Cradle of Monsters by Kei Sanbe

 That is the end of Zombie Awareness Month 2016, I hope it gave you some insight on how to survive the zombie invasion when it comes. There is a really good tip in this manga, too.

When up against zombies, always go for the neck if you can.

I won't be posting next week because it's my birthday then and I don't feel like it. Plus, it will let me get ahead a little bit, which is good for a lazy person like myself. With school almost out, though, I won't have to worry about work anymore either. I should get some longer manga read finally.



Cradle of Monsters by Kei Sanbe


Genre: Seinen, Horror, Ecchi
Length: 6 Volumes – 41 Chapters

Art and story (c) Kei Sanbe

           I want to say the art is as good as the story, but there are a lot of extra lines in the clothes and background that I found distracting. The faces have a unique look to them, snub-nosed and grim but expressions aren't all that changeable. The eyes and hair have a lot of different looks to them, though, and the eyes especially show expression best

even if they look sinister when they don't need to. The action is follow-able and the gore has a good balance. It's not just guts everywhere or the like, but the blood and wound detail gives exactly what is needed in a zombie story. The backgrounds are there consistently, and really add to the dilapidated feel of the setting, even if it isn't immediately recognizable.
           When a maniac goes on a killing spree on a cruise ship, a group of high school classmates have to band together to protect one another, but when a tremor adds to the confusion and their ship capsizes staying together becomes the least of their problems. It seems like its more than just one man who has gone crazy and is killing people on sight. Is it simply coincidence that so much happened all at once? And can the small bands of survivors make it out alive?
           The last manga this year is the most 'horror' one of the three zombie stories. It has a proper plot that continues in a logical way and it has lots of characters to zombie-fy and murder off. I really enjoyed it, despite it being one of the type that shows panties (and towards the end just full naked shots) randomly. The zombie angle wasn't just expected to fly with no type of explanations and it

gives a good take on the process. There was a little bit of things getting convoluted towards the end when all the ends were being tied off, but nothing logic breaking. Everyone gets theirs so its pretty satisfying. Especially the long burn on a few of the more annoying characters that make you want to strangle them, in that fun-hate way, who get it in the worst way. The psychology was done pretty good, too, though at times it was repetitive, it wasn't too preachy. I was worried in the middle it would be a story that ends in tragedy and no one makes it out despite the terrible struggles they went through to try, and I would have liked this a lot less had that been the case, but its nice to have a horror manga that isn't just depressingly ended with no survivors. Not to say that everyone you expect to make it does, though. No deep spoilers, zipping lip. Well, except to say that one of the main characters randomly grew up in a circus and it just sorta seems to come out of left field with a tiger and from time to time other strange character actions or plot twists do happen like that but again, nothing breakable to the story.  The beginning is a little slow, though the terrible misspellings on my version of the manga did not help that, the story keeps things moving pretty good with the extra shots of random zombies and bad guys showing up at good intervals. Its not just that I didn't enjoy the first two zombie manga that make this one look good, I assure you. Zombies hungry for flesh on a sinking boat, it takes survival horror up one more notch.



4/5 Enjoyable and bloody escape story.