Anime News Network has reviewed volumes 1–4 of The Detective Is Already Dead manga, and the verdict is basically: the cast banter hits, the mystery structure has potential, but the execution can get messy fast.
The manga follows Kimihiko Kimizuka, a guy with the very unlucky talent of getting pulled into trouble wherever he goes. That trouble eventually puts him in danger, before a young woman named Siesta steps in and identifies herself as a detective. She then decides Kimihiko is her assistant, whether he likes it or not.
From there, the two get dragged into a run of supernatural crime and mystery cases. The catch is that Siesta eventually dies a few years later, leaving Kimihiko stuck with the aftermath of the strange world she introduced him to. Later, while Kimihiko is in class and still carrying that sadness, another student, Nagisa Natsunagi, asks for his help finding someone — except she does not know who she is searching for.
According to ANN’s review, one of the manga’s strongest parts is Kimihiko himself. Even though he keeps framing himself as “just” an assistant, the review says he works well as a sharp, direct detective type. He has solid instincts, decent one-liners, and enough confidence to make the deduction scenes entertaining when the story actually explains how he gets there.
The character chemistry also seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting. ANN highlights the cast’s snarky back-and-forth, with comedy that lands through teasing, assumptions, and punchlines that sneak up mid-scene. There is also a self-aware tone running through the dialogue, with characters carrying hints of past experience and fatigue as the series slowly reveals more about them.
Structurally, the first four volumes are built around arcs involving different girls Kimihiko meets or helps. Each has her own issue, but those cases connect back to the bigger mystery that begins with Kimihiko and Siesta’s first encounter. The present-day incidents also become a way to uncover more of Kimihiko and Siesta’s shared history, which ANN frames as the more interesting emotional core.
But this is where the review gets critical. ANN argues that the mystery progression is not smooth. The first volume apparently stays more grounded, with some pseudoscience that is still easy enough to accept. From volume two onward, though, the review says the story starts throwing in more fantastical ideas without enough setup. Characters reveal abilities with little warning, Kimihiko reaches conclusions that can feel too sudden, and plot points appear mainly to push the story toward a desired endpoint.
That matters because mystery stories need rules, even when they are supernatural. If anything can suddenly happen, tension drops because readers stop feeling like they can follow the clues. ANN’s take is that the emotional resolutions may be sad on their own, but the road getting there is too random to fully earn the drama.
The manga’s presentation also takes a hit in the review. ANN describes the art as visually bland, with flat character designs and basic panel layouts. The comedy gets some help from manga-style timing, but overall, the review says the visuals do not give the story enough personality.
egg.network analysis: For Malaysia and SEA anime fans, this review is useful if The Detective Is Already Dead has been sitting on your backlog because of the anime or light novel buzz. Based on ANN’s read, the manga may still be worth sampling if you enjoy sharp banter, sad supernatural mystery vibes, and detective characters with attitude. But if you need tight clues, clean foreshadowing, and manga art that really sells the atmosphere, this sounds like a “temper expectations first” situation.
The manga was translated by Taylor Engel and lettered by Chiho Christie.