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Mail #3
Private detective Reiji Akiba has a theory about those awkward moments and weird coincidences we all encounter in life. They are actually encounters with the dead - their way of sending us a message. But you may not want to open such strange mail from beyond - not unless you can see the ghostly attachment, like Akiba can. And not unless you carry a tool that can kill what isn't alive, like Akiba's sanctified gun Kagutsuchi... digging a divine grave to lay to rest the evil dead! Volume 3 opens with Detective Akiba taking a trip down memory lane, to his childhood, when as a young blind boy, he befriended a little girl in the woods near his house. Theirs was a clandestine relationship and the tragedy that ensued would later resonate in Akiba's adult life. In "Un-notifying," Detective Akiba must help a young woman terrorized by the ghost of a lonely girl whose lifeline to the world of the living is an old cell phone. These and other postcards from purgatory await you to be read in Mail Volume 3!
208 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2005
3 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Housui Yamazaki
51 books12 followersHousui Yamazaki [山崎 峰水] is a Japanese manga artist. He also has two other pseudonyms [Yamazaki Hiroshi:山崎 浩], [Hiro Yamazaki:ヒロ 山崎] He wrote and illustrated the three volume Mail series in 1999-2002, 2004, 2005. He currently illustrates The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, which is authored by Eiji Otsuka.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 1, 2017
Apparently I have a _need-to-rate-review shelf from like 8 months ago that, like many of these books, I forgot existed. So we're going to blast through them Mad Max style, in no way giving them the attention I am sure they deserve.
All you really need to know is that there are three volumes of this series and I seem to have read them all in a sitting. Which means that they must not suck and they must be stupidly quick reads, for better and worse.
Of interest (and from my notes bc there's no way I'd remember this), each story in each volume is numbered. That obviously isn't the interesting part. But volume two ends with Mail #12, and volume three picks up with Mail #14. There is no #13 that I can tell.
Also beside one of the story notes I have is "lots of unneeded nudity. put on a robe, woman." Not sure what my aversion to boobs was that day. Perhaps I wanted to hand out horror manga to some kid last summer. Just makes me laugh. :D
3.5 "I actually read all the volumes so it must be decent" stars
All you really need to know is that there are three volumes of this series and I seem to have read them all in a sitting. Which means that they must not suck and they must be stupidly quick reads, for better and worse.
Of interest (and from my notes bc there's no way I'd remember this), each story in each volume is numbered. That obviously isn't the interesting part. But volume two ends with Mail #12, and volume three picks up with Mail #14. There is no #13 that I can tell.
Also beside one of the story notes I have is "lots of unneeded nudity. put on a robe, woman." Not sure what my aversion to boobs was that day. Perhaps I wanted to hand out horror manga to some kid last summer. Just makes me laugh. :D
3.5 "I actually read all the volumes so it must be decent" stars
April 9, 2018
(Review for the whole series)
Akiba Reiji is a private detective. In addition to usual cheating wives, embezzling managers and deadbeat dads, he investigates the paranormal. Paranormal activity, he says, is like mail from the departed - always a message of one kind or another.
The stories are quite episodic, with no overarching plot aside from the life of Akiba himself. The art is varied and full of character - definitely not shoujo- or shounen-standard art style. The episodes have a dreamy quality to them in a lot of cases. Often, the focus of the story is not Akiba or his client, but someone else who has gotten caught up in the same phenomenon.
The series ends rather abruptly. This could just be a by-product of its episodic nature, or maybe it got canceled.
Akiba Reiji is a private detective. In addition to usual cheating wives, embezzling managers and deadbeat dads, he investigates the paranormal. Paranormal activity, he says, is like mail from the departed - always a message of one kind or another.
The stories are quite episodic, with no overarching plot aside from the life of Akiba himself. The art is varied and full of character - definitely not shoujo- or shounen-standard art style. The episodes have a dreamy quality to them in a lot of cases. Often, the focus of the story is not Akiba or his client, but someone else who has gotten caught up in the same phenomenon.
The series ends rather abruptly. This could just be a by-product of its episodic nature, or maybe it got canceled.
August 25, 2013
I finished the last of the "Mail" series. I wish there had been more of them. Akiba is the detective/narrator, who reminded me of a combination of the Cryptkeeper from the old "Tales from the Crypt" shows, Sherlock Holmes, and one of the Ghostbusters.
In this volume Akiba got a young female sidekick which reminded me of Black Jack and Pinoko. I didn't like that aspect too much, since he seemed better as a solo act, but it didn't affect the stories too much.
In this series you get some sense of the Japanese myths around ghosts (yurei); it is useful to check the Wikipedia site first to get some background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABrei.
I suppose I'll have to read the rest of the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service series, drawn by the same artist. That series is linked thematically, but doesn't have the same "ghost story" feeling like this series.
In this volume Akiba got a young female sidekick which reminded me of Black Jack and Pinoko. I didn't like that aspect too much, since he seemed better as a solo act, but it didn't affect the stories too much.
In this series you get some sense of the Japanese myths around ghosts (yurei); it is useful to check the Wikipedia site first to get some background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABrei.
I suppose I'll have to read the rest of the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service series, drawn by the same artist. That series is linked thematically, but doesn't have the same "ghost story" feeling like this series.
April 19, 2017
To have read this late at night with the lights shut turned out not to be a bright idea. I underestimated the creepiness factor of this manga and boy was I freaked out at the first chapter. Afterwards, it isn't as scary as much as it is startling. The scare tactics of the series is reminiscent of The Ring and The Grudge. Still, I don't plan to read this whether it's day or night ever again.
December 31, 2015
This volume was well paced just like the first two volumes. The stories felt more modern in this one, especially with the girl haunting people through a cell phone. You also get some backstory on Akiba, which is nice, but there is an introduction of a new character that feels arbitrary at this point in the series.
August 19, 2015
It doesn't exactly tread new horror ground, but I enjoyed the pace and cadence of the vignette style of storytelling. Still fondly reminds me of the 10th doctor, which is always worth a bonus rating star.
March 3, 2009
I love the use of scratchboard for Akiba's memories of the time he was blind. Is Mikoto a shoutout to Pinoko? She manages to be less creepy and less annoying.
July 13, 2023
Definitely a step down from the previous 2 but still very enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews