i tell c

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I Tell C is one of those mangas that draws you in with an interesting gimmick but struggles to use it properly throughout the series. I think something similar would be Promised Neverland, that starts off strong as a thriller, mind game series and ands up as a generic action series. In I Tell C the gimmick is that our MC is a stalker of criminals, she falls in love with a perp and finds more info on them by stalking them. The stalking is related to an incident in her past that is the driving force of the story and we get little ... bits of info after each case.

However, by the second case the gimmick has already run its course. The stalking lasts all of one chapter, and the deductions are completely hidden from the viewer. Usually in a good crime drama you want to sprinkle clues and suspects throughout several chapters so that the audience can play along. In I tell C, she will always have the case solved from the beginning because stalking requires you know who you're stalking.

Another issue is the secondary characters, black cop and white cop. Neither are important to the cases. White cop sits at his desk saying how much he distrusts MC girl, and black cop will come in and karate chop the suspect as they're about to kill her. Neither of them are interesting or add anything to the story. Any screentime wasted on them debating "using poison against poison" could be used to build an interesting case or show some stalking.

By the third case, MC has given up stalking. We meet the killer straight away, we have a mysterious author who is likely another killer/rival character, and the cops continue to be useless. Sad to say this manga is definite axe bait, I really enjoyed the concept but it does nothing with it. I'm hoping future cases are longer and we get to see the stalking process more, and that the criminals are left in the shadows a bit longer.

Edit: Obvious axe bait got axed

Recommendation: Just read Red Dragon

It's okay...

The stockholm syndrome was interesting at the beginning, but it didn't build on it. With every criminal/arc, there wasn't any character development for the protagonists, so that was a little bit disappointing. The rest is average. I'd say read this to understand how to not do a story. It's a quick read, so you'll probably won't waste your time. What was good is the puzzle at the end of the story with the japanese alphabet as the answer, that was pretty clever from the author and props to the translators for translating all that. Hopefully, the author rebounds with something better.

I Tell C to very few people's surprise has been axed in shonen jump. With poor sales with estimates only putting the series selling around 5,400 copies the writing was clearly on the wall that the series was going to be meeting an end soon. What led I tell C though to fail to find an audience in Weekly Shonen Jump? This review I think will help make it apparent on why.

I tell C started with an interesting gimmick of "Fighting poison with poison" the first chapter established Risa Aioi as a criminal stalker who loves the criminal who she is stalking, hoping to help ... them reach a point of self actualization. This posed as an interesting juxtaposition to the rest of the magazine commonly known for heros detesting villians outright. The issue with I Tell C despite it's interesting premise, however is the execution of it proved disappointing.

The rest of this review will contain spoilers for the entirety of I Tell C.

Story 3/10 - I Tell C is character driven story following the cases of Aioi. Certain cases had some appeal such as the phantom thief mAR case, however the vast majority of these cases lack much appeal from a narrative standpoint. Guy cuts off people's hands because he wants human warmth because he was lonely in his past. Most cases also have an overarching narrative with the police division and introduce elements within them. These lack any appeal partly due to the fact that with I Tell C cancellation none of these elements were actually expounded upon meaningfully. A good example would be when the I division is formed and see the police chief writing the story saying how everyone is gone now. In the manga no one ever leaves the I division this in retrospect considering the early cancellation adds nothing for the story other then foreshadowing for a twist that will never come. Another example of this is with Hikaru Kagamino Aioi the first criminal Aioi fell in love with disappears in the story after killing Ukon. Many plot elements such as these lack any resolution and lead to what at points felt like twist to try and drum up hype to avoid cancellation. Obviously elements such as these aren't all the author's fault. Maybe if the manga hadn't been cancelled these elements would have been elaborated upon. Though I think in retrospect had I Tell C not put such an emphasis on an overarching plot especially as it had in the beginning and just told the criminal cases as it started to do in the later half it would have benefitted.

