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Transylvania Rose is a bored angel who decides to visit Earth to cleanse a few souls. During her journey, she encounters a depressed undertaker in the act of slitting his wrists. In an impulsive act of compassion, Rose tears off one of her wings and offers it to the undertaker, inadvertently trapping them both in a limbo that exists between heaven and hell, as well as life and death!
R.I.P was published in English under the title Mitsukazu Mihara: R.I.P. Requiem In Phonybrian by Tokyopop on September 12, 2006.
I'm not always into cheerful, high-school themed anime/manga, so I occasionally seek out those with a darker theme. That's how I stumbled upon R.I.P.
Story: 7
The story is solid, with a good build-up to the climax and a satisfying ending. It felt somewhat predictable, but its brevity made this tolerable. If it had dragged on for 20 or more chapters, I probably wouldn't have rated it as highly. R.I.P. raises intriguing moral questions about suicide and handles them well.
Art: 8
The art is quite good, although some character designs were a bit off-putting to me. The scenery is well-drawn, effectively reflecting both the dark, gloomy scenes and the occasional cheerful moments (of which there weren't many).
Character: 6
I loved the characters, but things got confusing after a while. Initially, there were two main characters, but more people kept getting added without fully explaining their relationships with the mains. Character development was decent for a shorter manga, but I still wanted more. The characters' personalities were unique, yet the ambiguity regarding other characters and events left unanswered questions.
Overall Enjoyment: 9
This manga wasn't perfect, but its gloomy theme and interesting take on death and suicide made it very enjoyable. Whether I'm just drawn to darker themes or not, something about this manga made it memorable.
Even if you're not into darker themes in anime, I highly recommend it. This was an interesting and unique read, and I hope R.I.P. gets a sequel someday. Maybe? Or perhaps there's already one, and I just missed it. ^^