Psycho Busters: The Novel Book One

Who says manga based literature can't make good novels? Yuya Aoki, creator of Get Backers, and Psycho Busters the manga, has released the novel that inspired the series readers love to talk about. Fourteen year old Kakeru is alone for a week, or so he thinks. His family has headed off to Hawaii for a short vacation during Golden Week, and he opts to stay home. Ground rules. No girls in the house....Ooops. Better tell the ghostly image who materializes naked and sends Kakeru's hormones raging. Exactly why a semi transparent girl begins to communicate with Kakeru is a mystery. Leading him to a shack on the edge of the woods, he discovers four runaways, one of which is Ayano, his mystery friend. Joi, is unconscious. Xaio Long and Kaito, are in the best shape of the four after jumping off the cliff into the raging water. Runing away from the'Farmers' (from the Greenhouse), they end up in Kakeru's school. The school janitor, Hiyama-San, is not whom she seems, and takes Joi in to nurse him to health while Kakeru and his new found friends stay on the sly from the Farmers and the Seekers. Looking for new allies, Kakeru apparently exhibits powers in psychic combat that startle everyone, even himself. His confidence seems to be his only weapon, as the school becomes a showdown for the runaways and the psychic seekers. The new friends discover life outside the greenhouse, and a hard truth that compassion can be more powerful than psychic abilities. One interesting theme in the book is the prescient powers of Joi. Being able to tell the future can be a curse, yet his survival is evidence that it too can be handled well. Comparing his powers to that of Jesus' Godhood is a questionable literary tool, but one that is necessary for the fictional world of Kakeru and his friends. Packed with potential, this series can only spring off from such a novel. The characterization is easier to follow in a novel as opposed to the manga comic book format. Given the choice between manga and novel, I would choose the novel, however, my graphic sensibilites still have a hard time reading 'backwards' to North American continuities. Make no mistake, buy both. Enjoy both. Just wait for the movie. [...] Tim Lasiuta