Manga Review: Psycho Busters Volume One

[Jason]

Title: Psycho Busters
Volume: One
Author: Yuya Aoki
Mangaka: Akinari Nao
Genre: Shonen, Action
Originally Serialized In: Magazine Special (Kodansha)
Licensed By: Del Rey
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Price: $10.95/US

Psycho Busters is a manga adaptation of a series of YA novels by the same name, which I reviewed recently. The manga is a fairly faithful adaptation with a few changes here and there such as the central character is Kakeru, who has been aged up a year to fifteen.

While the females in his family go to Hawaii, and Dad is working in another city, Kakeru plans to stay at home and just enjoy his time alone. In other words, eat take out, play games and stroke himself to his dad’s porn stash (seriously). The action begins as he quests through the house for a box of tissues and stumbles on a naked translucent girl in his room.

Possessed by what he thinks is a ghost, Kakeru finds himself in an abandoned house with a band of tattered teens who are being hunted by men with guns. Ayano, the young lady who can perform astral projection and telepathy; Xiao Long, who can use qigong to heal and defend; and Joi, who is only barely conscious (another change from the novel where he is comatose for almost all of it), though he does manage to tell Kakeru he’ll be the one to save the world. They’re all 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.

After sacking out at his house briefly, they need to go find another of their escapee band, Kaito. However, Joi can’t be left alone so Kakeru turns to an adult he trusts, Hiyami, who works at his school. Her character is much more ill defined here in the manga compared to the novel. The group then heads to Yokohama to find their friend, Kaito, and run into even more problems. Kakeru realizes he’s in way over his head because everyone but him thinks he’s an ultra powerful psychic. He knows he’s just an ordinary kid and he might die before he can prove it. He believes he’s just lucky. Kakeru sells himself short. Yes, he’s a little guy, looking younger than his age, but he’s also very bright, and he’ll need to be to stay alive.

This is the super power stuff that we’ve seen many times before, but Psycho Busters makes it fun in spite of that. The art is very pretty. There is a fair bit of boob and butt cleavage fan service in this but not so much as to be truly obnoxious. I take that as a matter of course for fifteen-year-old boys. Typical of Del Rey, the sound effects are intact and translated on the page, plus there’s a nice chunk of translator notes in the back. Del Rey continues to put out some of the nicest looking collections I’ve seen. Another difference between novel and manga is that I would be comfortable with younger teens seeing the novels but I think Del Rey’s older teen rating is appropriate.

Reviewer: D.M. Evans
Proofer/Editor: Lissa Pattillo