Remote

Rating:
Summary: Solid mystery/thriller
Review: First of all, i'm not sure how this book came to be labeled "ultra violent" in the Publishers Information section at Amazon - there is violence - this is a murder mystery thriller after all, but it's very much rated R stuff.
Our heroine Kurumi Ayaki is a meter maid who retired to marry. Finding out that her fiance didn't get the raise he was promised, she is forced to beg her boss to give her back her old job. Instead, he reassigns her to the unsolved crimes homicide division. She is made partners with a genius investigator who cannot leave his house, for reasons hinted at but not explained in this volume. She must act as his eyes, ears and hands, getting directions from him on her cell phone, which she must keep on her day or night.
One thing that impressed me right away about this manga - the killer leaves a riddle at the crime scene in the form of a phrase. The detective solves this riddle, and I was impressed by the way he solves it - this is a legitimate math puzzle of moderate complexity - if I had to solve it on my own it would probably take at least several hours. No shortcut is taken - he solves it right in front of you in the manga, which takes several pages and some concentration on the readers part to follow the logic. I just can't imagine something like this being put in a movie for instance, or an american comic - the assumption would be that the reader is too "dumb" for something like this, and would be bored by the math.
I didn't like the art much - it is serviceable, and the author is pretty good at building tension and suspense where needed, but in other scenes it seems a bit sketchy and a little ugly.
Overall, a good mystery/thriller title for an older audience (although not necessary adult - I think teenagers would enjoy this as well).

Rating:
Summary: Solid mystery/thriller
Review: First of all, i'm not sure how this book came to be labeled "ultra violent" in the Publishers Information section at Amazon - there is violence - this is a murder mystery thriller after all, but it's very much rated R stuff.
Our heroine Kurumi Ayaki is a meter maid who retired to marry. Finding out that her fiance didn't get the raise he was promised, she is forced to beg her boss to give her back her old job. Instead, he reassigns her to the unsolved crimes homicide division. She is made partners with a genius investigator who cannot leave his house, for reasons hinted at but not explained in this volume. She must act as his eyes, ears and hands, getting directions from him on her cell phone, which she must keep on her day or night.
One thing that impressed me right away about this manga - the killer leaves a riddle at the crime scene in the form of a phrase. The detective solves this riddle, and I was impressed by the way he solves it - this is a legitimate math puzzle of moderate complexity - if I had to solve it on my own it would probably take at least several hours. No shortcut is taken - he solves it right in front of you in the manga, which takes several pages and some concentration on the readers part to follow the logic. I just can't imagine something like this being put in a movie for instance, or an american comic - the assumption would be that the reader is too "dumb" for something like this, and would be bored by the math.
I didn't like the art much - it is serviceable, and the author is pretty good at building tension and suspense where needed, but in other scenes it seems a bit sketchy and a little ugly.
Overall, a good mystery/thriller title for an older audience (although not necessary adult - I think teenagers would enjoy this as well).

Rating:
Summary: Great start to a police thriller series
Review: The discovery of a murdered woman and someone dressed up as a clown near the site of the murder, kicks off the police thriller manga series Remote by Seimaru Amagi. A floppy disc is discovered by the corpse, and the police decide to hand the case over to brooding and calm but taciturn Inspector Kozaburo Himuro, head of the Unsolved Crimes Division, Unit A. He is stationed in "the Crypt," his personal house far away from the Criminal Investigation Division's headquarters.

Joining him as his put-upon and sometimes reluctant partner is Kurumi Ayaki, a stunning 23 year old in the traffic division who was planning to retire so she could get married to her wimpy car salesman fiancé, Shingo. Unfortunately, the recession puts paid Shingo's expected promotion, where his salary might get halved. Kurumi, who has already handed in her resignation, is forced to retract it, and hence assigned to Himuro. As he is unable to leave due to an accident the previous year, Kurumi is forced to become his eyes and ears, with a cellphone with which the two can communicate. Despite his apparent coldness and the way he pushes Kurumi, I tend to like him better for his use of logic and intelligence. Kurumi is thus on 24 hour call. As Himuro tells her at one point, "you belong to a unit now. The only time you're off duty is when you're dead. If you can't deal with that, then maybe I should find someone who can."

However, while discussing matters at the Central Towers Hotel, Kurumi unexpected sees a man dressed in a clown suit singing a nursery rhyme, and moments later, takes charge in the lobby where a man is found dead with a floppy disc in his pocket. Her ability for recall gives Himuro more to go on with, which makes him believe that maybe she is of good use after all.

The clown has been leaving messages that serves as a password with which to open the floppy disc's files. The clue in the first murder is the message "SEND MORE MONEY." While Kurumi sees it as it is, Himuro recognizes it as a mathematical equation, SEND+MORE=MONEY, with each letter being a number. The files then reveal the location of each planned murder.

The best scene involves Himuro sending Kurumi to a dark abandoned warehouse at night, where he expects her to find "one psychotic bozo." In other words, a clown, and Kurumi is forced to defend herself. However, two more killings occur, at which point it becomes clear that there have been different killers.

Kurumi isn't exactly that well gifted in the brain department, and is a bit of a ditz, making up for it in her figure. However, she is a complement to the more logical and intelligent Himuro. At one point, while running to prevent another murder, she stops to help an injured boy, which enrages Himuro because she will be too late. And she is liked by two of Himuro's assistants, the hulking behemoth Bob Kato, nicknamed the Bobhemoth, and whose lunch consists of a tray full of hamburgers, and the older woman Hanae, who thinks Kurumi will be the person to bring Himuro out of his shell. Apparently, the accident he was involved in left him with the inability to feel anything emotionally.

As for Tetsuya Koshiba, the artist, his hands do justice to the main characters. Kurumi is drawn as a typical manga/anime bimbo, wide eyes, great figure, nice legs, and some shots of her can be gratuitous, such as the scene where she has fallen on the floor, and her undies can be seen beneath her mini. Kurumi's close and faraway nude scenes in one section does justify the OT (16+) rating. Even though she complains and is a bit irritating at times, at least she's nice to look at.

The ending does not end the case, which is continued in Episode 2. Great start-off to a promising series.