Kurozakuro Volume 5 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

High school student Mikito Sakurai was the target of delinquents because he was gentle and passive.  His life changed after he swallowed a mysterious orb and encountered Zakuro, a mysterious boy who lives in Mikito’s dreams.  Suddenly, Mikito develops strange, new, and even dangerous powers, and he discovers that he has become a man-eating ogre.

In hopes of discovering more about his powers, Mikito fell in with Gogyo, one of the Dark Enforcers who punishes ogre hunters that step out of line, and his hunter crew, the White Claw.  As Kurozakuro, Vol. 5 begins, Mikito continues his training under the crazy tutelage of the White Claw twins, Zuzuna and Suzushiro.

Meanwhile, at the Hunter Headquarters, White Claw continues to battle Black Thorn, a group of assassins within hunters’ organization.  Both White Claw and Mikito learn terrible truths about hunters and ogres.  And enter Lacey.  Who is Lacey?

THE LOWDOWN:  I’ve previously written that the ogre, Zakuro, has a resemblance to Steve Ditko’s DC Comics character, The Creeper, but that’s about as far as that comparison goes.  Kurozakuro is a shonen monster comic book that is partly like Naruto or Bleach – about a chosen boy.  On the other hand, creator Yoshinori Natsume (Batman: Death Mask) presents darker visions than most creators with shonen offerings for teen readers do.

Kurozakuro is a narrative on a relentless race of darkness for the characters.  Each discovery made by Mikito or one of the other characters simply presents another mysterious passageway by which he or she must travel.  Natsume, as always, keeps us wanting to follow his characters into the abyss, and I will follow.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for dark fantasy will find a good manga in Kurozakuro.

A-