Majin Tantei Neuro Nougami

aka. Demon Detective Neuro Nougami
by Matsuei Yuusei





Yet another supernatural/mystery/comedy hybrid with a heavy emphasis on the mystery portion. Neuro Nougami is a demon from the underworld who suddenly surfaces to devour the riddles of the human world. Yako Katsuragi is the unfortunate girl who has little to no choice but to be Neuro's slave as he forcefully uses her as a vehicle and medium to roam the human world. Together, the two, or more accurately, Neuro, solves various mysteries of the caliber that no normal human could solve within such a short time period. Yako is made to appear to solve the riddles, while Neuro does all the work and reaps the delicious reward: the riddle.

Characters
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Neuro Nougami - seen in his true form (above left) whenever he eats a riddle. He is quite sadistic and loves to torture Yako when he isn't solving riddles. Usually, he has to take on a more human looking form (above right) otherwise. Only Yako sees his demon form whenever he eats a riddle.


Yako Katsuragi - This mild mannered young girl recently and suddenly lost her father, a case which Neuro solves not too far into the series. In order to compound her problems, Neuro appears out of nowhere and forces her to subject to his will.
Seen here is the staple moment of almost every chapter in this manga. Revealing the killer! Neuro forcibly points Yako's finger, unseen to anyone else, and it's target is the murderer of each case. he then explains in length how the murder took place.



Miscellaneous
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What exactly is a riddle? No one knows! It's indescribable, and not exactly the standard dictionary definition of one. The closest thing one can decipher is that it appears at the climax of a good murder mystery. Sometimes the flavour is bland, while other times it is delectable. regardless, Neuro is constantly searching for "the ultimate riddle".


The artwork frequently gives hellish depictions of certain events, such as this one in the first case, where a man dies of food poisoning. In addition to this, is the use of Neuro's 777 Underworld Tools, one of which usually pops up each chapter for novelty.

There are very few manga releases so far, as it seems to have been discontinued by Ecchi Troopers. It is worth noting that Neuro Nougami is a playable character in Jump Ultimate Stars, who swings Yako's body around as a weapon.



Screenshots
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Opening:


The infamous Neuro Nougami:


Human detectives that are rather bland and normal in comparison:


A request has been issued:


Comply or else...


I can stab you...


Well really, you have no choice in the matter,
I'll gouge your eyes out!




Links:

Anime: PM Me.
Manga: Read Neuro (up to ch. 89 as of this edit)!
Wiki Article

Jam it back in, in the dark.

chato has procured some lovely screens for us from the RAW of the upcoming anime version of Majin Tantei Neuro Nougami!, which should hopefully be subbed very soon! Take a look, since Neuro's sadism is hopefully uncensored from the manga.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Most wonderful news! After much reluctance from subbing groups all over, my new favourite group in existence has decided to pay attention and sub Neuro for our viewing pleasure. Hopefully the updates come frequently:

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro Ep. 1 (MQ) (Neet)
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro Ep. 1 (HQ) (Neet)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The anime version seems to be straight off the bat, different from the manga, both in terms of order, and subtle points. It skips from the first few chapters and goes immediately to Chapters 04-06, the restaurant mystery.

Neuro abuses Yako much less in the anime, whereas in the manga he's poking her somehow every other page. Also, have to say the anime is good, but much tamer than the depictions in the manga. This is especially noted right at the essential "The Killer Is You!" part. However, it is still fun to see Neuro twist Yako's head in action.

Neet states that they'll take their time to make quality releases. My guess is that in 5 episodes there'll be some exciting cases for those who haven't read the seven available chapters in the manga (Restaurant, Yako's father, other restaurant, loan shark agency mysteries)

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Big update!


Anime
Since Neet seems to be rather slow as of late regarding Neuro, CatchPhrase has decided to pick up Neuro and release Episode 2 as well while they're at it.

Episode 01 (CatchPhrase)
Episode 02 (CatchPhrase)

The anime is rather lackluster in comparison to the manga, seeing as the events of Episode 2 and what is shown in the preview for Episode 3 do not happen in the manga within any of the first 12 chapters. As well, the case presented in Episode 02 simply wasn't anywhere near as clever or suspenseful as any other one in the manga, or even the first episode. The only saving hope is that the culprits are all pretty psychotic.

As well, Godai's case was solved in the manga within chapters 10 and 11, while Yako's case hasn't been solved in the anime yet, making the anime chronologically sporadic.

*****
Manga
In a joint effort between three teams, one being EcchiTroopers, the Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro manga is now being scanlated again, so I highly suggest you check it out over the anime! Take a read at One Manga. Furthermore, going to one of the translator's websites (check the credits at the end of a chapter), there are additional chapters translated corresponding to a future story arc.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Sin Ansem

Four eps are out... and I'm not liking the series. I see far too much wasted potential.

Neuro has all these cool powers, and the Yago abuse is funny, but the villains are stupid, and people's reactions to them are... unrealistic. I mean, sure, you're not taking the fact that they're murderers well, but hello? They have sharp fangs, nightmarish faces, and ugly claws, and you're not even batting an eyelash? I know this is anime, but at least SOMEBODY has to notice that murderers are suddenly becoming grotesque (and rather stupid) monsters.

I'm going to read the manga.

Agreed. The anime is unfortunately still ridiculous. No one seems to care or notice that the murderers are all pretty much otherworldly creatures. This was done in a superior fashion within the manga, as there you could infer that the people looked crazy in a couple of panels to give a brief physical glimpse into what their psychotic behaviour has warped them into. In the anime, they take it too much at face value and turn them into half-furries for over a minute of time.

I remember reading on a site that the author said something along the lines of "Neuro is a comedy masquerading as a mystery series. Don't take it too seriously." So maybe checking it out with a heavier weighting towards a humorous perspective would make more sense.



Further gripes after watching Eps. 3 and 4:

- Yako is far too happy after every time Neuro eats a riddle, especially given her current situation.

- Neuro is never satisfied and has to state that after every mystery. Therefore every episode idea can be filler.

- Yako's father's mystery looks like the big mystery they're building up to in the anime. The resolution was nice in the manga, but with this murderer=monster path they're going they'll probably screw it up or it'll be anti-climactic.

- The chronological sequence is bothering me even moreso now. Episode 5 looks to be the loan shark company mystery which then explains why Yako and Neuro now have an office, Godai and Akane-chan.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Although I can only recall a grand total of 3-4 GFFers who have bothered to watch Neuro, I thought it'd be important to probe for discussion now that the final episode, episode 25 has been released by ainex! It appears that comparing to the manga, fortunately, most of the early episodes as well as a couple of others have proved to be filler, mainly the stupidest cases:

2 - Collection [Community]
3 - Laughter [Poison]
15 - Dragon [Ryu]
20 - Desk [Woman]
and eps. 22-25 all are not present in the manga from what I've read.

The anime seems to have shifted around the order of some important cases as well such as "Dog", "Hair", and "Rental Office" while at the same time omitting some important backstory on characters such as Sasazuka (origins) and Godai (an entire mini-arc).


As for the final case in the anime (22-25), I probably wouldn't mind the manga ending in such a manner too, also given the whole deus ex machina nature of the whole series. Although the last couple of methods for killing were somewhat gruesome. I think the writers were having far too much fun to see how they could out-gore their previous ideas while still retaining a sadistic sense of humour throughout. Given the arc progression, they'd have to come up with an entirely new arc apart from Denjin Hal and Sai to go anywhere new.

FELIPE NO