Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files The Bloodthirsty Cherry Blossom Murder Case

"The Bloodthirsty Cherry Blossom Murder Case" is the sixth case arc in "The Kindaichi Case Files R" series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

As the assignment for the Mystery Club is to investigate a mystery case that occurred in the past, Kindaichi and Miyuki, with Saki in tow, travel to a rural area within Tokyo to gather information about a case surrounding the phenomenon of the trees with cherry blossoms in blood-red color and stay at the inn located nearby. While they seek information about a case that took place decades ago, they find themselves being involved in a different mystery: the serial murder case happening at the inn where they stay in the present time.

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Tropes include:

• Anonymous Benefactor: Two such examples exist in this case arc, as Kindaichi reveals to the culprit near the end of the case arc.
  • The Atoner among the group who would become the present-day murder victims received a grant from an unknown source after his parents were Driven to Suicide by hanging themselves, though who sent him the grant has never been discovered.
  • The Atoner, in turn, became this trope himself by giving not only the grant money but (part of) his work-generated funds to the culprit's adoptive mother each month while he was a university student, saving her from becoming a Struggling Single Mother.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: When Saki, Miyuki, and Kindaichi encounter an inn patron wearing a face mask:
  Saki: Senior, he came here to have dinner, but he kept his mask on. How is he gonna eat?
  Kindaichi: By opening his mask!
• The Atoner: One of the present-day murder victims turns out to have been this. After the bullying turned deadly and his parents hanged themselves, he worked hard to turn his life around like his two friends who were involved in the bullying in the past, but he did more than the other two: He managed to find out the culprit's adoptive identity, also supported the culprit's adoptive mother (as her father had already died by then) behind the scenes by giving her money anonymously while also working during his university years, and, in the present day as a lawyer, focused on aiding troubled children in order to prevent others from making mistakes as he and his two friends, who were juvenile delinquents themselves in their past years, had done. Finally, he figures out the culprit's role in the murder case while it's ongoing and tries to erase any traces left by the culprit as much as he could manage, even in his dying moments after the culprit stabs him.
• Bait-and-Switch: After the murder case is wrapped up, Kindaichi, Miyuki, Kenmochi, and Saki gather near a Cherry Blossom tree, and Kindaichi starts reacting. Given the fact that they already got involved with two murder cases that are linked to Cherry Blossom trees, Miyuki is worried that he might have spotted another corpse, and Kindaichi crouches to pick up... a naughty magazine. No one else is happy about it.
  Miyuki: Gosh, Hajime-chan, what a pervert!
  Saki: Senior, even elementary school kids don't read that stuff nowadays... they just leave it be, you know!
  Kindaichi: No, I think the dirty part is still... ouch! (with a band-aid on his head) What are you doing, Miyuki?!
  Miyuki: Why are you so insensitive?!
  [Kenmochi and Saki both laugh]
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The Mad Doctor used to kidnap, murder, and mutilate the patients in the sanatorium where he worked solely for his twisted enjoyment at the thought of seeing cherry blossoms in blood-red color. He was eventually killed by a patient he kidnapped with the intention of murdering before he could fulfill his wish, which eventually came true, as the Cherry Blossoms in the trees where he used to bury his victims before they were dug up and discovered and where his own body was buried later on would turn blood-red, which is the claim to fame in the area and serves as his Villainous Legacy.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Played for Laughs. The case arc starts with Makabe trying to assign the Mystery Club members into separate pairings for their mystery case investigation tasks, and Makabe, having his eyes on Miyuki, tries to rig the lot-drawing process using a box he had tampered with to get his preferred result. The keyword here is "tries", however, as Kindaichi catches on Makabe's trick early on in the drawing process and does some tampering of his own to ensure that he would be paired with Miyuki instead.^note  Not that it mattered much for Kindaichi anyway, as Saki meets Miyuki shortly thereafter and joins her and Kindaichi the next day.
