[Top 15] Best Mystery Mangas We Love
By Chris Park
Some of the best stories told are when they don’t have a definitive ending, leaving the readers to try and deduce that for themselves. In most cases, mystery is the perfect genre for this form of storytelling. Here are fifteen amazing mystery mangas that are guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat, either by reading the story, or searching for clues.
15. Pandora Hearts
Pandora Hearts focuses on fifteen-year-old Oz, who tries to uncover the truth about mysterious events that have started to occur in his life. After being cast to a prison called the ‘Abyss’, he can only be saved by Alice, known as the Bloodstained Black Rabbit. Pandora Hearts takes place in a dark-fantasy-like setting as its characters try to uncover the mystery of the wonderland that they find themselves in.
14. Defense Devil
Illustrated by: Yank Kyung-il
Banished from hell and stripped of his demonic powers, Kucabara must become a defense devil in order to regain his powers. Following his adventures to try and prove the innocence of human sinners before they are taken to hell, an even bigger mystery slowly starts to be uncovered after Kucabara is told that the home he was working so hard to return to was in a state of chaos as well.
13. Black Butler
After his family is murdered, 13-year-old Ciel Phantomhive is kidnapped and sold as a slave to a demon-worshipping cult. After a demon is summoned and forms a pact with Ciel, the demon slaughters the cult and assimilates into the freed boy. The two embark on an adventure, solving important cases for the Queen, that may threaten her crown or country.
12. You Will Hear the Voice of the Dead
Jun Kishida has the ability to see dead people, including his childhood friend Ryoko Hayakawa. With her aid, Jun begins to uncover secrets and mysteries, including how Ryoko truly died. However, things like these don’t come easy. As he and his friends continue to search, increasingly dangerous situations start to arise.
11. Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
In a world where people can be killed through radio control, Kengo Fujimoto is in charge of delivering people who voice their protest to an Ikigami facility, where those accused of committing ‘thought crime’ are trained to reenter society. Similar to Orwell’s 1984, this story follows Kengo’s daily life as he not only does his job to aid the dystopic government but unveils deeper mysteries that expose an ever darker and more corrupt world.
10. Imperfect Girl
Written by: Nisio Isin
Illustrated by: Fuu Midori
Imperfect Girl tells a unique story from the past of the narrator, rather than one of straight fiction. A college student and constantly rejected novelist, he witnesses a girl getting hit by a truck on his way home from school. Seeing the girl’s friend pause to save her video game before going to check on his friend, the narrator is later kidnapped by the same girl who doesn’t want him to reveal her unusualness to anyone. There is a clear mystery surrounding this girl, and the narrator is bound to discover the truth to them eventually.
9. Gantz
By: Hiroya Oku
Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato were victims of a train accident, dying as a result. They are then summoned to a postmortal game where they must hunt down aliens using futuristic weaponry. While there is certainly a good amount of action and psychological thriller, the mystery also plays a great part in this series. How were these people able to live after dying? Why were they being pitted in combat against aliens?
8. Dengeki Daisy
By: Kyousuke Motomi
After the death of her older brother, Teru Kurebayashi was left with nothing but the company of a person named Daisy, who would Teru’s pillar of strength. After some bullies from school are driven away mysteriously, Teru ends up working for the grouchy school janitor named Tasuku Kurosaki, after she accidentally breaks a window. What Teru slowly comes to realize is that there is a mystery surrounding Tasuku, as he is clearly hiding something that he wasn’t willing to tell her.
7. Doubt
Centering around a cell phone game with mafia-like qualities called Rabbit Doubt, players must find the killer amongst their group. Finding themselves trapped in a building with one member of their group already dead, the remaining five players must work together to find who the killer was before it became too late.
6. Bloody Monday
Illustrated by: Megumi Koji
In order to uncover the conditions behind the death of a Russian Spy, Fujimaru Takagi must hack the memory chip before discovering a video of the killing outbreak in Russia, otherwise known as the Christmas Massacre. Things take a more sudden turn when Fujimaru’s father is falsely accused of murdering his superior after receiving information about the Christmas Massacre and a code name simply titled ‘Bloody Monday’. Fujimaru must solve the mystery regarding these events to not only reach the truth but to prove his father’s innocence as well.
5. Pluto
By: Naoki Urasawa
Centering around a Europol robot detective named Gesicht, he goes around to try and solve a string of robot and human deaths who are killed by having objects shoved into their heads to look like horns. The mystery grows deeper when there is evidence that the culprit is a robot, making it the first incident in eight years. In order to prevent any more deaths from occurring as well as maintaining the harmony between humans and robots, Gesicht must uncover the mystery surrounding these murders to discover who the real killer is.
4. Jisatsutou
Otherwise known as Suicide Island, this tells the story of patients who are legally proclaimed dead but were instead sent to an island to be forgotten. They are told by the government that there are no rules whatsoever, except that no attempts to escape should be made. After Sei finds himself a resident on the island, he begins to try and uncover what is going on, and if anything sinister resided on the island with them.
3. Billy Bat
Written by: Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki
Illustrated by: Naoki Urasawa
Upon traveling to Japan to get permission to use an image for his series ‘Billy Bat’, Kevin Yamagata finds himself tangled in a web of murders, cover-ups, and mysterious prophecies that are all connected to the image. Realizing that the image he used to inspire his manga was potentially connected to a world-altering power, Kevin is dragged into the mystery of the scope of its power and people who may be actively searching for it.
2. MPD Psycho
Illustrated by: Shou Tajima
After detective Yôsuke Kobayashi finds his girlfriend a victim of the serial killer whom he was trying to catch, he slowly goes insane and develops Dissociative Identity Disorder. His disorder split him into two personalities, being the detective Kazuhiko Amamiya and psychopath Shinji Nishizono. From then on, Yôsuke not only works as a detective for other cases but also tries to surround the mystery regarding his two personalities.
1. Another
Written by: Yukito Ayatsuji
Illustrated by: Hiro Kiyohara
After a girl named Misaki dies suddenly in 1972, the devastated students and teachers continued to live as if Misaki was still alive. Around 20 minutes later, Kōichi Sakakibara meets a girl named Mei Misaki, who seems to be invisible to everyone except for him. After a mysterious string of deaths starts to happen to students and their relatives, Kōichi and Mei must uncover the source of the mysterious events and put an end to it before more people are killed.
