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Description
In the panic surrounding a worldwide pandemic which kills 15 percent of the population and cripples many more, a secret organization, the Propater, topples the UN and seizes control of much of the world. A boy and a girl, raised in an abandoned virology research center, immune to the virus, are attacked by the Propater and escape.
Based strongly on Gnostic mythology, all major characters are named after gnostic deities, and have analogous roles.
Type
Manga
Related Series
N/A
Associated Names
Эдем: Этот бескрайний мир エデン イッツアンエンドレスワールド بهشت : جهانی بی پایان است Eden (ENDO Hiroki)
Reminds me of Eternal Sabbath. It's wonderfully dark and thought-provoking and how can you resist all that awesome kick-ass battle scenes and the sci-fi-ness?? Um, I do NOT find it lame (although yes, there are some concepts of science and all that which I don't understand, but still, it's not BORING) and I think it is VERY realistic. Especially the battle scenes. And the characters... my god, they're in-depth.
The only things I have against it are the unnecessary sex scenes that pop up every once in the a while (but whatever, this is a seinen manga and the intended audience are like middle-aged guys) and that sometimes, the manga gets confusing. There's lots of characters and new ones are always appearing out of thin air, while the old ones hang in the background until they reappear to surprise you at random intervals. It's kinda hard to keep track of who is exactly who. And the plot gets... weird sometimes. Like there are moments when I'm like, "What was the whole point of focusing on what's-her-face for 5 chapters and then killing her off?" etc, etc.
The art... I love it, surprisingly since I'm always picky about it. It's not flat-out gorgeous or perfect, but I like how realistic it is (more or less) and it's definitely not bad enough to disrupt the whole thing.
Did I stress how realistic it seems? It's not just the plot, but even the dialogues and most importantly, the relationships between the characters and the portrayals of... emotions. Very touching at times. I love how even the minor characters have their own limelight.
It's moderately-paced, although a bit slow in the beginning. But believe me, it's worth reading! I have not been able to put it down since I picked it up yesterday. And the philosophy bits in it and the stuff about religion... just really, really intriguing.
great great great manga. the story goes different directions as you go, so it keeps you guessing great cast of characters with brilliant development. well executed artwork and action scenes. a good mix of genres with realistic romance and sex. someone commented on "unneccasary random sex scenes" but these only appear when relevant to the plot. sex is a very poignant part of many people's lives and especially in the development of their personality, and in this manga, people's lives are disected to that level of detail. the girl who was":
Spoiler (highlight to view)
killed off", was not pointless: she was a major part of elia's life, which led to his drug problem and further problems...
She/he is right on the mark with what she/he wrote. I agree with everything she/he said. Too many flash backs, story is too confusing because of the way it was told/layed out. The art is very nice!
the story pretty good but the character suck the main character still try to act all wimpy even through he not that weak the worse thing about this story it comedy suck the story suppose to be serious but it try put few lame laughing moment
me quede lelo luego de leer este manga porq el trabajo q se habia echo con los escenarios especialmente con la ciudad de Lima es muy acertado pareciera q el dibujante paso una temporada por Lima, btw yo soy de Lima y me parecio q los escenarios es como los q yo veo cada ves q salgo de mi hogar, eso me encanta en el manga ademas de la viceras q se desparraman en cada pelea, en lo general me encanta el manga
Well i got really bored one day and i decided to check out this manga series because from most of the comments it had good reviews and i absolutely agree. This manga has become one of my favorites and I am so glad that I picked it up. Though the character development is slow, i feel as though it was worth while to wait. But i was upset about some of the people dying but i guess its just another day. Anyways, i love the comedy and the artwork is done very well. So what if this manga is not entirely realistic, the storyline takes place in the future i mean come on i expect there to be some biological warfare of some kind, im sure A.I.s (artificial intelligence) will be far more advanced in the future...watevs its a manga you shouldn't be reading too much into it...But i recommend this to everyone even though its really graphic and gory...i mean i usually just read shoujo so it was a pleasant surprise
The pacing was super slow and some of the fight scenes were completely unrealistic. Like plenty of manga, Eden has some rather interesting concepts and great ideas. The scientific premise and even the details were particularly interesting. However, the implementation was pretty disappointing. Flashbacks which jump out of nowhere, without much narration and even characters which *gasp* miraculously take down an entire crowd who've sufficient ammunition to destroy a series of buildings with careful planning. Folks might comment that I'm over-thinking but don't forget that the mangaka of many shounen and even seinen series tend to write up rather complex storylines. If one doesn't think enough, how does one appreciate such a storyline then?
