Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files The Black Butterfly Of Death Murder Case

"The Black Butterfly Of Death Murder Case" (aka "The Undying Butterfly Murder Case") is the sixteenth case in the File Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

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Tropes include:

• Abusive Parents: Played with, regarding Shimon and Midori Madarame. Shimon isn't physically abusive to his three daughters, but it's clear he views them mainly as specimens in his collection to the point he named all three of them after different types of butterflies. It's greatly implied all three girls dislike their father because he sees them as things. In Midori's case, she can be considered abusive because she impregnated herself with frozen sperm samples taken from her deceased boyfriend Minoru and tricked Shimon into thinking he was the biological father of her children. Because Shimon drove Minoru to suicide by stealing his life's work, Midori tried to get revenge by having Shimon raise Minoru's children and hoped to reveal the truth on Shimon's deathbed. In this case, while Midori loved her daughters and never did anything to directly hurt them, Midori gave birth to and exploited them for the sake of avenging Minoru's death. In the process, she gave up her firstborn son to be raised by Minoru's mother, who then grew up believing Midori was a horrible woman who betrayed his father. Under the idea Midori genuinely did betray Minoru to marry Shimon and live a wealthy lifestyle with their three daughters, the son wants to avenge his dad and murders two of his sisters and Shimon. Once her son's identity is revealed, Midori tearfully admits her scheme and realizes it backfired horribly.
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: The culprit behind the Broken Heart Lake Legend Murder Case blows himself up after being exposed as the murderer. However, his suicide attempt fails and he gets an Identity Amnesia instead, after which he is adopted by Shimon Madarame and assumes a new identity under the name Hikage Miyama. He is found innocent in this case, and Kindaichi lets him live under his new identity. It helps that he shows none of his previous identity's psychotic thirst for vengeance, but has become noble and self-sacrificing and willing to risk his life to protect his beloved.
• Animal Theme Naming: Shimon Madarame, out of his twisted love for butterflies, names his daughter based on butterfly species: Tateha from Tatehachou (Nymphalidae), Ageha from Agehachou (swallowtail butterfly), and Ruri from Rurishijimi (Holly Blue). The three daughters are also made to dress in a kimono with patterns that resemble the butterflies their names are inspired from during the family's special occasions.
  • In addition, he is also responsible for the name "Hikage Miyama", as both "hikage" and "miyama" are names of butterfly species.
• Brother–Sister Incest: An accidental and rather twisted example. Masayuki Onodera and Tateha Madarame are engaged and, despite their constant bickering, Tateha is shown to actually like him. However, Masayuki got engaged with Tateha in the first place in order to kill the entire Madarame Family because he was an illegitimate son of Midori (Tateha's mother) and Minoru Suga whose research about luminous butterfly was stolen by Shimon Madarame. However, Tateha and her sisters were not Shimon Madarame's biological daughters; instead they were born from artificial insemination using Minoru's sperm making Masayuki and the three sisters biological siblings. Double yikes.
• But Not Too Foreign: According to the butterfly researcher (and a professor as well) in a university where Midori and Minoru worked as researchers in their college days, Midori's Technicolor Eyes is due to her mixed blood — her father was Russian. That being said, she still has a Japanese full name and acts like an idealized domestic Japanese woman. Her children have some Russian heritage as well, if to a lesser extent.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: A prominent symbol in this case arc, especially justified since the entire case is set inside the mansion of Shimon Madarame, a wealthy butterfly collection fanatic.
  • Two species of butterflies are linked to this serial murder case. The dead leaf butterflies and the luminous butterflies are both used by the culprit to help carry out the murders the way said culprit sees fit.
  • The reason Hikage Miyama, formerly Eiji Tono sans the memories of his background, was taken in to the Madarame family as an assistant, was because Shimon Madarame saw the large mark resembling a butterfly on his back when Shimon found him in a gravely injured state.
• Call-Back: After seeing Eiji, the culprit of the Hiren Lake murder case, in a promotional photo of wealthy butterfly fanatic Shimon Madarame, Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Itsuki, all three of whom had been involved in that particular case, decide to enter the mansion where Madarame lives to find out more. It's soon after their arrival that this case arc occurs.
• Clear Their Name: The culprit behind the Broken Heart Lake Legend Murder Case, who now assumes a new identity under the name Hikage Miyama due to getting an Identity Amnesia after his Bungled Suicide, becomes accused of murders in this case, and so Kindaichi must work to prove his innocence while trying to find out who the real culprit in this case is.
• Connected All Along: A freelance photographer, who's among the participants in this case arc, knows Itsuki personally, having worked with him in the past, before Itsuki himself got acquainted with Kindaichi and Miyuki.
