Telepathic Wanderers

    (Tokyopop, 2005)
™ and © 2001 Yasutaka Tsutsui and Sayaka Yamazaki

Attractive telepath Nanase returns to her home town and faces a vengeful ex-teacher who blames her for ruining his life. Then, while on a passenger train, she receives a precognitive flash of its being destroyed by a mudslide.

Back-cover copy calls Telepathic Wanderers “a sexy and sophisticated paranormal drama,” and it’s certainly sophisticated. There’s no cabal of psychics bent on world domination or men in black rounding them up in concentration camps (though that is something Nanase fears). She’s no super-hero, yet, due to her abilities, is constantly forced to make life-and-death choices for herself and others.

While there’s sexually charged material, it’s in too degrading a context to be considered in any way “sexy”—showing what life must be like for a telepath to be constantly stripped and assaulted in the minds of passing men. Yet the author (who theoretically is “widely known as Japan’s Isaac Asimov”; I’d like to see documentation to back that up) doesn’t see humanity as inherently evil, just selfish and weak.

— S. A. Bennett

From the Publisher:

Nanase, a beautiful young telepath, returns to her hometown to settle down and lead a quiet life. However, her unique abilities make that impossible—even in the most remote location. Then she meets Norio, an abused little boy with extraordinary powers of his own. Nanase takes him under her wing, and from there they wander… two outsiders traveling from one strange encounter to another.
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