Hotel: since 2079

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"Hotel: since 2079" is a full color 50 page science fiction one shot, and it is one of the best one shots I have ever read. Who knew that a giant robotic tower could have more character development in 50 pages than most protagonists in full length manga? The story flows perfectly, the one main character is extremely enjoyable to watch as he struggles to survive and carry the entire future existence of Earth inside of him, and the art is beautiful and colorful. The story kind of reminds me of the Pixar movie "Wall-E" in several ways.

The story begins several decades into the future ... when sea levels and surface temperatures have risen dramatically. Scientists are now estimating that human life will only be possible for another half-century, so they devised a plan to send an "arc" (similar to Noah's arc) into space in the hopes of it reaching a planet with similar conditions to the past Earth in over 100,000 years. In the hopes of one day enabling the Earth to become hospitable again, a project was also started to create a gigantic tower at the South Pole which would hold the DNA of every species on Earth. The story really gets going once the humans set off and leave the tower named "Louis Armstrong" (named after the singer who sang 'What a Wonderful World') all alone on the desolate and increasingly more dangerous planet. Louis is really the only character for most of the series, but he is a great mechanical and intelligent protagonist who is determined to never give up.

This is just such an enjoyable quick read and I recommend it to everyone who has some spare time on their hands. If you enjoy science fiction at all, you will love this story. It's not exactly realistic as to what the Earth will become in 100 years, but it still does seem possible that the Earth could one day escalate to being in an uninhabitable condition such as the one depicted (maybe in hundreds of thousands or millions of years). The story starts off a little slow with a lot of scientific and political debating, but once Louis takes over the story, it's just consistently good all the way to the end.

This one-shot was my first time reading Boichi's manhwa after being introduced to Dr.STONE, for which Boichi's doing all the artwork. I really dig his art style and drawing skills, but "Hotel: Since 2079" was made in 2004 and has only a distant features of Boichi's current style. Anyway, not the art style, but story, theme and message is what truly makes this piece of art beautiful. This particular thought that mankind is born to survive no matter what and will overcome almost anything standing in it's way, even if it's caused by man himself. The theme of mankind's greatness is basically a main theme ... of Dr.STONE and I'm in love with both of these works. Also, it's interesting to see how the main character, swastika-shaped (?) computer with AI, tries to save humanity's legacy for 27 million years. He feels like a real character who changes through time.

P.S. In 2006 Boichi made tankobon "Hotel" with 5 stories and one of them is Hotel Since 2079's reimagining: completely re-drawn and with story changes. I recommend to check it out after reading the original