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THE KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE (VOL. 2) |
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Tuesday, 20 February 2007 |
 | | ▪ | PUBLISHED BY: | | DARK HORSE | | | ▪ | ART/AUTHOR: | | HOUSUI YAMAZAKI / EIJI OTSUKA | | | | ▪ | FORMAT/COLOR: | | JAPANESE FORMAT / COLOR | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 231 | | | ▪ | RATED: | | 18+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 02/07/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/21/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN |
THE KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE has a wonderful cover design that includes with the graphics the logo “Your body is their business!” It pretty much sets the tone for this quirky and entertaining horror mystery manga from Dark Horse. The first volume in the series was fresh, presenting a new twist on body bags to go, beginning with the fact the students who comprised the delivery service met while attending classes at a Buddhist university in Tokyo and made ends meet by using various skills or ‘gifts’ they possessd to help the dead find peace in the great beyond. Filled with wicked humor, this page turner seemed to set the bar at such a level that subsequent volumes would be a hard act to follow.
Well, here’s the good news. Volume Two is even better than Volume One.
The characters in the K.C.D.S. are an entertaining bunch. First is Kuru Karatsu, bald, a psychic, and lacking a focus in life outside his studies, but ‘blessed’ with the ability to communicate with the fading spirits of corpses he finds in his travels. Ao Sasaki, the woman running this little group, has a frosty way about her, and, as revealed in Volume Two, has good reason to be the way she is. Working with her is Numata, a dowser who uses a stick or pendulum to seek out bodies, and the diminutive Makino, trained as an embalmer in the United States, where, unlike in Japan, such skills are valued. Finally, there’s Yata, the channeler, who walks around with a foul mouthed ‘alien’ puppet on one hand that apparently does NOT speak for its owner, but freely cuts him up every chance he gets. Together, these misfits get the job done, make their money, and go on to the next call.
In Volume Two, we have a stand alone story dominating the entire volume, dealing with Sasaki’s realization that the latest corpse delivered to the office is that of the man who was just executed for killing her parents and youngest of two sisters years ago. The body, having been ‘acquired’ by some peculiar funeral home, becomes a hot potato for the group, reviving horrific memories for Sasaki, and beginning an investigation that ultimately involves Sasaki’s surviving sister, her fiancé, a young girl with the ability to re-animate the dead, and a special service offered by the funeral home where relatives of murder victims can take out ‘revenge’ on the corpses of the executed felons who committed the crime. Full of nasty twists, some poignant moments and a welcome sprinkling of humor, this volume hooks you on the first frame and takes you on one wild ride right to the end.
As in the first volume, the artwork is very clean, and not as manga-looking as many stories one reads from Japan. Very little tone work is used on the characters, making their faces clean and white for most of the images. When tones are used on flesh, it creates a very dramatic effect. The backgrounds are well done, and the dialogue, translated by Toshifumi Yoshida, is sharp, smart, and catches the sense of the story perfectly. What makes the graphic novel stand out so well, though, is the underlying thread of revenge. One line, where a character says something about how more attention is given to the criminal than to the survivors of those he or she killed is particularly telling, and chilling considering the increasingly reactionary mood of citizens in some developed nations about the rights of the accused, victims of their crime(s), and the society at large. Eiji Otsuka is not offering judgments in the narrative. However, questions are being posed that might make fodder for some interesting debates in academia or the popular press. It is so refreshing to find any story, let alone a manga, that challenges readers to think, rather than simply react. It is one of the reasons why this series deserves to be successful. Of course, it should be noted that there are images of horror and nudity in this work, and some of these are not for the squeamish. KUROSAGI is written for adults, and has an adult content and sensibility to it. It should be respected as such for it to be fully enjoyed by readers.
IN SUMMARY:
THE KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE Volume Two gives readers a horror mystery with a mind of its own. Original in its premise, great in its art work, populated with believable characters and a smart plot that engages the brain as well as the brawn of the reader, this graphic novel is a tonic for adults looking for something exciting and new to read on a dark and stormy night. |
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