The Kindaichi Case Files: The Mummy's Curse [Paperback]

Yozaburo Kanari (Author), Fumiya Sato (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: TokyoPop (August 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591823552
• ISBN-13: 978-1591823551
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kindaichi is Excellent!, June 6, 2003

By 

"celes_star" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kindaichi Case Files: The Opera House Murders (Paperback)

I am a long time fan of Kindaichi and I am thrilled to see that it is finally available in English from Tokyo Pop! The series was very popular in Japan spawning a 50+ episode anime series, 2 animated movies, 2 live action TV series, a live action movie, 2 series of manga, novels, bilingual comics, english novels(printed in Japan), as well as loads of special editions and merchandise!

*ahem*

Hajime Kindaichi is the grandson of the famous Japanese detective Kousuke Kindaichi, a popular fiction character(much like Sherlock Holmes) who was popular in 70's and 80's. Kindaichi is a genius, especially when it comes to solving difficult crimes. Miyuki Nanase is Hajime's oldest friend and she often accompanies him on his adventures.

Each Kindaichi story is a murder mystery(often serial murder) where the murders are carried out in a seemingly impossible way. Kindaichi puts the clues together and finds the link between the victims until he figures out who the murderer is. Then, usually, he tricks the murderer into giving himself(or herself!) away.

Volume 1 "The Opera House Murders" is the tale of Fudo High's drama club who take a trip to an island to prepare for the drama competition in the wake of the suicide of their best actress. One by one, members of the drama club are being murdered in ways that mimic the play they are rehearsing, The Phantom of the Opera. After the first murder all lines of communication with the outside world are cut by a vicious storm and the fact that someone has cut the line on the boat.
I won't say anymore because I don't want to spoil the mystery......

As with all Tokyo Pop titles the print quality is lacking, but for the price there is no sense in complaining. The translation isn't as smooth as it could be. Some of the truly beautiful prose found in both the original Japanese and the bilingual editions are lost. Sometimes the dialogue is choppy and the jokes don't translate well, but overall it isn't a bad translation. One nice thing about the TP editions is the fact that each book is one self contained mystery. The mysteries in the original editions often spanned 2 or 3 smaller books.

Kindaichi is a wonderful read. I loaned my bilingual editions to all of my friends and everyone, male and female, anime fans and otherwise, enjoyed them.

I highly reccomend this to fans of manga and anime, as well as fans of mysteries. Even if you don't normally read mystery stories(like me) give Kindaichi a try. You'll probably enjoy it.

Another plus of these books is the fact that they have a great repeat factor - after the mystery is solved it's fun to read them again and look for the clues(which are there!) that point to the killer!

Just for fun: There is a sequel to this particular storyline. The first animated Kindaichi movie(not currently available R1) is "Return to Hotel Opera" and it draws heavily on the events of this storyline and further explores the past tragedy of the owner. The animated movie is based off a Japanese Kindaichi novel(which is quite a bit better than the animated film - they changed many things in the anime) which is avialable in both Japanese and English, though you may have a tough time finding the English edition outside of Japan.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE Kindaichi!!!, July 8, 2003

By 

M. McKee "animefan00" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kindaichi Case Files: The Opera House Murders (Paperback)

I stumbled apon this accedentily, sorry for spelling, on the Tokyopop web site. I read the plot and fell in love. I am a HUGE fan of manga and murder mysteries so I got it and I LOVE it it's an amazing manga!!! You also get some major BANG for your BUCK, It's over two hundred paged and only [$$$] which is god for a manga. I can't wait for the rest to come out I promise you I'll buy them all. And if the anime series coems out I'll but that too :)!!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Mytery, July 31, 2004

By 

Anime Fan (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kindaichi Case Files: The Opera House Murders (Paperback)

I love mystery, novel or manga. Kindaichi series is one of the greatest Mystery I have ever read along with Agatha's Ten Little Indian and Edogawa Rampo's Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination. The English version seems pretty accurated. The only question I have is How many cases TokyoPop planned to release? So far, it seems like they will release 12; however, I remember they are much more than that. I'm not remember exactly how many since it've been awhile since I read them, and the serie end couple years ago. I think the manga serie alone has at lease 19 full cases and some shorter cases.
After this manga serie end, the creator also created another manga serie I don't remember the name, I think it's Dun, Detective School or something along that line. The serie has the same theme and feeling as Kindaichi series, althought I don't like it as much. I hope TokyoPop will bring it here for manga fan in US to enjoy also.