Q.E.D. Chapter Guide and Main Character List

This guide started out as an index into my summaries of Katou Motohiro's manga, Q.E.D., along with mentions of the various physics and math elements used to underpin the stories. Unfortunately, the Japanese government, under pressure from the manga publishers, started enforcing copyright protection more strictly around 2019, and rather than take chances, I stopped providing sample scans of the artwork and character designs, as well as providing the chapter summaries. That's why the below lists stop at Q.E.D. iff volume 9. 

Volume 01 (Minerva's Owl; Gold Pupil)
Volume 02 (Rokubu's Treasure; Lost Royale)
Volume 03 (Breakthrough; Faded Star Map)
Volume 04 (1st,April,1999; Jacob's Staircase)
Volume 05 (Twisted Melody; Light Afterimage)
Volume 06 (My Memories; The Blue Locked Room)
Volume 07 (Serial John Doe; Gloomy Afternoon)
Volume 08 (Falling Down; The Great School Festival Disaster)
Volume 09 (Rules of the Game; Frozen Hammer)
Volume 10 (In the Hand of the Witch)
Volume 11 (A Sea to Depend On; Winter Zoo)
Volume 12 (In the Corner of the Galaxy; Rainbow Mirror)
Volume 13 (Calamity Man; The Klein Tower)
Volume 14 (Summer Vacation Incident; Irregular Bound)
Volume 15 (Glass Room; Dedekind Cut)
Volume 16 (Cherry Blossoms; Cherry Blossoms; Dead Tears)
Volume 17 (Calamity Man's Worst; Black Nightshade)
Volume 18 (Arrival of the Famous Detective(s)!; The 3 Birds)
Volume 19 (The Ghost of Macbeth; The Sage's Bequest)
Volume 20 (Infinite Moon; The Busy Ms. Enari)
Volume 21 (Joined Threads; The Beautiful Actress being Watched, the Fear of the Stalker, the Gunshot Reverberating from the Cliff Face, What Touma and Kana Saw)
Volume 22 (Summer Stream; Venetian Maze)
Volume 23 (Liar; Another World)
Volume 24 (Christmas Eve Eve; Crime and Punishment)
Volume 25 (The Great UFO War; Parallel)
Volume 26 (Summer Time Capsule; Accomplice)
Volume 27 (Mirror Image; Juror Duty)
Volume 28(The Pharaoh's Neck Ornament; Human Fireworks)
Volume 29(Elephant; Motive and Alibi)
Volume 30 (The Mannequin Murders; Dog Dish)
Volume 31 (The Devil in Your Eye; Promise)
Volume 32 (Magic and Magic; Red File)
Volume 33 (The Paradox Room; The Detective Novelist Murder Case)
Volume 34 (Calamity Man Gets Married; Mother Shrine)
Volume 35 (The 2 Suspects; Christmas Present)
Volume 36 (Kurogane Mansion Murder Case; Q and A)
Volume 37 (A Lecture in Murder; Anime)
Volume 38 (Empty Dream; 17)
Volume 39 (The Incident in Aabanhiruzu Apts., Room 6; Grand Tour)
Volume 40 (Love Square; Locked Room #4)
Volume 41 (Special Envoy for Balkia; Caff's Recollections)
Volume 42 (Escher Hotel; The Tower of Logic)
Volume 43 (Verification; Ginger the Salesman)
Volume 44 (The Tuba and the Grave; Question!)
Volume 45 (Venus;  First Love)
Volume 46 (Lost Love; Pilgrimage)
Volume 47 (The Sun is Still High Up; Hill Road)
Volume 48 (Literary Agent,  Fayha's Book of Paintings)
Volume 49 (Unrelated Incident, Love Story)
Volume 50 (Observation, Escape Game)
- Start of the second season: iff -
Volume 01 (iff, In the year of Quantum Mechanics)
Volume 02 (The Naked Emperor, Shape of a Killer)
Volume 03 (The Three Assassins, Bike Thief)
Volume 04 (The Green Priestess, Handle Name)
Volume 05 (Even, The Imperfect Sealed Room Mystery)
Volume 06 (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Sudden Change)
Volume 07 (The Rainbow Over Ramanujan, The Showman)
Volume 08 (The Seashore Eye Witness, The White Crow)
Volume 09 (Spirit Fire, The Beautiful Painting)

Characters:

Sou Toma:

