Eden: It's an Endless World!

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Eden is the best completed manga I've read up to date.

Why?

Because Hiroki Endo's post-apocalyptic tale has got almost everything that can be considered good in manga in spades: great story, gorgeous art and near perfect characterization. Imagine a well thought-out, mature story clashing seamlessly with art that manages to be both realistic and beautiful and characters that almost seem more real than the people one encounters in their daily lives. If painting a picture in your mind of a manga with such merits proves to be too difficult for you, grab Eden and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Science fiction is a major element in ... Eden's story. In Hiroki Endo's hands, though, the act of toying with wild speculations about the future has not gotten out of hand at all. The story is set in a world that has undergone a large disaster, but that disaster wasn't an attack from outer space, a sudden detonation of the world, the work of a mad scientist, or any other pompous crap like that. Rather, Endo has chosen an evolved killer virus as a means that almost lead to the end of the world; something that people living in a world riddled with various epidemics, deadly or not, can surely identify with. The workings of this closure-virus (as well as other scifi-esque stuff that comes up later on) have been explained thoroughly enough that the reader can easily grasp what's going on.

But Eden is much more than just another heap of end-of-the-world-scifi-shit. It has a lot of drama stemming from the interactions between the characters, a touch of romance and happiness even amidst the harsh realities of a world gone from bad to worse, and even an occasional spark of humour.

The tale's maturity comes from the way these different aspects are handled: carefully and with a clear effort regarding good taste. The world in which Eden is set is brutal and cold, but it doesn't preach about bottomless gloom and doom and hopelessness and depression and whatnot. Yes the world is sometimes harsh and uncaring, but in Eden, there is room left for the good things as well.

Just like all the good stories, love and romance and dramatic relationships have their place in Eden. Following along Endo's decision to keep things from flying off the handle, there are some hugs and kisses (...), but not in ridiculous abundance. Love happens, just like hate, friendships, sadness, happiness and other kind of shit happens. It isn't overly highlighted or downplayed, it's simply there with all the other aspects of life.

The less serious side of Eden starts to become more prominent as the story goes on. At some point the readers find themselves seeing sexual jokes, chibi characters and some other silly characteristics of manga art more and more often. Some people have found this upsetting. I liked it. It made me laugh. I also think that paradoxically, a dose of good humour brings more credibility to a story dealing with serious issues rather than a no light in sight-type of tragedy.

A common way of defining whether a story is mature or not is to measure how much it has blood, gore, violence, sex and all that type of jazz. Though I'm not one to promote that way as a measuring stick for how grown up the story is, Eden does show its assets in this regard as well. If Endo wants to give us gore, he gives us showers of blood, shredded limbs and cracked bones instead of some lame stumps a la Claymore. Also, one of the ugliest torture scenes I've seen in manga. And when it's time for sex, we see passionate screwing, kissing, and gropin' in place of the usual cheek smooches and blushes so typical in common "romance" mangas. And just like with all the other faces of Eden, realism is the key word here: in no point does Endo slip into sloppy tastelessness with his more graphic imagery.

Imagery, which is, as I stated early on, simply gorgeous. Endo manages to capture that unique beauty in Japanese style of comic-writing, be that in the characters, sceneries or anything else, without drowning us in saucer-sized eyes or over-groomed scenes. Realistic beauty. Wait, is that even possible? In Eden, it is.

Other aspects adding on the reading pleasure include clean panel arrangements and the author's interesting essays at the end of each volume. Like cherries atop a well creamed cake.

As per everything else, not all is perfect, or even excellent, in Eden. I could go on about some of the manga's minor issues for a paragraph or two, but it'd be a waste of time. The occasional bore of reading long lines of science jargon. A misplaced joke here and there. Some over the top philosophy. Consider it a cow chip next to Mt. Everest.

The bottom line? Go read it. Rite nao.

Eden is a geopolitical thriller with sci-fi elements, sort of like Syriana with killer viruses and long explanations of atomic physics. It reminds me of those airport novels, you know, by Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton. Hiroki Endo, the author, seems pretty inspired by American movies generally -- for instance some of the drug-dealing or hostage scenes are straight out of action movies -- and he is also very philosophical. The art is clean, detailed, and realistic.

The story is that a mysterious disease is poised to completely wipe out Earth’s population. Somehow, though, this doesn’t happen -- rather, when the dust settles, 15% ... of the population is dead, and the balance of world power has shifted. Now small groups are fighting against consolidation into a single world government, called PROPATRIA, which is primarily made up of countries whose official language is English. But the virus is still hanging around, and might be intelligent…

Post-apocalyptic stories always hypothesize a Crisis by projecting the worst parts of the present into the future, and Eden is very much a projection of the early nineties: it\'s all about ethnic conflict, nationalism, racism, the third world, and the drug trade. (Though these are all still important issues, these days we\'ve shifted to global warming and natural disasters as the forces most likely to tear the world apart.) Endo has said in an afterword to one of the volumes that he got the idea of a powerful drug lord \"terrorist\" from Noam Chomsky, who theorized that only the drug trade would be lucrative enough, and illegal enough, to fund the resistance of third-world countries to first-world hegemony.

