Manga Review: Psycho Busters 2 art by Akinari Nao, story by Yuya Aoki
Kakeru Hase was enjoying being left alone on summer break (father overseas on business, mother and sisters on a contest trip to Hawaii), but a little bored after a couple of days lazing about the house. Just as he’d convinced himself that nothing exciting was going to happen, a beautiful naked ghost girl appeared! Except that Ayano wasn’t actually naked or a ghost, her astral projection just makes her look that way.
Turns out Ayano and her allies, Joi, Xiao, and Kaito are psychics who are on the run from an organization called the Greenhouse which hunts down, captures, experiments on, and manipulates psychic children. They move into Kakeru’s house as a temporary shelter.
This manga series was based on a light novel trilogy by Yuya Aoki, best known for his series Get Backers.
The volume to hand starts on a quiet note after the desperate battles of the previous volume. Kakeru’s managed to convince school nurse Ms. Hiyama to take a look at Joi, the leader of the psychics, who’s been sleeping since he was introduced. The good news is that he’s just resting up after overexerting his precognitive abilities. The bad news is that there’s no knowing how long the coma will last.
Over at Greenhouse, administrator Ikushima is being pressured by his superiors to recapture the escapees, particularly Joi. He decides to send not only Sho the teleporter and Maya the illusionist this time with an order to work together, but powerful telekinetic Takemaru. What he doesn’t tell his minions is that this is also a test of Kakeru, who may be a “Category Zero.”
Hiyama takes the kids to the local high school for a night dip in the pool, and Kakeru learns that due to having spent most of their lives in the Greenhouse, the psychics have missed out on many “normal” experiences like learning to cook and swimming for fun. Joi finally awakens, and plans their next steps.
After some fun at the racetrack, the team reassembles at the school, and the Greenhouse forces attack. Kakeru gets separated from the others and winds up fighting Takemaru. To demonstrate his powers, Takemaru slaughters one of Kakeru’s classmates that had wandered into the school.
Except that suddenly it’s a few seconds earlier and Takemaru is holding a much less cooperative hostage. This allows Kakeru to slip free for a moment and learn more about Takemaru’s tragic past. Elsewhere, Joi notices that Kakeru’s powers are awakening, and this could potentially be bad for everyone.
The Greenhouse has also sent along ordinary militaristic goons, and Ms. Hiyama is surprisingly good at combat for a school nurse.
At the end of the volume, Kakeru’s battle with Takemaru is resolved, but at what cost?
This is pretty standard light novel/boys’ manga stuff. Flashy powers, set piece battles, over the top villains and a bit of fanservice. The art’s decent and the story’s easy to follow.
On the other hand, nothing really stands out, either. I get the feeling it got an U.S. release on the strength of the Get Backers manga.
Content note: There’s a fair amount of blood in combat and flashback scenes, Takemaru’s backstory is focused on bullying, and some female nudity of the “doll” type.
This is an okay read for fans of superpowered battle manga, but I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to pick it up.
