top of page

Psycho Love Comedy Review - Volume One


Attention, maggets! It’s time to take a look at the series Psycho Love Comedy (or Psycome for short.) Like the title implies, Psycome is a Romance Comedy light novel written by Mizuki Misushiro and illustrated by Namanie. The series is licensed by Yen Press in the US.

STORY: Kyosuke Kamiya is just like any other normal guy; that is if ‘any other normal guy’ could take on an entire gangs of thugs bare-handed. But it’s not his fault! Most of Kyosuke’s fights are based on his rough rebel-like appearance, being given ridiculous names like “Slayer” or “Megadeath”, but most importantly his desire to protect his precious sister. Just like every day, Kyosuke returns home after getting into a fight with a gang of twelve, however unlike every other day, Kyosuke discovers that those very gang members were murdered and he is the main suspect.

Now Kyosuke has been sent to Purgatorium Rehabilitation Academy, an academy for convicted murders. Even worse, Kyosuke is given the title of “The Warehouse Butcher” with the highest kill count in the academy. Enclosed within the school walls consisting of dangerous murders that either fear or envy Kyosuke and a crazy homeroom teacher itching to discipline this “problem child” from day one. The only two ways that Kyosuke sees that he can possibly survive the three-year rehabilitation program is by both acting out the life of “The Warehouse Butcher” and to find at least some normality amongst the people of this school. Unfortunately, normality is the thing that Kyosuke attracts least. Between Eri Akabane, a girl with the second highest kill count (or the REAL highest kill count); Maina Igarashi, the shy and accidental murder of three; and the mysterious gas-masked woman, Renko Hikawa, all Kyosuke seems to be attracting is weirdos and even problems. Just how is Kyosuke going to escape the hell that is Purgatorium Rehabilitation Academy?

REVIEW: The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” definitely does this series justice. Before going into reading this book, my original concept was that this was going to be as simple as it stated on the title, a series focusing on the concept of romance. And the synopsis online all pointed towards the aspect of love and fanservice. However, the first volume of this series seems to be more about the “Psycho” with some “Love Comedy” on the side.

Mizuki Mizushiro manages to take the idea of a school for young killers and really sells upon the premise. From the vivid description and details given in each chapter, we begin to see more of the environment of Purgatorium Rehabilitation Academy. The very grittiness of the environment and school customs such as Student Correctional Duties and garbage lunches really shows the prison tones. Of course the most important thing to sell a setting as a prison is the prisoners within it. While we are thrown about a couple of names in this volume, often comments are thrown about by no-named students who also are the most blood-thirsty characters I have ever read. Even one character who makes minor recurrences, Shinji Saotomi who introduces himself as the ‘Japanese Ted Bundy’ and the paragraph that follows is just as terrifying to read. If you ever forget that this is a school for murders, the recurring peanut gallery of killers is sure to make you remember where you are.

The main characters in the school uniform. (From left to right): Maina Igarashi, Eri Akabane, Kyousuke Kamiya, and Renko Hikawa.

Now to look at some of the main characters in this volume, for the most part each character can be placed into a certain archetype. An example of this would be the protagonist of the series Kyosuke Kamiya as he is the type of guy who is “at the wrong place at the wrong time” or “nice guy but finds himself into big problems.” Another example of the series use of architypes can also be shown in one of the female character’s Maina Igarashi who, as mentioned before, has a kill count of three based on murders she committed accidentally. Of course this brings her into the common character archetype of the “clumsy beyond belief” character.

In many romance-styled light novels we often see that a series would dedicate a volume to a specific heroine and zero in on their story. However, in “Psycome” we see all three heroines have a focus all within one volume. The structure seems to make the first two chapters focus on introduction to Kamiya and the others within Purgatorium with the remaining three chapter each focusing on one of the heroines respectively. Even using this different style, I'd still say that the story does a good job at pacing information about the academy each and every chapter with more questions to be answered in later volumes. Between the explanations we get of the academy of Kamiya’s point-of-view, the Q&A at the start of every chapter with homeroom teacher Hijiri Kurumiya, and other student, we slowly begin to discover the madness that is Purgatorium and what secrets lay within its walls.

All in all, I’d say that “Psycho Love Comedy” is an interesting read that mixes both light comedy with a dark story, and had my attention for most of the volume.

bottom of page