Psycome, Vol. 1 - light novel

Psycho Love Comedy #1

by Mizuki Mizushiro, Namanie (Artist)

Accused of a crime he didn't commit, Kyosuke Kamiya is sent to Purgatorium Rehabilitation Academy. Suddenly, he's surrounded by a variety of fetching lasses--each one a murderer! Worse, he's famous for being the "Dozen Demon," a killer responsible for twelve deaths! When the busty, gas mask-wearing beauty Renko Hikawa approaches him, the difference between death and desire becomes very narrow indeed. How is Kyosuke gonna graduate alive?

Genres: Light Novel, Manga, Romance, Comedy, Action, Humor, Slice Of Life

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2013

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen some one-star reviews talk about how this is a pandering book. That it hits every trope of low-brow anime harem comedy to appeal to the lonely pervert otaku.

They're absolutely right, it does, and it will. It also has a light hearted energy and ridiculousness that made me laugh, and kept me following on to the last page. The violence is over the top, the characters are over the top, the book really is a romantic comedy anime in literature form, with a slightly darker tone underlying the foolishness.

Know what you're getting into and you'll enjoy it. If you don't enjoy that sort of story, you wont find anything to change your mind here.

Now excuse me, i'm off to get the next volume.

[Quiet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pandering.

That's the only way to describe this book.

Taking a big gulp of every trope, cliche and 21st-century approved sensationalism, Mizuhiro's 'Psycome' is a transparent chore pleading for money from that most desperate and willing to spend crowd, the stereotypical male otaku/juvenile/loser.

Harem lead, little sister incest, fun with rape, panty shots, falling down with hands landing on a girl's chest--- I can't even bother to go on. But it's all there; every form of pandering possible.

I don't understand why yenpress has boiled their efforts of light novel localizations down to these harem works, but this is the end of it for me; I really can't handle another one of these books, as the points getting ticked off my IQ with each of these light novels has become frightening.

It isn't erotic, it isn't comedic, and it isn't entertaining. If you have even the most light of familiarity with contemporary Japanese pop-media, you will immediately recognize that this book is a form of pandering, and not 'fan-service' or whatever other completely mistakenly used term that Japan-media enthusiasts repeatedly misuse. This book is the epitome of Japan's majorly bottle-necked media markets, and exemplifies the very proof of how entirely mechanical and inorganic those each and every tropes are, and that they really shouldn't be tolerated as clearly this junk is the only thing which can result from a non-vocal consumer base.


If you either would like to become an idiot, or currently are one and would like to remain so, feel free to read this book. Otherwise, I can assure you that lying on the floor and breathing at the ceiling will provide a more entertaining, intellectual, and rewarding effort than reading this rubbish.

If you want to see relevant light novels localized and are excited to explore a medium which has until now remained exclusive to Asian audiences, then DON'T buy this shit and instead write YenPress and tell them they need to explore more authentic series and that western readers of light novels are not all chronic masturbators with 'literary' histories limited to subtitles in softcore anime and various comments by angry and sad men on videogame forums.

Utter waste.

[Kuroonehalf · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've no idea what book the other reviewers here thought they read but this is a heaping trash pile. The premise is interesting enough, and the illustrator is great, but don't let that fool you, this is a terrible novel.

And it's awful in both ways it could be awful for a translated work. The original script is poor, with characters that will have you in a perpetual wince with their words and actions, dumb scenarios derived from idiot plots (ie. scenarios that would be instantly fixed if the characters actually talked to each other and did the things you expect them to do, like rational people), and strange sharp turns toward sexually suggestive content (e.g. one moment the protagonist will be going on mental rant about a murderous female classmate of his, and the very next sentence he's talking about the color of her panties in vivid detail).
Then the translation is just as bad too, with some of the most awkward sentence structures and literal translations I've seen that put this more in line with a fan translation than a professional translation job.

