Title: Detectives These Days Are Crazy Vol. 1Author: Masakuni Igarashi
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Mystery, Action, Comedy
Publication Date: April 28, 2025
The Story
Keiichiro Nagumo isn’t just a detective; he’s the greatest detective in the world. Or at least he was twenty years ago when he was in high school. Now he’s a washed-up 35-year-old who doesn’t understand how technology works and constantly has his body failing him. But that doesn’t stop him; he continues to put his mind and body on the line for his crumbling detective agency. Most readers would expect a simple detective story, but that’s thrown out the window only a few pages in when Nagumo encounters Mashiro Nakanishi.
She’s an excitable high-school girl who dreams of being a detective and pesters Nagumo into becoming his assistant. She has one weird ability, as she can materialize any object she wishes from within her school uniform. We immediately see her procure a frying pan, a baseball bat, and other strange objects. It’s made clear early on that she’ll do whatever it takes to work for Nagumo.
So the two of them team up for a variety of cases, but not the ones you’d think. They find a lost cat that ends up not even being the lost cat. They attempt to clear a wasp nest and uncover a shady organization. They even infiltrate a college club. Eventually, we learn that Mashiro has been training for a decade to work for Nagumo. This implies that they’ve met when she was young, and hopefully, more gets explained in future volumes.
The Characters
When Nagumo was young, he was all the rage. He was a hotshot detective while in high school, which everyone knew. Now that he’s 35, his talent and physical ability have been declining, but he doesn’t hide that. At first, I was afraid that he’d continue to act like he’s hot stuff, but he acknowledges it and starts acting as a well-rounded character.
On the surface, it may seem like Nagumo is well past his prime when it comes to detective work. His way of doing things the old-fashioned way severely hinders his ability to be discreet, and his aging body makes menial tasks harder. But he’s still got it, especially when it comes to mentoring Mashiro. He teaches her a wide variety of useful skills for dealing with people and animals throughout the first volume.
Mashiro, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Unlike Nagumo, she knows what a phone is, but she’s also way more outgoing than him. At first, he views her as an eccentric gyaru, but her social skills easily let Nagumo adapt his older ways of detective work into a more modern approach. By the end of the first volume, it appears that they get along very well.
Her ability is definitely useful. She uses her ability for everyday stuff like conjuring a flamethrower to help light Nagumo’s cigarette. Some of her actions are a bit more practical, though, like spawning a mattress after jumping out the window in a move that’s right out of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Their overall relationship appears to be similar to that of Arataka Reigen and Shigeo Kageyama, but with less manipulation and more humor.
Final Thoughts
On paper, Detectives These Days Are Crazy looks like a mystery manga with some humor thrown in, but it’s really the other way around. It’s a slice-of-life slapstick comedy that features a bunch of errands and the occasional mystery to solve. The humor is really good, and the first volume implies that the relationship between Nagumo and Mashiro will have a lot of development in the future.
I cared less about what they were trying to achieve and more about their means of accomplishing their goals. Seeing how Nagumo thinks when he’s locked in or how Mashiro’s antics shake things up made each chapter entertaining. This is definitely a series that could use some more eyes on it.
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This item was provided for review by One Peace Books.
