Shutterbox

    (Tokyopop, 2003-2004)
™ and © Rosearik Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons

Megan Amano is wondering what to do after graduating from high school. After seeing a boy commit suicide, she follows him in her dreams into a surrealistic afterlife that mixes Greek mythology, Alice’s Wonderland, and the university-world of Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Merridiah University of Spiritual Education (MUSE) is a college for recently dead adolescents assigned as spirit guides (a combination of guardian angels and inspirational muses) to unsuspecting worthy “human clients.” Megan has been chosen, for reasons her supercilious upperclass advisor refuses to explain, as a ShutterBox Exchange Student: one of the extremely rare live mortals enrolled for one year. Megan is unsure whether she is in some supernatural Limbo or needs serious psychiatric aid, but it sure is more interesting than her normal life.

ShutterBox is an “American manga” by the team of Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth. Readers of their previous Reality Check! will know what kind of fantasy hijinks to expect, as the lively, sarcastic Megan gets involved with flying rabbits, stampeding fauns, a guiding spirit who possesses her digital camera, and a really handsome dead guy.

— Fred Patten
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