Books: Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation Vol. #1

Muhyo and Roji couldn’t be a more mismatched pair. Roji is a tall, light-haired fellow with the minimal skill set and the can-do attitude of many a shonen hero. Muhyo’s a short, morbidly-grinning little imp who looks like a chibi version of Peter Lorre, and with a library of magical incantations at his command. From the third floor of a tiny Tokyo office building they operate a “Bureau of Supernatural Investigation,” where clients come to them with problems involving misbehaving spirits and they lay yards of smack down on the offenders thanks to Muhyo’s command of “magical law.” (Plea-bargains do not appear to be part of the deal.)

That’s the premise for Yoshiyuki Nishi’s Muhyo and Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation or BSI for short, a fun new Viz title that takes a few basic manga patterns — the all-knowing genius detective and his hapless sidekick — and spins them in clever new directions. For one, the genius detective and the hapless sidekick seem to be about the same age, although Muhyo, with his weird “onion-head” appearance (he’s called that more than once), will probably look the way he does for decades on end. Muhyo reached the dizzying heights of the title of “Executor of Law” at a very young age, and delights in gloating about that fact in front of the lowly Roji. Put them together, though, and they make a sharp team — although Muhyo still does most of the leading.

Article originally written for AMN. Click here to read full text.