Abara

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Set in the same universe as all Tsutomu Nihei's manga are: the nondescript urban landscape of our nightmares. The architecture is as suffocatingly bleak as usual; the story is faster paced than Nihei's most well known work, Blame, due to this manga's short length. Maybe it would be a good litmus test for newcomers to his world.

This time the Akira vibe is heavy, with body horror at the forefront. Expect human transformation and ugly metamorphosis aplenty. Though unlike Akira, I doubt Nihei's aspirations are as lofty as commenting on Japan's relationship with technology in the post Meiji-era. No, he just wants ... to immerse you in something completely alien, and burn his surreal Kafka-esque inspired imagery into your brain, while thankfully kicking your ass at the same time.

What we have here are a guy in black and a girl in white who are compelled to beat the shit out of each other while destroying everything around them. The beauty as ever, is about revelling in the graphic detail of Nihei's universe, not necessarily what's driving the story. How were these sprawling structures built in the first place? Something I've been asking myself ever since reading Blame. It always takes my breath away. Tsutomu Nihei's scene composition is masterful, regularly showing the scope and perspective of structures that are inhuman in their massive presence.

Nihei is a master in 'show don’t tell'. You won't see long monologues or rambling dialogue. You won't see narrative clichés rampant in mainstream manga, in his works. Nihei lets the images do the talking, what you see is what you get, and luckily for us there's a lot to see here. Painstakingly detailed environments reveal a lot and nothing at the same time. Ironically sound is more of a narrative force than dialogue from characters. Sounds such as doors sliding open, objects falling down stairs, all combine to lead you along the way.

Characters only talk when they need to, and usually mumble meaningless words that only become coherent if we use our imaginations too. Characters that look like they'll be mainstays are introduced briefly, but then are promptly decapitated.

Oh what decapitations! You will not see any as swift and graceful, as humorously mundane as the ones in this manga. The action is striking, occasionally a mess of clouds and lines, but often crowd-pleasing with clarity, and all building to a shattering climax that even Nihei has to introduce with dialogue.

Abara is a great sci-fi actioner. A little diversion from a master of the craft.

Before I begin I will say that I don't know if there was a movie or something that this is based on. If there is I would gladly watch it and consider changing the score here.
*sigh* so lets' begin:

Story: 6
It had potential. I like reading apocalyptic stories, but I can't help but think this wasn't done well. It reminds me of some other apocalyptic series', only more cliche and watered down. It's almost like the artist wasn't allowed to draw any more than two volumes worth of material, and everything was forced into the series; that adds to the confusion. For the longest time I ... had no idea what was going on and I had to read many sections over a few times.

Art and character: 2 and 3 respectively.
I'm putting these two together because they both make little sense. The mangaka knows how to draw, and I can see that, but the extra lines almost hides the story behind them. There were times when I had no idea what was going on because the weird lines were everywhere. The characters were good, but what they looked like confused me to no end. A good many of the "normal looking" characters looked identical to each other. On the other hand, the "bad looking" characters were all had disfigured faces and wrinkles where there shouldn't be. If you want to read something where the "good guys" and the "Bad guys" can easily be identified by how awful they look, then this is the series for you; that is if you can find the minute details that make each "normal" character unique(I've yet to find them).

Enjoyment: 1
There were way too many ideas crammed in the series to make it enjoyable. That, and the weird art ruined the series. There were many times when I just wanted to leave the manga alone, but I kept thinking that it will make sense at the end. Unfortunately I was let down.

Overall: 1
There's nothing to see here. Everything about this series could have been done much better with the exception of the story. This is probably one of the first times I've read a manga where the story couldn't possibly help it.

Please don't flame me or anything. Like I said in the beginning: if this was based off of a movie I would like to see it. If this manga actually did the movie justice then I will honestly change this review to reflect it.

Fusing technotheistic religion and government repression, Digimortal creates a slaughter of ideals and ideology in true Nihei style. The Church of Transfiguration has launched an Inquisition to exterminate the sinful use of technology used in attempt to perfect physiological immortality, while Nihei's nameless hero is contacted by the resistance, seeking to strike back by assassinating one of the Inquisition's most powerful members.

