Six Pork Cutlets / 六枚のとんかつ

Feeling hungry? Six Pork Cutlets is a baka-mys short story collection that won the third Mephisto prize, so as you could probably expect from that those pieces of information, it... has a bit of a different flavor than you might expect.

The protagonist is an insurance claims adjuster named Yoshikazu Ono (although his name is never actually said after he’s introduced, so it almost feels like he an unnamed protagonist). Because of his work, most stories either involve an insured item being stolen or someone covered by life insurance getting killed, and co-star Yoshikazu’s friend Kotou, who fancies himself a detective, or his overweight coworker Saotome.

This premise naturally leads to different types of stories than typical detective fiction. Six Pork Cutlets features many more mysteries about thefts than normal, and when a story does involve murder, Yoshikazu’s job isn’t to solve the murder, but to prevent the payout on the victim’s life insurance policy—which can only be done by showing the beneficiary is the culprit, often by breaking their seemingly perfect alibi. (There is one story where a girl is killed and her insured necklace is stolen by the culprit, which is the only murder story in the collection about identifying the culprit rather than proving the culprit’s guilt.) 

Of course, when I say “proving the culprit’s guilt,” I use that phrase lightly. We never actually prove anyone’s guilt. We’ll break their alibi, but that’s a far cry from proof of guilt. And we always focus on the policy beneficiary from the beginning, without inspecting any other suspects. Heck, usually we only find out there was a method to bypass their alibi, not proof that it was actually faked. Proof and conviction happen off-screen… but that’s fine, since these are short baka-mys stories built around silly gags, not fully fleshed crime dramas. 

Well, they’re mostly short baka-mys stories built around silly gags. Some stories are played straight, and appear to be legitimate mysteries. Also, even when the stories are built around gags or puns, the explanations behind the crimes are usually fairly reasonable. 

That being said, the stories can actually feel a bit formulaic, which might be a bit surprising for a Mephisto prize-winning baka-mys collection. If it’s a Kotou story then we’ll be introduced to the problem, Kotou will give some vague hints, Yoshikazu will develop a wild but wrong theory, Kotou will chastise Yoshikazu and make a grand deduction that also ends up being wrong, and then the case will resolve itself. If it’s a Saotome story then Yoshikazu and Saotome will be assigned to work on a case together, Saotome will do something silly and Yoshikazu will call Saotome stupid and disgusting, but in doing so will have an epiphany that lets him solve the case. 

It’s not obnoxiously formulaic, and the collection knows when to shake things up in order to keep them interesting, but there’s still a common pattern to many of the stories. 

As you might have begun to gleam, Yoshikazu is a massive jerk. Especially when Saotome enters the picture Yoshikazu’s awful side comes to the forefront. But Yoshikazu isn’t the hero, he’s just the viewpoint character. The stories make it clear that Yoshikazu is a loser, so it doesn’t feel like they’re condoning his behavior. 

Also, while not as explicit as the Lychee Kamiki stories, Six Pork Cutlets does feature some sexual themes. (In particular, Yoshikazu likes hookers. Hmm… Do I smell crossover potential?) 

I found the jokes and gags near the end of the collection particularly good, which allowed the book to end on a high note… except for the titular story, which was a let-down. Upon opening the book, you can see from the table of contents that “Six Pork Cutlets” is nestled near the end of the collection, but right before it is another story called “Five Pork Cutlets.” I expected some sort of connected theme, or interlocking plot, or heck even just a brick joke—something to make the two stories more than the sum of their parts. 

Instead, before “Five Pork Cutlets” was an author’s note explaining that “Five Pork Cutlets” and “Six Pork Cutlets” both feature the exact same trick, which is also the main trick from The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. What?! So there’s no connection between them, one story is just a copy of the other, and I’ve been spoiled on the trick for them before I’ve even started reading?! Now, I’m not saying that you should just steal The Tokyo Zodiac Murders’ trick without credit, and the way each story transplants the trick into a completely different context is admittedly pretty neat, but it still felt like a letdown for a title story. 

Is Six Pork Cutlets a bad collection? Well, I wouldn’t call it a good collection. It’s silly and unique, and there are some fun parts, but just didn’t quite suit my palate. I don’t regret trying Six Pork Cutlets, but I don’t think I’m going to order it again either.