This is the first LN I try from Yen Press' line of light novels, and I'm honestly very weary about trying others. Even if it was priced at half of what it is now it wouldn't be a good purchase. I hate to be a debbie downer but calling this anything other than terrible is being deceitful. I've been pretty deep in anime culture for over a decade and I'm not really phased by the common tropes and things, so understand I'm not coming at this from a point of view of prudishness. It's just that bad.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the most twisted rom-com I've read, and I need more of it. lol

A bunch of murderer's in a "reform school" and its a rom-com... what!?!? I need to get Volume 2 soon! lol

[Niquie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book for one reason, and one reason only, because I was told there would be a yandere.

I just really like yandere characters, they're just filled with so much passion and love and craziness.

Sadly the yandere didn't show up until the very end of the book, but more on that later.

Psycome is the story of Kyousuke Kamiya, who finds himself convicted of murder and sent to a Purgatorium Remedial Academy to be rehabilitated for three years. He was falsely convicted and is now surrounded by classmates who are murderers, but it's no biggy because he eventually becomes friends with three wierdo girls, yada yada yada.

This was an okay book. I'd probably enjoy it more if I didn't take it too seriously, liked harems, and pages of characters bantering about nonsense. Thankfully things pick up near the end of chapter four and the truths are reveled. But until then the books just okay.

It started out interesting. I was pleasantly surprised when Kyousuke turned out not to be a wimp.

Nope he doesn't run from a fight, in fact he's pretty strong. Too bad he suffers from I'm actually pretty weak syndrome. Oh and he's a coward, which was amusing at first but started to make him seem too much like those harem MC's who turn out to be OP. And he's totally upfront about his sexual desires, even if he is an idiot about some things and naive about other things, and he's actually is capable of rejecting confessions. Oh, and he has a little sister complex ( Japan )

So on the one hand I liked him, on the other I found him incredibly boring.

As for his harem, they were alright. Eiri was the most normal, Renko was the crazy ditzy big boob girl, and Maina was pretty much the clumsy loli. Not much is known about Kyousuke's sister, but I'm sure she'll play a bigger part in later vols because, Japan .

Here's an excerpt of the type of conversations Kyousuke and the girls have for majority of the book:

"...Where are you looking? Do you want me to lop it off for you?"
"What about you, where are you looking?! And don't say scary things like 'lop it off'!"
"...Whatever. Anyway, it's just a little cocktail wiener, so who cares?"
"No way! Maybe you couldn't call it a bratwurst, but at least a sausage-"

At first all this bantering was nice, I even grinned a bit, but then it just got old.

I knew going in that this was a light read, it's called Psycho Love Comedy. So when it's reveled how Maina accidentally killed some people, well it's a joke and I am okay with that. After all, I only came for the yandere.

There are two potential yanderes. One is Renko, but she felt more crazy mentally broken psychopath than yandere. I just didn't feel the love, so she was a bit disappointing, but there was another potential yandere introduced who felt legit. Little sis.

I don't know how this series will end, but the fact it's only six volumes long is a huge plus.

Final Thoughts: This book was mostly okay, but the end of chapter four onward sets up a real plot that could be interesting. And I really want to see if I'm right about so and so being a yandere.

Usually this is where I say I'll give it another vol (especially since this series is so short), but I'm trying to be stricter on my spending, and I'm in no rush to read the next vol so I think I'll wait till the library owns the complete series or I feel bored.

[isrhat · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t even get myself to finish this 💀💀

I’m the type of person who will read something to the end until my eyes are bleeding from how bad a book is but honestly I couldn’t even scavenge any sense of that energy to push myself to finish this first bit of the series :)

This is the first light novel I’ve ever read..... and I’m just gonna say some tropes should never been physically written into words..... I think this would have been a less than average anime but standing as a written piece of work?? it’s out of luck 🤡

[H · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really disliked this which is partly why it took almost five months to finish. Too much violence, exaggerated reactions/actions, didn't find it funny with the various antics, a lot of things that annoyed me like Mohican guy conveniently showing up to divert teacher's attention, etc. Pretty disappointing since I heard good things from the LN community about this series but I don't intend to continue.

