Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service #7-9

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus, Book 3

Rate this book
Some manga offer you stories about zombies . . . others, robots . . . others, otaku—but only The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service would offer you a story about a zombie-robot otaku! And that's just the first of ten cases the Kurosagi gang encounter in Book Three, as strange-but-true rituals and incidents from Japan's past reemerge as tales of bizarre modern horror! Marriages with the dead . . . human air-defense radar . . . the souls of babies in the bodies of yakuza! And even as a cabal of phantoms seeks to imprison Karatsu's familiar spirit Yaichi, the Delivery Service face perhaps their greatest challenge yet . . . convincing somebody else to join their club so they don't lose their meeting space on campus!

648 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2016

9 people are currently reading
122 people want to read

About the author

Eiji Otsuka

361 books143 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).

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
86 (47%)
4 stars
71 (39%)
3 stars
23 (12%)
2 stars
2 (1%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Michael Jandrok.
189 reviews359 followers
April 7, 2019
Ok…..on with the disclaimers…..

DISCLAIMER: This is a is a review of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus 3. If you haven’t read omnibus 1 or 2 or caught up on individual volumes of the series, then you need to start here -

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And here -

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That will give you some of the basic background of what the series is about. This review is going to pick up pretty much where the last one left off…...and we are going to get straight to it.

Character development has been one of the better thematic qualities of this manga right from the start. The author makes a consistent effort to build upon past experiences and storylines for each individual, and it shows.

Kuro Karatsu: He is the keystone to the group, but he also seems to be set a little apart from the others in the KCDS. That isolation really begins to assert itself in this omnibus. But he also gets not one, but TWO romantic interests as the stories progress? Who knew Karatsu was such a stud?

Ao Sasaki - Her feelings for Karatsu came out of left field, but seems sincere. She is still the de facto leader of the gang, and her skills keep them moving in the right direction.

Makoto Numata - Still a big lunkhead, still never gets too old for a laugh.

Yuji Yata - Gets a bit more depth in these volumes, as he demonstrates a deeper well of knowledge and courage.

Kere Ellis - The spelling of his name gets changed to Kereellis somewhere along the line. Still the same foul-mouthed and sarcastic alien puppet that we have come to know and love, though. Gets a bit of star turn late in the game that shows he is more than just a one-dimensional character.

Keiko Makino - Her backstory is revealed, and it’s quite the shock. She is a much stronger person than she was portrayed as earlier in the series.

Tooru Sasayama - Comes and goes, really not much to say. He serves his purpose in the series.

Yaichi - Starts strong in the early stories in the omnibus but virtually disappears by the end. I want to know more of his story, but Otsuka kind of seems to forget about him as the narrative progresses.

The Volume 3 Omnibus consists of volumes seven through nine of the series, plus the usual “Disjecta Membra” sections which give notes on Japanese to English translation, plus the detail for the sound effects tags scattered throughout the panels. I really like how the descriptions for the sound effects often add additional information about the stories from a viewpoint of Japanese culture and history. I find this to be an invaluable learning tool.

First things first: the big cliffhanger ending at the end of volume 6 is…...not a cliffhanger ending? From the endnotes: “No, you’re not imagining things - Karatsu is back to more or less normal after Vol. 6’s cliffhanger with no explanation as to what happened to him between then and now. We are assured Eiji Otsuka will explain this...in good time, reader, in good time.” Well, ok, then….

Volume seven consists of six stories:

“Fight With My Heart” - The boys get a side-job moving headstones for a mortuary that’s preparing to open a new cemetery, but the backbreaking physical labor leads them to contact a robotics school looking for test subjects in hopes that they can ace both jobs and grab the easy cash. Turns out that a live guinea pig doesn’t work as well as a dead one, though, and things quickly spiral out of control. Beware of those old game cartridges that you may have laying around.

“Pretty, Pretty” and “My Happiness Part II” form a single story that involves a Japanese yokai called a jinmenso. In the traditional form of the legend, a human face may appear on fruit from haunted trees. The modified tale is where the face of a murder victim appears on the face of their killer. This story takes that definition a few steps further, adding a cosmetic surgery angle to that of a truly dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. The ears have it.

“My Don,” “I’m Not Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf,” and “Sunday Is A Stranger” combine to tell the tale of a movie shoot gone wrong at the hands of a demented director. This one REALLY played out like a Scooby-Doo episode with real corpses instead of masked menaces. Keiko gets a chance to star as the marginal center of the story for a change.

Volume eight consists of seven stories:

“A Cafe In A Campus Town” - The KCDS tries to recruit new members in order to retain their office space as an official club on the campus of the Buddhist College. Most of the new prospects bail, but one young girl seems to have promise. Things, as usual, are never quite as straightforward as they seem. Good story with a bittersweet ending.