• Continuity Nod: Reika meets Kindaichi while the former is doing a photo-shoot for a magazine and the latter is vacationing at the beginning of the case arc. Upon encountering Kindaichi, Reika mentions that it's been a while since they last met while the tarot mountain hut murder case took place.
• Crucified Hero Shot:
  • Shimon strings up Midori in this manner (see Domestic Abuse below).
  • In addition, the culprit pins his victims' bodies in this manner, to tie in with the pinned butterfly motif.
• Death of a Child: The first victim is the 12-year-old Ruri, the youngest Kindaichi victim to date.
• Domestic Abuse: Shimon Madarame abuses his wife, and one scene depicts her hung like a butterfly on display while he watches her smugly as she begs for forgiveness.
• Hates Their Parent: Played for Drama. Because Midori has never confided to anyone about her revenge plot that involves dropping her first-born child off to be Raised by Grandparents and giving birth to her daughters via artificial insemination with Minoru's sperm stock, her first-born child came to view Midori as nothing but a traitor after she became wed to Madarame, fueling said first-born child's drive to carry out a serial murder that ends up killing two of Midori's daughters, one of whom he is engaged to, and nearly succeeding in murdering one other, right up until Midori reveals her whole revenge scheme near the end of the case arc.
• Hypocritical Humor: While everyone is in the Madarame mansion for the promoted event, Kindaichi claims the morbid display of dead butterfly collections in the mansion has caused him to lose his appetite... while he's holding a tray full of food and stuffing himself with it.
  Miyuki: That's hard to believe.
• Karma Houdini: Eiji Tono commits suicide after being exposed as the murderer behind the Lake Hiren serial killings, but apparently survives and shows up a year later, under a new identity after completely losing his memories due to his botched suicide attempt. He ends up getting Happily Married with his newfound love, and Kindaichi just lets him off the hook despite Itsuki's protests, saying that the person who had committed the Lake Hiren murders has died, and that this new person is an innocent.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Shimon Madarame got away with Stealing the Credit of the discovery of a butterfly species made by Minoru, a college researcher at the time, for 25 years, but Laser-Guided Karma comes back to strike him dead in the present time in the form of his wife's illegitimate son.
• Last Request: Midori's dying request to Ageha is for her to stay alive and live happily. Ageha fulfills her mother's wish at the end by becoming Happily Married.
• Mal Mariée: Shimon and Midori Madarame's marriage is not a happy one, as Shimon abuses his wife, who's 20 years younger than he is. On the other hand, she didn't marry him for love or money, either...
• Mirthless Laughter: The culprit, upon learning that two of his victims were his biological sisters due to artificial insemination, one of whom he had become engaged with, is left laughing without joy as he tries to cope with the whole truth that's finally revealed.
• Moment Killer: When Ageha is upset over Ruri's death and Tateha panicking afterwards, Hikage tries to console her in private in a room. Nothing comes of it because Kindaichi enters soon afterwards.
  Kindaichi: Did I interrupt something?
• Poor Communication Kills: This murder case involves the culprit doing a Revenge by Proxy against his mother, whom he believes abandoned his biological father for the man that drove him to suicide after stealing his life's work, by murdering two of her three daughters and the man in question. He only learns that said mother only married said man and conceived her daughters via sperm samples of his father for the sake of screwing him over near the end of the case arc, meaning he actually murdered his own sisters. Both he and his mother are horrified after realizing the weight of their actions.
• Raised by Grandparents: The culprit in this case was raised by his paternal grandmother, as the result of his father having been Driven to Suicide due to Shimon Madarame Stealing the Credit from him and his mother being wed to Madarame after dropping him off at his paternal grandmother's residence.
• Revenge by Proxy: The killer in this case murders two of his half sisters (he fails killing the third) because his mother got married with the guy who caused his father to be Driven to Suicide. And then he discovered the truth...
• Shipper on Deck: Tateha fully supports Ageha being Hikage Miyama's spouse.
• Sibling Murder: What really causes the culprit to be Driven to Suicide is the realization after the truth is revealed that the two girls he's killed turn out to be his sisters — who share the same paternal lineage as himself, at that, due to Midori getting herself impregnated with Minoru's DNA via artificial insemination.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The butterfly researcher (and a professor as well) in a university where Midori and Minoru worked as researchers in their college days turns out to have been the one who informed Shimon Madarame of the new butterfly species discovery. As he confesses when the case is concluding, he had to do so to keep the lab going because the butterfly research lab was about to be shut down and Shimon Madarame was the only one funding it. This also leads to him being a/the Unwitting Instigator of Doom, given how big a disaster the ensuing events have turned out to be. To his credit, however, he's quite aware of the role he played in the whole mess, and by the time of Ageha's wedding, he's managed to convince the Scholar's Association to have Minoru officially recognized as the discoverer of the new butterfly species and its scientific name christened after him as well in order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Midori calls Shimon a "devil" during her confession as the case arc is near its end, after the latter has been already dead for days, but it's no surprise given his actions of Stealing the Credit, which got Minoru, Midori's One True Love, Driven to Suicide, with his Domestic Abuse on her for good measure after they became married.
