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ALIVE: THE FINAL EVOLUTION VOL. 3 |
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Reviews
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | TADASHI KAWASHIMA / ADACHITOKA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 224 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | OT | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 02/19/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 06/17/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Alive is an interesting mix of horror, sci-fi, and maybe even mystery. It focuses on a group of friends all attending high school together, and seems pretty normal for the first little while. Suddenly something takes a turn for the worst and a number of people are either murdered, appear to have been murdered, or flat out commit suicide. We soon discover that this epidemic of unexplainable deaths is due to a terrible virus that confuses the human mind in relation to death. The powers to be claim that the virus infects the victim’s brain and causes them to commit suicide. That doesn’t seem to explain everything that’s been going on, but of coarse this is only part of the mystery. In volume three, Taisuke and Yuta are searching for their kidnapped friends when they are ambushed by the wind-wielding Morio. Can Taisuke use his burgeoning powers to escape? Whom can Taisuke and Yuta trust? In the world they live in now, it’s more than likely that no one can be truly trusted at all – they will have to just trust themselves. The art is really very arresting with its bold lines and contrasting shades of black and white. It’s been of good quality from the beginning of book one, and still holds true. The cover art on this series is always great – volume three has an especially attractive cover and back cover featuring some pretty crazy contrasting yellow, blue and orange hues. It’s good quality stuff and really helps to make each book feel very collectible like an art piece. Character designs continue to be varied and interesting – most giving a very certain impression about what kind of motivations are controlling any of these said people. The road ahead for Alive as a visual work and a captivating story is still looking very good. There is an increasingly interesting plot coming together here and a lot more fight scenes, of which are always appreciated. Good art, good story, good action – Alive has a number of components that make it up – all of which are just great, and make it great in turn.
IN SUMMARY:
Alive continues to impress with all the entertainment it brings to the table as an adventure/horror/action story. It’s got quite a punch visually, and just as much story and action to keep things flowing right. |