• Cherry Blossoms: At the rural area in Tokyo where Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Saki (among others) stay, a group of cherry blossom trees' petals turn bloody red after one deranged doctor mutilated his patients and buried the corpses under the tree as if the tree sucked the victims' blood, thus the name "Vampire/Blood-drinking Cherry Blossom".
• Damsel in Distress: Zigzagged. As the inn owner confesses to Kindaichi, she was once a patient in the sanitarium where the inn now stands. Even though the Mad Doctor in the sanitarium fled after being discovered burying mutilated bodies of the patients he had murdered, he remained nearby, if in hiding, and he kidnapped her on one night and had her Bound and Gagged to a cherry tree while he started digging near it with the intent of murdering her as well. The physician who was once the Mad Doctor's colleague showed up early enough to free her, but now the Mad Doctor turned on him and was stopped only when the would-be murder victim killed him by stabbing him In the Back.
• Dead All Along: The Mad Doctor who used to abduct and murder patients before burying their mutilated bodies under the ground where the cherry blossom trees stood turns out to have been dead for decades. The woman who would become the inn owner in the present day was a patient in a sanatorium where said Mad Doctor was working, and she was kidnapped by him one night with murder and mutilation in mind. The other doctor in the facility managed to save her, but the Mad Doctor then turned his attention on him, before being killed by the rescued patient. Ironically enough, he was buried under the same ground where he used to bury his victims and his corpse has remained there ever since.^note  However, his deceased status is known to only a few. Prior to Kindaichi and co.'s investigation, only the Mad Doctor's physician colleague at the time and the woman who would become the inn owner in the present day knew of him being dead, and none of them reveals the whole truth to others, especially since each participant in his death is a Sympathetic Murderer and the statute of limitation for this particular case has already expired anyway.
• Downer Beginning: The case arc opens with a teenage high school student being pressured into jumping off a school building to their death but falters at the windowsill, only for those who bully the student to push said student from behind, after which the scene proceeds to Smash to Black.
• Dragged by the Collar: Or "arms" as is the case this time. After dinner and desserts are consumed on the first night of arrival, Kindaichi suggests for playing cards in his assigned room in the inn, but Miyuki and Saki decide to get the assignment of investigating the murder mystery case from the past started instead, culminating in them dragging Kindaichi by the arms as they begin their investigation.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Part of the backstory about the present-day murder case culprit goes that, after her then-brother was bullied into jumping out of the second floor of a school building (and literally pushed into it, too) and dying for it, her mother became more prone to stab herself at the sight of a sharp object and actually did so one day. Afterwards, her father gathered his wife's body and his daughter and drove all of them into water, with Pater Familicide-type Murder-Suicide in mind, though she managed to become the Sole Survivor, if without her memories.
  • It turns out that the parents of one of the three murder victims hanged themselves after the bullying that went deadly occurred, as they were seen as parents of a killer after that and got ostracized for it until they couldn't take it any longer.
• For the Evulz: As the inn cook informs Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Saki when they ask him about the mystery case connecting the Mad Doctor with the blood-red Cherry Blossoms, the Mad Doctor had a twisted enjoyment with the prospect of seeing Cherry Blossoms in blood-red color, which he wrote in his medical examination notebook. This is the only known possible motive behind his abduction, murder, mutilation, and burial of the sanatorium patients under the ground where the cherry trees stood.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Mad Doctor who used to abduct, murder, and mutilate the sanatorium patients and bury their bodies under the ground where the cherry trees stood wore glasses. And the only known possible motive behind his atrocities is for his twisted enjoyment at the thought of seeing cherry blossoms in blood-red color.
• Hanging Around: As Kindaichi relays to the culprit while the latter is already incarcerated near the end of the case arc, the parents of one of the three murder victims committed suicide by hanging due to being seen as a killer's parents after the bullying incident turned deadly and ostracized for it subsequently.
• Happily Adopted: After becoming the Sole Survivor of the Pater Familicide-type Murder-Suicide attempt and losing her memories of her identity, the culprit was found by a couple who had no offspring of their own and raised by them. She was happy with her life until the memories of her past came back to her at the sight of blood-red petals of the Cherry Blossoms floating through the air.
