Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files Castle Of Wax Murder Case

"Castle of Wax Murder Case" (aka "House of Wax Murder Case") is the twelfth case in the File Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

Kindaichi, after being strong-armed into a mystery night event at a secluded castle in Nagano by Akechi (with additional provocative coaxing from Miyuki and Saki to boot), enters the castle in question with Miyuki and Akechi, along with several other contestants. Though they enter the event as contestants for a make-believe murder mystery, a real serial murder mystery soon goes underway and puts their deduction skill to the test...

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Tropes include:

• An Offer You Can't Refuse: After Kindaichi reveals his secret behind his exceptionally high test score — 98 out of 100 — that ensures he (for now) won't be Held Back in School to two classmates who keep quiet about said secret, Miyuki comments from behind him, indicating that she has found out as well. Upon Kindaichi begging for her to not rat him out, Miyuki agrees... on condition that he takes her along for the mystery night event Akechi has, more or less, strong-armed him into participating — at his expense, to boot.
• And You Thought It Was a Game: This is how the serial murder case takes place in this arc. The contestants enter a castle and solve a make-believe murder mystery, only to find one of the contestants there being Killed Off for Real soon after said make-believe murder mystery is solved.
• Best Served Cold: While this is how the killers in many a case in this franchise plot their revenges, this case is the most memorable one, as the killer waited a good 20 years to claim retribution when the victims are at the heights of their careers.
• The Cake Is a Lie: In this case, the "cake" is the ownership of the castle where the murder mystery event is set. The culprit actually bought the castle in secret and advertised the murder mystery with the castle ownership in order to lure the intended victims into the castle, and everyone else who got invited there was merely meant to help camouflage the serial murders the culprit set up.
• Clear Their Name:
  • Kindaichi and another participant briefly suspects Akechi of being the culprit, but Kindaichi quickly builds his status of innocence back after coming to his conclusion based on his observation on the participant's physical condition (he had gotten out of a chimney at the time).
    Akechi: (to the participant in question) I thank you for clearing my name.
  • The young woman who had accompany Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Akechi is accused of being the murderer and almost subjected to a medieval torture device for it, but the timely arrival of others saves her Just in Time.
• Continuity Nod: Part of Miyuki and Saki's effort in coaxing Kindaichi into agreeing to the trip for the mystery night event involves bringing up the time when Kindaichi himself had to seek Akechi's help in stopping the police from continuing to chase him while he was framed as the prime suspect of a serial murder case.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The second victim is killed through impalement after being confined inside an iron maiden.
• Exact Words: After Kindaichi's test result is revealed to be so high that he's not in danger of being Held Back in School (for now), Asaki demands to know how Kindaichi manages to have him Out-Gambitted after he monitored behind Kindaichi throughout the exam time in the hope of catching him cheating. Kindaichi responds by coyly saying "it's all thanks to you, really" without divulging the details to him, as the truth is that he tricked Asaki into writing the exam answers on his own exam paper and Kindaichi's without the latter realizing it.
• The Game Never Stopped: Just as the contestants finish solving the make-believe murder mystery, the culprit announces that the real murder mystery has just begun. Sure enough, they find one of the contestants there being Killed Off for Real soon afterwards.
• Hair Flip: Asaki does it while gloating over the prospect of Kindaichi failing the upcoming test and, as the result, being Held Back in School, with his statement being Punctuated! For! Emphasis! as well.
  Asaki: A smart guy like me ought to know... that you... (lower his head and let his long hair fall downward) will... (whips his head upward and flips his hair to the back of his head) DEFINITELY... be held back!
  Kindaichi: DID YOU REALLY NEED TO DO THAT WEIRD-LOOKING POSE TO SAY THAT?!
• Hanging Around: Both the final murder victim's corpse and his wax doll are found in the hanged state.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: After the castle burns down following the end of the case, Kindaichi asks about the young woman, who is not among the survivors that gather in the hospital despite having been present since the start of the case (she was the one who hitchhiked with Akechi when he drove himself, Kindaichi, and Miyuki to the castle) and being the one suggesting to everyone else to seek shelter inside a wall in the fireplace room during the castle fire. Akechi reveals that she was nowhere to be found in the wreckage and, when he tried to contact the police department in Germany to verify her identity due to her having claimed to have been working in the police department there, he was told no such person existed, either. As she was already ruled out as a suspect or an accomplice, she has no legal bearing with the concluded case, though this revelation still leaves Kindaichi feeling briefly unnerved as the result.
