Genre: Horror

Range: 18+

Price: 10.95 USD

I recently went and saw "The Incredible Hulk" and noticed more than some previous "comic book movies" the experience of watching the film was in some ways much like reading a comic book. The story starts in the middle (with a brief explanation of the creation story in the opening credits, much like the first page of some comics) and the movie has an open-ended finish allowing for the tale to continue in future installments.

With the introduction of Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. in "Iron Man" and Tony Stark's appearance and discussion of the super-soldier program (Captain America) in "The Incredible Hulk" for the first time in superhero cinema we are introduced to the cross-over between titles. This is how comic books create a "universe".

I believe this is the first time we are seeing this in manga brought into English as well. Eiji Otsuka, whose partner Housui Yamazaki penned the three-volume Mail, wrote the ongoing Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and MPD-Psycho and has created what editor Philip Simon calls the "Otsuka-verse". There is no reason for fans of any one of Otuska's titles to not be reading all of them, and one of the reasons is the cross-over of characters from all the series. Mail's private dick and ghost hunter Akiba shows up to work with the corpse whisperers in Kurosagi and MPD-Psycho's annoying Tokyo flatfoot Sasayama becomes a regular in Kurosagi as a now retired and violently scarred private-eye. (What happened? We don't know yet.)

If you haven't started reading MPD-Psycho, I don't want to spoil what happens in No. 5, and if you have started, I REALLY don't want to spoil what happens. Editor Philip Simon has said that each volume takes the reader down to a deeper and more frightening level, and every volume I think "How could it possibly be more hardcore than the last volume?" and then I open it up and that silly question is answered. I feel like we drop a couple levels this time around. The introduction of a sketchy American profiler, Michelle Partner, and more details about pop star's Lucy Monostone's influence on fans make this more than a psychological bloodbath, but most importantly the curtain is pulled back a little farther on what is going on with Amamiya and Nishizono.

I am a sucker for horror manga, and will take any and all I can get, but this is horror on a truly different level. If Junji Ito's Gyo is a horror movie, then Eiji Otsuka's MPD-Psycho is surveillance video of a school shooting.

This is 18+ for a reason and isn't for all, or even most, manga fans. The stark gore might shock but it is the psychology that will give you chills long after you've safely locked MPD-Psycho away. 

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