The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service: Volume 2

Seeing as there are no other reviews for this volume, (pretty much all the others have at least one) I figured I'd at least try. (and prepare for lots of these little digressions) The second volume of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service centers around a single plot arc instead of each "issue" being stand alone short stories, like the first volume. The story starts with the guys broke and using their van for more traditional deliveries. This all changes when they are picking up packages from a prison and accidentally load up the corpse of a recently executed murderer and then . . . (OK, so I hate it when people give away the whole plot in reviews) Needless to say hi jinx shenanigans, and plot twists ensue. There is less of the black humor that made the first volume so delightful, (and gallows humor would be so appropriate) but it is traded for more character development, so its an even trade. (as well as a manga/anime tradition, the first few volumes of any title seem to have more humor to ease readers in and make them like the characters before moving into the "meatier" stuff. Start off with melodrama and most people will tune out.) The writing is still very good, the series boasts much more dialogue than an average manga, and the author can handle the mature themes of the series very well. The art style is the same as the first volume, realistic (by manga standards) but lacking detail (not really a complaint, I just can't remember a positive word for it at the moment) and the violence has a needle-in-the-arm quality to it (I should explain: when a Persian gets run through or chopped in half in 300, everyone cheers, but if someone gets a needle stuck in their arm on a medical drama, the same people would cringe and squirm in their seat.) All action words are still rendered in Japanese and the panels go from right to left. (Yes, I know it is the standard for manga, but there are titles that stray from this so i like to mention it) For the moms out there, there is violence, blood/gore, dead bodies aplenty, (remember the title) nudity, (mostly of corpses which is just creepy) and a swearing sock puppet just to round things off. In conclusion, (four years of college and now I can't end anything without saying that) if your considering this you've probably read the first volume so the major deciding factor is that there is *slightly* less humor and loads more story. If you haven't read the first volume then GO DO THAT NOW, unless you're the squeemish type you're in store for one of the best manga titles to make it to our shores.