Hyper Police
In the year 22 H. C. (Holy Century), Humans are an endangered species, and Shinjuku is now a town populated with demons, goblins and monsters. Crime runs rampant, and so together with the national police force, private police forces have been founded to maintain public peace and order.
Over the holidays I managed to finish reading Hyper Police, and I have to say it is one of the best examples of extreme bi-polar disorder mixed with euphemistic nyphomania and utter cluelessness. Yet, it still retains some tacks…well almost.
Hyper Police, as stated above, is centered in a world of monsters, were-beasts, Gods and Demons on practically every corner. This all centers around Natsuki Sasahara, a mostly clueless and extremely naiive 18 year old half-were-cat bounty hunter. She manages to survive thanks to two parasites that give her the power to command electricity at will. This comes in handy given the fact that she starts the series by letting her new parter move in with her. This would be fine, except that her partner is Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari, a nearly 200 year old 8 and 1/4 tail fox God who’s sole goal in life is to eat Natsuki’s liver and grow out her last tail. Surpringly, given the whole breadth of the series, this is one of the least strange things to occur. (Although I would love to know why Sakura insists on trying to eat Natsuki ass-first. Serious, the liver is much higher up, why does she keep biting Natsuki’s butt?)
These two are supported by an equally odd set of were-wolf partners, and a whole slew of other bountry hunters that work with them. Notibly, though Batanen and Tomy Fujioka are two werewolfs at compete odds and whom perfectly fit into the ass-backwards world of . Batanen is the rugged and tough guy type, (whom Natsuki secretly desires), yet can’t grow enough balls to confess his desire for Natsuki to her. Yet Tomy is a quite gently werewolf and that best-friend that everyone wants, even if he wants nothing more than to be trampled by Poe in her best pair of heels…
Overall, the whole series has a great balance between all aspects, yet still retains its ability to stay over-the-top and entertaining. The art is extremely well done with fully-details panels and environments where-ever possible. (Nearly the polar opposite of Full Metal Panic.) The story is somewhat wandering, but is well maintained around the main characters and covers a vast amount of happenings and whatnot. Even at a mere 9 books, there is plenty to tell and plenty of growth throughout. Amazingly enough, the anime adaption only covers material from the first two or three books, so if you have seen the anime, this may expand the whole series further and provide more Hyper Police to enjoy.
In the end Hyper Police is a great comedic manga series, so long as monsters and the occasional T&A doesn’t bother you. The whole series is a great balance of comedy and drama with the ability to keep at the over-the-top level without being rediculous. Plus, the characters and the things that occur are down right bizarre yet interesting. I realy don’t know how to wrap this up, so I’ll say that I would recommend this series to any avid manga fan and cut here.