Eden
Apocalypse gone wrong.
Author
Hiroki Endo
Status
15 Volumes – On Going
Plot Summary
In the near future, humanity is at its last breath. A horrible disease has leveled the majority of the human population, turning skin, bones, and organs into hardened crystal. There is no escape from the epidemic, and those resistant are left with the fate of the human race on their hands. Elijah Ballard, his father now an infamous and powerful drug lord, is on a quest to save what’s left of his family. In this barren and cruel world, his future seems bleak…
Personal Opinion
I’ve always had mixed feelings about this manga.
In fact, I’ve always had mixed feelings towards Hiroki Endo’s works in general. He is able to compound a lot of philosophy into each and every motion of his manga, though he often chooses to make stories completely devoid of anything of the sort. That, in a way, is the way Eden progresses. The first volume is astounding – full of philosophy and excessive character depth, which couldn’t interest me more. Content of this quality of course filled my head with dreams of how fantastic the other 14 volumes must be. Endo’s work, as always, touched on an innumerable number of concepts. Heaven and hell, God’s plan for humanity, and human nature name a few. The characters are well defined, with each having their own side in the constant philosophical discussions. The plot begins to allude to a backstory, and the current reality begins to materialize. The disease that sets the plot in motion comes into full focus, and as such, so comes the concept of the entire series. At this point, Eden seemed as a gem to me. It was everything I look for in Hiroki Endo’s work. And he does it so well…
Though everything seemed to change with the second volume. There was a certain style the manga began to take on… Right with the beginning, there was some philosophical commentary and character outlining, as they were bringing in Elijah, but then it began to die out. In comes a team of mercenaries [or whatever], and go figure, mass action ensues. The manga becomes some sort of international gang war, with our male lead in dead center. The disease becomes a sub-plot at this point – a concept with so much promise swept aside for mere violence. And then comes the sex. I don’t mind sexuality and nudity when used tastefully [take Ai-Ren for example], but that which was included in Eden was ridiculous. There was one chapter that even the scanlators chose to warn the readers about, as it was nothing but pointless sex. And I mean pointless. Random sexual content doesn’t carry any endearing qualities to this manga, and is one of the reasons I despise it so.
Eden turned out to be a massive disappointment to me. It chose excessive action, violence, and sexuality over any kind of thought provoking content, which puts in nowhere near my favorites. I stopped reading around volume 11, and I’m not looking back. No amount of plot recovery can undo what Endo did with this series. It would have been hard to take it in a more trivial direction, in my opinion. Eden started out perfectly, but is ongoing as what I would call a horrible series. It’s a plot based on action and sexuality, with rarely defined characters, and little depth to speak of. More powerful themes will always be present amongst the plot, but as long as Eden relies on conflict to keep moving, there isn’t much to be accomplished aside from a dragged out story.
Personal Rating
3/10
[Reviewer: Simon A. Blake]
5 comments
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Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 1:18 am
K
wait, just 3/10 O_O ????? Eden is one of my favorite. I know it philosophy and i love it the way it is. It’s deep, and it lively, unlike those silly stupid harem/echi series
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 7:08 am
Simon
Yeah…
I developed a lot of hate for Eden after it chose to delve away from any sort of philosophy and depth to take on sex and action to progress the plot. Don’t get me wrong, the first volume was godly in philosophical terms, but it just didn’t hold up from there on in. In the end, I’ve seen harem with more plot depth than Eden.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 7:48 am
Adityo Ananta
I think Eden has a big plot that yet to be revealed. The problem is it’s going too slow and keeps getting wider. Not all readers have that much patience.
Honestly I almost gave up with this series, but it’s getting better, I think from around the tenth volume.
Though I’m really bothered by it’s twisted philosophy, people getting killed easily (and in a brutal way :p), and it’s meaningless sex scenes, I am more intrigued with it’s plot.
Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 8:11 am
Simon
That’s right where I stopped reading.
Everything just seems to get meaningless with Eden…
I can see how people can love this series, but I can’t stand it.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Klop
It’s not that I refuse to believe that Endo could make such a massive blunder as to craft a story driven by, god forbid, sex and action, but it seems more to me like you have a problem with the presentation of the sex, as something less than an act of pure love, a la Ai-ren, or action outside a scheduled climax of plot development.
Yes, I’m sure there’s a point were sex starts to seem gratuitous, and self serving, but I’m not sure that it’s reached that point in Eden yet. If you look at all of Endo’s work, a lot of them involve one’s struggle with sexual identity as part of his/her’s coming of age. Saying “NO” in the case of Eden is like sticking one’s head in the sand about the importance of sexual relationships for human beings.
I don’t particularly “Love” Eden, but I think that it is very well crafted, and realistic, without shying away from things that we would rather not look at. If you live in a whorehouse, and posses an adventurous personality, you will end up having fornicating quite a bit. Endo forces you to look at the love scene unflinchingly, and it seems that a couple the the reviews above have decided to flinch. What, is sex too human? Or is it something that should only be pure? IMHO, Endo doesn’t write pornography, but if you choose to interpret his sex scenes as such, you’re not really looking at the big picture.
Concerning his action scenes, there’s nothing to complain about. He’s writing a futuristic thriller, and violence is part of it. If you find it gratuitous, and with not enough philosophy, you can take it like this: you can philosophize and pontificate when you have time. In the later chapters, there isn’t any less sophistry injected in the plot than in the beginning. You just have to change the way you read into it.