Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro

Yako Katsuragi is an acclaimed high school detective, who, despite her young age, has solved many cases. In fact, there seems to be no case that she cannot solve, or any culprit that escapes justice. But within the walls of her detective agency lies the secret to her prolific crime-solving skills: the cases are actually solved by her assistant, Neuro Nougami.

However, to call Neuro an ordinary man would be incorrect. In reality, he is a demon, who came to the human world in search of the ultimate mystery, having already solved every mystery in the demon world. With Yako as his proxy, he feasts on the negative energy released by humans when they commit crimes. Thus, he promises to help Yako solve the mystery of her father's death. But to do so, he must avoid drawing too much attention to himself, which is why Yako plays the role of the detective. As Yako desperately searches for the truth of her father's death, the unlikely duo continues to solve case after case in order to satisfy Neuro's ravenous appetite.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nougami, Neuro Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Katsuragi, Yako Main

Ueda, Kana Japanese

Godai, Shinobu Main

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Akane Main

Sai ing

Park, Romi Japanese

Sasazuka, Eishi ing

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Higuchi, Yuuya ing

Sasaki, Nozomu Japanese

Ishigaki, Jun ing

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Harukawa, Eisuke ing

Tsukayama, Masane Japanese

Homura, Tetsuyuki ing

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Mita, Keiji Producer

Koujina, Hiroshi Director

Reviews

May 31, 2025

SDK1903

Recommended

This series is strange, twisted, absolutely unforgettable - and that's exactly why it's on my top 20 list. It doesn't follow the common detective formula. Instead, it throws you into a bizarre world where a demon named Neuro appears in the human world because he feeds on consuming mysteries rather than helping people.The concept is already crazy, but it's the way it wraps its chaos so securely in its arms that makes the rest unique. Neuro wingman Yako, a seemingly ordinary high school girl, and uses her as a front to solve grotesque, often disturbing cases. Solving mysteries isn't often groundbreaking, but the presentations display ... such a unique eccentricity that they never feel stale.Neuro stands out as a character who is both strangely funny and frightening. He sees people as insects and tortures Yako constantly, but there's something strangely inescapable about his unapologetic sadism. On the other hand, Yako automatically proves that he's more than just a puppet, embarking on a personal journey and growing mentally and emotionally stronger throughout the story.His artistic style is bold, using odd angles and sharp facial expressions to match the dark tones of his story. This is not a series for the faint of heart - it's gruesome, absurd and often disturbing - but for that very reason, it defies all others. You won't find anything like it, and I love it for that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by SDK1903 (11)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

May 28, 2022

PorcupineHead

Mixed Feelings

NOTE: I have previously made a review for this series 10 years ago, but it was pretty poorly written and recently I have started reading the manga so I have decided to do a complete review redux. There are also some minor spoilers ahead.

Demon Detective Neuro is the first series by Yusei Matsui, an author who later came to prominence with his smash hit comedy series Assassination Classroom. In comparison, Neuro, which is definitely darker in tone seems relatively forgotten. The anime never received an English dub and the manga was never officially released in English, though it was licensed in other languages such as ... Spanish and French. So one might wonder, is Neuro a hidden gem which deserves its cult following or does it deserve to fade into obscurity? Frankly while the manga is great and still worth checking out, the anime is a faulty adaptation held back by several issues.

First let’s talk about the presentation, the anime was made by studio Madhouse, so you can expect decent animation quality, but don’t expect to be blown away by epic fights and pretty colours. The character designs are also bold looking and easily recognizable with Neuro himself in his true form being the most striking. In of sound there are two things that stand out, the opening Theme DIRTY by the band Nightmare, (who have also done music for Death Note and Claymore) is a catchy and surprisingly heavy tune, in comparison the ending theme is a fairly typical sentimental ballad. The other notable thing is the voice of the main character Neuro, the legend Takehito Koyasu known for many roles such as Shinsuke from Gintama, Dio Brando and… Excalibur from Soul Eater. His performance truly steals the show and his manic laugh in one of the later episodes is unforgettable. We also have the main villain voiced by the CV of Edward Elric, Romi Park. The soundtrack composed by Tomoki Hasegawa is surprisingly decent and varied, containing dramatic orchestral tracks, some moody and goofy tunes.

But obviously what really matters here are the characters and the story, which centers around the titular Nougami Neuro, a sadistic badass demon who comes to the human world to feed on people’s mysteries and possesses over 777 demonic tools. As a cover up he sets up a detective agency with Yako Katsuragi, a high school student whose father recently got murdered. At first she seems useless and unremarkable, with her only noticable trait being her appetite for food which puts Luffy, Lina Inverse and Chouji Akimichi to shame. However as the story progresses her character and relationship with Neuro starts developing, though initially their interactions just involve Neuro bullying and torturing her, those slapstick comedy moments feel amusing at first, but they will start getting old and feel inappropriate. It’s definitely an unusual premise and not something typical you’d expect from a shounen Jump manga. Other significant characters include Shinobu Godai, a hotheaded office assistant and former member of Yakuza who likes drinking beer, Akane, a conscious ponytail of a girl buried in a wall, Eishi Sasazuka, a stoic smart detective with name and appearance similar to teacher Onizuka who always acts calm and collected and his assistant Jun Ishigaki, who in contrast acts dumb and childish and likes collecting toys, he’s similar to Matsuda from Death Note. The main cast is definitely memorable, but the villains are a mixed bag.

