gin and Vodka are about to leave claiming the victim got into an unlucky accident, Shinichi stops them and tells everyone that it was most definitely a murder and that one of the seven who rode the same coaster ride is the murderer. The men in black say that they're not staying around but inspector Megure appears, saying that he's happy Kudo Shinichi is on the scene to make the case easier, and then everyone else - including Gin and Vodka - get shaken up that a detective prodigy is there.
As the police inspect the crime scene, there is no signs of an accident or malfunction anywhere and the amount of damage clearly doesn't suggest suicide, however, the murder method is still unknown. Then due to Shinichi's suggestion, Megure let's everyone else except the 7 who rode on the Mystery Coaster leave the scene.

As Megure excludes Ran and Shinichi from the suspect list for the moment, there are five suspects who could have killed the victim on that coaster ride. The victim this time was the man who was making out with the woman earlier, which caused Shinichi to dream about kissing Ran. This moment is kind of interesting because it doesn't tell use the exact names of the suspects but instead we just call them by Friend A, Friend B, Lover C, and the Men in Black D and E. I think Gosho didn't want to reveal anyone's names because then he would have been forced to make the police identify Gin's and Vodka's real names, and things would have turned nasty if they tried to do that.
Note: this is the first time Shinichi meets Gin and Vodka.

The main problem with anyone else except the Lover killing the victim is that the Safety Guard must have been on so no one could move around, of course if the men in black tried to, they might have been able to pull something off as well as they sat behind the victim. Then Gin appears next to Megure and Shinichi and tells them that they don't have "time to stick around while you play detective." Gin's icy gaze shocks Shinichi; it's almost as if the man in black has killed countless people in the past without feeling anything.

The police then pull a bloody knife from the Lover's (Aiko's her name) purse but she claims it wasn't her. Vodka claims it's obvious that she did it and that now it should all be settled but everyone is  suspicious because the killer got caught too easily, then as Gin and Vodka try to leave, Megure asks everyone to hand their ID's for safety measure and things almost get bad with Gin about to pull a weapon on inspector Megure who comes to take the men in black's ID's, but Shinichi stops them as he has an announcement to make: The Lover is not the killer. The true killer is one of the victim's female friends that sat far in the front instead. After all, there's no way a person's head would be cut off cleanly with a mere knife and especially with a woman's strength. There's also a lot of suspicion in the knife being found in the Lover's bag when she could have easily gotten rid of the evidence beforehand.  Instead the knife was put in the Lover's bag beforehand. It's clear that the knife was not used for the murder but a steel wire and the roller coaster's speed was used instead. Shinichi demonstrates how the murder was done by showing how its possible to prepare a way to slide from the safety guard, how it's possible to use a hook and coaster rails and a noose to rip off the victim's head while doing it all in a pitch-dark tunnel; and unlike for anyone else, the friend is familiar with gymnastics so it's most definitely possible for her unlike for anyone else to pull off the crime. Shinichi also showcases his eye for details as the friend is missing the necklace she had before they entered the roller coaster. The necklace most likely being the place where she had hid the wire.

As Shinichi keeps presenting evidence the other friend of the victim appears and claims that one of the Men in Black could have easily pulled the crime off as well, as they sat right behind the victim, however, although Shinichi agrees that the two men seem very suspicious, the two of them tried to push to leave the scene even with the police present, making them even more suspicious. It all comes down to the fact that the killer knew that the victim was about to die, which is why they teared up and started to cry; the salty water which flew from the front horizontally to Shinichi's face could only have come from the friend of the victim, Hitomi. Hitomi explains that the victim, Kishida, and her were dating and loved each other before either of them had even met the other friend or the victims current lover, Aiko, but then he dumped her all of a sudden. So that's why she planned to murder him on a roller coaster as that's where some of her fondest memories of the victim are, such as that being a place for their first date and the murder weapon being the necklace she'd gotten from him, and of course even the reason why she put the knife in Aiko's bag was to frame her for stealing her loved one. The culprit is so mad at the lover that she throws her bag at her but the chubby inspector Chiba punches it out of the way. The case ends with Hitomi crying on the ground and Shinichi narrating: "Later, a large quantity of sleeping medicine was found in Hitomi's purse. It seems that after the murder she planned to follow Kishida-san in death by committing suicide. Two hours later, the necklace used in the murder was also located in the tunnel. The thread had been, as I had thought, swapped out for piano wire... and most of the pearls had scattered. The ones left basked in the setting sun, giving off a faint light. Almost as if they shed a long trail of tears."

As Shinichi and Ran leave the crime scene with the culprit caught, Ran keeps sobbing and thinks how crazy it is that Shinichi doesn't feel anything about a murder like that. The reason why he doesn't is because he's faced many cases with torn-up bodies in the past. Shinichi also does a pretty crappy job at calming Ran down but then he sees the two Men in Black and runs away. Ran's shoelaces stop her from going after him and Ran suddenly gets a horrible feeling, as if that she's never going to see Shinichi again.

While the first part of the special focused on introducing characters and a lot of set-up for the next parts, this second part of Episode ONE is definitely more focused on character moments with Shinichi and Ran finally visiting the Tropical Land amusement park, and it's also focused on giving an even more entertainingly presented quick case to the watcher compared to the Sewa mansion case in the first part.


Click to continue to the final part of my Episode ONE overview.

Detective Conan Episode ONE (2016) - Part One

"Thus, in order to obtain information on the men in black I came to live at Ran's home, where her father works as a detective. Even so, this old man's an unbelievably lousy detective! Unable to let that slide, I took the place of the old man, and using my natural deductive reasoning along with some gadgets Professor Agasa invented I went along, solving one difficult case after another."
- Edogawa Conan (Detective Conan episode ONE, 2016)

2016 and 2017 were crazy years. I graduated as a chef back then and have now moved onto university of applied sciences, and Detective Conan's anime (1996) got its 20th anniversary. To celebrate that the series got its 20th film, The Darkest Nightmare (2016), which was actually quite different from other Detective Conan films and I really did enjoy seeing it all, but also during those years we got the very beginning of Detective Conan fully remade into a one-hour and thirty minutes movie-length special with new scenes added to the story. That remake, Detective Conan Episode ONE: Chiisaku Natta Meitantei, was also written by the author Gosho Aoyama so it can very much be considered a canon remake that's done in the modern Detective Conan style. This post will be an overview and then review of the special and the post will be split into three parts because of it's enormous length of about 9000 words.

| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 

The Passage of Time - The Beginning of Detective Conan

It all begins as a woman walks into a laboratory. To the older fans of the series, we can easily see that this woman is the one known as Sherry. She's looking at corpses of lab rats that have died one by one until she sees something shocking; one of the lab rats has stayed alive from whatever she had put them through.

The scene transitions to the Beika Aquarium as our main character Shinichi along with Ran solve a case there; the case from episode 772: "The Kudo Shinichi Aquarium case." Shinichi says his legendary line: "We're like sharks. We pick up the scent of blood, proceed to the scene of the crime... and use every sense we have to draw out the culprit. And once they've taken bait, we sink our razor-sharp teeth known as "evidence" into them until they've given up. That's just what a detective does." And OPENING 1 Mune ga Dokidoki starts playing, instantly giving me nostalgic vibes. The Episode ONE opening also consists of all the scenes with Ran and Shinichi as children, taken from the manga.

