Manga Review: Livingstone, Volume 2, by Tomohiro Maekawa and Jinsei Kataoka

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: March 2016

Volumes: 4.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository.

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

THE BUSINESS OF SOULS

Sakurai has been working with Y.K. Livingstone for a little over six months, so you would think he'd get the hang of things by now. However, his job—to clean and collect the physical form of the soul—comes with unique challenges that make things a little difficult… What's worse, he's been paired up with a partner who would rather play videogames than work. Dealing with life and death can be heavy business, from witnessing the power of emotional attachment, working with local law enforcement, to questioning whether animals have souls, Sakurai definitely seems to have his work cut out for him...

Review:

This series is very intriguing. It’s odd, and very dark at times, with odd humor. It’s enjoyable, but it’s also not really grabbing me with its characters.

There are several cases in this volume, each one violent and sad. A couple in which the girl keeps turning violent and beating up her boyfriend; a surgery that went wrong and the father who knows the hospital did wrong; even a little girl who’s possessed by an adult seductress. A little boy and his pet bird who gets hurt, when his father is remarrying a foreign woman.

We do meet another partnership collecting souls, who argue with our main characters.

I find the characters interesting, but I don’t really feel like I know them, and I’m not attached. The humor can be funny, but there isn’t much of it. I’m intrigued, but only half-heartedly. I probably will pick up the next one when I get the chance, though, since this is a short series.