Lost+Brain

Infobox animanga/Header
name = LOST+BRAIN


caption = The cover of LOST+BRAIN volume 1.
genre = SuspenseInfobox animanga/Manga
author = Akira Ootani
publisher = flagicon|Japan Shogakukan
demographic = Shōnen
magazine = flagicon|Japan Shōnen Sunday
first = 2008
last = 2008
volumes = 3

"LOST+BRAIN" is a Japanese shōnen manga by Akira Ootani. The manga started serialization in Shogakukan's manga magazine "Shōnen Sunday" in 2008, issue 2/3 and ended in issue 31. The first volume was released on May 16 2008. [citeweb|url=http://www.amazon.co.jp/LOST%2BBRAIN-1-%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9F%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9-%E8%97%AA%E9%87%8E-%E7%B6%9A%E4%B9%85/dp/4091213952/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211039839&sr=8-1|title=Amazon.co.jp: LOST+BRAIN|accessdate=2008-05-17|language=Japanese]

Plot

Ren Hiyama, a genius student was tired of the boring world. While he was thinking of recreating the world, he realizes that with hypnosis, he may be able to do that. After a year of testing with his classmates, recreation of the world begins.

Characters

Main characters

;Ren Hiyama: The main character of Lost+Brain and the antivillain. A bored child that sees the people of the world practically living off the scraps in the bottom of the barrel, seeing theirs and his own life meaningless. Therefore he wished to find a way to change the world but didn't know how. That was until he watched a demonstration of the power hypnotism has and spent the past year refining his skills in hypnotism, joining many clubs to use them as guinea pigs for his experimentation, and to the world look like he has changed for the better. Now with all of his preparations he sees that now is the time to activate his plan to rule the world with the people under his command.;Yuka Takagi: A female student and Vice President to the Student Council with Ren being the President. The main reason she became Vice President was so that she could be close to Ren and finally gains up the courage to tell him how she feels about him. However, these feelings are met with harsh words leaving her heart broken. Yet later on tells him that she still has feelings for him and hopes that he won't leave the Student Council, even introducing her uncle who is a Hypnotism Expert for the school festival. After the time skip she still has feelings for Ren and is completely unaware of his intentions.; Itsuki Kuonji: Uncle to Yuka Takagi and world class hypnotist. He was the one to demonstrate the capabilities that hypnotism can bring by making the weak and meager Oosawa stand up and act like a rock and roll star. Wishing to use this to liberate people of the world from the hypnotism that is being constantly used in media and such. After Oosawa's bombing, he comes onto the case and believes that there was someone manipulating him through the use of hypnotism, referring to this culprit as the "Third Party". He displays utter disgust at the use of hypnotism being used to control people to do horrific acts and is determined to find out who the Third Party is, wanting to use his hypnotism to interview the students and see who was the one controlling them. Ren, seeing him as a threat as his powers can go much deeper than a regular hypnotist and discover who he is in spite of using hypnotism amnesia on his test subjects, Ren concocts a plan to make him disappear by first having him accused of being the Third Party. ; Haruhide Shitara: He is a student at the same school as Ren and has the second highest grades right below Ren. Like Ren, he too sees the world around him rotting and respected Ren back when he was a first year student, however after watching him adapting to a student lifestyle and becoming friends with the people he views as garbage he lost all respect he had for Ren. However, he is later recruited by Ren where he reveals that he was only acting like that to use the students as his guinea pigs for his hypnotism experiments, describing its potential by stating from records of research that hypnotism can be more destructive than an Atomic Bomb. Skeptical at first, Ren then demonstrations this ability to Shitara, convincing him. Ren recruited Shitara because he saw the same urge to change the world as he himself did and also realizes for his plan to follow through he needs people he can trust to work with him. Although Shitara is highly intelligent, he appears to be easily frightened and very skeptical about some of Ren's plans; but that is easily changed with Ren's determination for his plan to succeed.
*Mizuki Sonoyama
*Hayato Kanbara
*Okuda

Victims

The following is the list of victims who were controlled by Ren Hiyama.; Oosawa: Ren's first test subject to his hypnotism experiments. He used to be a weak and megar student who was easily buillied by the other students, even to falsely accuse Ren of beating him up and taking his money. Afterwards he appologized to Ren who didn't accept it as he saw it as meaningless. After Ren's hypnotism he becomes more of an open and energetic guy who is a member of the Music Club and the Journalism Club. However, Ren then used this to have him get close to Saeki for a story where he detonated a bomb he was holding, killing them both.; Saeki: A Politician that Ren has killed during the suicide bomb attack by Oosawa to signal the start of his plan to change the world.; Kenji Hotta: One of Ren's guinea pigs and Head of the Journalism Club. Ren has him commit suicide by falling off the building, while holding a suicide note stating that it was Itsuki behind Oosawa's suicide bombing. This being part of the plan to get Itsuki erased and off his trail.; Yuuki Fujikara: One of Ren's guinea pigs and Head of the Rock Club. Ren has him commit suicide by falling off the building to convince the police that the one after him (Itsuki) is the man behind the attack.
*Keigo Kawashiba - suicides by falling in along with other people.

Criticism

When this manga was first serialized, it was criticized by many readers as the series was similar to another manga, "Death Note". This may have been due to the fact that the main character was bored of the world, and he wanted to change it, and age are both similar to Death Note's Light Yagami. [citeweb|url=http://www.j-cast.com/2007/12/17014618.html|title=デスノートに「似てる、似てない」　少年サンデー連載ネットで話題|date=2007-12-17|accessdate=2008-03-20|language=Japanese] In addition, several panels in Lost+Brain bear a strong resemblance to various panels from the "Death Note" series. However, as chapter 2 was released, more plot details were revealed, as the main character realized that he is able to change the world with hypnosis.

References

External links

* [http://websunday.net/rensai/set_lostbrain.html WEBSUNDAY LOST+BRAIN] ja icon
* [http://websunday.net/backstage/set_ootani.html Mangaka Backstage Akira Ootani] ja icon