Psychometrer Eiji is a Japanese manga series written by Yuma Ando and illustrated by Masashi Asaki. The manga series is composed of 25 tankōbon and was serialized by Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine. A sequel written by Ando and illustrated by Asaki is currently being serialized on Weekly Young Magazine.
Summary
Asuma Eiji is a normal high school student, with a reputation for being violent and involved in gangs. But he has the psychometry ability, which is discovered by Shima Ryoko, a police investigator when his little sister Emi gets involved in a serial murder case. And so, Shima uses her charm to get the boy to help her, and Eiji obliges, getting more and more involved in the murders, his powers proving to be quite powerful.
The Psychometrer Eiji manga was written by Shin Kibayashi, illustrated by Masashi Asaki, and was originally serialized from April 17, 1996 to September 27, 2000 in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine. The manga was compiled into 25 tankōbon volumes, which were published by Kodansha between July 17, 1996, and October 17, 2000. It was republished from June 12, to November 12, 2003 into 12 volumes. It has been licensed in other countries, such as in Singapore by Chuang Yi, in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing, and in France by Kana. Through "Yuma Ando"'s Twitter, it was announced in November 2010 that the series would return. On April 25, 2011, the series re-started under the name Psychometer in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine, written by Kibayashi and Asaki again. Its first tankōbon was released on October 6, 2011, while the latest, the 15th, was released on December 5, 2014. Tong Li has been publishing it in Taiwan. In August 2014, Psychometer went on hiatus.
''Debusen''
On March 3, 2014, a comedic spin-off series, Debusen, started to be serialized in Manga Box. After concluding its serialization in Manga Box, Debusen started to be released in Young Magazine on October 6, 2014 and ended on August 29, 2016. The first tankōbon volume of Debusen was published on December 5, 2014, and the ninth and last one was published on September 6, 2016. Debusen revolves around Mitsuru Fukushima, who plans to commit suicide after falling into debt because of cosplay practice. However, when he finds the dead body of a female teacher named Mitsuko Fukushima, who looks just like him, he decides to live her life helping to reform delinquent students. A Hulu-exclusive television drama starring Kanro Morita was ordered by K-Factory and HJ Holdings. The six-episode series is directed by Yoichi Matsunaga, written by Kazuhiko Ban, and produced by Hisashi Tsugiya. It started on August 20, 2016, and ended on October 1, 2016.
Other merchandise
It was adapted into a Japanese television drama series that was aired for ten episodes Nippon Television from January 11, and March 15, 1997. In 1999, a second season was broadcast to an average television viewership rating of 15.4%, a decline from the 17.1% of the first season. They were followed by a special broadcast on September 24, 2000. Masahiro Matsuoka performed the main role in all of the live-action adaptations. A PlayStation game was released on February 18, 1999 by Kodansha.
Reception
The series has been popular and enjoyed good number of sales. The 25 volumes of Psychometer Eiji have sold over 12 million copies in Japan as of November 2007. The first two volumes of Psychometrer were on the Oricon chart of 30 best-selling manga for two weeks, while several others remained on the chart for a week. When a crime involving a man hidden in a drainage sewer to look at women's underwear, it led to several comparison on Twitter to a similar case that happened in the manga.
