Related Titles: Yami no Matsuei (anime)

Alternate Title: Descendant of the Dark | Descendants of Darkness
Genre: Supernatural | Horror | Comedy | Drama | Occult | Shounen-Ai (hints) | Yaoi (hints) | Fantasy
Company: Hakusensha (Seralized in Hana to Yume)
American Liscensing Company: None yet
Format: 11 volues and still on going
Dates: 1996 and ongoing
Original Creator: Yoko Matsushita
Age Rating: 18 and up
How much I read: All eleven volumes plus reading up on the latest magazine installments in Hana to Yume

Synopsis: Even after death, life is full of paperwork and criminals. Tsuzuki Asato is a 26 year old, happy-go-lucky, laid back, and dorky shinigami (god of death) whose job is to makes sure that those who are dead remain dead and are where they are supposed to be. Even though he's been doing this job for over 70 years, he has the worst division and pay. He has a knack for not keeping partners, but now he seems to have a more stubborn one, the smart mouthed, very serious, and defensive 16 year old Kurosaki Hisoka. With each case the two solve, they come closer to the conspiracies of the serial killer Dr. Muraki Kazutaka. Muraki commits crimes just to torment gentle Tsuzuki. Between the plots of Muraki and the dramatic events of the shikigami (animal gods) world, life is very busy for Tsuzuki and Hisoka. Tsuzuki is becoming closer with his fellow comrades, especially with Hisoka. But there is a dark past to how Tsuzuki died....

SCORE: 98%

A lovely series with awesome characters! Full of angst, comedy and very gruesome horror! I love this series! It slowly (but surely), became my favorite! It's my baby! ^_^

Plot: When I first saw the cover of volume one of this series, I was not impressed. It just looked like another pretty boy fest to me that had a small tad of X influence in stylization. Since it reminded me of X, I was not thrilled (even as much as I love X), thinking that it would just be another manga filled with pretty boys, filled with boyxboy angst, just like X, without confirming anything about the characters' sexuality (a common trait of CLAMP stories). However, my friend said that the setup to the series was slightly like Yu Yu Hakusho. Since I like YYH so much, I thought, why not read a series that's like it, except with pretty boys as the characters? Sounds like fun! So I assumed this series was going to be a very un-shounen-ai experience, which would actully be a good change of pace for me (I read a lot of shounen-ai/yaoi material lately, if you haven't noticed ^_^. I don't know how that managed to happen. :P).

Boy, was I wrong! This is of course a shounen-ai title that seems to have some strong yaoi hinting. However, all things of this nature were handled tastefully, if not rather disturbingly O.o Don't be detered from this title because of the shounen-ai elements. The story in itself is very compling, and the characters are awesome!

The horror is awesome and gory (rolling eyeballs!) The sweetest most tender moments I have ever read are out of this manga, without being overboard. The comedy is hilarious! Some of the funniest manga I have ever read have been Yoko's jokes. The situations jokes are the greatest to read, so funny, that even the hilarious viusals aren't really necessary to make it funny!

Tsuzuki is a ultrasweet, ultracaring, big dork (reminds me of Vash from Trigun). Hisoka is aloof, levelhead, but caring, and is cute when he's bitchy ^_^. Watari is eccentrically spasdic and goofy with science experiments. Tatsumi is a scary secretary ^_^ in a good way who can kick a lot of ass! And then there is Muraki, who is a freaky, molesting, doctor psycho with no morals at all, filled with nothing but obssession and murderous intentions! (when you find out his reasons for doing anything, or read the things he says and does, you're like GEEZ! O.o I'd have to say Muraki is on the top of my list of favorite bad guys of all time. He's a complete nutcase!)

I'd relate more to the plot, but then I'd ruin the story. This series is weird in its offbeat balance of angst, drama, horror...and very whacky humor! The humor is a huge contrast to the serious story parts, but helps the series from becoming too serious, and gives time to show even more of the characters' personalities (and usually their cute quirks and traits. ^_^). But the horror and angst of this series is still the coolest thing about this series...the angst baby, the angst!

Visual: If you can't tell by the mumber of pictures in this review, I love the artwork! Yoko's work reminds me of CLAMP's X manga, but has a beauty all its own, without such weird body exagerrations, seen in X. Her art is beautiful, but not over the top with exagerrations running amuck. Her rendering of horror scences with gore and blood are awesome! I mean, c'mon! You don't see mass murders with eyeballs on the floor in this kind of style artwork on an everyday basis! It's so cool! Tender moments are beautiful and rendered with a gentleness that you can see on the images of this page. However, Yoko's art isn't devoid of the possiblity to look funny. ^_^

Her color artwork is soft, beautiful and luscious, but still, somehow, maintains a whimsical, almost simplistic look, even when the art is highly detailed. This is cool, since I tend to get aggravated at overcomplicated artwork. The black and white manga itself is also very good and rendered with charm. The screentones aren't overdone, but I do have to admire some of the complicated pieces of art Yoko creates in just the stories themselves (nevermind the color artwork). Her art is very, very good! Yoko's artwork has to be one of my favorites!

Extra Rants and Bitching: Hisoka. I feel sorry for that boy, dying before his last growth spurts and stuck looking so girly. *sigh* It's great! Tsuzuki is such a dork. ^_^ I love him! And Muraki...creepy bastard!

Wheeee!!! Pretty boys! Angst! Horror! Tenderness and more! What else could a series possibly need besides these things? ^_^

YnM is an awesome blend of shounen-ai angst, horror and supernatural powers. It is a powerful story which is very character driven. Whether this series is TRULY shounen-ai or not is so debatable; it should be, but so much can be attributed to being eye candy for us fans, and who even knows about Muraki? The man may just be a creep to distract people. There is no doubt that yaoi and shounen-ai are addressed in this manga, and even a few supporting characters are gay couples in some stories, but whether the main character themselves are or are not gay...we don't know. That's up to your interpetation!

Score Comments: Even with as long as the manga has gone and as much as I love it, it is hard to really gage how good the plot will be. I just hope the great horror stories and arcs will continue, and this manga doesn't become a visual fantasy fight type of manga, when more time is spent on drawing awesome, pretty fights (with the Shinigami) instead of making plot and developing characters. I know the art will stay good (and even get better!), so there's no worries there. I just keep feeling antsy; I want to know Tsuzuki's dark secrets! Why haven't we seen any of his past yet...? I'm waiting eagerly!

So here's hoping that one of my favorite series will stay good!

Websites:
Sakura Crisis
Has the most of YnM scanlated.
The Sweetest Way to Die
My own YnM site, that is fanworks strong, but has a growing collection of images and information.
Aku Tenshi
Has scanlations of first 2 volumes.
Mangagedon
Has later volumes scanlated, but as usually, they're poor quality scans, scattered and poorly edited. You will also need to have knowledge on how to use rar files.

Have a website about this series, or do you know of a good one? Want me to link to it on this review? Well, the feel free to email the sucker to me! Just make sure to put "Review Link" in the subject.