  Kindaichi: (nervously) Ha ha ha... I'd rather not think about it!
• Memento MacGuffin: The culprit's ring is a Tragic Keepsake that her boyfriend gave her while proposing to her for marriage shortly before they were attacked. During the events of the case arc, she drops the ring in a moment of haste, and Kindaichi is informed of it thanks to Miyuki's observation, retrieves it before the culprit can, and uses the same trick the culprit used earlier to have her Lured into a Trap.
• Mirthless Laughter: Kindaichi lets out one of these out of nervousness after Akechi informs him that the young woman who had been with them since the trip to the castle until the castle burned down doesn't exist officially.
• Most Writers Are Writers: A more villainous example. The culprit's occupation as an adult is a mystery novelist, with the crime plans left behind by her deceased boyfriend serving as her source materials for her work.
• No Honor Among Thieves: When the culprit and her then-boyfriend were in college twenty years ago, the culprit's boyfriend plotted a bank heist and convinced three people in his crime research club to help with the scheme. They pulled the heist off without a hitch, but the three club members attacked the culprit and her then-boyfriend after the latter insisted that they must wait 20 years so as to ensure the legal statute for the heist passed. The culprit survived the attack, while her boyfriend died at the scene. This drove her to a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that she believes is Best Served Cold.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Zigzagged.
  • On the day of the exam, Kindaichi shows up in school with many cheating devices (a headband, eyeglasses, an absurdly large necktie, and shoes, all of which have answers on them), only for the teacher to confiscate them all. Kindaichi still ends up with 98 out of 100 after the exam results are in, however, because he managed to manipulate the circumstances and trick Asaki, who was sitting behind him on the day of the exam, into taking the exam for him without him knowing.
  • After the results are announced, he confides privately to two classmate friends, both of whom keep quiet about this, only for Miyuki to turn out to have overheard him describing the way he cheated, and Miyuki agrees not to rat him out... on condition that Kindaichi lets her tag along for the murder mystery event as well. And he has to pay for her part in it, too.
  • Then, prior to the trip, Miyuki blabs about it to Akechi, though Akechi himself keeps quiet about it as well.^note  Except for the one time when he mentions it to take a jab at Kindaichi during the trip to the castle, that is, but only when it's just the three of them and no one else.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Miyuki and Saki both remark after the fact that it's unusual for Akechi to request their help in getting Kindaichi to agree to the trip for the mystery night event. It turns out that this event is tied to one particular case Akechi himself is determined to solve for the sake of his father, who tried to solve it to no avail.
• Out-Gambitted: Asaki intends to report Kindaichi to the teacher for cheating when sitting behind him during exam, only for Kindaichi to trick him into taking the exam for the both of them, with Asaki himself being unable to find out the truth. Asaki is left feeling quite outraged about this.
  Asaki: Hey, Kindaichi! How the Hell did you get that score?!
  Kindaichi: Aw, it's all thanks to you, really! And next time, try not to mock me!
  Asaki: J-JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?
  Kindaichi: See you later! *leaves*
  Asaki: HEY! GET BACK HERE!
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Asaki delivers his statement this way intermittently with Hair Flip, much to Kindaichi's chagrin.
  Asaki: A smart guy like me ought to know... that you... (lower his head and let his long hair fall downward) will... (whips his head upward and flips his hair to the back of his head) DEFINITELY... be held back!
  Kindaichi: DID YOU REALLY NEED TO DO THAT WEIRD-LOOKING POSE TO SAY THAT?!
• Right Behind Me: Akechi makes a sudden brake right as his car is getting close to the castle, causing Kindaichi to bump his head onto the car floor. Akechi claims to have seen a human-shaped shadow, but Kindaichi sees nothing... until Miyuki points to a woman knocking on the car door behind Kindaichi, which causes him to tightly embrace Akechi out of sheer shock.
