A new season is soon upon us, a changing of the weather and the coming of the season of Survival. Zombies in the Walking Dead and Z Nation, monsters in Helix, angels in Dominion & of course dragons in Game of Thrones (Well hopefully they are on their way…). Spring brings them all in everything from movies to books to TV and of course manga. I want to ring in the new season with a short description of the some of the better or most interesting survival based manga and my recommended read of the week.
First – Tokyo Ghoul: Strange murders are happening in Tokyo. Due to liquid evidence at the scene, the police conclude the attacks are the results of ‘eater’ type ghouls. College buddies Kaneki and Hide come up with the idea that ghouls are imitating humans so that’s why they haven’t ever seen one. Little did they know that their theory may very well become reality.
Now while the original manga series has ended, with quite a twist ending, (The second anime season takes place about half way through it) there is now a spin-off and a second series.
Second – The spin-off, Tokyo Ghoul JACK, is about the ghoul investigators Arima and Fura during their high school days. You might not think it would be good, but it helps solidify a lot of the story and brings about the start of the legend of the invincible Arima.
Third – The sequel, Tokyo Ghoul:re, takes place a period of time after the first series. It follows Haise Sasaki as he tries his best to lead his team of special Doves named “Quinckes” due to their special abilities. It’s an entire squad of one-eyed ghouls, a rather unruly bunch under supervision of Mado Akira. It has a lot of action and a lot of the old cast makes a reappearance looking older and stronger. More of Pierrot will be revealed too.
Fourth – Jisatsutou (a.k.a. Suicide Island) is another story by writer/artist Kouji Mori (creator of Holyland and Destroy & Revolution). It’s an interesting story where in order to deal with the ever increasing suicide rate in Japan, the government decides instead of hospital care to just take a bunch of patients and send them off to an island (therefore title) to either survive or die. The story centers mostly on Sei as he discovers more about himself and how to hunt and survive on the island alongside the others and uncovers the secret past of the island.
Fifth – As long as we are talking about island survival there is “Btooom!”, also animated with a second season in the works, is a story about a videogame company taking things a little too far. Sakamoto Ryouta is one of the world’s top players of the combat game “BTOOOM“! One day, he awakes in what appears to be a tropical island, though he has no memory of how he got there. Now Ryouta realizes both that his life is in danger and that he has somehow been trapped in a real-life version of his favorite game. You get bombs, strategy and survival all in one.
Now there are plenty of other amazing titles, but that will be for another time. I’ll end this with my pick of the week.
POTW – Mahou Shoujo of the End, now I know with a title like that you wonder what the hell it could be about or if it’s another Madoka copy, but it’s actually incredibly bloody and in George R. Martin style almost everyone dies. It follows Kogami Kii, a regular highschooler whose life gets flipped around when a strange little girl who only says “magical” kills his teacher and most of his class. It turns out there are countless zombie like magical girls with special sticks massacring most of Japan. Bullets don’t stop them; they regenerate damage and can kill hundreds in seconds.
What makes most of these series great is that despite almost everyone dying, there is still slight hope. Have fun surviving folks.