In other words: yes, this is THAT kind of story. Technical detail[1], philosophical and ethical quandaries, conspiracy, the Big Picture -- these things are everywhere. Eden is not light reading by anyone\'s definition. Fortunately, the manga\'s political themes don\'t overwhelm the characters. It\'s hard not to be fascinated by Ennoea, South America\'s most powerful drug lord, a man who advocates \"infinite kindness to those you care about, infinite cruelty to everyone else.\" Or not to empathize with his son Elijah who, when the story opens, is struggling to survive alone in the wilderness. It\'s a testament to Endo\'s powers as a storyteller that as Elijah\'s actions became less defensible -- as he moves from \"cute and innocent\" to \"unflinchingly brutal\" -- he never once loses your sympathy. Instead, his actions seem simply logical -- a clear, considered, even admirable matter of prioritizing his own survival.

[1] Often only explained in footnotes. Though thorough, Endo\'s worldbuilding can be difficult to get a grip on, due to the large amount of information he brings in and the relative scarcity of explanatory notes. Another possible drawback to this series is that the author\'s interest in everything -- artificial intelligence, guerrilla tactics, street gangs, sociopathology, prostitution, the list goes on and on -- often diverts the story in tangential directions, making it difficult to say for certain what any of it is about. However, if you are deeply interested in geopolitics or political thrillers, or yearn for a story with serious ethical and philosophical weight, I would recommend Eden without reservations.

Eden: It's An Endless World is a very aptly-named manga, in that its definitive feature is how utterly, endlessly sprawling it is. Eden covers several decades (to the degree that it begins a long time before the protagonist was even born), numerous locales, and more characters and plot points than you can possibly hope to keep track of all of.

It begins in a post-apocalyptic society that is being devastated by a pandemic. This new virus known as "Closure" causes people's skin to harden into an outer shell as their internal organs gradually liquify - an agonizing process which often takes years. The series begins with ... two children, Enoa Ballard and Hana Mayer, who currently live separated from society alongside their heavily-religious guardian who is slowly dying of Closure. In of itself, their story is excellent, but this is merely the one-volume prologue.

Many years later, the story moves to their son, Elijah Ballard. Initially he is making his way in the post-apocalyptic society, alongside his father's robot, Cherubim. However, he rapidly gets involved with a band of guerrillas. From here, the story begins properly, but this barely scratches the surface of it.

To call Eden "ambitious" would be an understatement - think of any major, lofty theme found in fiction and Eden probably has it. This can be something of a double-edged sword; some people complain about Eden being "unfocused". This is understandable, as Eden is so utterly dense with plot threads and characters that it sometimes collapses under its own weight. However, it's a necessary evil - if it restrained itself even a little, Eden would most likely lack the sheer scale it has.

This definitely isn't a manga for the faint of heart - it's incredibly explicit, in terms of both sex and violence. It's unflinchingly brutal, and absolutely no character has plot immunity; anyone can die at almost any time. Similarly, it has no reservations when it comes to sex - as the post-apocalyptic society has caused sexual trafficking and prostitution to become all the more common, it's only logical. Hell, a reasonable chunk of the story is set in a brothel and revolves around prostitutes, amongst whom one of the best characters in the whole series can count herself. Unsurprisingly for something as thematically heavy as Eden, "good" and "bad" are near-meaningless. Don't expect morality to play any big part in it.

Unfortunately, around the halfway mark, Eden dilutes itself with comedic elements that are uncharacteristic of it (and also aren't very funny). This also happens around the same time as a rather ill-advised timeskip that happened to ruin a great character who was soon after killed off unceremoniously. There is a stretch of a couple volumes that were littered with mistakes that unfortunately drags it down - which is a shame, because outside of that Eden is my absolute gold standard for manga.

Of course, there's only so much damage that can do to something otherwise so very strong. Eden definitely sits among the best manga I've read.

Final Words: Though it occasionally stumbles under its own weight, Eden is a manga so overwhelming that few can hope to compare to it.

Story/Plot: 9/10.
Characters: 8/10.
Art: 10/10.

Overall: 9/10.

For fans of: Akira, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

There’s always the worry that another pandemic like the bubonic plague or SARS would strike, crippling the world that we live in today. Eden: It’s an Endless World is a Seinen, Sci-fi, Action, Drama that looks into the aftermath of such global events, in what is one of the most gripping tales.

The story begins with a lengthy prologue giving readers an idea of how it all began and what occurred, without ever revealing too much. Following this the story then kicks off in the same style seen in the movie “I Am Legend”, with a kid all alone in a vast city with his pet ... mech Cherubim. Little is known at this point but that’s the beauty of it, since the story’s able to take hold on most readers with this mysterious side to it. As the story goes on more and more is revealed about the kid and how most things stem from his parents, which will only fuel your desire to read on and discover more. As the reader you basically follow this kid on his journey, with a clear goal in mind. It’s really easy to immerse yourself in this epic story, though there are times when there’s too much to take in. Like an instance when: the kid is all grown and living a dangerous life, meanwhile there’s a lot of political movement by the major global faction (Propater) and at the same time some scientists have made a discovery. Having numerous things happening all at the same time is a common occurrence and sure keeps this manga from getting boring but it can be hard to follow, especially with the immense number of characters involve.

