Manga Review: Eden – It’s an Endless World! Vol. 1

This week I’m starting up a new manga series, currently being published by Dark Horse.

Title: Eden – It’s an Endless World! Volume 1
Story & Art by Hiroki Endo
Translation by Kumar Sivasubramanian
Lettering by Steve Dutro
Edited by Phillip Simon

Available from Amazon.com

The Premise

Humanity has been clobbered by a virus that calcifies humans and kills people who aren’t either immune, or who don’t receive extensive cybernetic augmentations, if not full cybernetic conversions.

The story opens with the characters of Ennoiah and Hannah living alone on an island with a researcher named Lane Morris. Lane had been infected by the virus, while Ennoiah and Hannah are immune. They learn, when forces of the Propater paramilitary organization arrive, that not all of humanity is extinct. they kill the soldiers using an experimental combat robot named Cherubim.

20 years later, and Elijah, the child of Ennoiah and Hannah, is surviving in the wasteland with the assistance of Cherubim. Ennoiah has become a major narco-trafficker. Elijah, while making his way south, falls in with a group of mercenaries.

High Points

The opening chapters build an excellent sense of isolation and decay.

Low Points

When Propater’s troops show up, they really come out of nowhere. There’s nothing in this part of the story to imply there’s anyone else on Earth.

Scores

Originality: 5/6
Art: 6/6
Story: 5/6
Emotional Response: This volume is very bleak, and conveys its sense of isolation incredibly well. 5/6
Characterization: 4/6
Flow: 6/6
Overall: 6/6

In total, Eden – It’s an Endless World! Vol. 1 gets 37 out of 42.