The MRI Scanner
The Ultimate Intrusion of Privacy
The technology behind the MRI scanner takes center stage in the series, offering immense potential in its new area of application. The ability to look into a victim’s or criminal’s mind promises a wealth of new information — information that may otherwise be impossible to retrieve due to lack of leads —, such as the culprit’s features, weapon, time, location, and even motive of the crime.
Fast-forward Five years after the pilot, this new investigation method has already seen use in ten cases, sporting a success rate of nearly 100 %. The enormous threat that the method poses to privacy and human dignity raises opposition from conservatives, human rights organizations, ethics commissions and the general public alike. Weighing the ethical choices, the government acknowledges that not all crimes can be solved through conventional methods, and has conceded the use of the MRI scanner in the investigations of the most atrocious of crimes as well as cases of great public interest. For this sake, a special unit within the police’s national scientific research institute has been established. They are the Ninth, short for the 9th Laboratory of Forensic Medicine. Comprised of a handful of elite graduates, they are the sole unit in all of Japan to be authorized with the use of this highly controversial technology.
At first sight, the possibilities that the MRI scanner introduces sound like a potential deus ex machina that render the mystery around the cases obsolete. In Shimizu’s capable hands, however, that is not the case; the technology remains fascinating throughout the series, always having more surprises in store as the cases take unexpected turns. Reasons for this can be found in the intricacies of its functionality:
The MRI scanner catches subconscious sights as well. Our conscious memory is not only inaccurate and unreliable, it is also highly incomplete. Day to day, our senses pick up vastly more information than we are aware of, let alone capable of consciously processing and remembering. Information that our brain classifies as unimportant may be filtered from the outset, and is discarded from memory with time. Imagine the impact on crime investigation when such information can be accessed as well! The series likens the results of the MRI scanner to those gained from hypnosis, as both methods allow information to be retrieved that the person themselves did not consciously process.
The MRI scanner does not reproduce objective truth. As it processes what a person perceived through their own eyes and with their own brain, the images it shows are inevitably coloured by the person’s perspective. Though two people may look at the same object, what they actually see differs, for example due to differences in colour vision, or distortions as a result of personal sentiment and mental state (e.g. adoration, fear, hatred, suggestion, mind-altering substances). In many cases, people would not even know that they are seeing different things. The MRI scanner, however, captures those differences in perception by replicating that subjective element.
The MRI scanner evolves. It is not a static plot device, but one that expands technologically and narratively. In the pilot, it is only possible to view the memories of a brain that has had a chip embedded at birth to guard against viral infections. The discovery that this chip can display past visual memory when the brain is electrically stimulated led to the invention of this specific MRI scanner. The second chapter removes this barrier: Images can be retrieved as long as the brain is undamaged and has been properly preserved. Furthermore, the timespan that can be viewed expands from two years in the past to five. Though undoubtedly minor adjustments made at serialization start, these changes can also be viewed as a form of naturally occurring technological progress, as is the case with further developments later on. On top of that, most cases bring an additional aspect or layer of the technology to light, which gives more dimension to its area of application, and also shows that the people in charge of it are still learning how to make effective use of this brand new tool. In other words: Its full potential has not yet been unlocked. To say more at this point would, regrettably, be a spoiler.
The MRI scanner concerns and affects everyone. In a future where this technology exists, the people living in that world operate in the knowledge of its existence. The investigators of the Ninth carry out their job at an extreme risk to their own mental health. Their own emotional baggage only makes it harder to keep the terrors summoned by the memories of the deceased at bay. Though they take pride in their work, they also face and reflect on the ethical questions inherent to their task, an obligation that persists throughout the series. And the longer the series goes on, the more prominent the MRI scanner becomes in the public’s awareness, which is reflected in the population and the media’s reception, including the reactions of the family of the deceased. Criminals, too, are aware of this development: The more widespread the knowledge of the Ninth’s methods and achievements becomes, the more room for maneuver criminals gain. No one is left untouched by the existence of this new technology.
Perhaps what contributes to the series’ mood more than anything else is this careful and encompassing consideration of its very setting. Shimizu writes thrilling cases that are technically and emotionally complex, but what makes them so memorable, what makes the reader connect, is that the series never ceases to ask what the right course of action is and whether the use of this new technology is truly justified in every single instance. Its usage is never allowed to become a matter of routine, and any decision made with regard to it is not automatic, but a result of careful assessment. More than just a convenient crime-solving tool, the MRI scanner is thus instrumental in engaging with the questions and themes at the series’ core. And beneath all the heinous crimes and disturbing images, the story that is explored always addresses deeply intimate — and often unspeakably lonely — aspects of the human condition. (More on this on page 6.)