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The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service #5
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 5
The corpses whose last wishes Kurosagi deliver usually died not too long ago . . . for reasons that are gruesomely obvious. But when the ominous Mr. Nire returns to the scene with a re-animated mummy in tow, what they’re gonna do is go back . . . way back, as the kids kick it Egyptian Old Kingdom school! Then, travel from the past into the future of death, as the Kurosagi crew unlocks the cold business behind some cryogenically frozen heads!
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 26, 2005
About the author
Eiji Otsuka
348 books137 followers大塚英志
Social anthropologist and novelist. Graduated from college with degree in anthropology, women's folklore, human sacrifice and post-war manga. In addition to his work with manga he is a critic, essayist, and author of several successful non-fiction books on Japanese popular and “otaku” sub-cultures. One of his first animation script works was Maho no Rouge Lipstick, an adult lolicon OVA. Otsuka was the editor for the bishojo lolicon manga series Petit Apple Pie.
In the 80s, Otsuka was editor-in-chief of Manga Burikko, a leading women's manga magazine where he pioneered research on the “otaku” sub-culture in modern Japan. In 1988 he published "Manga no Koro" (The Structure of Comics), a serious study of Japanese comics and their social significance. Also as critic, Otsuka Eiji, summarized the case of the Japanese red army's 1972 murders as a conflict between the masculine and the feminine principles as they were both embodied by women and against women (Otsuka,1994).
Social anthropologist and novelist. Graduated from college with degree in anthropology, women's folklore, human sacrifice and post-war manga. In addition to his work with manga he is a critic, essayist, and author of several successful non-fiction books on Japanese popular and “otaku” sub-cultures. One of his first animation script works was Maho no Rouge Lipstick, an adult lolicon OVA. Otsuka was the editor for the bishojo lolicon manga series Petit Apple Pie.
In the 80s, Otsuka was editor-in-chief of Manga Burikko, a leading women's manga magazine where he pioneered research on the “otaku” sub-culture in modern Japan. In 1988 he published "Manga no Koro" (The Structure of Comics), a serious study of Japanese comics and their social significance. Also as critic, Otsuka Eiji, summarized the case of the Japanese red army's 1972 murders as a conflict between the masculine and the feminine principles as they were both embodied by women and against women (Otsuka,1994).
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 17, 2019
Mummies, professional mourners, cryogenics -- this is more to my taste than insects. Bugs, yecch.
September 24, 2015
Y... vamos perdiendo gas.
El gore es casi inexistente en este volúmen. La historia de transfondo de Karatsu sigue construyéndose pero sin avanzar demasiado.
Veamos si el 6 ya muestra lo bueno.
El gore es casi inexistente en este volúmen. La historia de transfondo de Karatsu sigue construyéndose pero sin avanzar demasiado.
Veamos si el 6 ya muestra lo bueno.
July 30, 2009
I thought the 5th volume was going to head down hill after the fourth.
My toddler hid from me for 3 months--found it and sped through it. The characters--learned more about Japanese culture/history. It is a wild weird ride--adult only stuff for sure--but if feeds my strange side for sure! They have fun with the story lines, but also get into serious topics of death/spirit/respect/suicide--rest of the soul. They balance it more with this issue. I have 3 more sealed issues awaiting me on a pile now. This volume leave you with some questions about the character the reading the minds of the dead--who raised him? We now know where he came from--but his powers, his guardian spirit-what is his purpose really?
What is the old lady to him? I want to know more about alien puppet boy now!!!!
My toddler hid from me for 3 months--found it and sped through it. The characters--learned more about Japanese culture/history. It is a wild weird ride--adult only stuff for sure--but if feeds my strange side for sure! They have fun with the story lines, but also get into serious topics of death/spirit/respect/suicide--rest of the soul. They balance it more with this issue. I have 3 more sealed issues awaiting me on a pile now. This volume leave you with some questions about the character the reading the minds of the dead--who raised him? We now know where he came from--but his powers, his guardian spirit-what is his purpose really?
What is the old lady to him? I want to know more about alien puppet boy now!!!!
