Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition (2024)

E. G.

1,112 reviews786 followers

March 10, 2019

--Abara
Translation Notes

--Digimortal

    4-star fiction graphic-novels-and-manga

Nate D

1,616 reviews1,144 followers

Shelved as 'read-in-2019'

December 18, 2019

Not really as inexplicable as claimed. The story and action are relatively clear: this recounts the events of an apocalypse, and if the particulars may be unfathomable by design, the trajectory is familiar. The dualing-government-agencies semi-noir plot attempts to humanize this for the audience a bit, but probably serves to muddle it further since Nihei doesn't seem interested in the interpersonal dimensions in the least. His concerns are fundamentally inhuman. To the extent that this doesn't work for me, its because without that human dimension it's difficult to care about all the action sequences, or about what happens at all when it escalates so quickly. But once the scope of the disaster dwarfs the human completely (in no more than an aside, we learn that ) and renders it completely unimportant, this becomes, instead, beautiful.

    architecture comics japan

Cornelius T.

147 reviews1 follower

January 9, 2019

A gift from D&D [oh hai D&D!] that I was super stoked to receive. I was familiar with the artist already from the Blame! manga but a sci-fi/horror/post-apocalyptic manga with weird body horror and beautiful art? Sign me up.

For those not super familiar with Nihei's story telling, it's kind of scattered, and kinda matches the art for the book. While beautiful, sometimes its so abstract and chaotic its hard to tell what's going on in parts. There are also some parts that kinda feel incomplete? Not to the point where you can't move on, but enough to where it may make you pause and look back a few pages to make sure you didn't forget anything. Then again, I feel like most people like Nihei for the art and not necessarily the story.

Despite the negatives however, this is going right next to the Junji Ito section of my bookshelves, and can't wait to share with others.

Bill Hsu

888 reviews183 followers

February 24, 2020

The art is gorgeous. Nihei seems to effortlessly convey the sheer scale of landscapes and structures; vertiginous towers and endless staircases remind me of Piranesi's dungeons. I'm not a fan of creature battles, though I do appreciate the massive morphing forms. Will check out Blame eventually for more architectural perspectives.

    graphic-novels-comics

Edgar Cotes Argelich

Author43 books129 followers

April 11, 2023

Nihei en estat pur. El seu dibuix espectacular, com sempre, et deixa impressionat, i la història cyberpunk que ens proposa molt dinàmica i complexa a l’estil que ens té acostumats és addictiva i funciona molt bé. Potser en aquest cas se li ha de replicar que hi ha escenes que són massa confuses del compte i costa de veure què passa. Però l’univers que ens proposa és tan interessant, que no acaba important.

Kathy

440 reviews4 followers

January 9, 2023

Visualmente me ha encantado y aunque la historia tiene altos y bajos, está bien, pero muy extraña, deja muchas dudas.

    mangas

Sol

574 reviews29 followers

January 27, 2020

Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition (8)

Abara is everything I loved about pre-Sidonia Nihei. Dark, gritty, sharp, minimal dialogue and story, maximum action. Along with Biomega, it's the final evolution of the style he'd been developing since the beginning of his career, before he began radically altering it halfway through Biomega, continuing in Knights of Sidonia and ending (for now) in Aposimz' extremely light and wispy sketches. I look at pages like these and feel a bit of sadness for the direction Nihei's career took. I don't hate what he draws now, but I do feel that it can't reach the heights of what he's done here.

Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition (9)

It's got all the staples of Nihei - oppressive architecture (though not as anti-human as Blame!), shadowy conspiracies, disturbing monsters incorporating elements of the human form, action emphasizing speed, overwhelming power, and massive destruction. It lacks everything typically lacking in Nihei manga - differentiable characters and a comprehensible ending among them. I had wondered if reading an official translation after all these years might make the baffling ending to this manga any more clear. It doesn't. At the very least, it doesn't have quite as many moving parts as Biomega's ending, which needs to be read to be believed. About the only things I noticed was that the white insects attacking the USB-stick guy are probably the larval form of the white gauna, just as the little black insect creates a black gauna, and that the story probably takes place on some kind of asteroid/artificial planetoid ala Aposimz.

Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition (10)

The attached Digimortal is much the same, but I think it might be from slightly earlier in Nihei's career. I couldn't find any information in English on when or where it was published.

I've wanted for a while to make some kind of chart creating a visual linkage of the various repeated concepts and motifs that repeat in Nihei's work, so I'll just note them here for myself
-White gauna -> KoS gauna + Ochiai's final form
-Black gauna -> Aposimz Regular Frames and that one woman from the first half of Biomega
-Blob transformed into black Gauna -> Aposimz Placenta blobs
-The mausoleums -> Reappear as control mechanisms for satellites in Aposimz
-Fourth Aeon guild -> Blame! Mori and Aposimz Titania
-Digimortal has suppression of immortality, womb/fetus extraction, and super-powered twin bodyguards all in one

    japanese-comics science-fiction

Dávid Novotný

502 reviews13 followers

October 29, 2019

Art is great, story not so much. You are thrown into the fight of two demons, white one and black one. You start putting the piecies together, and when it all starts to makes sense it's all over. So whole books stands (and in action scenes sometimes falls) on art. Which was aminly reason why I bought it, so not really dissapointed

Sergi Oset

Author63 books61 followers

November 22, 2022

“Abara” és el festival de la decapitació, l’evisceració i les amputacions en format panoràmic. Sobretot, de la decapitació mil·limètrica ciberdark. Una orgia d’apèndixs mutàgens, tentacles, fiblons i malformacions tecnològiques i biològiques molt estilitzada.
“Abara” és el primer manga que llegeixo de Tsutomu Nihei i m’ha deixat amb ganes de provar amb “Blame!” o amb “Biomega”, dues de les seves obres més aclamades.
Aquest “Master Edition” és un únic tom tancat que, tenint en compte que es va publicar per primer cop l’any 2005 es veu com a deutor de l’estètica de sèries dels 80 i 90 com “Akira”, “Applesed” o “Ghost in the Shell”, però com si hagués estat ideada per Clive Barker i H.R. Giger. A “Abara” tot és foscor i violència tecnificada: humans modificats, mausoleus pretèrits gegantins, oleofactòries greixoses, ciutats rusc tecnificades, castells vampírics, cucs kaiju, bessones amb connexions sentents cíborg, alienígenes amb exoesquelets. Biologia, genètica i filosofia religiosa fanàtica al servei d’una guerra bruta entre anomalies assassines, les “aparicions” que muten en shirogauna (alienígenes invasors) i els kurogauna (humans modificats a partir dels primers), mentre la policia de les forces correccionals i l’agència secreta dels inspectors visuals (true, cenibítics) es barallen per amagar o treure l’entrellat d’unes lluites que delmen la població per milers. Un món que sembla estar englobat en una mena de pecíol biològic generacional.
El format d’aquesta edició permet gaudir a plenitud amb les vinyetes repletes d’acció ultraviolenta. L’entintat (de traç gruixut o estilitzat, segons convé a l’autor) aconsegueix transmetre una atmosfera cibernètica, tenebrosa i despietada. “Abara” és, abans que res, un manga molt visual, tot i que en alguns punts el guió i la concatenació de vinyetes d’acció hiperaccelerada poden ser una mica confuses. Amb tot, un gran viatge de caiguda lliure en picat per la follia ciberpunk més vehement, ferotge i tecnològica.

Lauren Evatt

57 reviews5 followers

January 1, 2019

When I began reading Abara I knew two things. The first was that it was dystopian/horror and secondly that the cover art is gorgeous. After reading this manga I still knew those two things and that is about it. Almost any aspect of the story I retained was through assumption and guesswork. Nothing is explained or even said to be happening. Characters come and go from different agencies that you aren't sure the purpose of. Major things happen that look super awesome but you don't know why they are happening or what it means that it is happening. That being said I loved the concepts presented and would love to see a more detailed work in that world. The characters too seemed to have great potential to grab a reader emotionally and have very entertaining interactions and battles. The battles were very epic as well. The artwork was very cool looking and there were some shots that were absolutely stunning. Overall this manga had a great deal of potential and perhaps if it were adapted as an anime or even movie would be very epic. I can't say that I really loved this manga but again I recognize its potential. The song I chose for this is London in Terror by Motionless in White
"Your eyes are labyrinths of lies
And all the dead will rise
And I will walk the earth searching for candlelight
And I will let you drown
Turn your world upside down
And I will walk the earth searching for candlelight"

    manga

Bo

Author3 books11 followers

February 19, 2019

Some people might not like how sketchy the art is in Abara, but in my book this is the peak of Tsutomu Nihei’s artwork.
The story feels like a middle step between the government coverup type thing that biomega started with (I believe this was done between biomega volume 1 and 2,) and his later Knights of Sidonia. Luckily this book has none of that awkward romantic comedy that plagued Sidonia.

