Category: Mystery

Manga of the Month: My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files

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My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files by Natsumi Ito

It is no secret that I love a good detective, but My Dear Detective seems custom made with me in mind. Our titular detective turns out to be a slightly older woman in 1930s Japan with a bishonen assistant, so really was there any doubt I was going to be reading this?

Mitsuko is the first woman detective at the agency she works at. She faces competition and sexism from colleagues, clients, and the police but her boss supports her (after all she closes the most cases!) and believes they can change things for the better. When Mitsuko inadvertently solves a case with high-society university student Saku, he suddenly decides he wants to be her partner and become a detective himself.

Mitsuko and Saku have a good rapport; while she shows him the ropes and teaches technique, he pulls his weight being able to spot certain things thanks to his high-class background. The series questions a lot of gender norms and societal rules, weaving these topics into not only Mitsuko’s character and history but also through the cases and clients they meet.

The mysteries are starting to ramp up as the first volume ends and I’m excited to see how the story continues. It is wonderful to have a new chapter about a lady detective to look forward to each week!

-Kate

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When the Cicadas Podcast

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hisui_icon_4040_round Don’t worry I am still able to podcast and the latest episode of Oldtaku no Radio. I went on with @QX20XX and we talked about the famous/infamous series, Higurashi When They Cry. The series is best known as the horror/mystery series where cute girls murder each other is grizzly ways. I came on the show as someone who watched the series in the past but also played the original visual novel. It is definitely a podcast where three of us found it thought provoking and fascinating and one of us would have rather watched Wild Cardz on loop 50 times rather than watch Higurashi again. Listen to the episode to find how who is who.

Don’t worry. As the picture above proves I was able to work in Type-Moon to the conversation. And best of all this time it was not entirely forced but in fact relevant to the conversation. Awesome!

Listen to Oldtaku no Radio #037 – Higurashi When they Cry

Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: I’m Apparently An Important Demographic

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hisui_icon_4040_round The Lord El-Melloi II Case Files is such an odd show because it mainly seems to be a show whose audience is pretty much me and maybe a dozen other people. It is a mystery show set in the Type-Moon universe in which lore and magical systems are used to solve crimes. The Type-Moon name is solid enough to sell quite a bit but damn if that does not seem to be a pretty niche pitch to someone who is not me.

I remember discussing the show with my roommate and both of us realize that while everything about this show should make it the one entry that Kate might have liked in the Type-Moon universe there was no chance in hell she would ever enjoy it. It has magic, mystery, style and even an extended case on a train. Even the handsome, nerdy, and snarky detective would not win her over. The fact of the matter that all the solutions revolve around lore and magical systems pretty much makes this one DOA for Kate.

The thing is I would have assumed that would be the case for many people. There is a bit too much magic for the mystery people and not enough action for the Fate fans. Then again this is a fandom that has sat through some long lore dumps and explanations of magical systems with nothing more than a nice pair of Tohsaka legs to help them along so a little scene or two of deductive reasoning is not enough to turn them off.

With that said this is still a story that is seemingly tailor-made for me. The question is did I love it? The obvious answer is of course I did otherwise this post would undoubtedly started very differently. So really this is just an examination of why I did. Let’s go! The game’s afoot!

WARNING: I will drop some spoilers for the show so you probably want to watch the whole thing before you read this. 

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