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| THIS IS A MANGA ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS ANYTHING BEYOND THIS CHAPTER. ---------------------------------------- What I like best about Detective Conan is the 'intertextuality' component to its narrative: the manga / anime is constantly making subtle and 'not-so-subtle' nods to many detective stories: the series truly feels like a chronicle of what the genre has been best known for overtime. And what encapsulates best this quality is undeniably Aoyama's 'Detective Picture Book', i.e. an encyclopaedia of some sort in which the mangaka draws and presents a detective of his liking, whether the character in question come from a book, a TV show or in this case a manga. This special feature, available at the end of every volume of the manga, had a huge influence on my readings growing up. I have discovered many personal favourites over the course of time, and have never been really disappointed by what Gosho Aoyama has recommended to his readership: for instance, I had a fun time watching the decent, albeit ultimately flawed 'Beautiful Bones' anime adaptation. Thus, my curiosity was not completely satisfied yet: that is why I have indulged myself in reading the 'Bannou Kanteishi Q no Jikenbo' manga that was suggested by the author of the unmissable Detective Conan. Of course, similarly to 'Beautiful Bones', what was recommended was not the adaptation, but the original source material - i.e. the light-novel series. Unfortunately, what was officially released in France was the manga adaptation (titled 'Q Mysteries' over here), and not the books. However, I had heard good things about it, so why not check it out. So I did, and truth be told I was pleasantly surprised by its conclusion considering how messy the premise of this first arc was: what started with a rather interesting investigation continued with another case entirely, then dived into a backstory that - at first felt totally out of place, to finally conclude with an ending that mostly made sense. It was packed with themes for a purpose of course, but I think the writer overdid it a bit. It was not always easy to follow some of the characters' decisions as a result: even some of their deductions felt a bit arbitrary at times. You see, the main character Riko is specialised in 'Appraiser Inquiries'. Quite the charming premise, the problem being that to solve the cases before her requires a stupidly amazing level of knowledge in objects or theories related to mundane and not-so-mundane objects. Thus, many concepts are often introduced at the same time in order to impress as much as possible the readers. Once again, that is not an issue in and of itself - in fact that is quite the common approach in order to make your character appear as much intelligent as possible: it can be a bit unnatural, phoney even, but it generally works if done properly. What is an issue though is when you overdo the introduction of scientific concepts. This is where 'Q Mysteries' falls a bit short: the series kind of wants to have its cake and eat it too. The writer really tried his best to humanise Riko, yet at the same time could not help making her a true 'encyclopaedia of trivias'. Thus, the series constantly talks about scientific concepts, ones that are genuinely fascinating but that is not the point I am having here: there are too many of them for what is essentially a single detective arc. You do not see a Sherlock Holmes story being about the 'Jastrow Illusion', while at the same time dwelling upon the 'Brocken Spectre' effect, do you? Of course not, because that would be too densely packed for one single narrative. The writer for the 'Q Mysteries' series never really took this issue into consideration. Thus, it can be quite the hassle to read through some of the pages. It did not also help that the artist for this manga adaptation is clearly not the best at staging these scientific occurrences, or these deductions generally speaking. Not everyone can make a huge amount of wikipedia explanations readable, certainly not her (?): I suppose that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Yet, I am of the opinion that this first arc was quite 'decent', even 'good' at times: -First, because as I have already mentioned, the whole narrative mostly made sense by the end: sure the way Riko arrives at a certain conclusion feels a bit contrived, but I would argue that this a necessary evil for the characters to reach the final confrontation with the culprit. It is not perfect of course, but I felt really content while reading the conclusion. -Second, because even though the backstory felt a bit out of place, the fact that the writer did his best to explain why Riko is so knowledgeable in the first place is extremely commendable. That is something you rarely see in detective fiction: the detective is cultured, because the narrative said so. That's it. You rarely dive into the character's past to understand his or her thinking process. Here, you get to know Riko on a personal level, you get to see how she used her emotions at her advantage, you get to directly understand her thinking process. Again, it is far from being perfect - it is a bit 'juvenile', a bit too 'light-hearted' or even 'corny' for my liking, but I would lie if I said I did not find the approach pretty interesting. Flawed, but enjoyable at the same time. I am quite curious to see where the manga goes from here. |
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