After the opening Shinichi and Ran are shown leaving the aquarium and Ran stops sobbing (she's naturally afraid of dead people, sad murderers, supernatural stuff, and such) while the rain starts pouring down and Ran wants to run home but Shinichi stops her from doing that due to certain reasons - Ran wonders why and stops to put her jacket's hood over her head but as she does that her phone flies all the way to the sewer - and Ran didn't even know it was there! You see Shinichi had forgotten it there as he was coming up with methods the culprit in the Aquarium case could have used. Ran is mad at her new phone getting flushed down but Shinichi decides to not only pay for a new phone, some day, but also take her to Tropical Land, - "why such a cheerful-sounding place?" ponders Ran - a beautiful amusement park that's being built in Tokyo. Ran also pushes Shinichi to pay for all expenses at the Tropical Land if she were to win the Regional Karate Tournament - and easy task for her.

The scene transitions once more. Under the pouring rain a man enters a pub where a man dressed entirely from feet to the head in black suit are sitting and drinking. The man who just entered decides to give an envelope to the man in black, known as Vodka, who doesn't even try to check the contents in the envelop. Then the man gets an envelop as well, filled with money which he counts. Happy with what he sees, the man asks Vodka what his next job is though he's in for a surprise as another man dressed up in black sits to the other side of him and tells him that there's a rat who's been talking about the organization walking about. The man starts to sweat but plays it off and takes a drink and asks what type of alcoholic beverage it is. The answer according to Gin is "Rum, Cointreau and a bit of lemon juice. X, Y, Z. It's a drink called "This is the End." " Then the man gets all shaken up and decides to quickly leave the pub and walk into the rain as he tells the men in black to call him when they have a job for him. As this situation goes on and he leaves there's a pretty nice raw pub song OST playing, giving off some nice atmosphere to the whole situation.

Outside, the man runs into his car and looks behind shocked until he calms down and starts car up - only for him to stop as he puts the car key to the start and he starts sweating bullets, gathers up his energy to start the engine, put his seat belt on and then go up in flames along with the car as an explosion happens right after the man thought he was safe.

In the pub Gin and Vodka get a call to make them leave the scene immediately but they decide to take last sips of the drink and wonder what to do with the weapon smuggling data the man who just died gave them. The men in black then talk business about getting money, information and setting up traps on people as they head to meet someone at a place that Gin says is "too good to miss," which is probably the funniest line he's ever said in this series. And the scene fades away as Gin and Vodka still just drink in peace without saying a word...


The scene transitions to a morning day with slight amount of clouds and bunch of visible blue sky. Shinichi is sleeping overtime in his large house as the door bell keeps ringing; it's Ran and she's there to visit our main character. It's 11 a.m. and Shinichi wonders what she wants - they had planned to go to a certain place a while back but Shinichi had forgotten and decided to read mystery novels until late into the night. Then we get a nice scene with Ran washing the dishes after making the food and Shinichi reading the news and drinking coffee before they leave; Shinichi learns that the day when they left the Beika Aquarium a car near Beika Harbor had exploded the same night - and the case is still unsolved.  We even get to see the whole article about the case which really brings some life to the whole ordeal. And then Ran and Shinichi head out to buy a mobile phone.

At the city park a boy with freckles on his face, a girl with a headband and a darker skinned somewhat overweight boy are playing football. These three are of course three of the future Detective Boys, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi and Genta. The scene about them playing football is calm and relaxing until Genta kicks the football far away - right to Shinichi Kudo who takes the ball and starts bouncing it on his legs and head. As Shinichi is a former soccer player, he knows how to do all these cool tricks. Ran ponders about why Shinichi quit the soccer club but then we get a scene about Shinichi idolizing a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Shinichi tells Ran that he only practiced soccer because Holmes practiced fencing. To Shinichi Kudo, Holmes is a superhero; "Holmes is a famous detective that everyone knows! He's incredible! He's always calm and collected, overflowing with intelligence and refinement... and his powers of observation and deduction are top notch! On top of all that, his violin skills match those of a professional!"

Wada Hina, a karate expert like Ran

As Shinichi finishes talking about Holmes to Ran, a woman screams for help as her purse was stolen. The thief runs through the streets and gets knocked over by a girl named Hina Wada, then the man pulls out a knife and Wada also gets serious, unarms the man and uses karate to overpower him. Ran tells Shinichi that Hina doesn't just seem strong, but that she is strong, as Ran knows her very well.

Then Ran's best friend, the girl-from-a-ridicilously-rich-family Sonoko Suzuki, the 2nd daughter and one of the heirs to the Suzuki Financial Group, makes her appearance as she narrates a cringe worthy line about love and rivalry between Ran and Hina, and most likely something about a love triangle with Shinichi thrown there as well. Then Sonoko suddenly grabs Ran by the arm and takes her to the Suzuki residence to enjoy a rare feast.

In the Suzuki residence, Sonoko's parent's, Tomoko & Shiro Suzuki, are having a meeting with two rich-looking people, an older man, Sewa Takanori who is visiting the Suzuki's along with his wife. Sonoko's father, Shiro, explains to Sewa that Ran's father, Kogoro, is an ex-cop and now a detective so the man could talk to Kogoro about what they had been discussing with the Suzuki's but he declines and then Shinichi butts in to ask what the problem is. According to Sonoko's father Sewa and his wife are about to arrange a party but as Shiro is in the plans of arranging an opening day of his jewel exhibit consisting also of Sonoko's Uncle Jirokichi's  "Black Star"-jewel (we know who's going there; see Magic Kaito episode 6: Black Star) at Beika Museum the very same day, the Suzuki's don't have time to attend, and the reason why Sewa needs help from someone is because he's gotten a threatening letter which is ordering him to cancel the party. The letter says that if the party is held, someone will lose their life.

That's when Sonoko takes the stage and introduces Shinichi, who's right next to her, as a very valid candidate to take Kogoro's place - Sonoko even says that Shinichi might do a better job than Ran's old man! Shinichi also tells that he can help but Sewa declines and is about to leave with his wife, but the wheelchair he's bound to goes out of control! Shinichi jumps in but Ran quickly brushes him out of the way to help Sewa and grab the falling vase, but Sewa seems to be angry at Ran or his wife.

This whole ordeal seems suspicious to Shinichi and Sonoko's father, Shiro, is worried about his suspicious gaze towards Sewa, but the situation calms down as Ran gets a present from Tomoko Suzuki; a new super lightweight karate suit without baggy sleeves created by the Suzuki Financial Group's fabric manufacturer (Even though Shiro Suzuki is overweight, he's a fan of martial arts). The karate suit even has "Shinichi LOVE" imprinted on it - by the proposition of none other than Sonoko herself. Sadly Ran cannot use the lucky suit in her regional karate match due to regulations on many things during the matches - uniforms included.

The long day is heading towards its end and Shinichi and Ran missed their chance to get her a new phone that Shinichi promised to purchase her because of the Beika Aquarium incident. Ran heads home and Shinichi promises to buy her a phone some other time. Even though it's getting really late Ran suddenly realizes she forgot her wallet at the Kudo residence so they have to head back. After finding her wallet she goes to say bye to Shinichi who is immersed in crime novels at the house's libary.


