Leviathan

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One thing that struck me about Kuroi Shiro's Leviathan is its familiarity. The tale of children attempting to establish order in a situation of chaos recalls the Lord of the Flies, the element where only one character can survive can be traced to Battle Royale, and the story's use of an unreliable narrator with a fragmented mental state clearly derives from Fight Club. Yet, like a skilled artist, Kuroi Shiro steals these ideas and packages them into an engaging work of science fiction. A story that has been skillfully crafted beat by beat, illustrated brilliantly and presented with terrific panelling and pacing. Akin to the ... works it may have taken from, Leviathan is thought-provoking, has enough twists and turns to keep you engaged, and most importantly, knows when to go. This is a tale that does not overstay its welcome.

Yet what is keeping this manga back is although it is a finely crafted work, one that manages to piece many familiar elements into a work of its own, the questions and ideas that it poses remain rather stilted and limited in scope. It does not extend beyond the works that it took inspiration from and instead seems content with its nicely told, but rather uninventive take on morality and questioning of humanity. Maybe more could be done with its totalitarian political setting.

The premise of the manga is interesting, although the interest of it is diluted a bit as soon as the plot advances for a simple reason: simplicity.
Everything happens too fast, it's as if someone yell "i choose violence" and all hell broke loose for everyone just like that.

The work consists of a total of three volumes (although only one appears here in MAL).

The plot is a sort of "Lord of the Flies", there are touches of all the themes in novel: morality, civility, leadership, society, innocence lost and duality of human nature. But at the end it fells flat in a sort of ... battle royale without further development.
You can see how social groups are formed based on segregation but then they start fighting and that's it. You see how without law some boys feel they have rights over girls (and you can imagine exactly what I'm talking about here), you can see how fear and paranoia takes hold of everyone in an instant... but it doesn't go further, a quick glance and that's it, more chases and fights.
The structure, where certain chapters focus on the specific circumstance of a character, and that "little story" begins and ends in that very chapter doesn't help to develop the more global themes in the plot.
It is worth noting that this is the author's first work and it is by no means bad at all. The drawing style is good and it's more similar to western works somehow, but not that much either.

The fact that it takes place on a ship in space is somewhat indifferent (sso if your only expectation was a mystery in space or a certain space setting, I would not recommend it.), it could well take place on a farm or under the ocean, it is of little importance to the plot once the reason for everything that happens is made clear.

I intend to read the last volume, and maybe my overall perception will change after doing so.
So, even if i had mixed feelings because it is a case of "not bad but could it being better" I recommend it to anyone who are interested in the themes it touches.
Also, keep in mind as a warning (you could imagined it already) that this manga is violent and certainly explicit (although nothing super exaggerated or too gore). And (spoiler ahead for a very specific situation, as a trigger warning or whatever: There's an attempted gang rape (but this is never showed nor explicit).

Review referred to the series (3 volumes, not the one-shot).

I give it a 7 just because the first 2 volumes, of the 3, are really good in my opinion. The art-style is really good too.

So, as I already stated, the first 2 volumes are great, with the 3rd one though there's a big downfall. Japanese authors tend to exaggerate, to overdo with things. Most of the times what you need to do, to make a good story, is to be as minimalistic as possible (because the more the details the harder to link them all together) and if this one was the case the manga ... would have been really good overall instead of being 2/3 good and that last 1/3 bad (really bad and no I'm not talking about the ending). I'm not going to spoil anything but let's just say that I like stories that follow a logical straight line from beginning to the end.