[Jacob Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read

An interesting concept thats kind of like a cross between Assassination Classroom and Criminale, with some good humour specific to the genre.

[Tarl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another light novel where when I first started reading it, I was not so sure about it. Unlike others however, it wasn't the writing style, language used, or immature 'comedy' involving over-sized breasts. (though, there's that too, and poorly written to boot)

It was actually the hyper violence. In his closing notes, the author comments on how this is a love-comedy, and they wanted to keep the stench of blood to a level where it wouldn't overpower the romance. I am not sure how this came across to others, but I got very little romance (other than the basic anime-esk take on what romance is) and a whole lot of blood, violence, and near death. Now that said, this gets toned down as the book goes on, with some of the bloodiest and more detailed violence happening in the opening act rather than later on in the book. (which is why I was so slow to read it initially and then read it faster as things went on)

The characters are interesting, and enough so that you will want to keep reading to find out just why they are who they are and why they are in this school. There's a very nice and surprising twist about 2/3 of the way through the book, and I was very pleased when it came about. It changed the dynamic of the entire story and is the sole reason I picked up the second book in the series. (because before that, I had already decided that I would go no further than this book) It is also the reason this is a three star book rather than a two star one.

Though the writing is very much in line with a lot of light novels, I found that I actually paid it less attention with this book, especially in the later chapters. It actually fit some of the insane things that went on and fit the characters fairly well. Though the one with the speech impediment... oi, does that get old fast and annoying even faster.

Do I recommend this light novel?
I'm not sure. I enjoyed certain aspects of it. The combat was handled really well, the characters were interesting, and the overall plot was handled well. But there were a lot of things that annoyed the heck out of me. (especially one character's G-sized breasts...)
So really, I would recommend it to people looking for a non-fantasy light novel. Otherwise, there are better light novels out there.

[Terrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title implies, this is a highschool Rom Com of psychotic proportions. You have a male protagonist with three ladies as your focused cast, some of whom seem more antagonistic, while others seem more innocent. There is a lot of intense language in this story, including cursing and "locker room talk", so I would steer clear if you aren't prepared to deal with that crude kind of element. This is a 16+ book for a reason.

The initial set up of the volume, a wrongly accused man thrown into a correctional prison like school, had me groaning because it's such a common trope now that I'm familiar with from Deadman Wonderland, and for 75% of the book, I'd say it follows that trope to a "T". The last fourth has a bit of promise though for being different from the rest, so we'll see how it goes. It's still not insanely interesting, but it's enjoyable.

One thing I didn't really enjoy though was the Shounen aspect to battles and injuries. It's basically cartoonish in that despite how much pain the characters get in, or how many bandages they have, they're still able to carry on, no permanent damage. Maybe that'll turn as I finish the final pages, but I don't anticipate a whole lot that won't be solved in this series with a "light beating" and no serious happenings.

[Selena Gamboa]

Their was a boy named Kyousuke lived with his sister and their parents was on vacation. Kyousuke went for a walk at a abandoned place but their was a murder at that stop not long, the police went after him thinking it was him, but he ended up in a school to straighten them up with other killers. His sister was more worried then anything through the book. He got to meet new friends through the book as well. I think this book was interesting for an anime book but like a book you actually read like a real american book, not like comic strips. I liked the fact that the book had many emotions in it not one specific emotion like sad and serious this book haves multiple emotions. The only question i would have on this book is did Kyousuke get out of the school from the other books?

[H.C TOWERS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg I love the premise of this book, wrongly accused, school of murders and just psychos, all the while trying to maintain your innocence while not trying to look weak. This light novel follows the MC perfectly with him trying to navigate this weird school of literal crazy people who are charged with actual crimes, there is no fluffy I didn't do it no they are crazy. From the beginning to the end I enjoyed reading this book it was one crazy event after another. You would laugh than worry than laugh again than truly see drama and wonder will he get out of it ok. Great book Loved it so much I got book 2 3 4 and enjoyed them as well.

