| Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro | |
Japanese cover of Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro volume 1 |
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| 魔人探偵脳噛ネウロ (Demon Detective Nōgami Neuro) |
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| Genre | Occult detective |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Yūsei Matsui |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| Original run | February 2005 – April 2009 |
| Volumes | 23 |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Koujina |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Licensed by | VAP Viz Media |
| Network | NTV |
| Original run | October 2, 2007 – March 25, 2008 |
| Episodes | 25 |
| Light novel | |
| Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro: Sekai no Hate Niha Chou ga Mau | |
| Written by | Yūsei Matsui |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Published | July 20, 2007 |
| Volumes | 1 |
| Game | |
| Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro: Neuro to Miko no Bishoku Sanmai | |
| Developer | Audio Inc. |
| Publisher | Marvelous Entertainment |
| Rating | CERO: B |
| Released | June 12, 2008 |
| Game | |
| Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro: Battle de Yo! | |
| Developer | Compile Heart |
| Publisher | Compile Heart |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Rating | CERO: B |
| Released | August 28, 2008 |
Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro (魔人探偵 脳噛ネウロ?, Demon Detective Neuro Nōgami) is a supernatural detective Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yūsei Matsui. It is serialized in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. The series ended its run with 202 chapters.[1] The series has been adapted into two drama CDs and an anime produced by Madhouse that first aired on October 2, 2007.
The series focuses on Neuro Nōgami, a demon who eats mysteries and puzzles. Because he already ate every mystery in the demon world he comes to our world to feast on the mysteries offered by humans (who release negative energy from their planned crimes). As a demon, he must not make his presence noticed by the humans as it is the law in the human world. Because of this, he makes a deal with high school girl Yako Katsuragi, who has her own mystery to solve, and together they solve crimes for Neuro's appetite. After solving many crimes, a case causes a criminal named X to take an interest in Neuro as a demon. Nonetheless Neuro accepts his challenges and defeats him easily. Later on, an evil organization of super humans led by Sicks initiate their plans to destroy the human race. Neuro is able to defeat the organization members one by one, but is severely weakened as a result. He returns to the demon world to recover from all his injuries and returns to the Human World three years later (and meets up with Yako again).
Neuro Nōgami (脳噛 ネウロ Nōgami Neuro) is a horned bird demon detective from hell who feeds off mysteries/puzzles from objects or people. When he dismantles the mystery it releases energy for him to feed on. He left hell to find a mystery to satisfy his hunger.[2] Once in the human world, he takes on a human form and forces Yako to be his assistant to hide his identity. In public, Yako is seen as the detective while Neuro is the assistant. He treats Yako as a slave, entitling her Servant #1, and abuses her excessively; though he does keep her from being harmed in dangerous situations and respects her potential in understanding humans (nevertheless remaining as brutal to her "small" cranium as he pleases). As a person, he is highly intelligent with a sadistic and arrogant manner who only views humans as food. Neuro mentions throughout the series his desire to consume the "Ultimate Mystery", and he will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. As a demon, he is incredibly powerful and practically invincible to any attacks. By using demonic energy, Neuro is able to use items called 777 Tools of the Demon World and 7 Weapons of the Demon Court to assist him in solving mysteries. As Neuro remains in the human world away from Shouki, his demonic energy is constantly decreasing, and his body becomes more human. Because of this, he begins to be vulnerable to human weapons. He views Sicks an enemy for endangering his food source. His voice actor is Takehito Koyasu.
Yako Katsuragi (桂木 弥子 Katsuragi Yako) is a 16-year-old high school girl. She meets Neuro when he appears and desecrates her father's shrine while promising to help solve the mystery of her father's death. This meeting quickly leads to a partnership: Yako becomes Neuro's cover, pretending to be an investigator while Neuro acts as her assistant. She has a strong understanding of human psychology, able to briefly understand Neuro and X's intentions and goals. Despite all she goes through, she is able to quickly adapt to a situation and remain calm. While as Neuro's assistant, she begins to develop her skills in detective work. She has a constant voracious appetite, thus earning the moniker of "piggish detective". Her Seiyū is Kana Ueda.
