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Eden: Its An Endless World Vol 1 by Hiroki Endo
01/04/2008 . Source: Tomas L. Martin 
pub: Titan Books. 214 page graphic novel. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84576-487-6. Buy Eden: Its An Endless World in the USA - or Buy Eden: Its An Endless World in the UK  check out website: www.titanbooks.com
Hiroki Endo's 'Eden' Manga first hit the shelves in Japan in 1998. Its American translation started coming out through publisher Dark Horse in 2005 and now Titan Books are releasing it here, too.
The first book, 'Eden: Its An Endless World', starts with youngsters Ennoia and Hannah locked away in a scientist's bunker as a deadly plague ravages the world. The plague hardens the skin of the infected until they are unable to move. Layne, the scientist that looks after them is infected but the teenagers seem to be immune.
The first section of this volume starts with these characters leading up to their discovery by the Propator government which has taken advantage of the catastrophe to take control of large swathes of the globe.
Then the story abruptly shifts twenty years into the future to another young boy, Elijah. Together with his powerful but unpredictable robot companion, Cherubim, Elijah is travelling through the ruins of South America as nature reclaims the dead cities.
When they stumble on the body of a young boy with a hidden stash of computer disks, they get involved with a group of freedom fighters fighting the Propator paramilitary. They want to use Elijah and especially Cherubim for their own ends.
To cope with the disease, much of the survivors have modded their hardened skin with technology and Sophia, one of the rebels, has an entirely android body of a young girl, despite being in her fifties. She also reveals a connection between Elijah and the two characters at the start of the manga.
I hadn't heard of 'Eden' or Hiroki Endo before picking this up and it impressed me. I frequently love the ideas in Japanese animation but find a lot of them grow quickly inconsistent in tone and storytelling. Happily, this doesn't happen in 'Eden', which has strong narrative throughout.
The art is all black and white and frequently graphic but works well with the sombre, ruined setting. The series evokes a lot of the best cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic work both in Japan and elsewhere and I'm interested to see whether the quality continues to be this high across the whole series, with volumes 11 and 12 soon to be released in the US.
Tom Martin
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