From the creator of Apple Children of Aeon comes a gripping, six-volume thriller manga about trauma, healing, friendship, and what it means to be "sick" or "healthy." A must for fans of suspenseful, complex manga like Naoki Urasawa’s Monster and The Promised Neverland .
In panicked whispers, the word The Sleep has returned.
Eight years ago, a sleeping sickness that fed on traumatic memories threatened human civilization. Only a two-person team, diving into the stricken patient's mind, could cure it, and at great risk. The most skilled of these "divers" was Rune Winter, codename King, the only one who could cure the Sleep while leaving the patient's mind intact. Now the sickness is back, and this new strain can reinfect patients who've been cured. As the secret threatens to leak, King and his new partner, disabled Navy veteran Adam Garfield, have stumbled upon evidence that suggests the Did someone release this new Sleep deliberately?
Sadly this volume is much similar to the previous one in terms of execution (stilted, confusing dialogue, unsure who is speaking or why they're saying things at times, and one thing I didn't mention about the last volume is I have literally no idea what's happening in some panels or what I'm looking at, which is a problem in this volume as well). But despite it being a double volume, I finished it pretty quickly and simply kept going even when I didn't totally understand something. I get enough of the general situation to get the concept, though specific characters are a bit harder.
3.5 rounded up due to the final bits really. It's been so long since the first omnibus I sort of forgot all the complicated stuff. And everything lol. But the first few chapters caught me back to speed. In this volume it becomes clear who is behind the new strain of the sleeping virus that being the government. Why is still super up in the air especially with the tie to the menacing lackey Seth and the little gal he works with. The dream dives are both the best and the worst. Ai Tanaka’s style is on full display in them but her style can be hard to read with lots of whites where it's almost color book-y. The conspiracy element is the best part and the dives are used in this underground Secret way that really lends itself well to the conspiracy thriller of it all as Rune and Adam try to figure it out in hiding. Although Rune's backstory was super well-written with his struggle to push himself as the sole Diver until others could and getting so u healthily immersed it took his eventual wife to snap him out of it. Regarding the ending, I'm so happy to see Rune and Adam old man yaoi together so hard they end up diving together in Rune's memories without bioconnectomes because they're just that linked together. Guys they old man yaoi’d so hard they rewrite the rules of the fucking setting. Gay inspo really (well bi inspo for Rune who I’ll happily accept as bi rep).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I'm going nuts trying to figure out where this series is headed. This volume threw a wrench in what I'd thought was going to happen and now I'm even more anxiously awaiting the next book.