Were you wronged by someone recently? Some noisy neighbor? An abusive boss? A cheating spouse? Or maybe some burglar or a family member? Is your anger so deep you can't let go? Sorry, tough luck!
...unless you receive a black business card with the name Uramiya. Oh, she won't fix your problem, but she certainly can exact revenge on your enemy. For a "small" amount, that is.
Uramiya Honpo is a long-running manga series with 20 volumes at the time of writing. Its formula is very simple: revenge against the scum of the earth. Usually, when someone has a grudge, a mysterious woman that calls herself Uramiya appears in front of you and offers to deal with the situation, usually for a very high fee (the lowest she charges for very simple problems is $3000). The options range from destroying the target's social reputation to actual death. Once paid, Uramiya gets to work, almost always succeeding. Most of the manga's cases are very realistic situations (credit card scam, inheritance issues, rape and murder, stalking, family betrayal, and such) so it can strike a nerve sometimes.
This series provides examples of:
- Cult: the Holy Fortune Faith. It's implied that Uramiya has a story with them (her reaction when hearing the name, the fact that she charged the lowest price ever for dealing with the situation and the fact that the cul'ts leader has a picture of Uramiya and her little brother on her desk are very strong clues).
- Darker and Edgier: This manga does not shy away of showing violence (physical and sexual) and nudity (even though it's not provocative at all).
- Disproportionate Retribution: Although most of the cases aren't too egregious, there are some where the punishment seems to be a lot worse than the actual crime.
- A notable example is the chapter in which a young college student uses her charm and good looks to sucker men into buying expensive items, which they need to sign up for loans to afford (she herself gets a cut of the sales as she's an employee of the company working on commission). Her ultimate punishment involves her getting gang-raped by a group of her former victims; Uramiya (and by extension, the narrative) says that it's only fair that she "pay up" what she promised these men, which will certainly leave a very bad taste in most readers' mouths.
- Humans Are Flawed: Uramiya Honpo has a very negative view of Japanese society. Some issues it talks about are the terrible job market, lack of functional families, juvenile delinquency and scams. Most people are shown as self-centered, egotistical and cowardly. Only the main characters are shown in a bit of good light (it's still made clear that they're not good people). Uramiya herself preaches a Joker-like view of mankind sometimes, minus the craziness, of course.Johoya: It took you that long to realize? We're devils who hunt down devils.
- The Pig-Pen: Johoya is initially introduced as this. He only bathes once a week at best, has a filthy, smelly work area, and has some gross habits. Eventually however, these traits are phased out and his hygiene seems to be much better.