Art 5/10 - The art is sufficable, however rarely enhances the experience the story is telling. Characters are often drawn in a pretty simplistic style that lacks appeal, action scenes can lack the oomph of other manga in the magazine, however it does nothing poorly either.

Characters 4/10 - Other then Risa Aioi intresting philosophy and way of viewing criminals I Tell C main cast of characters are for the most part incredibly bland. Sakon showcases this well he fits only by a trope that he is a musclehead. Even when his brother Ukyo is killed Sakon fails to act or grieve really in the chapter he just still keeps lifting weights. We never see the impact events like him like the loss of his own brother should have because they are so bound by trope. Most characters have a trait like this such as a police chief being loved by mothers and fail to ever break out of it. While the main cast other than Risa fail to hold any true appeal are the criminal side characters of I Tell C do sometimes. mAR and the boy who straps the bomb to himself are both characters where their motives are interesting due to their intriguing actions with understandable motivations from their backstories. Both of these characters arcs feel a little rushed, however they still work fundamentally. This isn't true for all the criminal side characters the hand guy and mohawk robber failed to have any of the appeal of the other two, so even this element of the criminal side characters can be hit or miss.

Enjoyment 3/10 - Personally I Tell C I rarely found myself excited to read the next chapter unlike many of the fellow series it was alongside in the magazine. It didn't hold much appeal to me outside of the core gimmick until later in when the series had begun switching away from the overarching plot. Sadly by the point I think I tell C was starting to show potential with it's narrative it was already to late.

Overall - 4/10

What was Shonen Jump thinking, cancelling this? I tell C could have been so good, but shonen jump has just cancelled it.

Knowing that it is cancelled changes the story completely. While the story lost itself at times, had incredibly fast pacing at times, the show knew what it was: a weird and wacky take on the crime genre, a show with so much heart and flavor. The show revolves around the division I, a special division who has police detective AIOI, known for falling in love with criminals and capturing them herself. Her methods are constantly unorthodox, she’s a yandere without the stabby-stabby or ... obsessiveness, just the extreme love, and the side characters were starting to shape up as good comic relief. The story set up a main antagonist and goal quite quickly and uniquely and it was looking to be around a 75-100 chapter crime story. Now for a crime story its really not about the mystery and detective elements, those elements almost non-existent. This isn’t some Sherlock Holmes or 5d chess game, but decently complex mysteries that the main protagonist solves in an almost slice of life atmosphere. Its sounds boring in concept, but AIOI is such an enchanting character, not to mention her interactions, that the crime aspects are easy to overlook. It can be better categorized as a slice of life crime show, but with a moving plot and well thought out schemes.

However re-reading the beginning chapters its almost astonishing the drop in quality. While the first chapter was amazing, the later chapters made me forgot one detail. The beginning was pretty bad. Like AIOI’s Yandere tendencies was executed terribly, not to mention the bland side characters and simple plots. As a weekly series it kept my attention and interest, but as a binging series not so much. The story in the beginning and the way it is written feels to clumsy and awkward, fumbling around to keep the story and gimic somehow going. However around the 20th chapter things had started to look better and the writing was getting better. The mediocre/bad plots was replaced with a slightly better one, and improvement was surely on its way. The main gimic still needed some work but it was going to be explored with the main antagonist, and the side characters were slowly improving, but then it got cancelled.

Its hard to evaluate it, as so many things set up and prepared for the future are ignored, like the main antagonist who seemed incredibly interesting, and caused AIOI trauma and depth to her character. Just by the little we knew from him was definitely a Moriarty type villain, and the final arc with him would have been amazing, not to mention the increase in writing quality. It had the idea, now it needed the good writing. The show was putting things in the background, characters and small hints building him up so well without directly mentioning him. However due to being cancelled it looks like we will never see him. To describe the manga, it would be a slice of life mystery with a moving plot and narrative, with unique characters, interesting villains, and such great heart and flavor. The dynamics are extremely fresh, its definitely a shonen, and the story had a lot of out of the box ideas and innovations.