At this point I believe it's good to take a break from this overview in order to explain something about our main character. Shinichi Kudo's parents are extremely famous and often spend their time overseas throughout the series; it's been three years since they moved away and Shinichi lives alone in the Kudo residence, but his parents do visit him often. His mother, Yukiko Kudo, is the famous ex-actor Fujimine Yukiko who always pampers her son, and his father, Yusaku Kudo, who's first name translates into "masterpiece," is one of the world's most famous mystery authors; he's even the author of books that have gotten adaptations in which Yukiko has acted in lead roles during her hey-day's. Even though Yusaku is near-sighted, as unlike Shinichi who plays to need glasses as Conan, Yusaku does need them, Yusaku is very keen-eyed when it comes to crimes and has helped the police to solve many hard-to-solve cases. What makes Yusaku notable however is that it wouldn't be hard to say that he's the smartest character in the entire Detective Conan universe. He is in fact so good at what he does that he might, in mere moments with far less information than others, solve what takes other characters exponentially longer to figure out. Because of Yusaku's influence Shinichi has gotten into mystery novels and because of that the Kudo Residence's library that Yusaku used to use as his work space when his son was a young child is a multi-story room filled with nothing but thousands of crime and detective fiction novels that Shinichi has also read throughout the years. 

Shinichi's father, Yusaku Kudo

While in the library Ran brings up Shinichi's parents and then teases him about how his own mother must have been Shinichi's first love but Shinichi gets flustered and remembers back to the kindergarten days when he met Ran who hated him back then. But before Shinichi gets to answer Ran a large explosion-like sound can be heard from outside the building and Shinichi immediately knows who it was. Professor Agasa, his neighbour, destroyed his building once again and as he gets hurt Shinichi and Ran go to his house and Agasa explains that he's made a Personal Mobility Rocket that he's going to use to get rich. Keep wishing, Professor.

At the same time Mouri Kogoro, Ran's father, is at their home, the Mouri Detective agency, at night, and talking on the phone in an aggressive manner as he's trying to do important things like drinking beer and solving magazine games. The one Kogoro is shouting at over phone is Eri Kisaki, Kogoro's wife who is also Ran's mother. Kogoro and Eri are always bickering which is why they're not together during the beginning of the story. Ran's mother, Eri, is also a known lawyer. This time Eri is calling Kogoro to tell him to get his shit together because he hasn't worked at all the whole month; as Kogoro is a private-detective, he needs requests. Which he never gets before he becomes the sleeping Kogoro in the future. Then Eri and Kogoro get into more arguments as Ran arrives home and goes to make some food.

The scene then transitions to the men in black, Gin and Vodka, driving Gin's Porsche 356A through the highway in the darkness of the night. Vodka ponders why the company president they'll be meeting in the near future chose a very specific place - of course the Tropical Land amusement park - as a place or their meeting. Gin assumes the company president might think that the men in black won't cause problems there due to the place being crowded. Vodka then wonders that the meeting at the Tropical Land might be a trap and reminisces how one of the men in black, Bourbon (who is their greatest intel gatherer), has said that the company president has been hanging around with some suspicious people. Gin then gives Bourbon praise but tells Vodka that they'll be beating the enemy at their own game once they know what they are up to.

Note: all these people with alcohol -brand code names (Gin, Vodka, Bourbon) are part of the unknown organization nicknamed the men in black that this overview often mentions.


The days go by and during one day the Regional Karate Tournament which Ran intends to win finally happens. Ran makes it to the finals and Sonoko and Kogoro are happy and Kogoro brags how Ran's inherited her strength from him (fair enough Kogoro is stronger than most people). Then Eri says that she hopes Ran won't become like Kogoro but there's nothing to worry about as she also inherits Eri's will and smarts.
Nearby the tournament arena Shinichi is on the phone with inspector Megure and decides to head to a crime scene. Then Mouri Ran and Wada Hina start to fight in the finals with a lot of karate action shown. Ran falls down once, then twice, until Sonoko gets pissed and starts to shout and give Ran motivational speeches. At Wada Hina's side the karate group consists of men who laugh at Sonoko - well, all except one of them known as Makoto Kyogoku (see DC Episode 153).
Ran gets up and sees Shinichi apologize to her from afar as he heads to a crime scene. This gets Ran very mad.

Under the thunderstorm and lightning, Shinichi arrives at a large manor. The owner of the residence is none other than the man in a wheelchair that Shinichi met at Suzuki family residence. The one who was there with his wife and talked about getting a threatening letter because of the party, man named Sewa.
Then inspector Megure explains that a murder has happened and Shinichi walks into the room telling them that he already knows who the murderer is. Sewa then soon remembers Shinichi.

That is when the first scene of the series happens as Shinichi walks towards the old man, Sewa, who's bound by a wheelchair.
In the mansion there was a murder which happened in the mansion's third-floor's guest room while rest of the people in the building were right in the middle of a party. The victim was identified as the president of Beika Bank, a middle-aged man named Yamazaki. Yamazaki was stabbed while laying on a bed and the murder scene was a locked room as the key to the room was in Yamazaki's pocket.  The only way inside the crime scene room was through a balcony window that's visible straight from the courtyard. That means that the culprit had to have sneaked through the balcony, killed the sleeping Yamazaki who was tired from the party and then the culprit must have also left through the way they came from. However the problem is that there were no footprints under the window and all the rooms around the guest room were locked up, meaning the culprit had no way to jump from nearby. So Shinichi comes to one conclusion; the culprit jumped to the balcony from after entering from a window about five meters away and then walked through the foothold and jumped to the balcony; making the culprit someone who knew the construction of the mansion well and someone who could move freely around the mansion during party without raising suspicions. There's no one else but the master of the house, Sewa Takanori himself. Shinichi tricks Sewa to fall from his wheelchair and then stand up as he remembered that Sewa used his supposedly-broken leg to stop the wheelchair back in the Suzuki residence. That means the leg was healed a long time ago and he was only pretending to be unable to move for some reason. After Shinichi catches Sewa, he poses for the cameras in the iconic scene seen in all the Detective Conan movies and the next day his face is on the newspapers.

"HIS NAME IS KUDO SHINICHI, With reasoning skills rivaling those of an adult, Top-Ranked Crime Solving High School Detective Solves Mystery Behind A Locked Room Murder" - words like that are all over the front pages of the news as Shinichi walks home the next day and listens everyone talk about how awesome he is - nothing else could make Shinichi happier than everyone praising him! That's something to brag about. Then Ran appears and tells Shinichi how she's annoyed because Kogoro doesn't get cases because everyone talks about Shinichi always. Shinichi answers her that it's not because of him but because of Kogoro's lack of talent as a detective to which Ran answers with a heavy fist that pierces through concrete walls.
Ran and Shinichi walk through the roads and Shinichi brags about all the fan letters he'd gotten from girls. Though the one he likes the most is obviously Ran herself. The scene with him looking at Ran without any background music playing is pretty neat.

I found the last scenes interesting: Ran tells Shinichi that if he keeps poking his nose in of these days he'll be in serious danger, to which Shinichi answers with a nonchalant "maybe." Then Shinichi tells Ran that he doesn't want to write about detectives but he wants to be one who solves all the suspensful cases. Obviously this scene is going to be used for when the eventual transformation happens.
Then they remind each other about meeting at Tropical Land amusement part at 10 o'clock the nect day. At the same time we can see Yusaku and Yukiko in a car filled with books in disguises; they don't want to ruin Shinichi's and Ran's time together as they seem happy walking outside, so for now they're going to leave without meeting Shinichi.


Click to continue to part two of my Episode ONE overview.