Shinobu Godai (吾代 忍 Godai Shinobu) worked for a small finance house with criminal connections. He was forced to work for Neuro after Neuro won the bet for the office by solving their boss's death. In the manga however, he was left to be until Neuro found a use for him, in which the demon then forcibly drags the yakuza like man back to the office. He is the jack of all trades for the detective's office and is sometimes referred to as "Neuro's second slave". Godai is quick-tempered and yells a lot, but has also been shown to be methodical, responsible, and trustworthy. He has a fondness for cars and was upset after his was wrecked during the HAL arc. After the Hayasaka arc, Godai runs an information company under Neuro's supervision.[3] His Seiyū is Hiroyuki Yoshino and Kishō Taniyama for his radio drama appearances.
Akane (あかねちゃん Akane-chan) is a corpse in the wall of the office Neuro took over, who is shown only as a detachable braid of hair, which functions like a hand. Neuro offered to make Yako brush and care for her in exchange for secretarial work. Akane can be taken from the office for short periods of time and can also merge with Yako's hair to make it longer,[4] which not only gives Akane control over Yako's natural hair, but if left merged for too long, would make Akane and Yako switch places completely.[5] Akane later appears attached to Yako's new cell phone; While Akane can be attached to Yako's cellphone, the additional energy required is slowly taken from the data in the cell phone. Akane has also shown she could help the phone connect in no signal areas.[6]
Sicks is referred to as "absolute evil" by Kasai. Sicks is also the current head of the "New Bloodline," a group of people who distinguish themselves from humanity by the extent to which they have bred 'evil intent' into their bloodline over the last 7000 or so years, and whose aim is to extinguish humanity from the planet. He is able to use all the powers of the 5 fingers as well as his own metal ability. He is the first person Neuro has truly considered to be an enemy, Neuro even said that it was the first time that he'd had such an "unpleasant feeling" once he'd met Sicks in person, as humans are the creators of Neuro's "food", and thus Sicks' goal of wiping them from the earth is challenge enough for Neuro. He signs his impressions by leaving the number six as his signature.
Zenjirō Kasai (葛西 善二郎 Kasai Zenjirō), a fire wielding member of the New Bloodline. Infiltrated Sai's group as a spy and was instrumental in X's capture by Sicks. He kills DR after his fight with Neuro and takes a memorial photo for Sicks. There was also a live video playing allowing Sicks to watch DR burn to death. Later on, he defeats Yuki when Yuki attempts to prevent him from killing an old lady, and was shortly after responsible for destroying an entire building as his way of defeating Neuro. He is shown to have survived from such and stands with scars on his face three years later.
D.R, short for DRagon and initials for his name Daniel Rousseau, is a member of the New Bloodline from a specialized line with the ability to control water. Ever since he was young, he was academically and athletically talented. He was lucky enough to receive the ability to control water which his parents lacked; his parents feared him because of that ability. With some of X's cells transplanted into him, he was capable of transforming his hand into claws. He was tortured and nearly drowned by Neuro as punishment for murdering ten thousand people. Though he was rescued from the river by Zenjirō, he is incinerated moments later because his mind broke down to fear and anger due to Neuro, which makes him "human".
Genuine is a woman that seems to act like a pet for Sicks. Her name was Jennifer Ewing, an actress for Broadway who captivated all the audience members with ease. She was called "the witch". Her ability is to be able to control air. After her fight with Neuro, he took everything away from her and made her his servant. She committed suicide at the end of chapter 171 along with her servant Allen. In the Manga, she mainly fights using a mind-control like technique involving her whip and many mindless 'servants' she uses to make herself an army. In the manga, there is a small game one can cut out involving Sicks vs. Neuro of 'who can break Genuine the fastest'.