Impressively drawn and awesome to the core, Tsutomu Nihei has once again proven his impressive mastery of sequential expression in this short-but-no-less-powerful manga.

You have to be a true blue fan to enjoy Abara. This manga is not recommended for people who cannot appreciate an intellectual manga where much thinking is involved, for Tsutomu Mihei's style is to let the pictures tell the story rather than the dialogues.

This story like most of Tsutomu Mihei's work (Creator of Blame!), consists of few dialogues. His work is fabulously beautiful, the intricate style of drawing and minute details never ceases to amaze me.

Abara's plot is fairly simplistic, the man saves the world typical plot. With the short 2 volumes, Tsutomu Mihei weaves its subplots into ... its simplistic plot adding flavour to it. While his plot is interesting and his art work is fabulously, he lacks character development. The characters are simple and what you see is what you get.

You'll probably get a different opinion on everything, every time you re-read this too.

You'll need a Wikipedia after this one.

Abara's precursor is a 2 chapter one-shot named Digimortal written in 2004, shortly after Biomega started airing. It, with its 11 chapters, was written during said airing. With how short it is, you aren't losing much even if you end up not liking it. It's also a good starting point when getting into Nihei's catalogue as it gives you a taste of what he is all about. And, in case you are here from Chainsaw Man: indeed, Fujimoto values this work a lot and it's easy to see its influence.

If you are coming from Blame! looking for more, Abara ... is the closest that will fill the void. Saying that on one hand feels good, while on the other... Disappointing, as I think there is a big discrepancy between the two. Ultimately, Abara is an interesting and unique experience, but unfortunately not much more than that. I still like it, but... Yea...

Abara is a lot more of biological nature, compared to Blame!'s cyberpunk aesthetic. I adore it. Some of my all-time favourite panels are from Abara. They display brutality and vehement force, sometimes even solitude and dread. The designs of Black and White Gauna are insane. It is sheer carnage on display.

As for the story: the first thing you'll do upon reaching the end is most likely going to some YouTube video, Reddit post, or straight up Wikipedia's "Plot" for explanation. The story is interesting, but it's so shallowly narrated it makes Dark Souls lore look intuitive. As with Blame!, said lack of information gives it its charm, but unlike Blame!, where you always had this basic core structure of "Follow Killy and see what jumps his ass this time", here you don't even know who is jumping who nor why. It gets more value on re-read when you have some necessary context.

My gripes with Abara are it's length and lack of clarity. I would have loved if this got the runtime of Biomega, let alone Blame!. It's actual length often felt as a disservice to its potential and presentation. Alongside that, you often won't be able to make out what's happening in front of you. Sometimes it's because of the art, sometimes it's due to lack of context, and sometimes due to sense of rush; whatever way you put it, it's there. The story in itself is not anything ground-breaking, but the added confusion does not go in its favour.

The art of Abara is, in my opinion, the closest it got to Blame!'s highs, and, depending on the mood and day, sometimes I'd even say I view them equally as good. I'd also consider it the last work that got ''that Nihei aesthetic'' which was, in my opinion, lost in Knight of Sidonia and Country of Dolls; that, however, is a digression I won't delve into now. Back to Abara's art: it is as messy and gritty as it gets, frequently on the verge of any resemblance; truth be told, it is sometimes too much, but when it's just right, it is brilliant. It beautifully complements the biological structure of the work, giving it that necessary relentlessness. To repeat myself: sheer carnage on display. It is practically pure black and white. I am just sad we didn't get more.

To conclude, I view this work dear. It was actually my introduction to Nihei's repertoire, and I am glad that I still find value in it despite it all. I'm just sad it didn't get more spotlight. I recommend it regardless with how little of an investment it is to read. A very unique experience, for sure.

Thank you for reading up to this point. I wish you all the very best. Kind regards.

SPOILERS AHEAD! TL:DR: It's bad, but you can read if you want, there is some great art and its short.

While Blame! Manages to create a compelling narrative with little to no dialogue, Abara is too rushed, concepts are not build up, if the white Abaras invaded earth, who are the monsters that activated the tower? What is the tower? Did the city blow up in the end? Did the white Abaras died? Then why there were two out of place chapters about with the two women? What happened?