Animal Instincts - The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932)

"Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise"

- Frank Ocean

I am tired after reading this little piece of work... In a damn good way, though! It's the first time ever that a book has ever fallen from my hands - I literally was on the John while reading the book and then, when the final revelation came, the book just fell from my hands and I was sitting there shocked down to the bones with my eyes closed for a good 10 minutes until I managed to continue reading, albeit really slowly, with a lot of re-reads of those few pages. How, why, what... Those types of questions filled my mind. Queen really got me this time and I'll be proud to make a post of this novel for my 50th post milestone on this blog.

"Ungentle reader, you now have in your possession all the facts pertinent to the only correct solution of the... problem. ...I say with all good will and a fierce humility: Garde à vous, and a pox on headache!" - One of the greatest lines and works of a Challenge to the Reader that I've ever seen, most certainly; you can theorize to your hearts content, you will be trapped, you will be shocked - and THAT is actually a promise straight from an extremely optimistic and almost arrogant author known as one of the greats from the Golden Age, Ellery Queen, on one of his greatest works: The Greek Coffin Mystery.

I made a review on Ellery Queen's the The Dutch Shoe Mystery earlier this year and found it to be entertaining but not too special in the modern days, although the hospital setting for that story is very intriguing. I definitely understand how much the trick done in that story has inspired and been utilized in modern mysteries all the way to Ace Attorney, Detective Conan, Kindaichi and Danganronpa manga and game franchises.
However for this one we'll be talking about an entirely new kind of beast that you don't see every day as there is no mere one trick here that can be used as a trope to shock the readers, no, this is a one single long story that has been professionally crafted.

To put it simply The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932) - TGCM for short - is a traditional golden age detective novel which is even hyped by the author Ellery Queen, the writer name of one of the greatest known orthodox mystery writers, to be one of Ellery's (the character's) greatest cases - TGCM is a case that deserves to be called a well-written story due to the meticulous amounts of planning put into the story and how everything comes together. While it's not a work of perfect synergy, it does a good job to make it all flow together from the very beginning. The story takes place during Ellery's earlier years so the character Ellery, in the "present" of when the book was published, didn't want to publish the story until the fourth book because he himself felt that it was one of his weaker cases, which is quite opposite from reality. Ellery obviously had later thought of how he saw himself constantly messing up during the case instead of the case itself, basically he saw the trees but not the forest. In the novel he's a novice on the crime scene but he has still managed to make a name for himself, still, he's going to have to put in work in order to make the police and his father, the leading inspector Richard Queen, to accept him as part of the investigation squad. The same policemen and attorneys from the earlier stories are all present as well from the muscular inspector Velie and his squad to the district attorney Sampson.

The story begins with a funeral. The words 'tense atmosphere' are brought up multiple times by the story and characters in the beginning - the tensity is in the air up to the point when the coffin is buried as the funeral goes on, but no one is shedding tears. The presentation of the case in this book seems somewhat more gruesome than usual. by the way. The funeral is due to a man named Khalkis, a rich person who was known to handle art. The Case of Khalkis, a name it's given despite Khalkis dying a supposedly natural death, is due to the fact that during his funeral his new testament was stolen. Although there was only a five minute time frame between when the metal box in which the testament is in was last seen and when it was gone from the safe. The case begins with inspector Velie under Queen investigating every nook and cranny - every person who was in the funeral and even the ones who did not attend were listed and everyone's still in Khalkis's house which' area happens to be locked from outsiders; everyone is known and investigated multiple times, however... The metal box is never found. Due to it being locked and with only one key existing there are not many ways to get rid of the testament (such as flushing down the toilet), so the case is pretty well handled in both its limitations and its ridicilousness due to this metal box disappearing impossibly.
Ellery Queen appears on the scene. The police think of him as more of a nuisance during this time in the past when the case took place, and he makes a deduction: if the person who claimed that the testament was still in the safe between those five minutes, and the testament really was stolen then despite the butler of the house not seeing anyone go to the room, then there is only one place where the testament should be, and that place is...! Well, the coffin of Khalkis. As the coffin is lifted from the grave the police medical worker assistant happens to smell something off. Almost as if there was no embalming used on the corpse? On top of the body of Khalkis they witness as rotten corpse of another person who was strangled to death with some kind of rope, and to Ellery's surprise, there's no metal box to be seen, and that's the basis of the story with many twists to it.

When you look at the story structually, you have a book that contains over 400 pages, has a slightly smaller font than the usual novel and quickly in the pages goes expertly over events that would make a novice writer intentionally write chapters about to fill the pages; in the hands of a bad writer this would easily be over 600 pages. You have such an information packed story planned to such lengths and it only focuses on the important aspects of the case so much that it has to be pointed out. There are actually four answers to this case and it's bound to shock any reader at the very end. A complete opposite of Queen's own Kill as Directed work which was a mediocre-at-best short novel that stretched out every little detail.
As I was reading the story the third answer has an important detail that can only be figured out by people who are in possession of certain equipment - an equipment that many had in the past but barely anyone has anymore - so I was kind of down in the mood due to that fact being the way to expose the culprit, even though I was shocked by that one already, but the book did not disappoint in the end as it went beyond my expectations of how shocking it can be.
This is truly an impressive piece of work but not in a way that everyone can appreciate it, no sir, as it has nothing to relate to - you can't get emotionally attached to the events or the characters; emotional impact is sadly a likened to always be a sign of "good writing" for most people these days despite that not being true, sure you all know the drill. What makes this story so impressive is the plot weaving and handling of more and more raw information one after another.

So. TGCM is a grand murder symphony, it's a tale about a certain stolen painting and the lives that disappear with it. It's a story that - and I will take liberties of coming up with this kind of solution to how this story originated from what Queen mentions of the story and his fans in the Challenge to the Reader page - Queen created specifically for the fans who claimed that they could 'easily' see right through his plot weavings of the previous stories.

Note: It's preferable to read at least one other Queen work before this one though, for multiple reasons that I will not talk about here, not many of them are exactly spoilers but reading at least The Dutch Shoe Mystery before heading to this one is an advice that I will give to all the Ellery Queen fans in the future.

Rating all Dragon Ball/Z/GT/Super openings and endings

I've been on my 48th post on this blog and been thinking of what type of filler content I'd want to put in between the 48th and 50th post as I already know what type of mystery novel I want to talk about on that milestone, so I came up with this ranking post of all Dragon Ball opening and ending songs from the television anime series, and I'll write about them as I re-watch my childhood. Now is also a good time to talk about the series as Dragon Ball Super: Broly film  that aired recently was an amazing experience, Dragon Ball FighterZ has been paving its way with hardcore fighting gamers and is heading onto Nintendo Switch, and the newest game, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot created by CC2 gaming studio (after they dropped out from Naruto franchise since it flopped with Boruto) will be a full-on action RPG, hopefully similar to Legacy of Goku II which is possibly the only good Dragon Ball related RPG type of game. Actually I recently wanted to do this post after watching people compare Bleach and Gintama endings on YouTube. I honestly believe that Dragon Ball has some of the best ones even if you do leave nostalgia out of it (which I won't when ranking these, the nostalgia factor elevates all the songs and scenes for me).

These openings and endings will be from the Japanese television version of the OG - Z - GT - Kai - Super series of Dragon Ball, meaning no video games, dubs, movies or such, only the long-running series on television will be counted along with some specials.

Dragon Ball Openings

Dragon Ball

Opening 1 - Makafushigi Adventure.

Two versions, one song. The song kicks off in a funky manner. Very nice visuals and adventurous feel on both versions of the opening. Shenron and character models look really damn good and the colors are beautifully thick. The opening song is always amazing and the opening feels long, like a journey you go through. Probably one of the best openings out there. Dang.

