Reiko the Zombie Shop

Reiko's allies are dropping like flies as she fights one last ditch battle against her sister Riruka, who wants to make the Earth a zombie planet with her as its queen! Of all the people Reiko set out to fight Riruka with, only Jasmine, the zombie shop weapons expert and Maya, the wheelchair bound sister of the now deceased Yuki, are all that's left! While we've come to think that Reiko is a cool hard-as-nails heroine, even she is beginning to doubt whether she has the power to defeat her sister. We do get some flashbacks in this volume which explain the relationship between the the two young girls and how their paths in life went down totally different roads. After the final battle between Reiko and Riruka, a trio of stories follow of a more episodic nature, two of which don't even feature Reiko, but are enjoyable nonetheless. The problem with this series so far is that so many characters get killed. Just when you're becoming attached to one of them, they get offed. So it's hard to get too involved with any of them, except for Reiko, although Jasmine seems to be still among the living. But the fact that anyone can die at anytime does give this manga an element of suspense that is missing from other more serious titles. And how can you not like Reiko, a girl who is around death all the time but never gives up on living and moving forward....and never forgets to charge a pretty yen for her services! Weird but interesting title. I would also recommend Chrono Crusade and the Hino Horror series.