Yami no Matsuei

Descendants of Darkness
闇の末裔

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About this title

Synopsis

The business of Death is never done. Asato Tsuzuki works as a Shinigami, or "Guardian of Death," in the Ministry of Hades. It's his duty to make sure that the souls of the dead reach the afterlife, but contrary ghosts and humanity's evils keep getting in the way of a job well done. With all these problem assignments, will he ever get a bonus...or will he be stuck paying back damages for all eternity? (Source: VIZ Media)

Publication notes

Yami no Matsuei has been published in English as Descendants of Darkness by VIZ Media since September 14, 2004.

Published

Mar 25, 1994 to Jan 24, 2015

Authors

Matsushita, Yoko

External links

MyAnimeList page Official Site Wikipedia

MAL rank: #1731
Members (MAL): 8,065
Favorites (MAL): 319

Related titles

Adaptation

Yami no Matsuei (anime)

Main characters

Kazutaka Muraki227 fan favorites
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Kazutaka Muraki is the primary antagonist in Yami no Matsuei. His angelic appearance and characteristics serve to contrast with his brutal nature. Muraki's psychological troubles appear to have begun in childhood with his mother and his half-brother Saki. Muraki's mother collected dolls, and she is shown as treating him as though he were a doll too. Muraki's love of dolls and his collecting of dolls is a motif throughout the manga and anime, paralleling what he does with real people. In the anime, it is suggested that Saki killed Muraki's parents when they were still children and also decided to kill him. However, in the manga, it is not clear what Saki's role was other than disrupting Muraki's childhood, and Muraki describes himself as his mother's murderer. Whatever the circumstances, Saki was shot by one of the family's guards, and Muraki became obsessed with bringing back Saki in order to kill him himself. Thus, Muraki hopes to use Tsuzuki's body to bring back Saki. This subplot features prominently in the last 3 episodes of the anime and volumes 7 and 8 of the manga. Muraki is an expert manipulator, fronting as a good doctor who laments over his inability to save lives, while hiding his private life as a serial killer. Muraki discredits his good "Dr. Jekyll" persona, contrasting himself to Pr. Satomi in the Kyoto Arc, episode 12.[1] Being a serial killer, Muraki has numerous victims, the most significant of which is Hisoka Kurosaki. After stripping the thirteen year old Hisoka naked, Muraki placed a curse on him. The curse, which was untraceable—partially due to Muraki's having wiped Hisoka's memory of the event—resembled a terminal illness, and Hisoka languished in a hospital for three years before eventually dying. Later, when Hisoka is a shinigami, Muraki forces the boy to recall the night that he cursed him. Throughout the story, Muraki manipulates souls of the dead, often killing the people himself, in hopes of drawing the attention of the Shinigami, in particular, Tsuzuki. He is obsessed with Tsuzuki's body; both carnally and scientifically. In the manga it is clear what Muraki desires, but the anime had to censor such extremes, and so Muraki's advances toward Tsuzuki were shown as hints of sexual harassment. Later in the anime it is shown that Muraki desires Tsuzuki's body to revive his half-brother. A respected physician, Muraki has many connections throughout Japan among powerful patrons, but in the anime and manga, he is mostly seen in the company of his close friend Oriya and his old teacher, Professor Satomi. Muraki also has a childhood sweetheart by the name of Ukyou, but very little is known about her, other than that she appears to draw evil spirits to her and that her health is poor. Some readers believed that because of his different colored eyes, he may be a guardian of one of the four gates of GenSouKai (see Wakaba Kannuki). However, in the King of Swords arc (volume three in the manga), a scene where Tsuzuki knocks out the fake eye reveals that Muraki's right eye is not real and that it is mechanical. The origin and nature of Muraki's supernatural abilities remain an enigma: he is human, he is alive (not a Shinigami), yet he raises a dead girl to be a zombie, seals and opens Hisoka's memory by mere touch, controls creature spirits similar to Shikigami, enters Meifu by himself and teleports Tsuzuki to another location.
Asato Tsuzuki197 fan favorites
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Asato Tsuzuki is the main protagonist of the story. He was born in 1900, and was 26 years old when he died and became a Shinigami. Though he dies at 26, he looks a little younger, probably due to dying in a hopital after 8 years. He is 97 at the beginning of the first book. He is the oldest employee of the Shokan/Summons division, besides Chief Konoe, and the lowest-paid, due to his perceived incompetence. Tsuzuki enjoys sake, apple pie, cinnabon, teasing Hisoka, and sleeping. He is notorious among his fellow Shinigami for his slacker qualities and voracious appetite. His favorite color is light green, and he has a flower garden (in which he is known to have tulips and hydrangeas). Starting in the second volume, in Last Waltz, we learn more about his relationship with his sister. In Tankoubon 5, Storybook, he gives his nameless female role, who had been known only as 'girl,' his sister's name of Luka. She had brought him to be fond of dancing and gardening, at which he's quite adept, and cooking, which is about as