The problems start arising with the story and its structure, if you are expecting something like Detective Conan with a supernatural twist you are going to be very disappointed. In fact the manga author Matsui said in an interview he was not fan of mysteries and wanted to create an unconventional detective manga. So what we get here is a collection of episodic cases where the culprit is nearly always obvious from the beginning and then Yako with help of Neuro reveals the culprit while he explains the convoluted elaborate scheme straight out of CSI which the suspect used to commit the crime. Then Neuro usually devours their mystery and the criminal is arrested. Nevertheless, it quickly becomes very formulaic, especially because almost all cases in the first 15 episodes are murders with the exception of one mad bomber. Other standout cases include two episodes involving an idol singer and a springs episode which contains one of the most hilariously bad national stereotypes in anime. Most villains are shallow and one dimensional and once the case ends they have no relevance to the story. The big exception is the main villain, "Phantom Thief" Sai, a murderer who puts people in red boxes and searches for his lost identity. The 3 episodes dedicated to him are by far the most interesting part of the series until we get to the first major arc involving evil artificial intelligence HAL (Where could author get that name from?), easily the highlight of the anime which breaks from the usual formula by introducing way more action and a genius hacker Higuchi, who plays a major part in the story. Then we get a few more cases before the main characters are once more confronted by Sai, the series ends with a decent but open conclusion. So in a nutshell this is basically a mystery series for people who hate mysteries.

However, then we get to the manga and we quickly realise that the anime is just a really sloppy adaptation. Firstly the manga was far from complete and was running for just two years when the series started airing so it roughly adapts only the first half up to the HAL arc before the story diverges with an anime original ending. It’s worth noting that there is a dramatic tonal shift in the second half of the manga and the series transforms from a pseudo-mystery series into something quite different and much darker. Unlike many manga which have an interesting beginning and later jump the shark, Neuro actually gets better over time.

But even the material the studio could work with is adapted fairly poorly, while the first half of the manga was still not great, the cases there actually felt a bit connected to each other and there were bits of foreshadowing missing in the anime. There are also many other minor and major differences between manga and adapted material, for example in the manga father’s death is resolved almost instantly in second chapter while in the anime it’s revealed in the finale, still neither version handled such a major plot point particularly well. Many smaller subplots and chapters between cases which served as a break from the action are also missing. The Hayasaka brothers also got cut off from the anime completely.

Generally, in the anime the episodes just seem lazily thrown together willy-nilly in random order from chapter to chapter without much regard for pacing and we also get a few anime original cases which are far less interesting, some details from the manga are also omitted so for example it’s not explained how guardians of one of the HAL computers acquired their guns. However, the biggest issue by far by far is in the characters themselves. The interactions between them are also worse and there is a massive lack of development. In the anime Yako is mostly treated as a joke, but in the manga she really grows into a competent detective and Neuro’s character also changes as he tries to understand humans. Godai’s role in the manga is also way more interesting as he leaves Yako’s agency fairly soon.

One of the biggest problems is that Yusei Matsui's style doesn't translate well to visual media. His characters spend large chunks of time talking out loud or in their minds and the action gets disted when the dialogue in real-time. The anime also doesn't quite capture the series rough but unique artstyle.

Ultimately, Neuro is a really botched adaptation of a much better manga, if you enjoyed the anime definitely give it a try. Let’s just hope that with the success of Matsui’s recent series there is a chance for a reboot.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by PorcupineHead (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jun 5, 2021

halimede

Not Recommended

The first word in mind for this show is CRINGEY. Neuro is a demon who comes to the human world to solve mysteries and I would have liked it a lot more if he found a Light Yagami kind of main character. Or at least a character who takes themselves somewhat seriously. The problem with a show like this is it takes a very dark, serious problem (Psycho kind of mystery shit) and then the main character comes from a comedy shoujo anime so they cancel each other out with no clear direction for the show. It leaves you with a very niche group of ... people who can watch this (it's not really appealing to viewers who are into shoujo anime, but it also wouldn't appeal to like, people who are looking for a serious kind of show).
The whole "You are the criminal" part always makes me cringe - especially when it's not even her solving the goddamn case, it's the demon that you're leeching off of.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by halimede (48)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

McDonalds/WcDonalds in Anime

by UkePaChan

50 Entries · 4 Restacks

Weekly Shounen Jump Anime Part 6

by AcidTyphoon

50 Entries · 21 Restacks

Detective / Mystery Anime

by Suliistiani

50 Entries · 104 Restacks

	Poll: Boursk - Mar 18, 2008	26 replies	by »» Apr 10, 3:59 PM
	Poll: then - Jan 7, 2008	32 replies	by »» Nov 18, 2024 6:28 AM
	Poll: cyruz - Mar 5, 2008	30 replies	by »» Jul 29, 2024 10:25 PM
	Poll: cyruz - Apr 15, 2008	59 replies	by »» May 12, 2024 12:08 PM
	Poll: cyruz - Mar 21, 2008	24 replies	by »» May 10, 2024 2:36 AM

An Introduction to Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace

The newest mystery series to air this season is based upon Edogawa Ranpo's great detective, Kogoro Akechi! Let's go through the background of Japan's most renowned mystery novelist and see which stories made it into this latest homage.

by melodius

9,116 views

Spoiler

History and Culture