“Romance,” “I Probably Won’t Die,” and “No Need For A Love Song” tie together three chapters that cover a mystery surrounding a real piece of Japanese culture called a “meikonshiki.” To quote Ao Sasaki: “What he’s talking about, anthropologists call ‘shigo kekkon.’ They did it in northeastern Japan. Similar rites existed in Okinawa, China, Taiwan, and Korea, too. You can find instances of it throughout Asian society. It was most prevalent in China, where a woman’s death expenses are the responsibility of the family she’s married off to. If you die single, there’s no one to bury you or mourn for you. So, by marrying her to someone’s son who died single, the son is honored with a wife...in exchange for footing the cost of his new wife’s burial.” The intrigue carries a new part-time employee of the KCDS into the web of death. Marriage can often be complex, even when the couple in question is deceased.

“An Afternoon with Just The Two Of Us,” “Princess’s Mirror,” and “I’ll Go Alone” form a chronicle of infanticide and baby drops that find the deceased spirits of the babies finding….shall we say…"other” available hosts. Notable as this is the first appearance of one Ms. Kikuchi, a possible love interest for Karatsu. But wait, does Ao ALSO have an interest in our bald monk with the power to speak to corpses? I didn’t see that coming. What’s going on here?

Volume nine consists of eight stories:

“Key To An Apartment” and “A Lonely Singing Doll” make up one tale. It’s a strange story of a spoiled idol actress and her distaste for her otaku fan base. Dolls are creepy, that’s all I have to say.

“Grape-Colored Experience” and “Tears That Disappear Into The Sand” deal with yet another of Japan’s urban legends, the bodiless motorcycle rider. Yes, that’s right, the legend flips the common retelling on its…..errrr…..head….and plays out as a story of technology and greed gone out of control. The OTHER urban legend mentioned is also real, that of the peeping ghost head that appears in women’s dressing rooms. Some well done fanservice in these stories, if nothing else.

“White House By The Sea,” “A Certain Situation,” and “What Lies After The Dream” all form one story arc that ties Japanese WWII history into a story of political intrigue and corruption that spans decades. The main plot point, though, harks back to a couple of stories in volume seven. The “listening ears” angle wasn’t all that interesting to begin with, and recycling the legend just seems a bit lazy. This is the first time that I have ever wondered if maybe this manga might be running out of fresh ideas. This narrative is important, though, in that the nurse Ms. Kikuchi appears again. The idea that she might be a romantic foil for Karatsu is played to the hilt here. But what of Ao, who now seems resigned to playing second banana in the romance follies?

“My Sadness” is a nice change of pace, a character study of two of the lesser lights in the series, Yuji and Keiko. It seems that both of them have similar backstories and they begin to connect. Kere Ellis gets his own star turn in this story, as well. You see a different side of our resident channeled alien puppet here.

All in all, a mostly satisfying omnibus that continues to flesh (pun intended) things out for our intrepid cast of corpse whisperers. I still want more of Yaichi and his backstory, and I’m not sure I get the whole Ao/Karatsu romance angle, but I’m invested in the ride now, so it’s on to omnibus volume four.
Profile Image for Rod Brown.
7,405 reviews284 followers
August 27, 2023
Another fun collection of supernatural mysteries solved by a corpse-obsessed Scooby gang.

This time around growing the mythology takes a back seat to episodic adventures that explore the some weird science with robots and cloning and invisibility, macabre Japanese traditions around marrying the dead and infanticide, and a bloody government conspiracy.

Romance starts to play a part in the core characters interactions, and we are given some glimpses into the dark origin stories of Keiko Makino and Yuji Yata.

Side note: The editor who writes the sound-effect end notes for each included volume is going increasingly off the rails as he tries to provide context for the story and references the author is making by going into ever-lengthening, rambling digressions that are very tinged with his personal experiences and opinions. I'm not complaining, mind you, as I've found them mostly informative and amusing, but it does significantly increase the amount of time it takes to read this already thick collection.
Profile Image for Dan P.
515 reviews2 followers
June 15, 2024
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is one of my favorite manga of all time. I started reading in college when the first volumes came out, and I was devastated when the manga bubble burst and Dark Horse stopped publishing the series. I'm so grateful they've committed to reprints of the original volumes with these omnibus editions AND even continued into previously unpublished material. I can't wait to catch up where I left off with these wonderful, hilarious, fucked up characters and their ridiculous adventures ❤️
Profile Image for Grace Henderson.
43 reviews14 followers
October 15, 2024
Took me a minute to finish but I love this series and all of the characters
124 reviews
August 17, 2018
Kurosagi is always so much fun and so crazy and inventive. The more one knows the characters the more enjoyable the journey of the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is. The supernatural - and I am not a huge supernatural fan - makes one believe that that world does exist somewhere, which makes my imagination go wild. One of the best things about these are the Disjecta Membra with such interesting notes - not just about manga, but so much about Japanese culture as well.
Profile Image for The Book Dragon.
2,523 reviews38 followers
May 21, 2019
Volume 7
Okay, just skip over what happened at the end of the last volume, that's fine. Oh, you're gonna go back to it in the next chapter, oh, that's better...WHAT? We're glossing over THAT?! NO! I WANT ANSWERS!

