05/06/2020: Mangaka Spotlight: Motohiro Katou

Hey readers, we're going to talk about a great mangaka who focuses on lighthearted but sophisticated mysteries - Motohiro Katou!

Katou is known for his mystery manga, which are published through Kodansha Books. There are 3 main series he's known for: Rocket Man, Q.E.D and C.M.B. I haven't found Rocket Man on any websites but I've read all the available issues of Q.E.D and C.M.B and they're really good! I'll tell you briefly what they're about, then explain why I really like them.

1) Q.E.D

Q.E.D follows Sou Touma, a 16 year-old genius who's graduated from MIT but decided to enroll in a Japanese high school, and his classmate Mizuhara Kana, who's less book-smart but freakishly strong and a master of martial arts. Kana's father is a detective and she usually finds out about cases from him or her other friends, and drags Sou along to investigate them. Q.E.D mysteries usually feature something related to science, mathematics or logic which Sou needs to solve, while Kana lends her physical prowess to conduct the investigation on Sou's behalf or apprehend violent suspects. There's a very strong will-they-won't-they relationship between Sou and Kana and it's very, very, very sweet.

2) C.M.B

C.M.B has a similar concept, but it follows Sou's distant cousin, Shinra Sasaki, a 14-year old who's the successor to the British Museum and has an encyclopedic knowledge of current affairs, history, culture and archaeology, which usually comes in handy when they investigate cases. Shinra also owns his own museum, which is how he comes by cases (visitors may bring a complaint or he's trying to get a new item for display). He's assisted by Tatsuki Nanase, a rich girl who's also very strong and good at martial arts, but I think she's not as active as Kana is (but not by much). There's no real romance here, at least not as overtly as Q.E.D, but their relationship is still very close and warm.

Generally, the mystery is told over about 100+ pages and is uploaded as a single mystery or several chapters, depending on where you read from. The girl usually finds the case and drags the boy to investigate, or the boy is called upon by a professional or personal acquaintance to help with a problem. The cases usually involve some kind of special concept for which the boy genius's expertise is needed, while the girl supplies the physical prowess that the boy lacks to directly investigate the case and gather clues.

At the end, the boy genius gathers the suspects and reveals the solution, affording the reader one last chance to guess how it happened before he finally reveals the answer. The mysteries are quite varied, ranging from crimes like murders or thefts to smaller incidents like solving an urban legend or something strange happening in school or at home.

What really stands out from other detective manga is the "educational" aspect of the story. For example, Q.E.D usually focuses on mathematics, science, logic while C.M.B focuses on history and culture. These concepts will sometimes from an important part of the background facts or even be pivotal facts in the investigation, but they're always great fun to learn about and Katou explains it really well (i.e. not with a wall of text but with really nice pictures).

The stories are all quite lighthearted so there's a fair amount of humor, unless the chapter involves some dark topic like genocide or a very sad incident. The humor is apparent in the "happy" art style, including funny exaggerated expressions, and the relationships, like how Kana will get angry when someone suggests that Sou is her boyfriend, or other jokes like that, or when she zones out when Sou's explaining something complex.

I especially like this one where a girl suggests that leaving the investigation to someone other than Sou is a bad idea.

However, the star of the show (for me, at least) is still the cast of characters. The partners in both series have very good chemistry. In Q.E.D, it's a very compelling tsundere (Kana, the girl) and the aloof genius (Sou, the boy) and they both know they feel strongly for each other but refuse to acknowledge if their feelings are romantic, but it's clearly more than just a platonic friendship.

In C.M.B, Nanase is more like a funny big sister to the smarter but younger and immature Shinra, especially since Shinra lives alone.

The characters in each chapter are usually quite interesting, even though they only appear for that particular case and they're used very well to introduce key facts or even show off the interesting points of the setting. I hate travelling and these series kind of make even me want to take a holiday to some of the places! In my opinion, some of the Q.E.D cases feature very, very, very compelling stories with extremely interesting characters like sympathetic villains or complex characters whose emotional journeys drive the plot in unexpected ways. I also like the recurring characters in Q.E.D like Loki (Sou's MIT classmate) or the school's inept but enthusiastic Detective's Club (comprising a bossy queen-bee leader, a Sherlock Holmes wannabe, and an conspiracy-theorist crackpot).

C.M.B also has a recurring character, a loli who's a black market art dealer. She's pretty fun and she's nearly as smart as Shinra so she can compete with him when they're hunting for treasure.

I really like Q.E.D and C.M.B, but I would personally lean towards Q.E.D because of the element of romance. But only slightly! They're both very fun reads so I wholeheartedly recommend them! C.M.B is still ongoing and Q.E.D has about 150 chapters, but is continued in Q.E.D iff (it's the same thing but Sou and Kana are now 17 years old).