Megumi Hatakenaka

Neko no Baba is the third volume in Hatakenaka's Shabake series. It's a collection of four short stories following the adventures of Ichitaro, son of a prosperous wholesaler in Tokugawa-era Edo. Ichitaro is confined to bed by illness more often than not, but luckily he's the grandson of a powerful supernatural creature and is protected and served by a melangerie of other supernatural creatures (youkai, in Japanese) as a result. Together, they engage in shenanigans and solve unsolvable murders. Yes, Ichitaro is Suish, and yes, the youkai are a deus ex machina par excellence, but so are the characters and plot elements of 99% of all murder mysteries.

And to be honest, the mysteries seem tangential to the real entertainment value of the novels, which lies in their depiction of everyday life in Edo and the quirky habits of the various youkai with whom Ichitaro interacts. (My favorites are byoubunozoki and the yanari-tachi.) It's a gimmick to be sure, but one that largely salvages the frankly cliched plots and pages of exposition at the end of each story explaining what happened. (Lest you think I'm being unnecessarily critical, check out the afterword for a categorical list of all the other authors from whom Hatakenaka has plagarised--I mean, taken her inspiration--I mean, plagarised--pretty much all of the main aspects of the series beyond the already obvious plot "twists.")

Technically, the novels are a fairly easy read despite the archaic vocabulary and dialect; I'd recommend them to anyone who enjoyed Yumemakura's Onmyoji series but wished he'd written the novels more accessibly (and with slightly less sexism). The eponymous "Neko no Baba" is the standout story in this collection, but they're all pretty fun, and I enjoyed this collection more than its predecessor (ぬしさまへ/Nushisama e).… (mere)