If I ever do one of those "favorites of the month/year" kinda things.... this would easily be on my top 5 list.
Before I actually read a manga, I like to read the reviews on it first.. then see the cover. No matter how wonderful a plot might seem, if the art isn't my preference... I really don't feel like reading it. Zion captured me almost instantly.
-Art-
The art was, to put it simply, amazing. Although I was pretty convinced that the artist must've been a yaoi/shounen ai artist (and I was pretty much right), there wasn't any hint of romance. Too bad the other mangas the artist drew were all shounen ai or yaoi (not really a fan..) or else I would've loved loved this mangaka to death.
-Plot-
I liked how the series progressed... it slowly filled in the holes one by one. I would've liked to see more of the judge's role though. The ending was unsatisfying.
-Characters-
This was a pretty short manga. 3 volumes, so there really wasn't any dramatic character development. The only one I really see changing throughout the manga was Sion. He seemed to slowly open up whereas he only cared about NK at the beginning, he
began to care for the other characters like sei, segatsu, rouran... etc as the manga progressed
. There are some confusing parts... I had to read some of it 3 times before I got what it was saying -.-
-Ending-
This is where it gets iffy. This is one of those super open-ended mangas where the role of ending the manga has been thrust upon the reader. It ended, but there still were a few things I really would've liked to have cleared up. NK? what happened next? what will happen to central? to Sion? Sion's backstory wasn't really told completely either. It really is just the ending that threw me off. If you end up reading it, you'll probably reread the last page and end up saying, "That's it?"
All in all, it was good. The ending though....