 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | TADASHI KAWASHIMA / ADACHITOKA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 224 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | OT | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 04/29/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 06/24/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Alive is an interesting mix of horror, sci-fi, and even some 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… The virus itself is not just being spread in Japan, it’s a world wide problem. It becomes a lethal pandemic in less than a week, and governments and the public are left to pick up the pieces. This is where the friends mentioned previously come into play. One friend, Hirose, is always being picked on at school by bullies, but during the suicide virus week he somehow manages to murder the entire group of upperclassmen and women that had been bothering him – or at least that’s how it looked. Kano is the main protagonist, and a friend to Hirose – he can’t believe Hirose would do this as it is completely not in his character to hurt anyone. Megu is the female friend in the group and she feels very much the same way. Both friends worry about Hirose as he is carted off to the police station and kept there for questioning. When he is finally released, he is no longer the same. He has a strange darkness to him that neither friend can understand. The connection between Hirose, Kano, and the suicide virus is something you have to read within the series and discover yourself. Super powers and inhuman capabilities soon run rampant, and the world is turned over on its side… In volume four, it becomes more and more apparent that some pretty strange days lay ahead. Taisuke and Yuta encounter two more super powered comrades (or so they think they can be considered friends at least). Nami can create ice daggers and wield them as weapons, while anyone who breaks a promise made to the vengeful Okada dies instantly. But whose side are they on? Meanwhile, Inspector Katsumata and his followers travel to Hokkaido in search of the mysterious Acro’s Heart, the key to the entire superpower revolution. The art is not over the top in relation to being original or ground breaking, but it holds its own and keeps up with what most readers would expect from manga today. Details are good, especially in the backgrounds and in architecture and structures. The panels flow really well – their flow is never unnecessarily overcomplicated like many manga make the mistake of doing. This in hand makes the story easy to read and therefore readily enjoyable and hopefully increasingly understandable. Text and text bubble sizes are all appropriate and won’t present any problems in relation to legibility – the series has stayed true to this format throughout. It’s great to see some extras in a manga, and Alive has a number of them at the back of the book. There are a few funny four panel cartoons, some translation notes, and some notes from both the artist and the author about how they came to work on this series. It’s some nice insight into what we’re reading and what it all means. There’s also a preview of the next volume, and you can’t go wrong with a little sneak peek!
IN SUMMARY:
Alive is volatile and action packed as it strides into this fourth volume, but it never loses its sense of humanity and what the people underneath all this trauma are all about. It’s a great “End of the World” story about change, human difficulty, and so many other engrossing subjects. A very entertaining read with great writing. |
