Customer Reviews

The Kindaichi Case Files: The Opera House Murders

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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.

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 :)!!

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.

THIS is what I've been looking for! Lately I've taken an interest in horror manga/anime, I've been pleased with what I was seeing but I felt like there had to be something better out there for a murder mystery series. The Kindaichi Case Files is one of those "better" series I've been looking for, in fact so far it's the BEST murder series I've EVER encountered in any form (that includes manga, anime, books, and regular TV Shows). This series has everything that I was yearning for, humor, intelligent killers, emotional background stories, and revenge! I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoy well done tales of vengeance. By the end of each story I was half cheering on for the killer who had been so terribly wronged by their victims in the past. Although I warn you the manga is currently Out of Print (OOP) outside Japan and although most volumes are easy to track down used on Amazon, there are a few that are difficult to come by at a reasonable price.

Japan Positive Reception/Honors
Kindaichi is one of the earliest works in the mystery manga genre, basically it's THE mystery manga. The Kindaichi series started serialization in Weekly Shônen Magazine in 1992. In 1995, the manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for shônen. In Japan, there is a total of 56 volumes with 35 cases, 17 Kindaichi's short cases and 7 Akechi's short cases. Together, the volumes have sold over 60 million copies in Japan, making it one of the best selling manga of the 1990s.

(Lack of) U.S. Positive Reception/Honors
Currently this manga series is OOP outside Japan, Tokyopop released the first 18 volumes and stopped due to bad sales numbers. Although they lost the rights to Kindaichi when Kodansha pulled the rights from all of their series away from Tokyopop. I can't comment on how good of a job Tokyopop did on the translations/editing since I have no access (or understanding) of the original Japanese manga volumes. I will say though that I think it's GREAT that each individual volume is usually twice the size of a normal manga, and contains an entire murder mystery story. Although they did split at least one story into two manga volumes.

It's series like this that make me wish that all manga was simply available in a high quality digital format! Why? Because here I am recommending a series with all my heart, but not every volume is easily tracked down. PLUS perhaps if manga distributers didn't have to take into account actually going through the process of manufacturing the book itself this series might stand a better change of being rescued and being completed in the U.S.

The Kindaichi Case Files is one of my favorite manga series. I have tried to read other mystery mangas but none of them can stand up to the intrigue of Kindaichi's Case Files. Kindaichi is a really down to earth laid back guy who has a very high IQ and knack for noticing the small details nobody else sees. One of the greatest things about this manga is the fact that there are clues to solving the case in the drawings. So if you look carefully enough you maybe able to find the casebreaker before Kindaichi does. Compare that to other mystery mangas where you really have no idea what's going on until the main character reveals the solution. With every case, you will notice your ability to solve the cases begin to improve. This is one of the few mangas that will exercise your mind as well as entertain you.

Personally, I believe this is one of the best detectives book I've read. There are so many little details that the main character points out that it's amazing! If you're the type that loves both manga and mystery this is highly recommended