What Is Brutal and What Happens in Chapter 1?
Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator is a crime manga aimed at adult readers, written by Kei Koga with art by Ryō Izawa. It began publishing chapter by chapter on Comic Tatan — a digital manga platform run by publisher Coamix — since 2019. The English edition is published by Coamix Inc. (digital only via Comikey/MangaHot/MangaPlaza), a U.S.-based company that specializes in translating and releasing manga in English.
The premise is straightforward and hits you immediately: Hiroki Dan is a detective in a Japanese police department. He’s calm, competent, and seemingly unremarkable. He also murders criminals that the justice system fails to punish.
Chapter 1 wastes zero time setting this up. Within the opening pages, readers meet a criminal who has escaped legal consequences — someone the law can’t or won’t touch. Dan investigates the case through official channels, sees the system fail, and then takes matters into his own hands.
The Dexter comparison that floats around online isn’t lazy shorthand — it’s genuinely the fastest way to communicate what this manga is doing. CBR (a major comics and pop culture news site) described it as “DEXTER for manga fans,” and that tracks. If you haven’t seen Dexter, think of it this way: the detective investigating the crimes IS the killer, targeting people he believes deserve it. You’ve got a protagonist with a public-facing persona and a hidden, violent second life, driven by a personal moral code that exists outside the law.
What makes Chapter 1 effective is how quickly it establishes the dual-identity tension. By day, Dan is a mild-mannered detective who blends into the background. By night, he’s a ruthless, methodical executioner. The chapter doesn’t ease you into this — it drops you right into the deep end.
The tone is dark, graphic, and morally provocative from page one. This is a manga that asks uncomfortable questions about justice, and it starts asking them immediately.
Chapter 1 Breakdown — How the First Case Unfolds
One of the smartest things Brutal does structurally is establish its format right from the start. Chapter 1 introduces the episodic case-by-case pattern that carries through the entire series:
- A crime is revealed — usually something horrific that a real person suffered
- The legal system fails — the perpetrator walks free, gets a light sentence, or exploits loopholes
- Dan investigates — often through his legitimate work as a detective, giving him access the average person wouldn’t have
- Dan delivers his own justice — and this is where the manga earns every one of its content warnings
The art by Ryō Izawa pulls absolutely no punches. The violence is explicit and depicted in unflinching detail. This isn’t stylized action-manga violence where characters get punched through buildings — it’s grounded, visceral, and deliberately uncomfortable. Izawa’s line work — meaning the actual drawn lines and detail in the art — is precise and controlled, which makes the graphic content hit even harder. There’s a clinical quality to how the violence is drawn that mirrors Dan’s own cold, methodical approach.
What drives Chapter 1 forward is Dan’s internal monologue. The title includes the word “Confessions” for a reason — the story is framed as Dan narrating his actions, explaining his reasoning, and laying bare the logic behind each killing. It’s not presented as heroic. It’s presented as a confession, and the reader is positioned as the one hearing it.
The chapter doesn’t end on a typical cliffhanger. Instead, it leaves you sitting with a moral question: Was what Dan did justified? The manga doesn’t answer that for you. It presents the crime, presents the failure of the system, presents Dan’s response, and then lets you wrestle with how you feel about it.
That’s a bold move for a first chapter, and it’s what separates Brutal from a lot of other dark manga. It’s not just trying to shock you — it’s trying to make you think.
Key Characters Introduced in Chapter 1
Chapter 1 keeps its cast deliberately small. This is a focused introduction to one character and one premise.
Hiroki Dan
Dan is the entire engine of this manga, and Chapter 1 is built around establishing who he is on both sides of his double life.
The public face: A detective in a Japanese police department. Calm. Competent. The kind of person who doesn’t draw attention. He does his job well and goes home. Colleagues don’t suspect anything because there’s nothing outwardly suspicious about him — he’s aggressively average in his public persona.
The hidden side: Methodical. Cold. Driven by a personal code of justice that has nothing to do with the legal system he works within. Dan doesn’t kill impulsively or out of rage. He researches, plans, and executes with the same discipline he brings to his detective work. His killings are targeted — he goes after specific criminals who have escaped punishment.
