Electric Sista Hood: Mitsukazu Mihara: The Embalmer :: Video Game Reviews, Tech Gadget Reviews, and Anime Reviews

Our friend, Tim Beedle over at Tokyopop heard the podcast where I raved about how much I loved Priest, and suggested this title to me.

Shinjyurou is an embalmer in Japan where his profession is viewed as taboo and unacceptable but most of all it is seen as unclean. He has accepted this life as an outcast in order to help those who've lost loved ones in the only way he knows. Because of this division from society as well as the nature of his job, Shin understands death, it's result and the psychological impact it has on those who were close to the recently departed. The series is episodic and in each of the highly personal stories he must deal with public prejudice as well as grieving families.

When I first picked up The Embalmer I had this vision in my head that this was going to be a Crypt Keeper type story. Horrifying tales to frighted children, stories of gruesome deaths and lives cut short, but I had it all wrong, or partially wrong anyways. Although the death and pain are still there, the lesson of the manga is that embalming isn't about the dead it's about the living. Making a loved one look beautiful for one final goodbye can set the heart at ease. Before I knew it I was totally charmed. Mitsukazu Mihara provides some amazing insights into grieving and healing emotional wounds without getting all textbook with the Stages of Grief.

The really interesting thing about this series is the division of Shinjyurou's world from everyone else. He intimately understands death and the emotions that stem from it, but he seems to have difficulty with the living. He craves the touch of warm flesh and is an incorrigible womanizer, always bringing home different women, but the person he most wants to be with, he never approaches.

I've read the first three volumes, which encompass Shinjyurou's path to becoming an embalmer, highlight the emotional difficulties of people dealing with death and touch on the funny ways people live their lives. I'm really excited about the next volume because if the 'Next Volume' preview is any indication there will be some light shed on Shinjyurou's relationship with Azuki, the girl next store who could be more.

This is not a series for kids, there is gore, bloody violence, nudity and bad language, but more than that it's very adult subtext is what makes the series so poignant. I give this series a 4.5/5. I can't think of anything that could possibly make The Embalmer any better.