Psycome

Psycome is a comedy about psychos. I'm using the term "comedy" and "psychos" incredibly loosely, but I guess this is supposed to classify as both. Technically speaking, it's literally all it is and there is absolutely nothing more to it than that. And by comedy, I meant the wacky silly overdone harem hijinx that continuously repeat like a broken record. And by psychos, I meant kids who identify themselves as one while tipping their fedoras and maybe pretending Kool-Aid is blood to impress their friends on Facebook.

Here's the premise: This kid named Kyousuke gets into trouble with some thugs, beats them up, goes home, and gets arrested because those kids ended up being killed by someone else. So on false charges, he's sent to this school on an island that supposedly serves to rehabilitate these terrible murderers. But to not get those silly parents involved, they are taken out of the picture in a form of the MC living alone with his sister. Typical LN formula.

In his class, he encounters three relevant characters- One being his teacher. She's basically this violent little kid that likes swinging around her metal pipe while speaking vulgarly nearly all the time. Oh, joy. The other two are his classmates- Maina and Eiri. Maina is this clumsy girl who apparently kills people unintentionally all the time. Wow, that's really wacky and funny. Furthermore, her personality and dialogue solely involve her saying "I'm sorry/I shouldn't have been born" nearly all the time and just completely caters to the type of people that eat up moeshit. Eiri is this supposedly skilled assassin who apparently killed six people, and that's really all there is to her. Three volumes in, and her personality is completely flat. Just like Maina, it usually involves her saying "Go die" or something along the line. Are you entertained yet?

Look, if you're going to introduce two relevant side characters, at least make their personality fairly normal so that there is an actual interaction between the MC and those characters. One being a flat character and the other being an overly apologetic moeblob isn't going to do anything. How does this even qualify as comedy? The farthest development Kyousuke goes with these two is him saying that he'll protect them or something. Flawless. But he's not the only one that's painfully generic- Every other side character is a walking trope. Kyousuke's sister is a completely generic yandere that plays the trope down to the tee, for example- Whereas Saki is that crazy noblewoman type of character.

The one and only decent character is Renko, and that's about the only positive thing about the series. While she's not exactly well-written, she at least fits with the theme of the story. She has a wacky personality and does a good job in giving off that strange vibe which is reflected by her character design. So yes, she's the only good (relatively speaking) character in this series because she's the only character that feels remotely psychotic without being a trope copypasta cardboard. Unfortunately, a single character cannot carry a series, and because of how utterly awful the MC is, the entire thing just gets dragged down.

Kyousuke's relevance in this series is excused by his false charge- Since he is labeled as a killer who murdered twelve people at the same time and that's apparently a very impressive record at the school, he is instantly given the 'popular' badge without him doing anything relevant. And at that point, it really does feel like a forced characterization because it's not about him interacting with other characters, but other characters just magnetizing towards him. All he ever really does is resolving a conflict by being fairly sensible and nice, and that's his entire character. The most generic of generic harem protagonists- There is not a speck of personality to be found. If there is one, it would be him being a complete puss- He actually legitimately cries and gets depressed when his little sister refuses to cook for him because they got in a small fight. The most significant thing he does in the first three volumes involve him calming down Renko all the time whenever she goes berserk. Incredibly interesting. And despite his complete lack of character, every female character is magnetized towards him- Renko, Maina, Eiri, Saki, Bob. I don't think there's enough wish fulfillment in this series yet.

As for the tone of this series- As I claimed earlier, this series is absolutely not "dark" or "grim" in any shape or form. Despite it being about a school full of murderers/assassins, there is very little to no murder/killing. In fact, what these characters like doing the best is talking about murdering/killing than actually doing it. You know, like those edgy middle school kids you see all the time on the internet. Because of that, the "threatening" tone of these supposedly terrifying characters is nowhere to be found because it doesn't feel real. In fact, it wouldn't be all that surprising if all these characters were sent to the school on false charges- Because that's what it feels like. And when there are actual murder attempts, they are usually just easily taken care of and are just glossed over like they were irrelevant. Clearly the series is not trying to be comedic in this department, so what is it doing, exactly? There is a huge difference between talking about doing something bad and actually doing something bad because the latter actually affects the characters in the long run, so why? What's the point?

Unfortunately, the problem doesn't end there. All the conflicts in this series have been so far, inconsequential (and mostly solved by Renko instead of Kyousuke), and the most significant character out of them all is Renko. Outside of Renko, there is little to no mystery or anything worth speculating over- That's how little plot this series has. You can argue this is a wacky comedy series, and that's fine- But if it's trying to present a plot, it's doing so at the pacing of an amputated snail. This is all the more offensive when Kyousuke just simply doesn't care about Renko's past and the school's shady intentions. He doesn't even care about the fact that he was enrolled on false charges that was likely caused by the school itself for his supposedly "impressive physical talents," which he barely makes any use of. Even the whole thing feels forced- It's like they couldn't come up with anything that made Kyousuke stand out, so all they could come up with was "eh he's strong I guess."

The school doesn't particularly care about him getting killed either because he has been under those threats, no matter how inconsequential they have turned out in the end, and later the shady people behind the school even regret having him enrolled in the school in the first place for interfering with Renko. Why not just kick him out, then? Oh right, they can't. He's the MC. All he cares about is graduating because he was promised to graduate normally as long as he doesn't commit any murder. This small possibility that he might commit a murder is also completely eliminated because there is very little to no murder outside of flashbacks and character backgrounds, so there is no speculation over that either. Completely boring.

