NOTE: I have previously made a review for this series 10 years ago, but it was pretty poorly written and recently I have started reading the manga so I have decided to do a complete review redux. There are also some minor spoilers ahead.
Demon Detective Neuro is the first series by Yusei Matsui, an author who later came to prominence with his smash hit comedy series Assassination Classroom. In comparison, Neuro, which is definitely darker in tone seems relatively forgotten. The anime never received an English dub and the manga was never officially released in English, though it was licensed in other languages such as
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Spanish and French. So one might wonder, is Neuro a hidden gem which deserves its cult following or does it deserve to fade into obscurity? Frankly while the manga is great and still worth checking out, the anime is a faulty adaptation held back by several issues.
First let’s talk about the presentation, the anime was made by studio Madhouse, so you can expect decent animation quality, but don’t expect to be blown away by epic fights and pretty colours. The character designs are also bold looking and easily recognizable with Neuro himself in his true form being the most striking. In terms of sound there are two things that stand out, the opening Theme DIRTY by the band Nightmare, (who have also done music for Death Note and Claymore) is a catchy and surprisingly heavy tune, in comparison the ending theme is a fairly typical sentimental ballad. The other notable thing is the voice of the main character Neuro, the legend Takehito Koyasu known for many roles such as Shinsuke from Gintama, Dio Brando and… Excalibur from Soul Eater. His performance truly steals the show and his manic laugh in one of the later episodes is unforgettable. We also have the main villain voiced by the CV of Edward Elric, Romi Park. The soundtrack composed by Tomoki Hasegawa is surprisingly decent and varied, containing dramatic orchestral tracks, some moody and goofy tunes.
But obviously what really matters here are the characters and the story, which centers around the titular Nougami Neuro, a sadistic badass demon who comes to the human world to feed on people’s mysteries and possesses over 777 demonic tools. As a cover up he sets up a detective agency with Yako Katsuragi, a high school student whose father recently got murdered. At first she seems useless and unremarkable, with her only noticable trait being her appetite for food which puts Luffy, Lina Inverse and Chouji Akimichi to shame. However as the story progresses her character and relationship with Neuro starts developing, though initially their interactions just involve Neuro bullying and torturing her, those slapstick comedy moments feel amusing at first, but they will start getting old and feel inappropriate. It’s definitely an unusual premise and not something typical you’d expect from a shounen Jump manga. Other significant characters include Shinobu Godai, a hotheaded office assistant and former member of Yakuza who likes drinking beer, Akane, a conscious ponytail of a girl buried in a wall, Eishi Sasazuka, a stoic smart detective with name and appearance similar to teacher Onizuka who always acts calm and collected and his assistant Jun Ishigaki, who in contrast acts dumb and childish and likes collecting toys, he’s similar to Matsuda from Death Note. The main cast is definitely memorable, but the villains are a mixed bag.
The problems start arising with the story and its structure, if you are expecting something like Detective Conan with a supernatural twist you are going to be very disappointed. In fact the manga author Matsui said in an interview he was not fan of mysteries and wanted to create an unconventional detective manga. So what we get here is a collection of episodic cases where the culprit is nearly always obvious from the beginning and then Yako with help of Neuro reveals the culprit while he explains the convoluted elaborate scheme straight out of CSI which the suspect used to commit the crime. Then Neuro usually devours their mystery and the criminal is arrested. Nevertheless, it quickly becomes very formulaic, especially because almost all cases in the first 15 episodes are murders with the exception of one mad bomber. Other standout cases include two episodes involving an idol singer and a springs episode which contains one of the most hilariously bad national stereotypes in anime. Most villains are shallow and one dimensional and once the case ends they have no relevance to the story. The big exception is the main villain, "Phantom Thief" Sai, a murderer who puts people in red boxes and searches for his lost identity. The 3 episodes dedicated to him are by far the most interesting part of the series until we get to the first major arc involving evil artificial intelligence HAL (Where could author get that name from?), easily the highlight of the anime which breaks from the usual formula by introducing way more action and a genius hacker Higuchi, who plays a major part in the story. Then we get a few more cases before the main characters are once more confronted by Sai, the series ends with a decent but open conclusion. So in a nutshell this is basically a mystery series for people who hate mysteries.