• Spiders Are Scary: One of the suspects finds lots of tarantulas in a bathroom she's using during the case. Justified since the tarantulas are Sydney Funnelwebs, the most venomous spiders in the world.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: The ancient local legend that has been passed down for generations in Kanazawa regarding the luminous black butterflies centers around a couple that was forcibly kept apart: There was a couple living in the local village who were deeply in love, but the village chief's son fell in love with the wife, and he resorted to having the husband killed and taking the now-widowed wife by force. While she seemed happy to be wed to the village chief's son and birthed three beautiful daughters, it didn't last, for she voiced a curse before she and her daughters killed themselves via slitting their own throats. Several days afterwards, four luminous black butterflies appeared in front of the village chief's house. Everyone who lived in the village chief's house, many villagers, and especially the men who helped in killing the wife's first husband, fell ill due to an infectious disease outbreak and died from it, with their own bodies themselves turning black, and more and more black butterflies appeared with each death, until thousands of such butterflies descended upon the village, by which point over half the villagers had perished. It's what earned these butterflies a notorious reputation as harbingers of death — due to their tendency to congregate to recently-deceased bodies.
• Stealing the Credit: Part of the backstory involves Shimon Madarame taking the credit of the discovery of a new species of butterfly that was made by Minoru, a young college researcher in the department Shimon funded, and claiming said discovery as his own, 25 years ago. While he managed to get away with it all this time, Laser-Guided Karma hits him back in the present time, as the events from his actions eventually led to this serial murder case, in which he's among the victims.
• Tears of Remorse: The culprit's reaction after Midori reveals her revenge plot starts out with Mirthless Laughter before turning into tearful remorse.
  S-So... I was the fool in the end... I was the one who'd drowned in my false sense of resentment... I even murdered my own sisters. I-I... really am... AN IDIOT.
• Technicolor Eyes: Midori's left eye is green, whereas her right eye isn't. This trait is passed down to Ruri and, as it turns out, her illegitimate son, who hides it via colored contact lenses as part of his attempt to dissociate himself from Midori, whom he believes to be a traitor to his family.
• Tempting Fate: After witnessing Shimon abusing Midori one night, Ruri enters the guest room where Kindaichi stays with a visibly upset expression, prompting Kindaichi to promise to play with her the next day in order to calm her down. Sadly, the promise will never be fulfilled, as Ruri is found dead the next morning.
• That Man Is Dead:
  • The culprit in the Lake Hiren serial killings now appears under a different name as the result of losing his memories after his Bungled Suicide. Kindaichi believes that it's pointless to have him arrested for his crime when he doesn't remember his own background.
  • The culprit in this case legally changed his name after learning the truth about his mother and her deceased boyfriend (or so he thought) and got himself colored contact lenses that he never takes off in order to dissociate himself from his birth name. He reconciles with the truth about his family shortly before his impending doom.
• Third-Person Person: Ruri tends to address herself this way.
• Together in Death: After the culprit becomes Driven to Suicide and stabs himself, Midori positions herself next to him and sets the mansion on fire that separates them from everyone else, intending to die in the fire alongside the culprit, her illegitimate son, as atonement for using her daughters as tools for revenge and for having abandoned him all this time. As the fire spreads too fast to try to get either of the two out, everyone else is forced to flee the mansion, leaving them to their fate.
• Two-Timer Date: Kindaichi himself gets in one such scenario when Kindaichi, Miyuki, Saki, Kenmochi and his wife all gather at a beach house at the start of the case arc as the result of Reika, who happens to be working there for a photo shoot there, and Miyuki both inviting Kindaichi separately for a private meeting later that night. Kindaichi tries to juggle the two meetings, and he almost succeeds due to the two girls actually being nearby each other at the time, but Kindaichi hits a snag when he twists his back right when his meeting with Reika is ending as she's leaving, by which point Miyuki has realized Reika is around as well, prompting Miyuki to figure out what Kindaichi has been up to and to leave him by himself as payback.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Shimon is a plain-looking 65-year-old man, whereas Midori is a beautiful 45-year-old woman. That being said, their marriage is NOT a happy one.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: While Shimon's appearance is nothing to write home about, his daughters are quite good-looking.
  Kindaichi: No way! Those girls are that old geezer's daughters?! Something must have gone wrong with their genes somewhere!
• Would Hurt a Child: The killer in this case proves to be perfectly willing to murder a child when the first victim is the 12-year-old Ruri.