Eiji Otsuka

A group of 5, no make it 6, oddball students from a Buddhist university use their unique skills to find and deliver dead bodies to their rightful resting place, for a price of course this is a delivery service after all. A pretty straight forward service, except the clientele aren't the kinds of people that die happily in their sleep or are well taken care of in their final moments, there is retribution to be paid to the living. And a matter of payment to work out.

Darkly comedic and graphic, show more this twisted bunch of Scooby-Doo adventurers is beyond entertaining in execution. Sure, the premise is far-fetched and silly, but this band of misfits seem to care about what they do and each other, even if their backstories could use some fleshing out. Told episodically, it is the perfect Manga to jump in and out of, since they reintroduce the premise each time and the stories themselves aren't linked. However, as much as I enjoy these type of stories, they are not for everyone the depictions of death by all its means is beautifully drawn but graphic. And this series deals with some very troubling subjects from child molestation, poverty, abandonment, murder, and suicide. Basically it's all the content warnings.

I thoroughly enjoyed this volume, it's right in my wheelhouse, but I don't expect many others will. It'll be something I can jump into from time to time and with 14 volumes published in English something that will last while. show less

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 show more 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. show less

A Japanese Scooby gang drives around in their version of the Mystery Machine seeking out corpses that haven't been properly buried and helping their restless spirits find karmic closure.

The members of the group have skills that help in the quest: a dowser who can find corpses, a medium to talk for the spirits, an embalmer to care for the bodies, a puppeteer who can channel advice from an alien entity, and a business manager to make sure the corpses and karma provide them a little bit of cash show more to fund their endeavors.

The chapters in this first book are all self-contained little adventures with the college students venturing out to face heavy stuff like a suicide, child molestation, elder abuse, a serial killer, and . . . ~shudder~ . . . an insurance actuary. The bickering oddballs manage to keep the tone light even as the corpses pile up.

I have a couple more volumes on hand and a looking forward to seeing where this goes. show less

It's another fun outing with the Kurosagi Scooby gang, with some one-off stories of the macabre about mummies, cryonics, Jack the Ripper, and plastination as well as increasing details about the mythology behind the spirit who haunts and assists the group. (Hmm, maybe this is less Scooby-Doo then, and more Funky Phantom?!?!)

Thanks to the extensive notes after each volume in this collection, I found out this time that one of the recurring side characters, Toru Sasayama, has also been a side show more character in two other series by the same author: MPD Psycho and Detective Ritual - Tantei Gishiki. So this is the Sasayamaverse?

I have another one of these thick bricks already checked out from the library, so onward! show less