"In Meifu, the land of the dead, there is a bureaucratic organization that is in charge of judging the dead of their past deeds. The Ju-Oh-Cho. Enma-Cho is the Summoning Division that assists the Ju-Oh-Cho by gathering the lost souls of today. Those who work in the Enma-Cho Summoning Division are otherwise known as Shinigami."
Yami no Matsuei, Descendants of Darkness, is a manga series by Matsushita Youko. Meifu, the land of the dead, exists on a parallel plane with the living world, therefore the buildings look the same, even though the season in Meifu is always spring. There are 18 shinigami in all in the Shoukan Division of Enma-Cho. They exist in 9 pairs, each pair watching over their section of Japan. In sector 2 is Tsuzuki Asato, perhaps the most powerful shinigami in all of Meifu, who is the main character of the story. There is also his new partner, Kurosaki Hisoka, who possesses great psychic powers, Watari Yutaka, the shinigami in charge of sector 6, who is a scientist/alchemist always making strange potions to try out on the other shinigami, and Tatsumi Seiichiro, money-loving miser secretary to the Konoe-Kachou (the chief) who was Tsuzuki��s third shinigami partner. Four other shinigami who pop up occasionally are Terazuma, his partner Wakaba, in charge of sector 4, and Saya and Yuma, shinigami of sector 9. There are also the GuShoShin twin brothers, birdlike creatures who are in charge of the main library in Meifu. They have access to every file except the death list. The main nemesis in the manga is Muraki Kazutaka, a doctor in search of the perfect body. He thinks that humans are weak, and kills mercilessly in his pursuit of power. Both Tsuzuki and Hisoka has a past with Muraki and or his family. Hisoka was cursed to death by Muraki, and Muraki��s grandfather was the doctor who treated Tsuzuki when he was locked up in a hospital for 8 years. Yami no Matsuei is currently running in the bimonthly magazine "Hana to Yume". There are ten volumes of the manga out, and the series was recently made into an anime and aired on the Japanese channel Wowow.
I'll have more stuff next time, such as character profile, pictures from the manga, and maybe others. If I've gotten any of the info wrong (I read the Chinese version of the story, so translations or names might be wrong...), please email me.
"The Descendants of Darkness wander in the night..." |