What makes Dan compelling from the very first chapter is the tension between these two identities. He’s not a superhero or a protagonist with flashy powers who fights evil in some morally clear-cut way. He’s a normal man in a normal job who has decided that the system he serves is broken, and he’s going to fix it himself, one criminal at a time.
The Criminal of the First Case
Without spoiling the specific details, the first criminal Dan targets represents a type that the series will revisit again and again: someone the system protects, ignores, or fails to adequately punish. The crime they committed is real enough to be disturbing, and the way they escaped consequences is frustrating enough to make you understand — even if you don’t agree with — why Dan does what he does.
This is a deliberate storytelling choice. Each case is designed to test the reader’s moral compass. The criminals aren’t cartoonish villains — they’re plausible, which makes everything about the story more uncomfortable and more effective.
The Supporting Cast
There isn’t much of one in Chapter 1, and that’s by design. The opening chapter is a focused character study of Dan. Supporting characters and recurring figures develop as the series progresses, but the first chapter belongs entirely to the protagonist and his first target.
Is Brutal Chapter 1 Worth Reading? Who This Manga Is For
Here’s the honest answer: Chapter 1 is a perfect litmus test. If you can handle the tone and content of the opening chapter, the series maintains that level throughout. It doesn’t get lighter. If anything, later cases get darker and more complex as the series finds its footing.
This manga is a great fit if you enjoy:
- Vigilante justice stories — the core appeal is watching someone operate outside the law to punish those the law can’t touch
- Crime thrillers — the case-by-case structure has a procedural quality (think Law & Order or CSI format — each episode/chapter is a self-contained case) that fans of crime fiction will recognize
- Morally gray protagonists — Dan is not a good person. He’s not written to be. The manga is interested in the gray area, not in providing easy answers
- Dexter (the TV series or novels) — if you enjoyed that premise, this is the closest manga equivalent
- Dark psychological manga — series like Blood on the Tracks, Homunculus, or Goodnight Punpun attract a similar audience, though Brutal leans more toward crime thriller than psychological drama
Content warnings — these are significant
Coamix Inc. (digital only via Comikey/MangaHot/MangaPlaza) lists the following warnings for this series: blood and gore, murder, nudity, sexual content, torture, and violence. The rating is Older Teen 16+.
These warnings are not exaggerated. The violence is graphic and realistic. The crimes depicted are disturbing — some cases involve sexual assault, so if that is a hard boundary for you, be aware before going in. The nudity and sexual content are tied to the criminal cases rather than being included for titillation. If any of these are dealbreakers for you, this isn’t the series to push through.
This manga is probably NOT for you if:
- You’re sensitive to graphic, realistic violence
- You prefer action-focused battle manga with younger protagonists (sometimes called “shonen” manga — series like Dragon Ball or My Hero Academia)
- You want a protagonist who is clearly heroic or sympathetic
- You’re looking for something light or escapist
Community reception
Brutal has a score of 8.31 out of 10 on MyAnimeList — a community-run database where manga and anime fans rate and review series. That puts it in strong territory for a manga without an anime adaptation boosting its visibility. (Anime adaptations typically drive a huge wave of new readers to the original manga — the fact that Brutal scores this well on word of mouth alone says something.) Readers consistently praise the moral complexity and the art quality. The most common criticism is that the episodic structure can feel repetitive if you binge too many volumes at once — spacing out your reading helps.
Where to Read Brutal Chapter 1 Legally
Let’s talk about how to actually get your hands on this manga.
Print Edition
Volume 1 is published by Coamix Inc. (digital only via Comikey/MangaHot/MangaPlaza) and was released on October 17, 2023. It’s 180 pages, priced at $13.99, with a trim size of 5″ x 7.125″ — roughly the size of a paperback novel, which is standard for manga sold in English.
Volume 1 contains approximately five to six chapters, so you’re getting several full cases — not just the first one. That’s a solid amount of content to judge whether the series is for you.
Digital Edition
If you prefer reading digitally, Volume 1 is available on:
- Kindle — Amazon’s e-reader platform
- BookWalker — a digital storefront focused specifically on manga and light novels
- Kobo
- Nook
- Google Play
- ComiXology — Amazon’s digital comics platform (now integrated with Kindle)
- izneo — a European-based digital comics platform that also carries manga
Digital is often the fastest way to start reading — you can have it on your device within minutes.
