Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.
Discussion Guidelines
Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Proper Nouns
Name
Hiragana reading
Notes
Kindle location first mentioned
赤川次郎
あかがわじろう
the author
cover
尾田医師
おだいし
Doctor Oda
24
目高組
めだかぐみ
Medaka clan
86
Izumi’s family
星泉
ほしいずみ
main character, Izumi
170
酒井好子
さかいよしこ
aunt Yoshiko
172
星貴志
ほしたかし
main character’s father, Takashi
179
酒井呈一
さかいていいち
Uncle (Yoshiko’s husband)
201
知子
ともこ
Tomoko (?Izumi’s mother)
211
マユミ
-
mysterious woman in Izumi’s apartment
348
土田恒美
つちだつねみ
Tsunemi, real name of the woman pretending to be Mayumi
1,827
岡崎真由美
おかざきまゆみ
The real name of Mayumi, friend of Izumi’s father, photographer.
2,549
Classmates
奥沢哲夫
おくざわてつお
Classmate of Izumi, Tetsuo (son of an executive, smart dresser, family expect him home for dinner on time)
251
渡辺周平
わたなべしゅうへい
Classmate of Izumi, Shuhei (stocky, bowlegged, loves Judo)
251
竹内智生
たけうちともお
Classmate of Izumi, Tomo. (Smart, heading for Tokyo university, wears glasses)
261
和子
かずこ
classmate,
433
Schoolteachers
三浦久子
みうらひさこ
Miss Miura, teacher
357
保科校長
ほしなこうちょう
Headteacher Hoshina
368
Yakuza
健次
けんじ
Kenji, Medaka gang member, short, unbalanced (brought the doctor in the car in the prologue), chews gum
555
英樹
ひでき
Hideki, Medaka gang member, skinny and unhealthy looking, wears thick glasses
556
武
たけし
Takeshi, Medaka gang member, stocky and overweight
558
佐久間
さくま
Sakuma, Medaka second in command, unusually tall (‘beanpole’), in 50s
558
浜口
はまぐち
Hamaguchi, local Yakuza chief
1,034
関根
せきね
Sekine, head of the Matsunoki clan
2,141
元
げん
Gen, Yakuza henchman in the Matsunoki clan
2,306
剛
つよし
Tsuyoshi, yakuza henchman in the Matsunoki clan
2,306
萩原
はぎわら
Hagiwara, messenger from a ‘big fish’
3,211
Other characters
黒木
くろき
detective, head of the S section
870
浜口物産
はまぐちぶっさん
Hamaguchi trading company
936
野田代議士
のだだいぎし
Representative Noda, politician, waiting for Hamaguchi
1,064
岩田
いわた
Night watchman at Izumi’s apartment block
1665
関根正明
せきねまさあき
Son of Sekine, the head of the Matsunoki clan
2,073
円谷重治
つぶらやしげはる
Shigeharu, left name on business card at Izumi’s apartment
2,665
マクシム
-
Maxim’s [I presume this is a reference to the famous Parisian restaurant]
2,480
三大寺一
さんだいじはじめ
Hajime, ‘big boss’, kidnapper of Izumi, nicknamed ‘the fat man’, and ‘Doc’
3326
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Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
I’m no longer reading the book
0voters
If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!
Well we all made it to the end. ‘We’ as in the 14 odd IBC members who have been answering the poll. But not all of the thirty who started the book with us, and definitely not all of the cast of characters in the above list. By my count there were nine casualties among them.
What did you think? Was it worth sticking out to the end? Was this a good pick for the IBC? What did you think of the pace? Would you be interested in reading another Akagawa Jirou book?
i’m not sure I understood the ending 100% or if its supposed to be kept vague/open. So, Izumi is called to identify a body, and that’s Sakuma. But then she see the business card left at her house… is it insinuating that he is not actually dead? Or that something else is going on?
I enjoyed the book, and think it was worth sticking to the end. I felt that the character’s were better fleshed out then in the previous pick, perhaps because Izumi was clearly the main character and she got enough development/focus. I also think the pace was good, and even though this author has his faults, I would read one of his books again if it got picked for the IBC.
I enjoyed the overall book a lot, more than 殺人犯になれる for the same reasons @snowwater did. But I think I might be done with Akagawa, at least for now. Between this and 殺人犯, we’ve been reading him for almost a year and I’m fully ready to move on to someone else!
Ending explanation
What happens is: Izumi gets called in by the cops to identify a dead body, and that’s Sakuma. She pretends not to know him because at that point, it seems like he went back to the yakuza and died from yet another yakuza conflict. She only knows him through the yakuza world and identifying him would open up questions to her own involvement in that world. So she can’t tell the cops and Sakuma will end up as just another nameless corpse for the police to dispose of.
When she gets the business card, suddenly she has an avenue to identify him. He’s now not a yakuza, he’s a proper businessman and there’s evidence in the company he works for and the hotel he’s staying at. She can also publicly admit that she was close to him and possibly help get him a proper funeral, ensure any other friends are notified, etc.
Thoughts about the ending
It’s meant to be bittersweet, in that yes Sakuma ends up dying to yakuza after all but at least he can be remembered publicly as a good person, but it leaned too much into the ‘bitter’ part
殺人犯になれる spoilers: It reminded me of 田所, being killed off suddenly at the end for seemingly no other reason than to make the reader sad.
I like Akagawa’s writing well enough but can’t say I’m a fan of this kind of sudden death trope.
Just wanted to add: thank you so much @Domjcw for hosting! At 23 weeks, this was a monster of a book club yet you came through every week!!
Oh man, I am actually really sad that Sakuma died I loved his and Izumis dynamic. I first thought it was supposed to be a cliffhanger for the next volume, where Izumi is going after his murderers, but looking at that books synopsis, that doesn’t seem to be the case Would have been cool to see Izumi work with the police this time around while dealing with all the same yakuza stuff as before.
… I probably would have liked the ending more with him alive though.
I agree, although I think it was more effective in this book. Sakuma was around longer and had a more active role in the story. I actually cared about what ending Sakuma was going to get.
overall thoughts
There were lots of characters I liked, the plot and the mystery regarding Izumis father and the drugs were interesting to me and there were lots of scenes with high tension I found very memorable. I really liked the book overall!
I think a smaller cast would have been good, I don’t remember the names of Izumis yakuza underlings. Or if they had a noteworthy personality. Maybe I am just bad with names, but they came up so rarely…
Also not a huge fan of red herrings - especially if so much of the plot relies on coincident setting everything into motion.
Not sure if I will read the other books… maybe one day. I might check out the movie.
What were your favorite moments from the book?
Favorite scenes
I really liked the first meeting with Sakuma and co. They were so awkward, with the old car and building.
Also the first meeting with Sekine. Izumi had to play her part as a Yakuza boss for the first time.
Her loosing her mind in Hamaguchis office was cool too, both times it happend Form shooting the place and throwing water all over Hamaguchi, I loved it all.
Thanks to @Domjcw for hosting! It was a lot of fun!!
Thanks! I feel somewhat guilty for having proposed the book without realising that it was longer than usual for the club.
As far as I know, this is the longest (duration) IBC so far. Might have had the largest character list too!
Special thanks to the person who has been diligently filling out the word list! (Was that you @snowwater ?)
Overall I’ve enjoyed this, and despite being behind for most of the time, have managed to finish roughly with the club! I agree there were a number of quite forgettable characters.
I wouldn’t rush to read the other books but might in the future.
It was meee. I said somewhere before the club started that I would help with the sheet and I guess I took that pledge very seriously Someone else was contributing at the beginning, too, though I don’t know who!
I think you did a great job. Thanks! I don’t think you need to worry about the length. Personally, I wouldn’t have even noticed it was longer except that everyone kept saying it was
out of interest, did anyone ever read the mostly vague and not too spoilery previews for each week? They were quite fun to write, but I did wonder if anyone read them.
Whoo, we made it! @Domjcw , thanks for everything! And also thanks to everyone who contributed to the vocab sheet. I really needed it this time around.
Overall thoughts
I liked the book overall. Though, somewhat similar to 殺人犯になれる, it started strong but lost some steam in the last quarter. The chapters where Izumi’s part of the story was all about being kidnapped by the Doc and there was so much description slowed me down even though it should have been full of suspense.
Open question
Did we ever find out who exactly played which role in Kenji’s death? The reveal that Sekine was Kuroki’s handler makes me unsure which parts of his original statement about that night were true. Do you think he had a more active hand in the poison torture than he admitted? And why exactly did he hide away the two gang members he’d blamed the whole attack on? Did we ever find out for sure?
I like Akagawa’s writing (minus the underwhelming endings).That said, I feel like I should take a break for awhile and check out some other authors. The only novels I’ve ever read in Japanese are now 殺人犯 and せーラー服, and even between those two it’s obvious that he tends to reuse some tropes. So I think reading another one would give me diminishing returns.
I also read the weekly blurbs after the chapter. No matter how non-spoilerish something like that is, I prefer to go in blind. I like them, though!
Oddly enough Akagawa has written a novel called キャンパスは深夜営業 which is about a teenage girl who is forced to become the head of a Yakuza family after her father dies.
Anyhoo, thoughts on せーラー服
I wasn’t overly impressed. It seems Izumi’s role was simply to fall from one dangerous situation into the next, allowing Akagawa to indulge his ‘woman in peril’ fetish. And the thing with the shampoo bottle of drugs made no sense. Could it really be that valuable?
But I did like the Medaka gang. They were very funny, especially the funeral scene at the start.
I don’t remember, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that never got answered. Wouldn’t be the only thing…
That’s what bothered me with her attempted escape from Fatty. She is written as a strong willed character, but in the end her escape plan (well, she didn’t plan all that much) didn’t work out so her “strength” was waiting and enduring the torture. Which is the exact same kind of situation we had seen her in like, 3 times already?
… Come to think of it, Izumi didn’t even change all that much throughout the book, huh? Aside from being a bit more desensitized to murder.
I loved his and Izumis dynamic. I first thought it was supposed to be a cliffhanger for the next volume, where Izumi is going after his murderers, but looking at that books synopsis, that doesn’t seem to be the case 
Form shooting the place and throwing water all over Hamaguchi, I loved it all.
Someone else was contributing at the beginning, too, though I don’t know who!
Does she feel attracted to an older male authority figure early on, and later he turns out to be the main villain?