Manga Review: Omukae Desu Volume 3 by Meca Tanaka
Madoka Tsutsumi is a college student with a quiet, seemingly emotionless exterior. He’s actually quite passionate about analysis, and has a secret. He can see ghosts. One day he observes a man in a bunny suit chasing down an elderly spirit. Turns out the stranger is Nabeshima, a shinigami (death spirit) who works for the mysterious organization GSG finding ghosts, helping them resolve any unfinished business, and then escorting them to the Other Side.
It turns out that in addition to his second sight, Madoka also has the ability to allow ghosts to possess his body in order to interact with the living world. Nabeshin misreads the kanji that make up Madoka’s name, and nicknames him “En-chan”, but is impressed enough to offer Madoka a part time job assisting the GSG.
Both Nabeshin and his female assistant Yuzuko are themselves dead people who were given new bodies for their spirit guide jobs. GSG has a bizarre policy of requiring new costumes for each mission, though Nabeshin usually incorporates his favorite bunny suit into each one. Madoka is soon joined by boisterous high schooler Sachi Aguma, who has the power of astral projection and has a crush on Nabeshin.
In this volume, Madoka is being haunted by a female spirit who, unusually, stays blurry and identifiable. But first, he must help out a ping pong player that never got to compete.
Next, Yuzuko runs into the man she loved in life, and resist the temptation to get with him. The ghost girl from earlier turns out to be Chisato, who had a crush on Madoka in high school, and was never able to express it while she was alive. Sachi tries to help her out, but the situation doesn’t quite resolve neatly.
At Christmas, the team helps out a knitter to make a gift scarf.
We learn Sachi’s backstory and the origin of her crush on Nabeshin, which runs straight into the rules against romance between the living and the dead, while Madoka and Sachi help out a gaggle of fun-loving ghost children.
This shoujo manga is a gentle comedy with a strong melancholy streak in its romantic subplots. There are themes of regret, loss, and learning to move on. The art style is pretty generic 90s shoujo, but the bunny suit and other costumes do help make it a bit more distinctive.
This volume is halfway through the series, so it’s not surprising that it’s used to develop the backstory and introduce a conflict that will play into the finale. While not a huge hit, this did well enough in Japanese sales to get a live-action adaptation in 2016. In America, it was brought out by the ill-fated CMX line, and has not been reprinted since, so may be difficult to find (I’m not even sure the American version did all the volumes!)
Content note: A shirtless guy, a couple of mild fanservice outfits for girls. Some of the characters smoke, which is unfortunate for Madoka when they use his body to do it. It’s carefully not discussed what happened to create four child ghosts. Junior high and up readers should not have a problem.
This is pretty middle of the road shoujo manga; okay if you run across it, but nothing to seek out.