In this manga it’s really hard to define the main characters because all the characters introduced seem to be of great importance, no matter how little they are incorporated into the story. However the one that truly stands out is Elijah, the kid that the story is centered around. He’s certainly not your typical teenage kid since he’s forced to fend for himself and tries to do the right thing but it never turns out well in the end. He may be the only one who goes through so much development throughout the entire story but there are also plenty of important characters, like Elijah’s parents, who are thoroughly developed by means of immense back-stories.

When it comes to the artwork, at first glance the art style is definitely not the most appealing however the rough sketchy design suits this manga’s theme perfectly; as it goes for a gritty sci-fi look to portray this crippled future. The detail put into it is just as amazing, with everything being clearly drawn, allowing the easy-to-following action sequences to be truly engaging.

Overall Eden: It’s an Endless World is an epic manga, not due to its length but for having such an immense storyline spanning many years. It’s amazing how all the elements that were brought up were incorporated so well into the story, though the introduction of the “Colloid” does complicate matters. As the title indicates, Eden is full of religious overtones that can become a bit excessive at points but it does bring up a lot of interesting philosophical topics that never detract away from the main story. It also intrigued me how well this manga incorporated cybernetic augmentation, giving a believable outlook on future technology. Although I personally liked how this manga contained a bit of everything like; romance, mystery, even a bit of comedy here and there can be found in this amazing manga (though the comedy can feel out of place).

So in the end Eden is one of the best manga I’ve read and should be read by anyone looking for something seinen but be warned, there’s a lot of gore, sex and shocking deaths.

^_^

The story starts off really well. Up until a certain point, everything is really perfect.

At the very beginning, our main cast, some kind of Adam and Eve of a new world, are introduced. Then we have a timeskip. Suddenly we follow the son of the first main character for almost the entirety of the story. We learn that the child from the first chapters grew up to become a Mafioso.

The naiveté of the main character slowly crumbles away as he faces harsh reality. We see some really well executed death, despair, hopelessness. Eliah starts to learn to fight for himself and others. As ... he starts to gain control over his life, he becomes the same kind of person he had to combat up until now. Drugs, violence, revenge are what lead him to destroy the happiness of the very same people he fights for.

But then, the story starts to saturate with fight scenes. Deaths no longer matter. Along the way, so do the characters. The MC becomes a guy with a gun fighting because... who knows? No-one explains his motives.

His only driving force is the wish to save his sister. In the end, this arc was utterly useless and contributed absolutely nothing to both the story and the characters. The grand finale itself erased almost everything that happened.

The acton is full of asspulls. The ideological talk is full of some simplistic ethnic division of the world. The fights start to follow a pattern: almost all freshly introduced minor characters die immediately, sliced like ham by evil drones.

I would have liked to see the story continue in the direction it took in the beginning.

It isn't often that something can present a chaotic world filled with cruelty, yet still inspire a belief in humanity, but if anything Eden manages to do just that. This isn't to say the story rallies us behind a hero, but rather disregards the notion that mankind needs a hero. The people in Eden have to cling to something vaguer, and more desperate; they have to believe that even if they hate and kill, there's still meaning to be found in protecting those who are important.

Eden's story is framed around the world hitting its reset button. Plague(s), natural disasters, climate shifts, universal contractions, universal assimilation, ... black holes, and more threaten everyone. The characters are understandably bitter about all that, but most spend only a moment pitying global issues. Much more focus is put on the human drama that stems from bleak circumstances.

Nearly every person has a believable background that lends itself well to the story/situation, but the most interesting ones are revealed in the first half of the manga. The second half does continue introducing cast members, but some of the new additions – police officers and scientists – leave a lot to be desired. The scientists are noteworthy since the manga throws them an entire arc dedicated to pure exposition, only relieved by flashes to unrelated plots with different characters.

Arcs rarely get boring though, because the cast is so huge that multiple stories happen at once, so the pacing can be balanced between them without sacrificing quality. That said, not all of the stories are equal. While reading the first few dozens chapters, I was very impressed by the depth and subtlety, but that feeling gradually faded.

The biggest and easily worst change Eden undergoes is a slide into raw, explicit territory. By no means was it innocent ever, but at some point the humor became crude and the sex more prominent. One of the volumes could loosely be described as an orgy designed to help the main character 'become a man.' Very unfunny sex jokes get spread around for the rest of the manga, but the worst it gets is when those things infiltrate the core parts of the story. One of the final metaphors, during the otherwise poignant finale, has the ending state of the titular “garden” as an erect tower that shoots life into the moon's chamber.

