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.

BioMega by Tsutomu Nihei

Went and saw Captain America: Civil War today. Now that Deadpool came out, though, I'm just going to keep hoping he'll show up like Spiderman did in that movie. I really gotta stop waiting until Saturday to post these, but re-reading One Piece is just a time suck that I don't want to end. Also, very short review of this manga via a zombie gif:

BioMega by Tsutomu Nihei 

Art and story (c) Tsutomu Nihei

Genre: Seinen
Length: 6 Volumes – 42 Chapters


           The character designs are rather interesting, the faces have a unique look to them, though the most expressive is the character who is a bear, otherwise facial expression isn't very varying.
Everything is suitably distressed and worn looking for the story, and the backgrounds are pretty much all there. As a zombie, more like a strange science fiction version of zombies, story, it is also filled with plenty of gross visuals. Lots of plant-based looking blobs and pustules that are only there to be disgusting and have no other purpose are present. The detailing, though, was a put off for me. All the shading, especially in the environment made everything look really cluttered more than it made it look real. It's good art but it wasn't perfect.
           A virus from Mars is turning people into drones, dead corpses taken over by the disease, and a looming threat of it overwhelming humanity has set several super powers of the world into motion. Each has a different idea on how to fix the problem. One agent is on a recovery mission amid all of this to find a girl who seems to be immune to the virus, but with the drones, her guardian, and the other agencies all against him, things are sure to be bloody.

           Most of the time while I was reading this manga, I had no idea what what going on. Its pretty much just fights but the enemies and their motivations are pretty much never given until the very end. Even then it seems like gibberish. Speaking of the “bad guys” they liked to show up and die in quick succession and couldn't tell the difference between some of them because they were spiky with aprons on. The enemies also tended to get larger and larger until the scale became impossible to visualize, as well, and it just makes no sense how the one guy and a single gun does any damage at all. I know it's there were times it might have been the same guy more than once but I literally cyberpunk, but like I mentioned in the art review, there is almost too much going on at times and the

Side note on this picture: Barf.

clutter makes it hard really see what is happening. About halfway though, as well, the whole planet disappears and turns into a giant umbilical cord floating in space and the zombies are forgotten for a while, but understanding this world is even more confusing than the one before, so… prepare for that turn around. Within which there is a random chapter that I still do not understand where it is supposed to fit into the rest of the narrative. There's always something happening in BioMega but exactly what is going on can sometimes be a chore to understand. Strangely enough, I really liked the main character, Zoichi, a synthetic human who is immune to the virus and super resilient against a beating; he's cool and stoic and shoots a really big gun sometimes but that only goes so far when there are random things happening all the time. Had things been explained more I think I would have liked it better but not by much, and even the action was hard to follow at times. You can only see so many guys heads exploding before you want a little more from the plot. If you wait four volumes to explain anything, by that point I have lost interest. I only finished it because zombie manga are pretty scarce… and Zoichi was pretty bad-ass.





2.5/5 Not enough story to keep interest.

And this thing shows up? What a weird name.

Tokyo Zombie by Yusaku Hanakuma

Zombie posts begin with a shortie. And it is a doozy. And here is a helpful tip on zombies, thanks to Monkey D. Luffy:

He makes it seem so easy, doesn't he? Happy Zombie Awareness Month.

[I don't usually review any manga with explicit things because its less accessible for readers, but when it comes to zombie gore its hard to avoid. So this is the warning, this manga, though it is for comedic effect, contains several instances of nudity.]


Tokyo Zombie by Yusaku Hanakuma

Art and story (c) Yusaku Hanakuma

Genre: Adult, Gag, Horror

Length: One Volume – 9 Chapters

           This manga has a careless look to it. The art is boldly simple and sloppy, and as such there is no point in me trying to explain it. That sounds lazy, but one look will show you exactly what you're getting art wise from this manga, so there's really no point in me trying to use words.
           Thanks to the Black Fuji, a huge pile of trash and corpses that everyone uses freely, the zombie apocalypse has begun in Tokyo. Two brothers? Who's favorite pastime is to practice wrestling must now survive the changing world.
           Okay, so, besides the strange art, as you might expect, the story telling is just as strange. Its just as careless as the art, which is a good and bad thing. I means that the funny faces enhances the  jokey parts but it also makes it hard to love. More than anything, this manga is a fighting manga, but the fights really are just guys rolling around and the "action" (if you want to call it that) is impossible