May 10, 2018
Serial killers, mummies, cryogenics, there's certainly no shortage of diversity in the cases the Kurosagi folks end up dealing with, and that sense of never knowing what to expect next is part of what keeps this series so fresh. This one didn't seem quite as strong as Volume 4, but it's still a good collection, and the reintroduction of the Nire Funeral Service promises that they'll make for interesting foils, as the series goes along. Overall, another solid installment.
April 4, 2020
3.5 stars
The gang found a mummified body in a house and using an unlikely old acquaintance, they try to solve the mystery of how the body got to be in the state it was found in.
It's still rather an amusingly dark tale about life and death they're trying to tell in every case. I just wish I can binge read all the volume at once!
May 26, 2022
If you're into Ancient Egyptian mummies and mummification, and cryogenics, this will be up your alley. Nice change of topics, introducing different types of methods for the dead.
Some of the chapters could be extended with a second part.
Some of the chapters could be extended with a second part.
January 21, 2018
Much more of actually delivering corpses lately, and while I was afraid this series would get repetitive and tired after a while, so far it has just gotten better.
August 8, 2018
Lol the ending
November 18, 2020
So I really like where this series is going but at this point I feel like it's dragging a bit. Also the depiction of an american made me cringe a bit.
January 4, 2024
Another solid volume, this one funnier than previous entries.
May 30, 2012
Stuff I Read – Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol 5
Well it’s back in the saddle with Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. It’s been a while, as Borders was out of just this volume and never restocked. Given the state of that company, I’m not exactly surprised. So lacking direct access to it through the book store I ordered it through Borders’ online store, which was cheap and offered free shipping because of my plus membership, so yippy on that. But then the volume took something like three weeks to arrive, in which time I had read two volumes of MPD psycho, two volumes of Pluto, five volumes of Cat Paradise, two volumes of Wolf’s Rain, a few volumes of Chi’s Sweet Home, and various other things. So it has been a while. Luckily this series is such that you don’t really need to know what is going in any larger story sense to understand and enjoy the episodes. The company has seen better days as this volume gets underway, and indeed it does feel like a bit of time has passed since the group managed to turn a profit. Still, the show must go on.
The first delivery revolves around a man who dies while the group is performing for a group of elderly people, and one of them passes away. It turns out that the man is from a ghost town, or at least a town reported to be a ghost town, where someone killed all of the inhabitants. This is actually quite straightforward in the end, and it turns out that a soldier snapped once he had returned home and killed pretty much everyone in the village, only to be killed by the then young man who passed away at the beginning of the story. Not really a whole lot in the way of story, though there were some neat moments, like when it is explained how dead people and turn into soap. It was really more trying to say something about war and that kind of thing and just didn’t move the way some of the other stories did. Luckily the second delivery revolves around mummies, and introduces a new mummy character working for the company’s rivals. In this story the rival company (from the second volume) have gotten into the swank world of mummification, and the delivery guys come across a fake mummy. After a bit of help from the living mummy, they find out that the mummy was made by a professor at the university to be sold off to fund his research into legitimate mummies. This one again fell a little short, but was interesting and had some cool scenes in it.
The third delivery was probably my favorite of this volume, and got into motion as the group starts raising money by becoming professional mourners. They join forces with an old woman who has the power to make people cry, and begin to uncover a very odd set of deaths. Here we see at one time the capitalist methods being used to get the company more money. But at the same time someone else took those same tenants and decided that they could start making more money by killing popular bloggers and then running shuttles to their funerals. It is nice and twisted and shows how those self-impowering but morally bankrupt capitalist ideas can be used for incredibly horrible things. The last delivery revolves around cryonics, or cryogenics, or whatever you want to call it. Freezing people. It is another stronger delivery as the team finds a bunch of heads in a cave and find a case of fraud. This is also the delivery that puts the team in actual risk, as the guys get stuck in a freezer and it is up to the women to bust them out. It also has the most humor with the ending, with the decapitated heads rolling after the man who fooled them and getting stuck in ice, on display in the future as a very odd scene.
