Manga Review: Psycho Busters Volume One

[Jason]

Title: Psycho Busters (Saiko Basutazu)
Volume: One
Author: Yuya Aoki
Illustrator: Rando Ayamine
Publisher: Del Rey
Genre: Light Novel, Shonen, Action
Price: $9.95/US

Psycho Busters is a novelization of a manga by the creative team behind GetBackers. The central character is a fourteen year old boy, Kakeru and it’s first person point-of-view, except when it isn’t (i.e. any time we need to see the bad guys’ POV). At first I was very wary since the sentence structure was so clunky and I thought this was going to be like those professional fanfic novels that crop up. It does get better, though a little grammatical help would have been nice. The sentence structures and grammar do even out a bit.

Kakeru feels rather out of place in his family. An average student and action figure maker, Kakeru is misunderstood by both mother and sisters, and Dad isn’t much in the picture as he works abroad. He feels rather picked on at home and in school. While the females in his family go to Hawaii, Kakeru plans to stay at home and just enjoy the quiet, which lasts until the dream of all fourteen year boys happens: a naked floating girl shows up, begging for his help.

Kakeru finds himself on the run with a band of teens as he tries to help them. Ayano, the young lady who can astral- project her (unfortunately naked) form; Xiao Long, who can use his ki to heal and defend, and Kaito and Jo, who have even more impressive psychic abilities. They’re on the run from equally powerful teens who are trying to return them to the Greenhouse, an institute created for both studying and making psychic powers. The Greenhouse is the villain of the piece.

As they run, Kakeru has only one adult to turn to: Hiyami, the caretaker at school with a mysterious past. Being an ordinary kid, Kakeru has a real problem. Both the good and bad psychics all believe that he is a Category Zero, one of the most powerful psychics. Kakeru, on the other hand, thinks it’s nothing more than good luck. Which one is right? Read to find out.

It’s not a bad young adult novel; it’s just the first in a series. The plot is nothing new, pretty standard stuff, but the characters are likeable enough to look past that. Culturally, the biggest differences an American reader will notice is the obsession with characters and the spelling of their names, and the meaning, trading that information with enemies as well as friends. I found it amusing that the author wanted to give kids a novel they’ll enjoy that was manga-like enough to appeal to kids while appeasing the parents. Apparently comic reading is considered the less worthwhile option in Japan as well as America: more’s the pity.

Reviewer: D.M. Evans
Proofer: Eduardo Menendez
Editor: Lissa Pattillo