The late Satoshi Kon’s amazing series, Paranoia Agent, has been out of print for years after Geneon went under.
Finally, the series has been rescued and can now be streamed (sub and dub) on FUNimation’s website.
So I finally got and read the fifth Omnibus edition book of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.
I absolutely love this series. I currently rank it as my #2 favorite manga of all time (only behind Planetes) and after a very long stretch of absence, this is finally the first volume to include new material. If you are unaware, Dark Horse originally published the manga in individual volumes. However, the series wasn’t that much of a hit despite its excellent writing. Nevertheless they continued until it was no longer tenable, resulting in 14 volumes.
Dark Horse then proceeded to re-release the series in Omnibus format with three volumes of the series per book. This however also ran into trouble, partially due to the pandemic. They finally got to book 5, published this August, which is the first with new material by translating volume 15 of the series. It is excellent as always, including a story line that involves both the doomsday cult responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, as well as the 2011 Tohoku eartquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster resulting from it.
And also I must make not of Carl Gustav Horn’s excellent translation notes which are included at the end of each individual volume. He particularly topped himself on this one.
If you can, I highly recommend picking up this series. It is just a fantastic read with a hilarious character dynamic and strong themes of death and how it contrasts against contemporary urban life. However, as a horror series it is probably nothing for weak stomachs.
Honestly I’d recommend reading the manga over watching the show if you haven’t already watched or read either.