10/10

Dragon Ball Z 

Opening 1 - CHA-LA-HEAD-CHA-LA.

This has 3 versions and Kai with this song, everyone knows it. Very iconic when the logo and the "fly away" kick in as Goku and Gohan fly on the flying nimbus. The original Z animations are nuts for this; gohan running on Shenron, the ice breaking, Goku powering up and Gohan running with Shenron coming from the clouds upwards.

10/10

Opening 2 - The Gohan opening. We gotta Power.

This is one of my absolute favourites and it's gas in dubs too. The animations right from the start look amazing. The song is Dragon Ball HARD if you roll with the games. Showing Gohan as SSJ teen then transitions beautifully to adult Gohan, Gohan with Goten and other characters are shown beautifully, Gohan and Videl on that car is funny, 18, Trunks, etc are shown. But when that fucking beat drops when you thought it was over at the same time as the television screen of Mr. Satan explodes and the Great Saiyaman makes his appearance. GOTTA POWER -- NO-TEN P-KAN - - RA-MEN ROPPAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GODLIKE!

10+/10

Dragon Ball GT

Opening 1 - Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku

Don't do this to me dog. Two versions of this. Almost crying watching this one.

:lissenpepe

Goku with Ultimate Shenron in his blue suit, the song... builds up so beautifully. Feels like three beautiful songs in one opening. Chills. Why does this look so good. Trunks with the blades.. Pan greatness.

10/10

Dragon Ball Kai

Opening 1 - Dragon Soul

This opening has 4 versions to it and sounds exactly like you'd expect a good DB opening to sound, DOKKAN DOKKAN PARADISE! It has that real good vibe to the song. I don't dig this era of the digital DB art (broly is fire tho) but the visuals in this opening are really damn good, no doubt. That face-off with Vegeta and Goku is my favourite part of it.

6.5/10

Opening 2 - Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go

This one starts different out of all the DB openings. It's not exactly what you expect a DB opening to sound like anymore but the song is not bad. The beginning has some vibe to it, feels like it would explode at first but it doesn't but the first 30 seconds sound amazing honestly. The visuals look nice but uninspired; they go through many different events that happen in Buu saga in this opening.

I'm not going to raise the score but those first 30 seconds sound different from usual and I dig it a lot.

5/10

Dragon Ball Super

Opening 1 - Cho-Zets☆Dynamic!

The opening has 4 versions to it. The song instantly kicks to gear with the nostalgic sun from the OG along with the logo with Super slapped onto it. The way the characters are shown in this is very Dragon Ball and the song is as well. The song is very feel-good and it's definitely a solid combo.

6.5/10

Opening 2 - Limit-Break x Survivor

Opening has two versions. Action starts right off the bat as the first frame is Goku and Jiren clashing with a punch. The way the characters are shown with the other characters from other universes hidden in dark as our main characters are shown completely is pretty cool. The song is very instrument heavy but still fits DB well. This opening brought in the hype when you started watching Dragon Ball Super every week, waiting for the Crunchyroll serves to stop crashing. The opening is pretty good.

7.5/10

Dragon Ball Endings

Dragon Ball

Ending 1 - Romantic Ageru Yo

Bulma themed ending with 4 versions. Some cover pages from the manga are animated as well, elevating the whole thing a lot. The opening has some really nice looking scenes. The song is very old school and has a really nice vibe, I dig it a lot.

8/10

Dragon Ball Z

Ending 1 - Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!

This is one of the weirdest endings of an anime you can find and it popularized the main character running in the ending cliche every anime loves to use now. The song is weird as hell, but very catchy after you listen to it couple of times.

7/10

Ending 2 - Boku Tachi Wa Tenshi Datta

The song kicks off with the hype right from the start. The opening shows Gohan walking casually while waving to his friends and then starting to run to see Goku with the angel wings at the end. The song is amazing.

8/10

Dragon Ball GT

Ending 1 - Hitori Ja Nai

The ending shows Goku, Trunks and Pan traveling through the lands, rivers and flying on dragons. The song is great and the ending has this feel-good atmosphere to it.

7/10

Ending 2 - Don't you see!

The song begins with master Roshi on a turtle. The song oh my gosh the chills. RIP Zard GREATNESS. The visuals of showing the cast are great and varied and the song elevates this to new heights. This is one of the most fantastic endings out there DON'T YOU SEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This ending is absolute gas.

10/10

Ending 3 - Blue Velvet

Dragon Balls break out of being stoned. The characters are shown in a really good way in this ending. The song is very different from what you'd hear people normally listen but damn I forgot how hard this ending goes. The song feels raw as fuck, they don't really use these types of tunes for shounens.

9/10

Ending 4 - Sabitsuita Machine Gun

Mini Goku appears and starts walking and it shows Goku's GT forms while at the end he looks back to walk to his friends as a grown up. The song itself is amazing, it's by Wands but sounds like B'z, good shit. The visuals on the other hand leave much to be desired.

7/10

Dragon Ball Z Special (2008)

Ending 1 - Orange Hero

The pencil color art style is pretty cool. The song has some vibe to it I can see many dig this ending a lot, it goes pretty hard and the visuals look great.

7/10

Dragon Ball Kai

Ending 1 - Yeah! Break! Care! Break!

The digital art is really prominent in this one but it doesn't look bad by itself, just not my type of style. The ending shows many different scenes in the series up to showing SSJ Goku from behind. The song is nice.

5/10

Ending 2 - Wings of the Heart

The animation flow as Goku flies with Shenron in this ending looks really good. The girly song might be some people's cup of tea but the ending feels really short and doesn't really manage to do much. Disappointing.

4/10

Ending 3 - Never Give Up [international opening]

7/10, it's good to hear some English Dragon Ball songs these days

Ending 4 - Dear Zarathustra

This is my most memorable ending from DB Kai. You can immediately feel the song right from the start. Everyone being in a photograph is neat. There's not much animation in this ending but it's a good one.

7/10

Ending 5 - Junjo

The ending begins with showing most of the cast and then it transitions to Goku flying to some spot in the middle of a sea with SSJ Majin Vegeta waiting for him, Goku powers up and starts throwing fists with Majin Vegeta. So simple, so good. The song sounds pretty amazing as well. I'd rank this +1 if the art wasn't digital. The

7+/10

Ending 6 - Oh Yeah!!!!!!!

Goten and Trunks sleep in weird positions and wake up as Piccolo looks after them. This entire ending is about Goten and Trunks turning to Gotenks. The song is pretty amazing again with some different vibe to it. I'd say this is less likely to get +1 if it wasn't digital than the previous, but it's almost as good as ending 5.

7+/10

Ending 6 - GALAXY

Immediately you can notice how this uses the remastered versions of the beautiful old art and makes it clean. This has the best use of color out of all the endings. The song is alright to good but there is no animation. It's kind of conflicting what to give this.

5+/10

Ending 7 - Don't Let Me Down

Kid Goku adventures remade in this but without animations. It's a very nostalgic ending and has a lot of great frams from OG Dragon Ball and couple scenes from end of Z. No animation but it's the only ending that does this. 

6+/10

Dragon Ball Super 

Ending 1 - Hello Hello Hello

The ending has a pretty average start with showing off that digital Toei art style but the rest of the ending is not bad. There's actually some animation and everyone gathering to watch the falling sun is pretty nice. The song is alright, has some good parts to it.

