Do you love detective dramas and need further recommendations in the genre? Well, you are in the right place.
With so many anime and manga titles, it can be tough to pick one. Anime fans are really spoiled for choice – you can’t deny it! But this also means that sometimes you miss out on some titles that may not be so popular but deserve a spot on your watchlist due to the characters and the plot. Who knows, you might even get a brilliant idea for your next cosplay from this list?
Keep reading to find out some real gems!
1. Death Note
Death Note is a masterpiece that no anime lover should miss out on. Both the anime and the manga are lauded for their complex characters, tight storyline, and mind games between the leads, L and Kira.
The story revolves around two characters: L, the genius detective, and Kira, his biggest enemy, who comes to possess the death note. Although this may not be your typical detective anime, the way L works on the case to track Kira is going to be a lot of fun to watch. Netflix recently gave the series a live-action update featuring Nat Wolf.
2. Psychic Detective Yakumo
This is a detective series combining horror as well as supernatural elements. If you are a fan of mystery and supernatural drama, this anime is right up your alley!
The drama centres around Yakuno Saitou and Haruka Ozawa. Mysterious events start happening to people they know, and to find some answers, they both join hands. Yakumo is the one gifted with a unique power to communicate with supernatural beings, while Haruka simply assists him when they are working on solving a case.
3. Hyouka
High school detective dramas are rare, and Hyouka is one of the best. The drama is about four school friends – Houtarou Oreki, Eru Chitanda, Satoshi Fukube, and Mayaka Ibara, who are part of the classic literature club in their school. They soon realize that their club has a lot of history, and weird things start happening around them.
The series is not just about solving mysteries but also deals with friendship and coming of age problems. The friendship between Oreki and Eru is incredibly endearing.
4. The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited
The fourth entry on this list is something lighter and also less weird. This one falls in the category of comedy police drama with two characters Haru Katou and Daisuke Kanbe, clashing every time they have to work on a case together.
Daisuke and Haru are opposites in both personalities and their ways of thinking. While Daisuke thinks it is absolutely fine to use his resources and money to get the answers quickly, Haru believes it is immoral and is a stickler for protocols. This obviously means they are not the best of friends, but you will enjoy watching them working together on the cases despite the difference.
5. Case Closed by Gosho Aoyama
Cased Closed by Gosho Aoyama is one of the longest-running manga detective series. The plot of the manga may sound ridiculous at first, but the more you read, the more you start enjoying it.
The main character is an amateur detective who likes solving cases and helping out the police. Once while Investigating a crime syndicate, he suddenly becomes a child again. Whether it is a curse or not, he does not know, but he surely wants to find out who did this to him and reverse the whole thing. In the meantime, he keeps doing his detective work.
6. Fullmetal Alchemist
If you are in the mood for some adventure and steampunk, then Fullmetal Alchemist might be exactly what you are looking for.
The series revolves around two brothers Edward and Alphonso Eric who have a special gift of alchemy. Their powers allow them to transform matter into whatever they like but before they could harness the full potential of their powers, they are left with deformities and their mother dies. They soon go on a mission to track down the philosopher’s stone which is said to have the ability to return them to their previous state.
7. Another by Yukito Ayatsuji
This is a horror manga with a lot of investigative work going on. Quite not your typical case-by-case manga, but fans of horror will surely not be able to resist this.
The manga is quite dark, although it starts out light. It deals with a class that is haunted by a vengeful spirit. The reason behind the curse isn’t known, but measures were taken to ward off the spirit. When a transfer student arrives, he undoes the countermeasures because he was unaware of the curse and the danger.
The reader goes on a thrilling ride with the main character as he is forced to investigate the curse to find a way to lift the curse before all his classmates start dying one by one.
8. Pluto by Naoki Urasawa
Most of you will be familiar with Naoki’s more popular work Monster, but Pluto, despite being one of his best works, is often overlooked. Die-hard fans of Naoki Urasawa will be aware of this manga, but for those who don’t, Pluto is a futuristic thriller.
The writer has reimagined a world where robots live among humans. The robots work, get married and raise children. But soon, terror strikes when a serial killer emerges who only targets robots. To catch this serial killer, detective Gesicht is appointed, and the chase begins. The writer raises the stakes by mentioning that detective Gesicht himself is a robot himself at the very beginning of the series.
Where can you watch or read the titles?
A lot of the anime on the list are available on Netflix. Some may not be available in your region, but that is due to geographical content restrictions. You can also watch on Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime, although the selection of anime on Prime is not vast.
If you do not mind using illegal sites, you can watch it on sites like Kissanime, Animefox, etc.
For manga, it is best to buy them from the store. The major book outlets will have a separate manga section where you will find all the titles. In case you want to read them on your phone or Kindle, you can buy the manga titles directly from the Amazon Kindle Store.
Alternatively, you can read scanned manga on Kissmanga or Mangafox.
The Mangas listed above deal with investigative work as well as with supernatural, horror, and sci-fi elements. There is something for everyone. We hope you get to find your next binge-watch, or should we say the next binge-read!
