Title:
The Kindaichi Case Files: No Noose Is Good NoosePublisher’s rating:
Age 13+Genre:
MysteryPublisher's Website:
TokoypopAnime:
Sound bite:
A string of apparent suicides shakes up a prestigious cram school. A good read, but not for kids.My rating:
For 13 and up, with caution. Gruesome murder scenes and a storyline that involves bullying, suicide, and a mass suicide put this off limits for younger or more sensitive children.Kid Reviews:
More details:
Plot Summary:
Hajime Kindaichi may be a genius at solving crimes, but his schoolwork leaves something to be desired. His mother tricks him into signing up for a prestigious cram school, but Hajime quickly learns that the school has another reputation: for suicide. On his very first day, he stops a girl from hanging herself. Then a math teacher tells him that a prankster had scattered test papers on the floor and left a message atop them in blood: the single character "ko." The teacher, Yoko Asano, is a suspect, and she asks Hajime to clear her name.But before he can start, the prankster strikes again, this time leaving a tape player playing a lullaby and a note from the "komori uta (Japanese for "lullaby") from hell." Also at the scene is the character "mo," again written in blood, and Hajime begins to see a pattern.
Next, Hajime encounters several thugs and learns that they bullied another student, Mitsuru Fukamachi, driving him to commit suicide. Before long the three bullies are hanged in three separate incidents. All three death scenes include a tape playing a lullaby and a character from the phrase "komori uta."
Warning: Plot spoilers ahead. At first, Hajime thinks that the three thugs comitted suicide, but eventually he figures out that the math teacher was the culprit. She had fallen in love with Fukamachi, whose death was not a suicide after all. He was murdered by the bullies. The teacher was wreaking her revenge on them.
Character and morality:
This book portrays suicide in a number of different ways, although several of the suicides turn out to be murders. The backdrop to the school's grim reputation is a mass suicide that occurred during the American occupation of Japan. A group of 30 Japanese soldiers,awaiting execution, sang a lullaby to calm themselves before hanging themselves in their cells. This is the genesis of the "lullaby from hell." An elderly custodian explains that these men had gone to war for idealistic reasons and felt betrayed by their leaders, so they chose a peaceful suicide over execution.
The treatment of Fukamachi's apparent suicide focuses on the loss felt by his friends, one of whom becomes unhinged and attempts suicide herself. This is the suicide Hajime interrupts at the beginning. The three bullies are deemed at first to have hanged themselves because of guilt over hounding Fukamachi, but their deaths go unmourned by the other characters. One teacher, a bizarre character played mostly for laughs, believes Asano killed the bullies and applauds her for it.
Asano keeps a special album with photographs of her students who have committed suicide. She believes they killed themselves because they lacked emotional support, not because they were stressed by exams. "People who have something or someone to rely on, no matter how bad things get, they will never commit suicide," she says.
After her arrest, Asano attempts suicide, but Hajime visits her and tells her that Fukamachi would not want her to kil herself. Instead, he urges her to atone for her wrongdoing and work to make the world a better place.
Violence:
This volume has many gruesome death scenes but little actual violence. The hanging victims are shown with peaceful expressions, sometimes with blood dripping from their mouths. The vandalism scenes feature hanged chickens and splattered chicken blood.
Sexuality/body functions:
No explicit sex. The book strongly implies that Asano and Fukamachi have a physical relationship, despite the teacher-student relationship and the difference in their ages. In one scene she is lying in bed, apparently naked but covered by a sheet, while Fukamachi sketches her.
Asano is shown in a bra in one scene, and a painting of a female nude figures fairly prominently in the plot.
Language:
"School sucks," announces one character. One "dammit," and "hell" is used as an expletive once.
Substances:
None.