Overall, though, this is another rather mediocre volume of the series. Not that it isn’t enjoyable, but the volume really doesn’t do anything new, and it leaves me wishing that more would start happening with what there is of an overarching story. The ghost that haunts the main character is still mysterious and even the glimpses we get of what might be plot development lack clarification. It is still fun to read, and I still enjoy it, but I don’t want it to get stuck in the same old rut. I want the group to evolve, and really they need to do something as their company is pretty much dying. They manage to turn a small profit in two of these mysteries, but really it seems like they would have to do more than that to survive. More, I want some sort of change, some sort of story, to immerge that will prompt these characters to grow a bit. I’m all for episodic storytelling, but there still have to be character developments, and I find that a bit lacking of late. Still, I consider this a good manga, and I still give it a 7.25/10.
Well it’s back in the saddle with Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. It’s been a while, as Borders was out of just this volume and never restocked. Given the state of that company, I’m not exactly surprised. So lacking direct access to it through the book store I ordered it through Borders’ online store, which was cheap and offered free shipping because of my plus membership, so yippy on that. But then the volume took something like three weeks to arrive, in which time I had read two volumes of MPD psycho, two volumes of Pluto, five volumes of Cat Paradise, two volumes of Wolf’s Rain, a few volumes of Chi’s Sweet Home, and various other things. So it has been a while. Luckily this series is such that you don’t really need to know what is going in any larger story sense to understand and enjoy the episodes. The company has seen better days as this volume gets underway, and indeed it does feel like a bit of time has passed since the group managed to turn a profit. Still, the show must go on.
The first delivery revolves around a man who dies while the group is performing for a group of elderly people, and one of them passes away. It turns out that the man is from a ghost town, or at least a town reported to be a ghost town, where someone killed all of the inhabitants. This is actually quite straightforward in the end, and it turns out that a soldier snapped once he had returned home and killed pretty much everyone in the village, only to be killed by the then young man who passed away at the beginning of the story. Not really a whole lot in the way of story, though there were some neat moments, like when it is explained how dead people and turn into soap. It was really more trying to say something about war and that kind of thing and just didn’t move the way some of the other stories did. Luckily the second delivery revolves around mummies, and introduces a new mummy character working for the company’s rivals. In this story the rival company (from the second volume) have gotten into the swank world of mummification, and the delivery guys come across a fake mummy. After a bit of help from the living mummy, they find out that the mummy was made by a professor at the university to be sold off to fund his research into legitimate mummies. This one again fell a little short, but was interesting and had some cool scenes in it.
The third delivery was probably my favorite of this volume, and got into motion as the group starts raising money by becoming professional mourners. They join forces with an old woman who has the power to make people cry, and begin to uncover a very odd set of deaths. Here we see at one time the capitalist methods being used to get the company more money. But at the same time someone else took those same tenants and decided that they could start making more money by killing popular bloggers and then running shuttles to their funerals. It is nice and twisted and shows how those self-impowering but morally bankrupt capitalist ideas can be used for incredibly horrible things. The last delivery revolves around cryonics, or cryogenics, or whatever you want to call it. Freezing people. It is another stronger delivery as the team finds a bunch of heads in a cave and find a case of fraud. This is also the delivery that puts the team in actual risk, as the guys get stuck in a freezer and it is up to the women to bust them out. It also has the most humor with the ending, with the decapitated heads rolling after the man who fooled them and getting stuck in ice, on display in the future as a very odd scene.
Overall, though, this is another rather mediocre volume of the series. Not that it isn’t enjoyable, but the volume really doesn’t do anything new, and it leaves me wishing that more would start happening with what there is of an overarching story. The ghost that haunts the main character is still mysterious and even the glimpses we get of what might be plot development lack clarification. It is still fun to read, and I still enjoy it, but I don’t want it to get stuck in the same old rut. I want the group to evolve, and really they need to do something as their company is pretty much dying. They manage to turn a small profit in two of these mysteries, but really it seems like they would have to do more than that to survive. More, I want some sort of change, some sort of story, to immerge that will prompt these characters to grow a bit. I’m all for episodic storytelling, but there still have to be character developments, and I find that a bit lacking of late. Still, I consider this a good manga, and I still give it a 7.25/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2008
Overall Rating: A
Synopsis: Your body is their business! From writer, Eiji Otsuka, and artist, Housui Yamazaki, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is a manga that combines horror, and humor. The surprising thing about the series is that it does a good job at both. The story follows five Buddhist college students as they start up a unique service, one that serves the dead. Using unique skills, like dowsing and speaking to the dead, they find the dead and help them free their souls for reincarnation. Oh, and did I mention one of them speaks to aliens through the puppet on his hand?