to follow. Its so strange I liked it but I don't think I'll ever want to read it again. You may think you want to see a dude with an afro fight zombies but really, its not as cool as it sounds. There is just peculiar stuff happening constantly. There are literally random panels of the main character's dog doing nothing but sitting still. Just suddenly it cuts to the dog's expressionless face. Don't get me wrong, Tokyo Zombie is amusing but I don't know why it was written or why so many people like it as much as they do. It is on every list of recommended zombie manga ever. Its an experience, that is the best way I can put it and while a veteran of manga such as myself found the style an interesting experiment, I don't see that many people would enjoy reading it again and again. Perhaps it isn't my style, but the humor is true. What else can I say but, pig surfing dude.


2/5 Weird. Zombies. Weird zombies.

I'd be jealous, too if I sucked at pig surfing. I'm super rad at it, tho.

Four Zombie One-shots to End ZAM2015

Finishing up this month of May with a few smaller stories about the zombie apocalypse. Let's keep the lessons learned these past few weeks close to heart, so that when the hoards come, we can stay alive and, more importantly, stay dead when we do go. 
 

Escape From High School Girls by Seiman Douman
Genre: Adult Horror
Length: One Chapter - 9 Pages

            Art is very angled and interesting, it could be called a simplistic but I'd like to go with 'stylized' myself. What was best was the variety of the eyes and hair, no two people were alike in any way. The body shapes were the opposite, every one had long necks and thin limbs. Very unique even when just giving it a glance.
            There is no escape from high school girls, even when they are zombies.
            A fun look at high school life, this manga may not be what you expect. If you like dark humor with zombies, like the movie Zombieland for example, you'll like this. Very novel.
 


5/5 For giving me what I wanted even though I didn't know I wanted it.



Girl's Day Out of the Living Dead

Genre: Adult Horror
Length: One Chapter - 7 Pages

            Same artist so I'll just add that the way the gore is made cute, even though a certain character has half her face missing lets say, is something to behold.
            High school girls never change, even when they are zombies.
            Even more bizarre than the previous installment, I guess the author liked these zombie gals so much he had to draw them some more, a bonus for us readers. The dark humor is just as spot on as the last chapter making it easy to chuckle at some poor schmuck's expense. Just beware looking this author up, his works are primarily hentai, or in other words, porn. I'm willing to brave it, though, to see if there are other interesting stories like these two.

5/5 More of what I didn't know I wanted but was glad to see a continuation of.


Unlucky Boy Undead Girl by Sou Tobita

Genre: Shonen Romance
Length One Chapter – 50 Pages

            The art of this one shot is quite original, but it does have some sketchy bits. The

teeth are often huge, as well. I found it very enjoyable to look at, the clothes were kind of plain, but the backgrounds were there and the faces are very expressive. The main character's face was my favorite part.
            What happens when a guy with the worst luck ever meets a zombie who is trying to escape her captors? Could it be love?
            This one shot was over far too fast, and this mangaka has nothing else but a game adaptation manga written. I'd really like to see more of this author because there is a really good mix of humor, romance, and originality just in these fifty pages that shows someone with a good idea of how to make lots of elements work together. I especially want more of this couple, they are amazing together. My favorite out of this group by a wide margin.

5/5 Entertaining and super cute.


Kuma-san To Issho by Yutaka Tachibana

Genre: Horro Shojo
Length: One Chapter – 47 Pages


            Cutesy meets zombies, but they don't mesh very well. The shojo art is well done,

and the backgrounds are there enough, but the zombie art is just sort of nonsensical and gross. Overall, there isn't much to complain about with the art, beyond my problem with the zombies.
            In the midst of a zombie invasion there is a lone house on a mountain where just a little girl and a man in a bear costume live, from an outsider's perspective it may seem like paradise, but can a place so perfect actually exist in such a hell?
            I do not understand what the point of this story was, or why the author deemed it worthy of drawing. The 'twist' makes no sense and the rest of it is boring. Plus, the way the zombies were drawn were disgusting in a way that I found repulsive, and not in a good way, they don't match the way the shojo art looks nor do they have detail enough to make my eyes not just slide away. It was a waste of my time all around.


