Original.Tough.Adaptable.Keen.Unique

While at a routine outing to Barnes and Noble booksellers, I happened across Alive: The Final Evolution vol. 1. Written by Tadashi Kawashima and published by Del Rey manga, I couldn't really expect anything less than an above average story. Fortunately for me, the story was better than I expected. Much better.


Pt. 1 THE STORY
What makes a good manga? The story. The artwork, the characters, the style, it's all COMPLEMENTARY. What makes a book good, is the story. Most of the manga I read have generic plotlines, but also have something else that distracts you from that. In the case of Welcome to NHK or Genshiken, the plotline was odd, so were the characters, the style, etc. That's why it's such a good manga! Same thing for something like Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, it's a reverse harem. Keyword: Reverse. It's not normal and generic, it's different and creative. Now take for example something like Maburaho, it's not exactly best manga/anime series out there, but it's pretty good. You could say it's mediocre, which is what it is. It's just a harem story, and that's all it is. That is the reason why I tend to read books that nobody else reads, because they're different and usually don't have a generic plotline. And Alive vol. 1 is no exception. The story is interesting and captivating, the characterts are free of cliche. And, let's not forget, the biggest thing here, the plot is unpredictable, but not in a bad way. Props to Tadashi Kawashima, he made a really good concept for this series. Currently, the series is on it's 12th book in Japan.

Pt. 2: Complementaries
As mentioned in the previous part, complementaries are what make a story good. Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima, 2 of the great Akamatsu's works, are not generic, but they wouldn't be half as popular unless they had Akamatsu's touch. It's because of his style that he is an international author. He can relate to anybody, and so can his characters. The characters in Alive are by far, some of the most sophisticated set of characters. There's our main lead male, Taisuke. His best friend, a girl, and his other good friend, a child who gets bullied, are not your usual characters either. His sister is by far the most practical character, maybe because she's an adult. The artwork is kind of plain, but that gives it such a charm especially when contrasted to series like Full Moon or other series with complex art styles.

Pt. 3: Promise
Does this series have promise? Well that depends, we have to weigh the pros and cons. All the pros are listed in the parts above, so we'll just skip those. One bad thing is that the story may have told itself already. In the beginning chapter, there is a small excerpt of two people... er, things talking. They tell about how there's human life on earth. Okay, big deal, now we know what's going to happen. Now we know what's going on and where the virus is coming from. The story has an excellent concept, but how would that be carried out if, in a mere two pages, we were already told what was going to happen? Personally, that ticked me off a bit and brought the main part of this review down. As for the question, I'd say that the series does, if there's 12 books, then why wouldn't there be? It should be a loooong time before we can judge if the series is truly worthwhile or a waste of time.

Pt. 4: Presentation
Presentation is based on how it was presented and how the publisher did. I am a BIG fan of Del Rey manga, with great titles [that are mainly long series], you have to have a good translation. And I think Del Rey did a great job with it. The presentation is top notch, with the glossy cover and minimal number of advertisements in the back, as well as in-depth translation notes [as said on cover :D].