Surprise of the day - Kindaichi Hajime & Nanase Miyuki's happily-ever-after

This was definitely the surprise of the day.

Kindaichi Hajime & Nanase Miyuki already married? And expecting a baby??!

Seeing this screenshot making its rounds on social media was such a pleasant surprise. And as a longtime fan of the "Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo" series, this was really something that should have come a long time earlier than now.

I was still a teenager when I started reading the Kindaichi manga, albeit in Chinese since I was just starting out to learn Japanese. And in order to get the latest release as soon as possible, I had to buy the Taiwanese version instead of the local version so that was a huge investment considering my status as a student then. It was only until much later when I started collecting the Japanese version and had to wait months between each book's release. As for the real-life dramas and anime, I had watched most of them except for the 3rd generation and 5th generations' drama series. 

Honestly speaking, the series actually wasn't that suitable for teenagers. Since every case was about murders, sometimes serial murders and at times involved underaged people being the killers, the MOs and motives depicted certainly couldn't be considered wholesome and healthy for teenagers to read. However, what got me interested was not so much the gore or the motives spurring those killers to exact justice for themselves or their loved ones but rather the intricate plots and the MOs that the killers used to commit their crimes. The twists and turns in some of these stories were so engaging and the gratification of being able to guess them correctly was a huge plus as I got more familiar with the deduction process and became more alert to observe the clues left around by the authors.

However, by the time it came to the 37-year-old Kindaichi series, I started to feel the fatigue from the repetition of the story's format. Things were getting predictable although the MO and techniques used were mostly evolving with the times. Despite so, the motives of the killers and the "truth revelation" process were getting stale. It was also frustrating to have the carrot or rather mystery of what's up with Miyuki being dangled like forever because she never appeared in the new series other than the occasional mention. Given these reasons, I stopped purchasing the manga after Vol. 13.

So...with this new revelation, what does this mean next for me?

For a start, do I want to catch up on the volumes which I missed from the 37-year-old series? Will these feature the story of what happened between these childhood-friends-turned-husband-and-wife? Or will this part only be covered in the "Kindaichi Papa" series which will start in Jan 2025? Then again, the timing of this revelation just makes me wonder if it's a ruse to get old-time fans back for the new series but end up being taken for a ride again.

While it is probably not reasonable to expect too much from this series given that it has gone on for decades and there are limits to how much it can evolve, I certainly look forward to seeing some progression in the key characters' lives. And this is really, a very much anticipated outcome that most if not all fans have been waiting for.