Manga Review: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 1
Joshua Habel
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: Opinion
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Warning: This manga is rated for people 18 and over, and rightly so. It contains violence, nudity, and lots of dead bodies. If you are squeamish about such subject matter, please consider a different manga. They are not the white crane that brings you into this world. They are the black heron that brings you out. If you died with regret, if your soul is still chained to your body, and if you can compensate them, the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service can help fulfill your final wishes.
In a world of shoujo drama and shounen action, it is nice to see something that tries to break out of that mold and create something new. While Eiji Ohtsuka and Hosuo Yamazaki have not crafted the perfect manga, they do many things right.
The story itself revolves around the team of five (six, if you count the puppet) college students with various abilities. Karatsu can talk to the dead, Numata can dowse for dead bodies, Yata channels an alien through the puppet on his left hand, Makino is a licensed embalmer, and Ao is a skilled hacker. Together, they solve murders in a CSI fashion, only from the other way around.
A very solid premise, to be sure, but this leads to a very episodic format. In such a format, the chapters can easily be hit-or-miss. Thankfully, beyond the mandatory initial setup, there's very little miss. Housui Yamazaki's art style is perfect for what needs to be drawn: dead bodies, and lots of them, often victims of violent deaths. Still, there is a bit of range, with detailed background and even the humorous rants of Yata's cursing puppet.
If this manga has one serious flaw, it is the mix of plot and character. The stories get incredibly detailed, and some of the main five get pushed into the background while the story focuses on only two or three characters. The upshot of this, though, is the stories that end up hitting, hit hard.
So if you are not opposed to a pile of bloody corpses, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service may be right for you. It may be worth the cost alone just for the informative and hilarious translation notes in the back.
In a world of shoujo drama and shounen action, it is nice to see something that tries to break out of that mold and create something new. While Eiji Ohtsuka and Hosuo Yamazaki have not crafted the perfect manga, they do many things right.
The story itself revolves around the team of five (six, if you count the puppet) college students with various abilities. Karatsu can talk to the dead, Numata can dowse for dead bodies, Yata channels an alien through the puppet on his left hand, Makino is a licensed embalmer, and Ao is a skilled hacker. Together, they solve murders in a CSI fashion, only from the other way around.
A very solid premise, to be sure, but this leads to a very episodic format. In such a format, the chapters can easily be hit-or-miss. Thankfully, beyond the mandatory initial setup, there's very little miss. Housui Yamazaki's art style is perfect for what needs to be drawn: dead bodies, and lots of them, often victims of violent deaths. Still, there is a bit of range, with detailed background and even the humorous rants of Yata's cursing puppet.
If this manga has one serious flaw, it is the mix of plot and character. The stories get incredibly detailed, and some of the main five get pushed into the background while the story focuses on only two or three characters. The upshot of this, though, is the stories that end up hitting, hit hard.
So if you are not opposed to a pile of bloody corpses, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service may be right for you. It may be worth the cost alone just for the informative and hilarious translation notes in the back.