Despite being cancelled the final chapter was quite decent as it embodied the heart of the show and wrapped up quite a lot of loose ends. However as an overall product, I can only say Average. 6 out of ten. A decent short read that does not requite attention, a promised story that did not deliver. Its not something that you need or should read. Its something you just pick up on a Sunday afternoon, read through the whole thing, are sidelined by the abrupt ending, and think, “well that was okay.” Then upon re-read or further inspection start to see the story fall apart. Rest in peace I tell C, my favorite new shonen jump show, you had so much that you could have achived.

The number one thing to keep in mind for this series and getting into it is knowing it's short and ends abruptly.

The series has an interesting plot and I think overall, it's a very fun journey. The characters in this series are very solidified and likeable, and the art is lovely as well. However, the series struggles with pacing at points. I think a big plot-relevant reveal does happen a bit too early, especially since it's in the first 1/3 approximately of the series. I think this series would be a bigger hit if it was given the proper chance, but sadly, it didn't get ... that. Personally, I wish there was more, especially since the ending felt very abrupt and it could've continued on, especially as in the last 2 chapters a new character is introduced.

Even though it ends so suddenly, it's a good read if someone wants something quick and comical for an afternoon read.

UPDATED REVIEW:
6/10 Why did Jump cancel this AFTER it got good?

This is actually sad because it had the potential to be great! It was getting better, and even introduced a new character that, right away, I started to like.

Original review:
The beginning was so bad. SO BAD. I was giving this a 3/10 because it had an interesting concept, interesting characters, but it felt so rushed and the story/writing was lackluster. Somewhere around chapter 8 or 9 however, the tone changes. Without spoiling anything, it sort of "erases" the first 8 chapters and takes the story in a completely different direction, while still remembering what happened ... in those early chapters. I am actually glad I held out, because now we are getting a decent story that I am actually enjoying.

For now, it is a 6 because while it did get better, it is still a typical shounen with a gimmick. Time will tell if it continues to improve or if it gets the axe.

I would recommend taking a chance, get to chapter 10-12 to really see where the story goes.

I usually don't write reviews, but the other reviews at the time of writing this didn't seem to continue past ch 8, so I wanted to share my opinion having read it more.

This manga felt weird from the start: a detective that falls madly in love with criminals, to the point where she does criminal acts.

When typing this down, it feels like the plot has some promise, because there are salvageable ideas that could come from a main character who fits that description. However, the author of this series seemingly does everything wrong with the execution, to the point where it's unclear what the purpose of the manga is, and why anyone in the world of this series even bothers to put up wither her (the MC's) shenanigans.

Instead of exploring a dark element where the ... detective commits crimes for love and covers them up, the MC commits crimes, but somehow her actions always allow for the police to catch the bad guy, and somehow, without explanation, the MC will be credited with planning the entre thing out and her crimes will be absolved. She also puts herself in harms way, and instead of being maimed or hurt, the author wrote in a male character that always jumps in to protect her, even though he has no real reason too other than being a complete simp (which also makes no sense because some lady in the office is in love with him but he doesn't notice).

Pros: None

Cons: The characters introduced, outside of the MC, are all extremely shallow, and seem to be used as props to fill in gaps in the writing of the MC that the author needed to fill while producing this series. Nothing about them seems well prepared or throughout, as the most prominent side character is supposed to have a running gag about being a fitness freak, but it rarely gets brought up. Yet, when it does, he'll have a dumbell and everyone will comment about his love for fitness, yet he never talked about working out for huge periods of times before this. That's just one example of the lack of execution in this series If I had more room and time, I could list issues with just about every side character so far in the series.

The story is extremely flawed, as there is no real direction. Like I mentioned before, the MC is the entire focal point of the series, yet, it feels like 5 chapters into the manga the author realized he needed to have more of a plotline than the MC oogling over criminals, so he added an organization, and the problem being judged for solving crimes the wrong way. Sure, this scenario has potential, yet like every other part of the series, it's poorly done and doesn't feel like it's important to the story, even though it's probably the most important aspect of the entire manga.

