The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 10

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By Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki. Released in Japan as “Kurosagi Shitai Takuhaibin” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

Also known as ‘the one horror series I read’, Kurosagi continues to deliver on the horror, yet also have intriguing plot, characterization, morality, and laughs.

The first two stories, comprising about 2/3 of the book, are stand-alones with no ties to the overarching plot, though the first may introduce a new semi-regular. Someone is going around town resurrecting recently dead corpses, which is only leading to new corpses, as the dead have revenge on their minds. There’s a very intriguing bit here where Karatsu is taken in for questioning regarding one of the murders, and the police essentially try to force a confession out of him even though they’re aware it wasn’t him. Shades of Law and Order-type cop shows.

The actual person behind all this not only has a tortured motive and murky ethics, but an old-fashioned afro, giving the story a nice retro look. (Really, so much of the times and places of this series are carried purely by the artwork and fashion – it’s not just about the corpses here.) In the end, we see him actually manage to save a living person, and the implication is that we may see him again.

Next up (after one of the best splash pages of the entire run, featuring the whole cast sticking their tongues out at us), we find the team in what appears to be Niigata, on the coast of Japan, a popular place for Russian emigres. (Thanks as always to Carl Horn’s expansive liner notes for pointing this out.) They’re supposedly there to help out an old colleague of Sasayama’s, whose marriage to a Russian woman is being held up by her guardian. This being the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, this leads to heroin smuggling, Korean boat people, and lots and lots of corpses.

Of note, by the way, this volume may set a record for least appearances of the female cast. Makino comes along with them for the last case (but doesn’t really do much), and Sasaki as always is there to be called and give intel, but it’s definitely a 3-person (and one puppet) volume we have here. We don’t even get the traditional shot of Sasaki’s nipples in a sheer top.

The last story is the only one to deal with the background of one of our heroes. Since we already know about Sasaki, Makino, and Yata’s pasts through previous volumes, and Karatsu’s is clearly meant to be one of the final mysteries, that leaves Numata. Helping a TV show that employs a psychic, they run into Numata’s old teacher, who taught him how to dowse for dead bodies. As the back cover notes, we actually get a rare shot of Numata taking off his sunglasses. (Spoiler: he has normal eyes.)

The last story ends on a downbeat note, with Numata sad and frustrated in the rain. I gotta say, for a series with as much humor as this one (albeit dark and morbid humor), there’s a whole lot of tragedy here. And as always, there’s some nasty gore shots and occasional naked woman shots. In this volume, it’s the same thing, with fanservicey shots of the corpse’s breasts. You get the feeling the artist is doing this on purpose to make people uncomfortable.

Not an amazing volume, just solid and dependable. One of the best horror series coming out these days, and I look forward to the cover design change for Vol. 11.

Negima! Magister Negi Magi Volume 25

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By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan as “Mahou Sensei Negima!” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Del Rey.

This was a pretty great volume of Negima for those who like shonen manga. There’s a huge fight that takes up 2/3 of the volume, with lots of attacks and counterattacks and evil psycho lesbians and things going boom. We also start to finally get some background on Negi’s father, courtesy Jack Rakan, and meet a new character, Princess Arika.

Generally I find it hard to describe fights, so I’ll just note that all of our heroes and heroines get a brief chance to show off their skills – and Nodoka really looks impressive, showing how far she’s come since getting to this world and how much she learned from her “treasure hunting” friends. While still remaining, of course, Shinobu from Love Hina with a slightly different look.

Negi and Setsuna have a much tougher time. Negi proves to be tougher than Fate expected, but Fate still pretty much manages to wipe the floor with him. Meanwhile, Tsukuyomi takes Setsuna apart, having apparently now gone from “I have an obsessive crush on you” to “making you bleed causes me to orgasm”. This volume shows how completely over the edge she’s gone (she even licks her blade, in the time-honored cliche), and she accuses Setsuna of being too close to her friends and too human to ever defeat her. Something we’ve heard Setsuna accused of before, by Evangeline. Of course, this is Setsuna, Mistress of Angst, so…

In the end, though, it seems like only a minor defeat, as all our heroes are alive and they get some useful intel on the enemy. I say seems, of course, as it turns out this was a DISASTROUS defeat for our heroes, but it’s only suggested here – we won’t really know why till Volume 26.

