The basic story: Main characters are Guardians of Death. It is their job to assist the Ministry of Hades by tracking down spirits that have died and refuse to move on (or something close to that). They also investigate places where an overwealming number of unnatural/Supernatural deaths have occured. (Vampires killing the masses in one story arch)

That's about the best I can do; not because I don't know things, but because (as implied earlier) I can't do a good Sum-up to save my life.

The main character is Asato Tsuzuki, the strongest Shinigami in JuOhCho. He can call up to 12 Shikigami (weird animal-like creatures, very powerful, when in their own world can take human form), which is very impressive. Shinigami always work in pairs. His partner is Hisoka Kurosaki. Hisoka is an empath, meaning he can feel people's emotions. Hisoka was murdered at the age of 13, but he died when he was 16...confused? It was a curse that killed him. Right, so the villain in this series is Muraki Kazutaka. He was the one who murdered Hisoka, and now he's going around killing people. Tsuzuki and Hisoka are trying to stop him...blah blah blah..."trying" being the key word, because Muraki seem to escape every single times.

Other characters in this series include Watari Yutaka (a genki scientist, he can bring inanimate paintings to live), Tatsumi ___(I don't remember his first name, he's the secretary, also the Shadow Master), the Count (he's very creepy, he lusts after Tsuzuki, and we can never see his face), and some other minor characters that I don't feel like listing out.

Did I mention that all of these characters (except Muraki, of course) are dead? Yeah, so now you know.

This site is very informative as well and gives a good idea of the story: http://users.animanga.com/LikeADream/ri-chan_yami_english.htm

The best site for everything YnM is Katcom, but there's a lot there and is mainly for people already into the fandom. I hope thats helped.

11 books are out (I don't know if the Twelth one is or not) Yoko Matsushita (the author, so I hope I spelled the name right) is writing the 13th I hear. and there is currently a 12 or 13 episode anime you can watch if you can find it.

The above summaries pretty much cover YnM, but don't dismiss it as a yaoi manga or an action one, it has a lot of sides. Especially character development with Tsuzuki and Muraki.

Tatsumi's first name is Seiichiro. He used to be Tsuzuki's partner, but quit because he couldn't handle Tsuzuki's depression. This happens a lot; it is implied that Tsuzuki has gone through an abnormal number of partners before Hisoka. Tatsumi says that Hisoka is the only one who can truly hope to stay by Tsuzuki's side. Awww!

The only other really consistent minor characters are the Gushoshin, twin owl/bird-like things that handle the library and data, as well as Hajime Terazuma (another former partner of Tsuzuki's) and Wakaba Kannuki (two other shinigami; Terazuma is a rival of Tsuzuki's and turns into a big black demon when touched by a girl or Hisoka).

Both Tsuzuki and Hisoka periodically become severely depressed. Tsuzuki's reasons are explored, developed, and generally revealed over the course of the manga/anime. Suffice to say, he's got guilt issues like nobody's business. Hisoka's depression stems from the fact that, upon discovering his empathetic powers, his wealthy old-blood parents locked him in an underground cell, and refused to acknowledge both the fact that he's their son and his existence in general. Muraki raped, cursed, and killed him (in that order) after Hisoka witnessed Muraki killing someone. The curse takes the form of the tattoos that form on Hisoka's body when Muraki is up to something.

Muraki is a skilled medical doctor, as well as completely crazy and a serial killer. He is a powerful magic-user and obsessed with Tsuzuki. He usually poses as a doctor or something similar to gain access to his victims, which leads Tsuzuki and Hisoka to him.

Don't get confused between shinigami and shikigami! Shinigami are Tsuzuki, Hisoka, Watari, Tatsumi, etc. The human-looking ones. Shikigami are spirits that inhabit a totally different dimension (in their own dimension, they do appear as humans) that can be summoned by shinigami.

Lunasariel,

Nice sum-up. I mean .... really nice sum-up. I don't know that I would have thought to put so much thought into it. Somehow, I feel that if I had, I would have spoken ...... um ... I guess that would be typed ...... entirely too much and filled it with spoilers. Your sum-up contains some spoilers, but nothing that would keep a person from enjoying the manga/anime.

Eeek! Looking back on what I wrote, I guess I did include a spoiler or two. Sorry to all who haven't read/seen YnM so far!

1. Forums are not to be used to post stories.
2. All discussions including language and content must be suitable for teens.
3. The owner/moderator(s) of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
4. All forum abuse must be reported to the moderator(s).

1. Forum admin/moderator
2. Fanatic (on site for more than 2 years)
3. Fan (on site for more than a year)
4. Regular (on site for more than 6 months)
5. Camper (on site for more than a month)
6. Apprentice (on site for more than a week)
7. Newbie (on site for less than a week)