Eiji Otsuka

Anticipating the end of Fullmetal Alchemist, I have been looking for a new manga series that I can follow with similar enthusiasm. This is my latest try.

While Kurosagi does not yet have the deeper themes apparent that Alchemist does, it is an original storyline and I could see literary/life themes developing along with the characters and the plot. Additionally, Housui Yamazaki's [illustration] style is expressive and a bit kinetic, not to mention just plain fun to look at.

Kurosagi includes more discussion at the end than other manga I've read, including a dictionary of onomatapeoic words used in this volume, and an explanation of how the complicated Japanese writing system developed from ancient kanji. That alone is worth the price of admission!… (meer)

Another big hunk of a book, collecting three volumes of the adventures of the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (KCDS). It's settled into its X-Files groove, solving supernatural mysteries and ever-so-slowly building a larger mythology, but each volume seems to push closer to two stars -- I'm rounding this one up from 2.5 -- as the self-contained stories too often resolve with an onslaught of vengeful reanimated corpses on the bad guy and only offer dribs and drabs toward the bigger picture.

Vol. 13 - First Story Arc

Men who use the internet to prey on girls and runaways find their bodies under control of a girl who can push them into suicide. This features the first of two appearances in this volume of the three roboticists from the third omnibus, so I guess they're going to be the go-to expositionists for science stories just like Dr. Jenny Kayama is the source for all things psychological. Also, a revelation is made about the relationship between two of the delivery service members.

Vol. 13 - Second Story Arc

It's a riff on 12 Angry Men as the group's hacker pulls duty on a panel ruling on a murder trial and finds herself swayed by a fellow panel member with synesthesia who claims the accused has an innocent aura.

Vol. 13 - Third Story Arc

The crew takes an odd job weeding in a public park. But what's the secret ingredient making this garden grow?

Vol. 14 - First Story Arc

The most unnecessarily complex segment features impostors posing as the KCDS and a politician trying to wrangle the completion of a dam in his district despite championing a ban on dams elsewhere.

Vol. 14 - Second Story Arc

The oddest arc in the book is presented in a different, more cartoonish drawing style as the pilot episode of a TV series loosely based on KCDS. These American characters all have different names and slightly different powers and personalities. And most of them are pizza delivery guys who get pulled into investigating corpses whose tattoos have been carved off.

Vol. 14 - Third Story Arc

A delivery to a museum of execution and torture devices devolves into yet another conspiracy of crooked politicians.

Vol. 15 - First Story Arc

A survey of Japanese people over 100 years old according to town records to see if they are still alive has the KCDS taking charge of an aged homeless woman with memory issues who leads them to Tono, Japan, in a story that pays tribute to the folklore enshrined by Kunio Yanagita in his century-old collection of tales. The best story of the volume.

Vol. 15 - Second Story Arc

A tale of feuding motorcycle gangs takes a Kurosagi twist when a third, headless gang starts riding the streets. Corny.

Vol. 15 - Third Story Arc

In a case of "Too soon?" storytelling, the KCDS heads into the danger zone in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster chasing down a lead on a killer tied to a lightly-veiled cult based on the very real Aum Shinrikyo organization that was responsible for the sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995. It seems the cult member is planning a new and even deadlier attack using material from the disaster site. It's a less-tasteful version of Spider-Man visiting Ground Zero in Amazing Spider-Man #36 in 2001.… (meer)

I'm still enjoying this series, but the stories have settled into a formulaic groove that could prove wearying in the long run. Every story here basically ends with a reanimated corpse seeking revenge on those who have done them wrong.

First Vol. 10 story arc:

The group meets a man who can briefly resurrect corpses with a special automated external defibrillator (AED). A police officer is tempted to use it for a little bit of vigilante justice for his son, who proves to have some daddy issues to work out.

Second Vol. 10 story arc:

A police officer has transferred to a small town to escape the strange and violent crimes of the big city. But when the delivery service arrives to gift him with a retired police dog with which he once partnered, they end up revealing the town isn't as peaceful as it appears. Does the dog die? Yes.

Third Vol. 10 story arc:

Numata is reunited with his dowsing mentor when the group helps out on a reality series being built around a fake psychic. A little of Numata's origin is teased.

First Vol. 11 story arc:

The group is tricked into becoming bodyguards for a girl who has just been released from juvenile detention after being accused of murdering her mother. To complicates matters, she has her own paranormal power.

Second Vol. 11 story arc:

The group discovers a swimmer who does a dead man's float all day, but then swims laps all night long.

First Vol. 12 story arc:

An overeager bill collector pulls the group into investigating in a complex scheme where people in debt sell their identities to rich people who want to escape into a new life. The operation is run by a (human) succubus, kicking off a volume where the fan service knob has gotten cranked to the right. Or some knob is getting cranked, anyhow.

Second Vol. 12 story arc:

A comedian who is paid to live in homes or apartments where the previous occupant has died to help clear their real estate reputation runs across a club hostess who can astral project. Things go bad in this Romeo and Juliet tale when they run athwart some ruthless real estate flippers.

Third Vol. 12 story arc:

An old man obsessed with his sister who died before his eyes during World War II has used her projected adult body as the basis for a legendary sex doll. Ummmmmmmmm, say what now?… (meer)

Another fun collection of supernatural mysteries solved by a corpse-obsessed Scooby gang.

This time around growing the mythology takes a back seat to episodic adventures that explore the some weird science with robots and cloning and invisibility, macabre Japanese traditions around marrying the dead and infanticide, and a bloody government conspiracy.

Romance starts to play a part in the core characters interactions, and we are given some glimpses into the dark origin stories of Keiko Makino and Yuji Yata.

Side note: The editor who writes the sound-effect end notes for each included volume is going increasingly off the rails as he tries to provide context for the story and references the author is making by going into ever-lengthening, rambling digressions that are very tinged with his personal experiences and opinions. I'm not complaining, mind you, as I've found them mostly informative and amusing, but it does significantly increase the amount of time it takes to read this already thick collection.… (meer)