Thank heaven for teen sleuths. Without them, the streets of Japan would be overrun with criminals.
Okay, that’s overstating things, probably a side effect of the manga I’ve been reading lately (the charming Case Closed, the middling CLAMP School Detectives, and the wonderful Kindaichi Case Files). And while it would be nice to see a professional detective who isn’t egotistical or inept, I’m more than happy to leave the investigations to the youths, particularly one as appealing as Hajime Kindaichi.
In most ways, Kindaichi is a typical kid. He’s an intelligent under-achiever who doesn’t take much of an interest in his studies. His investigative skill is more of a natural aptitude than the result of any diligence. While his knack makes him a asset when crime occurs, he’s enough of a smart-ass to make adults bristle at his interference. Dig a bit deeper into the gifted slacker and you’ll find a genuinely compassionate soul with some unusual insights into human nature.
He’s a great protagonist, and he finds himself in the thick of satisfying, grisly mysteries filled with an interesting range of suspects and victims. They crimes are structured in ways that allow careful readers to solve them. At the same time, these aren’t clinical exercises in deduction. The passions that drive the crimes are poignant, even devastating.
The two volumes I’ve read so far (Vol. 2: The Mummy’s Curse and Vol. 3: Death TV) both use an interesting storytelling technique. There’s a moment at the beginning of each that, while seemingly mundane, lays a thematic foundation for the mystery. In The Mummy’s Curse, Kindaichi and best friend Miyuki Nanase expose adult hypocrisy to help a schoolmate out of a scandalous situation. In Death TV, Kindaichi gets a reminder that you can’t assess a person’s character based on surface assumptions; everyone’s more complex than they appear. These themes recur and evolve as the mysteries move forward.
Visuals do something similar. Sometimes, camera angles and panel composition is repeated. While this is often attributed to a lazy artist with a copier, it’s used to productive effect in Kindaichi Case Files. When this happens, it’s an invitation to compare the two and search for clues. Illustrator Satoh Fumiya and writer Kanari Yozaburo apply this fairly subtly, never drawing too much of a circle around it.
There’s nice variety to the investigations in these volumes. Cracking the case in Death TV demands a careful examination of means and opportunity. Motive is actually a distraction on the way to the truth. The Mummy’s Curse depends more on finding out why the murders are taking place, though the mechanics of the crimes get some wonderfully ghoulish play, too. (It’s like a bloody logic puzzle, and I won’t say any more for fear of spoiling things.)
As if diabolical criminals weren’t challenging enough, Kindaichi also has to contend with interference from the aforementioned “professionals.” In the real world, resistance to amateur teens meddling in criminal investigations would seem fair enough, but this is fiction with a teen protagonist, so the pros get portrayed as a blend of arrogant and ignorant. (In Death TV, the detective in charge actually goes so far as to bet on the outcome of the case; Kindaichi is rightly aghast, but he goes along knowing the case won’t get solved if he doesn’t.) If Kindaichi does make a friend on the force, that friend usually just steps aside to let the kid do his thing. It would be nice if there were more of a balance between the two portrayals, a competent cop who’s an actual partner in the outcome, but it’s not too much of a distraction. And Kindaichi brings some of the resistance on himself.
But he’s also surprisingly kind and serious, in proportion with events around him. He doesn’t insert himself into cases out of ego so much as genuine concern for the safety of people around him. He even musters compassion for the perpetrators, though that doesn’t stop him from foiling them.
These volumes of Kindaichi Case Files are solidly entertaining mysteries. Fumiya and Yozaburo balance character and plot, detail and emotion. I’m looking forward to reading more.