Jiraishin
Jiraishin is an ultra dark detective manga by Tsutomu Takahashi. The title literally means "Landmine Quake". The manga ran on Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon manga anthology from 1992 to 1999. An ongoing sequel series by the same author, Jiraishin Diablo, begun serialization in 2008. There was also a short-lived English adaptation that was published during the late 90's by Mixx Zine (the predecessor of Tokyo Pop) under the title of Ice Blade. 19 Volumes were published in Japan with 10 Bunko/Aizobans published subsequently.
Jiraishin follows a case-of-the-week format (it has no ongoing storyline and only a few recurring characters), where the culprits are usually extraordinarily horrible criminal. Kyoya Ida is a detective and a pretty really, really sinister guy. The world is not a happy place, but he deals with it...and, by "deals with it", he ensures that justice is served no matter how morally wrong he appears to be. In Jiraishin Diablo, Ida has left the force while suffering from Keratoconus before he met with a police detective and a grown up Aya Koike in investigating what really happening in Amakura Island after most of its inhabitants were killed by an unknown disease. 3 volumes are now complete as Takahashi is now pursuing a new manga called Hito Hitori Futari.
- Action Girl: Eriko could be considered one, considering her line of work.
- Anyone Can Die: Well played.
- Read: turned into a freaking art form.
- Arm Cannon: Anything is a cannon in Kyoya's hands.
- Art Evolution: Near the middle of the series.
- Author Appeal: High Octane Nightmare Fuel
- Back-to-Back Badasses: In the photography arc the photographer and the lone hitman make a pretty good team.
- Badass: Kyouya and many of the chapter specific characters.
- Badass Bystander: A very good one. A woman and her baby are kidnapped by a depressed homicidal nurse. After failing to talk the kidnapper out of her actions, said woman hits the nurse, jumps out of the moving car WITH the baby in her arms, rolls across the ground and survives (with the baby 100% ok). Take that, wimpy hostages.
- Bizarrchitecture: Every single dream sequence.
- Body Horror
- Boom! Headshot!: Kyouya is a really a good shot.
- Creepy Child: The "Real-kun" girl.
- Cool Guns: The Glock with the Tokarev. Not too many otherwise.
- Dull Surprise: Nothing...... Absolutely nothing can surprise Kyouya.
- The Determinator: Lots of chapter specific characters.
- Elevator Action Sequence: Once.
- Face Framed in Shadow
- Faceless Goons: Averted.
- Fair Cop: Both Kyoya and Eriko.
- Feel No Pain
- Foe Yay: The antagonists and Kyoya are always kindred spirits in some regard (i.e. they are both morbid).
- Ineffectual Loner: He gets a partner named Tsuyoshi Yamaki. After he's gunned down, he's partnered with Eriko Aizawa.
- Heroic Sociopath: Kyouya defines this.
- Instant Death Bullet: See Anyone Can Die.
- Mind Screw: All the weird imagery.
- Mysterious Past: Very little is know about Kyoya: his mother died at childbirth, his father (a cop) committed suicide after accidentally killing a bystander, and somehow he's wealthy enough to afford Ferrari.
- Not Quite Dead: Averted. Most deaths are final.
- One-Man Army: Kyoya. Period.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Kyouya still goes into combat with a broken arm twice in the series.
- Only Six Faces Many men with short black hair, many women with long black hair.
- Perpetual Frowner: Averted a few times.
- Post Cyber Punk: One of the best examples of the trope.
- The Rival: No consistent rival.
- Slasher Smile
- Start of Darkness: Odds are the chapter will have a flashback to one, or the chapter itself will be one.
- The Stoic: Kyoya doesn't talk much, except to a few people he knows.
- Storming the Castle: Most of the time with Kyoya.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Eriko.
- Tall, Dark and Snarky: Kyoya.
- Tranquil Fury: When Kyoya is angry, he doesn't show it by screaming to the villains, he just keep his calm face and shoots them to death.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer: Most of the detectives including Tsuyoshi and Eriko. Includes most of the bad guys/gals too.
- The Woobie: Any victim in the series... They usually won't make it.
- World Half Empty: Kyoya's view of the world as a police officer.
- Yandere: Eriko's stalker after he killed several people including her supposed husband. Kyoya hates the man's guts for what he did.
Jiraishin Diablo! contains the following tropes:
- Abandoned Area: Specifically the Amakura Island in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture. It's said that a disease is responsible for killing all of the inhabitants, except for a few who abandoned it.
- Cool Guns: Park's got a Beretta 92F when he covertly came into Japan.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Park does this after killing off the diplomat and his bodyguard escorts in Tokyo due to his disgust of people being left by their governments without helping them like the Amakura survivors.
- North Korea: A North Korean agent named Park Tae-Hyun was involved in getting the survivors out of Amakura Island and helping them make their case known to the public via the internet after getting them to safety in North Korea. And he's got a secret agenda as he gets his North Korean commando comrades involved.
- Straw Traitor: Park falling under this after a North Korean diplomat in Japan accuses him of being involved in a revolt when he shot a Japanese official in the left temple.
- YouTube: How the Amakura Island survivors tried to make their case to the world.