However, then we get to the manga and we quickly realise that the anime is just a really sloppy adaptation. Firstly the manga was far from complete and was running for just two years when the series started airing so it roughly adapts only the first half up to the HAL arc before the story diverges with an anime original ending. It’s worth noting that there is a dramatic tonal shift in the second half of the manga and the series transforms from a pseudo-mystery series into something quite different and much darker. Unlike many manga which have an interesting beginning and later jump the shark, Neuro actually gets better over time.
But even the material the studio could work with is adapted fairly poorly, while the first half of the manga was still not great, the cases there actually felt a bit connected to each other and there were bits of foreshadowing missing in the anime. There are also many other minor and major differences between manga and adapted material, for example in the manga father’s death is resolved almost instantly in second chapter while in the anime it’s revealed in the finale, still neither version handled such a major plot point particularly well. Many smaller subplots and chapters between cases which served as a break from the action are also missing. The Hayasaka brothers also got cut off from the anime completely.
Generally, in the anime the episodes just seem lazily thrown together willy-nilly in random order from chapter to chapter without much regard for pacing and we also get a few anime original cases which are far less interesting, some details from the manga are also omitted so for example it’s not explained how guardians of one of the HAL computers acquired their guns. However, the biggest issue by far by far is in the characters themselves. The interactions between them are also worse and there is a massive lack of development. In the anime Yako is mostly treated as a joke, but in the manga she really grows into a competent detective and Neuro’s character also changes as he tries to understand humans. Godai’s role in the manga is also way more interesting as he leaves Yako’s agency fairly soon.
One of the biggest problems is that Yusei Matsui's style doesn't translate well to visual media. His characters spend large chunks of time talking out loud or in their minds and the action gets disjointed when the dialogue in real-time. The anime also doesn't quite capture the series rough but unique artstyle.
Ultimately, Neuro is a really botched adaptation of a much better manga, if you enjoyed the anime definitely give it a try. Let’s just hope that with the success of Matsui’s recent series there is a chance for a reboot.
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May 28, 2022
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro
(Anime)
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NOTE: I have previously made a review for this series 10 years ago, but it was pretty poorly written and recently I have started reading the manga so I have decided to do a complete review redux. There are also some minor spoilers ahead.
Demon Detective Neuro is the first series by Yusei Matsui, an author who later came to prominence with his smash hit comedy series Assassination Classroom. In comparison, Neuro, which is definitely darker in tone seems relatively forgotten. The anime never received an English dub and the manga was never officially released in English, though it was licensed in other languages such as ... 
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NOTE: I have previously made a review for this series 10 years ago, but it was pretty poorly written so I decided to rewrite it completely.
Blue Exorcist is a perfect example of a series which was supposed to be the next big thing but killed its own hype due to many factors such as long hiatuses and sloppy execution so most people have just lost interest and moved on to the next hyped up thing. The premise of the series might seem generic, taking elements from other shounen titles such as Soul Eater, D. Gray-Man or Fullmetal Alchemist, which would be fine if it was ... 
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Mirai Nikki (TV)
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NOTE: I have previously made a review for this series 10 years ago, but it was pretty crap so I decided to rewrite it completely. There are also some light spoilers ahead.
Ah, Mirai Nikki, once extremely popular series which is now remembered only for the ultimate yandere girl Yuno Gasai and for being a massive trainwreck full of plotholes and inconsistencies, the ultimate “Turn off your brain” show. Does it hold up at all over 10 years later? The presentation is not much to write home about, the anime was done by studio Asread who have never produced anything of note so don’t expect any eye ... |
