24

The Memorandum of Kyoko Okitegami

Author: Isin Nishio

Volumes: 5 Japanese only (15 chapters total)

Publisher: Kodansha [HERE is the CDJapan purchase page, sadly though it’s out of print and doesn’t have a published translation]

Note: The comic was part of “The Forgetful Detective” series, and spans much further than the comic itself. I’m only really aware of the comic, but in making this list I was made aware that the rabbit hole goes much deeper, so at some point I may come back to this series to give myself the full picture, and if I do there will be a follow up blog.

I don’t think there’s an official English translation of this series to be found (I read these on mangastream back when that website existed), but I LOVED reading this series when it came out. I’ve always been a fan of mysteries, and when an issue such as “the detective’s memory resets when they fall to sleep” is thrown into the mix, it can be a recipe for success when given the right amount of care despite the stigma memory loss in stories has received these days.

Kyoko Okitegami’s memory loss works, because it’s an obstacle in her mystery solving rather than a reason for exposition to be given to the reader. In fact Kyoko often knows LESS than we do when the memory loss takes place. Alongside her is a man of many misfortunes, Yakusuke Kakushidate; long story short, if there’s trouble, he’s probably being wrongly blamed for it.

The dynamic between the two is sometimes as standard as holmes and watson, and othertimes more romantic by the end of any given encounter, but it never abuses the memory loss. It does however prove difficult for Yakusuke to know that each moment they share is one only he will ever remember, no matter how far the romance gets at any given point.

As I said before there isn’t a way to buy an english translated version (as far as I know) and the japanese version is out of print at the time of checking, so your only hope is to find a fairly good scanlation. As I said before though, the people at mangastream disbanded quite some time ago now, and as a result its faded into obscurity in english speaking regions, which is a major shame.

I was sort of hoping that I could go and buy the Japanese volumes to aid with my language learning, but unfortunately they’re out of print unless I go down a route such as eBay and buy used. It’s a real shame too as I honestly highly recommend this series… I just can’t provide useful ways to experience it, which is very frustrating!