1/5 Huh? What did I just read this for?




They may have been short reads, but they were packed with information. Including, don't think just because a zombie used to be a loved one you shouldn't kill it, don't let yourself get surrounded, and that there probably will never be a place safe enough to let your guard down in. Remember: know your zombie facts before it's too late! Here's to hoping that 2016 will be another zombie free year for us all.

This guy may not be able to listen, but you should.

 

Sankarea by Mitsuru Hattori

Though I ran into some trouble finishing this in a timely matter, I've got another zombie manga post coming this weekend to further my training and research on this fascinating subject of the living dead. I hope this romanticized story will amuse and teach you, as well. (Also, I'm trying something new with my graphics, but Blogger and I seem to be disagreeing violently so just bear with me...)

Sankarea by Mitsuru Hattori

 

Genre: Romance Shonen
Length: 11 Volumes – 56 Chapters plus some extras

            The art, even from the beginning is very professional and clean looking, and it steadily improves from that point as well. Some of the character designs are a little generic, and forgettable, most of them are just background people though like the extra eye candy girls and the main character's friends (who are quickly forgotten anyway) so it isn't really a problem but a couple times when there was a title page with girls on it I had to stop and remember where they came from. Everyone else, though, is

This annoying face is the one I mean

distinctly different and easy to identify, the main character's cat ears hair for example is awesomely cute and interesting. The clothing is pretty unremarkable, but if, like me, you are making note of it it has nice details, especially the zombie movie references on t-shirts and the like. The backgrounds are of the same vein, there is quite a lot of backgrounds and ambiance given to them that really set the tone of the manga, but nothing particularly note worthy about it. There is one aspect that bothered me though, the blush lines. I think I've talked about distracting blush lines before, but in this case it wasn't when people were blushing that the lines bothered me, there were times where a triangle of blush was spread across the bridge of the nose and it was so distracting on the one character that had it all the time that I disliked her even more than I would have with out it.That was the one thing though, all the zombie graphics were done really well, and the juxtaposition of it next to all the pretty girls really works well to set it apart from other manga.

Just run away from the freak, girl, seriously

            Chihiro Furuya loves all things zombie, from the cute, to the gory, to the strange, he has seen it and enjoyed it, and even admits himself that his only interest is in zombie girls. Yet, when he meets Rea Sanka, by all appearances a lady of a high class family, screaming into a well all her frustrations, Chihiro can't help but be little bit interested. The two start a friendship of convenience once Rea learns that Chihiro knows about her concealed outings so he tells her his secret, too. You seen, since his cat died Chihiro has been trying to create a zombie of the animal so that the two of them can have some more time together. Rea, surprisingly, decides she is going to help him and the two studiously try to decipher an old notebook Chihiro found where the description of a 'resurrection drug' is written. Still, Rea has one condition, if she dies Chihiro has to bring her to life and accept responsibility for her!             I was a little worried at first due to the amount of skin I was seeing right off the bat, when a manga has down-the-shirt shots and random jumps to girls getting naked to take baths one starts to wonder if it will just degrade into a harem manga with out much plot, but despite the nudity, the story was actually really engaging. I was never really quite sure how the ending would come about, if it would be miraculously happy or horribly depressing. Now that I've finished it, though, I'm still not quite sure which one it was... All the same, even though one of them becomes a zombie, Chihiro and Rea are still very real feeling and their actions seem logical and normal in the situations they are handed. Chihiro does as he promises and Rea's wish to be normal is given a full chance, until things turn completely 'zombie' of course. A false sense of security is a plot device often employed by zombie movies, after all. The zombie

Making fun of it's self a little here

explanations were actually kind of a fresh take, even the reason behind why they want to eat flesh, or how they come to be living again, so that it feels different though the same, and when I'm looking for a zombie story its always nice to find something unlike what you've seen before. It wasn't with out problem, I already mentioned a certain character getting on my nerves every time she interferes, and I couldn't stand her hair, either, it was always dangling in her face even though she wore a hair clip, and while you become sympathetic to her situation I just couldn't become attached to her like I did the rest of characters. This manga also has a few times where things just don't move forward when they could have, or things are left dangling instead of just getting them over with. As a reader, it left me fed up from time to time, but the pacing does draw you along really well despite the few hiccups of plot. I don't remember a time not wanting to see what was happening next to the couple. The ending also felt like a bit of a cop-out, though it wasn't unsatisfying in its own way, it didn't fix the problems that were presented fully in the beginning of the story. The heart of the love story was there through out, the humor was there, and even the gore was there, and if I ever feel like reading it again, I can buy it in English myself, which is always a bonus.

