Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 1

by Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki

Every so often a new book comes around that is so different and unique that it really makes you excited about the whole genre again. Our most recent addition, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is that book for us, and we are happy to introduce this new title to you.

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is a series of short stories about a small group of students attending a Buddhist university in Tokyo. What these students discover is that their skills (both the learned and the extraordinary) don’t translate well into the modern business world, but as a team, they can create a unique, and possibly lucrative, business opportunity. This is the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

One member of the student team is a girl who studied embalming in the West. Another has the ability to dowse for corpses, their leader is also a computer hacker, another can hear messages left by the dead, and then there is the guy with the puppet possessed by aliens. Together they can find corpses, sometimes murdered, sometimes dumped, sometimes suicides, and deliver them to their proper resting places. The real trick is figuring out how to get paid by the dead.

Some have compared Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service to “Scooby-Doo”, but this is a rather inaccurate comparison. It is more like “Scooby-Doo” meets “Zombie Holocaust”, or maybe an even closer comparison would be “Ghostbusters” meets Reiko the Zombie Shop. In reality there is no good comparison, as Kurosagi delivers uniquely entertaining and funny elements with genuinely gory scenes in a bizarrely perfect balance. Kurosagi isn't as “scary” as some of the horror titles we have read recently, mostly because the main characters approach the corpses (who sometimes are reanimated through a yet-to-be-explained power), as a source of income, not fear.

Yamazaki’s art is very clean and meticulous. Whether it is a garbage dump, a wheat field, or a city street, the details are not glossed over, yet the look is never too busy. Much time is also spent on the title corpses. From a mummified old woman to a fresh suicide, the bodies are detailed and appropriately set the mood. This is a business, but these are still dead bodies we are dealing with here, and Yamazaki’s art doesn’t let us forget it. This is a mature title, mostly because of the elements of gore, and rare is the clothed female corpse.

A unique addition to this title is also the post-script “Disjecta Membra”, (or “scattered fragments”). Instead of overwriting translations on the SFX, the translator, Toshifumi Yoshida, and editor, Carl Gustav Horn, added this section to not only translate the SFX, but also explain them, along with other culturally unique situations. Although the information is useful and thorough, the R to L orientation in English takes a little getting used to. (The rest of the book is oriented as the original Japanese, R to L, which thankfully has become the standard.) A concise explanation of Japanese writing makes this addition a real treat for those interested in more than just manga, but Japanese language and culture as well.

This book is very competently translated, not only giving each character its own voice and personality, but also the humor remains mature and not dumbed down for the easy laugh, or show up at inappropriate times.

Overall, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 1 is a terrific read for those who like their bodies with a pinch of humor. Otsuka and Yamazaki paint the broad horror genre in a brand-new color. Volume 2 is released on November 29, 2006, and Volume 3 is released in 2007.