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Title | Volume 1
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2005
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1997
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Title | Volume 2
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2008
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1997
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Title | Volume 3
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2008
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1998
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Title | Volume 4
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2008
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1998
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Title | Volume 5
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2005
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1998
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Title | Volume 6
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2005
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1999
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Title | Volume 7
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2005
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1999
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Title | Volume 8
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2005
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 1999
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Title | Volume 9
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2005
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 2000
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Title | Volume 10
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2006
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 2000
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Title | Volume 11
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Author | Yoko Matsushita
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Publisher | VIZ Media - 2006
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First Printing | Hakusensha - 2001
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Category | Manga
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Warnings | Rape, Torture, etc
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Main Characters | Asato Tsuzuki, Hisoka, Dr. Muraki, Tatsumi, Watari
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Main Elements | Shinigami
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Volume 1
As a Guardian of Death, Asata Tsuzuki has a lot to think about. First of all, there are all those dead people. Someone's got to escort them safely to the afterlife.
There there's all that bureaucracy. The affairs of death come with a lot of paperwork, budgetary concerns, and endless arcana.
Combining supernatural action with heavy dollops of romance, sex and humour, Descendants of Darkness proves one thing: Death is big business...and business is good!
Volume 2
The business of death continues. Working at the Ministry of Hades, Asato Tsuzuki is responsible for escorting the dead to their final resting place...wherever that may be.
Hisae is a fatally ill dancer who is stubbornly clinging to life for the chance to compete in one final dance contest.
Tsuzuki arrives just in time to witness the aftermath of a horrific crime - Hisae's home is splattered with blood! Who is responsible for the gory graffiti?
Alas it looks like there's going to be a little bit of overtime on Tsuzuki's timecard this week.
Volume 3
The business of death is never simple. Booked on a cruise ship headed for Hong Kong, Asato Tsuzuki finds himself entagled in yet another one of Dr. Muraki's nefarious schemes.
There's a killer on the loose and corpses are piling up at an alarming rate. Tsuzuki immediately suspects his old nemesis is somehow involved. But his theory falls apart when Muraki unexpectedly becomes one of the murderer's victims.
Volume 4
When you work for the Ministry of Hades you have to be ready for anything, even on vacation. While on their annual retreat to a Hokkaido hot sprints resort, Asato Tsuzuki and company meet a pack of talking animals who serve the Queen of Snow. But now the Queen is missing and there's a vicious dragon prowling nearby. Can Tsuzuki and Hisoka find the Queen before she becomes lunch - or something worse?
In another case, Tsuzuki and Hisoka must investigate a 17-year-old who was murdered and mutilated. The investigation takes the two Guardians of Death to a private boys' school where they discover that other boys have died. Soon, they're deep into the dark and bloody secret haunting the school.
Volume 5
It'a grand ole time at the Count's annual tea party in the Hall of Candles, and it seems that the whole Ministry of Hades is there. Hisoka, Tsuzuki's partner, runs into Tatsumi, another Guardian of Death, and learns some startling secrets. Meanwhile, Tsuzuki finds a study containing a strange book. The kind that sucks you in - literally.
Tsuzuki finds himself in a bizarre world whose inhabitants are dark parodies of people he knows in the real world. Tsuzuki, always ready to plunge into a situation, puts on a magic show to help a poor girl buy medicine for her sick father. But when a plague hits the town, Tsuzuki is blamed for it. Can he escape the townspeople's wrath? And will he ever find his way out of the pages of the book and back to the Hall of Candles?
Volume 6
The Business of Death has lots of opportunity for travel. Tsuzuki and Hisoka go to Okinawa on assignment to help fellow Guardian of Death Chidsuru find out just what is behind the Miyagi Inn's recent troubles. Is the Miygai Inn really haunted, or is it all a vicious rumour spread by the wicked president of the neighbouring resort hotel?
Back in the Ministry of Hades, Watari convinces Tsuzuki to help test his new sex change potion. But something's wrong with the formula, and instead of turning into women, they turn into kids! The antidote calls for belladonna flower, but the Count's garden of poisonous plants has two varieties - red and black. Which is the right flower...and what will happen if they choose wrong?
Volume 7
The business of Death is never done. Asato Tsuzuki works as a Shinigami, or "Guardian of Death," in the Ministry of Hades. It's his duty to make sure that the souls of the dead reach the afterlife, but contrary ghosts and hummanity's evil keep getting in the way of a job well doen. With all these problem assignments, will he ever get a bonus...or will he be stuck paying back damages for all eternity?