• Ripped from the Headlines: The backstory behind this case arc is based on the 300 million yen robbery, which took place in 1968. The largest heist in Japanese history at the time of its occurrence, it has remained unsolved.
• Samus Is a Girl: "Mr. Redrum" turns out to be a woman.
• Security Cling:
  • On the way to the castle where the murder mystery event is set to take place, Akechi suddenly stops his car and claims to have seen someone. Kindaichi dismisses it at first, before the sudden appearance of a young woman knocking on the car door behind Kindaichi shocks him into clinging onto Akechi for a second.
  • After Kindaichi, Miyuki, Akechi, and the woman they pick up on the way enter the castle, they're greeted by a man serving as a butler to the castle. Kindaichi is surprised by the butler's creepy appearance, but this time his clinging lasts a bit longer because he's holding the young woman arriving with them... until Miyuki asks him how long he intends to keep holding her, at which point Kindaichi hurriedly lets go.
• Shout-Out: The alias of the culprit in the Castle of Wax Murder Case is "Mr. Redrum", a reference to The Shining.
• Slipping a Mickey: The culprit serves to Akechi some drink laced with sleeping drug at one point without the latter knowing until it's too late. He's fine, but all this is just part of the murderer's plan for the final murder.
• Spanner in the Works: The murderer's otherwise well formulated plan, which requires keeping the fireplace lit at all times, hits a snag when a bird gets trapped in the air duct for the fireplace room and causes the air conditioning there to break down.
• Taking You with Me: The culprit sets the castle on fire when Akechi is about to arrest her, and she states that this is the best way to apply the grand finale of her deceased boyfriend's "art" of crime-making plan. Part of the castle crushes her soon afterwards, but the blaze spreads too quickly to allow the survivors to escape through the burning hallway and out the front gate, which is the only way in or out. Everyone ends up surviving the inferno by gathering at the wall beneath a fireplace, though the young woman, who was not only the hitchhiker Akechi picked up early on in the case arc but the one who suggested for the survivors to gather at the wall to wait out the blaze, is nowhere to be found.
• Tears from a Stone: Or "wax doll" as is the case here, and it serves a plot-relevant purpose. The faces of the wax dolls of the participants in this murder case arc appear to shed tears during the case, but it turns out that the faces of said wax dolls were made in relatively shoddy quality on purpose, which causes them to appear to shed tears should the place housing them become too warm, all so that no one would bother to touch the wax dolls to check, making it easier for the culprit to disguise as one of the wax dolls while carrying out the murders.
• Tempting Fate: The Story Arc begins with Kindaichi being warned that he'd be Held Back in School if his test score in the next exam is anywhere below 90 and he fails in the make-up exam after that. Kindaichi makes a schedule for studying for the upcoming exam for the next four days before the exam time, only to go off on his schedule without reading anything until it's too close in time for him to catch up on studying.
  Kindaichi: The exams only cover up to 60 chapters. I still have a lot of time to study!
• That Man Is Dead: "Woman" in this case. After the Trauma-Induced Amnesia gave way to the returned memories of the attack and the culprit was forced to accept the fact that her boyfriend was Killed Off for Real from that attack, she then decided to cast away her old identity and start her new one for revenge, changing her name and getting plastic surgery in the process.
• That One Case: Akechi's father tried to solve the bank heist that would eventually become part of the backstory for this murder case arc, but he was unable to do so before the statute of the heist case expired and he was himself forced to retire due to old age, spending the rest of his life brooding over his failure to solve it. It's for this reason Akechi went out of his way to get Kindaichi involved in the murder mystery event, as he felt said event could be tied to the bank heist case (and he turned out to be right), going so far as to get Miyuki and Saki to coax Kindaichi into agreeing to the involvement, which struck both Miyuki and Saki as unusual.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The culprit, after surviving the attack on her and her then-boyfriend by the other three in their group following their successful bank heist, lost her memories of the attack. It was only temporary, however, as her memories returned half a year later.
• Write What You Know: In-Universe. The culprit became a best-selling novelist after using the crime plans left behind by her deceased then-boyfriend as the source materials for her work. She eventually made enough money out of her work as a novelist to buy the castle that has been built where she and her then-boyfriend were attacked in order to execute her revenge plot.