Trenton McConnell

10 reviews

June 22, 2024

What this book lacks in story it significantly makes up for with its art. Some of the scenes and especially the monster designs look incredible in its rough, borderline sketchy style which also contributes greatly to the book's horrible and dystopian atmosphere. My only real gripe with it is that I wish it had been longer. What is here felt more like a glimpse at a larger, deeper story, one that I think might have been one of my favorites if it had been given more time to develop.

    manga

Ali

213 reviews36 followers

April 12, 2022

دراپ
چه آرت زهرماریه. چشمام درد گرفت.
داستان هم هیچی. ولمون کردن وسط ماجرا. نه توضیحی نه چیزی

    comic-manga

kerrycat

1,919 reviews

October 19, 2018

1. annoyed that Viz did not indicate on Edelweiss that this was a 'sample' (HALF of the book - how is that a sample??). just leave me hanging in the middle of hand to hand combat with a gauna, willya?

b. this style is just absolutely despair-inducing and beautiful. I don't love this story like I adore Blame and KoS, but it's a beaut. at least the first half is. these landscapes . . . classic Nihei.

    manga

Nikita Katiyar

44 reviews61 followers

September 14, 2015

the pencil work is fantastic, as always with most mangas this one doesn't rely too heavily on words to tell the story. liked the artwork too much to be bummed out by the massive unexplained story background and the weird conclusion.

Justin

737 reviews12 followers

October 24, 2021

How can I adequately describe the beautiful, confusing mind trip that is Abara? It's...kind of like if you took someone from the '70s, and time warped them into 2021, spent a few hours showing them a bunch of news articles about NFTs, cyber crime, and cancel culture on Twitter, then sent them back home. There would clearly be an underlying framework of society, technology, and politics to everything, but the time-traveler would be too far removed to really grasp much of it. They might get that Twitter is some sort of way for people to communicate, and that something called the Internet is involved, but they'd be hard-pressed to give you anything close to a complete synopsis of what they saw.

That's kind of what reading Abara is like. There's clearly a complex world here, with political intrigue, contentious factions, strange technology, and a lot of history, but I'll be damned if I could articulate why much of anything happened. There's some sort of biotech that can turn people into supersoldiers called Black Gauna, and I think it was developed to combat people who turn into White Gauna (who just sort of transform with no rhyme or reason), and various government agencies are clashing over this tech, but...are the White Gauna a curse? A disease? Some sort of earlier technology gone awry? What, exactly are the Mausoleums, and who built them? Why are the White Gauna drawn to them? What's the story behind the three weird-looking survivors of the Fourth Aeon Guild? Were there three other Aeon Guilds before them, or is it just a name? Etc. and so on. It has the feeling of a real world, but one that the reader is just kind of thrown into, and not given near enough time to become fully acquainted with.

That said, while Abara is a mess, it's an utterly gorgeous mess. Nihei's art is always distinctive, with its sprawling mega-cities, horrifying bio-mechanical monsters, and rough, stark line work that really makes the environments pop. It's a striking counterpoint to the confusing narrative (even if a few of the fight sequences could've been clearer, too).

Ultimately, your enjoyment of this book will hinge on how much sense you need your stories to make. I usually prefer more cohesiveness than this, but there's just enough here to keep things from getting completely muddled. That, plus the stellar art is enough to keep me from rating it too low. Your mileage may vary.

    manga

Amarinske

630 reviews13 followers

December 27, 2019

Two stars because the execution of both the main story Abara and the extra (very short) short story Digimortal wasn't what it could've been.

The art conveys the atmosphere of the story decently and is great, but it does suffer from some problems. The art may be beautiful, but it misses some detail, which causes the implications of the concept and story to be only partly visible. Especially since about 95% of the panes don't have any dialogue and where dialogue appears it's not comprehensive enough to paint the full extent of the story.
The plot is quite cryptic, but when you understand enough about these human-eating creatures, it becomes clear what's going on. I just missed some depth. This could've been added either by adding more (detail to the) art or through more dialogue. I don't care which one it would've been as long as it had added that little punch.

Digimortal had similar problems, albeit less intense. In both cases, it also felt like the stories ended very abruptly and very fast. There were actual endings present, but not very well executed ones in my opinion.
The pacing felt off because of this and the earlier mention of the fact that too little time was taken to develop the plot and the world. I said either more art or more dialogue would've been fine and I stand by that, but more of both would probably work way better than the addition of one of the two.

In short: Abara got too little page time and Digimortal maybe didn't, but it still just ended abruptly and had pacing issues.

    2-star adult english

Thomas Powell

110 reviews

April 13, 2023

★★★ - liked it

This caught my eye in a book store a few years ago, and I finally got around to reading it. I knew nothing about the plot before starting it, just basing my interest on the unique art style, which I thought was really cool. It reminded me of Jock's art style, but in manga form. I thought that the art was the best aspect of the book, but at the same time it also took away from other aspects, like the actual writing. Abara is action-packed, and Nihei likes to show, rather than tell. In a lot of the larger-scale fights and battles, I found myself having a hard time following what was actually happening on the page, mainly due to the "messy" art style (it still looked cool, though).

Otherwise, I thought that the world this story took place in was actually pretty cool, but I wanted more from it. There was little in the way of explanation in terms of the world's current situation, how these factions rose to power, etc...I still "got it", but I just wanted a little bit more.

Overall, it was a fun action romp with lots of slicing and dicing and buildings crumbling, and re-attaching of limbs and then slicing and dicing all over again.

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.

    manga

Melissa Bryan

203 reviews1 follower

July 12, 2019

WOW what a book. It was great that it has 3 books in one, cause your able to read them all in one sitting. And of course the story and art work is outstanding. A really creepy story with weird fantastic graphics. The storyline is strange new creatures taking over the world and the powers to be having grown their own beings to fight the enemy. A lot of fighting and death.

I really enjoyed the books. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was that the author had added translation notes, which is very cool, at the end of book one, but he had put them in by page number. The book didn't have page numbers on every page. There was only two pages numbered in the whole book. Oh well, I still highly recommend the book.

Joseph

456 reviews11 followers

November 12, 2022

Gun to my head, I couldn’t tell you what Abara is about/what any of the characters’ motivations are, BUT I can tell you that it’s a gorgeous experience with many exciting action sequences and lovely backgrounds chock full of wild buildings, as to be expected from Nihei.

All the girl characters in this look like that one Evanescence album cover.

Jon

32 reviews

May 21, 2021

The art is cool but the story is basically incomprehensible most of the time.

Paul Spence

1,365 reviews67 followers

May 11, 2019

It seems like, after BLAME!, Nihei took a couple of reference points to sketch-out his next long[-er] series:
* he knew what his strengths were;
* he wanted to branch out from them & grow; and,
* he wanted to do all sorts of anime-ass-kicking that hadn’t *QUITE* fit in BLAME!.

He nailed it.

ABARA (which I literally just sped through a 2nd reading of) is called out as having a confusing story because there are a few competing organizations (cops, scientific, para-military, shadow-society, etc.) that are never completely explained, and the ending doesn’t adhere to the preconceived Western framework of what constitutes a “story.”

In fact, ABARA has all the information you need in order to understand everything you need to, as what Nihei found his way to, and thoroughly followed through in the execution of, given his [above-listed & obviously reviewer-surmised] goals for ABARA, is almost more along the lines of a cyberpunk/police-thriller/seinen-battle-manga FAIRY TALE...

— with a psychedelic ending that would make Watchmen jealous!

