MPD Psycho

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MPD Psycho

Cover of the first volume of the MPD Psycho manga.
多重人格探偵サイコ
(Tajū-Jinkaku Tantei Saiko)
Genre Detective fiction, Psychological horror
Manga
Author Eiji Ohtsuka
Illustrator Shou Tajima
Publisher Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic Seinen
Serialized in Comic Charge
Original run 1997 – ongoing
Volumes 12
TV drama: MPD Psycho: Kazuhiko Amamiya Returns
Director Takashi Miike
Episodes 6

Multiple Personality Detective Psycho (多重人格探偵サイコ Tajū-Jinkaku Tantei Saiko?) is a manga series written by Eiji Otsuka (大塚 英志 Ōtsuka Eiji?) and illustrated by Shou Tajima (田島 昭宇 Tajima Shōu?), published in Kadokawa Shoten's Comic Charge since 1997.

The series follows a police detective suffering from multiple personality disorder.

MPD Psycho was adapted in 2002 as a live action television miniseries, directed by Takashi Miike.

Contents

[edit] Plot

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MPD Psycho opens Kobayashi Yôsuke on trial for murder. The accused, a male in his late 20s, claims his name is Kazuhiko Amamiya, not Yôsuke. After sentencing, the accused suffers a series of delusions where he sees a lamppost and a murdered woman. He sees himself holding a blood-stained knife and hears someone calling his name. The following scene reveals the trial as a nightmare, and Yôsuke discussing the dream with his girlfriend.

Yôsuke, a police detective, is called to the scene of a murder, where he finds an eerie similarity to the murder in his nightmare.

[edit] Characters

Amamiya Kazuhiko
Amamiya Kazuhiko
Yousuke Kobayashi (小林 洋介 Kobayashi Yousuke?)

A police detective and inoffensive family man tracking down a serial killer who mutilates his victims by severing their limbs. When the killer sees Yousuke on television he claims to recognise something in the detective and mutilates Yousuke's girlfriend. Yousuke eventually tracks down the killer at which point a new personality called Shinji Nishizono (西園 伸二 Nishizono Shinji?), an arrogant and callous psychopath, emerges and shoots the killer. From this point onward, the personality of Yousuke is replaced by Kazuhiko Amamiya (雨宮一彦 Amamiya Kazuhiko?), a cool-headed, serious criminologist who is arrested and imprisoned for the murder of the serial killer. Kazuhiko's personality fluctuates several times during the course of the story, most commonly switching between Kazuhiko Amamiya and Shinji Nishizono in the early chapters. It is usually clear to the reader which personality is in control at any given time as Kazuhiko Amamiya is short-sighted and wears glasses, whereas Shinji Nishizono does not require glasses.

Machi Isono (伊園 磨知 Isono Machi?)

An intelligent female criminologist who runs a private consultancy firm. She employs Kazuhiko Amamiya upon his release from prison and invites him to live in the large apartment which serves as home to herself and her sister as well as the headquarters of her business.

Tooru Sasayama (笹山 徹 Sasayama Tooru?)

A bumbling police detective and friend of Kazuhiko and Machi. Short tempered and easily confused, Sasayama is nevertheless a "straight arrow" and reliably on the side of the good guys.

Nishizono Tetora
Nishizono Tetora
Miwa Isono (伊園 アリワン 美和 Isono Miwa?)

Younger sister of Isono Machi. She is initially introduced as a schoolgirl with a forceful personality who occasionally helps Machi and Amamiya in their cases. As the series progresses, she becomes more important as revelations about her role in the conspiracy that runs through the book are revealed.

Miwa Isono appears episodes five and six of the television series as a comatose girl rescued from a burning hospital who later forms a relationship with Amamiya.

Tetora Nishizono (西園 弖虎 Nishizono Tetora?)

In appearance, a young teenaged version of Kazuhiko Amamiya, Tetora Nishizono also carries the psychopathic personality of Shinji Nishizono, although the personality of Shinji is far more dominant in Tetora. Tetora Nishizono does not appear in the TV mini-series.

Lucy Monostone (ルーシー・モノストーン?)

A deceased former American pop star and terrorist, Lucy Monostone is thought by the mysterious corporation at the heart of the conspiracy to be the perfect killer. While genetic engineering can recreate Monostone's body, the challenge appears to be recreating his soul in order for the ultimate murderer to be reborn. It seems that this can only be achieved by combining a number of personalities, representing the different parts of Monostone, into a single vessel.

[edit] Adaptation

[edit] Plot

Yosuke Kobayashi, a detective assigned to a homicide unit, saw his wife killed by a serial killer, Shinji Nishizono. From the shock of the incident, he suffers from multiple personality disorder and becomes Kazuhiko Amamiya. Soon after he manages to hunt down and kill his wife's murderer. Now a series of murders have started and the suspect claimed to be Shinji Nishizono.

[edit] Episodes

# Title Original air date
1 "Memories Of Sin/Drifting Petals"  
A sadistic criminal is turning his victims into human flower pots. Detective Amamiya Kazuhiko is called out of early retirement to work on the case, which is tied to horrific events in his past. His new wife goes missing and a mysterious cult with barcodes tattooed on their eyeballs surfaces to wreak havoc on the city. 
2 "How To Create A World"  
A brutal serial killer cuts babies from their mothers' womb in what appears to be a copycat crime from five years earlier. All of the women have barcodes tattooed on the eyeballs. The victims, under some sort of hypnosis, purchase the surgical quality knives used to kill them the day before their murders. As Detective Amamiya's wife wanders the city in a trance, he discovers someone from his past is involved in the crime wave. 
3 "Life Is A Constant Double Helix"  
Detective Amamiya and the police team are investigating the mass suicide of forty girls from a posh high school. Amamiya goes undercover as a high school teacher to find out why and learn more about a new generation of barcoders, many of whom are students at this militaristic high school. Chiaki Kuriyama guest stars. 
4 "The Crushed Ant"  
Perfectly severed body parts with numbers cut into them are discovered in a field. In a nearby arcade, two rival youth gangs battle each other and Amamiya's wife is taken prisoner by a gang leader. The Police Chief tries to put together more of Amamiya's hidden past with the assistance of a one-eyed snuff filmmaker. 
5 "Coronation Of The Cursed King"  
Cult members spontaneously combust when the barcoder network is infected. The burn victims are taken to the local hospital where a lonely employee's cyber girlfriend tells him to kill people. Detective Amamiya and his team lock down the hospital, while strange things happen on the secret 13th floor. 
6 "Soaring Souls And Human Bondage"  
The Police Department denies that the barcode case ever existed in a massive cover-up attempt. Three remaining member of the investigation team decide to continue working on the case on their own. The Police Chief's entire family dies under mysterious circumstances. Amamiya tracks down the baby stealer to a remote cabin in a snowstorm for a final showdown to recover his own missing child. 

[edit] External links