And to think I actually read the manga quite a few times because I hoped it'd be better as I read more chapters.
Note: It is actually all right to jump to and fro from one setting to another but without careful introduction and even some narration(duh, to summarise of course!), it's like speeding on an expressway in a car without brakes.
And found that there were some valid points made by all parties. I can probably get away with posting a wall of text about it since so many other people have done so.
The pacing and narration remind me strongly of 20CB. Often there will be a switch to a new location & new characters to reveal more intrigues / aspects of the plotline. For the most part these plotlines either converge after a short time or don't at all. This story is nowhere near shounen, it's clearly an action / drama that's heavy on plotline and themes of morality.
Much of the story deals in conflicts of the type which involve conspiracy, hackers, set-ups, snipers, explosions. That's why it's action. But it's also plot-based. The plot is science fiction in the sense of technology but equally in the sense of "political science". And the sci-fi is far from a distortion of scientific principles. The author understands what he talks about. The Propatria is no evil empire, by the way. They practice diplomacy, and are influenced/subject to the media and public opinion opinion.
The author's style also changes over time slightly but noticeably. There're a lot of moral and social rhetoric early on (it's not random intellectualism as Chas decided, btw), but then it starts to focus more on plot & character development with rhetoric usually thrown in only at crucial times when it's appropriate. There are also a lot more plotlines going on at once by volume 13, in earlier volumes there was often only 1 plot/perspective at a time.
The first several volumes are from the perspective of Elia as a sensitive kid who comes to experience some harsh realities, but focus a lot more deeply on the people who meets than he himself. Volumes 5-8 finally demonstrate the depth of his character and start to truly develop it (masterfully). Around volume 8/9 the author also starts to show a sense of humor (a "cute" side) to the story. And starting from volume 9 the author starts to incorporate a lot more complexity into the story, with new characters and plots.
We have multi-chapter flashbacks. Often entire story arcs have no apparent relevance to the main plots of the series except to develop characters and offer a look into the lives people live (like volume 9). If you pay attention you can quickly tell when a flashback is a flashback, otherwise you should assume a sudden shift in location/characters just means that the story's timeline is progressing uninterrupted elsewhere and not let the context bother you.
So what I like: the depth of storyline, the attention to detail, the unique characters and style of character development, the author's tendency to not pull punches. What I don't like: the sudden decision on the part of the author to add a "cute" side to the story ~volume 8/9, the plot which often becomes so complex I can't follow the details or remember names that all sound South American, the learning curve required to understand exactly how all these plotlines fit together and realize what is and isn't related to the central plots of the series and realize that volumes 6-8 really /don't/ have any relevance to those plots except character development, and as Chas mentioned the very fragmented plot which leaves so many questions unanswered it can become difficult to make sense of.
Let me comment on Chas's controversial post, by the way.
That the action is bad is just false. It's very cleverly orchestrated and suspensefully set up. The one exception to this is Kenji (the Jesus of knives), who is most likely the object of the term "storm trooper effect", but Kenji's part is less than 20% of that whole story arc. The enemies were never as easy as mindless drones, and the "invincible anti-heroes" were far from it. I can't reveal details but if you read the fight Chas is referring to in volumes 2-4 you'd see how incorrect he is.
That the story takes an obvious moral stance is also totally incorrect. Much of the story, in fact, has consisted of bringing up moral conflicts without really resolving them. A major theme of the story as I interpret it is inability to protect those you love without committing acts of sin (the idea of sin is very present as well). Even if the "obvious moral stance" is the declaration of that as a fundamental conflict, doesn't that fundamental conflict give rise to enough moral difficulty by itself?
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