Manga review of Eden Volume 10 by Hiroki Endo. Translated by Kumar
Sivasubramanian. Originally published in Japan by Kodansha.
Published in US by Dark Horse, $12.95, Rated Mature 18+.
After delivering Marihan Ishaq, a Uyghur freedom fighter, into the
hands of NOMAD, Kenji believes that he can take a well-deserved
rest. But, alas, it's not to be, for Marihan escapes from her
captors and goes on the run, not wanting to be caught by Propater,
the Chinese government, or Kenji's organization. She again enlists
Kenji's aid in an effort to disarm bombs planted by her own people
in crowded Chinese public places. One of them has been planted at a
shopping mall, so if nothing is done, hundreds, if not thousands,
of innocent people are going to die. Kenji usually doesn't do
anything unless it serves his own purposes or that of his employer,
but something in Marihan's sincere fight for her the rights of her
people has touched a chord in him.
If the entire volume had followed this storyline I would have
gushed over volume 10 of this classic series just like I've done
over every volume that has come before. Make no mistake. I think
Eden is the best manga being printed in English at the moment, and
nothing really stands beside it. The characters are just so damn
human! Most of the time, Kenji acts like a cold blooded killing
machine akin to the Terminator, but here and there, Endo gives
glimpses of a very sensitive and vulnerable man who was shaped by
the sinister forces of this world to be something he was probably
never meant to be. Marihan comes off as his shadow, but while
employing violence in her own way, she fights for freedom and civil
rights, not for pay. But even she has realized that killing is
probably not the best way to achieve political ends.
Like I said, if Endo had ended the volume with the conclusion of
the Kenji/Marihan storyline, I would've loved this book. But, Endo
completely shakes up the cast and story by advancing time by 4
years, just like that, with no warning! In the flash forward world
of Eden, a lot has changed. South America is now on the verge of
joining Propater. Elijah and Helena are no longer an item. In fact,
Helena is living with a just resigned cop named Leo Pessoa (who
happens to be a triple agent for the cops, Enoah, and Propater),
and Helena is planning to leave the country with him. Leo's former
partner, Miriam Arona, steps into the story in what seems to be a
major role, and possibly become a new love interest for Elijah. The
Closure Virus has evolved beyond what we saw in the earlier volumes
of Eden. It has gained sentience and has started to form
"colloids", crystalline structures which assimilate organic and
inorganic matter. This new form of the virus has claimed over 2
million lives so far.
I haven't decided whether I like the new direction Eden has moved
in. Endo seems to kill off a very major character without blinking
an eye. While this underlines the fact that anyone can go anytime
in the real world, it still didn't seem to serve any purpose. I
also would have liked to have seen the how and why of Elijah and
Helena's breakup. It probably had something to do with the
difference in their ages, but I had too much invested in those
characters simply for Endo to gloss over whatever had broken them
apart. It also seemed a bit jarring for Elijah to transform into a
slick, cool, under control hitman helping in his father's business
without knowing what happened to him in the blank of the four year
forejump. Arona is too slight and trivial of a character to
comfortably exist in Eden. Endo uses her a lot for comedy relief
which undercuts her impact on the story. In fact, she is a
hotblooded heroine that would be more at home in Gunsmith Cats than
such a serious title as Eden. I'm not giving up on this new
direction, since it might be just the newness of it that made me
enjoy volume 10 less than other entries in this series.
My Grade: B+