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Divine Incursions is a supernatural series that’s appeared as a light novel and manga and follows two government agents tasked with investigating unexplained, otherworldly incidents in cities around Japan. Are they always able to fix things? No. Is there sometimes no real resolution or answer? Yup. Is it always really fascinating and feel like an actual modern investigation into otherworldly affairs? Definitely. The situations and nature of things constantly makes me feel like Divine Incursions tells stories along the lines of X-Files, only in manga form, and I highly recommend reading it.
Editor’s Note: There are minor spoilers for the three cases in volume 1 of the Divine Incursions manga below.
The two agents we follow throughout both the manga and light novel series are Divine Incursions Special Investigations Division members Katagishi and Miyaki. The former is a more established agent, and he’s been working for the government under his former brother-in-law and boss Mitsuji Rokuhara checking out these usual situations. Miyaki is a newcomer to the division. Throughout the first volume, we know little about both. For example, there’s the “rumor” Katagishi is divorced. But that’s it. No first names. No details about where Miyaki worked before she transferred in. Just two, well-dressed agents going around Japan interviewing and investigating.
Which suits the situation. In the first, the duo are sent to the countryside to visit a rural town. Since 1997, massive body parts started falling from the sky. It first happened during the annual festival to honor that god that year when a huge right arm fell into and filled the school’s 25-meter-long pool. Since then, on a yearly basis, items like eyes, a kidney, another arm, a nose, and an ear dropped every year. We see Katagishi and Miyaki investigate the folklore surrounding the area, which involved a local huge god that stayed on the nearby mountain, and interview people who lived there. We watch as the pair gets some answers, but since Divine Incursions is about investigating the unknowable gods, we never get to 100% and truly understand. At the same time, it feels both eerie and unsettling, as though we watch the two come so close to forbidden knowledge. So just like in X-Files, we might get a lot of information in a case in this manga, but we might not also see the agents find a real resolution or solution or complete explanation for what they witnessed.
A simular situation arises in the second case in the first volume of the Divine Incursions manga. Katagishi and Miyaki wind up in another small town. This time, they’re going in knowing a few more details. The place is known as the home of a local deity known as The God That Ate Men. The two are called in because of situations that suggest a person involved actually did experience an encounter with this god. They observe and interview folks, coming to their own conclusions about the situation. Like the first, it is an opportunity to witness an unsettling situation as a passive observer. Especially given the resolution.
I think I like the cliffhanger case in this volume the most though, as it involves a tourist town by the ocean and a less popular mountainous village alongside of it. Rokuhara specifically sends Katagishi and Miyaki there after receiving a mysterious letter. Though the place seems pleasant, almost immediately the two see signs suggesting something is off. Especially after hearing a local legend about a mermaid a fisherman in the town saved. When the town found out about her, they apparently joined in tending to her. But when she realized she couldn’t be saved, she invited them to eat her flesh and be blessed with immortality. However, after meeting the person who sent the letter and seeing many of the villagers in the area, the truth behind that folklore is called into question.
Basically, every situation feels like an exploration of what folklore looks like in modern times when people might have forgotten who the gods were and what they did. Because of this, the deities’ actions become even more unknowable or perhaps even alter or become obsolete due to changed human behavior or environmental elements. And since we’re seeing it through the eyes of people who get to talk to everyone and look at everything, as in the X-Files, we’re privileged with an unexpected amount of insight in the Divine Incursions manga and light novel. The result feels quite eerie and like we’re never getting enough to be fully satisfied, even though it’s all super fascinating.
Volume 1 of the Divine Incursions manga is available via Yen Press, and volume 2 will debut on June 23, 2026. The first volume of the light novel is available now, and the second volume appears on May 12, 2026.