5/10

Ending 2 - Starring Star

This ending uses some old tropes from the OG endings and openings with everyone on cars. The song has some good parts to it but its mediocre.

5/10

Ending 3 - Light Pink

Sakura leaf ending for DB right down to the song style. The ending is split into two screens which is pretty cool. The song is good but the idea behind the ending is very lackluster. Looks good enough.

6/10

Ending 4 - Forever Dreaming

The ending is just Goku moving forwards on Flying Nimbus while the song keeps that Wowowowow tune going. It's not a bad song but I don't care for the ending.

4/10

Ending 5 - Yoka Yoka Dance

This ending isn't about animation but the way all the characters are shown makes this ending very packed. I actually really like how this is done, the art style looks great and the ending is pretty fun. The song isn't something I'd listen to but it fits this ending perfectly. I like how those Zeno Guards are there as well.

7/10

Ending 6 - Chaofan MUSIC

I don't know what to say about this ending. Chipmunk begins, then the song begins, the lyrics are really weird but the way the dude sings is really good. The ending also looks nice enough but it ends all of a sudden.

6+/10

Ending 7 - Aku no Tenshi to Seigi no Akuma

This is one of the best endings of DBS, the comic book format ending. It looks really fucking good, the colors are great and it actually feels like pages from the manga with a lot of random stuff happening. The song is great as well and kicks off perfectly at the mid point. The only problem is the lack of animation. Would have been cool to see with that style.

8/10

Ending 8 - Boogie Back

First Bulma ending since the OG. Naturally one of my favourites as well. The song is very smooth and the singer sounds great. There's not much to talk about the animations though.

8/10

Ending 9 - Haruka

The song for this one is so good brah. It's Tournament of Power ending showcasing all these characters one after another in groups. The ending is very simple but does what it sets out to do pretty well.

8/10

Ending 10 - By a 70cm Square Window

The best ending of DBS. I used to pump all the dubs and remixes I could find of this a lot when the anime was airing. The song goes super hard right from the beginning and then all of a sudden - very melancholic feel and then it feels like you're at a rock concert. It ends leaving you wanting more. Very good ending. I'd be surprised if this doesn't give some chills to DB fans with it starting with kid Goku and then Goku running while showing all those past friends and opponents he's faced.

9/10

Ending 11 - Lagrima

This song is really good and this ending has some of the best color palette for a Dragon Ball ending out of all of them, only surpassed by GT's endings. The character models look pretty damn good and this ending has some vibe to it. There is some heavy potential in this song if it was a little lower pitched most of the time. The lack of animations make it a bit worse than an 8.

7+/10

All in all I believe I can say that Dragon Ball Z has my favourite opening with Gohan and GT has my favourite ending with Zard coming in strong. If you didn't know, Zard has some of my favourite songs in Detective Conan. The singer, Izumi Sakai, sadly passed away in 2007 at the age of 40. Her voice is miraculous. 

Zard created nothing but fantastic and beautiful songs during their career, including:

- Unmei no Roulette Mawashite
(Detective Conan opening 4)
- Hoshi no Kagayaki yo 
(Detective Conan opening 15)
- Glorious Mind
(Detective Conan opening 21)
- Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de
(Detective Conan opening 22, made along with Naifu)
- Ashita o Yume Mite 
(Detective Conan ending 17)
- Kanashii Hodo Anata Ga Suki
(Detective Conan ending 24)
- Shojo no Koro ni Modotta Mitai ni 
(Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target ending)
- Natsu o Matsu Sail no Yo ni
(Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths ending)
- Tsubasa o Hirogete
(Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear ending)
- as well as songs for Slam Dunk and other series. Go listen to them, they're all fantastic.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Prisoners of the Sky (2018)

"When shooting stars traverse the heavens in a cross, Britannia will be met with an enormous menace. It will signal the beginning of a trial, preordained since ancient times. And mark the onset of a holy war... between a guiding hand of light and the bloodline of darkness."
- An old Britannian poem found in Nanatsu no Taizai chapter 16

Nanatsu no Taizai (Seven Deadly Sins, 2012) by Nakaba Suzuki is a long-running shonen manga series, known for its Dragon Ball-esque fights right down to the introduction of power levels, that has taken the world by storm during its run as it has at times managed to become the second best selling (in yearly sales) manga series, only behind One Piece. The story of Nanatsu no Taizai takes place during an older era of Britannia, following a mysterious boy known as Dragon's Sin of Wrath "Meliodas," and the adventure to find the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins gang that were exiled and thought to have died. The story moves with heavy emphasis on medieval settings, and it deals heavily with past events, regrets (the main characters each have their own 'sins' which they have committed that they have to live with) and slight amounts of romance with most of the characters.

The franchise so far along with the manga has two animated seasones, both 24 episodes in length, each adapting their respective arcs that take about 100 chapters per, and it also has a short animated special season between seasons one and two, but it's not special at all in reality, and it consists mostly of mediocre anime original material.
In 2018 the series got its first animated film along with a special manga chapter leading to the movie -the chapter done by the author Nakaba - that deals with a canon event, a battle between Mael of the four archangels and Meliodas of the ten commandments fighting each other in the skies with some neat yin-yang themed artwork as well.

Absolutely baseless hype

The Prisoners of the Sky film itself deals with a human-like being with wings, a 'Celestial' Meliodas-lookalike named Solaad who arrived down from the heavens as Meliodas at the same time as Meliodas goes up to the sky islands with Hawk the pig. The first half to movie deals with mostly irrelevant stuff and the important parts are handled in a mediocre way. While the OST is great as always with the atmosphere it creates, the movie itself is incredibly slow and the animations are very rough to look at, especially in the first half. The movie is clearly mass production stock-grade stuff, created only to give fans of the anime series more content to watch. It's too bad that the content in the two hours of the film is still not enough for me to prefer it over getting more content from the weekly manga chapters.

The plot of the movie is kind of silly. There's a group of demons hailed to be comparable to the Ten Commandments, although they are much weaker than they are hyped to be when their feats are showcased, and their leader's motivation for doing evil deeds is because 3000 years ago Meliodas did not choose him as one of the Ten Commandments, even though he believes he'd surpassed them in power. It feels almost like a joke. The villains are terrible in this movie and most of the sins just get generic moments, Escanor one-shots one of the main six antagonists, Gowther uses illusions, King petrifies, Ban tanks bloody attacks with his immortality and Diane uses Heavy Metal to protect herself.

Man In Arms

Sad to say, however, is that from start to finish this movie is mostly awful. Everything is extremely mediocre so much so that it hurts. I've seen my fair share of animated films and this type of bad writing is what I hate the most and for some reason this type of lack of effort put into a cinematic work is the norm for shounen films. Terrible movie-only villains, really bad, generic and cliche usage of side characters and a laughable storyline that always ends the same way. So boring and bland that my head aches from thinking about it. The movie basically shined like Escanor with Cruel Sun with how bad it was. 3 out of 10 would be my rating due to Escanor getting two cool-looking scenes and Meliodas's short clash after he gets his sacred treasure sword 'Lostvayne' from Elizabeth.