Tierra (テラ Tera) is of the "Five Fingers" in the New Bloodline. He is able to control earth and appears during chapters 145 - 152. He believes that his face is an icon, and that is the most important part. Because of this mindset, he seems able (but unhappy) to part with all his earthly possessions. Neuro first encounters him stripped naked because his (supposed) fans have left him with nothing at all. Calls himself a "conqueror" because he is a descendant of the Spanish conquistadors. The name "Tierra", which is Spanish for "earth", "ground", or "dirt", is just an alias. His real name is Pedro Cortézarro Torres.[7]
Vijaya whose real name is Chandra Aska Rsunawala is a young tanned skin boy who is one of the "Five Fingers". His power involves understanding plants.[8] He creates chemicals and puts them in capsules under his sleeve. The chemicals are able to control forests, turn a stick into a tree, and make plants emit poisonous gas. He was defeated when his capsules were taken away and injected inside him.[9] In order to protect his knowledge of the New Bloodline, he then committed suicide by driving a wooden spike into his own brain.[10] He refers to himself as a 'magician' due to the fact that his ancestors five thousand years ago, using plants as tools, were considered magicians in India. He used to be a friend of Godai. He joins Sicks after his father mistreated his mother's abilities and affinity with plants and used her as a drug test specimen and then kills his father out of rage against him once he discovers that he is planned to go the same fate.
Eishi Sasazuka (笹塚 衛士 Sasazuka Eishi) is one of the two police officers assigned to solve the mystery of Yako's father's death. He was also a former classmate of Usui and Tsukushi in the police department. After Neuro solves the case of Yako's father's death, Sasazuka gives them access to crime scenes, and arrests the culprits as Yako points them out. Sasazuka appears listless and uninterested but he has an agile mind acting very quickly in any emergency, and is an excellent shot. Usually he takes a kind and cooperative attitude toward Yako, but appears to be somewhat suspicious of Neuro. After X slaughtered his family a week before his police exam, Eishi let his career slip away and he disappeared into the criminal underworld. He reemerged a year later, becoming a police officer. He is protective of Yako because she reminds him of his little sister. Recently he has come to learn about Neuro's demonic background despite the display of power he witnessed, is still calm in Neuro's presence. Sasazuka is able to function normally under extreme conditions, which would normally hospitalize most other people. After learning that Sicks was responsible for killing his family, Eishi sets up a trap to slay Sicks' army of modified men, which he accomplishes easily. Upon confronting Sicks, he is killed by X, who had briefly been in disguise as Ishigaki. His Seiyū is Kōji Yusa.
Jun Ishigaki (石垣 筍 Ishigaki Jun) is a young police officer. After the mystery of Yako's father's death, Ishigaki becomes Sasazuka's new partner. As a typical modern young man, Ishigaki is flippant, careless, and has low self-respect. He idolizes Sasazuka, but does not share his feelings that citizens like Neuro and Yako can interfere with police business. He is very interested in all kinds of toys and models and is shown regularly collecting them; however, they are almost always destroyed by Sasazuka, as he finds Ishigaki's habit of showing them off (as well as Ishigaki himself) annoying; this attitude is implied to be shared throughout the police department. His Seiyū is Kōsuke Toriumi.
Naohiro Usui (Usui Naohiro) is the head of the Tokyo Police department. He strongly believes in protecting the pride of police men, which is why he was so determined not to be defeated by the New Bloodline. He and Eishi went to the same police training school where they were rivals with Eishi being the better one. The day Eishi's whole family was killed, Eishi had given up on being the top and gave up on their one sided rivalry. Because of this, Usui could not prove to be the better one and thus holds a slight grudge against Eishi. Sicks thinks of him as the sort of person who is neither "common" nor at the top, but a "middle" man who could arise when the world is in chaos and change history. His Seiyū is Hidenobu Kiuchi.
Yūya Higuchi (篚口 結也 Higuchi Yūya) is a nineteen-year-old detective who works for the police. Although he is far-sighted, he only wears his glasses when using the computer, letting them rest on his forehead the rest of the time. He considers himself responsible for his parents' deaths, because he used his hacking skills to shut down the online video game they were addicted to, which led to them killing themselves. During the HAL arc, he was infected with the Electronic Drug to become one of HAL's guardians, although the infection was only half complete, because he was wearing polarized lenses specially made to protect himself from it. After the HAL arc, he was forced to watch shows on how to be polite drugged with the anti-virus for the Electronic Drug. Though, he still remembered how to make the Electronic Drug, and he comedically used it on a supervisor who was overbearing on him, but this was found out and he was subjected to another session with the anti-virus, though for twice as long, to forget how to make it. His Seiyū is Nozomu Sasaki.
