What's It About?

Like most girls, Lala loves music, her friends and her family. However, Lala is not like most girls. Lala is a "collector" from the Memory Clan, a group of enchanted beings who are called upon to remember the lives of every human when they die.

Unique lives create unique endings; no two are the same. The Memory Clan's purpose is to keep each person's story alive. The clan also has one simple rule: "Do not get involved in human affairs." For Lala, this isn't easy since she is entranced by humans and their stories. As a result, she risks losing everything and everyone she loves.

Lala The Memory Collector has art and story by Sui Kohno. English translation by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. Published by Tuttle Publishing (April 22, 2025). Rated 12+.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Dee
Rating:

It's impossible to talk about Lala The Memory Collector without starting with the English adaptation, because “unprofessional” is an understatement. Text is poorly aligned within speech bubbles and riddled with inconsistent punctuation and formatting, sometimes from one page to the next. I might have forgiven that if the translation read like natural English, but it's stiff throughout and at times nigh-incomprehensible, reminiscent of an amateur (or machine) translating each line individually without considering the overall context and tone.

This makes it difficult to discuss because I don't know where the sloppy adaptation ends and the actual story begins. Is Lala's worldbuilding ill-defined at times, or is the translation just poorly conveying the grim reaper social structure? Do the characters talk the same way, or does the English version not bother to differentiate speech patterns? I have no idea, and I'm furious because outside of the poor adaptation, this is a lovingly drawn, heartfelt lady-led fantasy with layered characters grappling with complex questions about life, death, memory, and tradition.

The art beautifully combines delicate details with rounded cuteness, featuring soft-featured characters and lush, etched backgrounds that feel like they escaped a Victorian postcard. The fascinating premise of “grim reapers who find ways to preserve the lives they take” provides fertile ground for thematic exploration and future stories. The cast expands too quickly for a first volume, but they're already multi-dimensional. Lala—an empathetic girl struggling between her admiration for her family and her desire to break from tradition—serves as a likably flawed, conflicted protagonist. It even ends on a gasp-worthy cliffhanger!

I want to recommend this title, but the adaptation is so shoddy that I can't, and that's a miserable place to be. Lala The Memory Collector is an ongoing series that I badly want to keep reading, but until we get an adaptation worthy of the material, I can't justify spending money on it or recommending it to anyone else. Lala deserves better, and so do we.

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Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Despite not having a “volume 1” on the cover, Lala The Memory Collector is, in fact, the first book in a series. It's also a mildly imperfect first outing for what is otherwise a very interesting conceit – Lala is part of the Menem (presumably from “Mnemosyne”) family of grim reapers, a group tasked with remembering the lives of all humans who have died. They're supported by the Calme branch, who do the physical reaping, but there's definitely some tension between the two groups. Several of the Calme we meet in this volume express doubts as to why the Menem exist in the first place; as one points out, all human souls are recycled back to earth through the reincarnation process, so what's the point of remembering someone who will just come back again?

That's where I wish we got more development. The chief distinction between the two groups isn't so much what they do as why they do it. The Calme don't see the different lives people live through various reincarnations as separate enough to merit exclusive memories of each: it's the same soul, so why bother? But the Menem philosophy is that each life is unique and needs to be recalled as such; different experiences with different people will result in fully unique people, no matter if their soul has been around for centuries. No one has quite voiced that yet, but it's the strong implication throughout Lala's adventures in the volume, and it's a theme both worth exploring and that makes for compelling reading.

As a protagonist, Lala is troubled. She doesn't fully understand why Menem aren't supposed to interact with humans before they die, and she worries that she'll never live up to her gorgeous and talented older sister. The scene is set for her to explore the philosophies at hand and to eventually come up with her own answer, and I'm interested in seeing that. While the translation is occasionally awkward or stilted, it can't fully hinder the positives of the story. I'd suggest picking this up at a library or on sale, because it really is a solid start to an interesting tale, but despite the lovely art and quality of the physical volume with its tight binding and thick paper, the translation is an issue.

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Kevin Cormack
Rating:

First of all, although the cover mentions nothing about it, this is only the first of two volumes, which meant I was surprised by an unexpectedly brutal ending cliffhanger when I thought this would be a complete story. As far as I can see, as of the time of writing, no second English-language volume has been listed for publication, which is a shame, as this is a really gorgeous manga. I'd love to see where the story goes next.

The titular Lala is a stunningly cute “Menem” of the Memory Clan, a subset of a race of people called “grim reapers” by normal humans. Lala lives with her beautiful and elegant elder sister Aridela, and their responsibility is to engrave the memories of dying people into their internalized “memory rooms” (think Sherlock's “Mind Palace”, but less obnoxious), so that they will never be forgotten. They must fulfil their role whilst invisible to humans, only ever seen by those on the very brink of death. Other types of reaper exist, including Lala's friend Mika and her brother Toni, whose roles are to actively take the lives of those humans destined to die, guiding them to the afterlife.

We also meet Nivala and Sarapis, two reapers whose attitudes to humans, their deaths, and their memories couldn't be more opposed. Nivala revelling in his power over humans and their fragile memories, while Sarapis befriends a terminally ill woman, caring for her in her final days.

Lala The Memory Collector is like an achingly beautiful manga version of 90s TV show Dead Like Me, except without the snarky humor. While there isn't much substance to the plot so far, Lala is a pleasantly innocent and perky protagonist, and she interacts with a wide range of mysterious, otherworldly characters. Her world is interesting, though more than a little vague. An air of delicate melancholia pervades almost every page, lightened by the ultra-cute character designs. The final chapter hints at a fascinatingly dark direction I hope I can read in the future.

Unfortunately, in common with another of publisher Tuttle's books I've recently reviewed, which no human translator was listed in, Lala The Memory Collector's translation is so flat, clumsy, and lumpen. I want to score this book higher, but I can't when the words so actively fought against my enjoyment. Why should such a beautiful story be lumbered with such ugly, misshapen syntax and word choice?