Written by Meca Tanaka English publisher CMX Manga Original run 1999 – 2002 Magazine LaLa | Published by Hakusensha Demographic shōjo Volumes 5 Publishers CMX, Hakusensha | |
Similar Aozora Yell, Strobe Edge, Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni T, Dame na Watashi ni Koishite, Faster than a Kiss |
Omukae desu (お迎えです。) is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Meca Tanaka and published by Hakusensha, with serialization from 1999 to 2002 on LaLa and with five volumes compiling the chapters. A sequel has been published since February 24, 2016 on the same magazine. The original manga was be adapted into a Japanese television drama series, which ran from April to June 2016.
Contents
Plot
Madoka Tsutsumi is an college student hopeful who has an emotionless and quiet streak that made others label him "scary", in spite of the fact that he is actually a geek with a penchant for analyzing. He is spiritually aware, and with this ability, he comes across a man in a bunny suit chasing an old man, who turns out to be a spirit. The former introduces himself as a shinigami named Nabeshima, who, alongside his assistant Yuzuko, works for GSG, an organization with the goal of helping spirits to move on from their regrets and enter the afterlife. Nabeshima requests that Madoka accept a part-time job to help the spirits using his possession ability, which allows the spirits to interact with the living, in exchange for a "easy entry to the afterlife" once he dies.
As Madoka continues throughout the next three college years doing the part-time jobs, he is introduced to Sachi Aguma, a high school girl and fellow GSG part-timer who is capable of astral projecting and who has a crush on Nabeshima, despite his insistence that humans and shinigami are not meant to be together. On the other hand, one of the spirits that he has to deal with is revealed to be a high schoolmate, Chisato Ogawa, who has been admiring Madoka from the distance but cannot speak out until her death. Chisato does not reveal her feelings until she has to go to the afterlife, which greatly depresses Madoka, as her feelings are in fact mutual.
To alleviate his mood, Aguma proposes for Madoka to briefly enter the afterlife to say a proper goodbye to Chisato. With Nabeshima and Aguma's help, Madoka manages to confess his feelings to Chisato, though the latter instead encourages him to pursue Aguma instead. Later, while Madoka is helping Aguma to have a "date" with Nabeshima, he insists that he will wait for her until she is ready to move over Nabeshima, a suggestion that she takes note.
Characters
The series' main protagonist, Madoka is an seemingly eternally-emotionless college student who is actually an ardent geek with a hobby of analyzing everything he sees, as well as having a record of being a baseball ace when he was in junior high. However, because he rarely expresses emotions, many others think that he is scary and avoid him. Despite this, he finds a surprising amount of things cute, including Yuzuko's childlike appearance and later Aguma's boisterous personality. Madoka has the ability to see spirits and become a vessel for them to inhabit, allowing them to interact with the living and thus be able to move past their regrets quickly. He is chosen as a part-timer for GSG, an organization of shinigami dealing with spirits who have trouble moving into the afterlife and contributes heavily thanks to his possession ability. Due to a misreading of his name during their introduction, Nabeshima calls Madoka as "En-chan" ("En" being an alternate reading for the kanji of "Madoka"), which comes to be adopted by other characters, such as Yuzuko. It is later revealed that Madoka has been in love with Chisato and goes depressed when the latter leaves for the afterlife without saying a proper goodbye to him. The mission to say goodbye to her serves as the plot of the series' final chapter. He manages to confess, but his request to stay with her is rejected, as Chisato wants him to be with Aguma instead. In an extra chapter, it is hinted that Madoka also harbors feelings for Aguma when he states his willingness to wait for her after she has grown to accept her inability to be with Nabeshima. In the live-action adaptation, Madoka's personal life is elaborated: instead of living in an apartment by himself, he resides in his family's house alongside his mother, Yumiko, and adoptive father, Ikuo, and sister, Sayaka. His gift for baseball is also changed into a gift for rocket-building, an activity that he promotes through a college club. Madoka is voiced by Akira Ishida in the CD drama and portrayed by Sōta Fukushi in the live-action TV adaptation.
A shinigami who works in the Division 2 of GSG, an organization intent in helping spirits move on. He constantly switches between flamboyant clothing due to the GSG's policy of adopting a specific theme each day; he mostly dons a pink bunny suit, which he wears when Madoka first meets him. He is rather easy to get irritated with and voices displeasure at Aguma's love for him not only due to the GSG's policy of strict separation between human and nonhuman beings, but also because he knows that even without the policy, they are bound to be separate anyway. Despite this, Nabeshima has a softer side and is easily attached to things, hence why he mostly avoids becoming involved, so he does not have to grieve for them. In the live-action adaptation, Nabeshima is generally more polite and does not respond to Aguma's crush as harsh as he does in the manga. The circumstances of his life before becoming a shinigami is also explored: as a human named Masato Murakami, he sacrificed himself to protect his younger sister, Asami, from falling into sharp rocks. An adult Asami herself appears in the last two episodes of the series. Nabeshima is voiced by Ryōtarō Okiayu in the CD drama and portrayed by Ryohei Suzuki in the live-action TV adaptation.
Volumes
Reception
Carlo Santos of Anime News Network gave volume 1 a rating of C.
Live-action adaptation
The manga was adapted into a live-action TV adaptation, which premiered in the Nippon Television in April 2016 and ended in June 2016 for a total of 9 episodes. It considerably expands the universe of the original while also removing or changing plot points (e.g. Aguma is made a university student, instead of a high school student).