The Decagon House Murders is a manga adaptation of a novel by Yukito Ayatsuji probably better known in the manga community as the original author of the horror series Another. The art is done by the unbelievably talented Hiro Kiyohara the artist behind the manga adaptations of Another Kizu Calling You and Tantei no Tantei. The original Decagon House Murders is in my opinion one of the bestwritten novels of all time. There are no wasted lines the characters feel realistic the murder tricks are simple yet clever the atmosphere of slow terror settling over the title Decagon House is perfectly captured and the ending ties it all together into a neat package that lends even more characterization to what is already one of the best characterized murderers in all of fiction. Though the manga deviates a bit from the source material and in some areas suffers for it its an overall well done adaptation with stunning art and areas where it even improves upon the already incredible novel. The novel version kicked off a genre called honkaku mysteries that are written as both a mystery and a sort of game to see if the reader can solve them. As a character in the novel puts it its a sort of intellectual puzzle. An exciting game of reasoning in the form of a novel. A game between the reader and the great detective or the reader and the author. Nothing more or less than that. Its very much modeled after Golden Age mysteries such as Agatha Christies And Then There Were None and makes direct references to them throughout the book. In short its a sort of love letter to mysteries that invite the reader to be not only entertained but to also exercise their wits and its an excellent one. Enough about the novel. How does the manga adaptation stand as its own work? Quite well in fact. The Decagon House Murders is a classic chateau in a snowstorm setup as a character aptly points out. A group of college students part of a university mystery club travel to an island which had previously been owned by an eccentric architect. Hed built two buildings there the socalled Blue Mansion and the Decagon House. A fire had burnt down the Blue Mansion a little while earlier with the bodies of the architect his wife and the two housekeepers found murdered before the fire had broken out in the burntout ruins. The gardener had gone missing and the question of what had happened remained. When murders start to occur among the students the mystery takes on another layer: is one of the previous occupants still alive or is there a murderer in their midst? The story is told in parallel with the group of students on the island as well as another group on the mainland investigating strange letters sent to members of the university mystery club that seem connected to the original murders. Its an extremely clever way to give the readers more clues without giving away too much of the story and the contrast between those on the island growing more and more scared and those off the island treating it as a game keeps the story from growing stale. The manga adaptation did make some weird decisions that didnt particularly work. For one thing its set in the modern day the original was written in the 1980s. For the closed environment to work it had to have a whole thing about cell phones not getting reception and that was just kind of odd. The time also wasnt really important at any other point so Im left wondering why the change was made. Perhaps to be more accessible to modern readers but frankly anyone actively reading the series who was going to buy it or vote for it on reader surveys probably was a mystery fan and familiar enough with 1900sset stories to not have it bother them. Theres also a major plot point in the novel that makes the story more confusing after the characters find out about it but in the manga its conveniently revealed easily for no apparent reason and it only serves to ramp up the tension a little bit as well as make a massive change to Ellerys characterization compared to the novel. Its still well done but I personally thought it was an unnecessary change that didnt add anything to the story. Theres also a set of changes that change the characterization of the murderer which worked out decently. At the very start of the novel theres a scene where the murderer puts a letter detailing the murders in a bottle and throws it into the ocean while contemplating what theyre about to do. They acknowledge their insanity their motivation for the murders and that Man cannot become God even if theyre playing God and sentencing others to death. Its an extremely beautiful scene that sets the tone for the novel and provides a ton of characterization for the murderer and in the manga adaptation its been split into several parts and kind of scattered throughout the series. It reduces the impact of the scene and the start of the series by quite a bit but isnt a story ruining change. The motivation for the murder has also been changed slightly in a way that I think actually added to the character of the murderer quite a bit and allowed the last few chapters to focus on them and how the murders were carried out in a way that added some depth the novel didnt have. Overall it worked out pretty well and the murderer remains wellwritten. As a mystery The Decagon House Murders does hold up. The air of fear and tension present in classics such as And Then There Were None is great those off the island have a fun buddydetective duo kind of vibe thats super fun and the tricks used to carry out the murder are realistic and clever. The characters react to the murders in ways that feel pretty human and the characterization for a few of them particularly the murderer is top notch. The artist managed to portray some events I had thought would give away the tricks if shown visually without revealing too much which led to some extremely impactful panels. The novel originally leans on how ridiculously good the murderer reveal and characterization are and the manga manages to keep that while still delivering a great experience that gets better every volume. In short a great adaptation even if the changes take out some of the impact that the novel had. Oh and as a spoilerfree example of how insanely good the art is: 220https://cdn.readdetectiveconan.com/file/mangap/5704/10020000/3.jpeg 220https://cdn.readdetectiveconan.com/file/mangap/5704/10031000/19.jpeg Ultimately The Decagon House Murders manga doesnt quite stand up to the novel which I would recommend reading as well but as a standalone experience its still an incredibly good mystery manga. The characters are relatively realistic and fleshed out the murder tricks are clever the atmosphere is well created and the art is some of the best in the industry. The adaptation still manages to be one of the best comics Ive ever read and Id recommend it to any mystery fan.