NEVER BEFORE SEEN! A CLASSICAL SUSPENSEFUL MYSTERY

~A romance like the naniwabushi, "Mother of the Pier"~

Editor's Note: "Mother of the Pier" is a naniwabushi, or traditional Japanese narrative song, by Akiko Kikuchi. "Mother of the Pier" is the story of Ise Tanno, a woman who was repatriated from the Asian mainland at the end of the Second World War and tragically awaited the return of her son, Shinji, from the Soviet prison camps. She could often be seen waiting at the pier whenever a ship from the Soviet Union arrived, but Shinji never returned. Tanno wrote her story in 1976, and it was made into a film and TV series by Toho.

In the interview, Sakamoto-san told us that Corpse Village (Shikabane no Mura) was Famicom Tantei Club’s original title. At any rate, we laughed at the subtitle, "~A Romance like Woman of the Quay". You can feel the atmosphere of those days from the warmth of the handwritten words.

This is the scenario of The Girl who Stands Behind.* Even though this game came out one year after The Missing Heir, the scenario was written on a word processor!


The Nintendo logo is legible, too.

*Although The Girl Standing Behind was the title used by Nintendo in an interview with Yoshio Sakamoto translated by Nintendo of Europe, I have adopted the smoother translation used on Wikipedia, The Girl who Stands Behind. The title references a ghost story about the high school where the events take place. The ghost of a mysterious girl can sometimes be seen standing behind unsuspecting students. Suddenly, a series of strange murders begin happening...