And of course there’s humor and fanservice, the other things Negima is known for. The service is much lower than it used to be in the early days of this manga, but it’s still there, mostly in the scenes where Jack Rakan defeats two of Fate’s minions by flipping their skirts, stealing their panties, and sexually harassing them till they surrender. Negi and Yue briefly meet, and she has a flicker of recognition, causing her to let him get away and sacrifice herself. (Emily’s ‘we will avenge your death!’ when people are not dead seems to be a running gag.) Jack Rakan’s film of the backstory is hysterical, especially when he notes Konoka’s dad’s similarities to Setsuna. And Nagi and Arika’s initial meeting – and subsequent dislike of each other – reminds me of the stereotypical Takahashi couple. Hrm, foreshadowing? (Yes – and obvious foreshadowing at that, but hey.)

Oh, and the copious notes regarding the spells being used here are really above and beyond – great details on the part of Akamatsu (and Del Rey’s translators, the Nibley twins).

If you can’t stand nudity and ‘boobies!’ type fanservice, this is not the title for you. But if you can get over that (and the protagonist’s age), this has become one of the most exciting shonen manga being released over here.

Terrorism: Bad! Definitely!

One Piece Volume 33

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By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

When we last left our heroes, they were back on the Grand Line being challenged to a Davy Back Fight. The fight comes in 3 parts, and they choose teams ahead of time. So we have Robin, Nami, and Usopp; Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper; and Luffy by himself. What’s more, the team that wins gets to choose a crewmember of the team that loses for their own crew. This is why the fights are so bad – crews end up decimated if they lose.

This volume is really just an excuse to show that our crew are very strong and talented at what they do. Usopp comes up with science on the fly, Nami navigates through treacherous waters, and Robin uses her body part powers to keep things going. Unfortunately, the Foxy crew cheat openly (they even note cheating is perfectly fine in the rules), and due to his own Devil Fruit Powers, the Foxy team wins the first race.

Unfortunately for team 2, they decide to take Chopper for their crew, as he’s cute and a doctor and basically a talking reindeer. Chopper is horrified, and Zoro and Sanji now have to work on their own against Foxy’s team, three huge guys who outweigh them and outsize them by several orders of magnitude. However, the fun of these few chapters comes from watching the glorious bitching and sniping that Zoro and Sanji fling at each other. They may be fellow crew members, but they make a big deal of being unable to stand each other, and the result is comedy gold.

We also get my favorite moment of the whole volume in this battle, which is set up to be a soccer hybrid. Just like soccer, there are fouls and red cards, and the referee is blatantly favoring Fozy’s team. So much so that Sanji pummels him to the ground. Near unconsciousness, he reaches for his red card to remove Sanji from the game, when he finds his cards and whistle gone! Cut to Nami, tongue sticking out, flashing the cards and whistle. “It’s an old habit.” A nice reminder of Nami’s thieving ways.

Sanji and Zoro win, of course, and Chopper is rescued. This leads to the final game, which is Foxy vs. Luffy. But not just any Luffy… AFRO LUFFY! I have to admit, I was waiting for this volume just so I could see how Viz would handle the awkward dialogue. They did an excellent job of it, playing up the ‘champion’ part of the boxing being why Luffy needs the afro (the original had Luffy getting the mysterious strength of a black person, in case you’re curious). Needless to say, Afro Luffy is hysterically funny, especially when all the other characters start crediting the Afro with making him stronger (except Nami, our voice of reason as always).

However, Foxy turns out to be less of a pushover than we thought, and due to a combination of his devil fruit and dirty tricks, manages to beat Luffy to near-death? Is this the end for Straw-Hat Luffy? (Well, no, it’s not. Come on, Foxy is a jobber. But you’ll have to wait for Vol. 34 to see what happens.)

Despite the extra expense, I’m glad Viz is catching up with One Piece. Especially as starting with 34 we head into Water 7 and Enies Lobby, my favorite arc of the series to date.