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In a future not far from now, Earth transforms into an arid desert, blanketed by sand—an unyielding, barren rock devoid of life. Civilization teeters on the brink of despair. Monstrous beings roam the sands, hunting for sustenance while clashing with the sparse human survivors.
Zizi is an enigmatic girl endowed with the ability to perceive through the vast sea of sand. Her tribe has long endured against the colossal sand whales, yet lately, their hunts have yielded little, and hope wanes. Amidst her relentless struggle for survival, Zizi encounters Sabu, a pirate navigating the sand seas. The fate of their people—and the quest to find something to believe in—may rest upon these two individuals...
(Source: Tokyopop)
Art: Hands down the strongest point of this work. The visuals do an excellent job of gradually introducing you to a bizarre post-apocalyptic world filled with an ocean of sand (that everyone can still swim in) as well as hideous creatures living below and above it (get it? I just called humans hideous creatures because they do bad stuff here, poetic). There are small style inconsistencies, such as a few super detailed old people whose wrinkled faces can take up nearly an entire page, while everyone else is done in a more stylized yet still detailed style, with only the main heroine sticking out like a sore, cartoony thumb. Ship designs are particularly interesting because they mix sci-fi, pirates, and horror. I won't spoil the fun of seeing it for the first time, so I'll just say expect some neat little references even if they aren't subtle. Overall, the look of this manga is sketchy and unique with refreshing creativity.
Story: STONe is a pretty bare-bones adventure story about a young girl with a shady heritage getting exiled from a religious cult and using it as an opportunity to look for her parents by sailing through a sand ocean to the fabled "lost continent." If I added a few more sentences, it would be a plot summary rather than a synopsis. STONe is rather light on story and characters but doesn't really claim to be anything more than a simple adventure, which is why I think it's only fair to judge it as one. And it fails as one. The hook is interesting enough, and then you see monstrous sand whales, weird tribes living on a destroyed aircraft carrier with their own interesting traditions and rituals. It's good enough to pull someone in. Then you meet the pirates, ruthless empire jerks with horror-themed ships and a crustacean army that looks a bit similar to the Enclave from Fallout. Sounds fun, right? Then you find out there's some genetically engineered race of humans designed to resurrect humanity, and then there's an all-out battle between the empire and pirates who have a ship that turns into a skeleton that fires a giant death cannon. Adventures thrive on a constant barrage of excitement like this, but after all this, there's an abrupt end that leaves what little plot threads there were unresolved and the adventure unfinished. In my opinion, build-up isn't worth anything when it doesn't lead to something worthwhile, so that leaves STONe to be little more than a collection of cool drawings.
Fun factor: I had decent enjoyment right until the end, but if manga wasn't a dear hobby of mine, I wouldn't consider reading this. However, if the description above sparked something in you, it should be worth a read. It's only two volumes, and cool things are cool.