16 Dec / The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (vol. 13) by Eiji Otsuka, art by Housui Yamazaki, translated by Toshifumi Yoshida, edited by Carl Gustav Horn
For someone who eschews horror films, I sure am addicted to (certain) scary manga. Devoted groupie that I am for the Kurosagi team, I just hope the series isn’t ending anytime soon! For anyone new to the series, rather than starting at (unlucky) #13, might I suggest catching up by clicking here.
In this latest volume, psychic Kuro Karatsu and hacker Ao Sasaki return from a beach vacation (yes, together, but it’s definitely not what you – or the fellow Deliverers – think!). They’re immediately summoned to the morgue because it’s quickly filling with lifeless male bodies that each happen to be wearing matching cartoon-character caps. The corpses have suddenly stopped talking to Karatsu, so dowser Makoto Numata and channeler Yuji Yata (and his alien sock puppet Kereellis) need to help Karatsu find a mysterious schoolgirl whose powers are literally out of this world.
Sasaki takes the stand in the next adventure, playing lay judge in a murder case. As the body count goes up, she has only the late poet Arthur Rimbaud and a handful of colored pencils to provide answers from beyond. In the volume’s final undertaking (couldn’t resist), the three male Deliverers (plus alien Kereellis) are hired to clear an overgrown urban park, but what should have been an afternoon of menial labor turns into quite the nightmare ceremony.
As always, do NOT skip the endnotes … how else will you find out about Indy (as in Indiana Jones)’s literacy challenges, that Ezekiel 4:12-13 reveals the food of the chosen people is not exactly manna (“sh*t sandwich,” anyone?), and so much more? We need to sooo appreciate the translation-into-English team for enlightening our Kurosagi experience every time! Thank you, thank you … and now may we have some more, please?!!!
Readers: Adult
Published: 2012 (United States)