The Shell Part I: Inferno

The Shell Part I: Inferno is a visual novel set in Japan in March 1956. Private detective Reiji Tokisaka takes on three cases: a girl’s request to find her “true self,” a wave of murders investigated at the request of his childhood friend and former coworker, Sergeant Uozumi, and the disappearance of two students from Oba Girls’ Academy. With the academy’s vice principal, Tokio Saeki, approving, Tokisaka enters the school as a teacher to investigate. There he meets Toko Kuchiki again, the girl who first asked him for help.

As more victims appear, Tokisaka’s investigation stalls: the numbers of disappearances and unidentified bodies do not add up. A case from six years earlier may hold the key to the ongoing cycle of tragedy. The story has multiple endings and runs for more than 10 hours, with full Japanese voice acting and remastered HD assets.

The characters

At Oba Girls’ Academy, Tokisaka encounters several students connected to the case. Toko Kuchiki, a member of the art club, hires him to find her true self. She acts like an adult but seems neither fully adult nor child, and her casual speech contrasts with her refined appearance. Her best friend Tōko sees her as an ideal lady, but feels inferior to the wealthier students and resents them, her mother and herself. She wants Tokisaka to stay away from Toko.

Yukari, Tokisaka’s younger sister, is also in the academy’s art club. Brave, gentle and modest, she supports her brother and takes care of the household chores he cannot manage. She is knowledgeable about insects, which she observes and raises; some escape from her room, and she sometimes serves them as food without warning. Tsuzuriko, a cheerful academy student and author who makes dojinshi, is Yukari’s best friend. She has published writing in literary magazines and contributed to less respectable publications, a secret she keeps from the academy. Tokisaka gives her the unwanted nickname “Tojiko” because he finds “Tsuzuriko” hard to pronounce.

Other characters include Kyoko, the widowed owner of the Moon World café near Kichijoji Station, and Hatsune, a server there who is still learning to cook. Kyoko and Tokisaka are longtime friends and confidants who advise each other after losing people dear to them. Hatsune formerly worked at the Yukishiro brothel in Ueno, which was demolished after an incident and public pressure. The madam adopted her after its destruction, giving her the surname Amemiya. Maris, a half-Japanese curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, is highly knowledgeable about art and says little; despite her mysterious manner, she may be scatterbrained.