[Kyla · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know I really like the concept of a school specifically for teen murderers. I enjoy the over-the-top violence, and the protagonist worrying that he’s a misfit because he didn’t actually commit the murders for which he was convicted.

But why is it so unnecessarily perverted. I get mentioning giant boobs and drawing attention to that occasionally because this is supposed to interest teenage anime nerds, but it was just too much. So much of the conversations centered on Renko’s breasts or Kyousuke’s erection. Too bad the last chapter drew me back in and I actually enjoyed the story again.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading the back of this one I thought "This looks fun" but after just reading the prologue I started to realize just how brutal this book was going to be. Violence has never been funnier.

I would recommend this book to any who enjoys a funny story laced with fan service and lots of violence.

[Ricardo Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a weird one... quite crazy. The name of the book is a simple description of what it is: a psycho love comedy. Not a single character is normal: it's not that they are bad or good, rather all of them are murderous insane! Definitely not for everyone, especially kids.

[Ryan Koller · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 than 3.
Is this trashy and stupid, absolutely. Is this just violent harem comedy, yes. Will most say this is bad, probably. Did I like it, yes I did. Are you ashamed to have enjoyed it, you betcha.

[Dantegideon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not funny, or shocking. It was just kind of blah. Everyone wearing funny hats or whatever didn’t compensate for the super-flat characters. I tried hard to like it and I’m annoyed at the waste of effort!

[Saskia Taylforth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely astonishing first volume, unique concept and a very interesting read

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

+1 star for some genuinely funny moments
-1 star for being rapey in places

[TheLesserReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in February and it was fun. But with the number of times panties and bras were mentioned and how the girls were written, I just can't give it more than 2 stars. 😔

[Kristina Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

just know… you need to read it slow.. big words butt this needs to be turned into an anime

[Sean O'Hara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well ... that's different.

Most of the light novels published in English over the last year or two have been variations on the trapped in a game/trapped in an alternate universe genre, with a handful of overpowered teenage boy fighting monsters/aliens with the help of a bevvy of hot female companions. Only Kagerou Daze and Ryohgo Narita's novels have really bucked the trend. The slice of life school comedies and batshit insane LNs have by and large not been making it over here much of late.

Thankfully Psycome (short for Psycho Love Comedy) is a little of both. The set-up isn't entirely original--it's basically Deadman Wonderland with a bit of Assassination Classroom thrown in. Our protagonist is a teenage boy who has a history of beating the crap out of gangbangers who dare to mess with his neighborhood. When one group of said gangbangers turns up dead, he's the obvious suspect and is sent to prison.

Now the Japanese justice system has had some problems dealing with juvenile murderers, preferring to give them lighter sentences and hope they can be rehabilitated no matter how egregious their crimes. This is, unsurprisingly, controversial in some circles, and has been a popular subject for Japanese fiction, like Kanae Minato's Confessions about a school teacher who decides to take personal revenge on the students who killed her daughter rather than turn them over to the police.

With that in mind, the initial premise of the book isn't totally outrageous -- the Japanese government has opened a special prison school where all the juvenile murderer in Japan, including our hero, are put. There probably aren't enough juvenile murderers in Japan to justify such an institution (such murders are big news when they occur, which makes them seem more common than they are), but it's something you can suspend disbelief for.

But of course this is a light novel, so realism isn't in strong supply beyond that. The teacher/guards deal out corporal punishment at ridiculous levels. The main teacher carries a truncheon which she uses to beat the crap out of one recalcitrant lad to the point that he should be in hospital for months after the first smackdown, assuming he even survived. But instead he keeps coming back like a Looney Tunes character to provoke her again and again.

And of course the inmates include a surprising number of hot girls who gravitate to the main character (he allegedly killed twelve people, making him the coolest kid in school -- which also suggests that the idea behind the school is less than well thought out). There's the obligatory tsundere, of course, and the dojikko (she kills people by falling down and accidentally performing martial arts moves) and, given the setting, even a yandere. There are male characters, but they're inevitably villains who worship Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy, while the girls all turn out to be on the guy's side (more or less).