At the end of the scan I read, there was a glossary explaining all the concepts, names and ... events that happened in the manga, I don't know if that was in the original manga, but I know that in Blame!, a manga by the same author and that also used less dialogue, didn't have one, that was because unlike Abara, Blame! actually builds up the world, the characters, the machines, the technology, everything, Abara starts with a man turning into a monster, killing another monster, then gets beheaded and comes back in the end, then we see other types of monsters? But what are these monsters? Weren't the Abaras the ones that invaded earth? What was that skeleton-cyborg-man that activated the tower? WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?

"B-But you have to see the symbolism! And you must interpret your own opinions!" Nah Nah Nah, the greatest writers, movie directors and mangakas showed that you can't make symbolism and interpretation the basis of the history, you can add them as much as you want, but they can't hold the entire thing together alone, there has to be characterization, themes, world building, tone… etc.

This was rushed, weird, nonsensical and disappointing.

Because of how little reviews there are of this manga, I have read all of them and noticed that everyone was talking about how the author uses pictures instead of words. I can agree with two things; the art is amazing, and the author uses little dialogue. But that's it. Many people say that you would understand the story more if you took a closer look and analysed the artwork, but that is simply false. The art is amazingly detailed, but few of them actually portray something important to understanding the story. Now, with that sorted, I will begin my review.

Story - 6/10

The story was ... quite decent, and it would probably be even higher if it was clear enough to understand. After analysing the artwork, I could finish the story with barely any extra understanding of the story. And the only part that I completely understood and enjoyed was the ending, and the ending was a masterpiece; To the eye and to the brain. I will not speak of the story since I want to keep this spoiler free.

Art - 10/10

The art in here is amazing, though the characters may put many people off. This is due to their eyes being too far apart, otherwise it would look amazing. But that it just part of the author's style and personality, and I respect that. When I say amazing, I absolutely mean it. Not only is it detailed on every aspect, but it actually communicates emotions with me. However, there is one thing I don't like very much about the artwork... The battle scenes. Most of the battle scenes confuse me, because the author skips quite a lot of actions in them. The sketchy drawing style also doesn't help point out what the author really wants you to see. I also don't like the style of the sound effects, it is a bit plain, but I guess that is also part of his style.

Character - 3/10

The characters are low for a reason... They had little to no introduction or insight. We couldn't really tell what they were feeling and what their personalities were... I felt that most of them were emotionless. Except for one, which I'm sure you all know if you have finished the manga. I feel like the author could have put a lot more depth into his characters to make them loveable, or at least unique.

Enjoyment - 2/10

The entire manga wasn't very fun or addictive to read. Probably because the author didn't mean for it to be. I like to read more fast paced manga, and this one was fast paced... Just not in the right way. The story accelerates quite fast, but you would have to read slowly due to the intricate artwork. This feeling contradicts itself and I just felt like rushing the manga the whole time. To be honest with you, I had to force myself through the manga.

Overall - 5/10

I gave it a 5 for an overall score, I was originally going to give it a 6 or a 7 while I was reading it. However, the part I was reading was probably the only part I found interesting, and the rest had disappointed me. With that said, I think this manga had quite a lot of potential. The manga-ka had just focused on some of the wrong elements to try and bring it alive.

After reading several of Tsutomu’s stories, I have come to the conclusion that the major flaw keeping me from enjoying any of them is the way the characters are presented and developed throughout the story. Short, long, it doesn’t seem to matter; the characters are introduced all at once and in a manner that makes it impossible to remember who is who. We get the names in roundabout ways without any characterization, making it very difficult to follow the plot. Abara is no exception.

This is because Tsutomu prefers to tell his stories using visuals rather than dialogue. Despite this, he does not flesh out any ... ways the reader could become attached or interested in the characters, even with the dialogue we have to work with.

The art is the high point of the manga. If I were to observe some of the pages as objective, apocalyptic, gritty stills, I would find them fascinating. Reading this as a coherent story, however, is just plain confusing. The motive of the characters is obscured, replaced by vague reasoning and urgency used to spur the action forward.

I understand that withholding information is a plot device, but Tsutomu keeps everything to himself but names and basic terms, leaving the reader with little beyond cryptic drawings to unearth some motive along the way. While people praise this as a “deep, psychological” manga, the reader simply has to work harder to uncover why anything is happening, hiding an exhausting guessing game behind psychological intrigue.

