Jiraishin fascinates me. Despite my better judgement I found myself hooked to this often cliched, cheesy, overly-angsty cop thriller. A lot of the mysteries introduced are conveniently wrapped up, and the plot-lines often segue into the laughable, but God dammit, I kept on reading.

For all of it's flaws, Jiraishin never lets up the bleak tone that it establishes from the get-go. Unlike a lot of manga and anime, there are no gags, no tonal shifts--it's always relentlessly dark and woefully depressing. So much so that major characters will be killed off without warning, and it's often like a punch to the gut.

Hell, even minor characters who were introduced just a chapter before had me biting my nails as I hoped for their safety. This manga made me root for murderers because the author writes them with enough humanity for me to care.

There are no good guys and bad guys in this manga. Okay...I take that back, there are some, but there's enough moral ambiguity in most cases to see there are no winners.

Just human beings being pushed off the edge of this mortal coil.