There's plenty to milk from a crazy idea like this, but of course you need a plot to hang it on, so there's a twist in the last part of the book which enable this to be part one of a longer series rather than a one-off novel. It's a little disappointing how generic it is, but by that point you're just going to be reading for the ridiculous violence, so anything that allows that to continue will be welcome.

[Noplsno · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10
Yes, this novel uses some of the most annoying harem tropes that exist and the comedy is extremely dark in some places, which means that one or the other could be put off by it, but at the same time it plays with the usual clichés in RomComs and puts it's own spin on it. It's over the top and crazy, but that's exactly what the novel is all about. If you know what you're getting into then this book is more then hilarious and even achieves to have some twists and turns through it's run, making me curious on how things will move on in the later books.
The first volume had a good pace, presenting the four characters in it's story. Yes, you will probably have already seen similar characteristics in other harems, but it's setting and insane undertones make sure to give them some very unique character trait, which makes them interesting again. Kyosuke, the protagonist still needs to get fleshed out a bit, but at least he isn't the generic Light Novel guy, which the author wants you to project himself in and the ending of the volume already teased that he will go through some very huge character development in the future, so there is that. I was throughly enjoying myself and read this novel in one go, but it definetely has some problems and usually wouldn't get such a high rating, if I wouldn't take a huge emphasis on my personal enjoyment. Some parts are just cheesy and there are some harem tropes, which get covered in this book, that are unnecessary and don't really have a more important reason to be there except for the illustrator to make some lewd illustration of it, which seems like a waste, since there could be so many other moments, which would be more interesting to get a picture of, but hey, we need that sweet fanservice for the horny guys, who would go all the way to read a book to get a glimpse of that beautiful cleavage of Renkos… disgusting.
If you want to have a harem story that casually throws in a necrophilic character, a sadistic loli and other crazy things, then give this a go, since it really has it's moments and even some huge plot twists by the end of it. Let's see if the second volume will hold that pace. Until then!

[Joshua Visaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again there was a new character in this book and it employed the same strategies to hook the reader and inspire them to read the rest of the book. This book however, had a unique twist on it that the other ones didn't have. The new character had a personal connection to the main character, which allowed the author to personally link the main character to things like flash backs and character traits. This technique allows for more interesting plot points and I hope that the books only become more interesting from this point.

Merged review:

The character development was just as good as the last book. Although the setting of the book and fact that the main character traits have been covered, the introduction of a new character keeps the book interesting and gives the reader an interest that was also in the 1st book. It leaves the reader wondering how this new character will act in future pages. This book was wonderfully made and readers can feel the effort that was put into it. I hope to see similar character development in the next book and I am also excited to see what ideas and concepts the author will come up with. Especially considering the prologue of the 2nd book.

[Winny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Creo que me confirma que es mejor en ocasiones, porque no voy a generalizar, ver animes que leerlos, porque no fue un manga lo que leí, sino una narración de hechos.

Y para ser sincera, no logré engancharme con los personajes, falle en el intento de humanizarlos, porque con cada acción desquiciada de ellos, la imagen que tenía cambiaba totalmente.

Así que dudo que continúe con la saga...tengo tantos pendientes que prefiero dejarlo ahí.

saludos!

[MC · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's nice to see the fantastical elements kept to a more soft sci-fi strong people thing, at least so far. I liked the drawings and illustrations. They were probably some of the most vivid in many a light novel so far. The ending present gives us both a sense of hope and despair for our protagonists, so it'll be interesting to see where we go from here.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

[Shaft · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first ever light novel which is crazy after over 20 years of watching anime and reading manga. I like the story so far though sometimes it feels like it moves a little slowly and it takes awhile to start coughing up some developments but that might be down to the opening book lag problem. I'm off to order the next volume.

Definitely would recommend.

[Teeny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This...was surprisingly better than I thought it'd be.

[Mya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing I love the characters I ALSO LOVE EIRIS NAILS she has to be my favorite character

[Wolfb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story!