This novel delves deeper into the story of Kakeru, the young boy whose life is turned upside-down when he meets a group of super-powered teenagers on the run from a shadowy government agency.
Creative Staff
Writer/Artist: Yuya Aoki
Translated by: Rando Ayamine
Adapted by: Kathy Bridges
What They Say
With his family off in Hawaii for a week, fourteen-year-old Kakeru is looking forward to a little peace and quiet–until he discovers a strange, beautiful girl in his room. Her name is Ayano, and she’s in big trouble. Gifted with extraordinary psychic powers, Ayano is on the run from a shadow organization that wants to exploit her talents for its own dark ends.
But how can a short, skinny, hopelessly ordinary junior high school student help Ayano and her equally talented friends? With a gang of ruthless henchmen and dangerous psychics closing in fast, Kakeru is about to discover a few surprises about himself: Maybe he’s not so ordinary after all; perhaps he’s even the hero of his own dreams. He can only hope since the biggest, baddest psychic-hunter of all is coming after him for a life-or-death showdown.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Kakeru is your typical junior-high student. In other words, he’s a little whiny, doesn’t get along with his mother or his two older sisters, and wishes that something exciting would happen to him. When his family goes on vacation to Hawaii and leaves him at the chance alone, he’s sure that the only thing ahead of him is a week off from school. Instead, he gets what he thinks is a naked ghost in his room–one that just happens to be a cute girl his own age who knows his name and seems to be looking for him. It also just so happens that this girl is not a ghost, but the out-of-body projection of a teenage girl named Ayano who escaped the evil, psychic-cultivating Greenhouse. Thrown together with a quartet of psychic teenagers, Kakeru finds himself caught up in battles with the Farmers, those who work for the Greenhouse, as well as other psychics who have been brainwashed by the evil organization. Will they be able to prevail?
Well, of course they will. Yuya Aoki admits in the afterword that she tried to make this novel as manga-like as possible. So the fact that our main characters will be able to survive multiple battles with gun-wielding adults and mentally unstable psychic teenagers is unsurprising to say the least. Equally expected is that Joi will wake up from his “psychic sleep” and put his premonition to immediate good use, giving a slightly menacing tone to the later chapters. The most obvious development, though, is Kakeru’s slow realization of his own power, which is (of course) at a higher level than even Joi’s ability to discern parts of the future. Just about every cliche imaginable is present here, and when you can foresee almost all of the plot, it’s hard to truly enjoy the read.
In Summary:
Every once in a while, you come across something that is so mediocre that you have to wonder how much effort was put into it. The first volume of Psycho Busters is one of those things that just feels lazy all the way around. As often is the case with teen novels, there is an almost utter lack of characterization; why should anyone need a personality if the author can just make them do whatever they need to push the plot along? Joi is the only one who seems to have a deeper personality, but given that he is asleep for the majority of the book, he could also just end up as another weak character. Good action scenes could have been the novel’s saving grace, but Yuya Aoki doesn’t even manage to pull that off. The only excuse that I can come up with is that this is intended to be a teen or young reader series. In addition to making this novel very “manga-like,” Aoki also says that she wanted to make it easy to read for young readers who don’t really care for books. Unfortunately, the cliched storyline, combined with lackluster packaging and a lack of translation notes, makes this a less than stellar installment in Del Rey’s light novel lineup.
Content Grade: C
Packaging Grade: C+
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: April 8th, 2008
MSRP: $9.95