Sou is the main protagonist, and appears in just about every story as the lead detective. There are a few cases where Kana does all the work and Sou shows up only at the very end to explain the mystery. However, the "The 3 Birds" chapter in volume 18 centers on Det. Mizuhara's partner pretty much exclusively. Otherwise, Sou and Kana are in the leading positions of every chapter. In the first few stories, Sou was described as having graduated from MIT at age 14, but with volume 3 the official character description at the beginning of the books states that it was at age 15. He comes to Japan to attend a regular high school in order to learn more about what it's like to live a normal life. In volume 18, the school's name is given as Sakisaka (Blossom Hill) Private High School. We're never really told exactly where Sou lives in Japan, although it's implied to be an expensive apartment in an exclusive complex near Akihabara (apparently within walking distance of the Akihabara train station). While brilliant, Sou is also reluctant to get involved in other people's problems due to the apparent death of Annie Craner in volume 10. In volume 33, Kana says that she and Touma are still only 2nd year high school students.

Yuu Touma:

Yuu is Sou's younger sister. She first appears in volume 6 as a flighty airhead who is really talented at learning languages. She reappears sporadically throughout the series, mostly as background filler. In volume 12, we're told that her parents had moved from their house near the sea to a smaller place near MIT, but that because they're always traveling, she's living on her own there. Yuu is fiercely loyal to her brother, and feels guilty that her parents are closer to her than to Sou.

Mr. and Mrs. Touma:
In volume 12, we learn that Sou's father is an architect and his mother is a historian. They love traveling around the world visiting archeological sites, and therefore aren't home much (we see them a little in "Liar" in volume 23, but they don't make their first real appearance in the manga until Q.E.D. iff vol. 3). Both parents are Japanese, but Sou and Yuu were both born in the U.S., so at age 18 they'll be expected to pick either Japanese or U.S. citizenship. The only other relatives we know about are their daughter, Yuu, and a cousin that is only hinted at in "Liar". In volume 28, we're told that Sou's mother's younger aunt has a son named Shinra Sakaki (hero of the C.M.B. series).

Kana Mizuhara:

A tomboy that is unbelievably strong and talented in most sports and at least one martial art - kendo - Kana is the only student at Sakisaka H.S. that gets close to Sou. Initially this is because Sou helps her father solve a murder case, but afterwards it's because she can bully him pretty easily. She's not overly smart, and does poorly in classes like math and science, but she is self-aware enough to realize when someone is playing on her sympathies. At one point, she's carrying a box of dumbbells one handed, that a male student fails to lift with both hands. Kana is generally the one that forces Sou to get involved in each mystery and determine the culprit. She lives with her parents and doesn't seem to have other relatives. In volume 33, Kana says that she and Touma are still only 2nd year high school students.

Detective Koutarou Mizuhara and Mrs. Mizuhara:

Kana's father's name is finally given in volume 33. Her mother is still unnamed and isn't actually shown in a good close-up until volume 26. Koutarou is a detective on the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force and appears in the first chapter. He's initially portrayed as hard-headed and bumbling, desperate to get Sou's help in order to avoid arresting the wrong person. Later, he becomes more dogged, successfully solving conventional crimes and willing to accept Sou's assistance with the harder cases. He reappears periodically throughout the series.

Det. Sasaduka (and other detectives):

 Kana's father's partner. He shows up sporadically, but we don't learn anything about him until "The 3 Birds" in volume 18. He's a thorough investigator, but not really given to brilliant bursts of insight. He's single and not dating anyone, from what we've been told (but that might change since a female prosecuting attorney has a crush on him in volume 45). Sasaduka is one of three minor detectives from the Tokyo PD to appear in the series. The second is Sugimichi Kasayama, a bumbling, hopeless romantic that loves TV cop shows (vol. 21), and Kyoori Asama, a gung-ho rookie detective too eager to make himself look good in front of his boss, Det. Mizuhara (vol. 35).

Loki (Sid Green) and Eva Sukta:

Loki is a math researcher at MIT, and the only person to remain friends with Sou following his graduation. He lives in Boston, but flies to Japan whenever he feels like it. Eva is the closest thing Loki has to a girlfriend, but they don't really date very much. Occasionally they travel together, but sometimes Loki visits Sou alone, leaving Eva in the U.S. Eva is from India, and is a computer life sciences researcher. In volume 4, her Life simulator program is co-opted by the CIA, resulting in a runaway virus problem that crashes the Tokyo metropolitan traffic control servers, and she is detained by the CIA while Loki goes to Japan to get Sou to help them. Nothing is known about either of their private lives, other than that Loki likes cigars and fly fishing. They both first appear in volume 3.

