The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

Reviewed by Marcio Guastavino
July 1, 2007

Author: Eiji Otsuka Artist: Housui Yamazaki Publisher: Dark Horse Website: Click Here

Kuro Karatsu is a fourth year student at a Buddhist university. He believes that he’ll finish school with average grades and ultimately live an average life. That is, until he finds a flyer for a strange job position and is hired by Ao Sasaki. Kuro has a strange ability that allows him to speak to a dead body, an ability that Ao is also able to use. You see, her group deals with dead bodies all the time. Along with four other members, including a channeler who uses a sock puppet to communicate with aliens, a dowser who has the ability to find corpses instead of water, and a young girl whose embalming skills can only be taught in America, the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service helps the dead find their way home and put their souls to rest. They encounter different scenarios and new perils with each person they help to the other side.

I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading Kurosagi. When I got into it, I figured, “hey, it’s kind of like Ghostbusters.”  But it has its differences. For one, this group is helping out the souls, not sucking them up into a box. So they’re not really bad guys when they take the corpses back to the school to study them.  A little unorthodox maybe, but not evil.  With each corpse they help, there seems to be a new mystery to solve, and while they take it seriously, the group is just so diverse that there’s a sense of fun in it all. It makes for better character development and interaction. There were times when the manga shocked me with its gore and sometimes full out nudity. Other than that, it’s a great read and will have you wondering why and how all the victims die.

I give Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service a Med-High Evolution Factor. This one is for the fans of a good mystery manga. There isn’t much action, but it’s a great story to follow. As long as decapitated heads, missing limbs, gore, nudity, and a little bit of profanity doesn’t bother you, pick up this manga at your nearest bookstore. “Your body is their business!”