あなたも殺人犯になれる! ❗ (IBC) - Week 15

あなたも殺人犯になれる! :exclamation:
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41GF53P6MAL

Week 15 January 27th, 2024
Chapter(s) #27 & #28
Start page 225
End page 242
Page count 19
Previous week week 14
Next week week 16

Vocabulary

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Name Hiragana reading Notes first mentioned in
赤川次郎 あかがわじろう the author cover
岡本聡美 おかもとさとみ main character, manga course participant chapter 1
箱根 はこね town in Kanagawa chapter 1
戸沢 とざわ secretary general from S Publishing chapter 1
七ツ谷むらさき ななつたにむらさき the female manga teacher chapter 1
菅野尚子 すがのなおこ course participant chapter 1
山名武三 やまなたけぞう the prisoner chapter 2
田所隆 たどころたかし the police officer chapter 2
中島 なかじま local policeman chapter 2
ミキ みき middle school student chapter 3
笠原信二 かさはらしんじ ミキ’s father, course participant chapter 3
百合子 ゆりこ ミキ’s mother chapter 3
宇部果林 うべかりん course participant,『か』of 『カバカ』 chapter 4
馬場しのぶ ばばしのぶ course participant,『ば』of 『カバカ』 chapter 4
加藤ジュン かとうじゅん course participant,『か』of 『カバカ』 chapter 4
富田丈一 とみたじょういち 尚子’s fiancé (full name in chapter 5) chapter 4
堺法行 さかいのりゆき course participant chapter 5
相沢弥生 あいざわやよい course participant chapter 5
宝塚 たからづか Takarazuka Revue chapter 7
長谷川清美 はせがわきよみ lodge keeper/employee? chapter 7
河本さつき かわもとさつき course participant chapter 7
安楽深雪 あんらくみゆき course participant chapter 7
真田万里 さなだまり course participant chapter 7

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5 Likes
Chapter 27

The humour in the beginning of the chapter killed me, it’s just such a silly style but I found it really funny! Loved the いい考えがあるわ / 反対 / 何も言ってないじゃない and the バカじゃないよ、かバカだよ

10 Likes
Chapter 27

弥生 starts to be really cool in this chapter. 各自武装!

Also enjoyed 笠原’s 「僕はしかしーーリーダーには向いてないと、小学生のころ先生に言われて。。。」 I almost thought he was changing his mind and saying he ‘must be fit’ for leadership with ないと, before he made it clear he was quoting his grade school teacher :joy: dunno if that’s intentional or just my limited reading comprehension.

Chapter 28

Eesh, the last chapter and epilogue are going to be doing some heavy lifting. 田所 needs to get free, 山名 needs to get found out, and we need a few mysteries explained still. At this point I’m expecting everything to be revealed at the last minute, maybe by 山名? He seems like the ‘painstakingly explains evil plan after getting caught’ type of villain.

Also RIP 七ツ谷むらさき! When did she die? Maybe when “中島” went upstairs to check on 田所?

9 Likes
Chapter 27

男は、いざってときは女を守って死ぬもんなの!

I wasn’t sure how to translate this. “Men, when they are crawling, will die protecting women?”

OK, [answering my own question] now I’ve looked up いざってとき on the web and found this useful suggestion that it is equivalent to “when the chips are down”, “when it comes to the crunch”

Also, I was going to comment on the lovely image of the books falling ‘thud, thud’ from the bookshelf at the end of the chapter. I often find that 赤川次郎 has a habit of ending chapters/sections with these little bits of visual atmospheric/comical scene description.

11 Likes

Yep, that’s right. Note also that the もん/もの in this sentence means “should”, “are supposed to”.

11 Likes

Ah, thanks! Super helpful bunpro link

4 Likes
Chapter 27

For me it was the part where 聡美 declares that she has a husband and a child… in the future, if she doesn’t die :joy:

9 Likes
chapter 27

I cringed so hard at that part :smiling_face_with_tear: I found her such a likeable, down to earth character in the beginning, but it feels like her… infatuation? With 中島 has just made her go a bit crazy in her head. I’m quite sure this is what the author was going for, though.

11 Likes
chapter 27

Just finished this chapter, will admit that I found it funnier than the last few. Still, comedy just doesn’t do it for me :melting_face:

Same. The story makes everyone so overly scared of the criminal, but then the characters feel it’s reasonable to make comments like that? :sweat_smile: I am fine with カバカ being silly, but it’s literally everyone at this point.

