Cosmos Vol.1

Kaede Mizumura has a singular talent, though he keeps it to himself; he can literally smell lies as they're being told, leading him keeping a rather shallow friend pool in order to cut down on the daily lies he has to put up with. However, this ability isn't the weirdest thing in his life following an encounter with a stern young lady called Rin Homura, an insurance investigator who specialises in nothing less than aliens living on Earth!

The two meet by chance when a classmate of Kaede's asks him to help find her boyfriend following a fight - turns out she's dating an alien who's not only in debt to loan sharks, but has also killed a human. Rin arrives to clear up and discovers Kaede's ability - being just too useful to let him go, she offers him a job.

The company Rin works for is called Cosmos, which regulates and insures travel to Earth by extra terrestrials, and then cleans up their mess if things go bad. In a sense they're a corporate Men in Black, pursuing aliens in human suits getting up to all sorts on what they see as a "backwards" planet.

It works too - the setup might feel familiar, but Kaede's unique gift allows him to have meaningful impact on the investigations Rin is responsible for, and while her senior colleague lets slip to Kaede that she's "desperate to sign him up" it's easy to see why - it eliminates the need for a lot of investigation and justification when you have a living lie-detector on hand. 

Kaede also acquits himself well in these early chapters. He's as world weary as a man who must pretend he doesn't recognise bullshit probably would be given his circumstances, but that doesn't mean he's uncaring. His ability to spot a genuine victim instead or a perpetrator in his second case is actually quite moving (the large-eyed cute alien girl probably helps sell it) but he also stands up to superior strength when he recognises a scumbag, and that makes him an admirable lead worth following. This is further hammered home by his emotional reaction to bad news given to his co-worker, going so far as to run all the way to their house through the rain to see them. The startling revelation on the last page also ramps up the tension and now I have to read the next book. 

The strong story elements are complimented by Ryuhei Tamura's mature art style, one of the elements that really helped the book stand out on the shelf. Detailed with confident layouts and some first-class action, it's a wonderful book that tells a rollercoaster of a story clearly and with lots of excellent designs littering the pages. 

The stoicism throughout the book only augments the maturity of the book, Rin's no-nonsense approach at odds with Kaede discovering a new world, but he's never treated as childlike or constantly agape - he may be surprised at times, but reacts to everything he faces with appropriate gravitas and empathy where needed.

I wasn't sure if this book would be for me, a quick flick through didn't reveal much at the bookstore, but just occasionally my own instincts pay off, and the excellent writing coupled with the occasionally stunning artwork just reeled me in. After that ending I just have to see what comes next, I suspect you will too if you give this excellent first volume a read.