Hozuki's Coolheadedness...
I picked up Hozuki's Coolheadedness...
Overall, Hozuki's Coolheadedness was much less interesting than I thought it was going to be and I found it very difficult to sit through the entire series. Bureaucracy in Hell is an interesting joke, but, it is very overused in this series and there isn't much else of interest to fall back upon, once the main joke begins to wear thin. I really, really wanted this series to impress me, but, I was very disappointed and gave Hozuki's Coolheadedness a 2 out of 5.
Hozuki is an upper-management bureaucrat in the Eastern version of Hell. While the concept of a bureaucracy in Hell is intriguing and somewhat amusing at first glance, the joke wears pretty thin over the course of Hozuki's Coolheadedness. Hozuki is supremely confident and efficient when he performs his duties, but, more often than not Hozuki just seems to wander around not doing much at all. Hozuki is certainly coolheaded, but, he's also rather bland and boring.There are hard jobs and there are jobs that seem outright impossible, but in the end, the most difficult job in all creation probably belongs to Hozuki, Hell's hardest working bureaucrat. That's because Hozuki is Deputy Chief to Enma, the King of Hell. Enma spends all his time sitting in judgment of the recently deceased, so it's up to Hozuki to keep the dark half of the afterlife running smoothly. And that would be hellishly complicated even if Hell wasn't constantly short on good help.
Fortunately, Hozuki's not the typical bureaucratic hothead you'd expect to find heading a department of infernal affairs. Fiendishly clever and determined enough to dedicate multiple lifetimes to a task (though not necessarily his own lifetimes), he'll get the job done even if it means breaking a few unbreakable rules and running circles around Hell's normal operating procedures.
As for patience... well, Hell hasn't frozen over quite yet, so the verdict's still out on that, but he doesn't suffer fools lightly, let alone damned fools. After all, that Highway to Hell isn't going to get paved with just good intentions, so if someone has to suffer for all eternity, Hozuki's damned sure that it's not going to be himself!
Overall, Hozuki's Coolheadedness was much less interesting than I thought it was going to be and I found it very difficult to sit through the entire series. Bureaucracy in Hell is an interesting joke, but, it is very overused in this series and there isn't much else of interest to fall back upon, once the main joke begins to wear thin. I really, really wanted this series to impress me, but, I was very disappointed and gave Hozuki's Coolheadedness a 2 out of 5.
