MPD-Psycho Vol. #02

By Greg Hackmann     January 08, 2008
Release Date: September 05, 2007



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Eiji Otsuka / Sho-U Tajima
Translated by:Kumar Sivasubramanian
Adapted by:

What They Say
Multiple-personality detective Kazuhiko Amamiya is on a new case - one which will result in even more personalities emerging inside his confused, scattered mind! A wave of grisly, imaginative schoolgirl suicides hits Tokyo! Investigating the scenes of these gruesome deaths, Amamiya and the colorful characters of the Isono Criminal Research Lab come across a new villain who knows about a key event from Amamiya's past. What does the white-haired Zenitsu have to do with the suicides, Amamiya's "barcode puzzle" theory, and a stuttering victim from a decades-old night of murder and destruction?

The Review
As this volume opens, Amamiya is pondering out loud the connection between the serial killings of several years ago with recent events, and wondering what role his own alternate personalities are playing in the whole ordeal. Soon afterwards, the police department learns of a string of suicides by high-school girls. With no obvious traits tying the victims together, Amamiya suspects that a mind-controlling cult is involved in these cases. This suspicious leads him to track down two at-risk students and to try to prevent in their inevitable suicides. His investigation saves the lives of one of the girls during their in-progress suicide attempt, but otherwise yields few concrete clues. However, Amamiya discovers a small piece of the puzzle that gnawed at him during this volume's prologue: the presence of Lucy Monostone paraphernalia plastered all over the would-be victim's room.

While this discovery answers few questions for Amamiya proper, it apparently triggers some kind of epiphany in one of his other personalities. While escorting Isono home, "Amamiya" suddenly removes his glasses and attempts to run over a nearby pedestrian -- indicating that the sadistic Nishizono personality has re-emerged. The pedestrian, later revealed to be named Zenitsu, confirms Amamiya's speculated connection before escaping arrest. When the Amamiya personality returns shortly after the incident, he's still just as clueless about Nishizono's connection to Zenitsu and Moriizuma as before. However, Otsuka hands the audience a small fragment of the explanation with a flashback that describes Nishizono's association with the mentally-disabled Kiyoshi Murata as a child, coupled with a flash-forward to the present-day Murata's partnership with Zenitsu.

Readers hoping that this second volume would clarify the events of the first volume are in for a disappointment; if anything, things get even more complicated with the introduction of a fifth personality into the fold and the involvement of a religious cult in Amamiya's case. While Otsuka reveals parts of Amamiya's previously-undiscussed childhood that may have contributed to his multiple personality disorder, the organ donation plotline seems to move further and further away from resolution at virtually every story turn. Regardless of the backstory behind these events, it's clear that Otsuka is in this one for the long haul.

At two volumes and 12 chapters into the story development, it's still tough to recommend MPD-Psycho one way or the other without knowing exactly where Otsuka is going with it all. He's done a good job at drawing out the suspense so far; but with this kind of dramatic build-up, it's going to be tricky to cap it off with a satisfying explanation. Nevertheless, readers with strong stomachs and a taste (or at least a high tolerance) for convoluted plots will probably want to give MPD-Psycho a shot, if only for the sheer audacity of the storyline and for Otsuka's willingness to experiment with perceptions of death in mainstream media.