Best Mystery Manga of 2018

Eiji Urashima is just an ordinary university student like everyone else. His college career consists of boozing with his friends and trying to get a girlfriend. On October 23rd, he returns home after a pleasant night of drinking and goes to bed. To his surprise, when Eiji wakes up, a gorgeous girl from his university, Kyouka Yukimura, is lying beside him—claiming to be his girlfriend. Having no recollection of the event, Eiji goes along with the flow until he is faced with more nonsensical events that took place in the last few days. Walking alongside his friend, Kashiwagi, he cannot help but ask the most intuitive question on his mind: is today not the 24th? "Eiji, what are you saying? Today's the 27th." Three days have passed, yet Eiji cannot recall a thing. The situation takes a dire turn when a magazine writer exposes Eiji's deepest secret in front of Kyouka: he is the son of a serial killer. As his life is thrown into a spiral of disarray, he embarks on a journey to resolve the mess of the last three days and get Kyouka to accept his past.

Emilico is just one of many "Living Dolls" serving in the Shadows House, residents of which are pitch black from head to toe and constantly leak soot that stains the house black. Each "Shadow" is partnered with a Doll, which strangely resembles the other. As a Living Doll, Emilico must keep the house sparkling clean as well as act as the face for her master, Kate. In turn, Kate supports Emilico and treats her as her confidant. As far as either of them can remember, this has always been the way their world works. However, the bond between a Shadow and a Doll isn't quite clear. Administrators watch over the young pairs from the higher levels of the mansion and judge them—but for what purpose?

Within the safety of the walls, youths are raised in a nursery-style setting by robots. While life there may appear stale on the surface, the children are full of potential and curiosity. In many ways it is like a slice of heaven. The outside world is a hell-scape. It is almost entirely void of anything mechanical and is now inhabited by bizarre, yet powerful super-natural beings. Maru, with the aid of Kiruko, is out there crisscrossing what was once Tokyo for heaven. But after searching for so long, maybe heaven is more of an untenable dream than a potential reality.

Koyomi Araragi is no stranger to the abnormal. During the spring break of his third year in high school, a fateful encounter with vampire Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade turns him into a vampire himself. Thrust into the world of oddities, Araragi finds himself catching classmate Hitagi Senjougahara when she falls down the school stairs one day—but something is amiss. After being confronted by the girl in question, Araragi learns that her weight was stolen by a mythical crab. In spite of Senjougahara's blunt threats, he manages to convince her to let him help. In need of a solution to an abnormal problem, the two visit the mysterious Meme Oshino, a wanderer who saved Araragi from his vampirism. Bakemonogatari is a tale about the monsters that reside within everyone, but just how deep do they dwell in the people Araragi meets?

When Asa's mother goes into labor yet again, Asa runs off to find a doctor. But no one bats an eye when she doesn't return—not even as a storm approaches Nagoya. Forgotten yet again, Asa runs into a burglar and tries to stop him on her own, a decision that leads to an unlikely alliance.

Lee Sori, a polite and righteous girl, attends a middle school plagued with bullying. Enraged by the tragic effects it has had on her friend Kim Julie, she decides to take a stand against the bullying. Unfortunately, this only leads the bullies to switch their target to Sori. Believing a new environment would rid her of the hopeless situation, Sori returns to the city she used to live in and transfers schools. However, the traumatizing experiences that constantly haunt Sori's memory cause her to alienate herself from everyone else. Just as the grim reality of Sori's circumstances begin to set in, she discovers a mysterious letter taped under her desk. While the contents of the letter intrigue her, they only lead her to another letter. Now following a seemingly endless trail of messages, Sori is on a scavenger hunt to find the true purpose of these letters and the anonymous person behind it all.

An unexplained series of suicides among skill users sends the Armed Detective Agency on a search for a man who may be connected. But when the same phenomenon descends upon Yokohama, they’ll have to fight for their lives if they want a chance to reach the truth and save the city from certain destruction!

Shy, bespectacled John Utterson is the only person who can tell the popular Stevenson twins apart. This achievement is even more impressive considering that the cool and composed Jekyll and the cheerful and expressive Hyde purposely take turns pretending to be each other on a regular basis. However this game of theirs began, it has been going on long enough that the once distinct lines between their true selves have faded; if they are always together, it does not matter what role the two play. But when one of the twins dies in an unfortunate accident, they can no longer be called "Jekyll and Hyde," and even John has to question which of his best friends survived.