Dream with Our Eyes Open

Kuro Kuratsu is something of a slacker, a student in his last year of university who has no idea of what he wants to do, can't land a job, and can't seem to get too excited about any of it. However, he's also enrolled in a Buddhist university and is the descendant of priests and shamans. When he responds to a call for volunteers to say prayers over suicide victims in the Aokigahara Forest (also featured in SDK!), several of the other volunteers end up witnessing a special power that he tries not to think about either: he can speak to the spirits of the dead. It turns out that several of his fellow volunteers have odd abilities or skills too: gangster-type Numata can dowse for hidden dead bodies with a crystal on a string; mop-topped space cadet Yata claims to be channeling an alien intelligence through his glove puppet (either that, or he's a frighteningly perceptive ventriloquist); kewpie-doll lookalike Makino has trained as a U.S.-style mortician (unusual in Japan, where most dead are cremated); and self-appointed group leader Sasaki, in addition to being bossy and organized and having a nose for money, is a skilled internet researcher and something of a hacker. When Kuro discovers that the corpse they're about to help move has a special request, the five of them are launched into a grisly murder mystery. And when they get an unexpected payoff as a result, Sasaki uses it as seed money to start the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

This is not a series for the squeamish. It features lots of dead bodies - not always intact - as well as heinous, often sexual crimes, and nudity - not always very good-looking nudity - is frequent. But it also has tons of deadpan humor, insight into current Japanese culture, and unexpected little grace notes, such as the rather rough-hewn but very compassionate priest who shows up in the second story. For the most part, like Mushishi, each "chapter" is a separate short story, although there are a few longer tales that take several chapters to conclude. The part of me that liked police procedurals when I read mysteries is really getting into this grimly playful manga. And the extensive notes at the end - not just sound effects, but also cultural and political notes - are a real plus.

Now that I think of it, this was a singularly appropriate manga to blog on All Souls Day ... !