The Shinigami Death

A colored frontispiece for the series.

**The Shinigami Death** ( 死神デース ) was a gag manga by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, which ran in Bokura magazine from 1970 issue #49 to 1971 #19.

## Overview

The death toll in the world has increased too much lately due to war and pollution, and the influx of new arrivals in Hell has become overwhelming for its keepers to manage. To combat this, King Enma sends a shinigami known by his actual name of **Death** above ground in hopes to prolong the lives of Earth citizens and prevent any unnecessary demise. However, Death isn't always successful, especially when he has rivals wanting to do the exact opposite and make sure that humans will die.

The scripting for the series was done by Kai Takizawa, who had also handled the scenarios of Mad Dog Trotsky and Kusobaba!!.

## Characters

### Death

(デース)

Our protagonist. He was once an ordinary human salaryman, but after being attacked and bitten by a stray dog, he died of distemper and wound up a citizen of Hell. The patches on his suit and head are remnants of the evidence of such an unfortunate demise.

As part of the conditions for Death's mission, he cannot return back to Hell and his parents will be punished by being stuck in the "Mountain of Cold Needles" as part of their banishment, unless he succeeds in saving a substantial amount of life on Earth. With each of his failures, he despairs over what it may mean for his poor elderly parents.

His name in katakana can be read as "Desu" and as a double pun on the sentence ender, with the title also being able to be read as something like "I'm the Shinigami".

### Deachu

(デーチュ)

Later into the series, Death is revealed to have had a young son while in Hell with his extended family there. This boy follows his father up to Earth, but would rather innocently disregard the rules of the human world for his own fun.

## Serialization

Chapters:

* 1. **Hell is Crowded Today** (地獄は満員なのデース)
* 2. **Grim Reaper to Help People Today** (人を助ける死神デース)
* 3. **It is a Day when Bad Guys Will Die** (悪人も死んじゃ困るデース)

* 4. **The Human World is Difficult to See** (人間世界はみにくいデース)

* 5. **The Day of Protecting the Death Minister** (死相の人を守るのデース)

* 6. **A Day when the Killer Whirl Appeared** (殺し屋ワールがあらわれたデース)

* 7. **Those Who Can Not Sleep Are Fallen** (ねむれない人はころされるデース)

* 8. **Humans Make a Bad Heart Immediately** (人間はすぐ悪い心をおこすデース)

* 9. **A Day That Gives up Smoking and Smoking** (もーれつタバコとおさけをやめさせるデース)

* 10. **Grim Reaper Yar and the Game** (死神ヤールと勝負デース)

* 11. **There Are People Who Want to Lose Weight** (死んでもやせたい人がいるデース)

* 12. **Mr. Lion's Marriage** (ライオンさんがケッコンするデース)

* 13. **Shinigami Death All Day!** (死神デースのすべてデース！)

* 14. **My Child Dechu** (ムスコのデーチュデース)

* 15. **The Date that Dechu Has Passed Away** (テーチュが奥さんぬすんできたデース)

* 16. **The Head of the Leader** (サ長のきげんなおすのデース)

* 17. **A Day with Snow and Ice** (雪も氷も平気なのデース)

* 18. **Maiko's Carpenter is Rika-chan** (まい子の大工はリカちゃんデース)

* 19. **Noshiika President is Troubled** (ノシイカ社長は困るのデース)

* 20. **Scooping the Boss's Child** (ボスの子分をすくうのデース)

* 21. **Dice that Cannot be Rolled** (虫でもころしちゃいけないデース)

* 22. **People Studying for Entrance Exams** (受験勉強の人ごろしデース)

## Reprints

* Akebono: The series was collected as two volumes for the "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" collection.
* Shogakukan: The two Akebono volumes were digitized for the "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" DVD-ROM set, along with their extra content. A print-on-demand version is available through ComicPark.

There is no current digital or physical reprint of the series that can be acquired easily (other than the ComicPark service) as of 2019.