OKITEGAMI KYOUKO NO BIBOUROKU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA MysteryOkitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku
ONA SupernaturalOkitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku x Monogatari
NOVEL ComedyMazemonogatari
MANGA ComedySeishun Kijinden! Nishio Gakuen
NOVEL MysteryOkitegami Kyouko no Suisenbun

REVIEWS

• 

  Tesstarossa

  72/100
  Pleasure to meet you, Kyouko-san

  This review is of the first 5 out of currently 14 volumes of Nisio Isin's Boukyaku Tantei (Forgetful Detective) series. (The fan TLs currently go up to volume 5) <- (Not anymore) Thankfully, I am not biting off way more than I can chew trying to review 5 novels at once, because this is a fairly simple series that's easy to sum up what it's about, and the review itself is gonna be fairly brief.

  Essentially, it stars Okitegami Kyouko, a detective whose memory resets every single time she falls asleep, and all of these novels are about her work solving various cases. One might wonder who would hire a detective with such a disadvantage, but the book explains that it is a mixture of her speed and proficiency at solving these cases because of this limitation, as well as the fact that because she forgets everything, it is GREAT for those looking for confidentiality, and a big advantage in her favor.

  Really this memory limitation is an excuse for Nisio to write short, self contained mystery stories without much of an overarching narrative. Okitegami Kyouko is actually the only recurring character throughout all of the novels, and she is always referred to in third person by whoever the narrator of the story is this time. The narrator of the first novel Kakushidate Yakusuke, a regular customer of the Forgetful Detective who does re appear as the narrator of the fourth novel (and some of the ones that aren't translated yet), but the database is just flat out wrong including him as a main character for every single entry. Okitegami Kyouko as a character exudes a very mysterious aura, but each novel gives us more and more hints of what her personality is like. She is a bubbly, playful character who doesn't fully remember why she does what she does, though volume 5 hints at a darker side to her personality. Her memory limitation causes her to be really surprised by how far technology has passed in all the years shes forgotten, and it's often played for comedy in many of the chapters. She also has an AMAZING fashion sense, seriously, the way these novels describe all the different outfits she wears each day makes me so envious, I REALLY wanna look like her!

  The constant change in narrators, as well as the fact that all the cases have to be solved in at most, a day allows for the Boukyaku Tantei series to have a decidedly different feel from other Nisio mystery novels like Zaregoto or Sekai. In fact, when I was reading this I was honestly surprised by how... normal this series is. The dialogue isn't as random, it's not super horny, and despite having literal amnesia, the main character is still not as mentally fucked up as Ii, Samatoki, Choushi, or Araragi. It is graphic sometimes, and the twists can still be nonsensical, but I could comfortably recommend the Boukyaku Tantei series to a sane human being and they would probably like it, which is not something I could say about Zaregoto or Sekai... which is also part of why I don't like it as much as those. :P

  The format of all the novels tends to switch between short story collections (volumes 1, 3, and 5) and longer mystery stories than span a whole novel (volumes 2 and 4), I definitely tend to prefer the ones that are the latter. My favorite volume is basically a toss up between 2 and 3, because the first chapter of 3 is like, my favorite part of the entire series thus far, but I don't like the other two chapters nearly as much, whereas 2 is just a really good mystery story the whole way through with a great setting. It's kinda like being unable to decide whether my favorite album is the one that has a few of my favorite songs ever on it, or whether it's one that I thoroughly enjoy listening to the entire way through. The only book I don't really care for is volume 5, because I just thought all of the short stories there were pretty weak.

  This series isn't some amazing masterpiece, and I don't feel the same emotional attachment to it as I do with other series Nisio has written, but it doesn't have to be or do any of those things. Because what it succeeds at is being a good mystery series that's easy to read, with nigh endless potential for new stories to tell. I really hope we do get to learn more about Okitegami Kyouko's origin story eventually, and I really hope the translations don't stop at volume 5 because reading the synopsis of volume 6 honestly has me very intrigued. I would go more in detail about specific parts of this series that I really liked, but I think it would be better if you just read it yourself instead.

  If you are someone who absolutely refuses to read books, but are still interested in this series, there is a tv drama adaptation you can watch, which I hear is actually quite good, and I am going to watch it soon. It's a shame there is no anime, because I think this series would be very conducive to an anime adaptation, which is also not something I can say about other Nisio mystery novels, which would be much harder to adapt properly (Just look at Zaregoto as an example).

  Farewell (for now) Kyouko-san

  Edit: Here's part 2 of this review, because volumes 6-12 are now available in English

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