The author wanted to draw gritty, sci-fi-esque monsters and fight scenes, and the plot and characters were sacrificed because of that. Beautiful art aside, my score is low due to sloppiness. There was no reason why the author couldn’t add in a detail here or there to help the reader keep the characters in order and understand the plot.

I will say this: I am aware that I am impartial to character development and a fleshed-out story. If you don’t mind feeling a little confused or detached from the characters, this is a grungy and action-packed read that you may enjoy.

The story is fast-paced and not really well explained. The animation is terrific, it seems as though the author tells the story through his animation. The world is dark, bleak and controlled by guanas (black is good, white's bad) that metamorph into Akira like super beasts. There is a counter organization that never really gets fully explained, but is the main defense for mankind. The action was epic, with heads and bodies being ripped apart. Overall, it was a pretty good sci-fi short read.

Abara – Spoiler Free – Not Recommended

TLDR
Story – 2/10 – 2 x 0.275 = 0,55
Art – 10/10 – 10 x 0.2 = 2
Characters – 1/10 – 1 x 0.225 = 0,225
Enjoyment – 4/10 – 4 x 0.3 = 1,2
Total: 3,975 -> 4

Story – 2/10
This story is just confusing and a mess. There is absolutely no redeeming aspect to the story. It is incomprehensible and it makes no sense that the readers have to guess what is currently happening. There are almost no dialogues in the manga: there are really very few apart, which doesn't help in understanding the story. The only reason why it ... doesn't receive a 1 is that there are elements in the world-building that seemed to have some interest, and the atmosphere is eerie and remarkably so.

Art – 10/10
Nihei made an amazing job with the art. The art is absolutely impeccable, very well executed and absolutely gorgeous. The landscapes are incredible, and the character design is awe-inspiring, although it must be said that the fact that we don't have most of the names of the characters that we are watching makes it quasi-impossible to differentiate between different characters with precision.

Characters – 1/10
The absolute lack of dialogue makes it impossible to ascertain what characters there are, what their roles are, and what their functions are in the narrative. It is just an absolute mess, and there are no characters worth mentioning because none of them are comprehensible or intelligible.

Enjoyment – 4/10
The only thing that makes Abara worthy of our time is the impeccable art style. Everything else is terrible. And although art is an essential aspect of a manga, it is impossible to ignore the disaster that happened here. It is for this reason that I give this a Not Recommended. Nihei at his worst.

I really struggle with this authors work, ever since i tried to read BLAME!, because of the cult following it has.

TLDR; hard to follow story BUT incredibly intriguing world and very beautiful art, albeit a little messy and hard to read at times

If you want a comprehensible story, completely skip this manga. I tried my best to piece what the hell is going on throughout the entire 13 chapters and still struggled to connect the little dots the story gives you.

My recommendation is to treat this as a very an art book instead of a manga. That way you will be able to ... enjoy it more than if you tried to "read it". The flow of combat and the continuity between panels makes you completely lose your place in the story's world almost all the time. "Wait, whats exactly happened, what did he just do???" is the thing you probably will be thinking to yourself at least a few times per chapter lmao

If i have to rate this purely based on artstyle and the incredible mysterious world it has, its an easy 8/10.
But as a whole, considering the writing and everything else, sadly its barely a 6/10.

Abara is a succinct work of art by Tsutomu Nihei that accomplishes what it sets out to do; to create a world, to tell a story within that world, and to end it. Like most of Nihei's work, the story and plot details are left vague and interspersed through the information given among the occasional dialogue. It's up to the reader to piece the puzzle together and eventually the plot helps to tie these pieces together by the end.

When I initially read Abara I didn't really understand what was going on and ended up dropping it. Upon a re-read I was able to appreciate Abara ... for the short story it is. The story is relatively simple and most of the information of the story is given, even more so than Blame!.

All of the information relevant to the story is eventually known, and that is that white gaunas are hostile creatures that cause destruction and black gaunas are artificially created weapons made by humans in order to counter them. This is pretty much all the knowledge needed; in a work of fiction not every single thing needs to be thoroughly explained, an example being where the white gaunas came from - a question which is irrelevant to the enclosed story. So it does not make much sense for others to not understand what happened in the story, other than a few glossed-over details. However, those unfamiliar with Tsutomu Nihei's storytelling methods may come away confused so I believe it's best to read his other works first.