5/5 A full zombie love story with plenty of originality.

            As far as teaching zombie awareness goes, I'd say it gives a good idea of what zombies are like. They will bite you if you are not careful about it, but, unlike Chihiro, you will not survive the bite! It also explains zombie anatomy pretty well, despite the subject being a high school girl, the fact that they have not the limitations of pain like humans do, that they will rot, that they will never heal the wounds they are inflicted, and, most of all, they want nothing more than to eat the flesh of the living.

Just like this poor sap has just discovered

Kingdom of Zombie by Nojeok

So I learned from the Zombie Research Society that May is Zombie Awareness Month, so to prepare myself I decided to read some zombie manga. I hope these perspectives on zombies will help you be more aware of the potential for zombie outbreaks happening in your life time. Remember, always aim for the head, that is the quickest way to kill one!


Kingdom of Zombie by Nojeok

Art and story (c) Nojeok

Genre: Horror Shonen
Length: 1 Volume (sort of) – 11 Chapters

            Art is distinctive, it reminds me of something but I can't think of what, the eyes have a lot of personality and the character designs are all dissimilar. There is a 'realistic' feel it it, despite the chunky and gravity defying hair, and it has a very European palate to the structures as well as the clothes. Body types and movement is natural, and the clothes fit perfectly with detail enough to be looked at. The action sequences are also easy to follow. Backgrounds were good, too, with a few blank backgrounds. The zombies are done in a very cliched way, with tattered clothes and blank eyes, though they hold up well with the rest of the art.
           Van is tired of his day-to-day life working with the blacksmith who took him in and dreams of making something of himself and at least he has the tournament of champions to give him something too look forward to. So, when he is banned from going he sneaks out to watch it anyway. Waylaid by a noble offering him to go meet last year's winner by way of giving him a letter, Van rushes to the Gate so he can also catch the end of the tourney while he is at it. The Northern Gate has been the city's defense against the zombie horde outside ever since the plague started twenty years ago. When Van arrives, though, before his very eyes that protection is opened and a swarm of zombies surrounds him!

Good advice, Van.

           This is the first 'manhwa ' I have reviewed so I'd like to explain its difference from a manga, a manhwa is a comic that comes from Korea, as such it is read left to right instead of right to left. Why haven't I reviewed a manhwa before this? Well, I've not had a good experience with them in the past and so have avoided them in the last couple of years, this comic's cancellation doesn't really help that, but I haven't been ignoring them or anything but I've just been... wary. The saying 'once bitten, twice shy' comes to mind, but I've noticed an upswing with them lately, mostly thanks to lots of full color web comics, but some of the translations of theses are spotty, too, so only time will tell if any of those get reviewed here. I actually went into this fully aware of its canceled status, still the end crept up on me as I went. This manga had good potential, and even though it ends in the worst way (i.e. no discernible ending at all) I still really enjoyed it. Despite my misgivings, there isn't really anything to complain about in this manhwa, the art is very good and the story progresses in a natural, if a bit rushed, way. In fact things were just getting good, but I can't find any information beyond rumor as to why this was canceled so as a warning, you will get really into this and then be cut off so completely you will rage. Its a good ride, though, Van is interesting as a main character, despite the dopey vs. bad-ass personality trope. There could have been more character development for some of his friends, true, but there was potential for it for sure. The zombie parts were really typical, bordering on predictable, but not in an annoying way. In fact it was just getting around to the zombie stuff when it cuts off. Shame, I was looking forward to understanding some of the multitudinous mysteries laid down here. 

3.5/5 Cancelled, but still a good read.  




          As far as being a guide for keeping someone aware of zombies, though, it isn't very helpful. The characters are told to go for the head but they don't seem to understand it until it is almost too late. Still, a good point is brought up that everyone should abide by: Zombies mostly navigate by sound, so stay quiet when zombies are about and you may just get away with out them swarming you!

Well, I guess you can breathe.