Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files Jail Gate Cram School Murder Case

"Jail Gate Cram School Murder Case" is the third case arc in the New Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

To improve Hajime's score, Miyuki and Sota bring him to enroll in a study camp held by a cram school; known for its rigid ways of teaching, it is dubbed "Jail Gate". However, they find one of the cram school's mock exam participants dead in a manner that suspiciously reminiscent of Takato's modus operandi. Fearful of another murder happening again, Superintendent Akechi investigates the cram school's study camp posing as one of the teachers. Even then, one by one the participants are missing and then later found dead. Will Hajime be able to find "Sparrow" the murderer, or will he only be able to witness everything unfolds like a fly on the wall?

The case is adapted to anime and a Live Action TV movie as part of the franchise's 20th Anniversary celebration.

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Tropes include:

• The Ace: Shuji Aino, the central character of this case, used to be the star of the cram school. He always score highest on every subject taught in the cram school. This, of course, attracts envy from a group consisting of students who used to score the highest at one of the subjects.
• The Alibi: The murders happen when the victims abruptly leave classes because of various reasons, and given everyone else on the group are in the same classroom when the murder happens, everyone on the group basically has a perfect alibi. An explanation to this is that the science group is transported to the building where the social studies group stays under the guise of a night walk, and the schedules of each group are designed so that one group has a break time when the other group has a lesson, giving each killer time to commit the crime.
• All in a Row: The science group has a nightly walk where they're lead with a rope by one of the teachers. This is, of course, a ruse so that said teacher can lead everyone to the building where the social studies group stays.
• Angry Collar Grab: Kindaichi is subjected to this when a fellow Cram School student interrogates him about his textbook that's missing at the time.
• Anything but That!: After the serial murder case concludes, Miyuki and Sota find Kindaichi's test results from their midterm exam taking place being as bad as ever despite their stint in the Cram School, and so they decide to tell his mother about his bad grades. This case arc ends with Kindaichi running after Miyuki and Sota and begging them to keep quiet regarding his midterm results.
• Camping a Crapper: The intended target who has a Plot Allergy is recovering from said allergy inside a washroom before being ambushed and killed.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: One of the victims had resorted to cheating due to not being content with having to settle for second place in test scores, only to end up being caught. This also served to be plot-relevant, as the culprits in the present-day murder case manipulate his items to cause him to be accused of cheating, exploiting his track record for their intended murder.
• Compliment Backfire:
  • Kenmochi appears early in the case arc to vouch for Kindaichi when the local police detective has misgivings about Kindaichi's deductive capacity as an Amateur Sleuth, but his choice of words isn't as flattering as it could be.
    Kenmochi: [to the local police detective] Listen! He may look like an idiot with bad grades, but he's not an ordinary idiot! He's an idiot who has solved many complex cases that even the police department had given up on!
    Kindaichi: [thinking privately] I think that's the third time he's called me an idiot. [...] [speaking to Kenmochi] Uncle, I feel like you aren't praising me at all.
    Kenmochi: Really?
  • When Kindaichi talks to Miyuki over their cellphones inside the study camp on the first night, Miyuki claims to be happy about him actually studying, even if he's forced into doing so. Kindaichi, being an Apathetic Student, reacts with indignation.
• Cram School: The setting for this case is a cram school's special study camp with every suspects being either students or teachers of said cram school.
• Creepy Crows: Downplayed. Akechi notices at one point that many crows start gathering near the Cram School early in the study sessions, though they don't enter the school buildings. Its purpose is to serve as an ominous cue for the impending disappearances (which turn out to be the result of murders) of participants.
  Akechi: [thinking privately] There seems to be many crows today...
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: The final murder victim is found with a syringe in hand, but Akechi and Kindaichi quickly see through the ruse and conclude that this arrangement is made so that others would perceive said victim as the murderer who committed suicide.
• Driven by Envy: The motive behind the orchestrated Medication Tampering that caused Shuji's demise.
• Dying Clue: The second victim in this case tries to write the killer's name, but he dies before finishing the last stroke of the culprit's name, thus making it look like number "117."
• Education Mama: More like "education parents", in regard to a student who has been struggling to keep up with his studies.
  My parents are very strict doctors! They said that, if I get kicked out from this school, they won't acknowledge me as their son!
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Cram School in this case arc (and the study camp alongside it), due to its confining setting and rigid regimens, including making participating students wear uniforms and carry no personal belongings outside of their own spare change clothing like underwear, is nicknamed "Jail Gate".
• Malaproper: During Summation Gathering, Kindaichi leads everyone to the front of the building where the sign with lights is located and reconnects a wire that was cut to expose a lighting trick for an alibi. Akechi identifies the lighting source as "low-pressure sodium lamp", whereas Kindaichi mishears it as "slow fresher soda yum lamp", prompting Miyuki to correct him.
• Medication Tampering: What happens to Shuji. He has to inject himself with a medicine everyday because of his weak heart. However, people jealous of him spread rumor of him using drugs and then convince a student who has a crush of him to swap the medicine vial with water to "save him." Of course, he dies.
• Mystery Magnet: Kindaichi's unfortunate tendency to get tangled in mystery cases gets mentioned thrice.
  • Kenmochi mentions it early in the case arc.
    Kenmochi: Look at you, always at the scene of the crime. Are you sure you aren't cursed?
  • Not long afterwards, Akechi remarks about it when meeting Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Kenmochi.
    Akechi: I've already heard the story. You've just gotten back in Japan, but you've been dragged into a new case straight away, as is the usual for you.
