Monday, December 17, 2007

Mail Volume 1

Overall Rating: B
Synopsis: Created by the artist from Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Housui Yamazaki, the series follows private detective Reiji Akiba, who specializes in the paranormal. Volume 1 opens with a nude model shoot, which immediately tells you why the books are wrapped in plastic. The shoot is in a river, and according to the location scout, it was beautiful. Apparently, it flooded, and everything from trash to a skeleton got washed into the area.

The photos reveal even more creepiness. Aside from the nude woman, there is also a headless girl in the photo. This is when we're introduced to the eccentric (a nice way of saying very weird) Akiba. He believes that the dead try to communicate with us every day, and that if we read their "mail", then we can help put them to rest. Sometimes, the dead aren't cooperative, so he also has special bullets with prayers on them that help put the more unruly spirits to rest as well.


I like Mail, but I hope it picks up steam. There are a lot of parallels to Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, which I love, but it doesn't quite capture the dark humor. It's more like Trigun meets horror, which could be fantastic if the series builds up steam.

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