Reiko The Zombie Shop, Volume 1

Reiko The Zombie Shop #1

by Rei Mikamoto, Michael Gombos (Translator)

Terror has struck the sleepy little town of Shiraike. A serial killer stalks the streets murdering innocent girls. Twenty-nine grisly murders have been committed, with no clues to catch the killer. Until the town receives a strange visitor: a beautiful young woman who can raise the dead. She is Reiko: The Zombie Shop, necromancer for hire. For a price, she'll wake your dead, if only to find a clue to their demise, but she's not responsible for what the dead will say or do once they awaken!

Genres: Manga, Horror, Graphic Novels, Action, Josei, Zombies

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2005

About the author

Rei Mikamoto 三家本 礼 (Mikamoto Rei) is a Japanese mangaka known for Reiko the Zombie Shop (ゾンビ屋れい子, Zombie-ya Reiko, "Zombie-merchant Reiko"), Satanister (サタニスター, Satanisutā), Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw (血まみれスケバンチェーンソー, Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw) and Big Tits Dragon (巨乳ドラゴン, Kyonyū Doragon), among other works.

Reviews

[Kiki Durney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely gory, violent, and satanic. If you're into that sort of thing, this manga won't disappoint. Also, the classic manga female stereotypes apply (school girl, big boobs, short skirts, super strong and ultra intelligent). I gave it a three only because it is what it is, and doesn't try to be anything else. I can respect that. The author picked the theme he wanted and went with it, lol. Not my particular cup of coffee though; I drink it black but not this black.

[The Local Spooky Hermit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man I really like this series its so DIFFERENT! Its probably the most splatterpunk inspired manga I've read! Though honestly I think the serial killer should've lived longer would have been fun to soo the 2 hunting eachother and maybe get the killers back story.. I only got 6 books I don't think anymore came out in English.. bummer, can dark horse PLEASE RELEASE THE REST?!

[Reuben Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was full of that typical Japanese kink - i.e. the lead character is a schoolgirl with giant boobs, a short skirt and pigtails; any chance for the girls to be topless is taken; and there's a couple of "adult male in lust with a teenager" scenarios - and that does tend to weird me out, but for the purposes of reading a manga without being exhausted by all the grossness, I decided to just suspend my feminist, western brain for a little while and roll with the cultural differences. So, ignoring all that, I actually really liked this book.
It's pretty light on story and is split into very short "acts" that don't necessarily link to each other, but what continuing plot there is was pretty gripping and the final showdown was great. I'm really interested to see where it's going to go in volume two as I have no idea how it's going to come back from how it ended.
Reiko herself is a really cool character. I love how she's this mature, clever, calm, cold, business-minded young woman, rather than a silly, simpering schoolgirl, or some kind of hero who uses her power for good. For Reiko, it's a job, simple as that, and that's quite a different take to the superheroes I'm so used to reading.
The level of violence and gore is great. For me, it's on a par with comics like The Walking Dead and Kick Ass which I loved reading the first time around for how graphic they were with all their deaths. Also, I loved seeing the contrast between this gorgeous, innocent looking art style and what was actually going on in the frame; my favourite panel being one in which a guy's face is sliced in half, with a particularly nice emphasis on his eyeball bursting. There are some pretty funny moments as well, which balance out the horror elements really nicely.
All in all, for my first proper foray into manga, it was a fine place to start.

[jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Reiko the Zombie shop completely by accident. I found it by fooling around on some website and I believe it was used as an example for something. I became intrigued with the image shown (which turned out to be the cover image for Volume 6 of the series) and found myself wanting to read it. I bought the first volume and while waiting for it to arrive, I went to a used book store. I was looking around in the clearance section and lo and behold, I found the second volume of Reiko. It was almost like it was meant to be. Reiko is almost composed of short little stories or arcs revolving around Reiko's adventures as the "Zombie Shop". There is a main plot, but it is spread out through the volumes. There are 12 volumes in total, but unfortunately Dark Horse stopped translating it half-way through and there are no scans online. The only way I would be able to finish the series would be if I knew French or Japanese. The art is very unique in my opinion - I've never seen anything like it. I really enjoyed the 6 volumes I read and hope someone eventually translates the rest. Maybe in the future, I could do it myself if I really had the drive to.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently got into Rei Mikamoto's work through discovering Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw, so I figured I'd check out one of the few (possibly the only?) one of his works to get an official english translation.

This stuff is right up my alley, very silly B-movie style sleaze with lots of gore, monsters, nudity and some occasionally uncomfortable sexuality. Reiko's a fun character, I like that she's kind of unlikable in her own way and her antagonists tend to be delightfully scummy. I think that if there's anything that keeps me from being totally in love with this first volume, it's the amount of child death. I have a pretty strong tolerance for most things, but kids in peril or being harmed is something that hits a little too hard for me and it's shown in very graphic detail here. Thankfully, there is some catharsis for it all in the end, but it was rough getting there for me.

Excited to check out the rest of this series! Hopefully it has more of the fun kind of gross stuff and less 5 year olds being dismembered.

[Book Shark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic stories and great gore!

[The Inked Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[S.P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the characters disposition towards being paid for her efforts - this is quite different to the usual heroine model.

The second and half the third volume are more traditional in their good vs evil plot, and then it wanders in and out - pretty randomly.

I want a Puripon.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what I want zombie comics to be like. It was a different angle on zombies, yet violent and without too much backstory. It read well as a standalone too. I'd read more.