The story follows a number of people whose [battle-manga/superhero-style] abilities/interests are tied into a worldbuilding element that both gives them their powers, but is also, when left to run out of control, a threat to the survival of an already-post-apocalyptic humanity. Each “interested” character has a personal connection with a “powered” character, but these are awesome, tense, plot-propulsive relatonships that play out in tense glances & remembered feelings, not that awkward superhero-sidekick nonsense.

There’s even the pure, unadulterated CREATIVITY of introducing a few not-exactly-human characters, with more than a dash of humor to them, and still using them as & insisting the reader treat them as Perfectly Serious Characters. Nihei, firing on all cylinders!

I really wanted to get through a 2nd read-through & come back here with enough to say to write a positive review, because the idea that this isn’t a fully-formed & realized Nihei work is just preposterous, and can only be missing the point of what the artist tried, and succeeded in achieving, with this series!

    horror-supernatural manga science-fiction

Matt

127 reviews

June 26, 2019

More like a 3.5/5. The artwork is great, very kinetic and frenzied, which occasionally makes things hard to follow as there isn't a ton of dialogue. But most things did make sense after a little bit of backtracking. The setting is cool as hell, but the characters are pretty hollow and underdeveloped. I really think this would make a killer action anime OVA or film, one sort of like Ninja Scroll, where you just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.

Tanya

453 reviews16 followers

May 19, 2019

Tsutomu Nihei created an interesting world. There were too many agencies with competing agendas involved and it was hard to keep track who was on what side. The ending was satisfying but still left me wanting more.

Colvet

Author4 books2 followers

September 22, 2022

not horrible, not great...overall just feels unfinished

I give the artwork a 3.5/5 and the story telling a 1/5 so that averages to a 2.25 or a 2/5 stars

Man oh man did I really want to enjoy this one. Body horror/genetic mutations, dystopia, governmental unrest, gore, and horror are all some of my favourite additions to storytelling. I am a sci-fi/horror freak at heart. But I feel like all of those aspects did not mingle with one another well in this book at all and I think the large reason is because the storytelling method left the book unfinished in my opinion. Some people say that the story is all there, but it just takes some intense/deep level of thinking to understand. Maybe there is some background lore I am missing but from reading this entire book in one sitting with multiple instances of flipping the pages back to make sure something wasn't missed and referring to the internet....I can definitively say that it is not due a lack of understanding or intelligence on my part.

So I understand that a lot of people will say to me that Tsutomu Nihei simply enjoys using his illustrations to do the story telling and that the lack of dialogue is intentional. Sure, that's fine. However in this book, his style just made it seem as if the book was unfinished. There are so many unknown questions about the reasons for dystopia, the origins of the guanas, the entire backstory of the fourth aeon, who the fuck the skeleton riding on a missile was, how/why the black guanas operate, the science behind these augmentations that seemingly happen at random to civilians, why they guanas are invisible and how, etc. etc. (I could go on). I understand that maybe the intention was to keep this vague to let the reader fill it in, but some of the questions left unanswered are vital to understanding the story at any depth in my opinion. I feel a lot of people likely resonate with this feeling.

The artwork was gruesome and the depictions of body horror was great. In some pages I will admit that the pen work/hatching was a bit lazy/rushed though, but I did not think that this impacted my overall positive notes of the artwork. Definitely not the best in the game and far from the worst. I often like scribbly art, but there were some instances in this piece where it was a bit too scribbly for my liking. However, the large architectural aspects were vividly displayed. I have a huge fear of large open spaces in real life, so that added to my interest in reading.

Digimorphs was decent and gave more backstory in it than all of Abara despite being a tenth of its length. I liked the story, but failed to see how it was any different than what Abara offered. Are we supposed to infer that this is happening in the same world as Abara? How do the digimorphs differ from the guanas? Is the technology different, and why? Also what is Abara.?..name never explained or used in the book at all.

Also, if the world is in a dystopian state and people are seemingly sleeping on the streets (like in the scene with the man visiting the hospital at the beginning)...how are is the government affording genetic engineering services and not offer food or shelter? I am confused as to how that makes sense or how the dystopia and science blend. Or even why the dystopia happened in the first place.

Once again, the story and the world is unfinished. Unless there is another one of the author's stories I was supposed to read first in order to understand this one. But judging by his bibliography, this does not seem to be the case. I would love any and all feedback on my review.

