To carry parallels to video games (since that is the bulk of what we do cover here at DDNet), the observations in Out (and Grotesque) are broadly in alignment for the experiences that Tokyo Dark explores, and just like that game Out has a tense, oppressive and near-claustrophobic intensity to it. Rather, the feminism comes in exploring how these monsters are made, how Japanese society acts to stifle and exploit women, and how isolating the experience of being a woman in Japan might be. Each of them are a kind of cruelty into themselves. Just like in Grotesque, Kirino is stridently feminist, but not in the sense that her women are heroes – far from it. Out is a story in solidarity for these four women, and an indictment on a society that allows for this to happen. Unfortunately for them a local yakuza got pinned with the crime and decides to take investigations into his own hands, and a too-smart loan shark starts sniffing an opportunity… The fourth eventually snaps and murders her husband, while the other three then agree to dispose of the body. Another hasn’t spoken to her husband or son in years, and the fourth has a no-good husband that spends all his time at illegal casinos and chasing pretty (and expensive) hostesses around. Another is struggling to send her daughter to college. One can’t help but wrack up massive debts with loan sharks to buy things she can’t afford.

All four of the women are feeling the weight of Japanese society pressing down on them. Out tracks the stories of four women who work together on the overnight shift at a convenience store packed lunch factory. Many people see “detective fiction” and immediately assume some variation of “whodunnit,” but Out is instead crime fiction because it looks at the human condition, how it might lead to crime, and questions who the real victims are in the whole unfortunate situation. We know exactly who the perpetrators are, those who are arrayed against them, and we have a strong understanding right from the outset how things are going.

Just as with Grotesque, Out is a work of crime fiction, but it’s not a mystery per se. Out was actually the first Kirino novel to be translated into English, and if you’ve not had the opportunity to read it yet, you should jump at it – it’s a masterpiece of modern detective fiction. I have previously reviewed Kirino Natsuo’s Grotesque, but with Out, she has solidified herself as my favourite modern Japanese author.

Out by kirino natsuo