Mail

Mail follows a paranormal detective and occult specialist Akiba as he finds himself investigating lost souls. His primary purpose is to give these souls a proper send off, so that they can enter the cycle of reincarnation or simply be damned for eternity. Each chapter is stand alone in it's story telling though in the later half of the series we are given a bit more "lore" so to speak, and Akiba is given a sidekick and his background is explored more thoroughly, though I suppose thoroughly is a pretty generous term here given each instance of this is rather brief, though satisfying. Each chapter begins the sameway, and ends the same way, though each time there is slight deviation and changes suited for the story at hand in each chapter. The author has a very good way of telling you just enough to keep you interested,this sounds like an insult, as if he's doing the bare minimum, but I assure you it's not. So little is said, but the story is so satisfying to read it executes just what it wants to do very well. It's very succinct, and it's better off for that. This story is kind of unique in the regard, that it is exactly what you would expect from it and it doesn't ever deviate from that narrative. It's about a dude, who does exorcisms and always arrives just in time to save the soul and the person being haunted. I think the art is much like the story telling, very basic, but so intrinsic and detailed but beautiful. There really isn't anything special at all about the style but it's just so charming and compliments the story so well. I think that if the story telling was slightly different, or perhaps the art was done by someone else this series just wouldn't work at all. It just seems so, right? I don't really know how to put it but I just like it a lot, it isn't the best thing in the world or anything but I was just very satisfied by what I read. Atmosphere, art, writing, the settings, the people, the lore, the set ups, it was all just very solid and I think it's the perfect example of all of these things that aren't all that impressive in their own right building up a very satisfactory story. I feel like the ending was rather abrupt, it leaves a lot of things left neglected that I feel like were going to be touched on. Like more about the "society" of priestly detectives, as well as the companionship of Akiba and you know who. I hope that the Corpse Delivery Service delivered on that, but from what it seems this was a very nice story cut short, hence the addition of a sidekick before the abrupt end. All of that said and done though, I really did enjoy this and I would recommend it to anyone into "horror" manga and light mystery, as well as episodic stories