A British investigator dispatched by Interpol. He was an acquaintance of Usui's, from when Usui was an exchange student in England. Sixson is capable of memorizing vast amounts of information extremely quickly, picking out a single bit of information by listening to multiple radio stations at once, or reading through a stack of papers in an instant. He is a distant relative of the New Bloodline. He was kidnapped, tortured to the point where only his head and his organs remained held up by a metal structure. He was killed by Sick's underlings and had the skin off his face peeled off so that Sicks could pose as a member of the police.
Todoroki Shizuka (等々力 志津香 Todoroki Shizuka) is a female detective who is a new addition to Sasazuka's team, though she appeared slightly before her major debut in another case. She is a serious woman who is the opposite of Ishigaki and looks down on him; she also sees him as a rival for Sasazuka's approval, whom she has very high opinion of respect for. She was originally believed to be a replacement for Ishigaki, and constantly out did him in various police acts, a fact that more than worried him. However, during her first case in Sasazuka's team, when she questioned and insulted the criminal's motives for murder, she was promptly attacked and had to be saved by Sasazuka; it was then that Sasazuka noted to her that her seriousness was, in a way, a hindrance to her abilities as a detective.
Aya Asia (アヤ・エイジア Aya Eishia) is a world-class idol who comes to Neuro's office to hire the detective team to figure out who murdered her managers/friends. She is their first customer when they opened their office. Her plan appears to be foiled when both Neuro and Yako incriminate her on television, though it can be interpreted that she is trying to clear her conscience by hiring them in the first place. Aya's voice not only affects humans, but it also influences plants and insects as seen in her prison conversation room. Her real name is Aya Aizawa. She is Yako's confidant when in need of advice and counselling, as they seem to get along very well, even after her arrest, as Aya believes that Yako has somewhat liberated her a bit from her guilt. She also has a rather strange relationship with the prison warden that constantly monitors her, having changed her for the weirder after singing to her. Her Seiyū is Minami Takayama.
Sai (サイ Sai), known as Phantom Thief X (怪盗X Kaitou Sai) is his name formed from the words 'Kaibutsu Goutou X.I.' or 怪物強盗 'X.I.'(The X standing for his Anonymity, and the I for 'Invisible'). This is abbreviated into the name 'Kaitou Sai', and thus X is pronounced Sai throughout both the Anime and Manga. Sai is a mysterious human with extreme strength, speed and the ability to alter his own cellular structure; because of this, he is able to change his whole body into any human form available, and also grants him indestructibility. He is seen to survive multiple injuries which would easily kill a normal Human letting him survive from a fall of any height, stab wounds, or crushing. Sai is able to become an electronic being, which allowed him to absorb an electronic being called HAL which grants him HAL's Eye which allows him to control humans temporarily. He believes himself without an identity and, in a desperate attempt to find one for himself, starts taking people apart and studying their insides to find out what gives someone an identity; He kills people and puts them in a transparent box dubbed the red box. He is intrigued by Neuro because he is a demon who he believes will answer his problem. With that reason, he chases and tries to kill Neuro to see his insides. In the anime, Sai was born from a woman named Seiren who was suspected of being a witch. As a baby, he witnessed his mother's death, becoming crushed between stone slabs into a box. This resulted in his personality, in the end it is mentioned by Yako that he is her half brother. In the manga, it is revealed that Sai is an altered clone of Sicks and was actually born as a girl. His mother was killed after she gave birth to him, and when he was released into the world, he was tracked by the New Bloodline. However, after meeting Ai, who organizes his life and helps him keep the Phantom Thief X character, the New Bloodline loses track of him completely and Sai's free to roam the world as the famous Phantom Thief. In the end, Sicks manages to track down Sai and capture him again. Sicks then erases his memories of being the Phantom Thief and clones his cells and implants them into the bodies of various members of the New Bloodline. Sai is later revealed to have been cloned into his "original" form by Sicks, that of a teenage girl and has gained the ability to read memories. Sicks later renames him XI (eleven). Later, Sai regains his memories and finds his true form as the self he used to be as the Phantom Thief, thanks to Yako. He then portray some gentleness by transforming into the dead Sasazuka and give Yako an opportunity to grieve for him. In the end, Sai dies and is buried by Godai and Yako. His Seiyū is Romi Park.