Annie Craner:

Annie was a prosecuting attorney in Boston, just starting out on her first big case when Touma first started studying at MIT at age 10. The two of them became friends, but she was shot during the course of the trial in volume 10 and it was implied that she'd died at the end of the story. Since Touma had told her the trick the defendant had used, he blames himself for her death. This is one of the reasons Sou is so reluctant to get close to anyone else. In volume 12, it's revealed that Annie is still alive and working under an assumed name outside of the U.S.

Alan Brad and Elly Francis:

Alan Brad is president and founder of Alan Soft, maker of the Wings OS (he's a parody of Bill Gates). Elly is the only personal assistant willing to put up with his childish behavior. They first appear in volume 13, where Alan claims that Sou had helped debug an early version of his OS, and Alan had wanted to give him a job when he graduated. Sou goes to Japan instead, so Alan tries to challenge the boy to a game involving Rembrandt paintings, and loses. He and Elly reappear in volume 17; Alan proposes to Elly in #23 and she accepts. They get married in volume 34.

The Mystery Club:

The high school has a "detective" club that gets disbanded and reformed as a "mystery" club. The main members are Himeko Enari (AKA: Enari Queen), Kouroku Nagaie (Nagaie = "Long House", therefore AKA: Homes), and Orisato Morita (AKA: Mordar). They're all incompetent and more likely to get arrested by the police than anything else, but they are enthusiastic. Enari is the leader, and a would-be writer. Homes wouldn't know what logic is if it came up and bit him. Mordar is a UFO conspiracist and always suggests that the crimes are committed by ghosts or aliens. They arrive in volume 18. In volume 25, a group of first-year students trick them out of their room, but the group's leader, Maruo Hishida, turns out to enjoy being bossed around by Enari. He's last seen in Antarctica picking penguin feathers to make a down blanket for her. The mystery club shows up every few volumes, but even Enari knows that Homes and Mordar are useless as detectives.

Kikuno Tanabata:

AKA: "Kick", because she's a better martial artist than the more experienced black belts on the force. She's a new recruit in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and she gets help from Touma on a case in Q.E.D. iff #5. She is the main protagonist in Motohiro's novel, "I Can Make Arrests".


Science:

Since Sou Touma graduated from MIT at age 15, one of the key recurring elements to the Q.E.D. stories is the inclusion of various math and scientific principles in the plotlines. This doesn't happen all the time, but it's one of the reasons why I've continued reading all the books that I've found so far. Sometimes, the science just consists of explaining why light reflecting off glass creates a mirror effect. The extreme case is in "Question!" in volume 44, where the entire story consists of an explanation of Fermat's Last Theorem.

