Manga Review: Tokyo ESP, Volume 1, by Hajime Segawa

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Vertical Comics

Release Date: October 6, 2015

Volumes: 14+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

Wishlist Thursday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Urushiba Rinka was a fairly normal high school girl, though she was a bit poor and her only family was her father. Then one day, she saw a penguin and some glowing fish swimming through the sky. Rinka might have thought it was a hallucination if there hadn't been another witness with her, a boy from her school with a strangely scratched-up face.

Contact with a fish caused her to pass out, and when she awoke, she had developed the power to move through inanimate objects... such as the floor of her apartment! Later, a call from her father showed her that she was not the only one the flying fish bestowed with hard-to-control superpowers! What exactly is going on here? And does Rinka's classmate know more about this situation than he's letting on?

Review:

This book was not quite what I expected, but I liked it.

These fish start flying in the sky, and only certain people can see them. And when they go inside a person, it gives them special abilities. Like magnetism, or teleportation, or pyrokenesis, or super strength. Rinka can make herself able to walk through things, including things thrown at her. Her father is able to pull inanimate objects to himself, like cars. And Rinka meets a boy named Kyotaro who can teleport. They want to use their powers for good, but not everyone feels the same way.

I really liked the way that Rinka charged forward, fighting and wanting to save people. And I liked that her and her father have such a close relationship, how much they care about each other. The way he was charging in to save her when he thought she was in danger, even with cars flying around him, was sweet. Kyotaro also clearly has a past, something he doesn’t want to talk about. Then there’s their flying penguin.

This definitely has a more superhero feel to it than I expected. Rinka and Kyotaro try to save people as much as they can, barging in on hostage situations and such. And they run across a couple villains, with powers even stronger than theirs.

I liked this volume. It was surprising to me, very superhero feeling, but a lot of the characterizing impressed me. I enjoyed how some of the relationships changed, and grew in it.