Review – The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service
Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki’s Detective Manga Series
Oct 30, 2009
As students of a local Buddhist university with slim job offerings, a volunteer group comes together to form the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Among their number are an embalmer, a person who can find where bodies are located, and a person who can talk to the dead. As a business they decide to help bring peace to the dead by carrying out their last wishes, thereby releasing their spirits. However, when dealing with the dead, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service often finds a mystery attached.
Supernatural Mystery Manga
Quirky characters abound in The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service as the reader is introduced to Kuro Karatsu, an Itako, a person who can communicate with the dead by touching their bodies. While volunteering to pray for the dead he meets an eclectic group of fellow students, Ao, Numata, Makino, and Yata who each have their own talents and idiosyncrasies. The group of five find themselves trying to carry out the last wishes of a disturbed suicide victim which involves the in a deeper mystery.
As volume one of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service continues, the group finds good fortune in helping the dead as Karma blesses them with the seed money to start their own business. Driving around Tokyo they locate bodies in various places and attempt to fulfill the last wishes of the deceased. Often this revolves around resolving the circumstances of death as the team tries to uncover the mystery of the corpse’s demise. Volume One presents several short stories after the origin introductory chapter.
As a stork carries new life into the world, the logo for the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is the black heron, the Kurosagi, which escorts the spirits of the dead out of the world. The central question presented of “How many die the way they wanted to with all their wishes fulfilled?” is carried throughout as the team attempts to bring peace to the dead. The characters are varied and interesting with a quirky appeal. Volume One presents a strong start to the series which promises to be both entertaining and enigmatic in turn.
Detective Manga For Adults
A mix of the X – files and Scooby – Doo, the first volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service has a broad appeal. It’s first chapter however plays for shock value through mature themes and gruesome violence. Given the subject matter, graphic violence, corpses, and the supernatural, the art can occasionally lend itself to the extreme. While a well – drawn manga with strong lines and shading, some of the scenes depicted may be inappropriate for younger readers as they border on gore.
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is a very dark manga with moments of lightness. The supernatural is taken as a given, and reanimated corpses, embalming, and decay are readily depicted. While the second story is quite touching, the overall product meditates on death and murder which despite the manga’s charisma, make for a heavy endeavor.
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume One (ISBN 1 – 59307 – 555 – 3) written by Eiji Otsuka and drawn by Housui Yamazaki was published by Dark Horse in 2006.
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