On plotting the perfect (anime) murder
I’m a huge fan of mystery stories, which meant that I was overjoyed that there was not one but two murder-mystery series this season in the form of Chaos;Head and Mouryou no Hako. The likes of CSI and NCIS are good fun with their Hollywood sheen (the cool music, the SHADES OF JUSTICE and so on) but I particularly enjoy stuff like the Marlowe novels from Raymond Chandler. In addition to the deductive processes the devil is in the details: things like the rendering of Marlowe’s world, and to a certain degree CSI’s environs of Las Vegas, Miami and New York for example, make all the difference.
An important rule of classic detective fiction: the more beautiful she is, the more dangerous she will be
Since the murder-mystery genre is steeped in tropes and clichés, any new contender has to bring something new to the table, whether it’s an unusual setting, a film noir-inspired aesthetic or high-tech and psychological twists. The problem is of course that going after a serial killer is a stock premise: it’s dependable enough but can sink or swim depending on the execution (sic) of the story. The point where Mouryou no Hako and Chaos;Head part company is the way in which this tried-and-tested premise/plot device is handled; although my appreciation of the specifics are less-clear cut, I’m loving the former but on the verge of dropping the latter.