Don't read this series expecting anything good- In the end, it's just yet another generic harem series with wacky unfunny overdone harem hijinx and unoriginal gags involving tit size. The supposed dark/gritty setting that this series promises is nowhere to be found, and is pretty much played for jokes nearly all the time outside of character TALKING about murdering people than actually doing it. And because of how mediocre this series is, it's guaranteed to get animated. I sure love this medium.

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Psycome short for Psycho Love Comedy and as the name imply this is a story about psycho that fall in love with a healthy dose of comedy mixed.

Story - 8

The plot is very simple like you would found in another harem LN. A story about a man thrown into school and of course harem ensue. But instead of the usual school this time we have school filled with convicted murderer and psycho. Despite the usual harem cliche that always present here it is dialed up to a murderous degree.

Art - 8

The illustration is quite good here. The cover is atractive and the character design is also good.

Character - 9

Now this is the best part of the series. Character here very charming. The best character here ia probably goes to Renko but other character is no slouch either. Renko aka the gas mask girl have very interesting personality. She is yandere but she isn't very shy to show her love. Part that make her interesting is how balanced her "yan" and "dere" part is when shown. Aside for her we have tsundere Eiri the red haired girl titled Murderer of Six. She is vitrolic best bud wuth Renko and always bantering about breast size. We also have dojiko who is very extreme cllumsy that she already kill three people due to her clumsines. There is also Syamaya the head of Public Moral Commite titled Murderer Princess because how much amount of her victim. There is also Ayaka a yandere imouto and of course our MC Kyousuke who is titled Murderer of Twelve. Aside for the main cast this also hqve many interesting character like our punching bag Mohican(real name unknown) and killer teacher(literally) Kurumiya.

Ennoyment - 9

The intrraction between character and antic of everu character is what make this very enjoyable. The way it played cliche to the murderous tone is also what make it good. Renko in particular is the best yandere that I've ever seen.

Overall - 9

If you want to read harem LN with a slight twist than usual then this is for you. For those who didn't like harem this series also have many other aspect that can still make you entertained.

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Progress:Just past the intro on vol. 3.

I've stayed on the bright and cute side of Japanese light ACGNs so far. This one caught my eyes when someone posted a review / recap elsewhere. Since there is no official synopsis I am providing a quick rundown of the setting...

Caution: Rated R for graphical violence, sexual content, and just about every reason why you'd rate something R. In fact this is so twisted I don't know how it got published.

MC has a pretty standard background - parents in foreign country, living with his cute little sister. As a good oni-chan he has fought off many bullys who pick on his sister and ended up as an infamous brawler. Story picks up when he was accused of having killed 12 bullys (who he did beat up but spared), and was arrested, sent off to a correctional school for under-aged murderers.

He soon discovers that his 12 kill headcount makes him a popular celebrity in the school, where just about everyone is psychopathic - including the loli-looking teacher who enjoys showing her steel pipe into her students' bodies. Here he meets three girls - a red-headed beauty who hides mini-razors under her nails, a curvy, tank-top-wearing silver haired girl who wears a gas mask all day, and a seemingly nice klutz. The conspiracy behind the school and the backgrounds of the characters are slowly revealed, and before long the MC is in deeper than any other MC I've ever seen.

Rather than taking a ridiculous situation and fill it with regular drama, Psycome takes it up a notch. The regular ACGN cliches are still there - the fan service swim suits, the stumble-and-fall-on-to-boobs, the harem building - but every once in a while Psycome will remind you this is not a regular LN with scenes like having one of the main cast being tortured, having a running gag of a classmate being beaten to pulp (literally and described in detail) by the teacher, or having a senpai who killed 21 people because she enjoyed killing people in different ways.

Its gritty, its dark, its very sickening, and because all of it, it is very refreshing and entertaining. If you can find it (currently only published in Japanese...considering how terrifying the serie I don't know if it'll get licensed anywhere else), this is definitely worth a read.

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I personally stumbled upon this novel after watching and reading Noucome. I am amazed by the intense art style of Noucome both in anime and the novel.. And when i am searching for different alternative i find this one, Psycome. Pretty much the words is the same with Noucome so i pick it up and hoping that it won't fail my expectation..

My verdict?

It absolutely exceeded my expectation a lot. By that i mean it makes me smile like an idiot. It makes my heart flutter with ecchi scene (Yeah a virgin ). And make me feel despair for the characters.



Story:
Typically new on my eyes. It is told by the main protagonist so you can actually feel the pain , suffering or joy of the main protagonist.The pacing is nice. The plot is unique. It is my first time that i encounter a novel with a Romance , Comedy , Suspense and Psychological genre in one. At first i'm a litlle doubtful about the story. Because those genres are all self contradicting. How can you laugh if all the person around you are murderers? I'm a little worried about that but as the story goes those worries just vanish in the air.


Art:
Damn.. Have i said that the art is the most strong point of this one? The fine details of every characters that have been drawn is so perfect , i might faint (just joking). But to see is to believe so just google it "Psycome" and be amazed by the art.



Character:
This is also another strong point for the novel. You have a tsundere , yandere , dandere/kuudere (this is for maina) in just one novel. Also the imouto route. And all of them have a psychopatic tendency to kill anytime. They are well rounded. Characters don't shift their attitude from this to this one only to be back with this one. And some of the supporting characters are pretty enjoyable too , especially BOB (Beware of him/her)



Personally I enjoy this series. Much more than Noucome. It is easily seen on rating right?

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