If there was something that held my interest through it all, it would be Enoa Ballard's life. Elijah may be the protagonist, and a good one for some time, but that status weighs him and the manga down as his plot-relevance diminishes. In Enoa we a man chosen by random genetics to survive Armageddon, and through him we see what kind of man a new Adam would have to (or did) become. He has the kind of life that shows a kind people grow up, removed from conflict, only to be senselessly dragged into feuds he started to maintain that removal. These kind people, who the readers also come to know, are repeatedly maimed and murdered just to demonstrate that such chaos exists. Enoa is left believing tomorrow will be a better day.

Eden isn't easy, emotionally or intellectually, and I like it that way.

Eden is a perfect work of art that depicts the innocence and simplicity of adolescence. Problems that we all have had growing up and realizing the reality of the world. Practically all themes popular in modern literature are present in Eden.

Eden analyzes the human psyche from all walks of life and depicts psychological problems in grotesque details. Including, accurate portrayals of depression, childhood disorders, and even an electra complex.

Poverty stricken neighborhoods faced with drugs, gang violence, and prostitution. War's effects on innocent people and the cycle of hate that breeds more destruction. Governments that are full of corruption and scandal. All these problems ... are depicted in Eden. Any of these problems seem similar in today's world? In many aspects, Eden is a satire of present day life and society. Simply put, Eden is a perfect work of art.

~ ~ ~

The character's in Eden were fantastic. The story introduces a large number of characters but each is unique and one never feels too overwhelmed keeping track of them.

The plot had good pacing and was never boring. I found that the placing of comic relief in the manga was used perfectly. The romance was probably some of the best I have seen.

Overall, Eden is one of the best manga ever made. Highly recommended. 10/10


(oh its violent and has nudity)
I rushed this review because I just finished it about 10 min. ago and it 3 am in the morning.Waaay tired. Just felt the need to write this review! I guess thats what inspiration does for you! lol

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS

This is one of those manga that has divided to it's readers. Some of them think that this is a masterpiece, others, that it's mediocre or maximum something passable. For this reason, I decided to read it in order to determine who side has the reason. I'm gonna divide this review in two parts, where we gonna analyze together the positive and negative aspects of this manga. Let's begin:

POSITIVE ASPECTS

1. Realism: I really enjoyed the topics that this manga offered. This topics includes terrorism, the issues with the prostitution and drug addiction, genocides, racism, territorial issues and the goverment corruption, all ... of them executed appropriately showing the impact of them in the story and the characters involved. The manga can be somewhat crude with the way in which the characters suffer and die from these topics, although that is the grace of it, showing us what are the consequences of these issues without mincing words, something that many works do not dare to do, or even censor part of them. To make an example, the first part of the manga was presented in my country, Peru. They showed how the terrorism made their cocaine traffic, causing a lot of slavery and, also, the massive migration of people from the provinces to the city of Lima, which increased prostitution and drug use here, also, how the goverment (minsteries in this manga), took part of this to obtain much more economical benefits from the current situation.

2. Worldbuilding: The manga not only showed the consequences of the major events with the protagonists, also, we saw how them affected the rest of the manga´s world, highlighting the excellent interconnection of the subframes presented. All these subplots are important in the main one. It also shows us the impact that technological advancement had on this post-apocalytic reality through cyborgs, the new distribution of territories in the world as the case of the Propater organization, the reality that most of this territories had and the conflicts between them. I liked how the manga didn't gave completely the reason to any of the bands involved, so we are talking about a mature story and with a true gray morality.

3. Main plot: In this manga, the objective of the antagonist force was to create an utopy where the karma effect disappear and eveyone could live "happy" without any type of fear. This has some paralelism with the main plots presented in Evangelion and Watchmen. The best part of it was that not only the writer presented this concept and how the antagonic force worked on it, but, also, show how some people gave up on their life that they lived at the time and decided, volunteerely, to join to this utopy. In addition, they showed the other side of the coin, with some characters refusing to give up and trying to step forward. The transition between the post apocalyptic reality and this intent to create an utopy was great. It took a lot of episodes, showing the changes and their impacts progresively, avoiding feel like something forced.

4. Message: This is, by far, the most debated aspect of the manga. Many readers go for the nihilistic aspect presented saying that the message of the manga is about that the humanity cannot be saved and people can't do anything about it. I consider this as a wrong interpretation of the message that this manga offers. The way that I interpret the message is that in life there will always be problems, and, to solve them, people need to adapt and overcome them. Naturally, by solving this problems, new ones will appear and this is how the cycle of the continue improvement of humanity works, which I consider to be what life itself is all about, always improve and be better every day. For this reason, I consider the main message of the manga as a very good one.

