Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed
Whether people live or die doesn't matter to me. People eventually die. The only difference is when. If there is some meaning... it's in the way you die.—Fumika
The souls of the newly-departed are afforded one last wish. If they so choose, they may write a letter to one still-living person. The heart of the sender, their thoughts and feelings, are laid bare in this letter, called a Shigofumi.
A girl named Fumika, with her partner, a talking staff named Kanaka, is one of the souls who deliver these Shigofumi. Except Fumika isn't like the other letter carriers. Since she took up the mantle of letter carrier for the dead, she's continued aging. Since all the letter carriers should already be dead themselves, this poses something of a mystery for Fumika and her coworkers, especially her friend Chiaki. Moreover, she bears a suspicious resemblance to a girl who used to go to a school in her delivery zone. A girl who's now comatose in a nearby hospital after shooting her father. Why is Fumika such an abnormal letter carrier? And what connection, if any, does she have with that comatose girl she visits so often?
Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed, also known as Shigofumi: Stories of Last Letter (シゴフミ ～Stories of Last Letter～) in Japan and Shigofumi, is a Thirteen Episode Anime from J.C.Staff, Bandai Visual, and GENCO. Early on, the series follows Fumika as she touches on the lives of those who receive Shigofumi. After one particularly eventful delivery, though, the show shifts the focus to Fumika herself, as it slowly unravels the mystery behind her and the girl in the hospital.
- Abusive Parents: In episode 2 Asuna's father makes her pose for child porn.
- Fumika herself experienced this when her father Kirameki used her as a draft board, 'writing' with glass pens.
- Both cases overlap with Berserk Button: Asuna killed her father when he tried to use her little sister as well and Fumika's alter ego shot Kirameki.
- Anvilicious: Several times. There's a throwaway letter delivery to a gigolo getting beat up by his pimps for impregnating another prostitute... from his aborted child. All it has is a bloody handprint.
- The Atoner: Both Fumi and Mika after the former wakens from her coma. The latter wants the former to shoot her for shooting Kirameki. The former wants to isolate herself for the exact same reason.
- Baker's Dozen: An epilogue episode was released on the DVD set.
- Bishie Sparkle: Kirameki--see Meaningful Name below. Kirei does this, too.
- Bokukko: Fumika doesn't have the usual personality, but she does use boku. This is related to the original Fumika's split personality. One part, Mika, was more boyish.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Kirameki
- Can Not Tell a Lie: The souls who write shigofumi are bound to tell the truth.
- Chekhov's Gun: Fumika caries a large, rather shiny handgun, and occasionally pulls it out to make a point. This is the same gun with which she shot Kirameki.
- Convenient Coma: The girl Fumika visits. It's actually the other half of the original Fumika's split personality, Fumi.
- Cool Gun Fumika's gun
- Dead Man Writing: The entire premise of the show.
- The Faceless: A lot of characters in Episode 10.
- Freudian Excuse: In the first episode, Asuna Ayase is revealed to have killed her father. Seems pretty twisted until the second episode reveals that her father had been renting her out for child porn, and was intending to do the same to Asuna's little sister. We never do learn why she stabbed her boyfriend so hatefully, though.
- Hand Cannon: Fumika's gold-lined handgun.
- Healing Factor
- Hime Cut: Fumika
- Indirect Kiss
- Les Yay: Ran and Nanae get a lot of this in their episode, though it never quite crosses the barrier to full blown Schoolgirl Lesbians. Fumika and Chiaki get a moment or two like this, too.
- Mad Artist: Kirameki Mikawa
- Meaningful Name: Kirameki ('sparkle' or 'shimmer') is obsessed with things that do just that.
- There's also Aizawa Kirei. Kirei means 'beautiful'. When we finally see her in episode 12, she seems to have a love of beautiful things, as well.
"Just as her name, she was a beautiful person."
- Moral Event Horizon: Despite keeping Mika-chan from going to school, Kirameki does a fairly good job for a single father, until he starts carving his rough drafts into her skin with glass pens.
- Pac-Man Fever: Averted with a very accurate, though generalized, depiction of Animal Crossing.
- Parental Abandonment: Fumika's mom only wanted to experience childbirth and marriage just 'cause'.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Fumika
- Split Personality: Fumi and Mika, Originally Fumika Mikawa
- Tears From a Stone: In episode 4, a statue appears to cry. It turns out to be rain.
- Why Did It Have To be Cats: Fumika turns out to be afraid of them.
- The Woobie: Plenty
- Winged Humanoid: The talking staffs used by the letter carriers can transform into wings for their users, enabling them to fly. They have a limited time in which this function can be used though, after which they return to normal.
- White-Haired Pretty Boy: Kiremeki
- White-Haired Pretty Girl: Fumika
- Your Days Are Numbered: On particular man in a story was watching a girl named Mikawa he had cancer and was supposed to die soon anyway, instead he died because he pushed Mikawa out of an on coming bus.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Part of the letter deliverers' uniforms.