  • Souta brings this up near the end of the case arc as well, much to Kindaichi's annoyance.
    Sota: Who would have thought that trying to improve Kindaichi's marks would lead to a serial murder case? I might end up getting killed if I keep being around you!
    Kindaichi: What are you on about?
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Played for Drama. One of the potential targets already got caught cheating for a test once, making him the prime suspect when another cheating incident during a present-day test arises. As Kindaichi reveals during Summation Gathering, one of the culprits took advantage of his prior record by messing with his items so he'd be accused of cheating when the evidence seemed to suggest as such, causing him to be expelled from the classroom — and become prey for the other culprit — while everyone else stays inside.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As one of the study camp student confides to Kindaichi during the investigative interrogation session, all of the six people who would fall victim to the present-day serial murder case were Skipping School on the day Shuji died from Medication Tampering. Even though neither of them knows at the time that this was a ruse they orchestrated to provide an alibi to clear themselves and deflect blame on the student they duped into doing their bidding in case Shuji's death was ruled as anything other than an accident, the fact that they played hooky despite normally obsessing over their grades is significant, as the study camp student states.
  That has to have some meaning, am I wrong?
• Plot Allergy: One of the victims is allergic to anything made of buckwheat. The culprit gives a weak poison to every dinner the study camp participants receive but put the antidote inside the buckwheat tea that all study camp participants also receive. This way, it ensures the allergic victim to be the only one having a stomachache during one of the classes while everyone else stays.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Everyone who would become victims in this serial murder case once had the highest test score in their own respective subject, only to become second place once Shuji Aino joined. Their jealous grudge against him drove them to lash out in various ways, eventually culminating in orchestrating Medication Tampering that resulted in his demise.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Zigzagged and Played for Laughs in terms of midterm results: Miyuki and Sota both see their own midterm results getting higher after their time at the Cram School, and Kindaichi claims his own grades also went up when Miyuki asks him, only for Miyuki and Souta to get hold of his answer sheets within seconds, which show that his test grades appear as bad as they've ever been and prove Kindaichi's response to Miyuki's question was a lie. Miyuki then says that she'll tell Mrs. Kindaichi about her son's bad grades, which prompts Kindaichi to react with saying Anything but That! in return.
• Sore Loser: Played for Drama. Those who lashed out on Shuji Aino for one-upping them on the subject each of them used to score the highest on ultimately resorted to orchestrating Medication Tampering that ended up dooming him just so they'd enjoy being #1 in the respective subject again.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Sota, who's a plot-irrelevant Recurring Extra, gets a lot more screen time in this case arc, if only as Kindaichi's more accessible confidant, which Miyuki otherwise fulfills, as she and Kindaichi are assigned in two different groups and can't correspond with each other easily while Sota is in the same group Kindaichi is and, therefore, can interact with him with much less difficulty.
• Teens Are Monsters: Those who were Driven by Envy enough to orchestrate Medication Tampering, which resulted in Shuji's death, were Shuji's fellow teenage high school students. At the time of the case arc in the present, quite a few of them feel no remorse for getting Shuji dead, either, with one Jerkass even claiming to have played "just a game".
• Theme Serial Killer: The missing victims are found dead in the manner related of the subject they leave the classroom on. It ends up subverted since this was done to cover up the murderer's blunder in committing the trick.
  • One of the victims leaving during a lesson about combustion is found burnt.
  • One of the victims leaving on a "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" lesson is found with her stomach stabbed on a sharp bamboo stem, which sticks out of her torso when her body is discovered.
  • One of the victims leaving after a genetics test is found bound by red and blue tapes akin to double helix DNA structure.
  • One of the victims leaving because he's found cheating during a test that covers Dostoevsky's "Demons" is found hanged.
• Too Good to Be True: While the genetics test is ongoing, the student who has the top score in this subject (without Shuji around, that is) actually manages to finish the test in only ten minutes and, therefore, gets to leave the classroom for a break, only to be murdered soon afterwards. Akechi deduces during Summation Gathering that one of the culprits actually made the question choices for this particular student much easier to guess correctly (being multiple-choice formatted and all) in order to get the intended target lured out of the classroom for the other culprit to have ample time to kill said target while everyone else was still inside.
• Trouser Space: Kindaichi's method of keeping his cellphone... private, as illustrated when he pulls his phone out from underneath his sweat-pants uniform to show it to Akechi.^note  His back is facing Akechi and the readers alike, in case anyone wonders, and his cellphone stinks when he shows it to Akechi.
  Akechi: That's very good, but did you need to put it in such a location?
  Kindaichi: I needed to hide it. If they find out I have a phone, there's a chance I will get expelled!
• Two Dun It: The "Sparrow" is in fact two people working together. Notably, the original manga shows the reader one of the two culprits upfront and frames the mystery solely as "who is the other culprit?", while both the anime and the live action adaptation keep it a secret until the end.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: In order to maintain contact despite being in different study groups, Kindaichi has Miyuki's cellphone concealed within her bra, though that fact that he makes such a move without telling her beforehand (or instructing her to do so herself without physically touching her) gets him slapped in the face for it.
  Miyuki: [thinking privately] Did he really have to touch my breast?
• You Do Not Want To Know: When Kindaichi asks one of the fellow Cram School peers about "the punishment room", said peer responds by saying this trope word by word, more or less, albeit with a bit of nervous stutter. It turns out the student in question is all too familiar with the room in question, which is basically an academic version of solitary confinement in the study camp.