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service follows Kuro Karatsu, an average student at an average Buddhist college. Kuro is trying to find a job, but his grades aren't good enough to get anything good. Fortunately for Kuro, he has a skill the other students don't, he can also speak to the dead. After getting roped into some volunteer service where he meets other specialists like himself, who can find dead bodies using dowsing, speak to aliens, and an embalmer (a rare occupation in Japan), the group forms the Kurosagi (which means black crane) Corpse Delivery Service. Their job is to find dead bodies whose souls cannot move on, and help free them so they can be reincarnated. Unfortunately for Kuro and the others, apparently the reason souls can't move on is because of some fucked up shit.
For example, the first case they get involved in deals with two lovers killed by the girl's father. Apparently, the girl had been a member of the pop group, Dokkiko, and the father had been abusing the girl. When he found out about her relationship, he became jealous and killed her and her boyfriend. Even more disturbingly, he replaces her corpse with a deer's carcass and takes her corpse back to their home to further abuse. Don't worry, the case ends happily enough, with the dead lovers killing the father so their souls can be released.
So, where's the humor? Well, if people speaking to aliens through hand puppets isn't enough to make you smile, I'm fairly sure you're dead inside. Even if that isn't your cup of tea, there is lots of shit to make you giggle in the series. For example, in the same story, Numada, the bad ass Dowser, comments on the pop group the dead girl belonged to, saying that she was a pure idol, and her departure from the group broke the hearts of all her fans. The delivery is fantastic and it's this kind of humor that makes the book great. The characters in the book deal with the horror like normal people. Well, normal people who have special powers and are kind of weird.
You might think that in a book where characters can speak to the dead, that the stories would be more action focused, or at least fast-paced, but the writing is often somber, and spends a lot of time presenting different facets of death and how people deal with it. The series also does an excellent job of juxtaposing real life issues like scrapping up enough money to buy lunch, and the supernatural issues that come along with speaking to the dead. I highly recommend checking this one out, but don't read it alone at night, unless you like creeping yourself out.
For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.
Synopsis: Your body is their business! From writer, Eiji Otsuka, and artist, Housui Yamazaki, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is a manga that combines horror, and humor. The surprising thing about the series is that it does a good job at both. The story follows five Buddhist college students as they start up a unique service, one that serves the dead. Using unique skills, like dowsing and speaking to the dead, they find the dead and help them free their souls for reincarnation. Oh, and did I mention one of them speaks to aliens through the puppet on his hand?
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service follows Kuro Karatsu, an average student at an average Buddhist college. Kuro is trying to find a job, but his grades aren't good enough to get anything good. Fortunately for Kuro, he has a skill the other students don't, he can also speak to the dead. After getting roped into some volunteer service where he meets other specialists like himself, who can find dead bodies using dowsing, speak to aliens, and an embalmer (a rare occupation in Japan), the group forms the Kurosagi (which means black crane) Corpse Delivery Service. Their job is to find dead bodies whose souls cannot move on, and help free them so they can be reincarnated. Unfortunately for Kuro and the others, apparently the reason souls can't move on is because of some fucked up shit.
For example, the first case they get involved in deals with two lovers killed by the girl's father. Apparently, the girl had been a member of the pop group, Dokkiko, and the father had been abusing the girl. When he found out about her relationship, he became jealous and killed her and her boyfriend. Even more disturbingly, he replaces her corpse with a deer's carcass and takes her corpse back to their home to further abuse. Don't worry, the case ends happily enough, with the dead lovers killing the father so their souls can be released.