edible as poison. These culinary attempts always lead to some sort of bad reaction, as shown in Volume 4, Hokkaidō. (The Queen had gone missing, and upon finding her later it is learned that she had eaten a muffin which Tsuzuki made, that Yuma and Saya accidentally left behind. It was the cause for her disappearance, while she really couldn't recall how she ended up out of her 'kingdom.') Throughout the series, Tsuzuki develops an immediate closeness and affection to his current partner, Hisoka. He has a good friendship with Watari, and a sometimes strained relationship with Tatsumi, who had once been one of his partners. Tsuzuki gets along with most of the employees of Meifu, with the notable exceptions of Hakushaku, who constantly hits on him, and Terazuma, with whom he has a fierce rivalry. Tsuzuki's relationship with Muraki is very tumultuous; although Tsuzuki hates him for his cruelty toward Hisoka, himself (and, actually, pretty much everyone he meets), Tsuzuki's desire to sacrifice himself rather than hurt anyone else prevents him from killing Muraki in cold blood. Though he is easily one of the most cheerful members of the cast, he hides a dark secret from his past. Both manga and anime reference terrible deeds he committed in life. It is suggested that Tsuzuki murdered many people, in some way or another, whether intentionally or as a by-product of something else; this is brought to Tsuzuki's attention during his demonic possession by Saagantanasu, a powerful demon who appears in the Devil's Trill Arc. Doctor Muraki reveals to him from his grandfather's research that Tsuzuki was a patient of the elder Muraki for eight years and that Tsuzuki is, in fact, not quite human. During that time, he stayed alive without food, water, or sleep, and was incapable of dying from wounds, as shown by the many times he tried to commit suicide but failed, but for one last time. Muraki suggested that Tsuzuki may possess demon blood [shown by the fact that he has purple eyes], and as Tsuzuki found this incredibly hard to deal with. Tsuzuki wields the power of 12 Shikigami as well as ofuda magic. He also has an incredibly high stamina, able to take massive damage to his body without being killed and healing almost immediately. Though later, this was shown to be a trait for all Shinigami, he was the first one shown to have this ability, which appears to be tied to his pre-death abilities.
Hisoka Kurosaki132 fan favorites
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Birthday: October 18 1980 Hair: Sandy Blonde Eyes: Green Blood type: AB Status: Guardian of Death Age 16 Hisoka is a Shinigami in a 16 year old's body. He possesses strong empathy, which allows him to feel the emotions of others, read thoughts, see memories, and pick up imprints of clairvoyance off of inanimate objects. He came from a traditional family, and was trained in traditional Japanese martial arts. His parents were afraid of his spiritual powers, which they considered freakish and unfit for their heir as well as something that could unfurl the familiar secret; so as a child, whenever he was caught using his abilities and during special days, he was locked in a cellar. One spring night when he was 13, unable to sleep, he went out under the sakura trees, and stumbled across a murder as it was taking place. The murderer, Muraki Kazutaka, caught him, raped him, and cursed him to a slow death that gradually drained his life over three years, with the logic that "a beautiful boy deserves a beautiful death". Muraki later explains to Tsuzuki that he did have the option of making the single murder a double murder done by a madman, but instead decided to draw out Hisoka's death painfully; this was done by the curse, taking the form of an incurable illness. This curse is still visible in the form of red marks and symbols all over Hisoka's body, which seems to only appear when Muraki is nearby or active. It has been implied, though not explicitly stated, that the curse will only disappear after Muraki's actual death. After Hisoka died, he became a Shinigami to investigate about his own death, since he had no memories of the event. It is only later we learn that Muraki had since sealed off Hisoka's memories in order to keep his crimes safe from discovery. In Meifu, Hisoka was assigned as Tsuzuki's partner. Hisoka enjoys reading, and spends much of his time at the library by himself. His health even in the afterlife does not seem to be particularly good, as he has a tendency to faint from heat, lack of sleep; and from drinking alcohol. Also, he is not very strong, as he doesn't build muscle well. However, he is a capable detective, and clever in subterfuge. Although extremely reserved to the point of coldness, Hisoka deeply cares about other people. When Tsuzuki regains his suicidal tendencies, Hisoka comforts him and ends up saving him from himself. Hisoka also has a strong urge to take care of Tsuzuki, even though Tsuzuki drives him crazy sometimes. He maintains comfortable relationships with the rest of his coworkers, with the noticeable exception of Saya and Yuma, who constantly try to play with him like a doll. Besides his empathy, Hisoka has also been trained in basic ofuda and defensive magic by Chief Konoe. Later in the series, he goes to seek out a Shikigami for himself in order to increase his power. Hisoka's first Shikigami is a Spanish-speaking potted cactus named Riko, a defensive and water-type Shiki. Hisoka is also adept in traditional martial arts, particularly archery, and kendo.