A note about pirate sites
If you searched “brutal manga chapter 1,” there’s a good chance you saw unauthorized scan sites in the results. These sites host manga without permission and don’t pay the creators anything. Kei Koga and Ryō Izawa put serious work into this series, and buying it — even just the first volume — is what keeps manga like this getting translated and released in English. Coamix Inc. picked up this license because there was demand. Supporting it ensures more volumes come out on schedule.
Series status
The series currently has 5 volumes published in Japan (series on indefinite hiatus since July 2022 due to author health issues). English volumes by Coamix Inc. are available up to the published Japanese content. There is no anime adaptation as of 2025. A live-action TV drama adaptation does exist, though the manga remains the primary way to experience the full story.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Story | Kei Koga |
| Art | Ryō Izawa |
| English Publisher | Coamix Inc. (digital only via Comikey/MangaHot/MangaPlaza) |
| Vol. 1 EN Release | October 17, 2023 |
| Pages | 180 (approx. 5–6 chapters) |
| Price | $13.99 |
| Rating | Older Teen 16+ |
| JP Volumes | 5 |
| EN Volumes | 5 |
| Anime | None (as of 2025) |
What Comes After Chapter 1 — Is the Rest of Brutal Just as Good?
Short answer: yes, with a caveat about the format.
The episodic structure
Because Brutal follows a case-by-case format, each chapter or short multi-chapter storyline introduces a new criminal and a new scenario. The crimes vary — different perpetrators, different victims, different failures of the justice system. This keeps things fresh on a case-by-case basis, but it also means the series can feel formulaic if you read too many volumes back-to-back.
The good news is that as the series progresses, an overarching narrative starts developing alongside the episodic cases. Dan’s backstory gets explored, recurring elements appear, and the stakes of his double life escalate. The series rewards patience.
Art quality
Ryō Izawa’s art remains consistently strong throughout the series. The detailed, precise artwork that makes Chapter 1 so striking doesn’t dip in later volumes. If anything, Izawa gets more confident with page compositions and visual storytelling as the series goes on. The art is genuinely one of the biggest reasons to read Brutal — even scenes of dialogue and investigation are visually engaging.
Volume 1 as a sample
Because Vol. 1 contains multiple cases across its 180 pages, it gives you a strong sample of what the series does. If you finish Volume 1 and want more, you’ll be happy to know there are plenty of volumes waiting. If you finish Volume 1 and feel like you’ve had enough, that’s a perfectly valid response too — the content is heavy, and not everyone wants 10 volumes of it.
Reading beyond Brutal
If Brutal clicks with you and you’re looking for more dark, morally complex manga, here are a few series that attract a similar audience:
- Blood on the Tracks by Shuzo Oshimi — psychological horror focused on a toxic mother-son relationship. Different genre, but the same willingness to make readers deeply uncomfortable.
- Homunculus by Hideo Yamamoto — a psychological manga about a man who gains the ability to see people’s inner traumas. Weird, dark, and thought-provoking.
- Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano — not a crime manga, but shares Brutal’s commitment to unflinching darkness and moral complexity.
- Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida — if you want something dark but with a wildly different tone. More chaotic, more humor, but just as violent.
Blood on the Tracks 1
Homunculus (Omnibus) Vol. 1-2
Goodnight Punpun Complete Volume 1-7 Collection Series Set
Dorohedoro, Vol. 1
No anime (yet)
As of 2025, there’s no anime adaptation of Brutal. Given the graphic content, an adaptation would face significant censorship challenges for broadcast television. If one does happen, it would likely need a streaming platform willing to air uncut content. For now, the manga is the complete experience.
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Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator is one of those manga that knows exactly what it is from page one. Chapter 1 doesn’t warm you up or ease you in — it presents its premise, its protagonist, and its moral complexity all at once, and trusts you to decide whether you’re in or out.
If a crime manga about a detective who murders criminals sounds like your thing, grab Volume 1 and see for yourself. You’ll know by the end of the first case whether this is a series you want to keep reading.