B.A.D. is a mysterious fantasy story about a 14 year old gothic lolita named Azaka Mayuzumi who is the head of the Mayuzumi psychic detective agency. One day Mayuzumi saves a teenage school boy Odagiri's life and from that day onwards, Odagari devotes his life to work for Mayuzumi.
Characters:
Azaka Mayuzumi is a 14 year old gothic lolita who only eats chocolate even if she's having a serious flu. She is the head of the Mayuzumi psychic detective agency and only accepts client's cases if she's interested or out of boredom. She has psychic powers such as connecting with the dead or entering other peoples dreams. As her psychic powers are fairly strong she was given the name Azaka same as the first generation Azaka in her family who has superior psychic powers. Part of the Mayuzumi family treats her as a god though she herself believes that she is Azaka Mayuzumi because she was born as Azaka Mayuzumi.
Odagiri was a ordinary 19 year old school boy before meeting Mayuzumi. After the incident, he became the sole worker and assistant of the Mayuzumi psychic detective agency. He occasionally tries to change Mayuzumi daily life such as cooking her some normal food or introducing her a hobby though always fails. Unlike Mayuzumi, Odagiri tries to save a lot of the unfortunates throughout the novel even if it means risking his own life.
Story:
This review will be focusing on the first volume of the light novel though I have read up to the seventh volume. B.A.D. consists of 4 to 5 cases per novel, they could be read separately and are all tied up in the final chapter of each novel.
What makes B.A.D. stand out from other horror mystery type light novels is it does not solely rely on visual horrors to tell the story. The author also uses different human senses to create the horror atmosphere such as smell, sound and even taste.
In the first chapter, there were falling human organs from the building which is a basic visual horror through descriptive.
Different kinds of smells were used in this volume, such as the strong sweet scent of chocolate that Mayuzumi was eating, the rotten kitchen garbage that Odagiri smelt while he was visiting a client's apartment and also the smell of the salty ocean in chapter 3 as it was about the mermaid princess.
The sound of laughing skulls during midnight were used in Chapter 2, not only giving nightmares to the client in that chapter but also giving a creepy atmosphere to the readers who is reading B.A.D. at night time.
Taste was used in chapter 4, while Odagiri was dreaming, he dreamed of tasting human flesh and while we know it was merely a dream it felt so real to Odagiri and to the readers.
As the author used different sensation horror to stimulate the readers feelings, while reading B.A.D. it gave me a very strong impression and more enjoyable than other horror based LNs.
The first 4 chapters are basically Mayuzumi and Odagiri solving different client's cases and in chapter 5 it was revealed what happened between the two and part of Azaka Mayuzumi's past was revealed. The bond between the two were very well written in chapter 5. Although Mayuzumi accepts the fact that each generation of Azaka's fate is to be killed or murdered, she trusts Odagiri and gives him the decision whether to save her or not.
Conclusion:
Beyond Another Darkness is really enjoyable and satisfying to read. Though it is bloody and dark at times, the author uses a different approach to let the readers feel how Odagiri's world around him is changing and at times how he lacks the power to save others that is suffering. There were also tear dropping moments in the novel that is touching and warm which made me understand B.A.D. is more than just horror and gore. I'm looking foward to read the new arcs and hope Odagiri could change Mayu-san's tragic fate!
