Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple)

Four and Twenty Blackbirds (二十四羽の黒つぐみ - Nijūyon-wa no Kuro-Tsugumi) is a Japanese anime television adaptation produced by Oriental Light and Magic for NHK television. The film was Episode 34 of NHK's anime series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple. The adaptation was written by Masashi Sogo, directed by Yoshitaka Makino and Naohito Takahashi and first broadcast on 10 April 2005. It was an adaptation of the Agatha Christie short story of the same name.

A strict translation of 黒つぐみ (kuro-tsugumi) in the title is "black thrush" which in Japan refers to the species Turdus cardis or commonly known as the Japanese Grey Thrush. The blackbird in the nursery rhyme is Turdis merula, which is the common or Eurasian blackbird. In Japanese, this bird is known as 黒歌鳥 (kuro uta-dori - 'black song bird'). So the strict translation of the title is "Twenty Four Japanese Grey Thrushes". However the captions at the beginning of the show clearly translate the Japanese words as "Four and Twenty Blackbirds".

Synopsis
Poirot becomes interested in a regular diner at a restaurant turns up on a day he does not habitually come and who then orders something he does not habitually eat.

Comparison with Original Story
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) In the cast of characters, Hastings, Miss Lemon and Mabel West have been added and Henry Bonnington has been dropped. Otherwise the plot of the episode follows the original story very faithfully.

The episode opens with Poirot, Hastings and Mabel having dinner at the Gallant Endeavour. There Molly tells them about "Old Father Time", the restaurant's mysterious diner who always came in on Tuesdays and Thursdays and who always ordered the same food. This time he had ordered something different.

A while later, Mabel is on a bus and meets the waitress Molly again. She tells her "Old Father Time" has not been in for dinner for a week. Mabel tells this strange occurence to Poirot, who is worried and asks Miss Lemon to check on death records near the area of the restaurant.

Poirot then interviews Dr MacAndrew and this proceeds much as in the original. The only small difference is Poirot doesn't ask a leading question about the condition of Gascoigne's teeth. He asks if MacAndrew noticed anything unusual and the doctor replies that Gascoigne had a set of teeth in clean and excellent condition.

Poirot next calls on the coroner where he obtains the letter in Gascoigne's pocket. In this adaptation (as Poirot will reveal later), the number 4 has been changed to 5. The postmark thus reads Mar 5, 1937. This is wrong anyway as this date is not a Thursday. In the original, the number 2 on the postmark had been changed to 3.

Poirot doesn't go to see Amelia Hill. He sends Hastings and Mabel instead. They don't exactly calm her down or win her over like Poirot did in the original story. Here, Amelia just vents at them but reveals all the pertinent facts while doing so.

As for the second visit to Gallant Endeavour to check what "Old Father Time" ate for dinner on the Thursday of Gascoigne's death, Molly was the one who provided the answers. In the original, it was another waitress as Molly was on holiday.

The confrontation between Poirot and George Lorrimer takes place much as in the original, except that Hastings and Mabel also come along. When George Lorrimer insists that he never eats blackberry pudding Oliver provides a pertinent piece of picking up a napkin from the floor with marks of blackberry on it.

Characters/Voice talents
Most of the voice talents for the characters are not credited
 * Masako Jô as Oliver
 * Fumiko Orikasa as Mabel
 * Hirofumi Nojima as Hastings
 * Kôtarô Satomi as Hercule Poirot
 * Atsuko Tanaka as Miss Lemon
 * Ryousuke Miki as Dr MacAndrew
 * Molly
 * George
 * Henry Gascoigne
 * Anthony Gascoigne
 * Dr MacAndrew
 * George Lorrimer
 * Amelia Hill

Research notes
For the benefit of the Japanese viewers who would be unfamiliar with the significance of the nursery rhyme, Poirot asks Mabel at the end of the episode to recite the first stanza. He then explains that this rhyme refers to an old English tradition where blackbirds are hidden in a pie. When the pie is cut, the blackbirds will fly out to the delight of the dinner guests. Here, when the pie is cut, the blackbirds (blackberries in this case) begin to sing and tell him the truth about the crime.