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.

Some of the characters develop more than others. Yata, the shy channeler, has a longer tale that highlights his quiet infatuation with a girlish young lady who is not what she seems. And although Kuro is the main viewpoint character, Sasaki often serves as the reader's proxy, especially when she's using the Intarwebs for research. (This also gives the artist a chance to show her lounging around in her unmentionables, which I find oddly pleasing, because she's not really very skinny ... wow, fanservice with a girl who has a realistic build!) She also gets to star in the oddly spooky final tale in vol. 3, where she, least mystical member of the team, comes face-to-face with the unknowable. But all of them are fun - even cutely spooky Makino, who gets the least face-time with the readers - and I have a liking for tough Numata, who's not nearly as tough as he seems. (Makino knows that too - she calls him "Numacchi.")

But be warned - it is very grisly.

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