The Bottom Line
The premise of Alive: The Final Evolution is fairly simple. A virus from space causes a worldwide pandemic of mysterious suicides. On top of that, a new breed of humans emerge who can dismember people into puddles of blood in a blink of an eye.
Who can save the world from this horror? Why, a high school boy of course, duh. There some suspenseful plot twists and nice art, but the characters are a who's who of predictable character archetypes.
Pros
- Intriguing mix of horror, sci-fi, high school drama with a smattering of humor
- Crisp, uncluttered artwork that moves the story along at a good clip
- A promising first volume that introduces lots of page-turning plot twists
Cons
- Includes violent and bloody death scenes, so not for younger readers
- Stereotypical shonen manga characters offer nothing original or fresh
Description
- Original Title: Alive (Japan)
- Author: Tadashi Kawashima
Artist: Adachitoka - Publishers: Del Rey Manga (US), Kodansha (Japan)
- ISBN: 978-0-345-49746-8
- Cover Price: $10.95 US / $13.95 CANADA
- Age Rating:
OT – Older Teens, Age 16+
for suicide, bullying and bloody scenes
More about content ratings - Manga Genres:
- Shonen manga
- Drama
- Mystery / Suspense
- Horror
- Science Fiction
- US Publication Date: July 2007
- Book Details: 208 pages, black and white illustrations
Guide Review - Alive: The Final Evolution Volume 1
Taisuke Kano is your everyday high school kid who gets his life turned upside down one day when his classmates and teachers inexplicably commit suicide en masse. Even his shy friend Hirose is accused of murder, as he's found among the bloody, dismembered corpses of the foursome who has bullied him for years.
As the body count mounts, news reports trickle in that this epidemic of suicides is a worldwide phenomenon that experts theorize is caused by a virus. The plot twists then come one after the other, as Kano meets a psychotic boy who can disintegrate people into a bloody mist with a blink of an eye. Soon after, Kano notices a disturbing change in Hirose, who has transformed from a shy guy into a cold-blooded killer.
This first volume of Alive: The Final Evolution has a lot to offer: a suspenseful mix of sci-fi and high school horror, crisp artwork that moves the story along at a good clip, and an interesting premise with lots of page-turning plot twists.
The downside is that the characters are pretty much a who's who of standard-issue shonen manga stereotypes: The earnest hero who inherits strange powers. The shy boy who's bullied. The tough girl who has a soft spot for the hero. The wise-cracking, flirtatious older woman. The cold, calculating evil mastermind and the psychotic guy who gets a rush out of killing people. It's all stuff we've seen before, which makes Alive seem somewhat predictable. This is unfortunate, because it leaves this otherwise promising book in the realm of well-crafted, but unmemorable manga.
