The rating of five for Purgatory Funeral Cakes Volume 1 by Sanho, is not so much because it was GREAT and WOW and AMAZING. But because it had emotional elements that really spoke to me, without me really being “aware” of what that was. What was it really saying? I am not sure as it was an internal element, a feeling more than something solid.
Things are literary, intense, thoughtful, awkward, unique, familiar, hopeful, and sad. Just a mix and mash of a lot going on within four main parts showing us the world of grief. The first is starting us off with a prologue by introducing things, by introducing Purgatory. Then we follow a story of someone who has lost a loved one. The information comes out about what the deceased was like, allowing the one ordering a cake (food for the deceased and their 49 day trip in Purgatory) to have a way to grieve. This is followed by a second story, and the final part is how the stories intertwine, more about Purgatory and more about the cake maker themself. The stories are interesting because they are not straight forward “death of a person” as they both add an element of fantasy or paranormal. The idea of Purgatory itself is magical, the way it is set up more so, and the cake maker’s assistant is a skeleton-ghost, and how the cakes are made is fantastical, so it is not odd to have magic in the main stories, but is a bit off at the same time (this goes for the assistant, too). The first story and its mystical element has a girl with a literal third eye and the second has the mother (and perhaps the daughter) as vampires. However (or of course), you can take both metaphorically or literally.
Things are not easy, but things are also cozy. It is an odd mix. There are few colors or details, but what is there is important and fleshes out things. The color red is perhaps the most important color as it is the only one people would feel is a “real” color (the others are gray, black and white that are featured). Red figuratively can pop off the page. The images are manga/anime with what is called manhwa (I’m not really familiar with this, I’m taking it from the publisher description, and a quick google search). The story feels steeped in Asian (probably Korean) mythology and culture.