I had such high hopes for this title :(

    horror-collection

Joshua Adam Bain

292 reviews6 followers

August 2, 2019

This is the second series in a row from Nihei, so I think I'm starting to think like he does now. Cause even when it ends in a world of confusion I can still get the gist of what went down. So I'm still satisfied, which ya know...is good.

This collects 13 chapters, but it's really 11 chapters and 2 extras that somehow fit in there. I'll be talking about the first 11 though since that's the main story.

And I'll be honest, I love Nihei's work. I love his style and the way he tells a story. So if you don't like his work on Blame! or Knights of Sidonia then you probably won't agree with anything I say here.

Okay, now that we've cleared that up...

Maybe it's cause I came off the back of Nihei's Biomega series, but this was pretty easy to grasp for the first 10 chapters. Sure, there was wtf moments, but I gave into the story and just kept going with it. It wasn't until the second half of chapter 11 where I had to put my brain into overdrive. And after rereading the last few chapters, I figured it out...sort of.

I find a lot of Nihei's work ends similarly, very open ended with a lot being open to interpretation. Many would call this laziness, but I kind of like it. It's like that obscure band or TV series that most people hate, and cause of that you kind of like it more. Strange right?

As always the art is on point. Reading his action scenes is such a treat. Drawn in a way where it feels like your watching an anime on the television. I really can't say enough about how this book looks, much like all his work. It reeks of his classic vibes, and that's why I love it so much.

Either way I took it for what it was and I enjoyed it. Even though this is a short manga series Nihei still manages to make a fully lived in world, even if it has that depressing alone feeling about it. Again, this could be because I've just finished other works of his and it may or may not be in the same universe as the others?

Confused yet? I kind of got a head fart just writing that down!

If you enjoy Nihei's work then give this a read. If your not big on endings that don't explain every little thing then give this one a miss.

aden

221 reviews32 followers

March 29, 2023

Tried reading Blame! some time ago but I don't think the digital scans were very clear, which is important when the visuals are the absolute most important part of the work, even moreso than other manga, and I don't think I was in the right mindset either. But thanks to Abara I'm going to fix that and read Blame! again.
Abara was just fucking incredible. I wanted to read this because I recently played a game called Bleak Faith and absolutely loved it, and Abara and Blame! (and other works) were big influences. Actually were HUGE influences: there are things from Abara basically directly implanted in the game.
The atmosphere and art style of Abara is just phenomenal, it literally takes your breath away sometimes - the sense of scope portrayed and the striking art, heavy with blacks and lines and contrast.
The difficulty - the reason this work seems severely underrated - lies in the fact that it does not hold your hand whatsoever. This is a style you kind of need to WANT to love before you love. It's hard to explain. It's probably one of the reasons I bounced off of Blame! when I tried it, why I said I wasn't in the right mindset. I did not know what the actual fuck was going on in Abara for....well, the entire time. But bits and pieces started to become more coherent, and toward the end there is an actual panel that gives worldbuilding, something not given out prior besides in cryptic ways because it's just talked about between characters, characters who themselves don't know wtf is going on. (And then just after I thought I had a semi-grasp on the story, I look up the actual plot after I finish and turns out I had NO IDEA about most of the things that actually happened.) Combine this with the art style - which is otherwise gorgeous but still can be hard to understand sometimes; you need to view slowly - and you have a manga bound to be a cult classic. At least I hope it is. I'm sure like Blame! it is - Abara is really too awesome not to be.
Kind of reminded me of Angel's Egg as well - one of my favorite anime movies and another example of way more show than tell.
10/10 off to read Blame!

    all-time-favorites japan manga

Anja von "books and phobia"

796 reviews14 followers

October 4, 2023

Mit "Abara" stürzte ich mich das erste Mal in ein Werk von Tsutomu Nihei. Meine Vorfreude war groß, denn sowohl die Kurzbeschreibung, als auch der Blick in die Leseprobe machten mich auf diese dystopische Welt unglaublich neugierig.

Um so enttäuschender war es in der Handlung voranzukommen, denn Erklärungen zu dieser dystopischen Welt oder den genannten Gaunas gab es nicht. Ich musste den Band ganze 3-mal beginnen, da ich nach einer kleinen Lesepause nicht wieder ins Geschehen hinein fand.