Abara is great for what it is. Obviously it isn't some profound story where you expect to come away with a newfound favorite fiction or expect to find some extremely deep plot. It's a 11 or so chapter story that makes an interesting world wherein human weapons exist to fight terrible creatures. And it's cool as hell. The art is fantastic, some of it even exceeding those found in Blame!, and there is enough information about the world given to feel the visceral, living, and yet dreary atmosphere.


If you want to read a short romp with excellent art, sick designs, and cool fights in a uniquely vague world, Abara is for you. However if you're expecting a crystal clear story with a deep plot, you're better off looking elsewhere.

Some have lauded this as some sort of great artwork and you need to be intelligent to understand it. However, I do understand Abara, and it isn't miraculous.

The manga tries to tell the story specifically through images. But it has poor character development and you are left confused until the very end. It puts off explaining things far to late in the manga.

Also, the artwork can range from, "Dang this looks good!" To, "Okay this looks sloppy at best. . ." Which irritates me to the point, of wanting to give this a zero stars.

You want something miraculous, abstract, and intelligent manga?! Well go read ... or watch Darkside Blues. All the things Abara is trying to do, Darkside Blues did it ten times better.

OK let's jump in and get to my review of Abara.

Story 6
The story of Abara is strange and for the first time in my life I'm not sure that's a good thing. The introduction to the story seemed really cool but after that I got lost in basically a lot of talking that wasn't all that interesting and didn't help me figure out at all what was happening til I was about done.

Art 6
The art for Abara was a bit hit and miss for me some things looked cool while others didn't. The style looks really old school in ways but doesn't do much besides ... sort of look old without the coolness that it should have.

Character 4
The characters for this were really a let down. The manga basically hates main characters because I didn't feel like this story was about any one person. It starts off with a guy that seems kinda cool and quickly (as you'll see) tosses him and switches to another. You don't get a feel for anyone in this short time and I barely remember anyone's name.

Enjoyment and Overall 6
I had parts in the manga were I thought things looked cool and sounded cool but it all amounts to nothing. The manga overall didn't do much for me I didn't enjoy reading the 13 chapters I read almost at all and this really just felt like a waste for me.

To me this is one of those manga that offers quite an enjoyable ride but nothing more. I can not see myself coming to back to Abara as it does not offer a lot.

Story:6
Not the most original thing I ever read but it is enjoyable. The story is told without much exposition or explanation from the characters. Not a lot of explanation behind the power system or the events that take place. I don't mind the lack of exposition, as it gives the story a cinematic feel (kind of like that movie 'The Angel Egg'), but there will be times when you will be confused ... and you will wonder if you accidentlly skiped some dialogue. When you get to the end you will probably have the story figured out, so all I said here does not really mean anything. I like the climax.

Art:7
Not much to say about the art. It's great, although some fights are a bit confusing. The flow could have been fixed with 2-3 bonus panels here and there.
Cool monster design. Really sells a parasitic like figure.

Characters:5
They exist only so that the story can move forward. I forgive this because, just like the story, the characters don't show what they think and feel. Again, a cinematic feel.

Enjoyment:6
As I said in the begining, despite being a bit confusing, Abara is enjoyable and worth your time. It's a fast read since it's short and there is not much dialogue.Recommenddddddddd

So this is the first work of Nihei Tsutomu that I've read . I have to say it was pretty enjoyable for me at least.The author seems to use little dialogue and tries to make the readers understand the world through his magnificent imagery and he does that pretty well I believe.
The story is a bizarre world in which there seemed to be some huge buildings called mausoleums that were destroyed by some monstrous things called Gauna , only one remained and it was really important for humanity's survival.The things that are showed to us are at the time when only one remains ... and it is endangered.