NEGATIVE ASPECTS

1. Diabolus Ex Machina: Enemies and problems appearing randomly in many moments of the manga. Even at the beginning, we see our protagonist trying his best to survive and, in the next episode, some terrorists, that came out outta nowhere, kidnap him and this how the main plot begins. Elijah is a prey of the same story, it is not that he moves the same with the decisions that he makes as in this example. During the first part of the manga, many of the attacks against our protagonits can be summarized as follows: They do an random activity and, outta nowhere, the enemies go and attack them with bombs and bullets. Where the hell do these enemies come from? Mystery in many cases. How they know the location of our protagonists? No fucking idea. It's like at the beginning of each episode the enemies recieve via fax the script and the location of them. And this doesn't end here, this random attacks are combined with other issues that I'm gonna mention in the next points.

2. Time skip: This is the flaw that damaged the manga the most, not only because some characters were rewritten (highlighting the main characters from the first part of the manga), but, also, for the use that they recieved after that. Let's talk first about Helena. After the time skip, we found out that her romantic relationship with Elijah ended and she decided to go to bed with another guy. Why did the relationship end? I don't know. The explanation was very poor so we can only infer the rest of the details of this event, in other words, we have to do overthinking; and this is not the worst part of it, during the same episode with another Diabolus Ex Machina courtesy of the house, some random enemies appear and kill her. What was the purpose of putting Helena in scene after the time skip? Wouldn't it have been better to kill her in the time that passed and save ourselves such an anticlimactic scene? What do you guys think.

Let's talk now about Elijah, Kenji and Sophia. Many readers complain about that these characters didn't have a significant character development during the second part of the manga and, with this, the plot density went down, and this happened beacuse these characters were rewritten and combined with the plot tools in the form of characters they received, which I will talk about later, they weren't be able to solve the conflicts presented for their own, unlike the first part. In Sophia's case in particular, what was her purpose after the time skip? Well, it was supposed that it was to show her "karma" during the arc in which her unacknowledged daughter kidnapped her, however, the interaction that she had with the daughter was really poor, it didn't show if she had or not some kind of remorse and regret for what was going on, this was wasted potential for a character development.

3. Sex and edgy scenes: There are moments in the manga were this topics were correctly introduced and didn't damaged the narrative flow like, for example, many fights in which Kenji was involved and the first sex scene between Elijah and Helena, where the purpose was to reduce Elijah stress and this was the form of Helena of said him that she forgave him for what he did. And then, we have a lot of scenes were Elijah simply wanted to wet the canoe with the girl in front of him and scenes (mainly in flashbacks), where the purpose was generate a cheap shock with some explicit scenes with a lot of violence.

4. Plot tools: Lethia and Loji are two characters that, most of the time, their only purpose in the plot was to save the protagonists ass when they needed the most. I'm not exaggerating when I say that nearly all the random attacks against Elijah during the second part of the manga like rockets, bombs and bullets, Lethia quickly detected them and elaborated a plan in order to keep him safe, fucking convenient. Plus, this reduced the tension because we know Elijah isn't going to die thanks to his legged plot tool. In addition, there's an incoherence that was presented with Lethia. If she was capable of detect attacks from a distance, how it's possible that she didn't do nothing when Mana was killed? Mystery. I assume that this ability only worked when Elijah was the character in danger. In the case of Loji, the writer showed us, superficially, her background and that's it. She is only in the story to take Kenji's orders and make last minute saves, she has no personality or goals of her own.

Thanks to this type of characters, it's evident why the main characters of the first part of the manga didn't have a major characterization and development combined with the time skip and the multiple Diabolus Ex Machina.

CONCLUSION

Despite the issues presented in this manga, that where really akward during my reading experience, I consider that Eden it's an Endless World is a good manga with a lot of messages that applies in the real life and it encourages the reader to reflect on them, however, I don't consider it as the 8th wonder of the world like many others do.

The manga brings a lot of information and culture in itself, giving everything to the reader in a fluid and easy-to-understand way. Also, very well your premise.

Initially it focuses on "rebuilding the world" after its devastation by the virus that humanity is facing, the second "Black Plague". By name "Closure": a virus that threatens the skin and the they melt of internal organs, turning people into empty hooves emerged and killed 15% of the world's population.

Soon after, an organization called Propatria decides to "dominate" the planet - obviously, without using these words. A division comes to be made in the world: there is the Gnosia ... part, where Propatria acts, and Agnosia, which does not have the influence of the organization. By having constantly seen the struggle of revolutionary groups striving to achieve an egalitarian world against Propatria, but in the course of the manga the virus evolves into Disclosure ("revelation", "divulgation"), completely changing the focus of the manga. In fact, the very name of the virus refers to a given revelation, as if the author were telling his reader that the focus has changed. Eden was based on Gnosticism, a doctrine, as a religion. From Gnosticism I have taken much of the plot, which follows the idea of ​​a "corrupted" world, which will never be good for human life. It is as if humanity needs to search for a better world, and all this is introduced by the Closure virus, which devastated the population as a prologue to the end, followed by Disclosure, which opens the door to humanity's "salvation".

In this scenario, Eden really begins to tell the life of young couple Ennoia and Hanna, one of the first to be discovered as immune to the epidemic, they deal with it and their internal conflicts over the uncertain fate of humanity. The story, however, focuses on the second generation, where we are introduced to the son of the two and also the protagonist, Elijah. An intelligent boy with knowledge of the world in which he lives, but still very naive, naivety, that will not last long, since among armed guerrillas, mercenaries, prostitution, drug trafficking and much death the young person will discover (with the reader) that the future is not So shining.