Schließlich las ich den ganzen Band in einem Ruck, was es aber auch nicht besser machte, da mir trotzdem ein Überblick über die Geschehnisse fehlte. Egal ob die Gaunas oder die verschiedenen Abteilungen, ich hatte hier eigentlich die ganze Zeit Fragezeichen über dem Kopf schweben. Zwar konnte ich am Ende ein paar Charaktere den richtigen Organisationen zuordnen, aber wirklich befriedigend war dies nicht. Besonders ernüchternd war dies im Zusammenhang mit dem Bildmaterial, denn hier bekam man eben die dystopische Welt zu sehen, die versprochen wurde.

Ja, die Story war überhaupt nicht meins. Doch optisch konnte ich dem Band sehr wohl etwas abgewinnen. Zumindest dann, wenn nicht gekämpft wurde, denn die Bilder dazu waren aufgrund des sehr strichlastigen Zeichenstils oftmals ein wildes Durcheinander, bei dem man nicht wusste, wo oben und unten war. In ruhigeren Sequenzen gab es dann aber diese Momente, wo ich einfach staunte. Hier ärgerte es mich gleichzeitig aber auch, dass die Handlung so wirr war, denn über das was ich da sah, hätte ich gerne vielmehr erfahren.

Fazit:

So toll auch alles klang, fand ich keinen wirklichen Weg in die Handlung. Auch die Bilder halfen mir hier oftmals nicht weiter, weswegen ich öfters zwischen Verzweiflung und Wut wechselte. Ich wollte wirklich einen Weg in diese Welt finden, aber am Ende musste ich mir eingestehen, dass sie wohl einfach nichts für mich war.

Thomas William

1 review

December 29, 2020

I bought this book recently and read through it a couple of times, and over all I enjoy it. The art work is phenomenal, I personally am I big fan of sketchy/grungy art styles so I’m always happy to find mangas with said style, and it really helps aid to the feel of the story. The concept of the story is really fascinating, but due to lack of a lot of information I had no idea what is going on through the majority of the book, even at the end there is quite a bit of information that was not explained and left me confused. The story starts right off the bat and just keep going with no breaks, although I like this about it other people may not like it very much, and admittedly my first time reading through I was very confused as to what was going on, my second time reading was more enjoyable and was easier to understand, although as stated prior I was still left confused since there was not much explained. The story does not hold your hand through the majority of it, there is a part where a character gets a phone call that grazes over what’s happening in a scene, but that’s it. All you know about the world is what you’re given from characters that already know most things about it, so you aren’t given any background information. There is not much in terms of the characters, they’re not terrible characters, but I just do not know them well enough to really care about them. Sure they’re fine people, but as someone who primarily prefer stories with good, interesting characters I was left disappointed in this aspect.

Over all I enjoyed it, and it’s better in its second reading, but there were things in the story that was important to the world that was not explained to what I could find, but there is the possibility that I just looked over it.

Leila Anani

1,967 reviews17 followers

July 31, 2020

The selling point for this is the artwork - It mixes freaky weird horror manga (up there with the best) with deserted post apocalyptic decaying city-scapes that are almost a character in their own right and battle scenes between black and white Gauna which are a cross between mechs and the xenomorph from alien. The characters too, are nicely detailed and interesting. It looks glorious.

The problem is the fragment of the "story" - Something like this needs a lot of explanation and an actual story. This has neither - It's more like a dream... or nightmare - while events are presented in a linear fashion and sort of follow, there's zero explanation or set-up to put this in context.

If you're familiar with anime you can extrapolate some sense - it puts in mind things like Gilgamesh and Evangelion with the battling Gauna/Angels - but there's no sense of morality here. It would be so nice to have somebody to root for - white Gauna = good, Black Gauna = evil, but if there was such a good vs evil battle going on it eluded me - both seem equal in their devastation. This also lacks character development which would have given this some grounding.

Its such a shame - I like the concepts this plays with, the artwork is gorgeous and I think it has the potential to be an excellent series but as it stands it's like a fragment of a dream that fails to be fully realised.

    cyborgs-robots-androids horror-manga manga
Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition (2024)
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