Young women are being murdered and hanks of their hair cut out at a Kyoto college. Tsuzuki and his fellow Shinigami, Hisoka and Watari, travel to the campus, where they find the evil Dr. Muraki at the heart of a hideous human cloning experiment. With the help of one of the professors, Muraki is trying to recreate his famous grandfather's success - a subject who lived for eight years without food or water! Tsuzuki and Hisoka pose as teachers to protect the students, but there is no protection from Muraki's terrible claims of Tsuzuki's shadowed past...
Volume 8
Tsuzuki and his partner Hisoka are still caught up in the horror at the university as the evil Dr. Muraki's diabolical cloning experiments continue. Muraki has joined forces with a modern-day Frankenstein in order to resurrect and old enemy and exact a vicious revenge. When Tsuzuki tries to interfere, Muraki takes his mind and body captive. Can Hisoka rescue him from the doctor's clutches before Tsuzuki's final act of desperation destroys them all?
Volume 9
Hisoka is tired of playing sidekick to his ditzy partner Tsuzuki, and wants some power of his own. He decides to travel into the imaginary realm in search of magical shiki spirit allies. Tsuzuki tags along as a guide, but gets called back on an assignment before Hisoka has made his selection. Alone at last, Hisoka finds himself in a world of trouble. Now it's up to Tzusuki to rescue him...uh-oh!
Volume 10
Hisoka won't leave the Imaginary World until he has some Shiki spirits of his own. But strange "wormholes" keep ripping open the sky, threatening the end of the Imaginary World - and one sucks Hisoka right into the realm of the fearsome dragon Kurikara! How can Tsuzuki save his partner from the powerful Shiki he one failed to tame? And why are the other Shinigami investigating Hisoka's family back on Earth?
Volume 11
While Tatsumi is in the Imaginary World looking for Hisoka, Hisoka is in the Fuyuu Desert challenging Kurikara, the Dragon King, to obtain his Shiki power. However, Hisoka is no match for the master swordfighter, and the Tengu must rush in to save him. Kurikara is about to return from exile, bringing the Imaginary World to the brink of war, and Tsuzuki finds himself playing negotiator between the two sides!

First reaction - this is a very funny and cute series, Tsuzuki is a kind of bumbling goof paired up with a much younger, but much more series partner. Second reaction - there's nothing funny at all, there's rape and torture and pain and gore and twisted perversions. And no, I don't mean the boy-on-boy suggestions, those are cute, I mean the man-on-boy rape kind of thing.
So we are reminded at the start of every chapter, that we are in the Ministry of Hades, in the Hall of Judgement where the recently deceased are judged. However there are people out there who don't die when they are supposed to, whether through sheer will or because their souls get lost. That's what the Shinigami are for, they are to retrieve these wayward souls, even if it means killing the vessel in which they continue to live. They aren't evil, but generally people picked for this role have unfinished business, and the jobs they are sent to do can require a bit of a cold heart. That's kind of Tsuzuki's problem and why he never gets promoted, he's a softie inside and feels for his victims.
As is fairly common, you soon find out that the bumbling idiot is actually probably one of the most powerful beings around, which somehow makes him all the more adorable. And the bad guy is of course the most handsome and sexy character in the book. In fact it seems everyone wants to get into Tsuzuki's pants, from the bodiless count (that appears as nothing more as a mask and a pair of floating gloves) to his own boss' secretary. A lot of jokes about guys that look like girls...or even guys that become girls, but in the end it's a positive story about some truly messed up people who lived terrible tragedies in their lives trying to get through that and possibly move on.
The artwork is gorgeous, and yes, the male characters are indeed drool-worthy. There are a few females about (and something you think you're dealing with a female only to find out he's just yet another pretty boy) but this is a shojo manga so it's all about the lovely men with beautiful eyes and amazing hair.
HOWEVER, before you start this series assume you will never finish the last storyline. Though volume 12 was published in Japanese, and got translated into French, it is not possible to get one's hands on it (well, a French version costs $75 for a used copy...) so I'll never know how all the mysteries and threads opened up in volume 9 will resolve. Maybe one day VIZ media will wake up and notice there is one more book now and get around to translating and publishing it, but after almost 10 years I wouldn't hold my breath. Super annoying since I really want to know more about the origins of these characters! Ah well, what can we do. But I highly recommend reading the first 8 books in the meantime.
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