The Girl Who Raised The Dead by Kawashima Norikazu. English Translation by Ryan Holmberg. Smudge / Living the Line, 2028. (Original © 1987). 9781961581134. 204pp. Contains an essay titled “Magical Girls and the Occult in Postwar Japan” by Tanaka Hirokazu, which is worth looking at if only to see the original cover to this manga.
Mirumo is killed when the umbrella she’s holding is struck by lightning. But then something truly weird happens, and she comes back to life after a mysterious light enters her body. Now she has secret powers, among them the ability to raise the dead.
I went into this expecting some sort of zombie outbreak story, but it defied my expectations. Mirumo mostly uses he powers to help others. But she also has to fend off some violent attacks, the first at school and one later when she tracks down a murderer.
Stylistically, the book appears fairly innocent, though the horrific scene of the electrocution at the beginning sets the reader up for the bloody chaos later in the book.
Note: this is the sixth book in the Smudge series of “vintage horror, occult, and dark fantasy manga.” (If you love horror manga, it’s worth finding the other books in the series.)