The aspect of the manga that most catches attention at first sight is the maturity of the plot. In less than two chapters are discussed or mentioned topics such as religion, homosexuality, politics, biology and existentialism.

~ this review contains a fair amount of spoilers. reading it ahead of the manga may very well sour your experience so it's thoroughly advised that you go over at the bare minimum three quarters of the material beforehand. you have been warned. ~

i have always been fascinated by the prospect of dystopias, especially those with a particular emphasis on the potential for technological advancement the further we plunge our necks into a convergence that never comes, or at least isn't prescient enough to warrant a look back at certain bygone epochs. you know, works of such sophistry and wonder that you can't help but ... get lost in the possibilities that may come true many years down line. hell, you may live to see them play out before your very earthly visage. the feeling of knowing the unknown will incontrovertibly morph into what's in the now and consequently known, is one that parallels few others. Eden is a manga of that such ilk, with brand-spanking highlights of the technobabble of future civilizations manifesting themselves as narrative, it harbors no shortage of idealistic navel-gazing for pompous geeks such as myself. teeming with applications of cyberization and basic tenets of the proliferation of inorganic matter and life alike, it lacks nothing in terms of what may be explored in hard sci-fi -- or perhaps that seems so.

uncapping my verbatim reflective of Endless World, one takeaway i've periodically had with respect to the ostensible “what is lacking" happens to be what isn't retroactively shown in further depth. sure, many of the theories and machinations seem plausible at a glance, but that only really scratches the surface of what can be parsed within a web of congregating vignettes, each of which encloses a facet of post-modernity as a focal point of the uncollated tale's significance in the grand scheme of things. the reason i say "a" instead of "the" is simply that there's greater thematic depth to Eden than mere photon beam emitters that penetrate even kevlar-reinforced armaments. like, is that all? what is aptly annotated superseding this markedly shoddy attempt at textual digression is the following soliloquy i had when blazing through some of the more middling chapters smack dab bookending continually fracturing episodes starring a throng of relegated cannon fodder that also somehow take comparatively major precedence to the progression of the underlying subtext of neverending despotism:

"i hope more of the inner workings of this phenomenon is explained later on but for some out-of-touch reason, i keep getting the irreverent hunch that deluding myself into believing i'll get more coverage of that as i make ordinate progress across the manga's run is conceited and asking too much of the author."

Endo, if you knew this was going to become a bump on the road in the long run then why opt to make this so heavily mired in the fauxscientific. a fine example of balls-to-the-wall cyberpunk would be Shirow Masamune's Ghost in the Shell, wherein he goes into dizzyingly succinct depth about how he envisions a japan that's not grounded in present times and tries to convey the silliness of sudden drastic changes in modern society that would entail either mass skepticism or unanimous acceptance, each depending on the sign of the times to determine which is more amiable and attuned to the world as it is at any given fixture. Hiroki Endo's Eden does not do this at all. He tries to capture the dreary aesthetic of post-economic bubble japan circa the late 90s through a bevy of variegated stances, for one there’s the political framework of a slew of governing bodies that reeked of unbounded corruption and bore a tint of manipulative mannerisms that those in charge of running the country at the time never admitted to. similarly, the globalist faction Propatria does this albeit to much broader degrees. now, its discrepancy in relation to GITS' is as follows: GITS has every reason to wax philosophical while not needing to go ham on the technobabble throughout its runtime whereas Eden plays into the conceit that it may be obliged to do the same. this is where things begin to go awry. GITS has few unchanging rules to its structural components so working with those rules all while revelling in self-indulgence is fair, but in the case of Eden you’ve got so many different tenets that often act disproportionately to one another so they clash. a lot. hence creating an induced fear of imbalance, with contradictions and inconsistencies becoming increasingly prevalent as more and more of the world therein starts to unravel.

with that being said, the other thing i can ceremoniously praise Eden for is its handling of core thematic threads and messages that weave into the narrative at large. one such theme is the importance of familial bonds and the curious ways in which they ultimately transcend innately altruistic worldviews. now i know what may be suddenly crossing your mind? what does altruism have to do with family ties, especially in as majorly complex a narrative as Endless World? well, the first of my points has to do with the Ballards, the main provocateurs of each of the stories. Comprising 5 members, each replete with distinct backstories and moments of clarity, all of them are tied by the events that transpire around them, whether they be the perpetrators or unwilling participants in them, they inevitably seem to be latched firmly in place by the world over, never once being granted control over affairs regularly galvanized by them. yes, they serve as catalysts for the dozens upon dozens of botched operations and devious schemes devised by the higher-ups of Propatria or as stated, them.

