Eerie Queerie follows the adventures of one Mitsuo, a loner high school student who has the misfortune of also being a medium. Due to his gentle nature, he’s prone to being taken over by any strong-willed ghost in the vicinity. Possessed, he ends up apparently afflicted with multiple personalities, professing his undying love to a classmate one minute and then running away shamefaced the next. His classmates all think he’s got a screw loose, but Mitsuo is determined to figure out how to control these spirits once and for all. It doesn’t help that he always attracts female spirits who can’t move on until they’ve proclaimed their feelings to one dashing boy or another. Situations only get more complicated when one of the dreamboats Mitsuo asks out “under the influence,” Hasunuma, doesn’t think dating is such a bad idea. Dealing with homophobic taunting from his classmates, ghosts determined to express their feelings, and conflicted yearnings for his new friend, Mitsuo is on the verge of totally losing it.
The humor is constant in Eerie Queerie, from the chatter of fellow students to the embarrassing slapstick moments that are bound to arise when a boy is possessed by the spirits of girls. Hasunuma is a teenage boy, ready to take any opportunity to manhandle that Mitsuo unwittingly allows. In the end, though, Hasunuma’s sweet devotion to Mitsuo and his easy dismissal of cynics and teasers grounds all of the wackiness in a basic sense of affection. All of the stories focus on what causes spirits to want to linger — the unexpressed feelings that can never be admitted after a death are finally brought out into the open, healing everyone involved. Mitsuo and Hasunuma are trying not only to banish ghosts but also to comfort a few of the living along the way.
Eerie Queerie, vol. 1
ISBN: 9781591827191
By Shuri Shiozu
Tokyopop, 2004