There are many mysteries about the story ,but I would consider that fact kinda charming .The ending felt like a cliff hunger ,but it's understood what probably happened

I honestly can't wait to read more of this mangaka's works

I would recommend it Abara, as it is a really small and enjoyable adventure to this bizarre yet beautiful world this mangaka created
7/10

Beautiful as expected from mr Nihei.
Bleak look at Humanity and what it can be dwindled to in times of despair.
As is usual with Nihei, lots of subtle subplots intertwined with side characters, as well as the oneshot-attached character "Digimortal".
I don't think it's ever explicitly stated, but considering the art style, and the similarity to the Executioner ladies in Abara & Digimortal, I like to think that Abara/Digimortal is in the same universe as both Blame!, APOSIMZ, and a proof of concept for blame! called "NoiSE"

I doubt that if you liked Blame!, you wouldn't like Abara, even given it's minimal dialogue and hard to understand story.
I ... should say it's not hard to understand as in complexity, more, tsutomu nihei isn't going to have a side character exposit the entire situation to the main character.
so we're left to piece things together from the point we start at which is the Gaunas, our MC, and Digimortal if we include him.

i don't think objectively, if thats a thing in this medium, it's a 10/10, but having read a lot of tsutomu nihei. i love this type of work and think this is one of his best.

Story 5/10 :
I guess this is supposed to be a story about a dystopian world or post-apocalyptic world where humanity's destiny is doomed because of monstrs called Gaunas. How would I know if the story is so confusing and little to nothing is explained? What's the history of Gaunas? What's their purpose? How were they created? We understand nothing thus feel nothing. I turned pages hoping everything will be explained but.. sigh
Characters 3/10 :
Mediocre characters with literally zero character trait and emotions.
Art 9/10 :
Excellent art, very well drawn characters. The art is the only reason I kept on reading.
Enjoyment 5/10 :
I didn't enjoy this ... manga because confusing your readers and putting mystery without explaining what's going on is not a quality.
Overall 5/10 :
Do not recommend.

Abara is a fascinating kind of manga, something that heavily appeals to me and the kind of story I enjoy. Nihei Tsutomus best works are the ones where his stories take a back seat for the visual splendor that his paneling displays, in works like BLAME!. Dead Heads, and Biomega that can definitely work for the better' but in Abara it's almost to a detriment. To be blunt, there's hardly even a story in this manga and I'm frontloading this review with that information if you go into reading this manga with the hope of getting similar levels of visual story telling the BLAME! contains. ... Instead of getting a rich and nuanced story in Abara, displayed through strong visual style and gorgeous art you only get the latter. In a way it makes the story feel like a short form poem, with more to be pulled from it by the reader than is displayed by the author them-self. Like you're reading an artbook, it presents lavish visuals with a barebones story that adds very little to it's body. However, given Niheis phenomenal artistic direction in this manga it lead me to enjoy it to an extreme amount; but that it obviously a problem that other people may find with this story.

Another point worth noting is the characters in this story. They're just kind of there. Sure they do stuff and progress the "plot" with their goals, but it's irrelevant for the most part. You don't get attached to nay of the characters, their goals in the short time you're reading, or frankly what happens whatsoever. It's enjoyed predominantly for the visual and atmospheric spectacle Abara inhibits.

To me, that's fine. Abara is very experimental which is to be expected from this era of Niheis work. very experimental, using environmental and visual story telling to facilitate the plot and characters, with an extreme emphasis on space, gritty detailing, visceral action, and masterful art. It's not a masterpiece, and it's story and characters are sub-par, but if you enjoy that sort of feeling that BLAME! exudes then this will be right at home for you. If not, and you desire a very story heavy and character rich story, Abara will leave you dissatisfied and seeking far more than what it's trying to do.

All in all, it was a phenomenal read and a manga that I hold near and dear to my heart.

Wouldn't really recommend this manga to a new manga fan. Or i guess i wouldn't really recommend it to anyone really. Calling the art as disgusting sounds a bit to rude, but i guess i have to be honest with myself. The one and sole reason i dropped this manga is purely by the art, and the art only. I have to say that the story itself is actually quite interesting and also the character seems like very interesting people. But the art... I just can't keep reading something that makes my eyes hurt. Reading this makes me uncomfortable, it makes me feel things i ... don't really wanna feel.

To be perfectly honest, Abara could be a great read if you're either a hardcore manga fan or someone that's just use to reading this kinda of stuff. overall i can't really rate that high because i didn't really had such a good experience with it.