One To Watch: I'm The Grim Reaper

And you can be too! Not really though.

The evolving world of American manga publishing is really, really exciting, and I’m fully hitched to the bandwagon of Viz’s various programs, from their one shot originals to their repackaged WebToons. I’m The Grim Reaper may well be the cream of the early crop, so much so that I almost feel silly doing a “keep an eye on this series” post about it.

After all, it was kind of the feature of Viz’s 2024 New York ComicCon Industry panel, so if you haven’t heard about it yet, well, then I guess you’re in the right place.

One last note before I get into the actual series—it takes a lot for my workplace (the biggest bookstore in America) to spotlight a new manga series, so when I’m The Grim Reaper hit our internal favorites list, I was more than a little surprised.

Then I read the first volume and understood why.

As soon as you see the series, physical or digital or WebToons, you can’t help but be engrossed in the red accents. Reminiscent of Sin City, These red accents are vibrant, purposeful and just so well executed. They also aren’t overdone, they’re just enough to still feel like accents and not oversaturated. And it fits the story perfectly.

The series details the afterlife antics of Scarlet, who remembers nothing of her life, but is told she was a terrible person doomed to one of the deepest circles of Hell. So a very eccentric (and downright delightful—more on that later) Satan offers her two choices—go deep into hell for all eternity, or become the Grim Reaper. The only rule to being the Grim Reaper—every day, Scarlet must kill one sinner, conveniently marked with a bright red X on their chest.

You can see the appeal. What ensues is Scarlet’s grappling with what constitutes someone deserving not just death, but an eternity in hell, and how duplicitous humans can be. The first person she meets is a charming young man who, turns out, is a serial killer.

In terms of storytelling, the biggest jewel in this storytelling crown is the masterful balance of humor and horror. There’s going to be a longer post about this particular craft element in the future, but this balance is difficult to hit, yet Graveweaver does it tremendously. You’ll laugh and be mortified on the same page. Trust me.

One of the primary ways she does this is through perhaps my favorite iteration of Satan ever. Equal parts frightening, menacing, and sarcastic, Satan is the main vessel that will fill you with such a diverse array of reactions. You will laugh with him. You will raise an eyebrow or two at him. You will pray you never meet him. And this is just after one volume, mind you. He’s a gem. Weird to say that about Satan, but this isn’t your grandmother’s Satan. Which is another weird thing to say about Satan.

One last thing to highlight before I shut up and send you on your way to read this yourself—supporting cast! Again, just one volume in, but the immediate addition to the cast is Chase, a police detective (kind of), the son of the chief of police, and a marked sinner. He strikes up a tense, hilarious, and deeply intriguing partnership with Scarlet that opens itself up to so many possibilities as we move forward.

I generally don’t read on WebToons… it's just too hard to find stuff I’m looking for and the good stuff often gets picked up and distributed in gorgeous physical books like I’m The Grim Reaper anyway. But I may make an exception to keep going with this series.