Kindaichi Case Files - Page 2

Once the first killing takes place, scripter Kanari sticks respectfully to the conventions of old-fashioned murder mysteries. A lot of the story elements would've fit readily into a 30's era B-pic: thunderstorms, regular appearances by a mysterious cloaked "phantom," a doltish representative of police officialdom who primarily exists as a foil for our detective hero, a long-winded drawing room explanation and so on. It's all nicely staged through Fumiya Sato's heavily gray-scaled art. But like so many formal mystery stories, the only characters allowed to have any real personality are Kindaichi and his Watson, Miyuki. It's not much exaggeration to say that the only way we distinguish some of the Drama Clubbers is in the way that they're offed.

Tokyopop has accorded this book a Teen Age 13+ rating, which seems right to me (though some adults may be nonplussed by a murder scene where we get to see a naked woman floating face down in a bathtub). Unlike most American mysteries written for a young audience, this is a full-blooded murder mystery: the killer, we learn, is in fact patterning his slayings after the play that the Drama Club has been planning to put on. Artist Sato doesn't stint in showing us the results of these dark deeds; while the imagery isn't as floridly splattery as Battle Royale, say, it doesn't mask things in shadows either. Back when I was devouring books like EQ's Player on the Other Side or Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (which first established the stranded island murder mystery), I'd have loved coming upon a manga series like this. Who gives a fig if the characters are bland - the book includes pages with maps of the murder scene!

Despite its largely skeletal characterization, the book contains a fascinating coda where we learn the original leading lady, Fuyuka, had sent a letter to the murderer just before her death, asking the would-be killer to forgive those who had done wrong to her "so we both can live together in heaven one day." The dark irony (the murderer hadn't read this final communique and thus lost a chance at redemption) and the presumption that one's place in the afterworld is more significant than it is on this mortal coil aren't not things you'd find in the old B-mysteries. But they're sufficient to get me considering picking up the second volume in this series. I'm thinking it'd make a good beach read - the pocket-sized graphic novel format definitely suits it.

Article Author: Bill Sherman

Bill Sherman is the Comics & Graphic Novels review editor for Blogcritics. With his lovely wife Rebecca Fox, he has recently co-authored a sudsy size acceptance novel entitled Measure By Measure.

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