There’s nothing quite as engaging as a well-executed detective story. The way its mystery gradually unfolds as the intrepid lead (or leads) find one clue or another, dodge the red herrings, and close in on the culprit behind one act of villainy or another.
It works in manga too, whether it’s the dark, gothic intrigue behind Death Note or the lighter mysteries within Case Closed. Those two and more managed to make the jump into anime and reach new levels of fame. However, some stayed behind on paper and ink. Here are the best detective manga that stayed as manga.
8 Multiple Personality Detective Psycho
Eiji Ōtsuka and Shō Tajima’s manga ran for nearly 20 years across 3 different magazines, and the best it got was a live-action TV series. It was directed by Takashi Miike in his prime though, between his horror classic Audition and his crime film Ichi the Killer. The manga was about Yôsuke Kobayashi, a detective who was driven over the edge when a serial killer murdered his girlfriend.
He develops dissociative identity disorder, splitting himself between a cool and collected detective called Kazuhiko Amamiya, and a brutal psychopath called Shinji Nishizono. Released from prison for avenging his girlfriend, he gets back into the detective game to investigate a brace of killings where the victims have barcodes in their eyes…just like he does. There may be more to the killings, and his split personalities, than he thinks.
7 Ouroboros: We’re Here To Judge The Police
Kanzaki Yūya’s detective tale also got nothing but a live-action series, with the Gintama movie’s Shun Oguri in one of the lead roles. It ran in Comics@Bunch from 2009 to 2016 and is unique in that its main characters are on two different sides of the law while working towards the same goal: revenge. Ikuo Ryūzaki and Tatsuya Danno were two boys who were brought up happily in their orphanage by their teacher Yuiko.
She meant the world to them, and their world fell apart when she was shot by a mysterious man. They tell the police they saw the killer, but they force them to stay quiet instead. That’s when they realize there’s more going on under the surface. Over the next 15 years, they work undercover, with Ryuzaki joining the police and Danno joining the yakuza, to uncover the truth and punish the guilty. It’s an interesting premise that deserves a wider audience.
6 Ice Blade
Tsutomu Takahashi’s 1990s manga sounds more like a fantasy epic with that name, and even more so in Japanese (Jiraishin). But this seinen story for Monthly Afternoon magazine is actually a (then-)contemporary story set in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It plays out more like NYPD Blue or The Shield as it’s a grimmer, cold-blooded take on the genre.
Kyoya Ida is a ruthless detective who’d sooner deal with criminals with his pistol than read them their rights. His colleagues at the Police Dept don’t care for his attitude but some, like his new partner Eriko, appreciate his keen mind. Still, there is a soft side under his steely exterior, hiding the reason why he became so cold-hearted. The manga got a follow-up in 2008, Jiraishin Diablo, where an older Kyoya investigates a viral outbreak. But all’s been quiet since its end in 2011.
5 Brutal: Confessions Of A Homicide Investigator
If Ice Blade is The Shield, then Brutal is Dexter. Created by Kei Koga and Ryō Izawa, this manga started in Comic Tatan's pages in 2019. It follows Dan Hiroki as he performs his good deeds for society. He investigates crimes, reveals what happened, and closes his cases successfully. Except not everyone he exposes gets punished by the law.
Some of the worst criminals of all manage to avoid justice altogether. Whether it’s using technicalities, or manipulating corrupt officials, they get to walk. So, Dan does some pro bono side work to make sure they get a taste of their own medicine. Their bloody, messy, stomach-churning medicine. He only exerts his ‘justice’ on the worst of the worst, but it’s still not recommended for the squeamish. It’s just as its title says: Brutal.
4 Shibatora
How about something a little gentler? The scariest thing in Shibatora is the lead character’s ability to see ‘the reaper’s hands’ around people who are in danger. Taketora Shibata is a humble junior high school student who works as a police detective on the side. With his special sight, a range of disguises, and his friends, he investigates different crimes in the area and aims to solve them before his rougher PD colleagues get involved.
Written by Yuma Ando, and illustrated by Masashi Asaki, the strip ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine in the late 2000s. It could’ve made for a fun anime series in the same vein as Case Closed, but that has yet to happen. Instead, it gained a live-action series in 2008 with former child star Teppei Koike in the lead role.
3 Akumetsu
AKA ‘Destroyer of Evil’, Yoshiaki Tabata and Yûki Yugo’s manga takes place in an unbelievable near future where politicians and billionaires treat themselves at the cost of everyone else, causing an economic recession. Even women like Shīna, the daughter of a once-prosperous business owner, are left working as escorts to get out of debt. Though her first day on the job goes awry when a man in an Oni mask suddenly appears at a party and delivers his bloody judgment on its most prominent guests.
Shīna gets a glimpse of his face and thinks it’s Shō, her friend from school, and is left shocked when he’s soon killed by the police afterwards. Then she’s even more shocked when Shō turns up the next day alive and well. Then even more masked Oni men appear and carry out more killings. How could Shō be in two places at once, let alone multiple places? The manga originally ran in Weekly Shonen Champion between 2002 and 2006, but a fresh adaptation might work better in the 2020s.
2 Metropolitan Police Department Special Offenses 007
Or ‘Keishichō Tokuhanka 007’ for a slightly fancier mouthful. This detective story is actually part of the shojo genre. Written by Eiri Kaji, it’s about the formation of the new Special Offenses 007 Unit to deal with Tokyo’s rising crime rates. Its latest member, teen prodigy Fuyuki Ichikawa, is partnered with the stern detective Kagami ‘Kuze’ Kyōichirō.
She’s a bubbly 17yr old with psychic powers, and he’s a gruff man with a trauma that keeps him from connecting to people. Nonetheless, he looks out for Fuyuki, and she’s mature enough to handle even the harshest investigations. Part of Ichiraci Magazine across 2006-2013, it’s unique in how it balanced being grittier than most shojo tales, but still recognizably part of the genre. It's the kind of manga for people who are tired of the genre's cutesy fare, but still like its whimsy.
1 Pluto
Much of Naoki Urasawa’s work could count towards this list. His 1940s comic-based crime manga Billy Bat is a strong contender, as is his curious combination of crime and dreams in Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams. Both are mysterious, detective-like investigations, and neither have been adapted as anime thus far. But his most interesting crime manga has to be Pluto, a Blade Runner and I, Robot-like adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. An anime adaptation was announced in 2017 by Studio M2, but it's still not finished yet as of 2022.
Originally part of Big Comic Original in the 2000s, it follows Europol robo-detective Gesicht as he investigates a series of human and robot murders. The clues suggest the culprit is a robot, and they’re seemingly after the world’s most advanced robots, and human activists fighting for their rights. Astro Boy appears as a former peace ambassador, as do his ‘dads’ Professors Tenma and Ochanomizu as ‘persons of interest’ in Gesicht’s investigation.