Enoa comes off at first as this idealistic child commanding this sense of anti-nihilism as he grabs whatever opportunity that dangles in front of his face by the hand. a naive opportunist, he appears readily adamant about jettisoning the paradisiacal eden that both he and his future wife Hana are stranded on. Later on, as he redebuts as a jaded revolutionary assuming responsibilities in the form of orchestrating a large scale coup’d’etat against Propatria that takes ages to reach some semblance of a conclusion, he wavers and grouchily catapults back and forth between sabotaging Propatria from within and caring for his family before settling on a definitive calling card. and thus winding up choosing his family over downing the megaestablishment douches. how very admirable. it sugarcoats the thin facade of fickle relationships and immortalizes it as something that transcends even time. who you are in the present, what forms of treachery and deceit you dare commit out in the open, how much you value everyone else more than you do your birth parents because of how much insurmountable grief they might have caused you for not having been there in your most vulnerable hours, it all doesn’t matter. family comes first and should any bad omen come their way, you must act expeditiously to endeavor and deflect whatever that imminent danger is.

kicking back the dilemma of parenthood for a bit, Eden also spares no mercy on the part of the reader as it constantly inundates them with fleeting passages of fornication. in this context specifically, prostitution. Enoa’s son, Elijah, is a disenfranchised youth. he yearns for a place to belong since losing both his younger sister and mother to a remotely spearheaded division of Propatrian lackeys imparted a toll all too hard for him to cope with. so he wanders the incan mountain range aimlessly, happening upon barren cities every so often, reminding us, the audience, that this is a war-torn future full of callous decisions and hasty science-y shenanigans condoned by glory-seeking scientists that teeter on the very brink of collapse and failure every time they experiment on a newly discovered strain of virulent microbes. that is, until he crosses paths with the mercenary group Nomad and is blackmailed into doing their bidding lest he barrels off in the opposite direction when they’re not monitoring his every misstep. fast forward some odd four years later, Elijah is now a proficient contract killer worthy of the mantle "Lecherous MacGyver”. he is serendipitously tasked with investigating a lead discovered after some of the Nomads discover a trail of blood within an Australian bioelectronics firm that indirectly stems from Propatrian soil, and so he, along with a ragtag crew of misanthropic and disgraced law enforcers plus an incubated a.i. that takes corporeal form, sets out to find what it is that they have decidedly chosen to associate themselves with. and now, for the reason as to why all of this is lost on me: the sex interspersed throughout. yes, you heard me right. there are way too many sex scenes accompanying a majority of the events i have described above, and sometimes you may even spot some instances of recreational drug use, though not for meditative purposes, mind you. the people in this manga all happen to be debaucherous animals who crave carnal pleasures and Sabbath-like epiphanies where they rather waste their lives living from one moment to the next without care for anything that does not inherently concern them. selfish, and above all, blind to the crushing realisations and expectations present only within reality. what they are and who they were before are not two inextricably linked concepts as far as they’re concerned.

i do not reserve the right to riff on about the art as gushing about manga aesthetics from a strictly technical point of view does not fall within my area of expertise, i'm afraid. although, i will comment on the general "feel" of the style Endo fosters throughout. it is predominantly consistent, and while it does dip at points, it stays very much in line of the scope of ambition and range of prose and constructs that it postulates. smooth as silk at times, and rough as sandpaper as well as soulless at others, it is truly commendable that Endo managed to work up this much of an appetite for consistency of delivery over the 10 or so years he spent writing and illustrating this wondrous piece of dystopian sci-fi.

additional notes: does anyone else feel that the exact genre that Eden is supposedly classified under should be be up in the air rather than be defined as plain cyberpunk? this does not read like how conventional cyberpunk would. rather, i infer that it jumbles up and decompartmentalizes subgenres across all basic gists native to storytelling and bastardizes and pokes fun at them individually, and one at a time. for closure, volumes 9 and 10 read like something out of a flick centered around a geopolitical turf war between unruly occupying forces and those who seek to bleach their lands of the aforementioned scourge, so to speak, with a backdrop incumbent on a non-specific locale, much akin to how a game of cat and mouse would unfold but only with no intentionally divulged number of sides to the unending pursuit. conversely there's nonsense like volume 14, where the better half of it is spent on a bunch of random field agents pursuing a duo of schoolgirls, one of which is a trained assassin unafraid to exercise lethal force on her foes. the thing with its tone is that it's almost school comedy-esque, with many of the shenanigans happening over the course of it being reminiscent of tacky self-aware comedies with school as the main focus a la Cromartie High School. yeah, it's kooky, i know.

There are some other really great reviews of this fantastic series on here, so just some general comments:

The only way I can think of to describe this series is like Song of Ice and Fire (George RR Martin), but set about 100 years in a vaguely foreseeable future with a quicker pace, plus long digressions on theoretical physics; references to Noam Chomsky; fucked up bio-weapons; a strong treatment of ethnic conflict, homosexuality, and various political issues; a few moments of Evangelion-like strangeness; lots of characters (with impressively realistic characterization); meditations on gnostic philosophy; and an absurd amount of death, brutality, and suffering. It's maybe not ... the best manga I've read (there's one section in the center I especially didn't like), but it's probably the smartest, with a genuinely impressive scope/sophistication. The art wasn't great, but competent and occasionally striking. Like RR Martin, Endo has a tendency to frequently kill his characters, though I think Eden was maybe more gritty/unpleasant than Ice and Fire, as there were a few parts so brutal or sad I felt a little sick. I think I've been reading manga for about a month now and I've been lucky to stumble over a quite a few impressive works; this definitely rates pretty high next to them.

