Fire Investigator Nanase, Volume 1

A man comes running into a chaotic fire scene with his clothing ablaze. Thinking quickly, firefighting academy student Nanase Takamine smothers the flames with a blanket, saving his life. But then, as the ambulance is taking him away, the burned man opens an oxygen valve and flicks a lighter, causing an explosion. The ambulance veers and crashes, and both paramedics are killed, but the burned man slips away. That's only the beginning of the action in this fast-paced manga, which mixes murder mysteries with fire investigation. The burned man turns out to be a serial arsonist known to his pursuers as Firebug, and after the fire, he develops a strange obsession with Nanase. Three years later, after she graduates, he traps her in a burning building and forces her to face a series of challenges that test her knowledge of the causes and behavior of fire. It's a brutal tactic, especially because one challenge involves permeating her clothes with a flammable chemical, requiring her to complete the test clad only in her bra and panties. This scene sets up their future relationship: Nanase uses science to analyze fires, but the Firebug pushes her to trust her intuition as well. In this volume, Nanase works her way through two cases and gets a good start on a third. Each story combines problem-solving with action. Nanase and the Firebug spend a lot of time talking through the details, but in each case there is also a villain committing all sorts of mayhem to keep from being exposed. The science is interesting, although the stories themselves are not very plausible. As a villain, Firebug is ingenious and unbeatable. He disguises himself with a series of masks, including one of a burned face; he keeps a flamethrower up his sleeve; and he thinks nothing of driving down a busy city street in a car that's engulfed in flames. For her part, Nanase is a refreshing heroine. She is strong-willed, dedicated, and determined never to let the bad guys escape. She's not afraid of her superiors, but she does defer to the Firebug, out of both fear and respect for his knowledge. Despite the underwear scene, and the fact that the Firebug has a huge picture of her in his hideout (an abandoned church), there is no hint of any romance or sexual dynamic between the two. Murder mysteries usually have a coldblooded aspect to them, but here the characters recognize the importance of individual lives and the consequences of loss. Nanase adopts the child of one of the paramedics who was killed by Firebug, and one accomplice to a murder repents on the spot. This book does have its share of burned corpses, however, and the gruesomeness is on a par with popular shows like Bones and NCIS. Like a good detective novel, Fire Investigator Nanase presents the reader with an impossible mystery and an interesting detective to unravel it. The creators add extra interest with their specialized knowledge of fire and the psychological byplay between firefighter and arsonist. For adults and