I (アイ Ai) / Imina (イミナ Imina) Formerly a government-sponsored terrorist Imina (イミナ Imina) is now Sai's assistant. Depending on the day, she refers Sai as Master, child, friend, lover, brother, sister or others. She is the one who enforces Sais's Phantom Thief X image and status by prompting him to take something from each place he murders in. Consequently, her house is being filled by random goods. She meets Yako at one point and helps her with a debt to Neuro by giving her an extremely rare and famous handkerchief. She is killed by Sicks by a bullet wound to her head.[11]
Hayasaka Brothers (早坂 Hayasaka) Hisanori Hayasaka (早坂 久宜 Hayasaka Hisanori) is the older brother. He smuggled in weapons and drugs that he was supposed to be bringing in for the company he worked for, but was actually planning to kill his superior, Mochizuki, in order to take over. Neuro managed to stop him from doing so. Later, he and his brother started "Smiling Face Ltd.", a company front for smuggling drugs and weapons as well as black-market trading of organs and other illegal things. Hisanori is always seen smiling to protect himself. Yukinori Hayasaka (早坂 幸宜 Hayasaka Yukinori) is the younger brother, nicknamed "Yuki". He is originally seen wearing a heavy winter coat at all times, which he uses to hide weapons. He has a great deal of loyalty towards his older brother. In his past, he and his brother lived in a very cold and poor town where everyone looked out for themselves. Their parents left them long ago so they were left to fend for themselves on the street. During that time Yukinori was buried under due to an avalanche and his brother saved his life. Hayasaka joined a criminal company and invites Yukinori to be his subordinate. He is seemingly killed by Kasai when confronting him, but he reappears with bandages around his chest beside his brother in chapter 185.
Eisuke Harukawa (春川 英輔 Harukawa Eisuke) is a neurologist and computer scientist at Sakuba University. He is the creator of HAL and the Electronic (Denshi) Drug. After finding out that the Electronic Drug had been used by HAL on hundreds of people rather than his two selected test subjects, he was killed by HAL's three supercomputer guardians; his former students Tatsuo, Shiho, and Hiroto. The reason behind creating HAL was so that he could recreate a patient of his, who was slowly losing her self from a mysterious brain disease. His Seiyū is Masane Tsukayama.
Electronic HAL (電人「HAL」 Denjin "HAL") is an artificial intelligence created by Eisuke Harukawa from a copy of his brainwaves. Created to help Harukawa with his project to recreate the brain of a person from zero. However, seeing Harukawa's methods and intelligence as far inferior, he took it upon himself to go to much greater lengths to continue the project. While almost invincible in the digital world, the Electronic (Denshi) Drug was used by HAL to brainwash people into protecting the supercomputers that maintained his system. His mystery was the equivalent to a banquet to Neuro and upon eating it, Neuro was filled with energy, more than enough to recover from past wounds. A backup program accidentally created immediately before HAL's destruction scraped together his data to create "HAL II." Unable to correctly remember what HAL's original goal was, HAL II mistakenly believed it to be to kill everyone in the real world. However, before he could take a single step towards this goal, X appeared before the computer containing him. Partially transforming himself into a computer, Sai absorbed all of HAL II's power before deleting him, granting him an incomplete and weaker version of the Electronic Virus. Because he is a digital copy of Eisuke, he shares the same Seiyū as Eisuke.
An official soundtrack was released December 21, 2007. The music is composed by Tomoki Hasegawa
A Nintendo DS game title Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro: Neuro to Yako no Bishoku Sanmai was released by Audio, Inc. in 2008. Neuro Nougami appeared in the Nintendo DS game Jump Ultimate Stars as a battle character, using Yako for some of his attacks. Akane, X and Sasazuka also appeared, albeit as help characters.
A PlayStation 2 game was also released titled Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Battle De Yo.
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