And can someone explain their thought process to me, that lead to them searching the house? I might reread this later, but it made no sense to me.
The police office was sent here, specifically because the police suspected that a murderer might be here. I don’t think you need to go out of your way to call for help, they should already be on their way. And wouldn’t the smartphones start working soonish?
I also don’t get why they don’t just get some food and lock themselves, all together, in one of the rooms. What’s the criminal supposed to do, claw himself through the door? :laughing:

And whats with leaving on person all alone to “protect the kitchen”? 山名 has made both 尚子 and 聡美 believe that there is another murderer in their group. Yet none are raising concerns??

山名 doesn’t seem like a master-killer to me. I feel like, had any of the characters been smarter, 山名 wouldn’t have gotten a single one of them killed…

8 Likes
Chapter 27

When they went to check on the “killer”, he wasn’t there anymore. I understand it as they’d rather find him out as a group, than being picked off by him one by one. Strength in the numbers kind of thing.

But yeah, at this point I’m not trying to make sense of things anymore with this book, just trying to enjoy the jokes
A bit scared that the last chapters will let us down and not bring answers to all the questions :smiling_face_with_tear:

10 Likes
Chapter 27

The conversation that led to them splitting into two groups makes kind of a nonsensical kind of sense, imo. It’s obviously drenched in wacky humor, but it also mimicks the way real world group decisions work and end up with idiotic compromises and I think that’s why I found it funny.

It starts with one of カバカ suggesting the plan that one half of the group should look for help outside the lodge. Someone interjects that they have no chance, because none of them knows the paths through the mountains and the bridge is broken. The housekeeper says that she knows her way around, so she’s briefly considered the prime candidate for the leader of the outside group, but she cuts them off by saying that if she goes outside, there’s no-one left to make them dinner. In a small interchange with very hamfisted humor, everyone then agrees that dinner is more important than getting help and they remember that it’s still cold and windy outside, and after that, there’s no-one left who’s willing to volunteer for the outside group. Someone then suggests that searching the inside of the house would be better than doing nothing, and everyone agrees, presumably because everyone is glad to have found an option that lets them stay inside in the warm and cosy while still looking busy.

Probably a throw-back to the earlier part where everyone thought dinner is more important than anything else.

I don’t think anyone expects the phones to start working again soon. They’re in a very remote mountain location, so I think critical parts of the infrastructure like reception towers and aboveground landlines got damaged, so the provider has to send someone to repair them.

They don’t know that, because the people who got a chance to talk to 田所 didn’t believe his story.

Yeah, this is on the same level as everyone still ignoring that さつき tried to free “the murderer”. That kind of giant plot hole throws me off, too.

8 Likes

Yeeeah, me too. I should probably just read it to get it over with.

7 Likes

The last chapter is a giant - actually longer than 3 normal chapters. So might be a good idea to start on it now if you are up to it!

3 Likes
chapter 27

Hmm, thanks for explaining. Not sure I like the reasoning much, but I can see the humor in it.

Ah, fair enough. I forgot what exact lie they were told about the police officer being there.

Also, I just realized how negative my post was :sweat_smile: should have ended with “Thanks for coming to my rant(ted talk)

chapter 28

And there goes むらさき :smiling_face_with_tear: Honestly surprised she died, but that just leaves me with more questions :joy:

That makes me hopeful we get a good conclusion for all the characters… Chapter 28 left me a little doubtful

5 Likes

Not quite - he’s made each of them suspect the other. So 尚子 and 聡美 might have objected to the other one being left alone, but everyone else… :person_shrugging: I don’t think this is such a big plot hole.

Anyway, the tone has been very consistently comical/yep they did that :tm: so I’m still happy with how everything pans out. ^^

(Edited for spoiler tags)

8 Likes

hmm… maybe I remember this wrong, but I thought he convinced them that there is another murderer, and only made them suspect that they could be Satomi/Naoko. But yeah, it’s not a big deal and I admit I was in a sour mood when writing that :sweat_smile:

4 Likes

The girls are more courageous than the guys here, Yayoi is especially dependable. RIP Nanatsudani-sensei :smiling_face_with_tear: I thought she’s going to be that annoying character who just won’t die, like a cockroach. It’s such an irony that she’s been saying that Mari will die soon but she’s the one who got killed instead.

10 Likes