Reiko the Zombie Shop
Summary. Volume One. Reiko is introduced as a schoolgirl and a "zombie shop"; a professional necromancer who, for a substantial fee, reanimates the dead, for the purpose of obtaining information from them. This offers her an opportunity to work as a detective and solve murder cases by temporarily reviving the victim and asking them who killed them. In the introductory acts of the book, for instance, she resurrects a girl who committed suicide, who, unbeknownst to her mother, was being molested by her father. The zombified girl kills the father, and, in a black-humour twist  common to the series, the mother pays Reiko double her prior fee to reanimate the father so she can torture him. This volume mostly follows an unconnected episodic format, with each successive act or chapter being a recounting of a separate case. These include a jealous killing among her circle of friends, an obsessive biology teacher attempting to bring back a beloved student, a tussle with bank robbers, and a stint as an unusual bodyguard for a dying goth-rock star. However, acts not featuring Reiko begin to appear, which cut away to the exploits of teenage serial killer Saki  Yurikawa. Driven by a fanatical desire to have a younger sister to care for, Yurikawa kidnaps young girls and tries to force them into a sisterly role, but they inevitably end up fearing and hating her, causing her to become enraged and murder them. In the final chapters, Reiko and Yurikawa's paths converge when Reiko is called in to a hospital by the police to revive one of Yurikawa's victims. The young zombie goes berserk and tracks down Yurikawa, who happens to be in the hospital at the time with another girl. Reiko and Yurikawa fight; Reiko is  killed, but, having anticipated this, manages to zombify herself with a tape-recorded incantation. She defeats Yurikawa, but not before being reduced herself to only a severed head, apparently lifeless. Yurikawa eventually becomes her "contract" zombie as the series furthers. Volume Two. After a chance confrontation between two opposing factions of necromancers, Reiko manages to attach her head to a freshly killed body, returning her to non-zombie status. She joins forces with a group of young zombie summoners, Yuki and Rudoh, who oppose the more malevolent majority consisting of a cult of necromancers led by Reiko's elder sister  Riruka, who seek "global zombification". In this volume, a Shin Megami Tensei-like element is introduced, whereby summoners each have a "faithful zombie" they can call forth to fight on their side. Reiko's faithful is a zombified (and significantly more scantily-clad) Yurikawa, now mindlessly and speechlessly bound to Reiko's will. Along with the adversary Riruka, a new major ally is introduced in this volume - a mercenary named Jasmine, a somewhat vapid and heartless but talented fighter, who interrupts a climactic fight scene to offer her skills to the highest bidder. Reiko rejects her steep asking price, but  saves her life, thereby indebting her to her cause. The volume ends with Reiko and Jasmine fighting their way through Riruka's mansion, one of Riruka's assistants having tricked Reiko's summoner friends into killing one another. Characters. The Shell of Fate granted Riruka immense superhuman strength, impressive regeneration abilities, and the ability to resist pain, even when her body was destroyed by gunfire. While possessing the shell of fate, Riruka was also capable of producing a series of lethal tentacles that she could use to impale her enemies on. A notable trait about Riruka is that despite her  knowledge of summoning and her incredible power, she is shown to be illiterate and completely uneducated without her summoning powers, much to the annoyance of her assistant Shiroko. Reception. In a list of "10 Great Zombie Manga", Anime News Network's Jason Thompson placed "Reiko the Zombie Shop" in tenth place, calling it a "maggot-covered undead mayhem from start to finish".