The Spring 2022 Manga Guide

Ghost Reaper Girl

What's It About? 

Chloé has dreamed of becoming a glamorous actress ever since she was little. But being the ripe old age of 28 might be working against her, as are her spontaneous displays of violence! But not all hope is lost—she could be perfect for the role offered by a mysterious and charming new man in her life. Can Chloé become the Ghost Reaper Girl and take down the evil spirits that have escaped from Hades?

Ghost Reaper Girl has story and art by Akissa Saiké and English translation by Amanda Haley. Viz has released its first volume both digitally and physically for $6.99 and $9.99 respectively.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Some time ago, in a mini-editorial for this site, I admitted that my favorite Shounen Jump series is Shadow Lady. I probably shouldn't re-admit that now (re-reads have not been kind to it, although I retain my initial fondness), but Ghost Reaper Girl hits a lot of the same notes that made me like Shadow Lady in the first place, and on the off chance that I'm not the only lingering fan of that shounen magical girl title, it's worth mentioning that. Like Aimi, Chloé has multiple transformations, although in all fairness the way that she switches between them is based on which of her familiar spirits she transforms with; it's more Prétear than anything else. And I don't just mean that in the sense that different spirits lead to a different outfit; even the creepy “come inside my body” bit is present. It's very definitely intended as fanservice here with distinct metaphoric undertones, and as it turns out, that's largely Chloé's power: to be possessed by spirits.

Given that the story starts with a jailbreak in Hades (used in the series as a blanket term for the land of the dead), that's a dangerous power to just be walking around with. Chloé learns that the hard way when a film audition goes horribly wrong, and she only gets out of it because she's got impressive fighting skills and catches the eye of Kai, a lolicon ghost dispatched from Hades to take care of the escapees. Kai's lolicon schtick gets old fast (although it's kind of funny when he takes the form of Chloé's weapon, a googly-eyed scythe) but he's really only there to facilitate her story. Chloé is a strong heroine in her own right, pulling herself up from a terrible childhood to become a successful person. Sure, she initially thought she'd do that as an actress, but when Kai suggests that she become a professional magical girl for the same Hadesean bureau he works for, she's willing to go that route, too. In part that's because she needs the money, but there's a sense that it's also out of kindness – the second ghost she takes in is Noel, a street cat who only wanted a warm home. Seeing herself in him, she extends him a kind hand, and that feels like an intrinsic part of who she is as a person: someone who doesn't want anyone to go through what she did.

There's definitely a reverse harem feel to the volume (something Chloé comments on; there's also a Puella Magi Madoka Magica reference making it clear that the series knows precisely what it's doing), and it's kind of fun to see two shoujo subgenres used in shounen, to say nothing of Chloé's unusually advanced age for a heroine (she's twenty-eight). The art is more refined than in Rosario + Vampire, the creator's previous series, which just makes it more attractive, albeit much less fanservice-y. The translation's choice to write Noel's cat-laugh as “meow ha ha” isn't great (it would have worked better retaining the “nya”), but that's one small issue in what is otherwise a good start to a supernatural magical girl reverse harem romp. If it can maintain this energy, we may have a winner.

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MrAJCosplay

Rating:

What I liked about Rosario + Vampire, Akissa Saiké's previous work, and other stories like it is their ability to make that clear transition from one genre into another. Rosario + Vampire started off as a monster girl harem but slowly developed into a rather interesting and well-detailed battle shonen in the end. Saike has a penchant for flexing interesting action sequences, and his love for supernatural lore is just as apparent here as it was in his previous title. While the familiar environment and a certain degree of same face syndrome can make it feel like you're just re-reading extras from Rosario + Vampire, there are enough fun ideas here for Ghost Reaper Girl to stand on its own. Character introductions are breezed over relatively quickly in order to set up interesting and fun character dynamics, and while the overall plot in this first volume is simple, the action is exhilarating and well-laid-out. I'm not the biggest fan of the story's sense of humor, which can feel a little too repetitive by the end of the first chapter, but the hints at a deeper lore we get here promises plenty of potential for the story down the road. If you're a fan of monsters and the occult, you might find some fun with this, or at the very least be a bit interested enough to stick around and see if things get better.