• Volume 1: Gold Pupil - The use of a Leyden jar to store static electricity charge.
• Volume 2: Rokubu's Treasure - Aspirin as a blood thinner.
• Volume 2: Lost Royale - History of the Bugatti Royale car.
• Volume 3: Faded Star Map - Discussion of star viewing. Mentions of Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Edwin Hubble. Description of the Gregorian Reflector-style telescope.
• Volume 4: 1st,April,1999 - Magnetism, magnets and monopoles.
• Volume 4: Jacob's Staircase - Conway's Game of Life, and how software firewalls and viruses work.
• Volume 5: Twisted Melody - Description of cellos made by Domenico Montagnana, Bach's "Suites for Unaccompanied Cello" and Kodaly's "Sonata for Solo Cello".
• Volume 5: Light Afterimage - Pinhole cameras, Ernst Leitz and the operations of the vintage Leica camera.
• Volume 7: Serial John Doe - Discussions of e, i, pi and -1. Mentions of Leonhard Euler, John Napier and Carl Gauss.
• Volume 9: Frozen Hammer - Discussion of the Bridges of Konigsberg problem and topology. Mention of Leonhard Euler.
• Volume 12: In the Corner of the Galaxy - Mention of Jack Williamson's Jonbar Hinge concept from the short story "Jon Barr".
• Volume 13: The Klein Tower - The story revolves around a specific kind of 3 or 4 story tower that can be found in Japan that is shaped like a corkscrew (Sazae-tou). Touma refers to this shape as a Klein bottle.
• Volume 15: Glass Room - Discussions of vacuum tubes, analog versus digital sound and gramophones.
• Volume 15: Dedekind Cut - Discussion of the Dedekind Cut, early AI research, Big Blue and chess, and a mention of Evariste Galois.
• Volume 16: Dead Tears - The properties of light at the boundaries of different surfaces.
• Volume 18: Arrival of the Famous Detective(s)! - Light reflects off glass doors.
• Volume 20: Infinite Moon - Discussion of infinity, and Georg Cantor's idea of aleph-null.
• Volume 23: Another World - The entire chapter is an explanation of the Riemann Hypothesis, with a little discussion of the 1974 Aricibo data transmission.
• Volume 25: Parallel -  A simple overview of string theory, and a mention of the possibility supported by the theory of parallel worlds.
• Volume 26: The Pharaoh's Neck Ornament - Shinra from C.M.B. inspects an ancient Egyptian necklace on a dig near Cairo.
• Volume 29: Elephant -  A discussion on Poincare's Conjecture, and an overview of topology.
• Volume 31: The Devil in Your Eye - Fraud performed by science researchers, and a mention of Hideyo Noguchi.
• Volume 32: Magic and Magic - Discussion of the magic book written by Professor Hoffmann.
• Volume 32: Red File - Discussions of financial markets, hedge funds and futures trading.
• Volume 33: The Detective Novelist Murder Case - Brief discussion of how mathematicians deal with paradoxes that show up in proofs.
• Volume 36: Kurogane Mansion Murder Case - Discussions of the strong and weak forces, and the possible existence of gravitons.
• Volume 38: 17 - During the Edo period (1600's to 1850's), certain people across Japan dabbled in the early development of differential calculus as an intellectual pastime, called "wasan" (Japanese algebra). However, rather than finding practical real-world applications for it, wasan masters would paint their problems and solutions on votive boards ("sangaku") to be donated to shinto shrines. This chapter discusses wasan, sangaku and the potential independent discovery of the math concept of "i".
• Volume 39: Grand Tour -  No real science, per se, but the story revolves around a group of scientists that worked on the Voyager I and II satellites during the early 1970's, and the chapter has a number of really nice space drawings, plus a discussion on slingshot orbits.
• Volume 42: Escher Hotel -  An examination of the artwork by M.C. Escher, and examples of attempts to recreate certain illusions in real life.
• Volume 42: The Tower of Logic - A discussion of logic puzzles, and how mathematic logicians develop and verify various proofs.
• Volume 44: Question! -  A fairly comprehensive review of the history of the discovery of Fermat's Last Theorem. The entire chapter involves the various approaches that led up to Andrew Wile's complete solution.
• Volume 45: Venus -  The story revolves around an astronomy textbook primer about the Sun and the inner planets. The science involves a description of how the Sun works, and a possibility of how the moon and Earth formed.
• Volume 45: First Love - No real science, just a look at a donkey rider logic puzzle by famed puzzle maker Sam Loyd.
• Volume 46: Lost Love - The solution is given for the donkey rider puzzle.
• Volume 47: The Sun is Still High Up - A discussion of the Traveling Salesman Problem, and attempts to solve the NP vs P problem. 
• Volume 50: Observation - Touma talks about the search for dark matter using CCD sensors at the Cern Large Hadron Collider and the Keck telescopes in Mauna Kea, Hawai'i, and the neutrino detector at Kamiokande.

Start of 'iff' series

• Volume 01: In the Year of Quantum Mechanics - Part of the story is set in the 1920's, when Heisenberg and Max Born were arguing with Einstein over the then-new concepts of quantum particles, which prompted Einstein to say that "God does not play dice with the universe". There's a bit of quantum theory, and a short discussion about the people on both sides of the debate.
• Volume 02: Shape of a Killer - This is a locked room murder mystery set in the "Geometry Hotel" in Malta. There's a bit of discussion about pretzel problems and squaring the square.
• Volume 04: The Green Priestess - Discussion of the Lotka-Volterra (Predator/Prey) equations.
• Volume 04: Handle Name - Descriptions of how DoS and DDoS attacks work, and what LEET is.
• Volume 05: The Man Who Fell to Earth - Discussion of the Casimir effect and how it can be used with wormholes to allow for one-way time travel. 
• Volume 07: The Rainbow Over Ramanujan - A brief history of India's famed mathematician, Ramanujan, and discussions of Riemann's zeta function. 
• Volume 08: The White Crow - Just a passing mention of how to prove all crows are black.