Posted in: Comics, Manga, Showtime, TV | Tagged: brutal, Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator, dexter, horror, Kei Koga, manga, serial killers, showtime, thriller

The Manga That's Japan's Answer to Dexter That Won't Come to the US

There's a manga series about a cop who murders bad people that seems to be inspired by Dexter. It probably won't get a Western release.

One thing about manga, being a vast ocean of genres, is that you never know what might come across. When you discover the occasional series that are popular in Asia but totally unknown in the West, they might never be published in the West because they're so dark and messed up. Here's one: a crime-horror series about a serial killer who preys on the most evil people in society.

Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator is about homicide cop Hiroki Dan, head of a series of crime investigation units in the city police, who is a courteous, ethical cop and good boss. He conducts investigations on the book and keeps his detectives focused, is a sympathetic ear to his junior colleagues when they have frustrations to air, and is an all-around good guy. He does pottery in his spare time and is bad at it; his misshapen coffee mugs are a running joke at work that he self-deprecatingly encourages. What his colleagues don't know is that he's a serial killer who preys on the worst people in society that his department can't arrest or prosecute due to a lack of evidence. The result is one of the darkest manga series of the decade.

The Manga That Thinks "Dexter" Doesn't Torture His Victims Enough

Brutal may or may not have been inspired by Showtime's Dexter, whose antihero is a serial killer who preys on evil people, including other serial killers. Like Dexter, Hiroki has an affable façade in his day-to-day life, but secretly investigates and stalks his victims before knocking them out and taking them to a secluded spot, in this case, his house outside the city, and killing them before getting rid of all traces of them. There might be a good reason this manga series might never see publication in the West. Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator is more than a series that should come with a trigger warning. The entire series should be a trigger warning. Creator Kei Koga seems to take off from the premise that "Dexter isn't sadistic enough with his evil victims – he really should torture and mutilate them a lot more!"

The manga follows a "case of the week" procedural format. The first chapter, like a pilot episode, follows Hiroki and his colleagues as they watch a former killer who murdered two children and sent the body parts to their families. Since the killer was a minor at the time, he only served time in juvie and is now out as an adult and seemingly rehabilitated, except he's written a book about what he did and is profiting from it. This case is overtly inspired by a real-life case in Japan that sent shock across the country. In Brutal, though, Hiroki kidnaps the killer and spends the evening dismembering him alive while playing The Exorcist on a large screen. He takes a Polaroid of his victim's face as despair crosses it when he realises he's going to die. Dexter doesn't take any pleasure in torturing or mutilating his victims, only stabbing them to death as a kind of orgasmic release.

For Hiroki, there's a lot of foreplay as he tortures and maims his victims in a manner befitting their crimes before they finally expire. There's a clear pattern to the types of people he chooses, usually rapists, predatory teachers; a sleazy tabloid reporter who relishes hunting and taunting his targets to suicide; a misogynistic salaryman who takes out his rage on women and babies on the subway who enters Hiroki's radar when he endangers an infant; a celebrity author and TV personality who writes a book about childcare but hypocritically abuses his wife at home and his mistress who goes too far when he kills his mistress in a fit or rage; an elite grad student who leads a mansophere cult that gang-rapes women; a gang of slackers who like to burn homeless people; all the worst people whose removal from society wouldn't be mourned. And they all die slowly and painfully at Hiroki's hands. Oh, and he's Catholic, so he goes off to confession afterwards. His priest puts up with his confessions because he gets paid big bucks.

The recurring target of Brutal is the misogyny that's prominent in Japanese society, and Kei Koga seems to be channeling his and the reader's rage at men who abuse women and children, but Hiroki goes after any and all bullies he comes across. Society being what it is, there's no shortage of targets. The reader is invited to feel rage at Hiroki's targets and feel either horrified or relish at the gory torture he wreaks on them, depending on your sociopathic tendencies. Either this comic is cathartic for both the creator and the reader, or it's torture porn. This is probably why it hasn't been picked up for an official English translation and possibly never will.

Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator only ran for five volumes and has a small cult of international manga fans who are totally into Hiroki, partly because he's a daddy who gets shit done and gets rid of predators. Like Dexter, it taps into a primal rage that audiences everywhere feel at the injustices in the world and a sense that bad people are getting away with it. Is this kind of story good for society? Who knows. Like all Japanese manga and anime, its primary theme seems to be about Japan's preoccupation with the lack of empathy that causes people to hurt other people, and warps it through a serial killer who goes after people who cause suffering so he can enjoy making them suffer. Dexter might even respect Hiroki as a kindred spirit for following an ethical code of leaving innocents alone, though he wouldn't approve of his sadism. It's a fantasy of control and retribution that keeps on giving.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!