Pretty Boy Detective Club (Japanese: 美少年探偵団, Hepburn: Bishōnen Tanteidan), also known as the Bishōnen Series (美少年シリーズ), is a Japanese mystery novel series written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Kinako. Kodansha released twelve volumes from October 2015 to May 2021 under their Kodansha Taiga label. A manga adaptation with art by Suzuka Oda was serialized from 2016 to 2019. It was collected in five tankōbon volumes. Both the novel series and the manga are licensed in North America by Vertical. An anime television series adaptation by Shaft aired from April 11 to June 27, 2021, on ABC and TV Asahi's Animazing!!! programming block.
Contents
Plot
Mayumi Dōjima, a middle school student, searches for a "star" she witnessed ten years earlier, which she must find before her fourteenth birthday in order to keep her promise of becoming an astronaut. With time running out, she encounters the Pretty Boy Detective Club, a group of eccentric and wealthy boys at her school led by Manabu Sotoin, who agree to take on her case.
As they investigate, the club discovers that the "star" Mayumi saw was not a celestial body, but the launch of a secret satellite. This revelation draws the attention of mysterious individuals connected to the incident, leading to Mayumi's abduction. The club rescues her and uncovers that her exceptional eyesight is the reason she became a target. After the incident, Mayumi abandons her original goal of becoming an astronaut and joins the club, adopting its philosophy of pursuing beauty through mystery-solving.
Characters
Mayumi Dojima (瞳島 眉美, Dōjima Mayumi)
Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese); Suzie Yeung (English)
The main protagonist of the series. Year 2, class B at Yubiwa Academy Middle School. She becomes the student council president in Dizaka no Bishōnen.
She became involved with the Pretty Boy Detective Club in a case involving a star that she had been searching for ten years. Following the resolution of the case, she has been dressing up as a man and visiting the club. She has become a regular member since The Pretty Boy in the Attic. She has excessively-good eyesight and usually wears glasses to suppress it. She is also known as "Mayumi the Seer."
She also appears in Mazemonogatari, a collaborative novel with the Monogatari series. Under the direction of Manabu, she visits the North White Snake Shrine to observe the heavens.
Manabu Sotoin (双頭院 学, Sōtōin Manabu)
Voiced by: Ayumu Murase (Japanese); Griffin Burns (English)
5th grade, class A at Yubiwa Academy Elementary School. His nickname is Kogoro (fifth grader → Kogo). The leader of the Pretty Boy Detective Club. Also known as "Manabu the Aesthete." Mayumi calls him "the leader."
He claims to be uneducated and acts cheerfully and arrogantly without reading the atmosphere but always seeks beauty and will not do anything that goes against aesthetics. Although he often does nothing but give orders, he is recognized as a leader by the group.
Nagahiro Sakiguchi (咲口 長広, Sakiguchi Nagahiro)
Voiced by: Taito Ban (Japanese); Howard Wang (English)
Media
Novels
The novels are written by Nisio Isin and are illustrated by Kinako. During the development of the story in the Bōkyaku Tantei series, the "Pretty Boy Detective Club" was a group originally intended to appear there, but Nisio Isin decided it could be published as an independent story. The volume titles are homages to novels by Edogawa Ranpo.
Kodansha has published eleven volumes from October 2015 to December 2019 under their Kodansha Taiga imprint. In an interview for the Japanese magazine "Da Vinci," Nisio stated his plans for 2021 and said that he wanted to develop a new story in the series because of the anime adaptation. On March 13, 2021, the new volume titled The Pretty Boy in the Rue Morgue was announced. It was released on May 14, 2021. The novels are licensed in North America by Vertical, which has published three volumes of the series. The English editions were translated by Winifred Bird.
Manga
A manga adaptation with art by Suzuka Oda, began serialization in Kodansha's shōjo manga magazine Aria in April 2016, and it moved to Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Shōnen Magazine Edge in October 2018 after Aria ceased publication in April 2018, and continued the publication until July 17, 2019. It was collected in five tankōbon volumes.
The manga is licensed in North America by Vertical. The English release is in omnibus 2-in-1 volumes, with four original volumes covered.
Anime
An anime adaptation was announced on the tenth volume of the novel on November 22, 2019. The television series is under the chief direction of Akiyuki Shinbo, direction of Hajime Ootani, animated by Shaft, produced by Aniplex, featuring character designs adapted for animation by Hiroki Yamamura (Shaft), and music composed by Masatomo Ota and EFFY. Shinbo and Shaft are serving as series script supervisors, and Yukito Kizawa is writing the scripts themselves. Kenjirou Okada is the assistant director; and Yamamura, Akihisa Takano (Shaft), and Sayuri Sakimoto are the chief animation directors. Tsutomu Shibuya (Shaft), Nagisa Sekiguchi (Shaft), and Ryou Komori are the main animators. The series aired from April 11 to June 27, 2021, on ABC and TV Asahi's Animazing!!! programming block. Sumika performed the series' opening theme song "Shake & Shake," while the series' cast Ayumu Murase, Taito Ban, Toshiki Masuda, Shōgo Yano, and Gen Satō performed the ending theme song "Beautiful Reasoning." Aniplex of America licensed the series and streamed it on Funimation.
Reception
The School Library Journal listed the first volume of Pretty Boy Detective Club as one of the top 10 manga of 2021.