Kyoukotsu no Yume - Vol. 5 Ch. 10
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The author tried to trick readers even from the very start. Notice how we see two very different Akemis in the opening chapters. The calm, confident one met by Isama was the real Akemi and the schizoid, confused one was of course actually Tamie. But the flow of the chapters made us think these two were the exact same person, with signs of multiple personality disorder and/or repressed memories. Not only the dudes in uniform were presented to be "interchangeable" - the two women also were presented as such by the author and artist. I'm curious as to how the author pulled it off in the novel, because it would be easier to do so in manga format where the artist can simply draw Akemi and Tamie looking very similar to each other which is exactly what Shimizu did. It is only in later chapters, starting from the flashbacks, that we see Tamie intentionally depicted by the artist as looking slightly more buxom than the always svelte Akemi.
There were still early hints, of course - the fake Akemi was established from the start to have poor recognition of people's faces, while the Akemi Isama met thinks he looks similar to his first husband, Sata Nobuyoshi. At the beginning we were led to attribute that to just be part of fake Akemi's prosopagnosia, only for it to be revealed later at the end that Isama does resemble Nobuyoshi which Akemi of course wouldn't have any trouble recognizing. And at that point of time the real Akemi was already pretending to be fake Akemi to give the latter her alibi. Brilliant.
There were still early hints, of course - the fake Akemi was established from the start to have poor recognition of people's faces, while the Akemi Isama met thinks he looks similar to his first husband, Sata Nobuyoshi. At the beginning we were led to attribute that to just be part of fake Akemi's prosopagnosia, only for it to be revealed later at the end that Isama does resemble Nobuyoshi which Akemi of course wouldn't have any trouble recognizing. And at that point of time the real Akemi was already pretending to be fake Akemi to give the latter her alibi. Brilliant.
I'm surely in the minority as one of the few who stuck around after Ubume and Mouryou and still criticise it brutally, but I reckon this was somehow a greater disappointment than both of them. The build up and general storytelling was good as usual, but the mystery and grand reveal were once again a disaster. Ubume and Mouryou sort of had a weak excuse of being moreso an philosophical exploration piece than a classic mystery, but this one leaned so heavily into it that it's practically begging to be seen as a geniune mystery genre.
Yes, the hints were present, but no way those scarce hints were going to be able to lift a story with such a convoluted mess of an explanation bordering incoherence, featuring 4 skulls, 2 Akemi where one is Tamie, Tamie's brother popping in at the end as if we could know his relationship and motives, a historical sex cult that no one could possibly have connected the dots to without a PhD in Japanese history and esoteric religions, and like a quadrillion plot twists total.
There are also some open questions that really challenge the believability of this whole debacle:
In the end, my greatest joy throughout all that was still reading those excellent translator's notes. Those were legitimately well written masterpieces, so thank you.
Yes, the hints were present, but no way those scarce hints were going to be able to lift a story with such a convoluted mess of an explanation bordering incoherence, featuring 4 skulls, 2 Akemi where one is Tamie, Tamie's brother popping in at the end as if we could know his relationship and motives, a historical sex cult that no one could possibly have connected the dots to without a PhD in Japanese history and esoteric religions, and like a quadrillion plot twists total.
There are also some open questions that really challenge the believability of this whole debacle:
- Can we believe that a random priest would just casually cut off the husband's head without hesitation AND cleanly remove the skull with limited time AND fool everyone who have handled the skull before as if it were never swapped? Maybe, but he was hardly even introduced as a character with personality so it will be hard to claim fair play.
- Can we really just brush aside how the head priest was "talking" without a line of acknowledgement? Maybe the novel did acknowledge it, but that was still an unecessary plot twist among all the other ones, designed solely for relieving the tension rather than a meaningful story development.
- How the hell does this onmyouji speculate so hard on each victim's thought process from decades ago and miraculously pull out the exact correct answer from the sea of all possible conclusions like 10 times in a row? The side characters literally just watch in awe as he pulls the most BS reasoning to explain the life stories of some 6 people + an entire organisation using only the weakest of circumstantial evidence and go "yep, that'll stand up in court" or "oh damn, he completely saw through me, I guess I should confess".
In the end, my greatest joy throughout all that was still reading those excellent translator's notes. Those were legitimately well written masterpieces, so thank you.
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