Tajuu Jinkaku Tantei Psycho

This manga is not for the faint-hearted, easily scared individuals, or those seeking a light read. It delves deep into darkness and brutality. The intricate plot had me contemplating taking notes, which I eventually did, jotting down details like the protagonist's personalities to keep track. That said, if psychological horror and violence are your cup of tea, this manga fits the bill perfectly.

A word on the nature of the crimes depicted: they are far from simple homicides. They are grotesque and morbidly fascinating, often involving creative torture methods before the victims meet their end. Some killings even have an erotic undertone, which can be deeply unsettling. However, if you're eager to explore the dark side...

The story features bloodshed but also moments of slow-building unease, making it highly psychological. Detective Amamiya's personalities are locked away in his mind, triggered by unknown sights and sounds, giving a lingering sense that something bad could happen at any moment. The art balances the mood superbly. Amamiya's expressions are subtle yet effective. You can see the horror on his face as he learns what his alternate personalities have done, sensing one approaching. You can also tell when he switches to a more dangerous version of himself just through his expressions. The resulting fear is palpable.

Besides the mastery of expressions, the art stands out for keeping characters recognizably Japanese. It's all professional and clean, with highly detailed backgrounds and meticulously rendered corpses. If I'm using the right terms, there's an abundance of high-contrast noir influence, adding depth. However, the number of pages with no screentones, making them simply high contrast black and white, can feel harsh.

The characters are definitely very complex. It takes time for their personalities to become apparent, which I find endearing, as I'm tired of flat characters you know right away. This manga isn't one of those. It makes discovering new clues about someone's true character all the more rewarding. Additionally, the criminals are very interesting, offering a perfect window into psychotic minds. Their expressions, dialog, actions, and movements bring you face to face with the essence of insanity, leaving me breathless more than once and staring at pages pondering what I'd seen too many times to count.

Some traits might make this manga unenjoyable for some, beyond the obvious violence. Mainly, it's very dry—minimal comedy, no comic relief characters or clueless sidekicks, mostly a dark and technical atmosphere. It's also an involved read, requiring active engagement rather than passive consumption.

But if you decide to read it despite its dryness and depicted crimes... you are in for a treat.

This manga is dull. It's merely a weak effort to shock the reader. I sometimes wince when recalling some of the things I've read, like in Ichi the Killer, but this manga is just a display of various self-mutilation or corpse play. The artwork lacks inspiration.

Having read Death Note before this manga, despite it being released years earlier, they share similarities. It's as if Light has multiple personality disorder and is also a psychopathic detective.

There was so much potential for this to be a shocking piece of work that pushes people out of their comfort zones, but instead, it's an uninspired piece with boring artwork.

I will be tossing this into the "standard manga garbage bin".

MPD-Psycho is one of the most disturbing, darkest, mind-blowing, breathtaking, and eye-popping things I've read in a long time. And I'm speaking softly now.

What do we have in MPD? We have a detective who is also a killer, or maybe it's the other way around—a killer who is a detective. It's hard to tell. One of the great strengths of this manga is its complexity, where the reader must understand the twisted mind of the killer, sometimes leading you to the darkest corners of your consciousness. Creepy.

The artwork... the artwork is fantastic—one of the few mangas that actually depicts Japanese citizens looking authentically Japanese! (Seriously, this is rare.) The art is characterized by its use of simple, clean lines that bring the necessary atmosphere to the story.

Another thing I'm woefully happy about in this manga is the beginning. The corpse of a woman locked in a cold storage freezer, with her limbs cut off (arms and legs), and the woman herself drugged into unconsciousness. The punchline? The girl was sent as mail to our protagonist. So you see, this is like a test—the elimination of all weak readers with faint hearts or those easily offended. A survival of the fittest, you may say.

So if you're one of those seeking higher enlightenment, this is a must-read.

I'll be honest with you. I still can't decide how I feel about this manga. It's captivating, the art style is excellent, and the characters are intriguing, but the pacing feels off to me. It's definitely not an easy read, teetering between "this is too much exposition" and being so fascinating that you just want to keep turning the pages.

However, MPD Psycho begins to steer its story away from its initial setup. I'm unsure if it ends up as a wasted potential, but it certainly evolves as the narrative progresses. I'm certain that when it was first published, it garnered hype and people enjoyed it. After all, it even got a TV miniseries directed by Takashi Miike of all people (though I haven't watched that yet). Yet now, it has faded into obscurity, and good luck finding the last chapters translated.

My usual recommendation would be to read something else since it's quite long, difficult to access, and not action-oriented. But if you do choose to dive in, and you're truly seeking a mature detective mystery, you'll find solid world-building and artwork, cool characters, and intriguing murder cases.

Once again though, good luck securing a decent translation.