Eden: It's an Endless World!

Story 7/10: The story of Eden: It's an Endless world revolves around a post-apocalyptic setting caused by the "closure" virus, which devastated numerous societies globally. Initially, the narrative briefly delves into this virus before fast-forwarding in time to introduce the current characters and a new threat known as the "Disclosure" virus. Despite its initial focus on the virus, the story encompasses various themes such as crime, inequality, geopolitical conflict, and even romance. The author meticulously handles these elements, but the plot occasionally suffers from excessive scientific exposition, which could be condensed without losing impact.

Characters 10/10: While the core narrative may have its shortcomings, the characters more than compensate for any weaknesses. I can't delve too deeply into specifics without spoiling their intrigue, but it's evident that each central character has layers beyond their surface. The protagonist undergoes significant development throughout the story. Other characters may not evolve as dramatically, but their backgrounds are fleshed out sufficiently to understand their present behaviors. Two particularly fascinating characters are Elliah and Ennoia Ballard.

Art 7/10: The artwork is adequate and effectively conveys shock through its gory moments. Character designs possess a touch of realism, yet if you're familiar with seinen manga, nothing here will astonish you. Nevertheless, the art serves its purpose well.

Overall 8/10: This is a distinctive post-apocalyptic tale emphasizing crime, inequality, strife, religion, love, cybernetics, and hope. If you enjoy compelling action, strong writing, and realistic character design, give it a try.

Eden is probably one of the manga I truly enjoyed, even though I'm not really into sci-fi. This manga managed to captivate me from start to finish. There's this one character who, whenever they appear, gets me hyped because I know the chapter is going to be amazing.

This manga delves deep into politics, which I personally don't mind, but the way it handles politics here is unique. The history aspect? Oh boy, it's INSANELY good. The author is just absolutely INSANE with their creativity and storytelling.

In conclusion, it's fire. Give it a few chapters and if you like it, that's cool—it only gets better with each chapter.

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. Plagues, natural disasters, climate shifts, universal contractions, 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 see 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 how 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.