Pretty Boy Detective Club


Pretty Boy Detective Club, also known as the Bishōnen Series, 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.

Characters

;Mayumi Dojima
;Manabu Sotoin
;Nagahiro Sakiguchi
;Michiru Fukuroi
;Hyota Ashikaga
;Sosaku Yubiwa
;Rei
;Lai Fudatsuki

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, 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, and Sayuri Sakimoto are the chief animation directors. Tsutomu Shibuya, Nagisa Sekiguchi, 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.