• Hope Spot: After one visitor at the inn is found dead in an apparent murder, another visitor decides to get away from the inn at the first opportunity, going so far as to check out in the next morning, only to be ambushed and killed by the culprit before managing to leave completely.
• I Was Quite a Looker: The elderly lady who owns the inn where Kindaichi and co. stay turns out to have been a beautiful woman in her prime, as they find out upon seeing a picture of her younger self while staying in the inn. They initially wonder whether the woman in the photo was an actress in the present time before the inn owner clarifies them.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: All of the murder victims in the present-day case and the Mad Doctor die(d) after being stabbed, whether due to the stabbing itself causing fatal wound or after suffering extensive blood loss, but two present-day murder victims stand out due to some sharp branches with Cherry Blossoms being lodged into their bodies at the scene of their murders.
• Karmic Death: The Mad Doctor who used to abduct, murder, and mutilate the sanatorium patients and bury their bodies under the ground where the cherry trees stood solely for his twisted enjoyment at the thought of seeing cherry blossoms in blood-red color was killed by a patient he kidnapped (and would have murdered as well had his colleague not managed to rescue said patient in time) while he was too distracted in his struggle against his colleague to notice her. Bonus points to him being buried underneath the ground where the cherry trees stood, which was how he disposed of the mutilated bodies of the sanatorium patients he kidnapped and murdered.
• Killing in Self-Defense: Possibly played with in that the one the would-be murderer is fighting against isn't the one dealing the lethal blow, but otherwise played straight. When the Mad Doctor abducted a patient and had her Bound and Gagged with the intent to murder, his then-colleague freed said patient before the Mad Doctor can murder her. The Mad Doctor, in turn, decides to kill his then-colleague, only for his now-freed patient to stab him In the Back and deal mortal wound, killing him on the spot. This is one of the reasons the Mad Doctor's demise is Karmic Death.
• Mad Artist: Downplayed. One of the participants in this case arc is a painter who has visited the region to make painting about the blood-red Cherry Blossoms near the inn. Early in the case arc, the painter treats creating a painting with matching colors to the source materials as a Serious Business so much as to entertain the idea of using actual blood on the canvas at one point, which unnerves Kindaichi, who happens to be nearby enough to hear the painter making such a suggestion.
• Mad Doctor: The backstory behind the creation of the blood-red color of the Cherry Blossoms in the area involves a physician who used to abduct and murder patients before burying their mutilated bodies under the ground where the cherry blossom trees stood. He fled the scene after a nurse spotted him at it one night, and it's this mystery that Kindaichi and co. are investigating before they find themselves in the present-day serial murder case.
• Moment Killer: Saki unknowingly serves this role to Kindaichi's romantic prospect in this case arc, first via joining him and Miyuki for their murder mystery investigation, turning a group of two into a group of three, and then by outlasting both him and Miyuki in their poker game night (Kindaichi hopes to tire him out in order to have time alone with Miyuki, but it backfires and ends with both Kindaichi and Miyuki getting tired out instead).
• Nice Mean And In Between: The group of people who are friends with each other and would become victims in the present-day serial murder case have this dynamic. One of them is The Atoner who not only serves as Anonymous Benefactor to the culprit's adoptive family but works as a lawyer specializing in aiding at-risk minors (Nice), one of them is a Jerkass movie director (Mean), and the other is a physician who would rather focus on the present and keep their past as a school-age bully buried but doesn't antagonize others (In-Between).
• Picky Eater: Saki turns out to be this, as the following dialogue taking place when the cook working in the inn asks Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Saki shows.
  Cook: Is there any food that you don't like in today's dinner?
  Kindaichi: No, I could eat anything!
  Miyuki: Me, too. There's no food I dislike!
  Saki: For me, it's pork, animal fat, pepper, tomato, and...
  Kindaichi: What a picky eater...
