49. Biomega Vol. 1

Biomega Vol. 1 by Tsutomu Nihei (Canada) - (US)


Pages: 220 pages
Ages: 18+
Finished: Mar. 17, 2010
First Published: Feb. 2, 2010
Publisher: Viz Media
Genre: manga, science fiction, horror
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

3005 A.D. Mankind successfully completes its first manned flight to mars in seven centuries.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Simon & Schuster Canada.

Reason for Reading: Apocalypse? Virus? Zombies? How could I *not* want to read it?

Summary: I've never done this before but I think for this one time the publisher's summary will do a much better job than I can in describing the plot.

Zoichi Kanoe plunges into the depths of 9JO--an island city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean--in search of Eon Green, a girl with the power to transmute the N5S virus. He's not the only one looking for her, though... Agents of the Public Health Service's Compulsory Execution Unit are also in hot pursuit. Zoichi and his transhuman allies have no time to waste; the countdown to the zombie apocalypse has begun!

Comments: First off this book is a little larger in length and width than the usual manga which really enhances the superb artwork. Done in very detailed black ink the artwork tells the story for much of the book. There are a lot of wordless panels, especially in the first half where words are very seldom used and only sparsely when needed. There are many scenes which look down upon a city or place and these are truly stunning, some of the best artwork I've seen in a manga. There is a lot of violence but it's all of the kind you'd expect to see when zombies are being shot at and blown to pieces plus a small bit of language, thus the manga has an "M" rating.

The story in this first volume is brief. The outline of what is going on and who our main characters are is introduced and one gets a bit of a feel for them. By the end of the book slight revelations have been made and we know the end of the world is imminent. There is one character whom not much information has been given and I found, shall we say, quite interesting, by the name of Kozlov who is a large talking grizzly bear who seems to be trying to protect Eon Green and I find myself most compelled by him at the moment.

I definitely have a sense of the story here but I'm not big on wordless graphics, even though this does contain enough bubbles to tell some story. I personally do need more. At this point, I'm going to wait for Volume 2 before deciding whether this is a series I want to follow. If you like Apocalyptic stories, lots of zombie and motorcycle action with a grizzly bear thrown in for good measure you may want to give this one a try.