While it's not a must-read or -watch, I've been following the series weekly for over four years now for my weekly dose of action. Last summer it has come to my attention that the series is actually reaching its conclusion soon, which was to be expected as the series seemingly has itself split into three main arcs between chapters 1 and 300. The manga has some inspirational moments to it when it comes to how I love an adventure shonen series to be written like - there's a time in the manga when Meliodas is in the pub and the text boxes from every random character fill up the screen. Those also contain foreshadowing about the famed King Arthur of Camelot. I think that the author Nakaba Suzuki did a really fine job setting that moment up - if the series was less battle-esque and more adventurous, it could be pretty fascinating to read, in my opinion. There was also a scene in the beginning of the story that's really beautifully presented. It's a scene in chapter 16 mentioning the enormous threat that is heading towards Britannia. You'll notice it as well immediately if you were to read the chapter. That scene is one of the most atmospheric ones I have ever seen from manga series with its beautiful art and aesthetics, as well as the differently presented dialogue that takes place during those panels.
I don't think I'll be reviewing other shounen like this on this mystery blog of mine, but right now this review exists because I want to say my respects to a dying series.

There's a lot to talk about the series, for sure, but about the movie, Nanatsu no Taizai: Prisoners of the Sky? Nothing. The movie was just a silly trashy money print that had no effort put into its storyboarding, animation, soundtrack or anything, really. Every single thing about it was awful.

Streets of Death #2 - Inger Johanne Vik series

"To write good history is the noblest work of man."
- John Dickson Carr

I digged a bit deeper as I wrote this post and learned that not only is she an attorney for graduating with a law degree and starting her own law business, but Anne Holt, the writer of these Inger Johanne Vik and Hanne Wilhelmsen books, both crime fiction series, has actually worked in Oslo PD (PD is short for Police Department) in the 90's, as a journalist and she also served as Minister of Justice. Anne Holt is thus pretty damn prolific when it comes to understanding the inner workings of the police and the justice system as a whole. Even though her books mostly showcase the police in more positive light than I believe they would be in reality (they do break laws but the cop characters feel like far too optimistic and good people). Anyway, now I finally understand why Anne Holt can describe anything to do with how the police works with such confidence in her books. Neat. 
Another thing I noticed on my /wikipedia/ search adventure about Anne Holt was that she lived in Lillestrøm and Tromsø according to my sources. Those places (and couple other places) in Norway are well described in the Inger Johanne Vik stories as well. 

This post will be talking about the second book in the Inger Johanne Vik crime novel series. The story is about an ex-profiler for FBI who gets caught up in murders in Norway as well as the superintendent cop Yngvar Stubo for KRIPOs. In the first blog post I talked about the book collection. The Streets of Death containing the first two books in the series. The first book review can be read here. This post will be the continuation and about the second book in the series.


Book 2 - What Never Happens (Det som aldri skjer, 2004, / Celebrity murders)

Four years have passed in the story since the first book. 

What Never Happens, which also goes by The Final Murder in English print, is the second Vik&Stubo story starring these two characters except this time in a much more intimate light. Inger Johanne Vik has given birth to a new child right before the story of What Never Happens starts. That baby's name is Ragnhild (sounds viking-ish for some reason). Ragnhild is a child who, much like most babies, poops and cries quite a lot every time they are focused on. This time Inger Johanne Vik's older daughter Kristiane gets less screentime as Ragnhild gets her fair share of scenes. There is more drama in this book than in the first one as the father of Ragnhild is the previous book's higher ranking police officer Yngvar Stubo himself. 

The story this time around is singular without sub-plots and it's about celebrities getting murdered. In Norway a famous talk show star Fiona Helle is found in her home, murdered. There is symbolism at play as Fiona Helle's tongue has been cleanly split in half and placed on top of a table for everyone to see. After Helle's death multiple other famous people meet their end one after another at the hands of a celebrity serial killer, and Norway is thus pushed under a wave of fear.

It all begins with a person [the killer] feeling confident at their art. We know from the beginning that the culprit is a female as well. While in style this story shares many similarities from how the culprit and the other characters and their thoughts are presented, the story of What Never Happens is definitely quite a bit different from What is Mine as it begins with Yngvar Stubo and his underling Sigmund already in the crime scene looking at Fiona Helle's body. However after getting no clues, Yngvar Stubo decides to ask her wife - the ex-profiler Inger Johanne Vik - some advice on what to do next. Inger Johanne is now off-work on maternity leave as her and Yngvar Stubo's child Ragnhild has recently born. Naturally due to the baby Inger Johanne tries to avoid the cases as much as she can but Yngvar talks her into it. Inger Johanne's profiling isn't that useful this time around either for the police but it is handled in a more interesting way for the reader when you reach the ending of this story and all things come together.

For the most part I felt that this story was about the same quality as the What is Mine, so not exactly something I like to read too much of, however there were no bad parts that would have felt too convenient unlike in the previous story. What Never Happens is a very solid story that still feels kind of lifeless and basic modern crime fiction however it does have a flair of professionalism in it. I could tell that Anne Holt really knows what she writes about. All the in-depth knowledge about life, police, writing etc. that she has gained throughout her life come together and shine in this book. There was only one noticeable problem I had with the story (aside from family drama that I didn't care for which took too many pages and which always went back to the plot in a sort of unnatural way) and it was about the first murder. In the end of the story they explain that the first murder is different from the rest but I just had to wonder then why was it pointed out that Fiona Helle's tongue was cut in a "clean and precise" manner fitting for a professional.

That aside, What Never Happens has two standout aspects about it. The first being the ending and the second being the main villain. The last 50 pages or so felt much more interesting than the previous book and this book together up until that point as the villain of this story appeared finally. While the culprit's existence and actions were hinted at throughout the story, it felt like this thing was truly progressing once the final parts of this story started and the culprit got active and got to the spotlight, quite literally in fact. Unlike in the first book where the villain was a letdown, in this one, while the villain appeared far too late into the story according to some complaints I've read, she had some real presence and affected the story in a very clever way. The ending of these celebrity murders had one of the better endings I've read so far in general and I wonder whether the culprit will become an overarching character, though I most likely won't be actively looking for the next installments in the series.

I can say that even thought the culprit's motivations at first felt kind of lazy, Anne Holt managed to make it much better by the end of it all as she went in-depth about who the villain was and how the story changed them so that the ending of the story itself also transformed along the way. I could understand the culprit and also be entertained by what type of character she was despite doing ruthless murders.

Last tidbits:   In the book's afterwords for What is Mine (book #1), Anne Holt explains that while she was in a restaurant during spring of year 2000 she had heard a story that had happened in 1938, a story about a man named Ingvald Hansen who was convicted to a lifetime in prison for raping a murdering a seven year old girl named Mary.
In the afterwords Holt says that from what she'd heard, it's more than likely that Hansen experienced what's called juridical murder, something that happens when people get sentenced despite clearly being innocent.
Juridical murders happen a lot in different ways and they affect anyone in various ways and are life-destroying events more often than not. It's not rare to lose a high position at work and never get work again for being sentenced for something, after all. A juridical murder will literally change your life to the worse with the snap of a finger.

In the afterwords Holt also explains that she investigated Ingvald Hansen more by reading a newspaper article written by Doctor of Jurisprudence Anders Bratholm (Tidsskrift for lov og rett, 2000, p. 443 ff, printed in 2000). Apparently the article goes over interesting facts about Hansen, one of them being that the man died couple of years after unexplainedly and suddenly getting released from prison. Hansen's case also mentions about a judge, Anna Louise Beer, who never forgot about the case and who knew that Hansen was innocent but couldn't at the time showcase the proof for it. In the 1990's Anna Louise Beer tried to track down the papers regarding Hansen's case, but they had all disappeared.