So, where's the humor? Well, if people speaking to aliens through hand puppets isn't enough to make you smile, I'm fairly sure you're dead inside. Even if that isn't your cup of tea, there is lots of shit to make you giggle in the series. For example, in the same story, Numada, the bad ass Dowser, comments on the pop group the dead girl belonged to, saying that she was a pure idol, and her departure from the group broke the hearts of all her fans. The delivery is fantastic and it's this kind of humor that makes the book great. The characters in the book deal with the horror like normal people. Well, normal people who have special powers and are kind of weird.
You might think that in a book where characters can speak to the dead, that the stories would be more action focused, or at least fast-paced, but the writing is often somber, and spends a lot of time presenting different facets of death and how people deal with it. The series also does an excellent job of juxtaposing real life issues like scrapping up enough money to buy lunch, and the supernatural issues that come along with speaking to the dead. I highly recommend checking this one out, but don't read it alone at night, unless you like creeping yourself out.
For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.
March 28, 2012
The creators of this series seem determined to pick at every scab of 20th century Japanese history. In Vol. 4 it was Unit 731, the infamous biological warfare initiative from WWII. This time. the Kurosagi team gets involved in tracking down the truth about a small village supposedly wiped out by a mass murderer many years before. The murderer turns out to have been on of the perpetrators of the Nanking massacre, the Japanese mass murders and rapes in a Chinese city in 1937. Returning home with an extreme form of PTSD, the man kills his entire village. Hardly social commentary, but still an approach to surprising, sensitive subject matter.
There is also something about a body in a mummy case and a really funny episode about the cryogenic industry that allows author and artist to cut loose with the grisly fun.
As always, the notes are informative and useful.
There is also something about a body in a mummy case and a really funny episode about the cryogenic industry that allows author and artist to cut loose with the grisly fun.
As always, the notes are informative and useful.
November 1, 2019
I reviewed volumes 1-14 for Lady Business, but the long and short of it is that it's one of my favourite horror series, and when it wants to do political commentary, it goes HARD. It just also has some storylines that I side-eye INTENSELY.
Caution warnings for the series:
Caution warnings for the series:
July 16, 2010
Cryogenic heads dumped in a pit in a cave and modern-day mummies...all with stories to tell post-mortem. Not two volumes are alike - I love how unique and bizarre the plots continue to be. I'm also enjoying the growing ties between our young investigators and the 'former cop now social worker' who keeps taking advantage of their skills to solve the mysterious deaths of his clients (people that society has for the most part forgotten/ignored).
June 7, 2011
I really enjoyed this one. I think this is just a series that some people adore and others hate. If you liked the earlier books you will enjoy this one too. It's more lovely morbid Scooby-doo-esque action comedy horror manga for you.
I think the same people that enjoyed Zombieland and Sean of the Dead will enjoy this book.
I think the same people that enjoyed Zombieland and Sean of the Dead will enjoy this book.
March 22, 2010
I have to say this one was definitely one of the more odd story-lines I've read out of this series. I think it has something to do with the dismembered heads. The introduction of the character Shinuhe was a bit campy and I'm not sure I really buy it but it does leave one wondering...
Shelved as 'graphic-novels'
March 31, 2014
October 9, 2014
Once again, Eiji Ohtsuka outshines himself. This manga is seriously underrated -- more people need to read this one!
August 24, 2011
The crying lady story was a little disjointed. I do like seeing the side characters like Sasayama and the gang from Nire Ceremonies adding some interesting stuff.
August 8, 2015
I am totally in love with this series.
September 29, 2013
So happy to find this series is online!
February 12, 2015
it keeps getting better -_- also I hate the term "otaku"
May 4, 2023
An absolute brilliant volume with one of my favourite scenes.
May 2, 2017
finally glad to progress in this series. I paused in buying volumes since this one last i checked was selling for 60 online!!! and was no where to be found in store sadly. BUT finally after a long wait bought it at a used bookstore yay. awesome stories in this volume. Was able to learn something new too!! like how humans can turn into soap and that people are hired to cry at funerals. very interesting. This manga keeps getting better and better.
December 15, 2017
Anyone else think that ending was weird?
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews