This is an extremely personal observation.
It is neither a statement nor an observation that the Famicom Detective Club series is ‘trying to portray such things’.
It just happens to be my personal impression of the Famicom Detective Club series.
In Famicom Detective Club, being ‘right’ does not necessarily make a person's life better.
Actions to stop a fight based on a sense of justice, a father's decision to genuinely worry about his newborn child's future, a sister trying to raise an eggplant for her older brother, an brother trying to make a small bouquet of flowers for his younger sister, an brother trying to rescue his younger sister from the arms of a violent father.
These actions based on affection and a sense of justice, which would normally work well and are sometimes praised and sometimes seen as the right way to act, bring misfortune to people in the Famicom Detective Club series.
Another imperfection seen is that people cannot do the right thing.
The man who was taken up as a lawyer and became socially successful but found nothing but revenge, and the father who covered up the murder committed by his underage son would have had a better life if he had lived a life based on righteous justice.
There are also detectives who tampered with the body of a junior high school student who committed suicide in order to get hold of her older brother's whereabouts, and adults who are dragged along by their regrets for failing to act to save their young siblings from violence at the hands of their father.
They would all be people who knew what was morally and legally ‘right’ but did not do the right thing.
Doing the right thing is harder than thinking and talking about the right way to be.
The ‘rightness’ I see in these stories is the imperfection of knowing but not acting.
And even if we act on the basis of rightness and pure affection, it can still lead to unhappiness.
But in the end, affection and right decisions are the saving grace. This is certainly true throughout the entire Famicom Detective Club series.
A mother's talisman entrusted to her beaffectiond son saves him from a murderous act, and the solution to a murder case brings calm to the real culprit.
The correct resolution of the case gives the estranged siblings a harsh but just chance for a fresh start in life, and death came to the serial killer who held on to a hope that would never be fulfilled as long as he lived, whether he was truly saved or not.
I always see in the Famicom Detective Club series a life that does not work out with affection and justice alone, and yet a moment of being rewarded by affection and justice in the end.
23. Sep. 2024