The story she had heard about Ingvald Hansen was what inspired Anne Holt to create Aksel Seier for What is Mine. It's interesting that the side character was what most likely kicked off the Inger Johanne Vik series. Seier's story resembles Hansen's in various ways and Judge Anna Louise Beer is thus the inspiration for What is Mine's Alvhild Sofienberg as well. Lastly, the 'perfect murder' used to kill the kidnapped victims in What is Mine was created by Anne Holt's brother, Even, who described a perfect murder method in his doctoral thesis.

I know this should be posted along with Streets of Death #1 blog post which was about What is Mine, but since it's a collection post I'll be adding this here because it shows how Anne Holt is rather knowledgeable when it comes to analyzing and prolifing real life stories. It's also OBVIOUS that the culprit in What Never Happens is based on Anne Holt herself so I thought this afterword for What is Mine fits with the ending of What Never Happens when trying to understand what interesting type of person this attorney-author Anne Holt truly is.


I'm glad I finally got these out and can move forward to hopefully better things. Right now I've set my goal to get to 50 posts on this blog for some reason so I'll try to post 3-4 more blog posts about something after this. I've been thinking of going through all the Detective Conan movies once more and rating them but I don't want to burn myself out (I already know which ones I prefer the most after all and don't want to ruin the fun of watching the next movie (23rd) about Makoto and Kaito Kid by potentially over exhausting myself from doing many rewatches! It seems that I should watch episodes instead, hmm...).

Streets of Death #1 - Inger Johanne Vik series

It's been a while since I posted about novels because these two that I'll be posting about now have been have what I've been reading for the longest, but yesterday there was such an incredibly nice weather (today too) during late evening that I just went to sit at a quiet park and read the rest while absorbing the wind and remaining rays of light from the falling sun while the skies were clear and blue. It was beautiful. It became slightly chillier as the hours went on (because of the strong puffs of wind every now and then) but I was almost shaking from the feeling of freshness. Ah, summer. I loved that... That was such a great way to get myself to finish reading these. I suggest anyone to just go sit out there during evening when it's not too hot or cold if you want to feel something special. Hell, maybe you'll get motivated to work on projects that you've had in the back burner for far too long.

Anne Holt is an attorney and a Norwegian crime fiction write known for her two fictional series, the first being a series of stories about an officer named Hanne Wilhelmsen who drives a pink Harley Davidson, and the second series Holt is known for is her Inger Johanne Vik series. Last year I managed to cop two-in-one for a measly 3.50 euros for the first two Inger Johanne Vik books, a story about a profiler that we'll go further in-depth of in this post. It's good to finally post about these, eh.

The two-in-one collection (about 835 pages) is translated into Streets of Death (Kuoleman Kadut, 2016, Finnish collection) and I've been holding back on finishing these books for far too long of a time now. I'm glad I finally mustered through them. They weren't bad or anything, but I'll explain my thoughts on my lack of motivation for finishing them here for sure.

I read the Finnish version of these stories.


Book 1 - What is Mine (Det som er mitt, 2001, / Minkä taakseen jättää in Fin)

What is Mine is the first story in the Vik&Stubo series. In the English version I believe Stubo's first name is Adam, but in the Finnish and the original versions it's Yngvar. Adam is kind of lame of a name for Yngvar Stubo in my honest opinion as well because of the type of character he is. What is Mine introduces us to the main character, an ex-profiler for FBI, Inger Johanne Vik. Inger Johanne is a woman in her 20's that lives for profiling (as a human, not a job). We also get to learn about her family; her ex-husband Isak, her daughter Kristiane who suffers from some sort of autism, her parents and the normal life problems she has with them.
We also get to meet the deuteragonist (in a sense), higher ranking police officer Yngvar Stubo from KRIPOs (Fin version of the department). Yngvar Stubo, if I remember right, lost her previous wife daughter in a really ridicilous way, where one fell from stairs and the stairs onto the other and both died. We also meet Yngvar Stubo's trusted subordinate, the large-built Sigmund.

The story of What is Mine is simple. It starts with Emilie, a young girl, leaving the school. While Emilie usually walks home with her friends, this time she did not as her friends left somewhere on a trip. Emilie was left alone to walk home that day. As she decides to go a shortcut alleyway, that she usually takes to get home, a man appears and asks her: "Are you Emilie?" -  "You are Emilie Selbu, right?" Emilie quickly passes by the man and then the last thing she remembers is that the man had put something over her mouth. That is where the cruel child kidnappings - and murders - in Norway begin as What is Mine starts. Yngvar Stubo and Sigmund along with everyone else from KRIPOs start a hunt to find a child killer. In this all as the police don't find anything quickly enough, Yngvar Stubo decides to ... somewhat stalk... Inger Johanne Vik, whom Stubo claims he knows as a profiler. Inger Johanne however tends to push Stubo away and correct him: she was only a profiler student under the best profiler teacher in America. Inger Johanne does not spend time profiling anything too much in this story, she's what you could call all hype no bite.

However, that's not all as the story has another side to it. There's a sub-plot that takes half of the book that Inger Johanne Vik is motivated in figuring out (probably because she's a mystery solver at heart). In the sub-plot that also starts at the beginning of the story, Inger Johanne Vik visits a nursing home where a woman named Alvhild Sofienberg (who smells like disgustingly strong onion for some reason) asks Inger Johanne to find more about a decades-old mystery that has been haunting and attracting Alvhild for ages. What Alvhild wants Inger Johanne to investigate is about a man named Aksel Seier. Aksel Seier was imprisoned for 8 years for raping and murdering a child, and Seier never pleaded guilty. Alvhild Sofienberg explains that she believes that Seier was not guilty because Seier's sentence ended and he was all of a sudden released in silence and Seier moved out of Norway.

Now, my thoughts about this is that What is Mine has some decent dialogue here and there and is not bad, but it is a mediocre story all things considered. The best part about it in my honest opinion are couple small dialogues Inger Johanne Vik has about what type of person the culprit could be that reflect back to the name of the book very well. I think that people who like to have the name of a book to be able to be deciphered from the story will like this first story for that reason. The pacing is fine for the most part but it doesn't have much life to it. The story feels kind of manufactured, unrealistic. Like stock-grade crime fiction. I don't really care much for the characters either. There's some romantic tension between Inger Johanne Vik and Yngvar Stubo but it's all done in inner dialogue type of way which Anne Holt likes to use a lot. Doesn't really work for me personally but I can understand if someone else would like inner dialog being used. The drama in the story is kind of boring. The wrap-up of the story is the worst thing about What is Mine. The killer was handled sadly in a bad way (the culprit felt unimportant, had lack of depth, etc.) and the ending is convenient as the plot threads come together in the most unrealistic ways possible (Anne Holt probably thought it'd make the stories feel more important if they were connected to the main plot element) but it was just too much and I can't suspend my disbelief for something that huge. The ending of the story didn't do any favours whatsoever for the story or the characters.

Anne Holt's writing style is interesting in how she forces the reader to remember the names of overarching and important characters by hammering their full name in the pages every time the characters are mentioned in the text. I didn't dislike that part of the books, it was interesting. The names of most of the characters are pretty memorable in the first place though.


Since this post turned out longer than what I intended it to be, the next book in this collection and the next half of this post will be talked about in the next blog post right after this one. I probably shouldn't split blog posts but I make too long ones too often so people lose interest. That's why I'll splitting the post out. Streets of Death collection has two different books in one anyway so it's the perfect time to try this split method out.