MPD Psycho Volume 6
Several months after surviving the “Ghost Condo Massacre,” our favorite multiple personality detective - the man we’ve known as Kazuhiko Amamiya - has been missing, possibly under the control of his unhinged, murderous Shinji Nishizono personality. While faithfully waiting for Amamiya to return, Machi Isono is invited to witness an unusual presentation hosted by Japan’s minister of justice, who then threatens to shut down Machi’s Criminal Research Lab. New characters are introduced (like the Love Letter Bomb Stalker), new threats are discovered (like “personality transfers”), but, best of all, readers will finally get some answers!
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars …A SONG TO END THE WORLD.
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to read and review the “MPD Psycho” books, but here’s my latest! For those of you who don’t already know, this gory, controversial, and bizarre crime manga was written by Eiji Otsuka and strikingly illustrated by Shou Tajima. There are 12 volumes altogether, so readers who are lucky enough to get their hands on the translated versions will be halfway through this twisted puzzle of corpses, bar codes, and scientific intrigue. Both intelligent and highly addictive, “MPD Psycho” is not all about body parts and bare skin.
Volume 6 takes place approximately 6 months after the Lucy 7 massacre. Detective Kazuhiko Amamiya (whose fragmented mind is apparantly being dominated by the psychotic Shinji Nishizono) has gone missing, and Toru Sasayama is left on his own to piece together clues of an old case. Although at times he still doesn’t quite know what he’s doing due to his limited profiling skills, Toru is more determined than ever to catch Noboru Asou, an insanely lovestruck mailman who stalked Machi Isono and delivered to her a parcel bomb that blew off some of her fingers. But when Asou makes an unexpected return to his life of crime and redeclares his devotion to Machi (all the while exploding a few buildings and murdering dozens of innocent bystanders), Sasayama is puzzled over why he instantly does so after so many years of absense. Meanwhile, under the devious scrutiny of Prime Minister Tatsuo Onihigata, Tetora Nishizono’s special abilities start to malfunction at an alarming rate, fluctuating back an forth between the personalities of every bar-coder host he inhabited. As Onihigata threatens to shut down Isono’s private research lab in an attempt to lure her into the Gakuso Society’s inner circle, he announces to a reluctant Akira Kitou that their group will form a secret joint project with another faction run by Teu “Mama” Mimegumi. She is a former secretary who once worked for Isono’s father. Though an increasingly despondent Machi is faithfully waiting for Amamiya to return, she is given a similar offer by none other than Zenitsu (who in the last book received a rather unpleasant face lift). Later on, when Sasayama and Machi are abducted by the burnt and scarred Kazuhiko Amamiya and taken to Mimegumi’s lab onboard an ocean liner, they are horrified to learn Gakuso’s mission: to collect and store the identities of all living citizens in a computer database, perfect human genomes, and allow Japan’s State Government to modify human behavior to control the general population. Tetora, in particular, was purposely developed as the ultimate biological weapon. However, his Shinji Nishizono upgrade cannot be fully revived until his two halves (XX and XY) are merged. And it just so happens that the only person who can complement with Tetora and prevent his self-destruction is Miwa, Machi’s own half-sister! The story’s psychological tension comes to a head when Miwa and her high school peers end their trip to the Phillipines by boarding an airplane bound for Tokyo. Thousands of feet above ground, right before the eyes of frightened passengers, a hijacking is perpetrated by Miwa and Kiryu (a hopeless drug addict who used to be an artistic mentor and friend to the late Kikuo Toguchi). Many questions arise here: What’s Kiryu’s real motive, how is it that Akio Umemiya is still alive, and why is a rather familiar homicide detective with multiple personality disorder on the same plane being held hostage by a girl who can evoke group hypnosis by touch?
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