The art is good, but doesn't stand out in any way.

The pacing is also good, but I wish it was faster because reading this series gave me more headaches than I had anticipated, so it would have been nice to finish what I read much faster.

‘i Tell C’ is one of the most disappointing Manga that I read. It started very strong and interesting, but then turned into some slap-stick comedy… It was like reading the first chapters of ‘Death Note’ (no, even at the beginning it wasn’t that good), but then it switched to the netflix adaptation of it… If this didn’t scare you off, then let us go more in the details.

- Story (3/10):
The whole story is based on the main character, who once got kidnapped and developed a kind-of stockholm syndrome, she gets attracted to criminals. However, she is also a detective, so she fights crimes with ... crimes, or more precisely she tries to convince them (with strange methods) that they are bad and should give up. For example: to stalk a stalker. This not just sounds twisted and dark, it was… at the beginning… But this premise is for a shounen manga a hard one. To show young boys (the target readers) that realistic crimes could be good, work hard in this type of magazine. Conclusion: all the dark and psychological vibes had to be erased…

So to change the course of the manga they drastically modified half of the concept after around 10 chapters with as many plot holes as possible. For example, one character gets shot, but out of nowhere he survived just to save our main character, while another one also gets shot in a similar way and dies... Which definitely changed the concept, but was totally strange.

And after that, they installed a lot of slap-stick and childish humor. For example: one character is (suddenly) a total training junky, so everything he eats are proteins and does weight lifting in every free minute in his life. And random appearing characters whose only purpose is some kind of running gag (focused on symmetry, a gun lover or an overly attached father type). These may have worked, even if at that moment there were currently running better comedy titles, if the whole original idea was to create a comedy crime manga. But after the first 10 chapters, the other half was a total disappointment, and it lost its readers...

- Art (6/10):
However, even if the story was pure chaos, the art was good! Especially in the first chapters it had these nice scary and dark vibes. But also the comedy half was drawn well. The characters were stylish, with changing outfits and different emotions to show off. Background, toning and shadowing were solid too. So with a clear straight concept or better written story it may have been an outstanding manga like ‘The Promised Neverland’ (first third). On the other hand, it also has room for development.

- Characters (4/10):
Despite the good look, the characters are extremely weak. As mentioned, except for the main character, the characters are on 2 legs running gags. They are totally empty, no back stories or introductions, they are just suddenly there. While the villains get way more focus, which is good, but they are there for just a few chapters…
At least our one and a half main characters have a solid back story and introduction. However, due to the circumstances of the manga they also turn from interesting to some kind of joke...

- Enjoyment (3/10):
To turn back to the beginning, a story of a detective who does crimes to solve crimes sounds good, but works hard. The whole police department doesn't like her, but in reality they should arrest her, which makes the complete story illogical. For me, this destroys my enjoyment… You can definitely do this the right way, for example an anti-hero who defeats the villains even if they have to kill them or cause a big uproar or whatever.
And I know, the idea is that (not all) the criminals are bad people… But to cure a serial murder by accepting his ‘weird hobby’ of collecting human hands is kind a ridiculous… While in the first chapters she drove the criminals to give up by doing the same to them...

- Overall (4/10):
Overall, as I said it was a huge disappointment… It started really interesting, twisted and dark, but turning it into a comedy manga and curing every criminal with a pure heart of a lovely lady, ruined the whole manga. At least I can recommend the first 10-11 chapters, but after that, forget it.
Note: The mystery/crime at the very end was a nice one.

“Crime equates to poison, and once you have poison on your hands, no one will reach for them.”

Chapter 3

i tell c was a series that had the writing on the wall for the latter half of its run. It took a while to get on its feet and this was its death sentence. When the core premise is ‘woman falls in love with criminals’ you need to work fast to establish confidence in the reader while walking a very tricky line. Especially when it comes to the potential romanticisation of kidnap, assault, stalking, and murder.