Story 7/10 : The story of Eden: It's an Endless world is a story focusing on a post apocalyptic world due to the introduction of a virus called the "closure" virus that wracked many societies across the planet. The story has a semi brief focus on this version of the virus because it eventually skips forward in time to the current cast of characters and the appearance of a new virus called the " Disclosure" virus. The story contains many aspects of life within itself despite originally focusing on this virus, it can work as a crime story, a story of inequalities, a geopolitical warfare ... story, and even at points a bit of a love story. The author takes good amount of care with all of these aspects in the narrative, but where I find it to falter a bit is due to crazy amount of exposition this plot can have due to the heavy amounts of science involved with the plot. One can say it is necessary, but ultimately it can be shortened.

Characters 10/10: Where I feel the core narrative might take some dives the characters more than make up for that slack here. I cannot go too much into detail without spoiling why I think these characters are so interesting, but it feels like most of any character with central focus has a lot more than to them than meets than eye. The main character himself goes through huge development over the course of the narrative. The other characters don't seem to develop as much, but you generally get to know more about them and why they are the way they are in the present. The main point of interests for characters would be Elliah and Ennoia Ballard.
Art 7/10: The art works just fine and can be very effective when trying to shock you with its gore factor at points. The character designs seems to hold a bit of realism to it, but if you are more experienced with seinen nothing is really going yo blow your mind with this art, but it serves its purpose.
Overall 8/10: A unique post apocalyptic story with heavy emphasis on crime, inequalities, strife, religion, love, cybernetics and hope. If you are interested in great action , good writing and some very solid character design with a touch of realism give it a shot.

Eden is probably one of the mangas I really enjoyed, because even though I am not really a sci-fi person, this manga was able to keep me from reading it, also whenever I see this one character in the manga for some reason I just randomly get hype, because I know that the chapter is going to be a banger.
This manga has a lot of politics in it, I myself don't mind politics, but politics in this manga hits different. History, yes it's also INSANEEEEEEEEEE,,,, THE AUTHOR IS JUST REALLY INSANEEEEEEEEE.

in conclusion, it's fire,,, give it at least some chapters and if you like ... it cool, it gets better each chapter.

Excellent manga, being one of the best I've read.
Eden Endless World is a manga with a dense and cruel story with a very complex and merciless world.

The characters are great. Being very well developed and running away from the simple "bad guy and good guy", but being in the grayer aspects. Each of them (whether Kenji, Sophia, Ennoia or others) has a very well-established presence, personality, character and philosophies of life making them interesting to follow.

The protagonist, Elijah, has an incredible journey through the story. From someone more innocent, to someone who acts on realizing how horrible this world can be: "the world is cruel, ... I am cruel". On the other hand, the work has such well-established characters that at times it is even doubtful who carries the plot. But he's the one with the greatest focus.

The story is exceptional. Discussing topics ranging from existentialism, faith, discrimination or geopolitics, it is clear how well the author prepared to create his story. Despite being themes that could be boring to see, the author leads them very well through an exciting action plot and incredible fights.

The art is beautiful, but not in the way of a well-detailed setting or characters. What really impresses about this art is the way that the fight choreographies or the action scenes are so well conducted within the work, especially when Kenji is shown starring in some of the best fights of all manga in general.

Finally, Eden endless Worl is an amazing manga with a great story and characters and having an excellent ending that speaks perfectly with everything that there is work had presented. If I had to criticize something, the manga unfortunately ends.

I don't know how to review manga, but I want to still share some of my thoughts on Eden: It's an Endless World! This'll be spoiler-ish.

I was suggested this fairly intriguing looking manga by a mysterious forum user. It was in response to a forum post I had made on here, I wanted to read something truly apocalyptic. Where humanity gets obliterated to hell and back. It could've very well been that for a good while. No, no such luck. So that's why I am more than glad I skipped ahead to see the ending. ( No one in their right mind should waste their ... time reading such a long tale if it might not even be headed in a desirable direction...)

This is a POST-APOCALYPTIC manga. That's what Eden ultimately is. I could insert some biased criticisms about it's natalistic and not so... dark ways of thinking, but they're reasonably presented that it would be pointless. I am just let down that I didn't get to see some deliciously grim destruction and rape of mankind.

Apocalyptic to me is when literally all hope is squashed through and through, and it focuses on it's eve. The end of everything. Post-apocalypses don't have this, and as a result more often than not give me boredom with all the what ifs and what not attached.

I guess... it was refreshing to see the gnostic influences. They're I imagine uncommon in manga.