This is a tale of love. Those were the words she began to speak But this is also... a tale of two detectives. Of fighting poison with poison.
Shortly after the murder of a colleague, popular entertainer Atsushi Tagame finds himself being stalked by a mysterious girl. If this on its own wasn't enough of a red flag, the colleage had also been a victim of stalking herself. What's more, Atsushi has become the prime suspect in the murder case! Will he be able to prove his innocence, and unmask the real killer?
...Well, about that. Atsushi is not innocent, he is not the main character, and in fact he is not important to this story at all.
Instead, this story is about Risa Aioi, a detective who has a tendency to fall in love with criminals. Her methods are questionable (stalking her target, breaking into her target's home, rummaging through her target's trash, etc.), but they always yield results, making her a valuable asset to the police. However, she's also viewed as a criminal herself, thus making her expendable. This doesn't sit well with fellow detective Sakon Futatsuki, who admires her ideals, and decides he wants to protect her from the danger she always gets herself into. This is in spite of his brother Ukon's objections, as he doesn't want Sakon to end up like their father.
i tell c (アイテルシー, Aiterushi) is a manga by Kazusa Inaoka, that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump for 21 chapters, from January to June 2021. Its title is a play on "aishiteru" (愛してる), which means "I love you".
i tell c contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: This is Risa's schtick in the first couple chapters, to be so much of one that it drives the criminals to turn themselves in
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Risa's defining character trait is that she's exclusively attracted to criminals. In fact, whether or not someone has broken the law is the sole factor in her attraction. Things like gender or physical appearance don't matter to her as long as the person is a criminal.
- All-Loving Hero: Risa loves (almost) all criminals, and feels compassion for them. However, this in no way implies that she condones their actions.
- And the Adventure Continues: The manga ends with Aioi on another case falling for yet another criminal.
- Arc Words: "Poison", but especially the variation "fighting poison with poison".
- Bank Robbery: Naturally, one Criminal of the Week was a robber holding a bank hostage
- Big Bad: Hikaru Kagamino, the man who once kidnapped Risa, and killed Ukon during a later encounter... although the series was Cut Short before it could do anything major with him
- Captured on Purpose: Risa lets herself get abducted by the lolita serial murderer as part of her plan.
- Cut Short: The manga was cancelled only six months after it began, which especially stings as the first arc explicitly ends telling the reader that it was only the prologue with more to come.
- Decoy Protagonist: Atsushi Tagame, who is actually the series' first Criminal of the Week
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Risa's philosophy revolves around this. She doesn't condone the actions of the criminals she meets, but she does believe there's a reason behind their actions, and that is usually pain and sadness, and that she can help them by loving them. Nobuto is a clear example of it despite being a Serial Killer straight out of a horror movie.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Hikaru Kagamino is the only criminal who Risa is shown to not love, due to their past history
- Faking the Dead: Sakon had to do this at one point as part of a plan to arrest a bank robber
- First-Episode Twist: Atsushi, the guy we've been following throughout the entire first chapter, is not actually the main character. Risa, the girl who's been stalking him, is.
- Fitness Nut: Sakon is explicitly described on-panel as a fitness nut. He carries around dumb bells with him when going on trips, and uses them to work out during mealtimes. He mentions that fitness is his hobby as much as sweets is his brother's.
- Hair-Contrast Duo:
- Ukon and Sakon Futatsuki are Polar Opposite Twins. Ukon, the older, is light-skinned and fair-haired and is shown to be cool and unflappable. Sakon, the younger, is dark-skinned and dark-haired, and is brash and enthusiastic.
- Sakon is later partnered with the white-haired Risa Aioi, who is an eccentric Cowboy Cop Guile Heroine who solves cases by stalking the suspects and breaking a few laws along the way. Sakon serves as both her Cloud Cuckoo Landers Minder and protector when the situation escalates to possible danger.
- Killed Off for Real: Ukon in Chapter 8
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Akiraka, the police chief, is largely described as having a very motherly personality. He acts like a mom to Risa and even to Sakon, he also has a powerful information network in the form of a large group of gossipy housewives that he belongs to.
- Master of Disguise: In the first chapter, Risa dons a disguise to get closer to her target. A little later in the series, Hikaru does the same thing to get closer to her.
- Master of Unlocking: Risa has a secret method of unlocking doors, which we are not allowed to see
- Mustache Vandalism: mAR defaces the paintings she steals with childish doodles
- My Beloved Smother: Chief Akiraka insists on acting like this toward Risa, in spite of her complaints
- No One Could Survive That!: Nobuto gets shot in the head and seemingly dies, only to get back up and start chasing Hikaru a chapter later.
- In the same arc, Hikaru and Nobuto both fall off a cliff, seemingly to their deaths. However, Hikaru is later shown to be just fine, and planning his next move.
- Non-Answer: When talking with Teruhiko, a bank robber she arrested, Risa is often questioned about how did she do things like basically teleport herself to his side and getting into his DMs, all she answers with is by flexing her arm.
- Not So Above It All: Sakon would be the resident Only Sane Man amongst the division... if he weren't prone to working out with his dumbbells in the middle of inappropriate situations.
- Only One Name: Akiraka's full name has been hidden, along with a number of other details about him.
- Phantom Thief: mAR is known as one, stealing famous paintings and defacing them.
- Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: The police's main use for Risa early in the story. Her terrifying and persistent nature as she stalks criminals she falls in love with usually leads them to confess their crimes to the police, as we see with Atsushi and a nameless criminal, in order to get themselves arrested to get away from her.
- Prolonged Prologue: The first eleven chapters comprise the series' "prologue" arc.Akiraka: It's long... very long, but this prologue has finally reached its end. It's time to stop letting the moments needlessly tick away... and start things off with a befitting first line. Let the first chapter commence.
- Samus Is a Girl: The detectives are surprised to discover that mAR is actually a woman.
- Slipping a Mickey: A variant, the lolita serial murderer uses drugged candies to aid in abducting his victims.
- Tone Shift: The series seems to switch back and forth between serious detective drama and lighthearted gag manga. This is especially noticeable after the introduction of mAR.
- Wham Line: From chapter six:Ataru Kagami: After all, I am your kidnapper... Hikaru Kagamino.
