Gen 2

Gen #2

by Shige Nakamura, Arisa Karino, Yū Suzuki

Indie manga from the Tokyo Underground, four hard-lined stories are presented in the first of GEN. Wolf is the emotional story of a young man that heads to the city to avenge his childhood abandonment. VS Aliens is the story of an average student duped (or not?) into going on a wild alien chase. A mysterious masked stranger in KAMEN holds secrets to hidden powers to protect innocents from massacre. And a young woman explores her psyche in the metaphysical journey of Souls.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Sequential Art

140 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

Reviews

[Elia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Souls is especially interesting. Still skipping all the dumbness of Vs. Aliens.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This continues the same stories found in Gen #1 and they seem to remain fairly consistent in quality.

Wolf is now focused purely on Haoto and his up coming fight with his father. We do get to see the source of all the anger and animosity, as well as why his father left. I am a bit confused about Shaoto’s story and if it will be continuing or if it was just a means to an end. I rather liked the goofy character so I’m hoping he shows back up at some point. The story remains pretty decent though as does the art style.

Vs. Aliens is getting even more weird. The alien plot around Sakuma is really amping up as truths are revealed and enemies are being defined. I am really curious as to why the aliens are after Sakuma and her mother, and I really look forward to seeing these three on the run in Volume 3.

Kamen is finally becoming more defined as a world and it’s fairly interesting one. It’s set in a sort of fuedal era and there is definitely some political battles going on between the fuedal lords and their families. We get to know more about Lord Simba, who is a very strong and enigmatic woman that I’m very curious about. We also get a tiny bit more info on the mask, but not a ton.

Souls is still hard to follow unfortunately. We get to see the main character, the soul reaper of sort, teach Okuni about the soul of her daughter and just what caused it to become so angry. We get a really good look at the past of Okuni and her daughter. However I still don’t understand if this is a story about this one family or the soul reaper.I’m also still having trouble getting use to the unique art.

Overall it’s still a decent manga and a pretty quick read for those who are looking for something interesting and cheap to fill up some free time.

[Book Tea 🫖 with Jai · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first part of Gen tells about Kurozak ,Naoto father, earlier life before he moves to Toyko. It gives more in site of who he is and how he became a boxer.  

The next story in the manga is called Vs Aliens. In Battle 4,5&6, we learn that Sakuma mom leaves her strange letter saying she has something she must handle but she will be back soon. So now Sakuma and her friends Segawa and Kitaro are now on the run from the alien.

The next story in the manga picks off where it left off in the first book. The masked mysterious person is final capture abd in prison. In Kamen this time it goes more in depth of his captor Lord Simba, who is a woman. Her uncle Gaila arrives and he believes she should not have took refugees. And therefore takes over her army.  

The next story is Souls, is about this girl who soul that has been release from a locked room. After her soul is released so many secrets were revealed. I couldn't quite follow the story. I kind of got lost. At first this was my favorite story but after not understanding what's going on all the way. Im on the fence about it. What I gather is that, the mother put Harue in the closet to  shield her of the hurt and sadness. I still can't figure out if that is why she killed her, or why??

I enjoy this manga, a lot. I enjoy the same stories and the build up of the different characters and stories. I love Gen and the authors. But hey its a free book and I can't complain. Lol.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's really cool to have a free-to-low cost manga anthology available on Kindle, so I feel like all of my complaints about it are just nitpicks. Souls is depressing and slightly incoherent, which is not my favorite combination, and the combination of Western page turning with manga style panel reading drives me crazy. Despite that, there's a lot to like here. The art in Eagle is remarkably clean and clear looking on the Kindle Fire screen, the political machinations of Kamen are fascinating, and I just think that Vs. Aliens is charming and fun to read. I read this today, months after reading the first volume, to fulfill a challenge spot in a manga book club I joined, but look forward to buzzing through more compilation of this in the near future.

[Abbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the development of the tales from the first volume. I enjoyed the background shown in 'Wolf', although I do hope that we get to catch up with the sumo wrestler from Gen 1 again at some point. 'VS Aliens' was as weird but intriguing as ever, while 'Kamen' was far more interesting now some of the world has been introduced. On the other hand, I am still not enjoying 'Souls'. I don't understand what is really happening, and it seems far too jumpy for me to keep up with the story. I look forward to reading Gen 3 for 'Wolf', 'Kamen' and 'VS Aliens'.

[Jolene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolf- 1 Star
VS Aliens- 3 Stars
KAMEN- 2 Stars
Souls- 4 Stars

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think things are getting more interesting as we continue on with the story. I don't really care much for WOLF, but I do enjoy the others.

[L.D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My only complaint is that the stories are so short.

[❀ Hana · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5*

[Jonatan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As of now we know about the first few characters that came about and a bit of their background

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

getting quite good

[Tristan, High mastro (Nine Blades) . · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am realllllly wanting to read them all lthough my least favorite is......Well non of them :)