• Reformed Criminal: The victims in the present-time murder case are all juvenile delinquents who have worked to turn their own lives around. Unfortunately for them, one of them hasn't completely reformed, and it's his bad behavior that would become the last straw for the culprit to turn to murder.
• Scars Are Forever: The physician who was once the Mad Doctor's colleague received a cut at his upper lip while trying to prevent said Mad Doctor from committing more murders. It's for this reason he's always seen wearing a face mask in public, as the gash left a scar that has remained since then.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Kindaichi's hope and attempts to have private time with Miyuki in this case arc are ruined due to Saki's presence as the third wheel.
  • After Kindaichi fixes his way into getting himself paired up with Miyuki, he meets her the next day, eagerly anticipating having some alone time with her during the investigation. Unfortunately for him, Saki met her not long after the club member meeting session and now accompanies them for the investigation, much to Kindaichi's annoyance.
    Kindaichi: (thinking to himself regarding Saki) Damn it! You are such a bother!
  • On the first night of staying at the inn, Kindaichi decides on playing cards. In truth, he intends to get Saki tired out so he can have private time with Miyuki; unfortunately for him, Saki manages to outlast him and fulfills the role of Moment Killer without meaning to do so. Come the next morning, both Kindaichi and Miyuki are drowsy due to sleep deprivation, whereas Saki appears to be still full of energy.
• Smash to Black: Right as the Downer Beginning culminates in a student being pushed from behind while hesitating over jumping off a school building into death, the panel/scene turns black before abruptly cutting to a Mystery Club meeting that Kindaichi and Miyuki are attending.
• Struggling Single Mother: Averted. The culprit's adoptive mother almost fell into financial hardship after the passing of her adoptive father, but a consistent and anonymous flow of financial support from one of the victims, who was The Atoner among the three of them and served as the Anonymous Benefactor in this context, started coming in in time to mitigate the issue.
• Tempting Fate:
  • One example taking place early in the case arc overlaps with "Shaggy Dog" Story and Played for Laughs. After the lot-drawing process is done with Kindaichi and Miyuki being in the same group, Kindaichi goes to join her the next morning, confidently stating along the way that he'll finally have a chance to spend time alone with her and his life as a virgin will finally end, only to be in for an unpleasant shock upon seeing Saki alongside Miyuki.
  • The example occurring in the murder case that took place in the past is Played for Drama. When the Mad Doctor is struggling against his then-colleague, he claimed he would kill his former colleague and have his blood added to the Cherry Blossoms as well, but his now-freed would-be murder victim stabbed him In the Back and dealt mortal wound to him before he could do so.
• Two Dun It: Both of the murder cases in this arc have two people who are responsible each.
  • The former colleague and would-be victim of the Mad Doctor are both responsible for said doctor's death, albeit unintentionally, for he was too distracted in the struggle against his former colleague to notice his freed hostage until the latter delivered a mortal wound upon stabbing him In the Back. Afterwards, they buried his corpse while keeping the truth to themselves, until Kindaichi reveals his deduction about their role in the case to them in the present day.
  • For the present-day serial murder case, the culprit is the one doing the killing, while the accomplice tries to erase as much incriminating evidence being left behind by the culprit as possible. The context in this case is different from the standard format, however, in that the accomplice does the work without the culprit realizing, much less enlisting, any help from said accomplice.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The culprit is actually the Sole Survivor of the family of the person whose death was caused by the victims. The culprit lost the memories of her past identity after the Murder-Suicide attempt of her father and became Happily Adopted by a couple who had no offspring of their own, but her memories came back upon seeing the bloody-red Cherry Blossoms while working at the inn. That being said, her returned memories alone didn't push her over the edge, as it takes the bad behavior of one of the three who would later become victims for this case to drive her into murdering them.
• Villainous Legacy: While the Mad Doctor has been Dead All Along, the record of his atrocities still remains in the area where the cherry trees have stood, as the blood-red Cherry Blossoms that are the claim to fame in the region bear testimony to his twisted desire of seeing them with such a color, which is his only known motive for his murders.