manga: Shoulder-A Coffin kuro Vol 2

[meganbmoore]

This volume had a lot of cute little stories that twisted the conventions of some typical stories. I’m particularly fond of the dark twist on The Princess Who Never Laughed, with the spoiled princess who made people tell her stories about herself, and if she didn’t like the stories, she ordered them killed.

There are a lot of cute things in this volume, largely regarding the twins, such as when they get a “pen pal,” and when we learn what Kuro’s contingency plan is for if the twins go missing. I’m also especially fond of a flashback story where Kuro meets a dogfaced (literally) traveler, but I may be biased, as it particularly reminded me of Kino no Tabi. We also got a look into Kuro and Sen’s past.

So, Sen is short for “sensei,” and he used to be a human before the black witch he and Kuro are looking for turned him into a thousand bats, and the bats in the coffin Kuro carries around are his body. I wonder if that makes “Sen” the brain, since the other bats don’t talk, and just seem to follow his lead? We also get some more clues about the black marks on Kuro’s body, but no full confirmation. Kuro seems to think that, when they cover her entire body, she’ll die and evil will be released, but with the girl who was also cursed with the marks in the flashbacks, the marks apparently killed the entire town and then her, but no “unleashed evil” seemed to be going on.

Still a charming, slightly morbid take on a fairy tale world. Sadly, it doesn’t look like there will be a Volume 3 anytime soon.