Zennou no Noa
Amnesiac Kid'z

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Don't let my score fool you, there's a very good reason this thing didn't get the 9 overall that it should have. The mangaka rushed the damned story. Overall though I think it deserves a read if you can't find anything else.

Its a great manga, but story arcs that should have taken place over 2-3 chapters, ended up taking place over 1-2 pages. cleverly thought out plot twists that should have been high points in the story, felt like cruel jokes by the author because of how rushed they were. They give no backstory to the tricks at all, ... they just all of a sudden reveal that the character had planted a bunch of bombs when the character had absolutely no time to do that whatsoever.

Anyone who researched story writing will tell you that good stories have foreshadowing. Meaning the author leaves subtle hints about things which you pick up on later in the manga. This story doesn't have foreshadowing, a fact which leaves the whole story feeling rather hollow.

You can however get a very real appreciation for how this manga was meant to be, and like any double A manga you can see its a high quality story line, just really REALLY terribly executed.

Same with characters. There is no backstory given to anyone. Except for a couple of tidbits about the protagonist.

The manga as a whole felt like it was made by a great mangaka who planned out what could have been a successful series with 100 issues, but then at the last minute the publishers said, "No, 16 chapters is good enough for you."

What starts out as an ordinary day in Japan turns into a complete contastrophe when, all of a sudden, the sky fills up with a blinding light that wipes away the memory of all those who see it. Over one million people are affected – children, teenagers, adults, evern the eldery are missing memories of their life (yet somehow still can speak Japanese). In response to this, the Japanese government starts shoving all the “Kidz” (the term used to describe the people who lost their memories, given to them to reflect their child-like thinking) into an underground society, under the assumption that they were dangerous ... to the normal populace. Now, two years after the incident, Kidz are treated like some sort of scum by the “Adults” and must live with the prejudice that comes with it. This situation can only last so long until someone is fed up with the Adults and aims to free the Kidz.

This is the concept I got from first reading up on Zennou no Noa. Quite frankly, the concept thrilled me. Possible rebellion? Possible civil war? A lower social class trying to overthrow those above them? All the makings of a great classic from that premise! What I got, however, was something different than I expected. Zennou no Noa is an thrill ride filled with intricate plans, massive amounts of action, explosions and plenty of comedy (though, I think the comedy was not actually intended).

The first thing you're presented with in this manga, as with just about every manga, is the art. I couldn't help but feel that the art is top notch and completely respectable. Maybe nothing too original or one-of-a-kind out of it, but it's still done perfectly. However, the same can't really be said about the characters. Too be honest, the characters seem like they were just copy pasted out of other series. The main character, Noa Ikurumi, seems like exactly like Light Yagami from Death Note. In almost every fashion, too. There's just about no difference in their personality, and even their appearance has major similarities. You can also find the same character of Tokiwa Shunsuke, the police-based opposition, in just about any series. The honorable person who sticks to the law as closely as possible and once the law fails he lets his own morals take over. Perfect at everything he does, from sword work to critical thinking, he tries his best to bring down his good intentioned terrorist opponet. Great art, but fairly poor characters. Despite the complaints of the characters, they all still flowed and complimented each other well with the plot.

Going back to the initial concept, I was expecting a civil war of sorts. But, instead, I was given a terrorist bombing. I was then thinking “alright, a terrorist group aiming to bring down the opressive government,” but that was wrong also. In the end, the entire rebellion is commenced by one guy. Just ONE guy. I'm all for the idea that one guy can change the world, but to have him aim for freedom of an entire people, that quite frankly didn't seem they wanted freedom, alone seems sort of ridiculous. However, he does inquire help from friends in order for him to complete his final mission. He, also, finally convinces all the Kidz to rebel and fight the Adultz once the Adultz finally show their true colors and start to kill them all. A problem with this I have is that you'ren ot shown much of the corruption. All they show you is a lecherous teacher and a man being beaten for wainting to leave the city. I really wish they would have shown more examples of actual opression. They eventually present the fact that the military was going to kill off Kidz and morph some of them into monsters, but this only comes out in the last volume, so it seems kind of late to show. Also, all the Kidz seem a-ok in life without their old memories, in a life below the surface, they don't show anyone feeling annoyed about their lives underground other than Noa. Despite these issues, I found the plot to be quite entertaining and well done. The introduction of Noa's love, Kisaragi Himiko, from before he lost his memories was well done. Her existence gives a small bit of background information on Noa's old self (the fact the he developed the weapon that caused everyone to lose their memories), which creates a mental unrest for Noa. Not to mention that it shows the awkward atmosphere when Noa clearly doesn't remember, nor holds feelings for his old lover. The final showdown between Noa and the final political bad guy is completely well done. A great fight scene from a manga I feel. And, the tragic conclusion of the series gives a huge gloomy atmosphere as Noa realizes his mistakes.

Too conclude, this series was great. Wonderful art and an interesting plot to follow. I'd recommend Zennou no Noa to anyone with time to waste.

NOW DON'T MIND THAT 5. ITS THERE FOR A REASON AND THATS DUE TO IT BEING A VERY BLATANT COPY OF CODE GEASS.
This manga was a very quick manga that was very enjoyable as a read. it had a lot of details about everything and even little timelines and as the other review guy said, the ending was basically like as if the editor said...nope stop production.

Story- i would give it a 9/10 if not for the sudden OMG all in 2 chapter ending that this had. They developed it slow and well in the inital chapters until he escaped from the sanitorium with his ... "family" then it started getting faster.. not super duper but fast enough for me to notice.

Art- It uses what i call current generation manga art. you know what i mean of course. it dosen't look like Ranama 1/2 and it showed that the author and many artist helpers that drew this had a knack for tallent (just like 90% of manga out there) ...basicaklly most art will get a 9/10 from me if it's modern

Character- The characters seemed to be just dropped in and "half baked" including the main and his fiance. There isn't much if at all any development in any of them in terms of letting u feel deep within the man. this may also be due to it ending in 16 chapters. But they still are decent and u can just feel the man's masterpiece and kind of what he's been through..
any manga pulls this off these days however and u may be asking what's with the high scores for Art and Character if any manga could pull it off. well let me ask you this. if i rate it a 5 cuz every manga could do this then would you want to read it and think my review was bad??? yeah, manga's become manga's because they were able to come out on top of others.

Enjoyment- I'm giving it a good enjoyment score probably cuz i just finished reading it but yeah, it had a lot of what i expect from a good manga, all from action to the little bit of romance/ecchi ...and by little bit a couple pages. So yeah, even with the quick ending and the very bad endign itself i still got some enjoyment from it.

Overal-5/10 you may be looking at everything and think......fffffffffff what's going on. isn't there like a ....8 point something avg for the other 4!!??? well yeah. i would give it an 8/10 if this manga wasn't so shamelessly ripped off of code geass. now i have seen both seasons of code geass over 10 times, i'm a fan at heart. i went into reading this manga through Akumetsu(check it out) so i knew nothing of any similarites or were expecting any.... but i still saw them. the way the main character is such as genius at it all and his expression and deep past basically screams lelouch. his first two plans up to the sanitorium(that's not a spoiler) that might make u think..... uhhh ohh he's definnatley caugfht.....ooo wait..what???!! he planned it out :D yay.... then we bring his nemesis his sense of justice is the same as suzaku's and his last chapter dialogue with the main screams code geass. the last chapter WAS basically a remake of code geass. i can't write any spoilers here. so when u read the last chapter u will see. plus the "thing" in the background on page 25 in the last chapter... is that "thing" from code geass
Shamless too. i even went back to this page while reading to make sure what year this was published in...and of course...after code geass