When I first came to Japan in 1991, I enjoyed learning about my new adopted home close-up, experiencing the “real” Japan and its people as opposed to the more formal language and culture I experienced through my Japanese classes at university or the stylized world of anime and manga. Some things I was surprised by:
- The works of H.P. Lovecraft are surprisingly popular in Japan, thanks to early translations of his stories starting in 1949, as well as Hobby Japan’s licensing of the Call of Cthulhu dice-and-paper RPG for the Japanese market in 1981.
- Audrey Hepburn died soon after I arrived, and I was surprised to find she had many fans in Japan who positively worshipped her. According to Mrs. J-List, she was popular because she was the first actress who became famous around the world despite being an A-cup.
- American-style situation comedies aren’t part of the zeitgeist of Japan, but two American imports, Full House and ALF, were huge hits in Japan. You can tell something is ridiculously popular when the Japanese Wikipedia pages (1, 2) are much longer than the English ones.
- Japan probably has more active fans of The Carpenters than any other place in the world.
- Columbo, the old crime drama series, is hugely popular and is still regularly shown on prime time TV today.
Then there’s the mystery genre, in which a murder takes place and a “famous detective” must enter the scene and solve the crime. For some reason, Japan took to this story format like a duck to water, and Agatha Christie is among the most famous foreign writers in Japan.
The History of Detective Stories in Japan
Edgar Allan Poe doesn’t get enough credit for all the things he achieved in life. One of the first important writers in the new country of America, his fascination with then-cutting edge technologies inspired the genre of science fiction, and Jules Verne specifically credited Poe for providing the inspiration to create stories about science. Poe also single-handedly created the modern detective genre with his stories based on his detective C. Auguste Dupin.
Over in Meiji-era Japan, these stories got translated and published in the literary magazines of the day, having a great influence on the country as she was in the middle of Westernizing. A writer who especially loved the mystery genre and the methodical way a detective picks apart the clues of a case in order to discover the culprit was Taro Hirai, who started publishing his own detective stories under the pen name Edogawa Ranpo, a tribute to Edgar Allen Poe.
Mrs. J-List is a huge fan of the mystery genre, and can generally be found watching reruns of the 90s and early 2000’s daytime crime dramas in which a murder has occurred and a grizzled detective must solve the case. These stories are quite formulaic and corny, but she loves them. This love of mystery stories isn’t limited to Japan, either. The other day I noticed her watching a Korean drama with characters wearing old-timey costumes, which turned out to be Miss Ma, Nemesis, a 2018 series adapting famous Agatha Christie crime stories.
Did you know there’s a Korean version of Criminal Minds? Here’s my blog post about it!
Five Mystery Anime
The mystery genre is well represented in anime, of course, both in serious dramatic form and as self-parody. Here are some of the best examples!
One of the more enjoyable series of the current anime season has been The Detective is Already Dead, which has great animation and great “seasonal waifus.” My blog post on this anime is here!
An anime that’s so popular it will probably still be airing when we’ve all shuffled off this mortal coil, Case Closed is the story of a young boy who helps the police solve crimes every week.
Although they’re not solving murders but far more casual mysteries, Hyouka is a gorgeously animated work about the eternally curious Chitanda and her deadpan assistant Oreki.
A bizarre but adorable show in the cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes is about cute girls who solve crimes.
If you’ve always wanted to be at the center of a reverse harem of famous bishie detectives, check out the London Detective Mysteria, an otome game that’s available on Steam.
Thanks for reading this post exploring the reasons why the Japanese love the mystery genre so much. Did we miss your favorite anime in this category? Post it below, or tell us on Twitter!
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