Outside of the issues that arise from i tell c’s premise, ... one of the other difficult elements to overcome was the repetition. One of the most notable instances was the motif of poison which would appear a lot in the early chapters. There needs to be a little bit more faith that the reader understands your intentions because it began to feel more like a miniature lecture. The other is that all of the cases taken followed a similar pattern that i tell c struggled to break away from and meant that there was a lack of stand-out moments that would make a reader want to continue.

Some of the characters were interesting and set the foundation for growth, but many more felt a little lacklustre. The supposed main villain added a bit of danger to the plot but was only around for a few chapters before disappearing so it was difficult to really establish him. This is especially true since he has already had a big impact on the character’s lives.

The character designs, however, were really interesting. Some were pretty creepy while others were absolutely ridiculous… I mean one character’s mohawk was so tall that it never fit in the panel; regardless of the angle (which was quite funny, I promise). This disparity in design does highlight another one of i tell c’s flaws. It doesn’t quite mix the more slapstick moments with the darker themes. I admire Inaoka’s attempt as it is something difficult to do and, especially in the later chapters, they seemed to be growing in confidence.

The art itself is able to move between a wide variety of moods and this flexibility will definitely leave Inaoka’s options open for any future works. Hopefully, they will be given another chance as the potential beginning to appear in i tell c shows that there could be a promising future for them.

It is a shame that they weren’t given a little more time to wrap up the loose ends of i tell c though as a couple of the plot threads were interesting and they could have it be a bit more satisfying. But there isn’t much that can be done about this.

Overall, i tell c was a series that took too long to establish its potential while dealing with concepts that could quickly turn its readers away. I hope that those who worked on it are able to move on to new series because there was definitely potential that could be improved upon.

TLDR: This was a meh series that had a cool idea, but didn't deliver the story in the best way and was then axed before the series could really end. Not a horrible read, but nothing particularly special.


i tell c is a series that introduced a very interesting concept for a police department story, where the MC is obsessed and falls in love with criminals, and this deep love allows her to think like a criminal and find them when the rest of the police department can't. This concept was really interesting to see, but it wasn't executed to the best of its ability. There ... were definitely some moments where I thought, "Oh, that's a clever way to think about that", but many times, it just felt rushed.

The art style was decent, although it was nothing to write home about. There were a couple of panels with more striking images that were nice to look at, but the majority was fairly basic IMO.

The MC was certainly a fun character to read about, and could certainly have been a really intriguing character to learn more about, but the manga was axed before writers were able to delve deeper into the inner workings and the past of the MC. The side characters were not horrible, but anytime there was a turning point in an arc, the part that the side characters played felt rushed to me in certain sections. Also, one of the Big Bads that was introduced in the story and was what I assumed would be the main antagonist in the climax of the series just never showed up again due to the series getting axed, so the story felt almost incomplete as a result.

All and all, this was a quick series that has some shining moments and a different perspective on a police department story that could potentially be reimagined in another series with great success, and if you are looking for a short series to read, it isn't terrible

The ending is not enough.

Story:
Its the basic criminal cop story except the cop is in love with the criminals?! What a fun twist. Its extremely short, so while I like the plot the way it ends with a major plot line completely abandoned affects how I rate it.

Art:
Everything is so pretty to look at especially aloi, I admit I'm a sucker for heart eyes that aren't in hentai.

Characters:
Everyone in this is completely strange and they're wonderful to read about. Due to the short nature of the story while aloi is developed the unfinished plot line leaves her uncompleted. Her duo with ... Muscleman is while enjoyable to read the short plot again leaves me wanting more. The fact that each of their quirks help them solve crimes is just a brilliant use for their character and story.

Enjoyment:
I read this in under 2 hours, so I clearly liked it. The ending is immensely unsatisfactory but it doesn't completely ruin how I feel about the manga itself. I really ddi enjoy what I read.