Volume 8
Ghosts on campus. Arranged marriages. MAJOR CULTURE SHOCK! Like seriously, I learned something new that was really interesting. Two or three things in fact. Also, Karatsu might have a love interest~

Volume 9
Creepy stalker dolls. Creepy stalker peeping tom. Creepy old man that could foresee the future. Actually, those chapters were really interesting, some WW2 history for the nerds. And speaking of history, we get a little backstory for two of our main characters...it only took them 9 VOLUMES to actually get around to it.

This omnibus contains volumes 7 - 9.
1 review
February 10, 2018
Another great set of volumes of Kurosagi, there's been a bit of a hint towards overarching story but it's still standalone stories. It's honestly been kinda of interesting reading a story mainly focused on corpses (including stories that feature the suicide forest) after recent actions of a YouTuber there recently and discussing what makes this feel okay while what they did wasn't.

In general, it's more Kurosagi. My only problem being Eiji Otsuka's decision to sexualise female corpses, which slightly reduces my enjoyment of what is otherwise pretty damn good manga series.
Profile Image for Nicole.
125 reviews8 followers
April 19, 2021
Not sure what happened here. It started strong with the plot finally delving into Karatsu's powers and the backstory of Yaichi. I was expecting the chapters to begin to revolve around a bigger plot now, but the tension was suddenly gone, Yaichi was promptly forgotten and the story went back to being "monster of the week." On top of that, a) Sasaki apparently has romantic feelings for Karatsu; b) Yata and Makino apparently went through similar experience in their childhood . Where did that come from? There was absolutely no hint of either of those plot points in earlier chapters!

Strong start, very disappointing end. Please, Otsuka, focus on the important stuff!
Profile Image for Stacie.
805 reviews
November 8, 2018
4.5 stars!

I loved this manga. It's gruesomely creative in retelling various Japanese urban legends. The characters continue to be charming and extremely likable. I appreciate that the comedic-relief portions are still present. Keeping a balance between humor and horror is what I enjoy about this series. The jokes are well timed and are good at breaking up the gore and other disturbing aspects of these mysteries. I'm glad that's woven into the story because I would probably get super creeped out otherwise. This was the right mix of tones and story lines for me. Would defintiely recommend The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service series if you like horror!
Profile Image for Sharon.
142 reviews27 followers
June 4, 2017
Another highly enjoyable collection of stories! Once again, the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service encounter strange happenings and plenty of corpses. We learn even more about its members, including some startling information regarding both Yata's and Makino's past. It seems that most if not all of the delivery service members have had a personal experience with death. There are also more supernatural elements to these stories and an ever-widening circle of acquaintances who also interact with the dead. I continue to love this series and look forward to the next omnibus!
Profile Image for Shylo.
276 reviews4 followers
August 30, 2020
I really enjoyed he first two omnibus volumes but this installment felt a little weaker than the others. We got some good momentum in the story at the end of omnibus 2 that was never referenced in 3. The deliveries here were more episodic in nature and not tied together by the overarching series plot. I still appreciated the stories but you could swap this volume with omnibus 2 and I don’t think anyone would notice. The revelations in the last chapter, while interesting, felt a little forced.

Hopefully, omnibus 4 will pick the story back up.
Profile Image for Lou Fillari.
408 reviews
October 6, 2023
I very much enjoy these books. The violence and nudity have decreased so now you gotta pay attention to the story. And there's a nice overarching story finally forming.

In this go-round we learn about other people much more than we do Karatsu, our fave protag. There's even enough recurring characters to keep me sated.
Profile Image for Chetana.
1,006 reviews27 followers
December 22, 2023
3.75⭐️

This volume gave us a bit more insight into the other characters - Makino and Yata that we haven't before while also going back to the episodic format from the first few volumes. I like the weird and wacky stories interspersed with some heavy ones. The author strikes a great balance with those.
Profile Image for Mark.
70 reviews3 followers
June 13, 2017
This addicting and informative series, each with thorough foot notes about Japanese history, culture, language and current events, has become part of my bed-time ritual. Simultaneously sweet and morbid; I highly recommend this series.
Profile Image for Joel.
152 reviews26 followers
May 21, 2021
More of the same for the most part. I'm increasingly looking forward to the Disjecta Membra at the end of each volume as the editor's notes are quite insightful.
Profile Image for Em.
280 reviews
June 21, 2024
i think some of the other stories from the last book were better, but i love that more information about karatsu and his spirit are being sprinkled in here !!!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.